Chapter 1: The Work of the King of Urban Legends
In the early morning, the courtyard of the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Management Bureau.
The girl, Gu Niang, squats under the umbrella, holding an old radio that plays the weather forecast before the city news.
“… Tomorrow’s temperature will be 7℃~20℃. Due to the ongoing influence of unknown factors, over the next seven days, Huacheng will see a significant decrease in rain and snow, with temperatures remaining warm and pleasant. It is to be expected that after the year 0XX, Huacheng will once again welcome a warm winter…”
On the now leafless sycamore tree in the courtyard, tender buds have already sprouted, the withered branches sprinkled with fresh green color fragment the bright warm sunlight, scattering it across the ground.
Lu Yibei holds his mobile phone, lying on a bench with one leg crossed over the other, with a spicy strip in his mouth, humming a tune out of tune, while a freshly brewed white tea emits a fragrant aroma from a stone table nearby.
He looks like an elderly person enjoying retirement life.
Ever since he witnessed Gu Niang’s overwhelming spirit energy fluctuation, he decided he wanted to be on good terms with her.
Although Bai Kai said that due to specific special reasons, Gu Niang could not unleash even one-tenth of her spirit energy fluctuation in combat.
But simply relying on that terrifying spirit energy fluctuation was enough to scare away most enemies.
“Oh—!”
After listening to the weather forecast, Gu Niang suddenly seemed to think of something, her eyes widening slightly, and a look of disbelief appeared on her face. She then turned her head and tapped Lu Yibei’s hand lightly.
As if to hint at him, “Look at what you’ve done!”
Feeling the gentle tap on his hand, Lu Yibei looked at Gu Niang, tilted his head, and after pondering for two seconds, pulled out a spicy strip from his jacket pocket, “You want to eat some too, right?”
Before Gu Niang could respond, he quickly pulled out a spicy strip and stuffed it into her mouth, then resumed focusing on his mobile phone screen, refreshing the campus network page.
Today is the day when grades are released for the final exams of the Chinese Language and Literature major at Huacheng University of Technology.
“Beep beep beep—! Shengjing time, nine o’clock sharp…”
As the radio announced the time, Lu Yibei lightly touched the mobile phone screen, refreshing the campus network’s backend interface. A report card immediately leaped onto his phone screen, causing him to hold his breath.
The moment of tension and excitement arrived.
Lu Yibei covered half of the phone screen with one hand, dragging the report card upwards slowly as if scratching a lottery ticket, counting the scores in various subjects.
“89, 80.5, 92, 87…”
Just as he was filled with the thought that this year’s scholarship was undoubtedly his, his gaze stopped at the last row, “Ancient Literary Theory of Z Country,” and his brow involuntarily furrowed.
“Ah, what… 6, 62.5? I’m done for, Professor Ma is definitely going to k*ll me!”
With almost all of his other subject scores above eighty, only Professor Ma’s “Ancient Literary Theory of Z Country” stuck out like a sore thumb with its glaring score, seeming like a provocation.
But it wasn’t my fault!
In the end, it was the fault of Mu Se and X Taijie.
If they hadn’t caused trouble right when I needed to review for the final exams, resulting in me jumping off the battlefield to take the exam, how could I have possibly performed poorly?
After Lu Yibei left Huacheng Reservoir that day, he returned home, fell onto his bed, and slept for over thirty hours. Upon waking up, he hurried to school to participate in the first subject’s final exam.
As a result, on the day of the exam, the already cramped classroom was filled with urban legends that came to watch.
The ominous gray mist, akin to restless lost souls, enveloped the entire classroom.
Severed limbs crawled across the floor, dragging bloody trails.
The room was filled with heads, dotted with organs, drifting like advertising balloons in the wind.
Several meter-long human-faced centipedes coiled on the ceiling, their twisted joints making teeth-gritting sounds.
Watching his dear classmates casually walk into the “hellish exam room” and plop down on rotting flesh, clusters of eyeballs, and other strange organs whose nature he couldn’t even discern, Lu Yibei appeared unperturbed on the surface, but inside, his heart had twisted into something resembling a famous painting from another world.
Fear.JPG
Although those urban legends nominally belonged to Lu Yibei, any normal person, no matter how brave, would feel unnerved upon seeing such a scene.
Fear is an instinct inherent to all living beings.
According to Darwin’s theory of evolution.
The “Iron Fool” gene could not have crossed billions of years to this day.
The fearless Iron Head Kid had long been eliminated by natural selection.
