Chapter Summaries

Du Yu returned to the road with the Prefect and his men to guide them to the Peach Blossom Spring, but he suspected they meant to take the village’s grain by force. When he found a fresh marker carved with the character “Yu,” he attacked the old man and demanded to know who he really was.

• Du Yu went to Wuling Commandery and found its streets filled with beggars and displaced people.
• Du Yu returned with the Prefect and a party of officials, who brought covered carts that rattled with metal as they crossed a ditch.
• Du Yu suspected the Prefect’s carts carried weapons so his men could seize the Peach Blossom Spring’s grain.
• Du Yu found a fresh marker carved with “Yu,” seized the old man, and demanded to know his true identity.
• The old man said he was Du Lao’er, while the Prefect saw the fresh “Yu” carved into the tree.

Du Yu discovered that the characters carved on the trees had not been written by the old man, and he followed the marks to gather all eight. At the entrance to Peach Blossom Spring, the scattered characters formed a puzzling message, leaving Du Yu to wonder who was trying to contact him.

• Du Yu confronted the old man about the characters on the trees, but the old man insisted he had only drawn circles.
• Du Yu decided to keep following the marks, suspecting someone was trying to send him a message.
• Du Yu and the old man found the third character, “You,” and then Du Yu hurried ahead to locate the rest.
• Du Yu recorded all eight characters on pieces of wood and reached the entrance to Peach Blossom Spring with the others.
• Du Yu arranged the characters beneath the mountain wall, revealing the strange sequence: “Du,” “Yu,” “done,” “you,” “nature,” “understand,” “?,” “human.”

Du Yu and the old man escaped the collapsing Legend through a cave, where they found a strange passage connected to Time. The passage showed Peach Blossom Village as it had been recorded in history, and the question “Du Yu, do you understand human nature?” filled the walls.

• Du Yu told the Prefect that the route markers had been altered, causing the Legend to collapse and cracks to appear around them.
• The Prefect and his retinue fled as Du Yu and the old man moved stones to enter a cave and prevent the Water Monkey from escaping.
• Du Yu and the old man found a stone tunnel and a massive door, while the entrance behind them became a swirling vortex.
• Golden writing asked Du Yu whether he understood human nature, and the stone walls turned transparent to reveal Peach Blossom Village.
• Du Yu realized the view showed events recorded in history, including the Prefect's party bargaining with a fisherman, before the question appeared across the walls again.

Du Yu witnessed the Prefect’s massacre of Peach Haven Village and realized that the fisherman had always led officials there, while Liu Ziji’s failure to find it may have been because the village had already been destroyed. As the Prefect killed the last survivor, the stone wall asked Du Yu whether he understood human nature.

• The Prefect’s men killed the fisherman, entered Peach Haven Village, and demanded grain and valuables in exchange for the villagers’ lives.
• The Prefect repeatedly extorted the villagers, ordering executions until more than half had been killed and survivors began informing on one another.
• A young boy tried to buy his life with river water, but the Prefect’s men killed him.
• Du Yu realized the fisherman had always led the Prefect to Peach Haven Village and suspected Liu Ziji had found the fisherman dead or had been murdered.
• The Prefect killed the final survivor, and the stone wall asked Du Yu, “Do you understand human nature?”

Du Yu and the old man passed through the stone door into a familiar-feeling home from the 1990s, where Du Yu found a family photograph that unsettled him. They then saw a younger family enter with an older version of Old Man Du, who insisted on a name for his grandson that had been bestowed by the ancestors.

• The old man slapped Du Yu to snap him out of his blank state, and Du Yu decided that “Time” was trying to shake his resolve.
• The writing on the wall changed into questions about Du Yu’s past, and Du Yu challenged “Time” to face him.
• The stone door opened onto a cozy 1990s home, and the way back vanished after Du Yu and the old man entered.
• Du Yu found a family photograph whose mother looked familiar to him, though he could not place her.
• Du Yu and the old man hid in the bedroom as a family arrived, including an older version of Old Man Du.
• Old Man Du insisted that his grandson be given a character he said the ancestors had bestowed on the Du family.

