Before the incident, Guanliang was, as usual, slacking off on the clock with his superior's tacit approval.
He went to the kitchen to deal with the dishes his superior didn't like to eat.
If not for his superior, he might never have had the chance to taste the finest cuisine in the entire universe.
The chefs had been searched out by that group of subordinates from all over the place.
The vegetables were grown starting from seeds, and the meat was raised starting from newborn animals.
The ingredients were varied. Some came from obscure grotto-heavens in Yaoqing, while others came from planets belonging to the Xianzhou.
Even the most ordinary seasonings had to be made entirely from scratch.
Guanliang had once heard a description saying that some people did things in an abstract way, if they wanted to eat rice, they'd start by planting rice paddies.
If his superior wanted to eat rice and just told the kitchen staff… they really could start planting from scratch… wait, they might even think force-ripened crops weren't safe enough and would probably scour the universe to harvest freshly ripened rice.
Unfortunately, his superior didn't eat regular meals. These ingredients, whose value couldn't be calculated in patrol credits, ended up in the mouths of all the subordinates.
Oh, and now there was one more, Hua, and the "Reignbow Arbiter."
To be honest, when Guanliang learned that his superior had brought in an Aeon to teach Hua, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
After discovering that his superior had a mental illness, he had looked up a lot of information about patients.
One particular point made him extremely wary.
If a minor had a mental illness, there was a certain probability that someone in their family had an even more severe condition.
One mentally ill superior was already more than enough. They absolutely couldn't raise another sick child.
Guanliang had come into contact with Aeons before, for example, Aha, who had nearly gotten him killed; and the "Reignbow Arbiter" worshiped by the Xianzhou people; and Akivili, who traveled everywhere to blaze trails…
Even if Aeons weren't necessarily normal… at least the "Reignbow Arbiter" used to be a proper Xianzhou person with upright values. No matter what, he had to be much better than the superior.
With this Aeon around, Hua surely wouldn't follow in the Marshal's footsteps.
But Guanliang never expected that the Aeon he placed such high hopes in was also unreliable.
When it happened, he was carrying a packed dinner he planned to take home.
He hadn't gone far when he heard the sound of a wall collapsing.
Guanliang froze for a moment.
Thanks to the fact that his superior had drawn far too much hatred and people regularly came looking to die, he reacted quickly.
Guanliang wasn't worried about his superior's safety.
As long as his superior was having an episode, nothing would happen to him.
With practiced ease, he adjusted the miniature jade communicator by his ear and notified the person in charge of the block, telling them to send people to investigate.
With his other hand, he took out his regular jade communicator and pressed a shortcut he'd used countless times, sending a message to the Director of the Alchemy Commission.
At the same time, guards scattered throughout the estate rushed over upon hearing the noise.
Guanliang was a desk worker. Even though he quickened his pace, he was still one step too slow.
When he arrived, the first thing he saw was his superior surrounded by people, and an Aeon who should not have been there at all, Akivili.
No one questioned Akivili's presence. Everyone focused entirely on the Marshal.
They all spoke at once, asking after his condition. Only after confirming he wasn't injured did they finally relax.
Guanliang stepped closer and saw that his superior was covered in dust.
Zero was forcing a smile, holding an arrow in his hand.
Though his face showed nothing, he hadn't managed to recover mentally at all.
Zero realized that his mental state was getting worse and worse.
After Akivili's warning and seeing the arrow, he quickly concluded that it wasn't an assassination.
At the same time, he figured out who the culprit was and ruled them out as a suspect.
Zero's first reaction wasn't that Lan wouldn't harm him.
It was that Lan had nothing to gain from assassinating him.
For a moment, Zero couldn't tell whether his paranoia had worsened, or whether, after thousands of years as the Xianzhou Marshal, he had simply grown accustomed to reasoning backward from interests to motives.
Suspicion was a fatal flaw for those in power. He could point his spear at enemies, but he absolutely could not doubt Lan, who had formed a contract with him and whose position was, at least for now, aligned with his own.
He steadied himself and quickly recovered.
Nearby, Guanliang was completely shaken.
The moment he saw the arrow, he guessed who had failed to assassinate his superior.
Who else could it be but the "Reignbow Arbiter"?
Just as Guanliang expected, the guards scattered around nearby streets soon found the culprit and reported it to him via equipment, asking him to seek instructions from the Marshal.
