Guanliang held his jade abacus terminal, speechless.
Something this small should have been handled by the Cloud Knights themselves.
But the Xianzhou currently had two Aeons.
One was the "Reignbow Arbiter," and the other was the "Joy" Aeon Aha, whom Guanliang had met several times before.
Back then, Guanliang thought that although his own Aeon's personality was hard to describe, at least They were more reliable than Zero.
That person was someone Aha treated as a close friend.
If one man and one god got together...
Guanliang didn't even dare imagine what kind of mess they would cause.
Lan and Aha wouldn't start a god war. At most they would stir up some jokes.
Because of this, Guanliang specially instructed his subordinates to constantly monitor the Luofu's movements. He even dug out the account Lan used when still human and thoughtfully sent over a jade terminal.
So the Aeon wouldn't end up unable to pay.
But Guanliang never expected the two Aeons to be mistaken for five-hundred-thousand patrol credits.
"Reignbow Arbiter"! What exactly are You doing?!
Guanliang gritted his teeth. "Send that lunatic calling himself 'Masked Fool' to the Alchemy Commission."
The subordinate accepted the order and asked, "What about the sinner who blasphemed the 'Reignbow Arbiter'? Send him to the Ten-Lords Commission?"
Guanliang only wanted to say, enough already, destroy everything.
Go back, "Reignbow Arbiter." Go back and continue blowing up planets.
'Lan, are you naturally incompatible with the Luofu or something?'
'Why do you end up in prison every time you come here?'
With just a few words, Guanliang stripped Lan of Xianzhou citizenship.
"A guest comes from afar. How can we neglect a guest?"
"As for the lunatic's words, why bother caring? To that person, it was just disaster falling from the sky for no reason."
"Invite Him into the Alchemy Commission and let Him stay with His friend."
He ended the voice call and looked up again.
The two people in front of him were chatting enthusiastically.
As they talked, Zero asked, "What's the score now?"
Guanliang, "..."
'At a time like this?'
'Aren't you already married?'
'Why are you still playing around?'
He looked toward one of the few normal people on the Xianzhou, Hua.
Hua raised a brow. "One to one tie."
Zero sneered. "Impossible. I beat you many times."
Guanliang, "..."
'No.'
'What's wrong with you two?!'
'You're still keeping track of that?!'
Soon, the topic shifted to the "Reignbow Arbiter."
Zero looked incredulous.
"You're saying Lan killed Rupert with a pebble from billions of light-years away at age nine?"
"He ended the 'Emperor' war by Himself?"
"Who spread this stuff around?"
The moment Guanliang heard this, anger rose in his heart.
He chuckled coldly, "Of course it's because of that sentence you used to praise Him."
"Hit a willow leaf from a hundred paces, take a head from a thousand miles away."
Zero frowned.
"That has nothing to do with billions of light-years."
Guanliang said sarcastically, "Didn't you put all the achievements onto the 'Reignbow Arbiter'?"
Hua also slipped in her own jab. "That's what rounding up is for."
Zero seriously refuted the two of them, "Who rounds like that?"
"Lan fought heliobi and abominations, not machines and insect races."
"It was clearly the warriors working together to end the war. What does it have to do with Lan?"
Guanliang's eyes moved slightly, emotions surging in his heart.
He felt like a parent saddled with a troublesome child. He had exhausted himself physically and mentally, accompanying the other party through centuries and millennia.
When the parent looked back and counted the troublesome child's growth journey, he couldn't help sighing that the child had become sensible.
Zero had changed too much.
At the beginning, the other party was self-centered and willful. He never regarded Guanliang, the other subordinates, or the Xianzhou as independent individuals. He only decided other people's fates on his own.
Rather than pets to be manipulated, they were more like handy tools.
So when he obtained the "Abundance" fruit, Zero distributed it to his subordinates without hesitation.
He was used to using them.
Tools always needed maintenance and repairs so he could continue using them.
Humans wouldn't use a hammer in place of scissors.
When a tool did something against Zero's wishes, he would bring it back onto the "right track."
Likewise, when humans built houses, they didn't praise bricks and cement. They only sighed over how hard they themselves worked.
As time passed, the troublesome child grew up and stopped being as self-centered as before.
The other party genuinely acknowledged the existence of ordinary people from the bottom of his heart.
Even with exaggerated rumors nobody would believe, Zero would still refute them and seriously affirm and respect humanity's contributions.
Zero once said he had no expectations for his children.
"Don't understand me. Don't become me."
That was also his hope for the Xianzhou people.
While feeling relieved, Guanliang decided to prepare more wedding gifts for him.
While he was distracted, Zero somehow pulled out a finger-thick stack of documents.
Written in what year of the Star Calendar?
Just from the color of the paper, Guanliang couldn't tell.
Maybe, like the meals Lan's mother prepared, time had been permanently frozen by him.
