Hua understood her own guardian and knew he wasn't good at comforting people.
When facing someone who was feeling down, the guardian would only adjust their emotions in his own way.
The moment Hua realized her tone had slipped, she knew something bad was coming. As she expected, her guardian, using that mouth of his that could easily mess with someone's mood, brought up Aha again, smoothly shifting Hua's attention.
Just one sentence made anger rise straight out of Hua's heart.
If he had mentioned any other Aeon?
If she wasn't allowed to feel good, then he shouldn't think he'd feel good either.
With just two sentences, Hua angered Zero just as easily.
After telling her guardian part of the truth, she decisively moved the jade mirror far away.
Sure enough, even though the call wasn't on speaker, Hua and the jade mirror were far apart, yet she could still hear the shout coming from the other side.
"What? Ten billion? In quintars? You must've said it wrong, should be in credit points, right."
Hua denied it, "I didn't say it wrong. It's quintars. Ten billion."
Thanks to her guardian and the other Xianzhou people, the Xianzhou Alliance's fleet strength and economic level far surpassed other nations.
As for currency, credit points were the most widely used money in the whole universe, but in terms of value… conservatively speaking, quintars were easily within the top five most valuable currencies in existence.
If you wanted to spend ten billion credit points, you just needed to buy a few items at an auction and the money would be gone quickly.
But ten billion quintars… spending that kind of money was not an easy feat.
Hua fully understood what her guardian was feeling, if she were in his place, she'd be angry too.
When she heard that the finale item of a certain auction was related to the former marshal, she didn't hesitate to send one of her subordinates to participate for her.
What she didn't expect was that the Masked Fool had also mixed himself in.
Right when her subordinate was about to win the bid, the Masked Fool formally joined the bidding, raising the price by the smallest allowed increment, fighting the Xianzhou over the ownership of the item.
In the end, the subordinate won the item for ten billion quintars.
The moment Hua heard the hammer price, she instantly understood, it was Aha's doing.
But tracing the matter back… it truly wasn't the "Elation" Aeon's or the Masked Fool's fault.
At the root, it was her guardian's problem.
Before he left, knowing the "Elation" Aeon was far too unreliable, he gave Aha two things, a check worth sixty billion credit points, and an IOU for ten billion quintars.
There were two copies of the IOU, and one had ended up in Hua's hands.
On the paper was her guardian's handwriting, stating that the "Elation" Aeon owed the Xianzhou Alliance ten billion quintars.
After Hua received the IOU, she quickly tossed it out of her mind.
Please, Aeons being in debt wasn't exactly illegal under galactic law.
Aha managing to send her that broken sword was already surprising. How could she possibly expect an Aeon to pay back money?
Calling it an IOU was generous, it was basically useless scrap paper.
If anything about it was special, it was only that the handwriting belonged to someone special.
Up until today, until Hua heard that her subordinate had spent ten billion quintars, she finally remembered that IOU.
The auction item had vanished into thin air. Only an empty box remained, along with a note.
Her subordinate took a photo and sent it to Hua.
The note read, Kid of a dear friend, stop wasting your time. There's nothing here.
At the signature was a mask drawn in bent, crooked lines.
Hua didn't spend long looking at the note; her gaze went to the empty box.
Every auction item was precious. When storing them, they had to be handled with extreme care.
Inside the box, the top layer was soft silk, and the bottom layer was a special material used for protection.
That unknown item related to the former marshal had been placed inside for so long that it had left lines and folds in the silk.
While listening to her guardian angrily curse Aha, Hua stared at the picture, trying to reconstruct the item's shape in her mind.
It looked… like a gun?
Hua's expression slowly froze.
A gun related to the former marshal, what else could it be besides the neutron gun?
The neutron gun had long been sealed away. Only her guardian had a copy.
Even Hua had never used that gun.
Her guardian had once told her, ("I made a promise with him. This gun will never hurt anyone again. So you can only look, not use it.")
The former marshal was someone who kept his promises. But at the moment of death… would he still remember this promise?
Now, the question that had troubled Hua for so long finally seemed to have an answer.
Why had Marty, who rarely met with her and focused only on research, left with over a hundred researchers?
Why had the subordinates investigating the matter found nothing, concluding only that they had all left together?