Du Yu watched a scene from his infancy that suggested he had once lived with a loving family, contradicting his records that he had been abandoned at three months old. The scene ended with his baby self repeating a name from the Chinese Immortal Register, stirring a dormant memory in the older Du Yu.

• Nana and Yi discussed the name for their baby, and Yi said the fortune-teller had predicted they would have a girl named Xi.
• Du Yu realized the baby in the scene was himself and wondered why his family had not prevented him from ending up in an orphanage.
• Yi and Nana argued about Yi teaching their son from the Chinese Immortal Register, while Du Yu's grandfather encouraged the lessons.
• Yi misremembered a deity's name as “Eighty-One Tribulations Arithmetic Heavenly Venerable,” and the phrase stirred a memory in Du Yu.
• Yi asked his baby son to repeat “Supreme-Old-Venerable,” and little Du Yu repeated it.

Du Yu endured an illusion of a happy family and feared that the old man inside it would be stranded in the wrong timeline. He escaped through a stone door and woke beside Shiranui Asuka, but his hand passed through her body.

• Nana and Old Man Du teased Yi for teaching Little Du Yu the wrong title, while the hidden Du Yu recognized the scene as a fabricated memory.
• The old man guessed that Du Yu was an immortal, and Du Yu hid with him when Yi came to investigate the bedroom.
• Du Yu left the bedroom through a doorway that opened onto a stone tunnel, but the door shut behind him and trapped the old man inside.
• Du Yu entered a dark space beyond another stone door after rejecting Time's question about obsession.
• Du Yu awoke beside Shiranui Asuka, wept with relief, and discovered that his hand passed through her body.

Du Yu witnessed the aftermath of his defeat in Sage’s timeline, where the surviving companions found equipment that could send them back to confront Great Dark Heaven. Their discovery of fresh paint revealed that an unseen person was hiding nearby.

• Du Yu realized he was invisible to the survivors and learned that Sage had withdrawn into sleep after Great Dark Heaven’s defeat destroyed the world.
• Xie Yujiao, Xiao Nian, A Can, and A Kui returned from searches that found almost no survivors, while Jin Jianglang revealed a hidden hatch beneath the Legend Management Bureau ruins.
• Jin Jianglang led the group to working Descent Devices showing Du Yu aboard a bus and proposed returning to the past to stop Great Dark Heaven.
• Shiranui Asuka found fresh paint on a device, and Jin Jianglang exposed a hidden young girl by throwing dirt into the corner where she was concealed.

Xiao Qi emerged from hiding and reunited with the Seven Outstanding Disciples of the Sage, while Du Yu watched and reflected on the choices that had brought him here. The Sage called himself the world’s abandoned “Leftover,” rejected the group’s hope of changing the apocalypse, and left them stunned.

• Xiao Qi tried to escape when the group found her, but a formation stopped her, and she admitted she had been hiding nearby after following Golden Flood Dragon Lang.
• Xiao Qi asked the group not to reveal she was alive to anyone except Du Yu, and Shiranui Asuka embraced her.
• The Sage arrived and declared that he had become an aberration abandoned by the world after breaking through to a new realm he called “Ascend into the Leftover.”
• The Sage mocked the group’s attempts to encourage him and challenged the Seven Outstanding Leftovers to end the apocalypse themselves.
• The Sage said he was tired of carrying responsibility and went to sleep, leaving the group and Du Yu stunned.

Du Yu rejected the others’ attempts to explain his past, but Shiranui Asuka confronted him and persuaded him to stop withdrawing from the world. After learning they had found a Descent Device for the Legend of the Legend Management Bureau, Du Yu agreed to hold a planning meeting and revealed he had spent ten years considering a solution.