Zero said softly, "This is the ten-thousand-word essay they wrote to persuade me to ascend the throne."
Hua froze for a moment, then carefully put away the document.
The two talked from required Xianzhou student readings to how often Xianzhou people worshipped gods.
Before Cloud Knights went to war, Xianzhou people worshipped Aeons and wished for their families to return safely.
Zero and Hua looked at each other.
The gods of other civilizations all had different areas of responsibility.
Wealth, love, career, children, and so on...
But their "Reignbow Arbiter" spent everyday in the sea of stars wiping out Abundance abominations. A valiant war god.
What kind of luck could He improve?
Zero thought for a moment and decided to polish it a bit.
Lan was carefree. Nobody ever said anything bad about Him, and He had excellent relationships with people.
His only flaw was being too enthusiastic and always wanting to help abominations find release.
Zero quickly found a direction.
An Aeon, after all, either doesn't act, or wipes everything out once They do.
Rounded up, there was no problem.
He said firmly, "Rather than be worshipped by no one, He wants to stop conflict."
Hua had no objections to this.
The two had perfect tacit understanding. To drag the other into the water, they could use any method possible.
If Guanliang hadn't mediated and redirected their attacks toward the Aeon, based on the previous battle situation...
Every household probably would have had to place portraits and longevity tablets of the two of them.
They would become students' childhood nightmares.
One person already had dozens of essays. Wouldn't two people mean over a hundred?
What Hua found hardest to accept was her father's sentence, "Build statues of the Marshal."
On the surface, her father had already left long ago.
There were already longevity tablets. Rounded up, they were practically divine statues.
Building a divine statue for her father and having the people place it on high platforms for worship and kneeling wasn't really a problem.
But Hua was still alive.
Why build a divine statue for her too?
Forget saying the "Reignbow Arbiter" loved peace, even if people claimed He could grant children, Hua wouldn't object.
Hua thought absentmindedly, then suddenly remembered something.
'Wait, after the Vidyadhara solve their reproduction problem... won't people attribute the credit to the "Reignbow Arbiter"?!'
After hesitating for one second, she stopped thinking about it.
As long as the fire didn't burn onto her, everything was fine.
The two skipped rapidly between topics. The conversation had already reached what kind of deep impact the "Reignbow Arbiter" would have on the Xianzhou people, the Xianzhou Alliance, and the entire universe.
Zero suddenly asked something completely unrelated, "Do you want to become emperor?"
Hua's mouth twitched. "What? Are you planning to make me crown princess? Or set me up as a puppet emperor?"
Zero thought to himself, why do both choices still mean he has to work?
Hua had gotten smarter.
She directly gave choices. If the person talking with her didn't think carefully, they could easily be led into her trap.
Zero knew Hua didn't want more work, so he skipped the topic. "No."
He turned to caring about the former successor he owed the most, Lan.
Zero asked, "We talked before about the 'Reignbow Arbiter.'"
"If the 'Hunt' wasn't only about suppressing abominations, would it become stronger?"
Hua looked like she was recalling something and nodded.
Yeah, when she tricked the Aeon before, she even said Father was willing to spend patrol credits helping the Aeon draw hatred.
"And the location? Where are you choosing? You're sure it's going to be on the Luofu?"
Zero rested one hand against his chin, thought for a moment, then said, "Yes."
Guanliang and Hua exchanged looks.
Hua looked troubled.
Only idiots would come cause trouble on the Xianzhou!
Zero glanced at the two of them.
"Doesn't the Xianzhou just have eight giant ships and over a hundred planets?"
Guanliang desperately resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
This guy Zero even carefully selected planets one by one before finally choosing nearly ten thousand.
Then Hua went through another series of selections to trick the next Marshal, and only after great effort did she choose over a hundred.
Pick any one at random, and it would be a universe-famous utopia.
Hua thought for a bit and tried using Zero's own words to persuade him.
"A high-risk investment project that may not necessarily bring us returns should be considered carefully."
After hearing this, Zero started calculating the losses caused by one hour of shutdown at the Luofu Starskiff Harbor in his head.
After reaching the result, his heart hurt instantly. The nearly nonexistent guilt in his heart completely vanished because of the sky-high patrol credit amount.
Zero looked thoughtful.
"You're right."
"Actually, I have another idea."
After hearing this, both of them immediately felt something bad coming.
Zero continued, "Didn't I draw blood before?"
"What do you think, if the Aeon..."
Hua immediately interrupted him.
"Fine. Okay. We'll do it on the Luofu."
Zero showed a very disapproving expression.
Guanliang continued, "Vulgar. Too vulgar."
"Is this a matter of patrol credits?"
"How can the Xianzhou people's faith in the 'Reignbow Arbiter' be measured with money?"
Hua quickly started making plans.
"Start from the Sky-Faring Commission."
