Zandar waited and waited, and finally got a message from Zero.
His student said he needed to make a trip to the Divination Commission.
Zandar had no choice but to send Marty away first. After waiting quite a while, he finally met up with Zero.
The moment the two met, Zandar instantly let out a sigh of relief.
Looks like nothing that shouldn't have happened had happened.
Otherwise, with his student's personality, he definitely would've taken responsibility.
For example, calculating all the assets under his name and gifting them to the person involved as compensation for offending his beloved.
Or putting the wedding on the schedule immediately.
In any case, it definitely wouldn't be this kind of reaction.
Thank goodness that woman didn't force him… wait, tricking someone into marriage counts as forcing them too.
The moment Guanliang saw the forged signature of his former superior on the marriage application, he knew the other party hadn't been slept with.
After several thousand years, someone capable of suppressing that lunatic had finally appeared.
In Guanliang's heart, the truth no longer mattered.
All he needed to do was hand over his trust and obey orders.
Whatever progress Zero had with that Sword Champion, whatever relationship existed between Zero and Zandar…
None of it mattered.
It didn't stop him from tormenting his former superior anyway.
Besides, a gentleman like Zero would never use private matters between himself and his lover as conversation material.
He would only avoid discussing it and forbid others from continuing the topic.
Zero nearly failed to control the expression on his face.
Very quickly, he steadied himself and once again showed Guanliang a gentle, harmless smile.
Guanliang knew when to stop. Just as he was about to steer the topic toward the blood samples he had brought, Zandar frowned, looking puzzled as he hesitated.
"Eric, I have a question…"
Hui Feng thought, 'Ehat kind of question could possibly stump Zandar?'
'Most likely he just wants to tease Eric.'
Zandar glanced at Guanliang, seemingly wary of his presence, and didn't continue.
Zero understood immediately, "He's one of us."
Zandar looked troubled. "Are you sure?"
Guanliang lifted his eyes and looked at the two across from him.
The gray-haired girl had originally stood behind the pair in the posture of a protector. But now there was a trace of schadenfreude on her face.
She no longer paid attention to the surroundings and instead stared at Zero without blinking.
Zero nodded. "I trust Guanliang."
He had no memories of past cycles.
This time around, Guanliang had been the subordinate who stayed by his side the longest.
The man had accompanied him for thousands of years, had seen him use the system inventory, had carried out illogical orders, and had even listened through the entire conversation when he met Zandar.
Most likely, Guanliang had already vaguely sensed that something was wrong and realized that… the universe had gone through countless cycles of reincarnation.
Hearing this, Guanliang's expression shifted slightly.
He stopped cursing his former superior.
He'd continue tomorrow instead.
From the corner of his eye, Guanliang noticed the gray-haired girl looking at Zero with sympathy, still staring intently at him.
He didn't understand why.
The next moment, Zandar asked, "Then I'll ask."
"Eric, do you…"
"Know anything about that sort of thing?"
It felt to Guanliang as though several hundred versions of his former superior were all speaking at once beside him.
His head spun.
'What sort of thing was "that sort of thing"?!'
'It couldn't possibly be what I'm thinking, right?!'
Guanliang: 'No, wait, how old is Zero already? He could send Aha off to become a ***** master, how could he possibly not know...'
'Wait...'
Guanliang raised a fist to cover the lower half of his face.
Aside from the rumors involving Zero and Aha... Had the man ever interacted with women before? No.
Did he even have time to learn about that sort of thing? Also no.
Guanliang struggled to think while keeping his fist over the lower half of his face, then looked up at Zero.
His former superior didn't look much better than he did.
The instant Guanliang saw that, his spirits rose.
The gentle, harmless smile that almost never changed on Zero's face finally collapsed.
The straight-backed posture he always maintained in front of others relaxed for once against the chair behind him.
Zero turned his face slightly away, and there was a faint trace of emotional collapse in his expression.
Very quickly, he reacted.
Zero lowered his head, hiding his expression from view.
After a moment, he looked up again. His face revealed neither joy nor anger as he spoke in a calm tone.
"…I know."
"I received compulsory education. I took biology classes."
Zandar barely suppressed his laughter. 'Still just a kid after all.'
He nodded as though suddenly enlightened.
"So you've only read biology textbooks…"
"Well, that makes sense. Those kinds of things are made for specific groups anyway. They don't have any reference value at all..."
Before he could finish, Zero interrupted him.
"Zandar, let's talk about something serious."
Zandar's expression changed slightly, 'Something serious?'
If Eric called it serious, then it had to be about the cycle where they first met.
Zandar recalled portions of the notes.
He didn't possess complete memories and could only piece together fragments from them.
Back then, Zandar had used extremely sloppy handwriting to record a higher-dimensional lifeform known as the "Time Worm."
On the title page were chaotic symbols that barely counted as handwriting. One particular term had been crossed out heavily.
The force used was so strong it had nearly torn through the paper.
After great effort, he identified the words as Eric and "Nous."