In front of everyone, Guanliang struggled to control his facial expression, which was on the verge of twisting.
He said, "It was Her Highness the Crown Princess and that…"
Guanliang involuntarily paused, then added with difficulty, "…teacher named Shanfeng."
Guanliang knew his superior had prepared different sets of identity documents for the Aeon, some unique to Aeons, some unique to Xianzhou people.
As for the name… it was extremely perfunctory. Just "Shanfeng."
He couldn't help complaining internally.
This name was way too half-hearted. Did the superior even think about it at all? Anyone in the know would probably guess Shanfeng's identity immediately.
When Akivili heard this, it suddenly clicked.
So it was the "Hunt" Aeon.
When the Astral Express traveled through the star sea before, Akivili had only seen the arrows this Aeon fired, and the planets shattered afterward, never the Aeon himself.
This time, he finally got to meet him.
If it were anyone else, they might be surprised at how casually their close friend ordered around an Aeon.
Akivili wasn't surprised at all.
If his close friend could mobilize the forces of the entire star sea to deal with disasters, then ordering around an Aeon was only natural.
Oh, and that included him, the "Trailblazing" Aeon, always on call.
When Akivili received his close friend's message, he had been doing volunteer labor with the Nameless, using work to make up for the damage they had accidentally caused to local buildings.
After finishing, Akivili rushed to Yaoqing immediately.
Come on, that was his close friend's child.
He had originally wanted to see the child and, while he was at it, answer his close friend's questions about raising kids.
Who would've thought there'd be an unexpected bonus?
He actually ran into an Aeon he'd never met before! A rare opportunity, he absolutely had to pull Lan into the Aeon group chat.
Akivili immediately looked toward his close friend.
His close friend didn't think for long before sending the subordinates back to their posts.
He spoke to soothe the subordinates who crowded around him and refused to leave. The way he did it… was incredibly practiced.
After everyone dispersed and only the Strategist remained, his close friend sighed and said to him, "Akivili, this time, it's really thanks to you. If you hadn't been there…"
Akivili smiled.
"Oh, don't worry about it. By the way, that Shanfeng, he's the one I'm thinking of, right?"
Zero nodded, giving a firm answer.
Akivili's eyes lit up as he stared at him.
Zero felt helpless inside.
Akivili was very familiar with people and said whatever was on his mind.
Zero liked being around people like that the most. He didn't have to spend any mental effort, could shut his brain off completely, and chat without restraint.
That was why Akivili could freely enter and leave his residence.
Akivili's few flaws… were probably his obsession with making friends and with "Trailblazing."
His fixation on "Trailblazing" had reached a frightening level.
Zero guessed that even if the road ahead were filled with countless hardships and dangers, even if death were possible, Akivili would never stop. He would keep rushing forward on the path of exploring the unknown.
Ah, that was a bit worrying.
Without Akivili, the Xianzhou Alliance could never have grown to its current scale.
He laid down star rails, giving once-isolated star systems the chance to contact and interact with each other.
In public matters, Akivili was far more important than other Aeons.
In private, he was a rare close friend who let Zero stop using his brain.
In short, Akivili absolutely could not die.
Wait, given his personality, he definitely wouldn't miss a place like the "Imaginary Tree."
The risk was too great, yet Zero truly wanted release.
Looks like he needed to think of a way…
Zero let his thoughts wander. With no clear idea for now, he followed along with Akivili's line of thinking and took Akivili and Guanliang to find the culprit behind the disturbance.
He deliberately led the god and the man on a longer route, avoiding the shortcut filled with ruins and dust.
Holding the arrow, Zero walked while calculating the losses Lan had caused this time.
Even an Aeon had to be kept around to work and pay off the debt.
The one god and two people hadn't walked for long before they reached the neighboring estate.
Zero stepped into the courtyard first, first taking in the entire row of targets set up along the wall.
Then he approached the wall that was almost unrecognizable.
Enduring the dust, Zero looked toward his own estate.
Good grief, just one arrow, and several walls were wrecked.
Luckily, only walls collapsed. No one was hurt.
Zero turned around and looked at Lan and Hua, who stood to the side without saying a word.
He automatically ignored Guanliang, who stood next to Hua and was frantically signaling with his eyes.
The Strategist just wanted him to rein it in and not scare Hua.
What pointless worrying from subordinates.
He, Zero, never lost his temper.
Holding the arrow, he lightly tapped it against his palm, once after another.
