CHAPTER 336: 243 WEST XIA’S FLUTE!

This meeting lasted all the way until midday. Led by Shu Qinghe, the leadership team clarified the roles and responsibilities of Yang Qingqing’s squad within the department.

At the same time, Shu Qinghe also assigned the squad their very first task: West Xia’s Flute!

After explaining everything, Shu Qinghe finally left with her team, and politely declined to let Yang Qingqing and the others see them off.

Just now realizing it, Du Yu finally understood—Shu Qinghe had come to Ancient Pine Tower City from another province, which definitely showed how sincere she was.

Standing at the entrance to the bookstore’s courtyard, Du Yu watched the departing convoy and muttered under his breath, "Didn’t think Elder Shu would be transferred to our department as the boss."

Yang Qingqing: "Elder Shu is the Demon Taming Emperor now. Before that she was also a top official at the provincial bookstore bureau, so she’s more than qualified, both in strength and in experience."

Du Yu: "Us banding together to conquer the Jade Gourd before probably boosted her credentials too, huh?"

Yang Qingqing turned her head slightly, giving Du Yu a glance: "Director Shu thinks highly of you."

"Uh?" Du Yu scratched his head and replied, "It’s all thanks to our venerable master’s excellent teaching."

Yang Qingqing’s eyebrows lifted a bit, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips.

Du Yu promptly looked over at Lin Shiwei: "Junior, what’s the name of our new department again?"

When it came to playing dumb and changing the subject, Prince Du was always up for it.

Lin Shiwei carefully glanced at Master Qing before speaking: "Bureau for Spiritual Artifact Cultural Research, Management, and Protection."

"That name’s way too long." Du Yu grimaced. "Who’s actually going to remember that?"

Li Mengnan whispered, "Twenty-Ninth Bureau. Great Xia Bookstore, Twenty-Ninth Bureau. Let’s just remember that—it’s catchy."

Yang Qingqing: "..."

This is a disciple I personally took in. I’m not mad.

Yup, not mad at all...

The Great Xia Demon Spirit Bookstore is the highest leadership and command authority for Demon Spirit affairs in Great Xia.

The number and variety of agencies and subordinate departments inside is enough to make your head spin. In any case, Du Yu never figured them out.

If they’re the Twenty-Ninth Bureau, there must be at least twenty-eight more before them, right?

Anyway, faced with the current surge of Spiritual Artifacts and the coming era of "Artifact Awakening," Great Xia responded by founding this new department: Bureau for Spiritual Artifact Cultural Research, Management, and Protection.

Since the department was just established, the internal system still needed a lot of work.

Yang Qingqing and her team currently counted as field staff, and their specific roles within the department would be set once the official paperwork came through in a few days.

In the "little temple" that was the City Demon Spirit Bookstore in Ancient Pine Tower City, Yang Qingqing and co. totally qualified as imperial envoys.

After all, the Twenty-Ninth Bureau was directly under the Great Xia Demon Spirit Bookstore.

Who knew if this high-ranking little department could someday grow into a real behemoth?

"Li Jing."

"Here." Li Jing, who was chatting with the city bookstore leadership, nodded apologetically and quickly walked over to Master Qing’s side.

Yang Qingqing: "Since Director Shu arranged an office for us, you’ll move into the main bookstore building today and work here from now on.

As for future arrangements, just follow whatever instructions the higher-ups give.

According to Director Shu, you’re to compile all available info on the Shadow Gu Tower, Bell Bracelet, and Jade Gourd."

Li Jing: "Yes, ma’am."

Yang Qingqing nodded in satisfaction: "Once you get any West Xia’s Flute info, send it to me immediately."

"Yes, ma’am."

Looking at Li Jing, Du Yu couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for him.

Poor tool... uh, Senior Brother Li had moved straight from the school office to the bookstore office.

Now that he thought about it, Master Qing’s official role as a teacher was still there. Senior Brother Li was probably working two jobs?

As Du Yu was pondering this, he vaguely heard Master Qing saying something about "setting out tonight."

For a second, his whole being was thrown off.

Flying to the northwest tonight?

Only have the afternoon to get ready? Is this what working life feels like?

Still dazed, Du Yu said goodbye to his fellow disciples and everyone at the bookstore, then got into Senior Brother Fu’s car.

On the way home, Du Yu held it in and held it in, but finally couldn’t resist turning to the back seat: "Master Qing, is this how it’s going to be for us from now on?"

Yang Qingqing: "Hm?"

Du Yu: "Flying all over the country to complete missions?"

Seeing the worry in her disciple’s eyes, Yang Qingqing seemed to realize something.

Obviously, Du Yu was still a student, just in the second semester of his freshman year. Even though he’d chosen to follow her, he wasn’t really ready to step fully into society yet.

Unlike the Demon Spirit Students forced to stay on campus, Yang Qingqing had always given Du Yu a lot of autonomy.

Whether it was picking his own training regime, which Demon Spirit Realm to go explore, even his schedule—most of it was all up to him.

Forcing Du Yu to suddenly change his lifestyle was bound to be jarring.

Yang Qingqing considered for a moment, then replied softly, "You, Mengnan, and Shiwei are all just at the Demon Tamer Stage right now.

Normally, you all should still focus on cultivation, on improving your own strength.

Whether or not you can complete the West Xia’s Flute mission, you’ll find out in just a few days. After that, you’ll go back to your current life."

"Mm, mm." Du Yu nodded hard, feeling a lot more at ease inside.

Listening to the exchange between master and disciple, Fu Jianzhou smiled and shook his head.

He and Yang Qingqing both came from a military background—always ready for action, able to fight at a moment’s notice.

The two of them were quite used to this lifestyle. Forget about getting just an afternoon to prepare; even if ordered to leave right now, neither would object.