The one crossed out was the Aeon.
Which meant Eric could not meet the Stellar Computer.
The outcome spoke for itself.
It had gone completely against his hopes.
Zandar had never asked Hui Feng to confirm it.
That absolutely wasn't a pleasant memory.
Zandar smiled warmly.
"You don't want to discuss these kinds of topics with me."
"You're embarrassed about it?"
"Eric, that's perfectly normal."
Zero fell silent for a moment.
When he woke up, he had received blessings and congratulations from all sides.
Relying on the messages sent by his colleagues in the Divination Commission and by Master Diviner Xiaolin, Zero quickly pieced together the truth.
Last night, Jingliu had told him, "You owe me once."
Now Zero understood the real meaning behind those words.
Jingliu had copied what he did before, acting first and reporting later by forging a marriage application.
Tracing it back to the source, the problem was his own.
Setting aside the facts, was he really blameless?
How could he blame Jingliu?
She had merely… merely copied and repeated what he himself had done.
Zero always prepared for the worst-case scenario and thought up countermeasures in advance.
But whenever it involved Jingliu… things always developed beyond his expectations.
When Jingliu bit down on his finger joint and used the ring-like bite mark to propose to him, there had only been one thought in his mind.
No matter what, he had to completely solve Jingliu's mara-struck condition.
What Zero hadn't expected was that whether it was when Jingliu kissed him or when he slipped his finger between her lips and teeth, she had been extraordinarily careful, controlling her strength with all her might and never leaving any wounds behind.
He couldn't refuse Jingliu.
The relationship he had originally intended to consider carefully instead moved a step further.
Zero had never liked people or situations that escaped his control.
This time, however, he felt neither anger nor resistance.
He couldn't describe his emotions, so he could only think back on everything that happened before his suicide.
At the time, his mental state had been terrible. He simply had no room to think about anything else.
But now that he thought about it again… there were too many suspicious points.
Combining the prophecy with the information Zandar provided, Zero roughly pieced together the experience of when he had first descended into the lower-dimensional world.
He met Zandar, created the system, and afterward participated in the research of planet-destroying weapons like the "Colossus."
And finally, the "Aetherphase Engine."
He abandoned the ascension plan with the highest success rate and instead sent Hui Feng away, having her save other lower-dimensional worlds.
If the system guiding Zero step by step into becoming a ruler and dominating the universe was meant to gather more resources and construct the engine needed for ascension…
Then why would he abandon Hui Feng?
She was an existence capable of contending with "Calamities."
And then there was the backup plan mentioned in the prophecy.
Was it Zandar?
Or was it the system that only had a game interface, map, and storage functions?
If it was the system, then wasn't that way too lame?
He had at least created the "Aetherphase Engine." Couldn't he have upgraded it while he was at it?
Zero sighed, "No."
"I just discovered a few problems..."
Guanliang gleefully added fuel to the fire, "Yeah, this is completely normal."
"Although the most explicit thing in Xianzhou adult media is hand-holding, that's all because of problems left behind by the previous generation of Xianzhou higher-ups..."
Zero, "..."
Hui Feng turned her back to Zandar and Zero, no longer bothering to control her expression.
She nearly burst out laughing. Then, under Guanliang's gaze, she silently slipped away.
Without changing expression, Guanliang withdrew his gaze and continued, "Mr. Zandar, please trust the systems of the Xianzhou."
"Before Xianzhou people get married, they must undergo a premarital examination at the Alchemy Commission. The healers will show them educational documentaries."
Guanliang paused briefly.
Zero hadn't undergone a premarital examination at all.
Guanliang continued, "After registering the marriage at the Realm-Keeping Commission, the Xianzhou will send educational documentaries to the older party..."
The moment the words left his mouth, the expressions of all three people present froze.
Guanliang paused again, his cheeks twitching faintly. After a long silence, he forced out a sentence.
"Sorry, I'm going to smoke a cigarette."
He hurriedly stood up and quickly walked into a blind spot outside the pair's line of sight before crouching down.
Guanliang tightly covered his mouth with both hands, trying very hard not to laugh out loud.
Zero wasn't even two hundred years old, and his bank account still had underage protections enabled…
What educational documentary could he even watch?
Guanliang's body shook as he crouched there laughing silently for a full minute.
When he looked up again, his eyes met the gray-haired girl from earlier.
Holding a hypersensory remote device in her hand, she tilted her head and asked with a smile, "I took pictures of him. Want them?"
Guanliang, "…You even took pictures?"
Hui Feng nodded.
For nanomachines, taking photos wasn't difficult at all.
Guanliang thought to himself, 'Why would I want pictures? It's not like I'm some Marshal fanatic!'
His first instinct was to refuse, but then he reconsidered.
'This is Zero's embarrassing moment!'
'The first one in five thousand years!'
'Could I possibly miss it?'
'Absolutely not!'
Guanliang pulled out the jade abacus from his pocket and gritted his teeth.
"…Fine. Send them to my jade abacus. Thanks."