Aha stood where They were, eyes burning as They stared at the person before the camera.
The next instant, someone behind Them drew a sword without hesitation and pressed it against the back of Their neck.
If that sword moved forward even one more inch when swung, it could have cut off the head of This avatar.
Aha quickly guessed this person's identity. It was Nanook.
They kept Their back to Nanook, let out a dry laugh, and before the Aeon could even defend Themself, They saw Their best friend look toward the two of them.
From his expression, it was as if he hadn't noticed the tense, ready-to-fight atmosphere between them.
No. More accurately, he had never seen them as people at all. It was more like watching two pets fighting each other.
He wore a black military dress uniform and knee-high boots as he slowly walked down from the high platform.
The man removed his military cap and casually handed it to Lan behind him.
Smiling warmly, he came to Aha and asked softly, "Did you have fun?"
Aha realized something. Ignoring the blade at the back of Their neck, They laughed so hard They nearly doubled over.
'Too interesting!' This person… had known Aha's identity from the very beginning.
Whether human or god, there was no difference in this person's eyes.
The Aeon did not dodge, allowing Nanook behind Them to lift a leg and kick the back of Their knee.
Aha raised Their head and looked up at this human who had brought Them so many surprises.
The Aeon tried hard to suppress Their laughter, controlling Their facial muscles, and showed the most forced smile imaginable.
"Y-You… what are you doing? Are you… trying to take my life? If it's you, I would be willing to die by your hand…"
Their eyes filled with tears. While discreetly feeling along Their sleeve, They spoke the oath They had made when swearing loyalty.
Like someone about to die trying to remind the two of their shared past, hoping to exchange it for the superior's mercy.
"I already offered you my loyalty and my soul..."
Something in those words seemed to move this inhuman "god." His expression shifted slightly as he raised a hand to stop Nanook, who was about to strike Aha with his sword.
The next moment, a flash of silver.
It was a short dagger Aha had pulled from Their sleeve.
Nanook struck downward with his hand. The dagger instantly fell.
He bent down, picked it up, and drove it backhand into the heart of Aha's avatar.
Nanook's face remained expressionless as he returned to stand beside his best friend.
His best friend's expression didn't change. He still watched Aha with that gentle, calm gaze.
Like an adult looking at a child who didn't understand.
Whether someone believed in him, followed him, or cursed him with the most vicious words, nothing could shake him in the slightest.
It was as if no matter how much good or evil humans and Aeons showed him, he accepted it all and would still continue loving all humans in his own way.
Nanook examined Aha, who was gradually losing vitality and collapsing to the ground, together with him.
They both knew that the body before them, about to die, was only an avatar of an Aeon.
Nanook spoke calmly, delivering judgment on behalf of the Empire's leader, "You and your followers won't live much longer."
With the last of Their fading hearing, Aha vaguely heard Their best friend say, "Nanook, the sun has already shone on them for too long..."
Nanook continued, "But it doesn't matter. Our enemies will never see it again."
Then he changed his tone and began criticizing his best friend instead.
"You shouldn't have put yourself in danger."
After scolding his best friend, Nanook then turned his criticism toward Lan.
What happened after that, Aha didn't know, because Their avatar had died.
The Aeon was quite curious about this, so They looked toward Lan, who also possessed the memory of that cycle.
"What happened after I died?"
Lan replied, "He closed your eyes for you."
"As expected of my best friend!" Aha beamed with joy, then asked, "In the end, who won between you and Nanook?"
This time Lan didn't answer and simply continued dragging Aha by the back of Their collar toward the exit.
Aha couldn't help laughing.
From that reaction, it was obvious They hadn't won the argument.
They kindly tried to comfort Them. "It's fine. Even if you had won, what would it change? Nanook is the subordinate my best friend dotes on the most. How could you possibly compare…"
"Want to make a bet? I bet this time will definitely be very different from before..."
Lan thought, 'Yes.'
But Fuli and the Aeon of Erudition, who knew the truth, might not believe that.
Aha suddenly stopped laughing and said weakly, "A universe without my best friend is really boring… No one to have fun with anymore…"
Their tone suddenly became cheerful again.
"But I believe it won't be long before we meet again in the next cycle of reincarnation!"
Lan dragged Aha out of the venue, stopped, and said firmly, "I bet we won't."
This time, that person who possessed more divinity than the Aeons had gained humanity.
Because of that, everything was different.
Aha couldn't help sighing, "I really feel it wasn't worth it for my best friend… There's an old Xianzhou saying, one day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father. This time, he could at least be considered your father, right?"
They made a face.
"Looks like not only do you have no sense of humor, you also have no feelings. You didn't even buy him a bouquet of flowers…"
Aha suddenly paused, as if realizing something, and said in disbelief, "Wait… you didn't have any patrol arrows to buy flowers, did you?"
