[The Alchemy Division Library of the Luofu]
Zero closed the chat window with Dan Feng. Soon after, he received a message from Hua.
A long time ago, Zero had reminded Hua to keep an eye on the mental state of the Vidyadhara Dragon Lords.
These Dragon Lords were responsible for sealing the "Mara Traces." If anything went wrong, it could very likely bring immeasurable losses to the various Xianzhou ships.
This time, Hua sent a reply, saying that one of the Vidyadhara Dragon Lords had indeed developed a problem, and she had already had them step back to recuperate.
Zero fell into thought.
Given the Vidyadhara's lifespan… they could be considered a long-lived species.
They were different from Xianzhou natives. After molting and rebirth, they no longer remembered their past, and thus would not fall into mara-struck madness.
But Vidyadhara Dragon Lords were different from other Vidyadhara. In their dreams, they would relive the past experiences of previous generations of Dragon Lords.
Xianzhou people would fall into mara because of an overload of complicated memories, then what about the Vidyadhara Dragon Lords? Among the Dragon Lords who came to the Xianzhou, how many generations had already passed?
Zero shifted his thoughts to another question, tapping on his jade comm.
[Zero: This shouldn't count as a work-related injury, right?]
At the root of it, the psychological issues they developed were caused by the special nature of being a Vidyadhara Dragon Lord. It couldn't really be considered a work injury.
On the other end of the jade comm, Hua was already used to his jumpy way of thinking and reacted quickly.
[Hua: It doesn't count, but considering the merit of the Vidyadhara Dragon Lords in sealing the "Mara Traces," patrol stipends will still be issued as usual]
Zero sighed inwardly.
'In the end, this was treating the symptoms, not the root cause.'
The most effective solution would be for Hua to use memory wipe method.
After deleting part of their memories, the Vidyadhara Dragon Lords would naturally no longer develop psychological problems.
However, back when Zero first made the decision, considering how much the Dragon Lords had contributed to the Xianzhou, he instructed his subordinates not to interfere in Vidyadhara internal affairs.
For thousands of years, the Vidyadhara had handled their matters jointly through the Dragon Lords and the Dragon Masters.
Unless there were special circumstances, the Xianzhou Marshals and Generals would not interfere with their internal decisions.
Using memory deletion to deal with hidden risks like this… was far too inappropriate.
The Dragon Lords had merely been diagnosed with psychological issues; they hadn't betrayed the Xianzhou. How could one interfere with Vidyadhara inheritance and tradition like that?
Their memories could be traced back as far as the time before the "Permanence" Aeon had fallen.
After the Aeon's fall, the Vidyadhara lineage wandered and eventually came to the Xianzhou, a history of at least thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years.
To give an inappropriate example, if the Dragon Lords' memories were compared to data stored in a computer, one day, someone suddenly says they want to delete data accumulated over thousands or tens of thousands of years. No matter who it was, they probably wouldn't agree.
Even if the Xianzhou broke it down and explained the reasons clearly to the Dragon Lords, they still might not agree.
What? Interfere with the Dragon Lords' inheritance for a betrayal that hasn't even happened yet? Affect the relationship between the Vidyadhara and the Xianzhou for such a tiny probability?
The answer was, of course, no.
Zero hadn't expected that an order he'd casually given in the past would end up digging a pit for his successor.
And this pit only appeared thousands of years later.
Zero felt utterly helpless.
All he could say was, hopefully the Dragon Lords wouldn't violate the contract they had signed with him.
Hopefully the Vidyadhara wouldn't give the Xianzhou any excuse to interfere in their internal affairs.
He replied to the message.
[Zero: Keep a closer eye on their mental states]
[Hua: Mm. Aside from logistics personnel, everyone else must have their psychological assessments confirmed as normal before they're allowed to go into battle]
Zero had no objections to Hua's handling of the matter, and instead asked after the few money trees he had sent over.
[Hua: …]
[Hua: Lush branches and leaves, growing very well]
Zero sensed something was off and urged her to send photos.
[Hua: …Actually, I raised them all to death]
Zero, "..."
A god and a human, neither of them knowing the value of daily necessities.
One went around causing destruction every day.
The other didn't cause destruction, but managed to kill money trees.
Looking on the bright side, at least Hua wasn't like Lan, blowing up stars everywhere.
Just killing a few money trees, not a big problem.
Zero took a deep breath and continued typing his questions.
[Zero: Then you're at least wearing the ring, right]
Wearing a ring on the middle finger was said to attract wealth, but rings carried extremely special meanings, it wasn't something he should be giving casually.
Hua quickly gave an affirmative reply, then asked about the recent situation between Zero and Jingliu.
Zero couldn't be bothered to dig into whether she was lying, and very cooperatively changed the subject.
He was used to presetting all kinds of scenarios, for example, breaking up with Jingliu, or his identity being exposed.
As for those possibilities, Zero had already prepared countermeasures, transferring assets in advance and handing the gift agreements over to Tengxiao.
After learning about the conversation between Jingliu and Dan Feng, Zero didn't feel much emotional turbulence.
The only thing that caught him off guard was that he had somehow turned into the successor's child.
Combining the information Daiyang and Dan Feng had revealed to Jingliu… it was very likely Jingliu would arrive at this mistaken conclusion.
On top of that, Zero had previously used an "inheritance" to explain his assets…
Either the successor had magically acquired a nonexistent deceased husband, allowing Zero, now of a lower generation, to inherit that husband's estate.
Or he was being rebellious for a moment, unwilling to acknowledge his relationship with the successor, and simply treating the successor as if they were gone.
Zero couldn't help but sigh.
'Dan Feng, you really did a number this time.'
He couldn't think of a solution for now, and decided to use the method of throwing money at Jingliu to divert his lover's attention.
Zero didn't want Hua to find out about the two of them swapping generations. Faced with Hua asking about his progress with Jingliu, he could only casually reply.
[Zero: It's fine. Lately I've been worrying about renovations]
Earlier, Zero had asked Dan Feng to feel things out, and found that Jingliu only had one requirement for a residence, it needed to be suitable for sword practice.
Left with no choice, he let the designers freely do their thing and paid extra for them to come up with more proposals.
[Hua: If I remember correctly, you only got together not long ago, right]
Hua stared at the message on her jade comm, her mood extremely complicated.
That couldn't be right, based on the guardian's personality… he should have waited at least another ten or twenty, even several decades, right?
She voiced the doubts in her heart, and Zero quickly replied, saying that this property was for Jingliu.
Hua was very confused.
After all, whenever the guardian wanted to transfer assets, he had to hide it from Jingliu, so why was he suddenly buying property now?
Immediately after, the other party sent another message.
[Zero: This property isn't Jingliu's. The name on it is mine]
[Hua: …You're secretly preparing property for her, will she really accept it? Won't she get angry?]
[Zero: The name is mine, so it doesn't count as spending money on Jingliu. She has no reason to be angry]
Hua, "???"
'What do you mean she has no reason to be angry? What, do you think just because your logic is airtight, Jingliu won't get angry?'
Even though Hua was long used to the other party's way of thinking, at this very moment, she still couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
'You really are a genius of twisted logic!'
Hua tried to stop her guardian.
[Hua: No one gets into a relationship for one or two months and then gives the other person property]
[Zero: Then I'll be that precedent]
Hua, "..."