Legend Management Bureau Chapter 456

[ … words ]

This is a timeline breakdown and detailed analysis of around six thousand words (that is right, the analysis alone is equivalent to three chapters’ worth of content).

I originally wanted to write this chronologically by year, but halfway through, I realized years were not applicable. I can only list them numerically. I hope this helps answer questions and clear up any confusion for readers who have not quite sorted out the timeline.

1. Around 250 BC, Xu Fu took Guiguzi as his master and obtained the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula”. This formula allowed the caster to alter parts of history, but the caster would become “Time”.

The formula explicitly stated that anyone influenced by this formula was called a “Great Pivot”, and anyone whose existence was influenced by a Great Pivot was also called a “Great Pivot”. This sentence had a profound impact on the protagonist’s later plans.

2. In 219 BC, Xu Fu led boys and girls eastward across the sea in search of the elixir of life, but to no avail.

He originally wanted to give up right then and there, but a letter from the First Emperor changed his mind. He ultimately decided to comprehend the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula” to grant the First Emperor eternal life. However, he was merely a Mortal and could never cast the secret technique within the formula. He had no choice but to pass the mission on to the boys and girls.

3. Among the boys and girls, the “Shiranui” lineage finally comprehended what was stated in the formula. However, believing the drawbacks of the formula’s contents were too severe, they chose not to cast it, merely passing it down from generation to generation.

When it was passed down to a certain generation, a genius emerged in the Shiranui Family. Based on the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula”, he created the “Snip and Slash Technique”. Unfortunately, when he was researching the “Snip and Slash Technique”, “Time” did not exist in the world, making the technique useless. Still, this person asserted that one day, the Shiranui Family would become famous in the Immortal Realm because of this magic. His ideas were simply too far ahead of his time, to the point that no one supported them until the day he died.

4. In the original timeline, Shiranui Asuka received an invitation to the “Small Peach Banquet” in Huaxia. She sneaked out to Huaxia without her family’s knowledge, encountered the wandering ghost Du Yu, and they eventually fell in love.

6. There is an unrevealed truth here. Something the protagonist, the terminator, the creator, and all previous generations of “Time” failed to guess was that Shiranui Asuka pushed time too far back. Not only did she push it back to before Du Yu was Soul Scattered And Spirit Dispersed, but she pushed it back to before he died. Because she was the first “Time” in the world and no one had ever taught her what to do, she could only keep pushing time backward.

This caused a problem. Although this timeline was paused, the second timeline would not pause. It would continue from this timeline and become a new one. This was the second-generation Du Yu; he was already a Great Pivot before he even died.

It was also at this time that legend management agencies appeared in various countries and regions. The earliest was Huaxia, followed by Fusang, and third was Tianzhu. Under the influence of the Great Pivot, other countries also began continuously establishing legend management agencies.

It should be noted that the founding members of the first-generation Huaxia legend management agency were different from the current ones, but as the timeline continuously washed over itself, it constantly corrected its own settings.

One day while traveling, a bus accident occurred. To save others, the second-generation Du Yu died in the bus fire. He was judged as a Wrongful Death, and from then on, he became a Wrongful Death Great Pivot.

7. The second-generation Du Yu entered the Underworld and was deceived by the Great Judge Cui Jue. The second-generation Du Yu beat him at his own game, and he and the Great Judge used each other. Cui Jue used him to change his own life, and Du Yu used him to jump the queue to Reincarnate. Thus, he went undercover into the Legend Management Bureau, only to accidentally discover that he could enter Legends, ultimately experiencing a massive number of them.

8. Actually, the protagonist Du Yu deduced one thing incorrectly. The second-generation Du Yu’s method of destroying the world had nothing to do with He Suoyi. It was because the second generation personally saved “Mahakala” in a Legend, just as unintentionally as the protagonist saving the White Snake. In the end, this “Mahakala” wanted to kill the second generation to repay him. The second generation resisted, eventually purging the world.