With an extremely gentle smile, Zero asked softly, "Who was it?"
Lan and Hua slowly raised their hands.
Lan pointed at Hua.
Hua pointed at herself.
Zero's smile grew even gentler.
"So you're saying Hua is exceptionally gifted, born with divine strength, and after learning from you for just a few days, she could shoot an arrow that even you couldn't stop?"
He lowered his head and smiled, then looked up and said in an extremely cheerful tone, "Lan, honestly, I'm really suspicious of your motives."
Zero closed his eyes.
He shouldn't have said that.
Zero stopped tapping his palm with the arrow and casually tossed it onto the ground.
With a puzzled expression, he asked, "You're already so grown, oh, such an old god, why are you framing a child?"
Hua widened her eyes and instinctively grabbed Guanliang's sleeve.
Guanliang was completely confused. Soon, he cursed his superior inwardly.
In a very low voice, he asked Hua, "What? You don't know his identity?"
Hua seemed to realize something. She widened her eyes and shook her head.
Guanliang didn't say anything.
So the superior hadn't told Hua the identity of the "Reignbow Arbiter" at all.
He raised a finger and pointed at the bow in Hua's hands.
Hua, "..."
The teacher who taught her archery was the "Hunt" Aeon, the Xianzhou's "Reignbow Arbiter."
This extremely shocking truth left her mind completely blank.
When her thoughts finally resumed, only one idea remained.
She thought, 'The Xianzhou Alliance is really finished.'
When Hua looked up again, her unreliable guardian was smiling and chatting with the Aeon.
"Then use lesson fees to offset it, settled at the Xianzhou minimum wage."
"Strategist, I'll leave this to you."
"Oh, and don't let him chat idly with Hua just to pad the hours."
Lan, "..."
Neither he nor Hua had lied.
Over the past few days, he had been helping Hua solve problems with her schoolwork.
That was why he had only started teaching her archery today.
He just hadn't expected that even after deliberately holding back, the arrow still pierced through five or six walls, and even startled Hua so badly that she lost strength and released it.
As for the arrow in the Marshal's hand… that really was Hua's doing.
As he was thinking this, Zero turned and left. After Guanliang said a few words to Hua, he followed along.
Nearby, a gray-haired, golden-eyed youth, someone Lan had never seen before, came up beside him and started chatting in a very familiar way.
The youth said, "Relax, dear friend won't be angry with you. He just has a cleanliness obsession and is in a hurry to change clothes."
Lan thought, 'Someone who could call the Marshal "dear friend"… no, to be precise, a god.'
This Aeon must be Akivili, whom he had never met before.
The youth turned, squatted down, and as if by magic pulled out a cute gray bunny plush, offering it to Hua.
"Hello, I'm Akivili, your father's best friend..."
Hua felt her heart jolt at the name.
'Another Aeon...'
The "Trailblazing" Aeon, Akivili.
She didn't accept the gift rashly and only said, "He's not my father."
Akivili widened his eyes and tilted his head. "Eh?"
He smiled again, raised the little bunny in a pleading gesture, and said sincerely, "I'm really sorry, I misunderstood your relationship. Can you forgive me? Please, please~"
Hua, "..."
Her age didn't even add up to a fraction of this Aeon's… So why was he better than a child at saying such childish things?
Akivili held the bunny and leaned a bit closer to Hua, still maintaining a proper distance.
He continued, "Can you accept my apology?"
After he finished speaking, he saw the child's cold little face give an almost imperceptible nod, and she reached out to take the bunny herself.
He let out a chuckle, then stood up and proactively started a conversation.
Akivili had dealt with countless Nameless and knew how to chat with others.
This time, though, was a bit special.
There was an Aeon he'd never met before, and his close friend's child.
Akivili didn't want to neglect either of them. After thinking for a moment, he immediately decided to talk about his close friend who wasn't present.
Sure enough, both the god and the human reacted.
As the conversation warmed up, Akivili couldn't help sighing, "Dear friend is kind of like a noble young lady from a great clan, kept deep in the inner chambers…"
Lan, "..."
Hua, "..."
Lan's mind went completely blank.
He hesitated for a long while.
Lan wasn't good with words. After thinking for a long time, he finally sorted out the meaning and explained the two terms Akivili had used.
Akivili scratched his head awkwardly and asked, "Then… how should I put it?"
Hua thought, 'Not just the Xianzhou Alliance, this entire universe is finished.'