The other generals instantly widened their eyes when they heard this.
That's right. Why would the Aeon of "Preservation" bring down the hammer on Thanksgiving?
The last time the hammer fell, the Marshal had been with the "Cloudstrider," just happening to be away from the Xianzhou. Right after that, the Rangers were deployed and obtained the Aeon's creation.
These two hammer strikes from the Aeon… something was definitely off.
Lan hesitated to speak.
What he really wanted to say was that it wasn't the "Preservation" Aeon's problem. It was the Marshal's problem.
If the Marshal and Akivili hadn't broken through the "subspace crystal wall," the other party wouldn't have struck twice in a row.
To avoid more deaths, Lan could only sit quietly in his seat and listen.
Guanliang wasn't surprised by this.
Anyone would find it suspicious. Didn't Aeons only strike once every few hundred years? Why did things change the moment the Marshal left the Xianzhou?
Especially this time. The moment a new Amber Era began, something happened to the Marshal.
Guanliang had specifically asked the "Reignbow Arbiter" before, and the answer he got was that that Aeon had nothing to do with the Marshal's death.
If that was the case, then there was no need to start a war.
The Marshal was someone extremely strict with himself. If people from the Xianzhou were injured or killed on some planet, the Galaxy Rangers and the Cloud Knights would immediately be deployed.
But if it was himself, he might not have been willing.
Fortunately, the Marshal had left a backup plan, deliberately falsifying the location and time of death.
Guanliang shook his head, his expression unchanged.
"No. The timing doesn't match."
He looked at everyone. Their eyes shimmered faintly with tears, but no one cried.
The generals refused to let tears fall.
Why should they cry? The Marshal had never left them.
The mouths that were usually so quick with words, able to spar with colleagues without losing ground, were now silent.
Even with reality right in front of them, this group refused to face it. They only tried their best to suppress their emotions, control their expressions, and spare a sliver of attention to use their nearly frozen minds to search for flaws.
They tried to overturn the guesses forming in their heads.
So everyone started talking over each other, bringing up every major faction and Aeon in the universe.
From their tone, it sounded like they were ready to go fight them one by one.
Considering their emotional state, Guanliang didn't let Hua speak.
What if, in their agitation, they took their anger out on her? That would not only hurt their relationships, it would also affect the Xianzhou later.
Guanliang stepped forward alone and refuted their guesses one by one with logic and evidence.
By the time he was done talking, his throat was dry. He eliminated each of the generals' wild and unbelievable speculations.
All color had drained from their faces. One of them finally broke down and sobbed.
At last, someone was willing to face reality.
The Marshal who had guided the Xianzhou like a father. The leader whose existence even idealists wouldn't have dared imagine, yet was real. The one unmoved by external temptations, devoted entirely to the people… had already left them.
Some still refused to give up, glaring angrily at the colleague who was crying.
"What are you crying for! How could the Marshal possibly leave us!"
The others were like people who had fallen into an abyss and suddenly spotted a lifeline.
They grabbed onto it tightly and echoed the words.
"Yeah. That's the Marshal we're talking about."
"Chief Strategist, stop joking around."
Guanliang took a deep breath. He stood up, holding that stack of farewell letters, and placed them in front of each of them.
Their bodies stiffened. They stared at the letters with wide eyes in disbelief. When they looked up again, their faces were already soaked with tears.
Holding the last letter, Guanliang returned to his place.
He remained standing, looking down at everyone.
Some had dim eyes, as if they had lost the will to live. Some looked panicked and uncertain.
Guanliang lowered his gaze.
How could he make them want to keep living? Should he say the Marshal would beat them if they died? No. That wasn't a punishment.
"You think he'd be happy if you went to see him? He'd be angry."
"He wouldn't meet you."
After saying that, Guanliang raised the letter in his hand and said, "This one is the farewell letter he intended to make public."
The word "farewell letter" seemed to stab into them. Several people let out choked sobs.
Guanliang waited quietly. Only after they had regained control of their emotions did he open the letter.
This wasn't the letter he had seen on the cruise ship.
This one must have been revised and shortened repeatedly by the Marshal.
Guanliang read softly, "When you see this letter, I will already be gone."
"I once promised to stay with you forever. I also swore to protect all humanity. I'm sorry. I broke my promise."
Daiyang and Chanzhen both froze slightly and exchanged a glance.
'You always remembered…'
Everyone cried silently, until their scalps tingled and their bodies trembled.
It was as if their senses were cut off from the outside world, leaving only the faint sound of their own suppressed sobbing.