9. After the world was purged, besides the second-generation Du Yu, only the “Seven Holy Heroes” and the Seven-Lives Cat remained. Here, everyone’s relationships were not very good, which led to the quarreling incident described in the text. After all, they were not “comrades in arms” but merely “survivors”. There was one exception among them, and that was Shiranui Asuka. She was the first of the “Seven Holy Heroes” to know Du Yu. She had true feelings for him, and Du Yu liked her just as much.

(By the way, some readers have asked this question: Why did the protagonist feel a sense of familiarity when he saw Du Nanshan, but did not feel familiar when he saw his own grandfather, Du Lao’er? The reason is that in the setting, Du Nanshan is the protagonist’s true ancestor, part of the same direct bloodline. Although Du Lao’er is Du Yu’s grandfather, he is the creator’s grandfather. Separated by too many timelines, the distance between him and the protagonist was simply too vast.)

10. The second-generation Du Yu sent people to disrupt his past self. He used a Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Sea stratagem, dividing the team into three squads.

The first squad was sent to turn Du Yu into an orphan. Fundamentally speaking, an orphaned Du Yu would receive a worse education and develop a worse personality. There was a huge possibility that he would never enter the Legend Management Bureau, thereby putting an end to all of this.

The second squad was sent to assassinate Du Yu. According to the Grandfather Paradox, he could never kill his past self; the other party would escape time and time again. The other party might resign, or might become stronger, twisting everything around once more. (But he forgot that the Grandfather Paradox is reversible, resulting in the later Du Yu counter-killing his future self every single time.)

For the third squad, the second-generation Du Yu set out personally, shuttling through countless timelines to search for the lair of “Mahakala”.

Whether the first two missions were completed or not did not matter; the third mission was the most crucial point.

11. The protagonist’s second incorrect deduction was assuming the second generation actually found the second half of the “Reversing Cause and Effect Formula”. In truth, he only found Guiguzi. Guiguzi saw that his state of mind was unstable, calculated his current situation, and voluntarily told him the method to enter the Cave of Time.

12. The second generation met A’xiang in the Cave of Time, but it is important to note that he did not know he was the “second generation”. He thought there were many generations before him. His guess was as follows: Someday in the future, he would become Soul Scattered And Spirit Dispersed, so A’xiang would sit here and save him. He believed the A’xiang before him was a remnant of history, and that the A’xiang currently by his side would also save him like this one day. After all, this A’xiang kept repeating the words, “Save Senior Du Yu”. (I am not sure if I explained this clearly, but you have to understand that it is very difficult for any generation of Du Yu to discern the full picture; they can only rely on guessing.)

After returning, the second generation changed his strategy. He planned to let the next generation of Du Yu become “Time” to save A’xiang. After all, people are selfish, and he did not immediately choose to swap himself in for her. Whether he wanted to save the A’xiang in the cave or the A’xiang of his own future, someone absolutely had to replace her.

Unfortunately, this would take far too long. Just as written in the story, the first-generation Seven Holy Heroes did not trust each other; only A Can and A Kui could barely complete missions. Meanwhile, every time the second generation entered the “Cave of Time”, he found A’xiang’s mental state growing worse and worse. Every single time, she treated Du Yu as a hallucination, which was exceptionally heartbreaking. Thus, the second generation made a gamble. He believed that if he became “Time” himself, he could better select a candidate. Furthermore, he also wanted to take responsibility for the world he had destroyed.

13. The second generation replaced A’xiang and began modifying the timeline. Because the second generation’s appearance was very similar to the image A’xiang muttered about in the cave, You Si awakened and mistakenly believed she had fallen in love with “Time”. The moment You Si awakened, she completely removed A’xiang from the loop. She essentially added an auto-rotation device to every gear on this machine, allowing it to run on its own without needing external power from then on.

14. Because of You Si’s appearance, a massive number of Great Pivots emerged, and the second generation began selecting a candidate. It was also because of this that Zhan Qisheng appeared, He Suoyi appeared, and the Great Pivot Du Yu appeared. The whole world was invaded by Great Pivots, and the worldview was fundamentally solidified.

