For ten days straight, the temperature of Xuling stayed within a comfortably cool range. There was no rain meant to set the mood for a funeral.
No matter how unwilling everyone was, the day of the burial still arrived.
The people from the various Xianzhou ships discussed it many times before finally settling on the exact time of the burial.
The coffin would be laid to rest in Xuling's Forest of Utmost Loyalty.
———
When Hui Feng arrived at Xuling, she happened to run into Eric's funeral procession.
She didn't understand Xianzhou customs. Squeezed among the crowd of onlookers, she looked toward both sides of the road through the human wall formed by the Cloud Knights.
The procession stretched beyond sight.
With abilities far beyond ordinary humans, her nanomachines allowed her to clearly hear the nearly inaudible sobbing within the line.
Hui Feng watched for a while. Only after the procession disappeared from view did she finally turn and leave.
If she ever lost control, she would become a natural disaster no less terrifying than the Swarm Calamity or the mechanical catastrophes.
Countless nanomachines would devour everything in front of them.
And since the ones who decided the fate of the universe were never people like Hui Feng, the Aeons would not seek her out, nor did she need to avoid them.
Hui Feng returned to the planet where Zandar was staying, a world the Aeons could not detect.
The two exchanged a glance and sighed at the same time.
During this period, Eric had been lying inside the medical pod. Every so often, his heart would stop beating.
Once, Zandar had almost hacked into the Xianzhou system and started the engines.
He had discussed the reason with Hui Feng.
Hui Feng believed that Tenseiga was a creation from a lower dimension and could not truly bring Eric back to life.
But Zandar gave a different answer.
Lower-dimensional creations could not completely kill a "high-dimensional intruder."
The current problem was that Eric had lost too much blood and fallen into a coma, unable to wake up.
The system Zandar possessed was the first version he and Eric had created together. An unexpected incident had separated them midway, so he did not understand the final version of the system in his student's hands.
After going through countless cycles of reincarnation, Zandar had vaguely realized why his student created the system.
A "high-dimensional intruder" could not truly die, nor could they be affected by the lower-dimensional world.
So if there were no system, when time rewound and reincarnation began again, what point in time would his student arrive at?
Or would he instead become something even older than the Aeon of Preservation?
No one knew.
To avoid situations like this, Eric created the system. Every reincarnation he experienced was like a game.
At the start, he could choose his own attributes, then randomly spawn somewhere.
Hui Feng had also told Zandar that with enough ability or authority, even life and death could be changed.
Zandar didn't understand the system Eric had.
Eric had once said he wanted to create a system just like a "game."
But what exactly was the "sufficient ability" Eric spoke of? And what was this "authority"?
Zandar quickly discarded the idea of authority.
His student never trusted anyone easily, and he certainly would not hand over the power over his own life and death to someone else.
Eric was extremely cautious.
Zandar had looked through his own notes. Even when Eric was fifteen or sixteen, arriving in a completely unfamiliar other world where he didn't know the language, he had still followed Zandar's guesses and disguised himself as a pitiful survivor lost in a starquake whose home civilization had been destroyed.
Even after their relationship grew closer, Eric never told Zandar about his true origins.
Zandar understood.
After all, based on the stereotypes people had about geniuses like them, they were expected to do things far beyond ordinary imagination.
So what about a special existence that descended from a higher dimension into a lower one?
Surely they would be invited to participate in experiments, right?
To be honest, if Zandar had known the truth when he first met Eric, he definitely would have done exactly that.
Zandar did not deny this.
As time passed, he truly began to regard Eric as his own child.
Eric did not belong here, nor did he need to sacrifice himself to save a world that had nothing to do with him.
Considering Eric's personality of calculating ten steps ahead with every move and guarding himself equally against everyone, Zandar immediately ruled out the possibility of "authority."
So then what was this sufficient ability? Did it mean bringing the dead back to life? Medical skill?
To help Eric wake up as soon as possible, Zandar sought out companions from previous reincarnations and threw himself into the field of medicine together with them.
After Zandar finished reading hundreds of medical books, the Xianzhou began frequently negotiating with other civilizations, seemingly dealing with something.
Soon after, once the outside world learned the identity of the Xianzhou's new Marshal, they instinctively labeled this overly young leader based on age and gender.
Major media outlets across the sea of stars, some optimistic and some pessimistic, began predicting the future development of the Xianzhou.
The current Marshal of the Xianzhou Alliance was only twenty years old. Could she really continue to guide the Xianzhou steadily through the sea of stars?
A small portion of Xianzhou citizens panicked as soon as they heard the Marshal's age.
Had the previous Marshal lost his mind? How could he choose a twenty-year-old child? And the generals too, why didn't they stop him?
The new Marshal's age wasn't even a fraction of theirs.
