Legend Management Bureau Chapter 55

[ … words ]

Yingning ignored the two of them, wandering around the room with a smile on her face.

If he didn’t know this was a shop for vengeful spirits, Du Yu would have thought it was a genuine general store.

From jade and precious stones to pots and pans, everything was actually displayed together.

“Huh?” Yingning’s attention was drawn to an object. “What is this?”

Du Yu followed her gaze. A somewhat worn sachet sat quietly on the shelf.

“The owner of this sachet was beaten to death by her husband. Her vengeful spirit originally attached itself to this sachet, but her husband then hired a Daoist priest to exorcise the ghost, forcefully shattering her soul,” the old gentleman explained. “This item carries a deep resentment. It might be suitable for you.”

“Mhm,” Yingning nodded, smiling innocently. “I actually really like how this sachet looks. How about this one?”

Du Yu also nodded along. In the blink of an eye, Yingning turned into a ball of green light and burrowed into the sachet.

Seeing that the matter was settled, Du Yu picked up the sachet and said to the old gentleman, “Since everything is taken care of, this junior will take his leave…”

A powerful blast of yin energy swept outward, nearly sending Du Yu flying. He steadied himself and looked closely; Yingning had appeared once again.

“Hey?” He could not help but be stunned. “What happened to you? Even if you don’t like your new house, you shouldn’t smash it.”

Yingning was also bewildered. “I didn’t smash it… I don’t know what happened. The moment I went inside, it just exploded.”

The old gentleman looked at Yingning, a trace of doubt in his eyes. “This… could it be that your resentment is far greater than that of the sachet’s previous owner? But that shouldn’t be the case…”

The old gentleman paced around the room for a long while before adding, “According to the story you just told… your levels of resentment should be about the same.”

Hearing this, Du Yu looked at the old man somewhat sheepishly. “Old sir, we accidentally ruined your merchandise. How about we pay you for it… or tell you another story? I know a tale about a mountain village zombie, if you don’t mind…”

The old gentleman waved his hand dismissively. “Never mind. This was my mistake. I never expected Yingning’s resentment to run so deep. Wait here.”

He retreated to the back room and rummaged around for a long time. Soon, he slowly walked out holding a wooden box in his hands.

The wooden box was perfectly square and painted red, though it looked as if it had been soaked in water. The old gentleman reached out and opened the box. A precious light flashed—it was actually stuffed full of gold and silver jewelry.

“Whoa!” Du Yu exclaimed. The chest looked extremely valuable. “Old sir, so much gold and silver jewelry? Are you planning to let Yingning try them out one by one?”

“Not quite,” the old gentleman shook his head. “This entire wooden chest, including the gold and silver jewelry inside, acts as a single container. It comes from another vengeful spirit who slumbers at the bottom of a lake. This woman was originally a courtesan who desperately wanted to leave her profession. When she finally met a scholar she truly loved, she gave him all her savings so he could buy her freedom. Who could have expected that after redeeming her, the scholar worried they would have no money to live on, and sold her to someone else just to earn a few pieces of silver? Overcome with uncontrollable fury, she brought out this treasure chest, fiercely condemned the scholar for his betrayal, and then clutched the chest as she sank to the bottom of the lake. Over the years, this woman became a vengeful water spirit known as Du Shiniang.”

“So it’s Du Shiniang angrily sinking her treasure chest…” Du Yu muttered. “Old sir, you are truly extraordinary. You managed to fish this thing up too?”

“Naturally, I wasn’t the one who fished it up, but this item before you is highly suitable for Yingning.” The old gentleman pushed the treasure chest forward.

Yingning looked at it and let out a silly giggle. Without a second word, she transformed into a streak of green light and dove into the chest.

Du Yu and the old gentleman quietly stared at the treasure chest on the table. This attempt was visibly more effective than the last; a long time passed, and Yingning did not reappear.

“Looks like it’s going to work this time…” Du Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

But just as he spoke, the treasure chest on the table began to tremble violently.

“Old sir! Watch out!”

Du Yu forcefully pulled the old gentleman back. In a split second, the treasure chest blasted open, scattering pearls and agate everywhere like a burst of fireworks.

Sure enough, Yingning had shown up once again.

“Hehehe… It seems like this one won’t work either.”

The old gentleman couldn’t help but be dumbfounded upon seeing this. He paused for a moment and asked, “What exactly is the ending to Yingning’s story? Both you and Du Shiniang are underwater vengeful spirits; why is your resentment so vastly superior to hers?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Yingning smiled innocently. “Old man, do you have anything more powerful here?”

“You… just you wait!” The old gentleman remained unwilling to give up, returning to the back room to rummage around once more.

At that moment, Du Yu silently glanced at Yingning.

He had heard the story of Du Shiniang before. At the time, he felt she was the quintessential representative of a tragic woman. After all, she was born into the red-light district, and her life’s greatest desire was merely to become an ordinary person, yet unexpectedly, she was betrayed by her lover in the end.

But now… did this Yingning truly harbor an even greater resentment? Was the suffering she endured far worse than what Du Shiniang had gone through?