15. Selecting a candidate was not an easy task. Across all timelines, the outcomes for Du Yu generally fell into the following categories:

First, dying in ordinary Legends.

Second, going to war with Mahakala and dying in battle.

Third, going to war with Mahakala, winning, and purging the world.

Fourth, joining forces with his other selves from different timelines to fight Mahakala, and being defeated.

Fifth, joining forces with his other selves from different timelines to fight Mahakala, winning, but refusing to become Time, forever wandering in the rifts of time.

Sixth, joining forces with his other selves from different timelines to fight Mahakala, winning, dealing with He Suoyi’s rebellion, and Du Yu being willing to become Time. Meeting all conditions and gaining Time’s approval to replace Time.

It is obvious that as the conditions compound, the most suitable candidate becomes extremely rare. This is why every iteration of Time has to sit for hundreds of thousands of years before finally selecting a suitable person. Of course, this is just a rough statistic. There would also be various other unexpected circumstances, such as him simply not liking Shiranui Asuka, him simply not caring whether the world was destroyed or not, or his disposition being extremely evil, and so on.

16. The protagonist appeared (that is right, the protagonist only appeared halfway through this outline). What needs to be noted here is that the protagonist was different from others since he was very young. Foreshadowing in the text mentioned that since childhood, he never fought or competed for anything, never clashed with anyone, and was ultimately never adopted. But did you notice that a protagonist without any background managed to secure an iron-rice-bowl government job? Even though he was just a workshop employee, a state-owned enterprise is worlds apart from an ordinary company. This shows that he was very capable and resourceful, just that he did not waste his energy on trivial matters.

17. The protagonist suffered a Wrongful Death. Upon arriving in the Underworld, he faintly sensed from the scattered words of others that his identity was rather unusual. However, at that time, he could never have imagined things would be so complicated. He could only play dumb and curry favor with various Leaders. This was a survival method he had learned in the workplace.

18. The protagonist began his daily work at the Legend Management Bureau. At this time, the protagonist thought: ‘Since Legends can be modified in my own timeline, couldn’t my future and past selves also modify Legends? Might there come a day when everyone meets within a Legend?’

It is worth mentioning here that time paradoxes truly existed. When Cui Jue asked, “In the 19th Year of Zhenguan, did we meet before?”, you have to understand that the person he saw was not the protagonist, but the previous generation. The same went for Zhongli Chun. Du Yu had not even entered her Legend yet, but she already remembered him. To put it bluntly, the person in her memory was not the protagonist either. It was just that after passing through so many generations, Du Yu and the previous generation—namely, “Saint”—were already very similar. Their methods were roughly the same, and the Legends they experienced were roughly the same, which led to this situation. This was why Du Yu mentioned the line in the text, “The first brother’s problem is solved by the second brother, the second brother’s problem is solved by Third Brother, and this is already the one-hundred-millionth brother…” This proved that the protagonist had already understood the connections involved.

In other words, if there were any Du Yus after the protagonist, they would be dealing with the mess the protagonist left behind.

For example, the next generation of Du Yu would suddenly discover that the moon rabbit in Chang’e Flies to the Moon was actually Da Yi. In that case, the plot of the Jade Rabbit spirit seducing Tang Sanzang would have issues. Another example would be Fuxi suddenly disappearing from the Fuxi and Nüwa Legend, meaning they would have to hurry and find someone to play Fuxi, and so on. Of course, those are stories for another time.

19. In the “Medusa” chapter, the protagonist successfully discovered where the problem lay. He made a bold deduction in his heart: he must have been constantly watched by someone. It was just that the person watching him seemed a bit impatient.

This brings up the “Time” who first appeared in the text. Foreshadowing repeatedly mentioned that he was actually a person eager for quick success and had a hot-tempered disposition.

Who were the reinforcements this “Time” invited during the “great war”? Completely unlike the protagonist, they were the Gods of Olympus, the demons of Britain, and so on.

This showed that he was always clinging to the strong, rather than clinging to “justice”. This personality led him to be extremely anxious to select the next “Time”, thereby exposing a flaw.

