The man either noticed his mood, or perhaps he was more interested in the Aeons. He took the initiative to skip the topic.
Jing Yuan lowered his head and took a sip of tea.
There was no taste at all.
The tea was almost transparent.
The shopkeeper hadn't replaced the tea leaves, only kept pouring in more hot water.
Jing Yuan was used to fine tea. Drinking such flavorless tea so suddenly took some getting used to.
Before the previous Sword Champion left, she had asked him to tell the two of them about the past of the five of them.
He thought, 'What was there to tell?'
Jing Yuan had succeeded to the position of General.
He had gone through every file submitted by the Six Commissions and listened to every rumor in the streets and alleys.
He dealt with the Ten-Lords Commission and the Vidyadhara Dragon Elders.
His parents were deeply worried, but because the matter involved the highest ranks of the Xianzhou, they could only remain silent.
If they asked about it themselves, it would only make them look as though they were trying to pry into Xianzhou secrets.
Jing Yuan had only just become General. Plenty of people were already waiting to find fault with him.
His parents waited quietly until he finally had some free time and returned home. Both of them looked as though they wanted to say something but held back.
Halfway through the meal, Jing Yuan's head was pounding. All he wanted was to get some sleep.
Seeing this, his parents said nothing more and urged him to return to the courtyard to rest.
Half asleep, Jing Yuan heard his parents arguing outside the courtyard gate.
"It would've been much better if he'd stayed in the Land Steward Commission..."
"We couldn't stop him from going to the battlefield before. Now we definitely can't stop him. The brat's become the General!"
The two blamed each other for spoiling Jing Yuan too much.
They argued for quite a while. Then, for some reason, they suddenly fell silent and changed the subject to Jing Yuan's favorite home-cooked dishes before heading to the kitchen one after the other.
Jing Yuan was no longer sleepy.
After that incident, the Luofu Cloud Knights had suffered heavy casualties.
Those who died would never be reunited with their families.
He was undoubtedly one of the lucky ones.
Jing Yuan hurriedly washed his face, avoided the household servants, and returned to the General's Manor.
Through countless late nights, he repeatedly changed perspectives, imagining himself in his friends' places, trying to find a way out of an unwinnable situation.
He examined it over and over again.
In the end, Jing Yuan reached an answer.
There was no solution.
It was a dead end.
Fate was a river that never stopped flowing.
And they were only duckweed drifting with the current.
All it had to do was follow the flow, and it could overturn their entire lives.
Jing Yuan raised his hand and poured himself another cup of tea.
As he poured, the broken tea leaves fell into the cup, spinning with the whirlpool.
After the leaves slowly settled at the bottom, he raised the cup and drained it in one gulp.
Jing Yuan drank two cups in a row.
After swallowing the tea, his expression remained unchanged as he continued the interrupted topic.
The monster had awakened once again and approached the Xianzhou Fanghu.
The Reignbow Arbiter took action.
That single arrow destroyed nearly one-fifth of Fanghu's realms.
Hearing this, the expressions of the two people before him changed.
The Sword Champion of the Luofu never remembered the names of those she had defeated.
As for the former Marshal...
Forget enemies, even the Xianzhou's affiliated planets might not remember.
Jingliu fell into thought.
'This monster... When did that happen?'
She thought about it for a long time but couldn't remember anything.
Zero, meanwhile, looked completely incredulous.
Forget the realms and the Xianzhou people, even when an Aeon left a crater in the ground, it pained him.
The Aeon had deliberately held back, yet still destroyed one-fifth of a realm.
Why had he even bothered drawing aggro?
How many people had Fanghu lost? What about the Vidyadhara, who couldn't reproduce?
That was an internal secret of the Xianzhou. Jing Yuan had no intention of telling an outsider like Zero.
After thinking for a moment, Zero only asked, "Which High Elder is Fanghu's...?"
"Lord Huyuan," Jing Yuan answered. After a pause, he added, "That High Elder also serves as Fanghu's General."
Zero nodded.
His High Elders had never served as Generals.
They controlled enormous wealth, and their yearly tax payments were staggering.
The five of them had always known where to draw the line. Whenever their tax revenue exceeded a certain threshold, they would quietly step down from their positions and establish an unwritten agreement.
Among the Xianzhou's upper ranks, there would only ever be one High Elder.
Take Dan Feng, for example.
Within the Xianzhou, he was both a warrior and the Cauldron Master of the Alchemy Commission.
With him already serving as the head of one of the Six Commissions, the other High Elders either took idle positions in the Six Commissions that paid less than five figures a month, or stayed within their clans to handle internal affairs.
When Zero was Marshal, he hadn't known the reason. He had tried to persuade them several times, but the High Elders never budged.