• Du Yu saw through Time’s account of his past and said Cui Jue had chosen him because they had met in Zhenguan Year Nineteen.
• Xie Yujiao told the others that Cui Jue had recruited Du Yu from the wandering souls and that Du Yu’s Operator constitution led him to complete the Legend 'Yi Shoots Down Nine Suns.'
• Shiranui Asuka went to speak with Du Yu and asked him to help change the destroyed world, but he refused and said he wanted to stay with Little Zhongli.
• Shiranui Asuka confessed that she liked Du Yu and offered to give everything to help him; Du Yu told her to get dressed and call him 'Sage.'
• Shiranui Asuka told Du Yu they had found a Descent Device for the Legend of the Legend Management Bureau, with him as its protagonist.
• Du Yu called everyone together for a planning meeting and said that, with the device and Xiao Qi, he knew what to do after ten years of thinking.

The Sage proposed altering the past by making Du Yu an orphan and assigned A-Xiang, Xiao Nian, and Liu Ling to approach Du Yi. Du Yu realized the Sage’s memories matched the life shown in the stories, leaving him questioning who he was.

• The Sage compared the past to a runaway train and explained that even small changes to history could produce different outcomes.
• The Sage said he wanted to turn the past Du Yu into an orphan, believing the change might affect the world’s fate.
• The Sage assigned A-Xiang and Xiao Nian to seduce Du Yi while Liu Ling protected them.
• The Sage described dying in a bus fire and asked A-Xiang to help change that painful experience.
• Du Yu recognized the Sage’s memories as matching the stories he had seen and wondered who he really was.

Sage revealed that the apparent mission to interfere with a couple was a cover for his plan to have his past self killed and erase his existence. He enlisted A Can, A Kui, Jin Jianglang, and Xie Yujiao, but Xie Yujiao challenged his assumption that she would help.

• Sage assigned everyone roles in a seemingly slapdash plan and sent the others away to prepare.
• Sage asked A Can and A Kui to kill his past self to repay their debt, then asked Jin Jianglang to sever his Line and complete the paradox.
• Sage explained that he wanted to erase himself because he could not face loving A-Xiang after destroying the world, and said he had arranged for her, Xiao Nian, and Liu Ling to be distracted by a false mission.
• Sage planned to use the closing battle of the White Snake Legend for the Descent and began explaining the enemies' weaknesses.
• Sage told Xie Yujiao to create a Magic Array that would keep outsiders from entering the Legend, but she objected when he assumed she would help kill him.

Du Yu witnessed “Sage” planning another attempt to assassinate a different version of him and realized their histories were not the same. Time then brought Du Yu to its Cave Abode, where a question about his understanding of time appeared.

• “Sage” planned an assassination with the Shame and Guilt Brothers, including stealing a Silence Talisman and exploiting Gorgon’s concern for Du Yu.
• Du Yu watched time speed up around him and learned from A-Xiang that the mission had changed his parents’ lives, while Jin Jianglang had cut the Line to keep Du Yu from disappearing.
• Du Yu saw “Sage” discuss failed attempts involving “White Snake Legend” and “Meng Jiangnu,” and consider other Legends for future attacks.
• A Kui questioned why “Sage” intended to kill himself rather than Great Dark Heaven, and “Sage” explained that Great Dark Heaven’s whereabouts had been unknown before he became a Great Buddha.
• Du Yu suspected “Sage” had a deeper plan, but recognized that the Du Yu being targeted had lived through Legends he had never experienced.
• After “Sage” entered a Portal, time dragged Du Yu to Time’s Cave Abode, where golden words asked whether he understood time.

Du Yu witnessed You Si, a sentient Time Guardian Array, take human form and leave through the opened Time Gate to seek a replacement for Time. At Time’s urging, Du Yu followed her into the spacetime vortex.

• The Time Gate’s Magic Array endured nine bolts of heavenly lightning and transformed into You Si, allowing the gate to open.
• You Si reunited with Time and asked him to leave with her, but he explained that he could not leave while he remained the one who became time.
• You Si promised to search through time for someone to replace Time, then left through the spacetime vortex.
• Time urged Du Yu to follow You Si, and Du Yu entered the vortex after her while Time laughed in the cave.

You Si searched the Elder Era for someone to become “Time,” killing villagers who resisted her until she reached a powerful warrior clan. The clan chief confronted her and proposed an agreement, leaving their encounter unresolved.