Except for the honey badger, that was just an exception among millions of species…
With the birth of the new “King of Urban Legends” in Huacheng, all urban legends that hadn’t experienced the Hundred Demons Walk wanted to witness the king’s grandeur.
However, while Lu Yibei was sleeping at home, the urban legends didn’t dare disturb him and could only suppress their excitement, waiting until he left home before they swarmed into the exam room.
It was unknown which fool leaked the news!
With an attitude that the exam was a top priority, Lu Yibei suppressed his complicated emotions, walked into the exam room with a blank expression, found his seat by student ID, and sat down.
As the exam bell rang, just as he wrote the first line on the paper, the urban legends swarmed in.
With dozens of curious eyes staring at him, they surrounded him from every angle, and the table was splattered with invisible slime and bl**d plasma.
At that moment, he realized the exam was definitely going to fail!
Though it was because of circumstances, later, Lu Yibei also displayed the king’s majesty by publicly beating up the eyeball that raised the flag of “Studying is Useless” and explicitly forbade the urban legends of Huacheng from engaging in “fan behavior.”
But the deed was done—the answers on the exam paper were written in white paper and black ink mixed with red bl**d and yellow plasma, and the grades were a fact set in stone; now, the most important thing was how to argue with Professor Ma.
Should I tell Professor Ma that I was possessed on the day of the exam?
No, no, this reason seems ridiculous, would the professor believe me?
Or should I let those guys in the Urban Legends Chat Group think of a way and manipulate things a bit?
Just as Lu Yibei was secretly pondering, a commotion suddenly echoed from outside the courtyard, and looking up, he saw a figure striding in with an imposing manner.
Li Xuan stood before Lu Yibei, hands on his hips, chin raised slightly, and mouth frowning, every move seeming to tell Lu Yibei that the “Disciplinary Team Leader” of the Siye Society was about to cause trouble again.
“Some people are truly idle! So early in the morning, sitting here in the sun, drinking tea, eating… eating spicy strips. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were a retired security guard!”
Hearing this, Lu Yibei frowned slightly, turned to look at Gu Niang, who was munching on a spicy strip, holding her teacup and fiddling with the radio, and seriously said, “Did you hear that? I’m talking about you!”
“??? ”
Gu Niang was stunned for a moment, frowned, thought for a bit, then looked up at Li Xuan and shot him a fierce glare.
“……” Li Xuan’s mouth twitched slightly, hurriedly saying, “Lu Yibei, I’m talking about you, not Operative No. 1! Have you finished your work? It’s early in the morning, and you’re lazing about here?”
“The atmosphere of the Siye Society has been ruined by individuals like you and Bai Kai. Do you even know what your identity is?”
“I know!” Lu Yibei nodded earnestly, “I’m a proxy operative of the Siye Society!”
“Knowing that still…” Li Xuan hesitated, then after a few seconds of contemplation, he patiently asked, “Have you finished this week’s data report?”
As an operative responsible for report review, Li Xuan felt it necessary to have a serious discussion with Lu Yibei about this matter.
Lu Yibei’s nonchalance was too much; it was something he could hardly bear to see.
“I’ve finished it!”
“Then… the night patrol report…”
“Also finished!” Lu Yibei said seriously, “Not only is the night patrol report done, but the monitoring of sealing locations and repair logs are also completed. If you want to ask about the spirit energy fluctuation monitoring log, that’s finished too.”
“Of course, there are some miscellaneous weekly and daily reports that I didn’t have time to write yet since the deadline hasn’t arrived.”
“Hmph, do you think I haven’t seen the reports you wrote?” Li Xuan said, “Aside from the monitoring logs of sealing locations and repair logs, everything else is filled with ‘Everything is normal, no incidents occurred.’ Who do you think you’re fooling?”
“If Huacheng really had such peace, that would be great!”
“The fact is, nothing happened!” Lu Yibei shrugged and said, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask the Special Action Team’s brothers or colleagues at the Spirit Energy Monitoring Center!”
Being the King of Urban Legends, it’s quite normal that no urban legends would cause trouble during my night watch, Lu Yibei thought to himself.
Li Xuan, “…”
Before Lu Yibei came, Li Xuan had already reviewed the records, and during those nights under Lu Yibei’s watch, Huacheng indeed experienced calm.
However, even if it’s rather perfunctory, Lu Yibei still managed to complete a month’s worth of work within a week, which inevitably made people feel suspicious of his work ethic.
He suddenly missed Jiang Li’s presence, at least Jiang Li always dragged all reports to the last day of the month before submitting everything.
