Legend Management Bureau Chapter 472

[ … words ]

“A violation?” Jin Jianglang was somewhat baffled. “Did Shuten set a rule that you aren’t allowed to talk to me?”

“Oh, that’s not it. It’s mainly because you, Brother A’xiang…”

Muffled by the mask, although Jin Jianglang did not catch the young man’s words clearly, he knew the other party had mistaken him for someone else.

“Are you a newly arrived Yokai? Do you not even recognize me? I am Jin Jianglang of the Shiranui family.”

“Yes… I know.” The young man nodded, then fell deep into thought.

“Boring,” Jin Jianglang scoffed, looking at the youth’s bizarre behavior. He turned to leave.

“Ah! I got it, I got it!” the young man wearing a Yaksha mask suddenly exclaimed. “I will tell you three sentences.”

“Three sentences?” Jin Jianglang slowly halted his steps, his face completely bewildered.

“Yes.” The youth nodded. “If you can figure out these three sentences, the ending will be different. But if you cannot… then it means ‘fate has dictated it,’ and I shouldn’t have interfered in the first place.”

“You mentioned… the ending? What ending?”

“That, I cannot say.” The Yaksha-masked youth shook his head, then spoke, “Anyway, listen closely.”

Jin Jianglang furrowed his brow, quietly listening to him.

“First, a Maple Leaf Forest without Yokai.”

“Second, a Jin Jianglang who slayed ten Yokai.”

“Third, her smoke and hay garland.”

Jin Jianglang frowned in contemplation for a moment before asking, “What?”

The young man wearing the Yaksha mask repeated the three sentences once more, then declared, “You must remember them well! If you do not wish to leave behind any regrets, you absolutely must remember them!”

Having said his piece, the Yaksha-masked youth turned and walked away.

Jin Jianglang paused for a moment before hurrying after him, wanting to ask for clarification, but as he rounded a corner, the Yaksha-faced youth vanished into thin air.

“What the hell…” Jin Jianglang

glanced around. “Does Shuten really have this kind of Yokai under his command…”

He shook his head and turned back. His top priority right now was not to pay attention to this minor Yokai, but to quickly come up with a plan!

Despite saying that to himself, the three sentences the person had just spoken continued to echo endlessly in Jin Jianglang’s mind.

‘A Maple Leaf Forest without Yokai…?’

Jin Jianglang let out a helpless sigh. “The Maple Leaf Forest is Shuten’s lair. How could there be no Yokai? Even if no one comes to visit, what about the hundred Yokai under his command? That Yaksha-faced guy really knew nothing and was just spouting nonsense…”

He took two steps, only to stop again.

‘Wait.’

‘A Maple Leaf Forest without Yokai…’

‘If I had to say when the Maple Leaf Forest would have no Yokai… wouldn’t that be right now?’

‘The vast majority of Yokai living deep in the forest have already been brought out by me. That massive Demonic Energy in the forest must have vanished completely. Those who came to visit Shuten, or assassinate him, probably wouldn’t show up either.’

‘But what could this mean?’

‘If the Maple Leaf Forest has no Yokai, is it no longer the Maple Leaf Forest?’

He felt like he had overlooked some crucial piece of information. He reached out to stroke his chin, glancing once more at the current state of Hiezu Village.

“The slaughtered villagers of Hiezu Village… A Maple Leaf Forest without Yokai…”

After merely three seconds of thought, his eyes widened as if struck by a bolt of lightning from a clear sky.

“Oh no!!”

He immediately grabbed his scissors, threw on his clothes, and turned back to yell, “Shuten, Bankotubo, come with me right now!!”

“Huh?”

Shuten and Ootengu looked at each other in dismay, completely clueless about what was happening.

But looking at Jin

Jianglang’s anxious appearance, they figured the situation must be extremely serious.

“I was way too careless!!”

Jin Jianglang said, filled with remorse.

‘Did the people of the Tsuchimikado family want the lives of these villagers?!’

‘No!!’

‘They wanted Enenra’s life!!’

‘Why were there “no Yokai” in the Maple Leaf Forest at this moment?’

‘Because right now, the only ones there were Shiranui Asuka and Enenra, who refused to admit she was a Yokai!’

‘If the Tsuchimikado family found that place, their situation would be incredibly dangerous. What was even more terrifying was that all the Yokai capable of protecting Little Xiang had already left the Maple Leaf Forest!’

“No… It’s too slow!” Jin Jianglang turned back and shouted, “Bankotubo! Fly me over there!! We need to return to the Maple Leaf Forest immediately!!”

Ootengu seemed to faintly sense something as well. He immediately summoned a fierce gale, beating his pitch-black wings before turning back to roar, “Yamabiko!!”

A piercing screech shot up into the sky. Yamabiko flapped his wings and rapidly chased after them; evidently, his flying speed was outstanding.

“Take Shuten with you! Fly with us to the Maple Leaf Forest at once!”

Seeing Ootengu’s expression, Shuten also felt a surge of anxiety in his chest. “Bastard, what the hell is going on?! Did something happen to Little Xiang?!”

“I…” Jin Jianglang knit his brows. “I’m not sure, but I have a bad feeling about this!”

Ootengu’s face was ashen right now. He muttered to himself, “Why hasn’t Little Xiang summoned us?”

Hearing the two say this, Shuten instantly fell into a panic. “Dammit! Yamabiko, hurry up and fly me over there! That’s my master! If something happens to her, what am I supposed to do?!”

The two men and two Yokai exerted their full strength to fly rapidly through the air, the massive wind pressure crushing the trees along their path.

A journey that normally took ten hours took only two.

The two men and two Yokai landed one after

another.

“Where are they…?!” Jin Jianglang demanded frantically.

Yamabiko tilted his head to listen and furrowed his brows. “There is an echo coming from the Abandoned Temple.”

“The Abandoned Temple?!”

Upon hearing this, the four of them hastily rushed toward the ruined, abandoned shrine. Jin Jianglang’s heart pounded wildly in his chest.

After bypassing over a hundred massive trees, the Abandoned Temple finally came into view.

But the scene before them caused all four of them to widen their eyes in shock.

Dozens of corpses lay scattered across the ground, all of them wearing earthy-yellow hunting robes.

At this moment, only five people remained standing.

One was Enenra. She was covered in wounds, and eerie, sharp needles were pierced into all of her vital spots, currently emitting violent, thick smoke.

The other four were dressed in the same colored hunting robes as the corpses on the ground, but their cultivation levels were clearly much higher. At present, they were glaring at Enenra with all their might.

Taking another look, Jin Jianglang spotted a young girl lying a short distance behind Enenra. Her forehead was injured and bleeding, and she had already passed out. It was none other than Shiranui Asuka.

“Little Xiang! Blind Princess!” Jin Jianglang roared.

Only then did the five individuals notice Jin Jianglang’s group, and they simultaneously turned their heads.

At almost the exact same moment, Shuten Doji and Ootengu bolted forward.

Ootengu instantly flew to Little Xiang’s side and scooped her into his arms, carefully inspecting her injuries.

Meanwhile, Shuten Doji lunged at the leader with the speed of lightning. His large hand slammed tightly against the man’s face.

“You… you are… Shuten…”

The man, seemingly utterly unprepared for Shuten’s appearance here, revealed a look of absolute terror.

Shuten Doji was so furious that he actually laughed. Veins bulged on his forehead as his fingers applied a slight pressure, literally lifting the man off the ground by his face:

“Bastard, you are challenging the bottom line of this entire forest.”