Legend Management Bureau Chapter 450

[ … words ]

The concept of “cause and effect” in this world was truly bizarre.

If Ying Zheng’s letter had genuinely been a royal decree sentencing him to death, Xu Fu might not necessarily have committed suicide, but regardless, the story that followed would never have happened.

Yet when Ying Zheng expressed his earnest wish for Xu Fu to live on and thrive, Xu Fu instantly felt the urge to dedicate his entire life to forging a new legend for the First Emperor.

Slowly drawing the scroll of the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula” from his robes, he appeared lost in thought.

Before Xu Fu could reach any conclusions, he was suddenly hit by a wave of intense, blazing heat.

Looking up, he saw a strange man standing before him, his entire body engulfed in roaring flames.

The figure had appeared completely without a sound, as though he had been standing there all along.

The flames covering the man were incredibly bizarre. Their origin was entirely unknown—they flowed and burned like a liquid, yet erupted with the radiant brilliance of the sun.

Du Yu looked slightly conflicted. With a gentle wave of his hand, the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula” in Xu Fu’s grasp levitated and floated over to his side.

After all, the “Time” he currently occupied was the “Original Time.”

And among all the timelines across history, he was the only person capable of directly impacting true history.

Right now, there was one “Time” holding the fort inside the cave, while another “Time” altered history outside. This convergence would transform all minor deviations into concrete history.

Witnessing this man’s extraordinary divine abilities, Xu Fu stood momentarily stunned. “A-are you an Immortal, milord?”

“No, I am a demon,” Du Yu replied coldly, before falling back into a state of hesitation.

He was currently locked in a final mental struggle.

After a long while, he finally reached out and silently ignited one corner of the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula.”

“If all of this is a mistake… then I shall reverse the cause and effect of the ‘Reversing Cause and Effect Formula’ itself…”

But right at that moment, Guiguzi’s words echoed in Du Yu’s mind once more.

“Do you seek a correct life, or a calculated one?”

‘A calculated life…’

“Yeah… what on earth am I hesitating for?” Du Yu muttered with a bitter smile. “All of this was decided a long time ago, wasn’t it?”

He gently shifted his fingertips, slicing the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula” squarely in two. One half slowly burned away, while the other remained perfectly intact.

Moments later, the burning half turned to Ashes.

Xu Fu turned pale with shock. He hurried forward to inspect the secret tome, only to find that merely half of it remained.

Du Yu shook his head slightly and turned to leave.

“Immortal! Please wait, Immortal!” Xu Fu called out. “By burning half of my secret technique, is there some warning you wish to impart to me?”

Du Yu slowly looked back and declared, “This half is destined to be yours, but the other half is destined to be lost. Simply follow your heart and accomplish what you set out to do.”

With those words, Du Yu transformed back into a cluster of flames and vanished into thin air.

Picking up the remaining half of the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula,” Xu Fu stared blankly for a moment.

But he quickly regained his composure, packed his belongings, and headed straight down the mountain.

Two days later, he led his expedition fleet, setting sail directly for Yingzhou Fairy Island in the Eastern Ocean.

Aboard the ship, Xu Fu spent all his time studying the contents of the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula.”

Strangely enough, he had read this formula countless times and memorized it backwards and forwards. Yet ever since that Immortal burned the second half, he found himself entirely unable to recall its contents.

After several consecutive months, Xu Fu finally managed to gain a superficial understanding of the formula.

However, another dilemma surfaced before his eyes.

He was ultimately just a Mortal. He was completely incapable of performing the vast majority of the “array formation and spirit infusion” procedures described within the text.

Even if he wanted to grant the First Emperor immortality, he possessed no magical power. His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak. If he tried to force the technique, not only would it fail to help Ying Zheng, but it might needlessly waste a chance at eternity.

Before long, the fleet arrived at “Yingzhou Fairy Island.”

The moment Xu Fu stepped foot on the island, he felt a twinge of regret.

He desperately wanted to meet the scholars who wrote those ancient texts.

He wanted to ask them why they chose to portray this barren, backwards landmass as a mythical fairy island.

Over the five hundred years of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Hua Xia’s politics, civilization, military strategy, culture, agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce had reached unprecedented heights.

The First Emperor, Ying Zheng, had not only unified the six states but also standardized weights and measures. From here on, Hua Xia’s development would only continue to soar, reaching a level completely unattainable by anywhere else in the world during the same era.

Yet in this place where Xu Fu had just arrived… the natives did not even own shoes.

How was this so-called “Yingzhou Fairy Mountain” any different from some backwater provincial town in Hua Xia?

When Xu Fu led his fifty massive galleons to approach the tiny wooden canoes of the islanders, all the native inhabitants of Fusang fell to their knees in worship.

To them, this grand spectacle was undoubtedly the descent of heavenly deities.

Although Xu Fu found the situation somewhat hard to swallow, this place at least possessed arable land and pre-built dwellings.

Regardless of his disappointment, if his expedition of six thousand people wanted to survive, sheer passion alone would not be enough.

Thus, under the guise of trade, he used the superior civilization of Hua Xia to educate and enlighten the natives in exchange for grain and territory.

In just a few short years, all six thousand-plus members of the fleet had settled into homes.

Xu Fu also began arranging for them to cultivate the methods written on the formula.

He himself was not a cultivator, and the Fusang natives were completely ignorant of the path to immortality, so their cultivation progress moved at a glacial pace.

Another twenty years passed. Many of the young boys and girls grew into adults and started their own families.

Meanwhile, Xu Fu grew old and frail. He knew his death was inevitable.

The First Emperor had bestowed tremendous grace upon him; if he were to simply pass on now, he would surely be failing his master.

Therefore, he gathered the remaining eight thousand or so people under his command and issued his dying orders.

He instructed them to divide into twenty distinct families. Every family was required to memorize the contents of the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula” and pass it down orally to the next generation.

No matter which generation it reached, whoever managed to fully comprehend the text within the formula was to immediately journey to the Great Qin Empire and forge the immortal legend of the First Emperor.

He encouraged the twenty families to intermarry with the intelligent, spiritually gifted locals to breed superior descendants.

To ensure that the twenty families could recognize one another no matter how many generations passed, Xu Fu ingeniously used the sights and experiences from his ocean voyage to bestow upon them peculiar “surnames.”

In this way, all future descendants, no matter how far they scattered across the world, would only need to hear these surnames to know they were the lineage of the virgin youths Xu Fu had brought to Yingzhou.

The first lineage, based on the sights and experiences at the beginning of their voyage, became known as “Funaya,” “Hirokai,” “Kojima,” and “Takahashi.”

The second lineage, based on the scenery they first beheld upon landing on Yingzhou Island, became known as “Nohara,” “Koizumi,” “Murakami,” and “Mitsui.”

The third lineage, based on the flora they discovered on the island, became known as “Waseda,” “Kashiwagi,” “Koyanagi,” and “Akamatsu.”

The fourth lineage, based on the fauna they encountered on the island, became known as “Soma,” “Kameda,” “Torii,” and “Okuma.”

The fifth lineage, created to record the origins and purpose of his voyage, became known as “Tenkaichi,” “Todokai,” and “Choseido.”

As for the sixth lineage, Xu Fu pondered for a long time. He eventually selected four hundred disciples who still possessed a Spiritual Root and bestowed upon them the “Shiranui” surname, tasking them with deciphering the guidance of the flame-wreathed Immortal.

He entrusted the original copy of the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula” to the care of the Shiranui lineage, and then departed from this world forever.

Carrying his unfulfilled obsession, he brought his legendary life to a close.