He did not know that Du Yu acting recklessly in the Legend of the White Snake was a deliberate attempt to draw out his existence, yet he still foolishly helped Du Yu correct things, thus giving himself away.

From this chapter onward, you could see the protagonist periodically courting death. His ultimate goal was to see to what extent Time could repair things for him.

20. “Saint” appeared. Because of Saint’s appearance, Du Yu gathered all the “Seven Holy Heroes”. Therefore, his feelings for the “Seven Holy Heroes” were different; he viewed them as family.

21. The final battle. Just as mentioned earlier, because “Time” was hot-tempered, he took the initiative to make a deal with “Mahakala”. He promised Mahakala that if he used all his power to attack Huaxia, he would bestow upon him supreme power. But the prerequisite was that he could not kill Du Yu. Everything he did was to keep Du Yu alive and make him feel regret, thus giving Time a massive chance of being swapped out.

It was clear that “Time” showed great favoritism toward Du Yu. He essentially gave him a free pass all the way into the “Cave of Time”, and then thought himself clever by showing Du Yu stories about “obsession”, “himself”, and “Time”. The purpose of this was to shatter Du Yu’s mental defenses, overturn his understanding, and make him voluntarily become “Time”.

22. In reality, Du Yu had seen through Time’s tricks long ago, and he had already decided to become “Time”. Not only was he going to become “Time”, but he was also going to shatter the entire Reincarnation Cycle. And so, he began his own plan. Du Yu played “Time” for a fool and also became “Time”.

23. Du Yu’s plan was actually extremely risky. His initial plan and the final outcome were largely similar. He prepared to repair the timeline, select a successor, and then return to his own timeline, figuring out a way to send He Suoyi to the Cave of Time at the last possible moment. But the variables in all of this were far too vast. He did not know if he could return after leaving, nor was he certain if the explosive power of He Suoyi could destroy all the Caves of Time. Therefore, Du Yu said there was only a one percent chance of hope.

24. The turning point of everything started with the Recording Stones left behind by the first-generation A’xiang. Because the time A’xiang set was written casually, it just happened to be one hundred million years, and it just happened to be displayed right before Du Yu’s eyes. After listening to the recording, he perfected his own plan. But it was yet another gamble: he prepared to ignite himself. Igniting himself had two meanings: first, to leave the seat and search for other clues; second, to leave the cave and complete the final plan.

25. Over the passing years, Du Yu endured the agonizing pain of the flames, yet realized that he could not actually leave this place. If there was no “Time” in the “Cave of Time”, he feared it would cause other consequences; leaving without authorization was too risky. Therefore, he could only find another person to replace him, so he let You Si “continue operations”. But at this point, he also realized that if he gave up the identity of “Time”, he would lose his regenerative abilities, and the flames would burn him to ashes in an instant. Thus, he had to change his countermeasure once more, deciding to become “Time” alongside the other party.

26. Becoming “Time” together had two advantages. First, he did not need to sit on the chair himself; he could freely travel through time and inflict “true damage” to history (Note: All previous iterations of “Time” could only repair history, not change it). This way, he only needed to threaten the “terminator” into repairing time on his behalf. These two people basically formed an invincible “Legend Management Bureau”. “Du Yu” altered history in reality, while “Time” altered history in memories. In this scenario, whether it was a Great Pivot or an ordinary person, no one would remember the true face of that period in history. This was truly “reversing history”. Furthermore, this duo’s combination would not create any Great Pivots, and the damage inflicted on history would be “true damage”.

27. Du Yu utilized this characteristic to personally kill the “Great Pivots” he knew. It must be noted that the contents written in the Reversing Cause and Effect Formula stated, “Those influenced by a Great Pivot are considered Great Pivots”. However, Du Yu acted using his identity as “Time”. Those eliminated by “Time” could not be considered Great Pivots; they could only be considered repaired by the world. Take Zhan Qisheng as an example: Du Yu killed Zhan Qisheng in the past, causing a divergence between his past and present. He died in the past, but he was still alive in the present.