This allowed him to have a basis to criticize Jiang Li for “ruining” the atmosphere of the Siye Society.
Just as Li Xuan was secretly pondering how to find an excuse to make Lu Yibei behave more properly, An Qing strolled over to the two.
She glanced at Li Xuan and Lu Yibei, expressionless, walked right between them, and smiled, “Oh? Everyone’s here! That’s just perfect!”
“Recently, Du Sixian’s observation period is coming to an end, and I was thinking about letting her carry out some simple tasks, but since the Nightfall Syndrome patients affected by the Hundred Demons Walk haven’t been dealt with yet, I can’t leave for the moment. I wonder…”
“If any of you would be willing to step up and provide her with some support?”
In fact, An Qing believed that among the entire Siye Society, only Lu Yibei and Li Xuan were reliable. With Jiang Li on leave, Gu Xiliu absent like a pigeon, Gu Niang unable to provide support, and Bai Kai posing risks of complicated romantic involvement, none of them were trustworthy.
“Lu Yibei! He has already finished his work.” Li Xuan chimed in.
“Ah, this…”
Lu Yibei opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but when he saw An Qing looking at him and smiling, he said, “Then, can I entrust you with supporting Du Sixian?”
“No, I actually…”
“It doesn’t matter, although you are just a proxy operative, everyone knows your work abilities, so I’m counting on you!” An Qing interjected, “Du Sixian really admires you!”
Lu Yibei, “…” I’m done with my duties as the Siye Society operative, but the work of the King of Urban Legends isn’t finished yet!
Lu Yibei also recently discovered that Bai Kai’s mention of two or three subordinates wasn’t for anything during the Hundred Demons Walk.
But rather, after the Hundred Demons Walk…
—
There were simply too many matters the King of Urban Legends had to handle.
Setting aside the case of Pestilence Taijie, who would dominate an area and devour all urban legends within, being a qualified “king” is not easy.
Just like collecting taxes, one should provide benefits to taxpayers; similarly, the King of Urban Legends, who enjoys spirit energy gathered from the essence of the land, is theoretically required to respond to the petitions of the urban legends.
These petitions ranged from territory disputes to urban legend couples’ intimacy; there were at least dozens of miscellaneous matters daily.
On the third day after Lu Yibei finished the Hundred Demons Walk, he understood why Jumeng was so skilled in hosting weddings.
And why Jumeng was obsessed with being a “runaway girl,” living off others by cheating them of food, as it was genuinely enjoyable.
Seeing the two urban legends kneeling in front of her, Lu Yibei rubbed his throbbing forehead.
When can I, like Jumeng, sneak into someone else’s home to mooch off them, steal money, and play games all day long?
I wish I had more subordinates to help share the burdens…
Lost in thought, she expressionlessly waved her sleeve and coldly said, “Speak up, what disputes do you have that need my judgment?”
“In reply to the esteemed Witch,” the foul-smelling urban legend, resembling a pig with tusks and emitting a terrible stink, clasped its fists, “This guy bet against me and lost but refused to honor the wager!”
Lu Yibei looked at the square-headed urban legend, whose face was dotted symmetrically like a dice, and asked, “Is that true?”
The dice-like urban legend blinked awkwardly, “In reply to the esteemed Witch, it is true, but I didn’t expect it to actually dare to dig into a human’s b*tt in the bathroom!”
“A dignified urban legend has its dignity; which normal urban legend would hide in a toilet waiting to poke someone’s b*tt?!”
Lu Yibei held his forehead, glancing at the foul-smelling urban legend, and said impatiently, “Not to criticize you, but when betting with others, couldn’t you at least check their type of urban legend first?”
“Being a malevolent spirit, it’s only natural for it to do such things under the authority of a toilet ghost!”
“Exactly! Quickly hand over the core of the urban legend!”
“Shut up; I’m not even talking about you!” Lu Yibei glared at the toilet ghost, “Just because you brought your vile habits because of your powers, how can you then use those habits to bet against other urban legends?”
“Is this betting? This is fraud!”
“Moreover, how did I tell you all before? Urban legends are prohibited from attacking humans within the bounds of Huacheng. Did you treat my words like the wind blowing past?”
Faced with Lu Yibei’s cold expression and annoyed tone, the toilet ghost trembled in fear, curling into a ball, and weakly said, “But if we don’t attack humans, where will our spirit energy come from? I’m almost starving to d*ath.”
As soon as the toilet ghost finished speaking, responses arose.
“Yeah!”
“Witch, please give us a lifeline!”
“Exactly!”
