"…Alright, alright, it's getting late. I just saw the jade device notification, it says tomorrow there's an extremely important drill, and everyone has to arrive half an hour early."
His scalp tingled as he urged,
"For the general to mobilize like this, it must be something major. Maybe even someone sent by the Arbiter-General. Let's get some rest."
Hearing that, the two put down their jade devices and quietly let out a breath of relief.
They absolutely did not dare connect Jingliu with the strategies they had just recorded…
It felt like every line they read was a lightning strike.
How was this any different from torture?
Dan Feng's feelings were complicated. 'So chasing someone had this many rules?'
Yingxing was dazed. 'Jingliu, what exactly are you planning to use these on…'
But the proud craftsman refused to admit defeat. After saving the strategy file, he forwarded it to Jing Yuan, solemnly declaring, "Jing Yuan, this document, I leave it to you to forward it to Jingliu."
Dan Feng nodded in agreement beside him.
Jing Yuan was incredulous, "Me?"
He let out two dry, hollow laughs.
Handing this to the youngest one, what did that even mean? How was this any different from making a famed strategist of the Cloud Knights go challenge the Swordmaster herself to a duel…
The two grown men didn't care whether Jing Yuan lived or died. Soon after, the two "elders" each naturally claimed a guest room to rest.
Jing Yuan, "…"
He couldn't sleep. After staying up past his usual sword practice time, he went alone to the courtyard to train, and when finished, he sent his master a message reminding her that everyone needed to arrive early today.
The youngest, yet the most reliable, Jing Yuan went around waking the three of them in turn, then gathered the group to depart together.
———
When they arrived at the Cloud Knights' training grounds, General Tengxiao sent someone to summon Jingliu, telling the rest to continue as usual.
Only after finishing a full day of training did Jing Yuan finally learn from his master who had come.
Jing Yuan was stunned, "Master, who did you say? The Arbiter-General? The Arbiter-General herself came to the Luofu?"
Jingliu nodded, "The Arbiter-General is busy with official duties. She only had time to walk through the Sky-Faring Commission, the Craft Commission, and the Divination Commission with the general and other department heads."
Before Jing Yuan could recover from that revelation, he saw his master heading toward a Diviner from the Divination Commission who happened to be passing by.
He didn't know what the Diviner said, but Jingliu's face, already cold, grew even colder.
Jing Yuan thought to himself, 'Crap, I forgot to tell Master about Zero's situation.'
Her close friends knew well, whenever Jingliu's expression turned frosty, it usually meant she was angry. Sometimes though, it was simply because she didn't know what expression to put on.
That cold face now was probably because she'd learned Zero had taken leave, and misunderstood that she'd injured him badly?
But Master, with that expression, anyone who doesn't know better will just think you're out to intimidate him.
After talking with the Diviner, who was sweating buckets, Jingliu turned back toward Jing Yuan.
She looked like she wanted to say something to him. After hesitating for a while, she took a deep breath and asked, "Jing Yuan, do you know Zero's address?"
The Diviner must have misunderstood Master, thinking she wanted to hunt Zero down, and so refused to give her the address…
Jing Yuan gave the address with a complicated heart.
Even though he and Dan Feng had decided to play matchmaker, when he actually stood before his master and saw her showing obvious favoritism toward his friend…
It was still hard to accept.
Jingliu repeated the address softly, then asked, "He lives there alone?"
Once Jing Yuan confirmed, his master showed a very peculiar expression.
Peculiar in a way Jing Yuan couldn't even describe.
Seeing her lost in thought, he quickly pulled out his jade device to message Zero, then said to her, "Recently, there's a milk tea shop near Zero's place that launched a spicy soup flavor. Master, would you like to try it?"
Just as Jingliu was about to cut him down with a glare, Jing Yuan instantly found an excuse and slipped away.
Jingliu lowered her eyes, searched the address she'd just learned on her jade device, and let out a small laugh, "Milk tea in the opposite direction, yet you call it 'on the way'… I really don't understand you."
———
After the subordinates tactfully withdrew, Tengxiao and the Arbiter-General entered a tavern already cleared for them.
"This trip to the Luofu is purely for personal reasons." After sitting down, the gray-blue-haired woman shook her head with a sigh. "There was no need for such a big fuss…"
"This hardly counts as a fuss."
Tengxiao chuckled as he poured her wine.
"Besides, Arbiter-General, you labor constantly for the Xianzhou. Since it's rare for you to visit, how could we, your subordinates, not welcome you?"
"I've only done what I should. Hardly deserving of such praise." The Arbiter-General gave a faint smile.
"If we speak of true achievements, it is that one who deserves to be remembered by all. After all, he was the one who won the last planet for the Xianzhou."
Tengxiao's expression instantly turned complicated.
The Arbiter-General continued, her tone slow and even, "Though part of that man's dossier has been sealed, surely you've read it."
"Yes, I've read it…" Tengxiao said with difficulty. "That former Arbiter-General, who commanded the Xianzhou for nearly ten millennia."
The former Arbiter-General was brimming with martial might, so much that even a dog walking past him would get kicked.
Internally, he claimed he couldn't bear to see slaughter. So instead of exterminating nine generations, he only wiped out three.
Externally, he attacked indiscriminately, especially the Swarm and Mara-strucks. Wherever the Xianzhou went, he cut them down without hesitation.
His mental state had a kind of morbid beauty, as if his brainstem had been removed, like he'd already fallen into the demonic shadow.
The long-suffering Strategist once bluntly said, "He's a madman!"
He issued countless orders that seemed utterly insane at the time, yet decades, centuries later, people suddenly realized his intentions and marveled at his foresight.
No matter how absurd his reasons for battle, the Xianzhou people back then seemed crazed, always following his commands without question.
He would detonate a neutron bomb to annihilate all life on a planet, then mark its location. Once the environment recovered enough to be livable, he would send the Xianzhou to colonize it.
The former Arbiter-General loved this approach, saying it was simple and efficient.
Many intelligent beings across the stars were outraged, but no one dared condemn him.
After all, who knew what he would do next? For all they knew, he'd drive a war colossus to their doorstep the next moment.
People could only speak vaguely, calling him "that one" or "u know who."
Back then, countless planets bowed not to the Xianzhou Alliance as a whole, but to the will of the former Arbiter-General.
Had he lived another thousand years, the Xianzhou Alliance might have ruled the entire universe, and renamed itself the Xianzhou Empire…
When news spread that the former Arbiter-General and the Aeon of "Trailblaze" had disappeared, presumed dead, the followers of other Aeons all breathed a sigh of relief, turning their gaze to the newly appointed Arbiter-General.
It was rumored the former Arbiter-General had groomed her as his successor.
But their leadership styles could not have been more different. The previous one struck everything without distinction, while the current one avenged grudges and followed the "Hunt," purging abominations.
Both outsiders and Xianzhou folk had been so conditioned by the former Arbiter-General's madness that when they saw the new one's approach, they were moved to tears, crying out that at last they had a kind-hearted Arbiter-General.
Definitely not a butcher trained by that demon of a predecessor.
Some of the former Arbiter-General's dossiers had been sealed away.
The one who had ended the Swarm Disaster and the "War of the Emperor" had long since become history. The countless bugs slain, the endless machines scrapped, were all reduced to numbers in his records.
That history was now far distant, but those shocking figures still let later generations glimpse the former Arbiter-General's madness and terror.
Why, then, had the Arbiter-General brought him up?
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