Zero took in the nearly-collapsing expressions of the Dragon Masters.
Some froze completely.
Some tried to struggle, saying that of course they wished to stay with Yubie, but since ancient times loyalty and righteousness can't both be fulfilled, if they followed Yubie in his shedding and rebirth, what would become of the Vidyadhara Clan? Wouldn't that be betraying Lord Dragon Sovereign's expectations?
Zero had always liked people of loyalty and righteousness, and was always willing to help others fulfill their wishes.
He raised his eyes and looked toward the man who had spoken.
That man was exactly the villain Zero had originally planned to deal with on behalf of Lord Imbibitor Lunae.
Zero chuckled lightly. "Simple. I'll grant your wish."
His gaze fell upon the Vidyadhara clanswoman who had received Yubie's order to bring him wine.
'Most likely one of Yubie's attendants?'
Her body was stiff, her expression nervous. After handing over the wine, she couldn't advance or retreat, and could only stand frozen in place.
Zero looked at Yubie's attendant and said to her, "Then you will take this Dragon Master's position, to fulfill his heart of loyalty and righteousness."
Both she and the named Dragon Master widened their eyes in disbelief.
Yubie's attendant instinctively lifted a hand to point at herself, her voice trembling. "W–wait… you mean… me?"
Zero patiently encouraged her. "You can learn. They will teach you carefully."
He looked again at the other Dragon Masters who were in a panic. "Am I right?"
The Dragon Masters, who had just escaped death, all nodded at once.
This time, Daiyang did not summon the Divine Lord. She personally drew her blade and, in one breath, completed the handover of the Dragon Master's post.
After encouraging the newly appointed Dragon Master, Zero lifted the wine jar, its surface stained with soil, and slowly walked outside.
His expression did not change as he stepped over pools of blood, brushing past Dragon Masters who were breathing out more than in.
Zero left the Vidyadhara Clan's territory with his subordinates.
When no one else was around, Daiyang cautiously said, "Marshal, it was my negligence. I..."
Zero sighed and interrupted her. "In the end, it's all the Vidyadhara Clan's fault. Why should you be the one to reflect on it?"
How could his subordinates be at fault? The fault always lay with others.
Even if his subordinates were at fault, it was because others had deliberately set them up.
This time, Zero didn't return to Yaoqing right away. He stayed in Luofu.
From time to time, he sent people to urge the Vidyadhara Clan, and even gave them money, telling the Dragon Masters to quickly donate all their property to build a statue of Yubie.
How could they dare accept his money? They immediately added several more zeros and returned it to him.
They worked with unprecedented speed, and within a few days, they had carved a stone statue of Yubie in the Scalegorge Waterscape.
The Dragon Masters claimed that after Yubie's shedding and rebirth, they were so grief-stricken they couldn't sleep at night, wishing they could follow their Dragon Lord into rebirth right away.
But considering the many duties of the Vidyadhara Clan, they had no choice but to spend all their fortunes to commemorate Yubie with the statue.
On the day the statue was completed, Zero made a special trip to the Scalegorge Waterscape. He brought the still-sealed jar of wine and poured it all before the statue.
After admiring the Dragon Masters' forced smiles, his thoughts began to wander.
'When members of the Vidyadhara Clan shed and are reborn, are their past and present lives truly the same person?'
Once, Zero had asked Yubie that very question.
At the time, Yubie said that the clan believed their past and present selves were not the same person.
Then he had added, ("What, are you afraid I'll be greedy for your wine and won't give it back? Don't worry. Even if someone else offered me a fortune, I wouldn't break our promise.")
Zero thought to himself, 'You broke it anyway.'
Rounding it up, Yubie owed him about ten thousand coins of gold. This debt, then, would be written on the next Lord Imbibitor Lunae's head.
He turned and left the Scalegorge Waterscape.
The Dragon Masters all let out a heavy sigh of relief, except for Yubie's attendant, who remained where she stood.
Having witnessed the Marshal's overwhelming presence firsthand, her mind went blank, she completely forgot the task Lord Imbibitor Lunae had entrusted to her.
She pulled out a letter. She knew that this letter, which the Dragon Lord had not yet sent, would probably take a long, long time before it reached its intended person.
With her status, how could she possibly see the ever-busy Marshal of the Xianzhou?
After returning to Yaoqing, Zero continued his work.
He had thought that the next time he came close to death or attended a funeral would be a hundred years later.
He hadn't expected death to arrive so soon.
This time, it was a company shareholder.
As one of the wealthiest elite in the entire universe, his family had means to extend life far beyond that of ordinary people.