Combined with the extremely lavish funeral of the previous Marshal, they couldn't help but feel suspicious.
Could it be that the taxes they paid to the Xianzhou were all being squandered by the upper ranks?
Holding these doubts, they waited and waited, until the Interstellar Community convened a meeting.
This controversial current Marshal appeared before the public for the first time.
She sat expressionlessly at the main seat, back straight, waiting for the member states to vote for the new Overseer of the Sea of Stars.
The Overseer was an extremely special position. The fleet of the faction holding the role could ignore borders and freely enter and exit the territories of member states.
Unexpectedly, the representatives present, whose average age far exceeded that of the current Marshal, unanimously cast their votes for the Xianzhou.
After the results were announced, the current Marshal remained calm, as if she had expected this outcome all along.
And in fact, she had.
Everyone wore different expressions. Hua watched coldly, her heart without the slightest ripple.
Perhaps they were repaying that person's favor.
Or perhaps they thought her young age made her easier to manipulate than the other representatives.
In any case, this result matched the interests of most people present.
Hua stood up and faced the cameras, making a promise to the entire sea of stars.
"I will dedicate my entire life to maintaining peace throughout the universe, to defending the rights of all humanity, and to doing everything in my power to eliminate injustice..."
"Whether in Orion, or at the edges of the star sea…"
"From today onward, until death..."
Hua had long expected the various controversies both from other civilizations and within the Xianzhou.
If her age were converted to that of short-lived species, she would only be about a two-year-old child.
Praise or insults, she didn't care. She preferred to prove herself through action.
As for false rumors? Her subordinates would handle those.
She would make those who loved peace glad for the choice they made today.
And likewise, she would make those who intended to stir up conflict and harbored ulterior motives spend the rest of their lives drowning in regret.
She would remain the Overseer of the Sea of Stars.
She would fulfill her promise until death.
After the meeting ended, Hua returned to Xuling. Inside the newly built Marshal's residence, she looked at her work jade terminal and let out long sighs.
If she were like her guardian, waking up every day just to review documents, working nonstop for thousands of years without rest, managing eight giant ships and nearly ten thousand planets…
Oh, thankfully Marty had left behind an artificial intelligence before his death that could handle thousands of planets at once…
Otherwise she might end up writing sixty suicide notes a month.
Oh, and even holding a funeral after dying would get people questioning whether she wasted tax money…
If it were Hua herself… she'd probably feel like the sky was collapsing.
She might get so angry she'd come back to life on the spot just from dealing with unreasonable people.
Hua kept a blank face and buried herself in paperwork.
Only when her eyes grew sore did she finally stop. Then she turned to ask Guanliang about the progress of the Galaxy Rangers.
That person had written it very clearly in his will, requesting that all information related to him be sealed.
This was his final order. No matter how wronged everyone felt, they could only comply.
Guanliang asked, "If they refuse to cooperate, what should we do?"
Hua closed her eyes and gently rubbed her brow, speaking calmly, "If there is resistance, then make them prepare to become enemies of the Xianzhou."
After she finished speaking, Guanliang fell silent.
Hua didn't understand why and looked up at him.
After a brief moment of eye contact, Guanliang said, "Understood."
Soon, his concerns proved true.
Without the previous Overseer's suppression, the member states of the Interstellar Community began going to war with each other almost simultaneously.
Hua thought for a moment and decided to try diplomacy first before force.
She instructed her subordinates to attempt mediation during the meeting.
As expected, not a single member state voluntarily agreed to a ceasefire.
The next day, the Heaven-Burning Divine Armament made a round through the star systems of those member states.
This time, they finally settled down.
At the meeting, Hua's subordinate proposed expelling the member states that had started the conflicts from the Interstellar Community. Every representative present voted in favor.
Gradually, voices praising the current Marshal began to appear both within the Xianzhou and across the star sea.
Hua occasionally found some free time and would step into the courtyard during work hours to rest.
It was autumn.
Xuling's autumn was no different from Yaoqing. The temperature and humidity were both extremely comfortable, yet for some reason there was an extra hint of chill.
A maple tree grew in the courtyard. It was in excellent condition. While it couldn't compare to the golden nanmu tree planted by that person in Yaoqing, the one that took more than a dozen people to encircle, it could still be called lush and full.
This tree was especially easy to maintain. The attendants only needed to prune it regularly.
Hua looked at the Labrador wagging its tail as it swam in the pond, then looked at the dry leaves falling in curls. Suddenly she thought of a saying...people always return to their roots in the end.
She looked toward the strategists beside her who had been selected through many rounds of screening, and as if still uneasy, added another instruction, "If people from Cangcheng pass away and wish to return to their roots, then let them go back."
After the research project was forcibly terminated, no one was able to take it over, and Cangcheng was also temporarily sealed off.