• Du Yu followed You Si through the forest for three days until they found a village, where You Si killed a man after demanding that he become “Time.”
• When the villagers attacked, You Si trapped them in a Magic Array and killed them all.
• You Si continued traveling between villages, killing people who fought back, until she realized finding “Time” was not simple.
• On the thirteenth day, You Si reached a clan of formidable warriors and met its battle-scarred chief and his two young sons.
• The chief redirected his sons’ attack, then identified himself as the clan’s strongest warrior and offered to make an agreement with You Si.

You Si defeated a tribe's chieftain and demanded that he become “Time,” but her attempt to take him through spacetime tore him apart. She then killed most of the tribe, while Du Yu watched helplessly and realized how dangerous her ignorance and obsession were.

• You Si agreed to fight the chieftain and demanded that he become “Time” if she won.
• The chieftain lost to You Si and agreed to her demand in exchange for his people's safety.
• You Si tried to take the chieftain through spacetime, but the vortex tore him apart because he lacked an Operator's constitution.
• You Si dismissed the tribespeople's outrage and killed those who charged at her.
• Du Yu watched as You Si slaughtered most of the village and wondered whether she should be allowed to roam the world.

You Si killed the parents of You and Yao, then left the boys alive after You praised her power and begged her to spare them. Du Yu watched the brothers part ways before following You Si through shifting seasons to a secluded corner where childish growls came from.

• You Si killed the woman who attacked her and questioned what the woman meant by humanity.
• You knelt before You Si and persuaded Yao to do the same, asking her to take the brothers as livestock.
• You Si left the boys, and You vowed to gain power in the north while telling Yao to survive and meet him again.
• Du Yu reflected that You would become Chiyou and left the brothers behind to follow You Si.
• Du Yu ran after You Si as the scenery cycled through the seasons, and she stopped near low, childish growls.

You Si and Du Yu discovered two infants, A Can and A Kui, living in a hidden cave among the remains of their parents. After You Si fed them a wolf, the children attached themselves to her, leaving her unsure how to respond.

• You Si found a hidden cave behind an array and uncovered two skeletons, enormous eggshells, and two concealed infants.
• Du Yu recognized the infants as A Can and A Kui and realized they had survived by eating their mothers' corpses.
• You Si tossed the infants the wolf she had killed, and they devoured it.
• A Can and A Kui crawled to You Si and rubbed against her legs as if she were their mother.
• You Si hesitated to kill the infants and remarked on how strange humans were.

You Si tried to find Time and understand humanity while A Can and A Kui followed her through successive villages. After an old woman called her the brothers’ mother and told her to teach them, You Si began to consider what that responsibility meant.

• You Si took A Can and A Kui into a village to ask whether anyone could become Time, but a tribesman recognized her as the woman searching for Time and called the villagers to attack.
• You Si slaughtered the tribesmen, accidentally wounding A Can and A Kui with her spells, then covered her face and decided to conceal her search for Time.
• You Si entered another village to observe humans, while Du Yu wondered whether following her would help him find and kill He Suoyi.
• An old woman asked whether You Si was A Can and A Kui’s mother, and You Si said the brothers had simply appeared beside her.
• The old woman told You Si that she was responsible for teaching the brothers to walk, and You Si realized she had to learn what teaching meant.

You Si began teaching A Can and A Kui to stand, and catching A Can as he fell helped her understand humanity and how nurturing people could make them loyal. Years passed as she searched for someone to become Time, and she went to investigate a mysterious village slaughterer, finding villages filled with corpses and evidence that far more time had passed than Du Yu expected.

• You Si refused the old woman's food and took A Can and A Kui away to teach them to stand.
• A Can pulled himself upright using You Si's skirt, and You Si caught him when he fell, beginning to understand humanity.
• Time passed as You Si met figures including Yi Di, Chang Xian, Xingtian, and Fuxi, while A Can and A Kui grew into young men who helped her.
• A Can and A Kui told You Si that someone else had been slaughtering villages, so she set out to find the killer.
• You Si examined the villagers' wounds and found signs of untrained, mortal methods, while Du Yu noticed the victims wore coarse cloth rather than animal hides.