Zandar muttered, "The Xianzhou again… well, that makes sense. You've already made exceptions for the Xianzhou too many times. It's just dating, after all…"
Zero understood inwardly.
Just as he'd thought, he would only ever make exceptions for the Xianzhou.
Zandar teased him, "So many people chased after you before, and you didn't agree to any of them. I even thought you'd never fall in love with any organic or inorganic being. I really didn't expect this…"
He reacted extremely quickly and said in a tone full of certainty, "I know now. It's that 'Hunt' Emanator."
Zero confirmed Zandar's words.
The other party had guessed Jingliu's identity.
He wasn't surprised by this.
After all, this was someone who had teamed up with him to kill gods… it would be strange if he couldn't guess it.
After receiving confirmation, Zandar subconsciously switched to his mother tongue. He first exclaimed a few times in it, then sighed with emotion, "I only hope that your child will be smarter than you."
Teaching an Eric who wasn't suited for scientific research was already giving Zandar a headache.
He didn't want to repeat that mistake again.
Zero couldn't help but sigh.
His views were different from most people's.
For most people, when they thought of marriage, they would subconsciously associate it with having children, as if the two naturally equaled one another.
Zero knew he wouldn't be a qualified marriage partner, but for Jingliu, he was trying.
He might not even be a qualified husband, so why challenge something even harder, the role of a father?
On top of that, he didn't have much obsession with carrying on a family line.
Of course, if Jingliu liked the idea, Zero would also try, and work hard to be a good father.
It was just that he didn't know what their child would end up being taught into…
And Jingliu's age meant she couldn't take any more risks.
If Jingliu were to fall into mara because of pregnancy and childbirth…
Zero pulled his thoughts back and stopped thinking any further.
His tone was calm, "Then you probably won't get to see that. Childbirth causes a lot of harm to a woman's body."
Zandar fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a tone of frustration at his stubbornness, "Eric, aren't your views a bit too rigid? Is giving birth the only way to nurture new life?"
Zero had no choice but to admit his true thoughts. He sighed and said to Zandar, "Alright, actually, I just don't like children."
Zandar didn't take it seriously and said, "Oh? Is that so? Then how is it that I remember someone always treating children and women differently?"
He sincerely suggested, "I've heard that once men have children, they become more mature and more responsible. Honestly, you two really should have a child. Oh, one might not be enough. Have a few more."
Zero was very confused.
Was he really not mature enough, or not responsible enough?
In his previous life, he had held on until he found a successor, waited until that person could stand on their own, and only then, satisfied, walked toward death.
If he could live on for the sake of the Xianzhou, wasn't that responsible enough?
And now, when he was in the archive, it wasn't like he slacked off every single second either.
Besides, he and Jingliu weren't even engaged yet. Why were they already rushing him to have kids?
Zero reacted quickly and said to Zandar in an extremely light, cheerful tone, "I think my paper is perfect. The first author should definitely be your name, Zandar!"
The moment Zandar heard this, he immediately backed down.
This was first author. First author. Completely different from second author or acknowledgements.
"…Let's talk things through properly. Don't put my name on it."
After saying this, as if afraid Zero would really ruin his reputation, he changed the topic and brought up a term that both Fuli and Aha had mentioned before, fate.
Zandar said, "Fate is predetermined, like the program settings you and I write. It can't be changed. Eric, only you, only ascension to higher dimensions, can change the current situation."
"The struggles of everyone else are like grains of sand in towering waves. They don't make any difference. No matter how much effort they put in, it's all useless. Of course, there are a few special cases, but they need to pay efforts thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times greater than ordinary people."
Zero listened quietly without speaking.
Zandar understood his student's personality and knew that his few words alone wouldn't convince him, so he continued, "For example, whether the 'Destruction' Aeon appears or not depends entirely on you."
"Other than you, no one else will help other star systems resist natural disasters. When you deal with the insect plague and the mechanical intelligences in the star system where its home planet is ahead of time, it won't appear."
Zandar paused, his tone extremely light, "Oh, and according to your habits, you'd also help those planets build roads and schools. It's possible that before that, it was even studying in a school you helped build?"
Zero, "..."
'The Destruction Aeon going to school…'
'What kind of nonsense is that…'
'Zandar, you really are something. Why don't you just say Lan doesn't blow up stars?'