Lan, "…I did."
Aha snorted with laughter and kept talking. "Don't I know my best friend? He definitely didn't give you any patrol arrows..."
Lan, "..."
Aha waved a hand generously. "Don't worry, Lan. I'll pay the patrol arrows for you. You're being way too distant. With my relationship with my best friend, you're basically my..."
Before Aha could finish describing Their relationship with Lan, the other, now embarrassed and angry, directly lifted Them off the ground.
Aha cried out, "Wait...what are you doing..."
Lan said expressionlessly, "Should I throw you out of Xuling, or will you walk out yourself?"
Aha was angry but didn't dare say anything and, feeling extremely wronged, chose to walk out on Their own.
After seeing Aha off, Lan returned the way They came. Passing a flower shop, They stopped.
Not long ago, the Xianzhou had made a huge show of sending fleets to other star systems to purchase flowers, while also publicly announcing the obituary and specifying that the funeral would be held in Xuling.
The flower shops in Xuling had become lively as a result.
Among them were many Xianzhou people who brought flowers for the marshal. They didn't understand his achievements, but they still took out patrol arrows to buy a bouquet.
Now at the entrance of the venue, many bouquets and flower baskets were placed.
Lan entered the flower shop. The shop owner asked familiarly, "Buying flowers for the former marshal, right?"
After hearing that title, the Aeon paused almost imperceptibly.
They shook Their head. "No. It's for an elder in my family."
"An elder in your family…" The shop owner paused. Not knowing the elder's situation, he could only probe indirectly. "What kind of flowers are you planning to give?"
Lan looked at the various flowers in the shop and found Themself at a loss. They could only search Their memory for the flower wall at the venue and pointed at several flowers that looked similar.
Following Lan's gesture and seeing the flowers, the shop owner immediately understood.
Another funeral order.
He asked, "Would you like to write something? Or should I write it for you?"
Lan shook Their head again. "I'll write it myself."
While trimming excess leaves and branches from the flowers, the shop owner watched this customer's movements from the corner of his eye.
The person looked around, examining the flower baskets in the shop that were about to be sent to the former marshal, seemingly reading the condolence couplets on them.
The shop owner took the opportunity to start chatting about the various things to pay attention to when writing condolence couplets.
For example, to show respect for the deceased, the lower line should be written one or two characters lower than the upper line.
Another example, when mourning direct elders, phrases like "weeping farewell" should be used, and so on.
Before long, the customer finished writing.
The shop owner glanced at it and couldn't help but feel impressed.
'Such beautiful handwriting.'
'Just that signature…?' At a glance, it almost looked like "Reignbow Arbiter".
The shop owner asked, "This won't be ready for a while. Why don't you leave an address?"
Lan refused and quietly stood in the shop, waiting.
Only after the employee who had gone out to deliver flowers returned did the shop owner hang up the condolence couplet.
Lan paid the patrol arrows, took the flower basket, and returned to the venue, heading to the largest meeting hall.
Right away, They ran into Guanliang.
He held a jade abacus in his left hand and pressed an earpiece with his right, speaking to someone on the other end.
Guanliang gave a quick glance. After seeing the words "weeping farewell," he raised a hand to point the Aeon in a direction, signaling Them, then said, "Just help carry the coffin when the time comes."
After saying just that one sentence, he continued walking forward.
The incident at Cangcheng had caused the Xianzhou and the star sea to lose outstanding talents in multiple fields. Many projects had been forced to halt.
Aside from research related to the Plagues of Abundance, there were also projects involving the Vidyadhara.
No matter how much they regretted losing talent, they could only move forward.
So the Xianzhou began trying to contact members of the Genius Society. But for some reason, it seemed that right after the marshal's incident, this group disappeared from the star sea, leaving them with no leads.
The entire Xianzhou was busy beyond belief. Guanliang couldn't worry about everything.
There were countless unread messages on his jade abacus. He couldn't possibly reply to them all.
Not to mention the guard who had lost track of Zandar and came to confess his fault.
Guanliang only brushed it off and chose not to pursue it further.
Right now he just wanted to know whether Zandar had indirectly caused Marty's death.
The Xianzhou had no way of knowing what the two had said during their conversation, so they could only investigate along Marty's previous route.
Soon, the guards found a lead and sent Guanliang a photo.
It was a photo kept by a pawnshop before selling an item.
Marty had bought it before his long talk with Zandar.
When Guanliang saw the name on the wooden tablet, he instantly fell silent.
He thought, probably only Hua could accept this.
Guanliang quickly met with the heads of the Six Commissions of Xuling, then returned and told Hua everything in detail.
Hua also fell silent.
How could they prevent similar situations from happening again and make that person regret it?
Hua slowly revealed a smile. "Something like this… is very simple."
