Before the two colleagues noticed anything unusual, Zero quickly withdrew his gaze.
A conclusion quickly formed in his mind.
There were only two possibilities. The first was that Fuli had tampered with things behind the scenes.
The second was that these two colleagues didn't understand the history of the Luofu.
Zero rarely got overly tangled up in details. He was more used to focusing his attention on the beneficiaries, then working backward from the outcome to infer the true motives of whoever was behind it.
'So, erasing Daiyang's existence on the Xianzhou… what was it for?'
'Who benefited from this? If it really was Fuli's doing… then what benefit would this bring to the Aeon of "Remembrance"?'
The answer was, none.
There were no beneficiaries, and no benefit at all.
Fuli and Nous would only send people out at specific points in time.
Looking back at both his past and present life, everything They had done had only one purpose, to stop Zero from ascending dimensions.
For example, the first time he met Fuli, something happened to Lan.
At the time, Lan shot an arrow at the "miracle" in the hearts of the Luofu people, Jianmu, provoking widespread anger.
But considering Lan's past achievements, as well as his status as the successor to the Yao Guang General, they didn't execute him directly, only made him fall into a deep slumber.
During that period, Fuli's people made their move, concealing this matter from Zero and his subordinates.
They knew nothing about it, and only learned the truth after everything had settled.
Zero and his subordinates were furious. Immediately after, at this special point in time, Fuli appeared and proactively made concessions, striking a deal with Zero.
If there had been no Fuli, if Lan had not become a god…
Zero would have attacked the Luofu the moment he learned of this and rescued Lan.
With Lan as an ally, he would likely have conquered the entire universe long ago. Why would he have had to make concessions again and again after Lan became a god, ending up constrained at every turn as he was today?
Working backward from the result to the motive… the two Aeons, relying on the information gap they controlled, repeatedly sent people to the Xianzhou, doing everything they could to delay the Colossus Project, thereby affecting the pace of his conquest of the starry sea.
But… erasing Daiyang's achievements brought no benefit whatsoever to Fuli, and on the contrary was very likely to anger Zero.
This went against Fuli's true objective. Therefore, it wasn't Their doing.
Just then, the jade token in his hand vibrated, interrupting Zero's thoughts.
It was Jingliu.
Zero wanted to give his beloved a surprise. He didn't send the renovation plans directly, only screenshotted a few images and asked for her opinion.
Among the images he sent, Jingliu chose the garden-style design plan.
Zero lowered his eyes, replied with a cat sticker, then passed Jingliu's choice on to the designer and asked about the construction timeline.
The designer said it would take several years to complete.
Zero couldn't help but think of jokes he'd seen before.
Like buying electronics for your partner in installments, then breaking up before you've even finished paying them off.
Like love not lasting as long as the construction period, having your partner pay the deposit for you, then breaking up before the product even ships.
Now, just wanting to give Jingliu a house meant waiting several years…
Zero was used to imagining all kinds of scenarios, so he couldn't avoid considering one question.
Would their relationship last longer than the construction period?
If they only made changes on the existing structure, it would probably be finished in a few months.
Zero took Dan Feng's advice and decided to tear the house down and rebuild it from scratch. That way, it would take much more time.
He had no choice but to double the payment and ask the designer if the schedule could be shortened.
The other party sounded very troubled and absolutely refused to budge.
Zero couldn't be bothered to keep arguing with the designer, so he turned to a company executive instead, asking him to negotiate on his behalf, and specifically told him not to leak this matter to Daiyang and the others.
Renovation matters like this… if Daiyang and Zhenzhen found out, they'd probably empty out an entire museum, wouldn't they?
After settling the renovation issue, Zero continued thinking about the unresolved problem from earlier.
Since Fuli had been ruled out, then it was very likely that his colleagues simply didn't understand Xianzhou history.
Just like Zero himself, he had deleted his own information from the textbooks, and in the publicly released will, he had instructed his subordinates to seal away information related to him.
But in the Divination Commission's archive, records related to him could still be found, only accessible to very few people.
As for Daiyang's materials… even though his colleagues were archive staff, they wouldn't necessarily remember every single dossier in the archive.
Their job was to record and file documents, classify them, and place them in specific locations for others to consult.
Everyone in the archive was a professional slacker. Only Zero, when he had nothing better to do, would pull out a few ancient texts to flip through.
It was like elective textbooks handed out at school. As long as they weren't included in the exam syllabus, teachers and students rarely wasted time flipping through them, focusing instead on what would be tested.
Zero did the math. From Daiyang's disappearance after the Starquake to today, more than a thousand years had passed.
During that time, the Luofu had gone through many generals.
It was only natural that some younger Xianzhou people, unaware of the full story, only knew the name Tengxiao.
Zero thought it over again and again, but it still didn't feel right.
A colleague nearby spoke up, interrupting his train of thought.
"Zero, we're going to get food from that new homestyle restaurant that opened near the Divination Commission. Want to come?"
Zero replied with a smile, "No, thanks."
He thought, 'Better check the dossiers.'
Zero first searched the equipment for dossiers from the corresponding years. After memorizing the sections where they were stored, he got up and went to the shelves.
He glanced at the countless dossiers piled on the shelves and couldn't help but sigh.
This was really a massive project.
Zero skimmed through the dossiers at lightning speed.
He stood at the shelves and read for an entire day, yet still never found Daiyang's name in the dossiers.
At the same time, he discovered that not only could he not see Daiyang's name, he also couldn't see the names of Zhenzhen, Marty, or any of the names in the Cangcheng Laboratory reports.
For a moment, Zero had no clue.
He once again ruled out Fuli as a suspect.
This brought no benefit at all to the Aeon of "Remembrance." It seemed that he simply hadn't read enough dossiers?
Urged by his colleagues, Zero put down the dossiers and left the Divination Commission.
After returning home, he remembered the final gift Marty had left him.
Zero took out the jade token and softly said, "Martyr, are you there?"
The electronic voice quickly replied, "Marshal, are you looking to activate the Aether Phase Engine?"
Zero, "...No."
His feelings were incredibly complicated.
'Marty, what is going on with you! How did you end up making an artificial intelligence so obsessed with starting the engine?!'
Whenever he thought of Martyr, Zero couldn't help but think of Marty and Chaoyan.
The two names were really too ominous.
He spoke up and asked, "How about changing your name?"
The electronic voice gave an affirmative reply, "Marshal, you can call me whatever you like."
Zero softly said, "What do you think of the name Matthias?"
Zero didn't believe in gods. If he had to say he believed in any Aeon, it would probably only be Akivili.
He thought it over again and again, and finally came up with this name with special meaning.
If Marty, in the language of its home planet, meant martyr, then by changing and adding a few letters, it took on a different meaning.
Matthias, meaning gift of God.
The electronic voice quickly responded, "Matthias means a gift from God, a blessing from heaven. It's a very good name."
"Thank you, Marshal. I really like it."
"You think of me as your gift, but our meeting again, wasn't that also your blessing?"
Zero, "???"