Half an hour later, Du Yu returned home.

When he came in, he uncharacteristically didn’t refuse Firethorn Tree’s teasing. Instead, he strode right up, entered the northeast corner of the living room, and dove headlong into the thick leaves.

"Whoosh ~"

With the leaves rustling, even Firethorn Tree was left a bit dumbfounded.

What’s going on, did the master have a change of heart?

Have I actually managed to break him with my determination?

This is way too nice!

But as Firethorn Tree was secretly celebrating, one sentence from Du Yu sent it right into the dumps.

"Brother Tree, I have to go on a business trip tonight."

"Whack!" Been gone a month and a half, now I’m home for just two days?

You only came home to bring back the Golden Leaf, right?

"Hey! Don’t hit me—hit me all you want, I still have to go..."

"Whack!" Nope, not happening! You’re not going!

"It’s Master Qing asking me to go. Go whack her!"

"Whack!" Still trying to drive a wedge between me and the lady of the house?

Trying to get me killed, huh?

"Whack!"

"Ah~"

...

It wasn’t until late afternoon, after being trapped in the thicket, that Du Yu was finally let go.

Because Li Mengnan and Lin Shiwei had arrived.

At least Firethorn Tree had left Prince Du a little dignity in front of the others.

"Du Yu, did you see the info Senior Brother Li sent?" Li Mengnan barrelled in, catching Du Yu standing in front of the potted plant in the living room, fixing his ruffled clothes.

Li Mengnan: ???

This morning when I showed up, you were knocked flat on the ground by Dust Spirit Deer.

This afternoon I come by, and you’ve just been ravaged by Firethorn Tree?

My poor little bro, what kind of life are you even living these days...

Du Yu: "You’re here! Come, sit down, sit down. Firethorn, boil some water and make tea for our guests."

Firethorn Tree was on its best behavior, acting all proper, immediately stretching its branches out toward the kitchen.

"What info?" Du Yu waved his hand, and another Firethorn Branch reached out, delivering his phone.

That’s when Du Yu realized, the team had set up a group chat.

Maybe because Master Qing was in it, no one dared say a word, let alone send red packets.

There was only a single document in the group, sent by Li Jing.

Du Yu plopped onto the couch and opened the file.

"Around eight a.m., January 5th, 997, in West Xia Town, Golden Autumn City, Longyuan Province, a freak incident occurred. Flute music suddenly rang out in West Xia Park, its sound covering half the town..."

Lin Shiwei quietly watched Du Yu, waiting for the moment his expression changed—she knew he’d reached the key part.

Du Yu was bewildered inside: "People fell asleep within range of the music?"

Lin Shiwei explained, "It says later that everyone was rescued and turned out fine. They just slept another day and all woke up.

No aftereffects at all, except that everyone had the same dream."

"Hmm..." Du Yu frowned deeply and kept reading.

Compared to the mesmerized regular folks, the Demon Tamers managed a lot better.

Some Demon Tamers fought off the drowsiness and got out of town to call for help.

Others teamed up with the local Demon Spirit Military Police to rescue people overnight.

So yeah, Demon Tamers clearly had stronger resistance—they could at least stay standing after hearing the music, instead of collapsing instantly into sleep.

So what was this flute music, exactly?

Some sort of psychic attack?

This Ancient Spiritual Artifact’s effects were bonkers strong!

"Xiao Ta, have you heard of this flute before?" Du Yu asked through the Spirit Contract. "It’s a stone flute, thirty meters—uh, thirty meters long."

Shadow Gu Tower: "Nope."

Du Yu double-checked the data. The file really said thirty meters.

If this was a Spiritual Artifact, it had to be made for humans. Its original form shouldn’t be like this.

Maybe West Xia’s Flute changed its form to see daylight again.

Or maybe, like Shadow Gu Tower, it could just freely change its size.

"Scroll further down," Li Mengnan said, stretching a finger over and swiping Du Yu’s phone screen herself.

After reading a while, Du Yu’s face twisted into an even weirder expression.

The document said a giant humanoid appeared in West Xia Park on the sixth day after the Flute’s emergence.

The giant picked up the thirty-meter flute, sat down in the park, and started playing new tunes.

The music’s sleep-inducing effect intensified even further, making the investigation even harder.

Li Mengnan: "See, look—it’s clearly a girl, just, you know, really big."

Du Yu looked at the image in the file, probably taken by drone.

The huge human-shaped figure was pretty blurry, but you could just make out her long hair drifting behind her.

"Yeah... I agree." Du Yu thought for a second. "She’s probably the artifact spirit of West Xia’s Flute."

Lin Shiwei: "Just like your Shadow Gu Tower."

"Exactly!" Du Yu nodded. "Artifact spirits have no gender, so her form’s probably based on whoever the flute’s master was.

If we can just talk to her, everything gets a lot simpler."

"From this write-up, it looks like West Xia’s Flute isn’t letting people approach," Li Mengnan commented. "The closer you get, the faster you fall asleep.

Even using megaphones doesn’t work—the equipment just gets shattered by her music."

"Hmm..." Du Yu dragged the syllable out. It really was a tricky situation.

The main thing was, if Great Xia wanted to win over West Xia’s Flute, they couldn’t go overboard with forceful methods.

And any Spiritual Artifact capable of surviving centuries and resurfacing would be terrifyingly powerful.

If you tried to bully it into submission, you’d probably cause a disaster!

Du Yu: "Master Qing said we’re setting out tonight. Let’s go take a look at West Xia’s Flute in person tomorrow!"

Staring at the picture of the girl, Li Mengnan somehow felt a hint of anticipation: "They say everyone who heard the flute and fell asleep had their own unique dream?"

Dreaming, huh?

Du Yu pursed his lips. That’s... something I’m actually pretty good at...