But they didn't want to miss a single word the Marshal left behind, so they could only keep taking deep breaths.
"Where there is meeting, there will be parting. This was my own choice. Therefore, there is no need to seek the truth."
"Peace is hard-won. When the swarm disaster raged and the mechanical intelligences went out of control, it was your predecessors who held the front lines to the death, and only then did the sea of stars gain peace."
Guanliang glanced further down and almost lost control of his expression.
The Marshal really did swear to protect all humanity. He even specifically wrote in the letter that no one was to be held responsible.
He paused, then continued reading, "Therefore, there is no need to pursue anyone's responsibility."
"In truth, I am far from the all-knowing, all-powerful leader you speak of, the one you compare to a god. I don't even know what kind of person qualifies as a competent superior."
"I only did what I should and what I could. I fought external enemies with you, resisted disasters, and did my best to provide the people with a utopian ideal life. I suppose that makes me a qualified leader?"
At this line, tears kept spilling from everyone's eyes. Afraid of disturbing Guanliang, they suppressed their sobs while nodding desperately.
'Please don't belittle yourself.'
'You have always been the best leader.'
'If you were only considered qualified, then other leaders would probably be too ashamed to live.'
"I am very glad to have witnessed your growth. The road ahead will now be walked together by the successor I have chosen and you."
"Next, seal away all records related to me."
Guanliang's eyes stung. He paused briefly, adjusted his tone, slowed down, and read the final lines of the letter.
"Lastly, do not feel sad because of my departure."
"When you think of me... because of you, I will have lived once again..."
Guanliang lowered his head, folded the letter, and put it back into the envelope.
He remained standing where he was and calmly announced the time of the funeral.
They no longer suppressed their emotions. Tears fell freely. They looked at each other and cried loudly like children.
Guanliang thought, if their enemies saw this, they would probably laugh at them for hundreds, even thousands of years.
He waited for them to accept reality.
While he waited, Lan suddenly said, "You will meet again."
Hua, "..."
Guanliang, "..."
'Damn it.'
He couldn't help but curse a god in his heart.
The jade abacus couldn't prove the Marshal's death.
Using disappearance as an excuse could indeed soothe these generals for now.
But what about later? Were they supposed to wait forever? Wait for someone who would never come back?
Their faces were worn with grief. Their swollen, bloodshot eyes suddenly lit up as they looked toward the Aeon.
Daiyang choked out, "That's right…"
"Where there is parting, there will be reunion."
"How could someone like him die?"
Everyone believed the "Reignbow Arbiter's" words without hesitation.
As for the funeral?
Chanzhen was crying so hard she could barely speak. She looked toward the successor chosen by the Marshal.
"He told us not to look for him…"
"Then… did the Marshal… not leave anything behind?"
"Really… nothing at all?"
Facing everyone's hopeful gazes, Hua slowly shook her head.
"On that ship, we only found his jade abacus."
She paused briefly, then issued her first order as the Marshal of the Xianzhou.
"Deploy the 'Heaven-Burning Divine Armaments' to the star system last shown on the jade abacus."
"Send fleets and the Galaxy Rangers to re-investigate the route shown on the jade abacus from the past three months."
The moment everyone heard this, their spirits lifted. They stood up one after another and, after receiving permission, hurried out to carry out the orders.
Hua held back the General of Xuling along with several pale-faced generals, and had someone summon physicians from the Xuling Alchemy Commission to examine them.
Guanliang took out his jade abacus and glanced down.
It was a push notification from the Interastral Peace Corporation.
[Shocking news across the universe! Xianzhou Marshal passes away]
[Xianzhou Marshal Zero walked alongside the Xianzhou Alliance for a thousand years. He was a supervisor of the Star Sea Council. When the universe fell into crisis, he gathered all civilizations to resist disaster...]
Guanliang skimmed it briefly. After confirming it didn't reveal too much information, he felt relieved.
The Xianzhou had given prior notice. They were only allowed to write the Marshal's name. Photos and all other private information were strictly forbidden.
Guanliang then clicked into the official website of the Star Sea Community.
The page had turned black and white. In the most prominent position was the Marshal's obituary.
[To all esteemed member states, since the first day of its founding, the Star Sea Community has always received support from the Star Sea overseer and Xianzhou Marshal Zero.]
[He personally attended meetings, proposed countless bills to protect human rights, and mediated conflicts between multiple star systems.]
[He was kind and upright in character. He was outstanding in ability and far-sighted in vision. He fulfilled the promise he made at the beginning, dedicating his life to maintaining universal peace, defending the interests of all humanity, and eliminating injustice.]