At this moment, the “Time” in the cave needed to step in and fabricate an identity for him. The simplest explanation was “an orphan, parents died early, and not the same person as the dead Zhan Qisheng”. A simple lie could completely erase Zhan Qisheng’s status as a Great Pivot.

Du Yu killed them in the original timeline (that is, when they first appeared) to completely wipe out their Great Pivot identities, so that they could all exist independently. Even if “Time” and “You Si” were both gone, these people would not disappear.

28. The “terminator” asked, “Your own name is not on this list. What do you plan to do?”

In truth, the terminator at that time had already guessed Du Yu’s thoughts, but he assumed Du Yu only wanted to save his friends. He never expected that Du Yu was playing a much larger game of chess.

Du Yu indiscriminately killed many people to confuse the terminator’s line of sight, and among them was the “original Du Yu”.

Because he had killed far too many people, “Time” did not inspect them one by one. Ultimately, he missed this clue and only helped him modify the identities of the Great Pivots.

29. The great war began once more. Following the plan, Du Yu let He Suoyi absorb his fill of Suffering, and then detonate inside the cave. This explosion was equivalent to directly blowing up all the Caves of Time. But it is worth mentioning that Du Yu did not stay there; he used Time Magic to escape right before the explosion.

Before leaving, he mouthed a few words to the “terminator”: “I killed the original Du Yu, and I will replace him.”

This answer made the terminator understand everything, causing him to suffer an instant mental collapse.

The thing Du Yu spat out after finishing his sketchy ride was the Translation Talisman he had swallowed into his stomach a long time ago. Back then, he wanted You Si to ignite him, but he was afraid the fire would destroy the Translation Talisman and leave him unable to understand the recordings on the stones, so he swallowed the Translation Talisman.

This proved that he had succeeded; he truly lived on with the identity of the original Du Yu.

Additionally, do you still remember Du Yu’s previous “supreme gamble”?

He said, “I wager the lives of all Du Yus across all timelines to ensure that there will never again be Time in this world”. You have to realize that at this point, Du Yu had already become “Time”. Therefore, in the gamble he spoke of, he did not include himself right from the very beginning.

The result of the gamble was that he truly wagered the lives of all Du Yus, and indeed ensured that this world would never have Time again.

This was also what the Tathagata meant when he said, “The thing the benefactor is plotting spans one hundred million years in time and contains the obsessions of far too many people.”

It was also what Guiguzi meant when he said, “Divining this hexagram will cost me tens of thousands of years of my lifespan.”

In truth, making this decision was agonizing for Du Yu. The original Du Yu had done nothing wrong; he probably died never knowing why. So whenever he pondered this plan in his heart, that demonized black shadow would appear to mock him. This was actually his own self-denial.

30. Du Yu completely replaced the original Du Yu and returned to this timeline. He deliberately pushed the timeline back to before he met A’xiang, as doing so would expose fewer flaws.

From then on, Du Yu was the last Great Pivot in the world, and also the only person who possessed the ability to travel through time.

The “Legend Management Bureau” disappeared just like that, but he managed to save his friends.

From then on, he could live out his days bickering and laughing alongside everyone else.

The car accident that later killed the original Du Yu could not possibly kill the protagonist anyway. So this time, he would live a long life, staying together forever with his friends and the people he loved.

31. Finally, let us talk about a despairing matter. In reality, when Du Yu heard Xu Fu bestow the surname “Shiranui” upon the boys and girls, he already understood that there was actually something “higher up” in this world manipulating everything. There might be other, far more magnificent closed loops in this universe.

Before his arrival, why was this lineage called Shiranui? Before he burned the Reversing Cause and Effect Formula, why was it only half a scroll?

The thing further above might be the “laws of the universe”, or it might be the “ultimate truth of the world”. (Zhang Qiling: I am very familiar with this.)

But none of this mattered to him anymore. After all, those greater things could no longer affect him.

He did what he wanted to do. He gained what he wanted to gain, and gave up what he wanted to give up. He could continue living with the people important to him, and for him, that was more than enough.

Ah, right. When the protagonist finally opened the Eight Directions Ghost Record, there was no one left inside.