Half an hour earlier, Guanliang arrived at Hua's temporary residence right on schedule, as usual.
He crossed the courtyard and walked through the covered corridors. A few minutes later, he reached the pond and happened to run into a guard feeding the koi.
Guanliang stopped, casually took half the fish feed, and while helping his colleague feed the fish, asked, "Where's the Marshal?"
His colleague replied, "Marshal Hua is dining at the viewing platform."
After saying that, he paused briefly, raised a hand to press against his earpiece, listened intently for a moment, then lowered his voice.
"General Tengxiao has arrived. He says he's run into something he genuinely has no idea how to handle…"
Hearing this, Guanliang's eyelid twitched.
'Good grief.'
Other than his former superior... Who else could make a Xianzhou general hesitate like this?
To the point that he personally came to ask his superior for instructions?
His colleague continued, "He needs you and the Marshal to make the decision."
The corner of Guanliang's mouth twitched slightly.
"…Understood."
He turned and headed toward the main building, eventually arriving at the viewing platform on the top floor.
Hua sat properly at the dining table, head lowered as she looked at her jade abacus, seemingly handling official business.
The attendants carefully cleared away the dishes on the table. When they saw Guanliang, they gave him slight nods.
Guanliang nodded back, pulled out a chair, and sat beside Hua.
Before the attendants could leave, the Luofu General arrived.
Tengxiao was drenched in sweat, his chest heaving violently as he strode toward the two men in three quick steps.
Guanliang made a hand gesture. The attendants immediately understood. After exchanging glances, they left one person behind to prepare tea for the three of them.
Hua set down her jade abacus and lifted her chin slightly.
"Sit."
Tengxiao obeyed and sat down, carefully placing something onto the dining table with an unusually gentle motion.
Hua followed his movement and looked over.
A document pouch.
Understanding immediately dawned on her.
So these were the materials needed to apply for marriage registration.
What a shame. At the moment, only she and Tengxiao knew about this matter.
Now it was Guanliang's turn.
Hua kept her expression neutral and said in a half-joking tone, "What kind of problem could possibly stump our Luofu General?"
Tengxiao gave a bitter smile.
"Marshal, you clearly already guessed it… Please, see for yourself…"
Hua made no move to touch it and instead looked toward Guanliang.
Guanliang took the document pouch himself and pulled out part of the paper files inside. After one glance, his whole body froze instantly.
Holding back laughter, Hua softly asked, "What's wrong?"
Guanliang suddenly remembered what Zandar had once said, and his ears buzzed.
With Zero's mental state, how could he possibly think about getting married?
Then there was only one possibility.
'That guy had actually been...'
Guanliang was utterly shaken. Right in front of Tengxiao, he accidentally called the current Marshal by name.
"Hua…", His voice sounded strangely unsteady.
"I remember you once said he might not necessarily be able to beat that girl…"
But that lunatic Zero could still crawl back up and stab a gold automaton to death even while on the verge of dying.
'The combat strength of the Luofu Sword Champion... was a little too terrifying, wasn't it?!'
Guanliang turned toward Tengxiao and uncertainly asked, "Is this what your Luofu Cloud Knights are like?"
Hua was baffled.
'Isn't it just a marriage application?'
'There was no need to look this... devastated, was there?'
'The way Guanliang phrased it made it sound more like a father being forced into marriage...'
Tengxiao also couldn't understand why Guanliang's reaction was so extreme.
Holding the teacup that had already been refilled four times, he opened his mouth, hesitated, then stopped himself.
He wanted to say, 'What exactly did the Luofu Cloud Knights ever do to you?'
But the other party was a highly respected elder with immense seniority, so Tengxiao could only carefully choose his words in his head over and over before finally forcing out one sentence, "…Please don't misunderstand. Marriage among the Luofu Cloud Knights is no different from the other Xianzhou ships."
"They're mutually in love. Everything is being handled through the normal process."
Guanliang looked dazed.
Inside, he was roaring.
'This wasn't a matter of mutual love at all!'
Hua finally extended a hand and took the documents from Guanliang.
Seeing this, Tengxiao immediately pushed Guanliang out of his mind and began reporting to his superior.
First, proceed according to standard procedures.
Second, make a special exception for the Emanator of the Reignbow Arbiter, the Luofu Sword Champion, and the highly decorated Cloud Knight, bypass the cumbersome process entirely, and allow them to register the marriage directly.
Those were the two solutions Tengxiao had come up with earlier.
He called it seeking instructions from his superior... but if your own head was empty and you didn't even have a basic plan in mind, expecting your boss to come up with ideas for you, then your career was basically over.
Normally, the records of a Diviner and a Cloud Knight would never make it to the Xianzhou Marshal's desk.
But this Diviner's identity was special. And the Diviner also happened to have a close relationship with the Marshal.
Tengxiao had tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. He stayed awake until dawn, and the moment he stepped out of the General's Manor in the morning, he ran straight into someone sent by Dan Feng.
Looking down, he saw that it was the premarital medical examination report for that person and Jingliu.
Tengxiao had no intention of verifying its authenticity.
He didn't care.
Whether marriage examinations could only be done on working days, whether reports couldn't possibly be issued overnight, whether the Cloud Knights had only returned to the Luofu yesterday...
None of that mattered.
Tengxiao only had one thought in his mind.
Only the Marshal was qualified to decide this matter.
What he never expected, however, was that Grand Astrologer Xiaolin, who should have simply cooperated with the process, refused outright.
Xiaolin called him through voice communication, his tone unpleasant.
"General, I think it's necessary to conduct counseling sessions for all Cloud Knights and give them several more psychological evaluations..."
Tengxiao, "…"
Xiaolin added another sentence, "Oh, and the Alchemy Commission too. General, healers can't heal themselves!"
Tengxiao thought to himself that the department truly in need of psychological evaluations was clearly the Divination Commission.
His instincts told him something was wrong, so he asked, "Minister Xiao, what happened?"
At first Xiaolin refused to say anything. After Tengxiao carefully probed several times, Xiaolin finally let out a cold snort.
"All packages entering the Six Commissions undergo inspection. You know that, right?"
Tengxiao cooperated. "I know."
Xiaolin was furious, "Your Cloud Knights sent my subordinate the severed limbs of an abomination!"
Tengxiao's expression sharpened.
How could his Cloud Knights do something like that?
Anyone capable of bringing abomination remains into the Luofu definitely didn't hold a low rank.
Xiaolin continued, "My subordinate immediately requested leave afterward! He even missed the chance to meet the Marshal!"
Tengxiao, "..."
He more or less knew who the two people involved were now.
The more Xiaolin spoke, the angrier he became, "She even asked me for my subordinate's address!"
"How could I possibly give that to her?"
Xiaolin was filled with righteous indignation, "And your Cloud Knights still weren't satisfied!"
"The moment they returned to the Luofu, they came to the Divination Commission to request leave on behalf of my subordinate."
"And that's not even the worst part."
"The worst part is that she actually asked me to sign and stamp my subordinate's marriage application!"
Xiaolin enunciated every word clearly.
"General, do Xianzhou people no longer need to be physically present to get married now?"
Tengxiao, "..."