But thinking about it, it did make sense. How could a happy planet that had never suffered hardship give birth to an Aeon determined to destroy all civilizations?
Zandar continued, "This time, because you..."
His words abruptly stopped.
Because his subordinate died beneath the colossus, Eric hadn't continued handling the disaster.
Zandar didn't bring up his student's painful memories. He skipped that sentence midway and said, "This time, you handled the insect plague and the mechanical intelligences in two separate phases, so the 'Destruction' Aeon appeared."
Zandar comforted Zero, "You don't need to feel guilty over the planets destroyed by the 'Destruction' Aeon."
"If it weren't for you, those earlier planets wouldn't have been saved at all. The company wouldn't have offered them aid either. Even if they managed to defeat the enemy with their own strength, they would still live very hard lives."
He slowed his tone. "Eric, you did your best."
Zero remained silent.
Zandar jumped topics again and brought up ascension to higher dimensions, "I've witnessed too many failures. Every failure brings us closer to success. To be honest, I think this time is the closest we've ever been."
Then his tone shifted.
"Before today, I never thought about giving up. But today, personally, I'm more inclined to give up on the ascension plan."
Zero had already had a premonition of this.
When the other party said he would let Zero decide whether to carry out the ascension plan, Zero already felt that Zandar might not be fixated on ascension.
But when he heard Zandar say this himself, he was still surprised.
The situation the two of them were facing now was like playing a gacha game.
Their small pity had already gone off-banner. They kept pulling until they were close to the hard pity, and then they hit a disagreement.
Do they keep grinding the map to 100% exploration and farm a few more pulls? Or do they stop here?
Most people would choose to keep trying.
As Zero thought, he asked, "Why?"
Zandar slowed his speech, "No one can guarantee a 100% success rate, Eric. Just like those students doing control experiments in laboratories..."
"Even if they follow every step of a successful experiment exactly, such as bowing to the instruments, praying to them, and methodically repeating every action… it's still very hard to get the same experimental results."
He suddenly brought up a problem Zero had never considered.
"Let's put aside the possibility of failure for now. After ascension succeeds, you may face many problems."
"Humans break free from the shackles of fate, but then… what about the Aeons?"
Zero closed his eyes and spoke the guess in his heart, "You mean, they might no longer be bound by their Paths?"
Zandar gave an affirmative answer.
"Yes. Of course, this is only my speculation."
Zero thought for a moment and reacted quickly, "I understand. If we decide to ascend, then we'll need to deal with all the Aeons except Fuli and Lan."
He suddenly remembered that Zandar was the creator of the Aeons and added, "Oh, and the 'Erudition' Aeon too."
Zandar didn't seem to care much about his creations.
He said, "The Aeons aren't the real issue. The one that needs attention is you."
Zero fell silent.
Here, he didn't age or die.
But what about after returning to the higher-dimensional world?
Would he lose that ageless, undying trait and die after ascension succeeded?
To be honest, Zero didn't care.
For him, wasn't death also a form of release?
Zero was used to considering things that hadn't happened yet and quickly gave an answer,
"Then I'll choose euthanasia."
Zandar let out a deep sigh, "You really are something, Eric. Fine then. Now, open that piece of trash of yours, and I'll talk to you about your problems."
Zero cooperated very well and opened the document.
Since Zandar had told him so much… he wouldn't mess with him today.
He listened seriously and discovered that Zandar's thinking… was even more abstract than his.
Zandar was like someone who dumped everything he thought of straight out to Zero without any mental filtering.
When chatting, his topics jumped even faster than Zero's.
One moment he was talking about the paper, the next he was discussing another book from the reading list.
After finishing the paper and the books, Zandar started telling him fables.
Before Zero could make any sense of the fables, Zandar asked about his past again.
"By the way, have you disposed of your medical supplies?"
Zero struggled to pull his thoughts back from the fable and didn't react immediately.
He asked in confusion, "Huh? What medical supplies?"
Zandar patiently explained, "The bandages and gauze you used before, things like that."
Zero didn't understand.
Used bandages and gauze… stained with blood, of course those counted as medical waste.
They had obviously been disposed of long ago.
Zero replied, "Yeah, they've all been taken care of."