The next day, a piece of news swept across the entire Xianzhou forum, even overshadowing the news of the marshal's death.
In the news, a Xianzhou artifact resembling a memorial tablet was auctioned for a jaw-dropping sky-high price.
The item was purchased by a mysterious buyer. Almost no one knew what it looked like.
Oh, except the person who had sold the longevity tablet.
At this moment, that person was probably regretting it so badly their intestines were turning green.
How high a price could a pawnshop offer? In this world, what could be more regrettable than missing out on patrol arrows and selling a treasure for cheap?
Of course, if anyone wanted to sell longevity tablets, they would accept them all. They just wouldn't pay for them.
This was Hua's final bit of gentleness toward that portion of Xianzhou people.
As the saying goes, those who don't know are not guilty. If it were the grief-stricken generals, they probably wouldn't have used such gentle methods.
The Xianzhou had a welfare system envied by the entire star sea. The Xianzhou covered all citizens' food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
Medical expenses above one thousand patrol arrows were fully waived. As long as someone was a Xianzhou native, from the moment of birth they never had to worry about money.
Even if they did nothing and had no job, the patrol arrows distributed every ten years were enough to live on.
Therefore, Xianzhou people were destined not to lack money.
If they really lacked money… they could simply go out and work.
If even a salary couldn't fill the hole, then they must have touched something they shouldn't have. At that point, it would be handed over to the appropriate departments.
Guanliang and Hua avoided the crowd and had trusted guards handle the longevity tablet matter.
Afterward, the Six Commissions of the Xianzhou and the Galaxy Rangers went to Xuling to pay their respects.
Guanliang looked at the crying crowd, then at the Alchemy Commission physicians standing by at any moment.
In these past few days, they didn't even know how many Xianzhou people they had seen cry until they fainted.
Guanliang had heard so much crying that he felt like he could still hear it even after leaving the venue.
Soon, the day arrived when foreign guests would reach Xuling.
Guanliang had already compiled a list of guests needing special attention and handed it to Hua.
Fortunately, there weren't many. Hua quickly memorized them.
Most of the guests arriving at Xuling were countries that had joined the interstellar community.
A small number were wealthy individuals capable of influencing the development of multiple star systems.
Guanliang stood slightly behind Hua. Quietly, he watched as the guests, guided by staff, presented flowers and paid respects to the person hanging on the flower wall.
Most people exchanged a few brief words and then left to make space for others to mourn.
One person was somewhat special. He was a company shareholder with the closest ties to the Xianzhou.
His voice choked with emotion. "Someone like him will definitely go to heaven…"
After a few pleasantries, the shareholder looked like he might cry and began talking about his previous meeting with the marshal on the Astral Express and the deal they had made.
Between the lines, he was asking about the true ownership of the company shares.
In the eyes of profit-seeking businessmen, the benefits brought by the Nameless were far inferior to those from the Xianzhou and the Galaxy Rangers.
If originally the shareholder had wanted to build a good relationship with the marshal and voluntarily made concessions…
Now, with the marshal and the Cloudstrider both fallen, the shares he had given up had only bought goodwill with the Nameless, who had no Aeon's protection.
That really wasn't a profitable deal.
Fortunately, there was still room to turn things around.
That one percent of shares had been given to the Nameless in front of the shareholder.
The remaining eight percent had been transferred when the shareholder was not present.
For massive assets like these that couldn't be measured with exact numbers… for people like them who could change the rules, it would be entirely possible to temporarily add a few laws and revoke the previous gift.
If the Xianzhou needed it, he could transfer it to them again.
Everyone present understood the hidden meaning. Hua gave a polite smile and said the Xianzhou would discuss the matter with the Nameless.
The shareholder nodded tearfully. After a few more polite words, he left the venue with his subordinates.
At the entrance, he turned back once more to look at the photo on the flower wall.
The shareholder thought, the Xianzhou people really are lucky.
Why was it them who met the marshal?
That was an all-knowing, all-capable, nearly perfect leader.
The marshal always placed the most suitable people in the most suitable positions.
Every one of his orders traveled from top to bottom without the slightest delay.
As long as the people needed something, resources would be allocated immediately and delivered to them at the fastest speed.
A utopia even children wouldn't dare imagine… actually existed.
But now, this leader was gone.
The shareholder thought of the marshal, then thought of the shares he had thrown away, and couldn't help directing his resentment toward the Nameless.
Hopefully they would bring more returns in the future.
The shareholder turned his head toward his subordinate, his expression indifferent, "From now on, the Interastral Peace Corporation won't allow Nameless to become full employees."
"Oh...no, loosen the standards a bit. Give them a little sweetness. Let them get stuck at P35. Even if they somehow get promoted, demote them back down for me..."
"I want their descendants, generation after generation, to never make it to Pier Point until the day they die..."
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