Had they seen something through the neutron gun?
Had the traces been erased out of consideration for the feelings of the former marshal's subordinates, to avoid causing more grief?
If the truth was really what she suspected… then it was far too despairing.
Hua thought of Fuli.
Fuli would never give that man his full memories back, nor allow him to lose control again.
Judging from the outcome, in a sense, Fuli could be considered on the same side as her and the "Reignbow Arbiter."
Therefore, that person wouldn't recall the pain of dying, nor know the real cause of Marty's death.
This time, she and the "Reignbow Arbiter" absolutely would not let that person die.
As for the "Elation" Aeon who brought Hua the broken sword?
The former marshal had told her Aha was the least trustworthy. Hua wouldn't give him full trust, at most, she'd say a few good words for Aha because of the sword, persuading that man to try trusting Aha a little.
Of course, whether her guardian trusted him was another matter entirely.
While thinking, Hua distractedly echoed her guardian's cursing of the Aeon.
Then, her subordinate sent new information, one of the Xianzhou departments suddenly had ten billion quintars deposited into its account.
Hua more or less understood Aha's intention.
Aha had taken her guardian's item, sold it for ten billion quintars, then handed the money back to the Xianzhou.
In that Aeon's logic, it was simply paying off the debt and settling matters cleanly with her guardian.
The extra few billion quintars of commission and tax, those were negligible scraps.
Rounded up, it was just left-hand to right-hand, and he even learned the truth about the Cangcheng Laboratory. Not a loss at all.
Since the "Elation" Aeon had repaid the debt, he would definitely want the IOU returned.
Hua sent orders to her subordinates in the Heliobus Department, telling them to go find Aha's IOU.
Instead of letting an Aeon rummage around her residence, she might as well put it out openly on the table for Aha to take himself.
After giving instructions and waiting for Zero to vent enough anger to calm down, she slowly said,
"Aha gave back the ten billion quintars."
Zero, "…"
Zero, incredulous, "Whose envoy are you supposed to be?"
'Weren't you the Hunt's envoy? Why do you sound just like Aha…?'
'Hua, you didn't do this on purpose just to mess with him, right?!'
In any case, it definitely wasn't the successor's fault. It had to be Aha's fault.
Zero took a deep breath and continued cursing Aha, "Seriously, what is wrong with him?!"
Hua sighed, "It's not his problem. It's your problem."
Considering that her guardian loved freeloading, she deliberately hid the sixty-billion-credit check he had given Aha and only mentioned the IOU.
Zero, "…"
Yes, he had planned to write Aha an IOU before he left.
Every time Aha visited him, it was like a locust swarm, eating and taking everything, carrying away piles of things.
What was wrong with writing an IOU? Nothing.
But he had never expected Aha to actually pay it back, let alone by selling his things.
Knowing he was in the wrong, Zero was silent for a long moment before snapping in frustration, "Next time, can't you just say everything in one breath?"
He then asked Hua, "What item was it? How could it sell for ten billion?"
Before Hua could answer, he started guessing on his own, "It can't be one of my severed limbs, right? Impossible. Aha could never get near my corpse. I definitely would've had Akivili deal with it cleanly…"
Zero always used the worst assumptions when thinking about Aha.
He couldn't imagine any other explanation. What else could fetch ten billion?
Zero waited a long while, but still received no reply, only the suddenly heavier breathing.
On the other end, Hua took several deep breaths, forcing down the anger in her chest.
She knew that anger was the most useless emotion.
Getting angry at her guardian was even more useless.
For five thousand years, he had always remained rational.
No matter what she said, she couldn't change his mind.
He could abandon his own emotions, but she couldn't.
Hua raised a hand to her forehead, remained silent for a long while, then spoke with difficulty, "Can you… not use that tone to talk about something like this…"
'In your eyes, do the pain you felt before, the death you experienced, just disappear the moment you reincarnated?'
'Because you think you're alive, you can so casually talk to me about your severed limbs?'
If she couldn't feel good, then he shouldn't think he would feel good either.
Rather than waiting for her guardian to "comfort" her by messing with her mood, she might as well strike first.
Hua closed her eyes and let out a cold laugh, "Almost forgot, besides the IOU, you also gave Aha a sixty-billion-credit check."