If outsiders wanted to enter the Xianzhou, they had to prepare documents in advance, submit applications, pass layer after layer of review, then enter the Xianzhou at a designated time and leave within the required period.
If anything went wrong in any step, they couldn't apply again for ten years.
If you wanted to fish with bait, you first had to let the fish swim into the pond.
Zero thought about it. No matter what, he should at least have some sense of participation.
Just as he was about to say something, Guanliang predicted it in advance and stopped him,
"You being in the Divination Commission is inconvenient."
What a joke. If Zero got involved, he would definitely stir up some kind of mess.
Zero recalled some things.
He remembered the rumors related to him.
Followers of the "Abundance" Aeon once tried to persuade him to defect.
He quickly got an idea.
"We can start from the Xianzhou higher-ups."
Guanliang asked, "Who?"
Zero answered, "Jingliu."
Facing the shocked gazes of the two, he explained the plan the "Abundance" followers made targeting him and Jingliu.
"Me, powerless, not walking any Path..."
Hua, "..."
'Who? Who's powerless?'
"A kept man, betraying the Xianzhou, worshipping the 'Abundance' Aeon."
Guanliang, "..."
'Huh? What? A kept man? Who are you worshipping?'
During the short moment the two were stunned, Zero had already produced several completely different character settings.
Like deeply loving Jingliu and not wanting her to fall into mara-struck madness.
Like being unwilling and resentful about living beneath his other half.
In short, his core setting was a useless kept man.
To pursue power, he betrayed the Xianzhou, switched faith to Abundance, and used his identity as Jingliu's husband to open convenient paths for the enemy.
After listening to Zero's perfectly logical and flawless motives, Guanliang and Hua, "..."
They finally understood.
Zero normally hated trouble and stayed alone at home whenever he had the chance.
For him to go to such lengths wanting to join the plan, was it because he felt guilty toward the Aeon? Was he trying to make up for it through this opportunity?
Hua opened her mouth, but only said, "We'll talk later. Let's eat first."
The three turned and walked toward the main restaurant at the center of the waterside pavilion.
Half-jokingly, Zero said, "This meal won't suddenly turn into my engagement banquet with Jingliu halfway through eating, right?"
Hua revealed a flawless smile.
"...How could that happen?"
Guanliang sat down together with the two of them. A moment later, everyone arrived.
He took out his jade terminal and sent a message to the waiter.
[Engagement banquet canceled. Serve dishes normally.]
After sending the message, Guanliang suddenly realized a problem.
'Absolutely no statues could be built.'
'Otherwise the entire Xianzhou would be full of Marshal fanatics. There would never be normal people again.'
'How would Hua retire then?'
Guanliang rapidly typed on his jade terminal and reminded the person beside him.
Hua lowered her head for a look and immediately felt alarmed, even her breathing stopping for a moment.
'That's right.'
She had to leave herself a way out.
Before revealing the true history, she needed to find a successor.
Looking up again, Hua smiled and met the gazes of everyone in front of her.
Jingliu didn't have many friends to begin with. Only four people were qualified to attend the banquet as Jingliu's family.
And there was quite a gap between Father's identity and Jingliu's.
Fortunately, Dan Feng was smart enough to hint in advance and remind the others of Father's special status.
After considering many things, Hua tried hard to simplify the number of attendees and make both sides equal in number.
If too many people attended... wouldn't it look like they were bullying others with power?
Hua originally chose five people.
Father, herself, Guanliang, Daiyang, and Chanzhen.
But plans couldn't keep up with changes. Marti was still alive.
Zandar, who had once taught her a few classes, appeared on the Luofu and acted extremely close with Father.
Hua had no choice but to change the list and replace Daiyang and Chanzhen.
The communication process wasn't smooth. She spent a lot of effort barely coaxing the two.
After approaching Zandar, she also hit a wall. He said he wanted to bring one more person.
Hua expressed understanding.
Zandar once had an intense conflict with Guanliang. When attending a banquet, he naturally needed to bring someone to protect himself.
That raised the number of male-side relatives and friends to six.
Hua approached Tengxiao and asked him to attend as Jingliu's relative.
It just so happened that Tengxiao knew the other four people. During the meal, he could also liven up the atmosphere and find topics to talk about.
Hua looked toward Jing Yuan, the youngest person at the table.
The child was staring in Father's direction.
Following his gaze, Hua also looked over.
Father was pouring tea for Jingliu.
Hua withdrew her gaze and smiled.
"This child... is the Jing Yuan Tengxiao often mentions to me, right?"
Jing Yuan pressed his lips together and nodded.
Hua asked the question she cared about most.
"Are you confident about your history exam?"
If he failed, he would have to study the more than ten newly added history classes...
Even if he wasn't a Marshal fanatic, he'd probably become one.
[🎉 Shoutout to OmniSLEET for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]