Several strategists exclaimed, "Marshal, you are truly kindhearted..."
Hearing this title, Hua rarely lost focus for a moment. Under their admiring gazes, she smiled and lowered her head, waving toward the dog by the pond, "Mimi, come here..."
The Labrador wagged its tail and swam toward them. After climbing ashore, it shook the water off its body vigorously.
Hua didn't mind. Instead, she stepped forward, letting the droplets Mimi shook off wet the hem of her clothes.
On a whim, she decided to skip work and give the Labrador a bath.
Hua led it back to her own courtyard.
For some reason, the moment the Labrador entered her room, it suddenly lost control.
It lowered its head and repeatedly sniffed at something.
Hua called Mimi's name.
Usually this worked every time, but this time it didn't.
The Labrador was completely focused on searching for something.
Hua had no choice but to follow behind it.
Mimi entered a certain room and nimbly pawed open a cabinet door.
Inside was a wooden box. It felt cool to the touch, and the wood looked almost like silk.
That was the box where she kept the broken blade.
The smile on Hua's face vanished.
The Labrador sniffed at the wooden box. This time even its tail stopped wagging, and it quietly sat on the ground.
Hua crouched down. While stroking Mimi's wet head, she stared blankly at the wooden box.
She stared for a long time. So long that her eyes grew sore. So long that even the Labrador couldn't hold back anymore and moved closer, whining softly as it licked her cheek.
Hua turned her head with difficulty, repeatedly wiping her cheek with the back of her hand.
"…Mimi, you've made my face all wet."
The Labrador finally settled down and lay beside her.
"You think… if I had learned a little slower back then, would it have..."
Hua suddenly stopped, then smiled.
"Never mind. Mimi, let's wash you first."
After that, she and the Labrador watched the tree in the courtyard together. She watched it pounce at the spiraling falling leaves, spending one autumn after another with it.
Unfortunately, even the long-lived Xianzhou people would one day die.
Not to mention a Labrador with an even shorter lifespan.
As Mimi's breathing gradually weakened, Hua took out that person's video and played a short segment for it.
In the end, Hua buried this pet who never saw its master again beneath the maple tree in Xuling.
First she said farewell to Mimi. Then came the generals who had found their successors.
They came to Xuling to bid farewell to Hua, their faces full of apology.
Hua smiled gently and softly asked about their future plans.
Except for Daiyang, they all gave the same answer...become Galaxy Rangers.
After leaving the Xianzhou, they would occasionally post memorial articles about the Marshal on social media.
Hua saved every one of them.
She canceled the annual gathering held every ten years, but still prepared prizes and let her subordinates participate in a lottery online.
Once, Daiyang asked, "This year during Huai'en Festival, can we celebrate your birthday with you?"
Hua smiled, "What birthday is there to celebrate for long-lived species?"
Daiyang stared at Hua without blinking and said, "The Marshal came to me in a dream…"
Hua smiled back at him.
She thought, but he has never appeared in my dreams.
Daiyang's voice gradually choked with emotion, "He said, why hasn't my daughter been properly celebrating her birthday? He said, it's okay…"
Hua couldn't help but laugh.
She didn't expose Daiyang's lie. She simply raised her hand and gently wiped away his tears.
Hua heard her own voice.
"Alright now. What birthday is there for long-lived species?"
Several hundred more years passed, and Hua still hadn't found any researchers capable of taking over the Cangcheng project.
Facts proved that the deaths of over a hundred geniuses were not just a loss for the Xianzhou, but for the entire sea of stars.
Without them, research in various fields regressed by hundreds of years.
Only the medical field was different. The top-ranked geniuses of the Genius Society all rushed to publish medical papers.
During this time, Zandar earned more than a dozen doctoral degrees.
Even Hui Feng could no longer remember how many times Zandar had nearly started the engines, nor how many times Eric's heart had stopped beating.
One day, she came to the medical pod. As expected, she saw Zandar there.
He was staring into empty space, his pupils trembling, as if he had seen something that shocked him beyond measure.
"A game… system…"
Hui Feng looked confused and met Zandar's gaze.
Zandar's expression twisted, his voice obsessive as he said, "What is the simplest thing in a game?"
"It's dying and coming back to life."
Tears streamed down his face as he choked out, "Hui Feng… I never thought… that I would actually… have the authority to decide his life and death."
At that moment, Hui Feng finally understood the true meaning behind Eric's words.
"With enough ability or authority, even life and death can be changed."
"I should at least have the right to completely delete my account and return to the game, right?"
And finally, there was that sentence...
'I owe him one life.'
So Eric had handed the power over his own life and death to Zandar.
After who knew how many reincarnations, after saving countless humans under disasters and helping countless lower-dimensional worlds escape their predetermined fates…
This time, Eric had finally saved himself.