But money couldn't save a life that was already withering away. Gravely ill, the shareholder insisted on coming to Yaoqing for treatment and requested to meet Zero.
Zero didn't refuse. With that overly young face of his, he looked across at the old man lying on the hospital bed, breathing through an oxygen mask.
The shareholder forced a smile and sighed. "Marshal, I still remember the first time I met you…"
Zero's gaze swept over the man's wrist, still attached to an IV. He had no intention of indulging the man's sentimentality.
He bluntly killed the conversation. "I remember, you came to Yaoqing with your father. The moment you saw me, you clung to his leg and cried."
The shareholder choked, his old face flushing red, and gave a bitter smile.
"…Forget it, forget it. When you're old, you can't help but reminisce. You've never liked hearing such things; I shouldn't have said that."
As he spoke, he gestured for a subordinate to bring over a thick envelope.
The shareholder took it, coughed several times, and waved off the subordinates trying to help him.
Holding the envelope in both hands, he extended it toward Zero.
Zero took it, puzzled.
The shareholder said, "This is my daughter's dowry."
Zero, "…"
He handed the envelope back.
The shareholder didn't take it. Ignoring the Xianzhou Marshal's cold reputation, he said, "I know you have no patience for people crossing your boundaries or defying your wishes over and over again… But, seeing as I'm a dying man, please, just hear me out."
Zero said nothing and passed the envelope to the shareholder's aide.
The shareholder continued, "Fifteen percent of the shares in the Interstellar Peace Company, enough for the Xianzhou to sway the company's decisions..."
"Oh, and assets spread across the entire universe…"
"As for jewelry, after you abolished slavery, I imagine many nations have already given you enough of that. So I won't mention the deposits and other trivial things."
Expressionless, Zero met the shareholder's gaze.
This was the same shareholder who had once sweated bullets just from sharing a meal with him, yet now, not only did he not back down, he stubbornly forced out his final words, "If you are willing to marry my daughter, then all of this will belong to you, and to the Xianzhou."
Zero felt genuinely baffled.
The shareholder had mentioned a marriage proposal before; Zero had refused, saying not to bring it up again.
So why now, even at the risk of angering him, was the man still trying to marry off his daughter to him?
Zero refused directly.
The shareholder wasn't surprised. He sighed. "I used to think... for a daughter, raising her in wealth and marrying her off to a good man would be enough."
When facing someone near death, Zero was always patient.
He paused, then for once spoke more than usual to an outsider.
Shaking his head, he said, "That way of thinking, I've never shared it. When I judge whether a conclusion is right or biased, I only replace the subject and see if it still holds true."
"For example, if someone says people of a certain age or gender are destined to fail, and I replace that with 'Xianzhou people are destined to fail,' then the statement is false, narrow-minded."
"I've never thought age or gender are problems. As long as there's enough ability, even the Marshal's position, I could hand it over."
The shareholder sighed deeply. "Yes… until I saw your subordinates, I realized how utterly wrong I was."
"Women aren't expected by society to strive or improve."
"I spoiled her too much. She always wanted the best of everything, even her sweetheart had to be the best."
"What could I do? I can only give up this old life to fight for a bit of hope for her."
Zero automatically ignored the part about the "sweetheart." He understood now.
The shareholder wasn't asking for a political marriage.
His family coveted the massive fortune, and his daughter couldn't protect it alone.
Zero looked at the aging man before him and, for a moment, it was as if he saw not a dying elder, but a hot-blooded young man.
They had worked together for many years; the shareholder knew what lines should never be crossed, yet he still asked again if Zero would accept the marriage.
He was willing to sacrifice his family's entire fortune, risk angering Zero, just to secure his daughter's future.
Now that Zero refused the marriage, the shareholder took a step back and begged him instead to protect his daughter.
Naturally, Zero would not refuse.
Setting aside their long-standing partnership, the company had also funded relief supplies for post-disaster planets, that alone warranted his help.
For the shareholder to persuade the profit-obsessed Interstellar Peace Company to do such a thing must have taken great effort.
His act of righteousness deserved to be remembered by those native people for generations to come.
All Zero needed to do was express his stance and pull her out of danger, that was enough.
For the Marshal of the Xianzhou, nothing could be simpler.
As long as the shareholder asked, he would not refuse.
Zero had once liked to "tear people's roofs off," but he hadn't expected that one day, someone would tear his off too.