“…”
Seeing this, Lu Yibei held his forehead and waved his hand, and then Meng Meng stepped forward, holding up an A4 sheet of paper and shouting, “Silence!”
“Regarding this, the esteemed Witch has her own plans!”
A chilling fluctuation of spirit energy spread, silencing the crowd instantly.
Once all the urban legends quieted down, Meng Meng cleared her throat and proclaimed in her iconic voice that once dominated Huacheng, “Now, I will announce the ‘Huacheng Urban Legend Management Regulations Disaster Revision Final Version’!”
“First, electronic devices and urban legends are not allowed into the exam room.
Second, disputes must be resolved offline; any fighting through the Witch’s dream is prohibited.
…
Forty-fourth, urban legend hunting must comply with the good cyclical law; for details, refer to Article Twenty-five.
Forty-fifth, most importantly.
Prohibition of hunting humans (except for criminals); if discovered, the core of the urban legend will be stripped immediately.
If there is a need for spirit energy gatherers while ensuring human safety, they may acquire it through scaring and spreading faith.
There’s no need to worry about the Siye Society’s investigation; the esteemed Witch will help solve all aftermath matters.
(Note: Scaring humans who have already hidden under covers and in closets is prohibited.)
Additionally, those who acquire insufficient spirit energy through the mentioned means may apply to the esteemed Witch, and after review, be approved to use the essence of the earth to capture free spirit energy for infusion.
The above clauses are subject to the final explanation from the Calamity Witch.
May all urban legends in Huacheng strictly adhere and widely announce.
The above.”
After finishing, Meng Meng glanced at the myriad urban legends before her, waited a few seconds, and asked, “I am done; who agrees, who opposes?”
“……”
After a long period of silence, the leader of the human-faced centipede tentatively asked, “Is it really permissible to scare humans without worrying that the Siye Society will come looking for us?”
“Are you doubting the Witch’s capabilities?” Meng Meng shot a glance at the human-faced centipede leader, then turned to Lu Yibei with an inquiring look.
Upon seeing Lu Yibei nod in approval, Meng Meng continued to address the urban legends, “I can tell you unreservedly that the Witch has very solid connections in the Siye Society; as long as you don’t k*ll anyone, she can help you sort out any issues.”
“……”
After another round of silence, the urban legends suddenly erupted in joy.
“Awesome, I’ve been wanting to do this for ages!”
“Exactly, as a kind-hearted spirit, I have always wanted to crawl through the internet cable into keyboard warriors’ homes to conduct a series of ideological operations (physical)!”
“Hey! If it weren’t for worrying about trouble with the Siye Society, who would want to k*ll? ”
“…”
Watching the chattering urban legends, Lu Yibei nodded, highly satisfied.
The regulations she crafted were not out of impulse, but rather based on carefully analyzing the various petitions voiced by the urban legends during this time.
Lu Yibei also confirmed with Gold Horn and Silver Horn that as long as no lives are lost, with some operational means, the higher-ups could turn a blind eye.
In fact, urban legends in the Peach Source have long been known to scare tourists at scenic spots.
Combining the above two points and analyzing them carefully, he came up with the current “Monster Power Company” like regulations.
In fact, most lower-tier urban legends that haven’t decayed do not require much spirit energy to survive and do not necessarily have to attack humans to gain spirit energy.
Previously, hunting potential spirit energy gatherers and scaring humans could almost be considered equal sins, resulting in both attracting the Siye Society and facing annihilation. Hence, under equal risks, they chose to take drastic measures to follow the path that would yield more spirit energy.
Of course, this wasn’t the fault of the Siye Society. Most urban legends aren’t restricted by a King of Urban Legends like Lu Yibei; even if there is, they might not enact similar regulations. Typically, it would only result in the worst outcome.
But Huacheng is different now; with the Calamity Witch here, there’s a silver lining. The Siye Society can no longer interfere with urban legends scaring humans; everyone can live openly in dark corners!
Urban legends also have their own lives; if there weren’t compelling reasons, they wouldn’t go out at midnight to bite humans.
Moreover, the Witch provides subsidies! A normal King of Urban Legends would never afford to use the essence of the earth for such things!
Thus, starting from the day after the release of the “Huacheng Urban Legend Management Regulations Disaster Revision Final Version,”
the incidents of m*rder-type urban legends attacking decreased sharply, while sightings and encounters of urban legends surged, with few casualties.
Even…
The Huacheng Central Hospital received several emergency calls from urban legends on behalf of patients suffering from heart attacks, prompting medical staff to fearfully hesitate in rescue, almost missing the optimal rescue time…