He eventually gave up.
Only after the Vidyadhara regained the ability to reproduce through the Mother-and-Child River Water, and the High Elders gradually donated their wealth, did Dan Feng tell him the truth.
Yet in this other world's Fanghu, Lord Huyuan had become the General...
Zero quickly reached a conclusion.
Fanghu had far more Vidyadhara than the other Xianzhou ships.
In the battle Jing Yuan described, even more Vidyadhara must have died beneath the Aeon's arrow.
After that, would some among the Vidyadhara begin to harbor other thoughts?
Zero made up his mind.
He would use the Mother-and-Child as compensation.
Jing Yuan lowered his eyes, his gaze resting on empty space.
Ordinarily, the Cloud Knights should have arrested this group of outsiders for damaging the streets and threatening public safety, after which specialists would negotiate a compensation plan.
But these people's identities were simply too unusual.
Jing Yuan had no choice but to come personally.
His thoughts shifted back and forth.
One moment, he recalled Jingliu's genuine confusion when she heard the words monster.
The next, he thought of the weapon she had used while sparring with the previous Sword Champion.
Soon, he steadied himself.
His gaze drifted uncontrollably toward the short dagger on the table.
As if possessed, Jing Yuan brought up the weapon with the man and asked if he could take a closer look.
The man did not refuse.
He generously handed the dagger over.
Jing Yuan accepted it with both hands.
Back when he had still been a Vanguard, he had been fortunate enough to see the works of Huaiyan, the General of Zhuming.
He quickly recognized that the weapon had been forged by General Huaiyan.
His eyes shifted to the end of the hilt.
There was Yingxing's personal mark engraved there.
'That's good.'
Jing Yuan thought.
'That's... good.'
Jing Yuan's movements were gentle.
He drew the dagger, praised it softly, then carefully sheathed it again and returned it to the man.
Jing Yuan knew very well that he should have been investigating the person before him instead of letting a single dagger disturb his thoughts.
Perhaps it was because he had met one old friend after another these past days, bringing back memories of those years.
Or perhaps he was simply too observant, having pieced together another world's Xianzhou from their expressions and their weapons.
The Sword Champion was still using weapons forged by the Master Artisan.
The High Elder no longer worried about the continuation of his people.
There was no monster.
Baiheng hadn't died.
The Master Artisan had reunited with his master, and the two forged weapons together.
The five of them had never fallen apart.
Jing Yuan thought, 'I really am getting old.'
'Is this...'
'Something common to people of our generation?'
Once people grew old, they began looking back on the past.
Most would tell the younger generation about their achievements, using stories long buried by time to cover up the cruel reality that they were growing older and no longer as strong as before.
Jing Yuan was different.
He had no one to tell.
What was there to say?
He had never thought those memories were something to boast about.
Jing Yuan's gaze returned to the man.
Someone his master acknowledged...
Must have something extraordinary about him.
This person was certainly not cold-hearted.
He hadn't even frowned when faced with the Elation Aeon's joke.
That showed how broad-minded he was.
Then surely Master's master would be willing to compensate the shopkeepers for their losses?
Surely he would show some consideration to this disciple he had never met?
Jing Yuan frowned slightly and, in a wistful tone, asked about the current situation of the weapon's maker.
The man seemed to see through his thoughts and cooperatively replied, "He's doing well. He can now control three forging hammers with his tail at the same time."
Jing Yuan: "..."
'Yingxing... when did you become a Vidyadhara?'
'And besides, wasn't one forging hammer enough for you?'
'As expected of the Master Artisan.'
A hesitant look appeared on Jing Yuan's face as his gaze shifted toward the battered street, hinting at the matter to the man.
He was used to exchanging official pleasantries with outsiders.
The other party would always refuse to give an inch while probing for the bottom line, hoping to secure greater benefits if possible.
Jing Yuan was very familiar with what came next.
The next step should have been both sides going back and forth.
Then they would settle on compensation.
Jing Yuan had already prepared himself to bargain.
He wasn't greedy.
He wasn't asking for something like restoring the Vidyadhara's ability to reproduce...
As long as he could get some information and prevent more casualties, that would be enough.
The man pondered for a moment.
The next instant, he took out a teapot and placed it on the table.
He said to Jing Yuan, "This is Mother-and-Child River Water."
"Drink it, and you can conceive new life."
Jing Yuan was silent for a long while before asking, "What are the restrictions?"
Zero chuckled.
"There aren't any."
He pushed the teapot toward Jing Yuan.
"Take it as compensation for the Luofu."
Jing Yuan stared at Zero for a long moment before sighing.
"This truly is..."
"...a generous gift."