—I have a proposal!
As the last trace of color on the Four-colored Robe was swallowed by darkness, Black-robed Dumbledore's aura behind the podium changed completely, his gaze shifting from gentle and benevolent to sharp and commanding.
The moment he appeared, he raised a hand and shouted. From his tone alone, he stood in stark contrast to the old man in the Four-colored Robe, revealing a hint of ruthlessness.
The change was so obvious that even the youngest Legend in the hall instantly realized that the one standing at the podium was no longer the elder who had shared his insights into Legend with them, but a "Shedding Shell" stripped from Dumbledore's Timeline, containing certain dark aspects buried deep within his heart.
The real Dumbledore had presumably returned, under the power of the Timeline reset, to some safe point before the "alarm clock" exploded. The Black-robed one before them was merely a remnant from that contaminated, rejected Timeline, one that was about to be "cut away."
Zheng Qing was very familiar with such "remnants."
In a sense, his Ketu Spear had been transformed from the shell left behind by Zaito Kai, who had advanced into Legend. They possessed power no different from that of true Legends. The only distinction was that true Legends could extend their true forms infinitely along the River of Time and Fate, whereas the true forms of these discarded shells had already been locked in place.
Just like Black-robed Dumbledore before them.
The length of his true form covered only the short distance from the "alarm clock explosion" to "now." By the reckoning of Ordinary Wizards, it might not even have been two hours.
Of course, however short that time was, he was still a Legend—beyond the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements, an existence