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it.” The old gentleman tottered over, holding several items in his hands. As he laid them out on the table one by one, he introduced them:

“The Golden Crow Saber. Used by Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, when he slit his own throat. This blade not only harbors Xiang Yu’s immense resentment, but it has also taken countless lives. Its yin energy surges to the heavens.”

“Dou E’s White Silk. The silk cloth held by Dou E when she was executed. It is stained with her blood and the snow of June, carrying an incredibly profound resentment.”

“Air-Dried Human Skin. Bearing the four characters ‘Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty’, it is the skin from the back of the famous general Yue Fei. This item contains boundless regret, and even today, you can still hear the cries of ghosts coming from it.”

“The Mo Ye Sword. Forged by the master swordsmith Gan Jiang, it is the first precious sword in history to be cast using a living person as a blood sacrifice. It contains the resentment of Gan Jiang’s wife, Mo Ye.”

Watching the old man pull out these treasures one by one, Du Yu’s jaw nearly dropped in shock.

“Hold on! Old sir!” Du Yu extended a hand, stopping the old man just as he was about to pull out the next item.

“What is it?”

Du Yu paused for a moment and said, “Old sir, if these items can’t handle Yingning’s resentment, they will all explode. Almost every single one of these is a peerless treasure. Are you sure you want to take that risk?”

Not a trace of hesitation could be seen on the old gentleman’s face as he replied, “If we don’t hurry and find a vessel for Yingning, she’ll probably dissipate, won’t she?”

“This…”

“If I want to know the true ending of Yingning’s story, I cannot afford to care about these things right now.”

Du Yu was put in a difficult spot. Although everything placed on the table was a famous object of resentment, no one could guarantee it would succeed.

While he was hesitating, the cell phone in Du Yu’s pocket vibrated.

He picked it up to look and couldn’t help but be overjoyed.

“Seventh Master?!”

“Little Du, how are things on your end? I just finished up here, do you need me to come over and help you out?”

“Yes! I absolutely need you!”

Before Du Yu could even finish speaking, the air inside the vengeful spirit shop began to distort. The phone hadn’t even hung up when White Impermanence, Xie Bian, descended from the sky.

“Sigh, Little Du.” Xie Bian hung up the phone and tucked it into his robes. “Listening to your tone, I thought something massive had happened. Hasn’t Elder Pu already brought out all his shop’s greatest treasures? To think I gave up my face mask to rush over here immediately.”

The old gentleman referred to as Elder Pu immediately fell to his knees upon seeing Xie Bian, saying, “Greetings, Seventh Master.”

Xie Bian hurried forward to help the old gentleman up. “Elder Pu, there is no need for such formalities. What is the situation here?”

Du Yu stepped forward and gave Xie Bian a general rundown of what had just happened.

“Oh?” Xie Bian raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Yingning. “The little girl isn’t very tall, but her resentment is certainly quite large.”

“Hehe!” Yingning also stared at Xie Bian with great interest, as if she had just been praised.

“Let me take a look.”

Xie Bian extended a hand and hovered it over Yingning’s head. A white light emanated from his hand, and the entire room grew even colder because of it.

A moment later, he summoned the same white light and hovered it over the table full of resentful objects.

“No good, this one won’t work either, none of these will do.”

Xie Bian said, “Good thing you called me over, or else everything on this table would have been completely ruined.”

“Ah?” Elder Pu was also dumbfounded. “Even these most renowned items cannot contain Yingning’s resentment?”

Xie Bian nodded. “It seems so. Perhaps all of these items combined could contain Yingning’s resentment, but a single one on its own definitely will not.”

Du Yu began to hesitate as well. Was there truly no way to save Yingning? Although he had only known her for half a day, she was his only clue to contacting Goddess Houtu.

“Seventh Master… is there no other way?”

Xie Bian smiled and said, “There is one way. There should be another object in this room with an incredibly powerful resentment.”

“Another one?” Du Yu looked around, having absolutely no idea what Xie Bian was referring to.

“It’s just a matter of whether the owner of that item is willing to hand it over.”

That thing had an owner? Du Yu thought about it carefully. For some unknown reason, all the vessels in this room belonged to Elder Pu. If they were talking about an owner, it had to be Elder Pu.

“Elder Pu,” Xie Bian said to the old man, “to contain such a powerful vengeful spirit, only the brush in your hand has a chance of succeeding.”

A brush?

Du Yu turned to look at Elder Pu. Was this old gentleman’s brush actually the vessel with the strongest resentment? Even stronger than the saber Xiang Yu used to end his own life?

“My brush?” Elder Pu was also taken aback. He looked at the brush in his hand. “Seventh Master, have you made a mistake? My brush has never hosted a vengeful spirit, nor has anyone ever lost their life because of it.”

Xie Bian reached out his hand once again. The chilling white light flared up, slowly hovering over the calligraphy brush.

“Elder Pu, perhaps you don’t even know it yourself, but after recording so many tales of ghosts and monsters, all of their resentments have been inherited by this brush.”