[He made tremendous contributions to the entire universe, and today, we have lost him forever. This is not only a loss for the Xianzhou Alliance, but a loss for all humanity and the entire universe…]
Guanliang gave it a general look.
Just like the Interastral Peace Corporation, aside from the name, this obituary didn't reveal any other private details.
At the end, it listed the time and place of the funeral.
This was the first time the Xianzhou had held a funeral of such scale.
For this, Guanliang specifically referenced the size and procedures of funerals held for other leaders.
Most of them lasted more than ten days.
During that time, the leader's remains would be taken to several representative locations so the public could say goodbye.
The Marshal's situation was special. He had specifically named Xuling while alive, so it would only be held there.
After discussion, Guanliang and Hua decided to simplify the process as much as possible and hold it for just ten days.
On the first day, the Marshal's closest subordinates would keep vigil for him.
During the next nine days, the Six Commissions of each Xianzhou, the Galaxy Rangers, and foreign guests would present flowers in turn.
During this period, the roads from the Star Skiff Sea to the venue, and from the venue to the Forest of Utmost Loyalty, would be completely sealed off.
Civilians would not be allowed to enter or leave. Only the Cloud Knights maintaining order would remain.
The Six Commissions and the Rangers were their own people, so Guanliang wasn't too worried.
What worried him most were the foreign guests.
Anyone qualified to attend the Marshal's funeral was either a powerful leader or a wealthy magnate.
At such a critical occasion, if something happened… at best it could spark conflicts between star systems, at worst it could start a war across the entire universe.
Guanliang let out a long sigh and began thinking about preparations.
No need to worry about the coffin. They could use local materials and cut branches from the Forest of Utmost Loyalty.
As for the cloth covering the coffin, they would at least need to hire specialists to embroider the Xianzhou flag's emblem on it.
Oh, and they still needed to arrange the venue.
The place that could hold the most people was the conference hall with a ceiling dozens of meters high. They would need to build an entire wall of flowers there.
Since the funeral would last ten days, the flowers would need to stay fresh for at least that long.
That meant the Xianzhou would have to contact a flower-producing planet several star systems away.
Guanliang thought, 'If the Marshal knew how much his funeral was costing…'
Forget the total cost. If he just picked the cheapest single day out of those ten days, the Marshal would probably be so angry he'd come back to life…
Aside from the necessary funeral preparations, they also needed to distribute patrol stipends to the staff.
Guanliang led everyone except the Aeon and rushed to complete the preparations before the funeral officially began.
During this time, the Xianzhou received news that hundreds of researchers from the Cangcheng Laboratory had committed suicide.
After reviewing the list of names, everyone fell silent.
They had been the most gifted geniuses in the universe. Their deaths would cause technological stagnation in multiple fields for hundreds of years.
Hua ordered that they be returned to their roots and buried in their hometowns.
On the day of the vigil, Guanliang didn't notify Lan. He only brought Hua and the generals to the venue.
What he didn't expect was that the Aeon of "Elation," who had indirectly caused the Marshal's death, would come to Xuling.
Aha was still using the avatar named Bakkos, with a head of large red wavy curls, raising that androgynous face.
With hands behind his back, he seemed to be hiding something.
Aha skipped over to Lan's side and said with a grin, "They didn't expect that even after you learned the pain of immortality, and learned he would lead the universe to its end with Nanook, you would still stand by your best friend."
"Their plan failed."
Lan replied calmly, "In that position, no one did better than him."
Aha nodded as if it were only natural, "As expected of the crown prince chosen by my best friend. What a pity."
"If it weren't for the me from the previous cycle wanting to enjoy my own fun, I wouldn't have only learned the truth from Fuli after my best friend died…"
He let out a deep sigh, then said in the grand tone of an opera singer, "Otherwise, I would have become his most doted-on subordinate again, just like before..."
Lan exposed him without changing expression.
"Before, the one he doted on most was Nanook. This time, it was Marty."
Aha asked the most important question of this trip, "Alright, I'm going to see him now. What about you? According to your Xianzhou customs, today is… the vigil, right? Aren't you going?"
Lan froze for a moment.
"Looks like you've been excluded."
Aha shrugged and said nothing more. He turned and walked toward the venue, revealing the flower basket behind him.
After Lan saw the funeral couplet written on it, his face showed an expression like the sky collapsing for the first time.
He rushed forward in a single step and fiercely grabbed Aha by the back of the collar.
He absolutely could not let Aha go in. Otherwise the Marshal's reputation would be ruined...