He sensed something was off and was just about to ask when Zandar started telling another story, then went back to talking about the paper again.
Zero, "..."
His CPU was about to burn out.
He split his focus, thinking about the fables while answering Zandar's questions.
After chatting for a long time, Zero couldn't help but sigh, no wonder he was a genius.
Zandar's way of thinking… really wasn't something an ordinary person like him could keep up with.
Zero braced himself and listened as Zandar went through the paper from start to finish, telling several more fables along the way.
In the middle, he also asked Zero many random, out-of-the-blue questions.
For example, what his definition of a god was.
Zero said, "A being without emotions, that doesn't form feelings toward other existences, that's a god."
Zandar casually said, "I think any existence that possesses power far beyond what ordinary people can reach is a god."
He continued talking about the paper until Zero was dizzy, then paused and said, "Let me tell you another story."
Zero closed his eyes and responded with a quiet "Mm."
This time, in Zandar's story, the protagonist willingly sacrificed himself to save a world that had no connection to him at all.
Zero couldn't help complaining, "Zandar, where are you even finding these? Stories about sacrificing one person to save the world went out of style ages ago."
Zandar methodically analyzed the protagonist's thoughts and motivations.
"The protagonist has the moral sense that normal people possess. He isn't lacking in love, he grew up surrounded by love, so he isn't stingy with his own. He has a heart that is as pure and kind as can be. Precisely because of this, he makes the decision to sacrifice himself."
The corner of Zero's mouth twitched. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
Zandar, as expected of you… even the most clichéd story can be analyzed so thoroughly.
Zero calmly changed the topic, "…Alright. The paper has already been revised from beginning to end according to your requirements. Zandar, is there anything else?"
Zandar was silent for a moment, then said, "This is your first engagement. You must ask more people and don't neglect your partner."
Zero thought to himself, how could he possibly neglect Jingliu?
He said, "Someone's already in charge of these things."
Zandar fell silent again. After quite a while, he finally spoke, "That's good. You absolutely mustn't neglect them. It's best to ask elders about their experience."
Zero froze.
'An elder, isn't it Zandar himself?'
Well damn. So that's what he was after, he wanted to attend Zero's engagement banquet.
He wanted to come, but instead of saying it directly, he beat around the bush, waiting for Zero to invite him first.
Would Zero go along with Zandar's line of thinking?
If he didn't mess with him, would he still be Zero?
He mercilessly poked through Zandar's intentions.
"If you want to come, just say it."
Anyway, as an ordinary diviner, he couldn't even gather enough people to fill one table. He definitely needed to pull in a few more to make up the numbers.
Zandar pretended to be surprised, "I'm very busy. I might not have time to go to the Luofu."
Zero was speechless. In the end, he still gave his teacher some face and proactively told him the engagement date.
Zandar clicked his tongue and said, "This timing… really is perfect. I can finish the experiment and send the core to you."
His tone was filled with barely concealed delight.
"Then I'll reluctantly go attend your engagement ceremony."
Zero, "…You really don't have to force yourself."
'Talking about sending the core…'
'Zandar, you probably never even used it, did you?'
'Otherwise how could it be such a coincidence? That you could return it to the Xianzhou right when he got engaged?'
Zero chatted with him a bit more, then found an excuse to hang up.
When he looked at the time on the jade terminal again, it was five in the morning. It should've been getting light already.
His head was spinning. He checked the date, confirmed that today was a rest day, and slowly lay down.
He slept until he woke up naturally. When he opened his eyes again, the jade terminal had received a message from Hua.
She said that after some time, she would have the Luofu Cloud Knights go to battle.
Zero had no objections.
Hua was the Xianzhou's marshal and naturally had to shoulder her responsibilities. The Cloud Knights under her command likewise had their duties.
Even if Jingliu was his lover, there would be no exceptions.
Besides that, Hua also mentioned Yingxing.
[Hua: I think we can make an exception for this generation's Hundredsmith and let him be buried in Locufox Forest.]
Locufox Forest was a resting place exclusive to the people of the Xianzhou.
Zero immediately guessed Hua's intentions.
[Zero: You're planning to let everyone else who contributed to the Xianzhou be buried in Locufox Forest too, right? I have no objections.]