His emotions were complicated. Then the shareholder spoke again, "If you ever have a daughter, don't spoil her too much… Don't be like me, sending thirty or forty bodyguards to pick her up from school…"
Zero couldn't help saying, "Thirty or forty is a bit much, isn't it? I think a dozen bodyguards would do…"
The shareholder sighed wistfully.
"Isn't that the truth? I shouldn't have indulged her. Every birthday, my wife and I would buy her a dozen houses, a dozen shopping streets. They say 'raise sons poor, raise daughters rich,' but there should be a limit!"
"Who could ever live in over a hundred houses? Just managing the rent from all those shopping streets, I had to assign people from my own team to handle it for that unfilial girl."
Zero followed the man's words and thought quietly, soon drawing a conclusion.
He would never refer to his successor as son or daughter.
He knew he lacked the patience and the proper mindset to raise children, nor could he bear that kind of responsibility.
Be it friend or disciple, he would never see the other as his own child.
If the successor were male, he'd send him to a remote galaxy for training, to experience hardship firsthand, so he wouldn't end up like Lan, ignorant of the value of daily life.
If female, then raise her in wealth.
As for allowance… whatever the Xianzhou's minimum wage was, that's what she'd get.
As he pondered, the shareholder interrupted his thoughts.
He spoke with full sincerity. "Ten percent of the shares."
He was willing to give up ten percent of his company shares in exchange for the Marshal's protection.
Their family's position in the company had always been thanks to the Xianzhou, so in the end, this was merely returning things to their rightful place.
Zero shook his head. "No. I don't want shares."
The shareholder gritted his teeth. "Then… the entire family fortune?"
Zero looked at him silently, then shook his head again.
"I want one round of the Arrow Whistle."
The shareholder was stunned, staring blankly at Zero.
He froze for a long while, then, with trembling hands, reached for the clan-emblazoned necklace around his neck.
Laboriously lifting his arms, he tried to remove it.
His subordinate hurried to help him take it off.
Coughing, the shareholder held up the necklace, an heirloom worn only by the head of the family, and said solemnly, "As proof by this item, all my descendants, for generations to come, if ever you call upon them… they will go through fire and water for you, if they break this oath, may they die without a burial place."
He insisted that Zero take their ancestral treasure, acting as though if Zero didn't accept, he'd collapse right there and guilt him into it.
Zero had no choice but to accept it.
Before leaving, he said, "You didn't need to go to such trouble. A friend entrusts me with their child, how could I refuse?"
The shareholder froze.
Not until his subordinate carefully took out tissues to wipe his tears did he lift a hand to his face, realizing how twisted his expression had become.
"Friend? Did he just say… friend?"
He laughed and cried at once.
"I've never done a losing deal before. As expected of the Marshal… Such conduct, such grace… it only makes me look like some scheming petty man… Truly… I'm ashamed."
———
The next time Zero heard news of the shareholder was through an obituary.
The man hadn't returned to his home planet for the funeral, it was held right there on Yaoqing.
Zero guessed it was because he feared Zero might change his mind, so he simply stayed on Yaoqing instead?
Zero's appearance was a top secret, but many had seen the face of his Chief Strategist.
Anyone who saw the Chief Strategist could infer who Zero was.
So he brought the Chief Strategist along to attend the funeral, to show support for the shareholder's daughter.
For a tycoon of that level, few at the funeral truly wept for him.
Rather than a funeral, it was more like a social event for networking.
Zero accepted a white flower from a staff member, followed the process, and signed his name in the registry.
He swept his gaze across the hall, easily recognizing the shareholder's family members by comparing their faces to his.
Naturally, the daughter he'd spoiled so much was among them.
That was when Zero noticed she had pink hair.
He walked straight toward her, ignoring all the people trying to approach him because they'd recognized the Chief Strategist.
When the pink-haired girl saw him, her eyes lit up for a moment.
Then she gave a small nod and led him toward the altar.
Others had already laid flowers for the deceased.
Zero placed his among them.
What should he say? Your father loved you very much? Or My condolences?
He thought about it, and decided that people who've lost loved ones don't like hollow comfort.
He raised a hand and gently patted the pink-haired girl on the shoulder.
"I don't know what you're thinking, whether you want to marry a good man, or try a different path."
"Whatever you choose, I'll help you."
Zero paused, realizing his words could be misinterpreted, and quickly added to draw a clear line, "Lastly, as an elder, I can only tell you this, if a person is always obsessed with love, or with being acknowledged, then no matter how many credit points they have, it's meaningless."
When he finished, he saw her staring straight at him, tears streaming down her face.
Zero, "…"
He was utterly confused. 'What did I say wrong this time?'
'Strategist! Where are you? Save me!'