Zero, "…"
Honestly, he didn't think there was anything wrong with his attitude earlier.
He was right here, why would he spend money to bid on something he had left behind?
Originally, Zero wanted to ask Hua if she had been crying.
He wanted to make her angry to shift her attention, easing her sadness a little.
Who knew Hua would hit him with such a devastating fact instead?
Zero only freeloaded from others, never the other way around.
He instinctively pressed a hand to his chest, feeling physical pain at the thought of that sixty billion.
Hua continued stabbing him, "You told him, 'May you forever walk your own Path.'"
Zero, "…I'm going to throw up."
He was about to start swearing. That sentence wasn't like him at all.
In his mind, Aeons were divided into two types, those who must not die, and those who could die anytime.
Lan could not die, so the Abundance Aeon also could not die.
Oh, and Akivili.
Fuli too, for now, he'd remove it when he was ready to restart things.
Aside from those four, the rest could die whenever.
Especially Aha, who ruined Zero's reputation and constantly messed with his mentality.
Giving him credit points was bad enough, why did he have to wish the "Elation" Aeon eternal "joy"?
Wait… if he meant it to annoy Aha… then maybe it wasn't unacceptable.
As the saying went, a gentleman's revenge is never too late, even after ten years.
He was a patient person. The mask Aha gave him the first time they met, he had kept it for thousands of years just to return it later.
No problem. He'd get revenge eventually.
Zero quickly calmed down and started casually chatting with Hua.
"By the way, what's your name?"
After messing with her guardian's mood, Hua felt much better and cooperatively stated her name.
For some reason, the man paused and instinctively repeated her name, then asked, "Oh, nice. By the way, when is the Cloud Knights' battle in the Luofu going to end?"
Hua thought, 'All those rich young ladies who chased after you and you wouldn't give any of them a chance, and now the iron tree finally blooms? Now that you have someone you like, surely you won't stay perfectly rational anymore. Surely you'll act like a normal person?'
Hoping to finally see her guardian act like a human being for once, she decided to clear out the abominations as fast as possible.
Recalling the battlefield situation, she calculated the quickest timeframe and said, "About two to three months."
Zero said, "Oh. Then the assets I mentioned before should be almost settled too, right?"
Hua confirmed it. She was puzzled, "Why? Are you planning to transfer everything directly to Jingliu? I don't think she'd accept that."
Zero didn't see this as a difficult problem at all.
Just have Jingliu sign her name on a blank sheet of paper.
If a signature on a blank sheet could be used to forge IOUs and debts, then naturally it could also forge a gifting agreement.
He would just have someone print the contract afterward.
Confidently, Zero replied, "Just have her sign a blank sheet."
Hua knew she couldn't change her guardian's choices, so she continued asking, "Then when are you planning to tell her?"
Without hesitation, Zero said, "After we break up."
Hua, "…"
She had always known this man planned one step ahead, sometimes three, sometimes ten.
But even after getting a love interest, he was still like this?
If she remembered correctly, they had only recently entered the ambiguous stage. How was he already thinking about the breakup?
Hua opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again, holding back and failing to hold back, finally she couldn't resist saying, "You… really think far ahead…"
Zero understood her implication.
He knew Hua was complaining that he was thinking way too long-term. But in a relationship, there were only two endings, breakup or marriage.
Zero had to consider Jingliu's future.
In popular romance stories, when the male and female leads break up, years later when they reunite, one side always sees the other in terrible condition.
He didn't like that, so it wouldn't happen to them.
No matter the ending, as long as someone had walked alongside him, he would do everything he could to give them what they wanted.
Every subordinate who had worked with him got a star-destroyer ship and a vacation planet, how could he treat his lover worse?
Even if they separated, Jingliu would never have to worry about money.
Zero let his mind drift.
Meanwhile, Hua began recalling Jingliu's performance on the battlefield.
For some reason, the Sword Champion was clearing abominations much faster than usual.
The more Hua thought about it, the more wrong it felt. She cautiously asked, "Are you two… together now?"
Zero, "Yeah."
Hua, "…"
'So you just started dating… and you already broke up?'
Hua thought to herself, 'Forget two or three months, let's just end this war in a single month.'