The old woman's hair was gray, the skin on the back of her hand like dried orange peel, veins bulging in bluish-purple.
With one glance, he could tell, the other's body was nearly at the point of collapse.
The old woman struggled to find the Strategist, wanting to see Zero one last time before the end.
Zero asked if the other had changed her mind.
She slowly shook her head and said, "I am very grateful to the Lord Marshal, and to the Lord Strategist for your help. For you to agree to this excessive request of mine… it must have been very difficult for you, right?"
Zero shook his head to deny it.
The old woman went on, "I was once a husband's wife, later a son's mother."
"My husband went to the battlefield, my son followed as well. I just waited and waited, waited a whole lifetime. But this time, I don't want to be someone's wife, someone's mother. I want to make my own decision. I don't want to wait anymore."
She turned to talk about Lan, "Lan always mentioned you to me. In his words, you didn't seem like someone with joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. You were like a god seated high upon an altar."
"But you are human… Lan always wanted to tell you, think for yourself once in a while, don't always just think about the Xianzhou."
The old woman suddenly laughed. The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepened. She started joking, as if she had become again that teenage girl Zero and Lan had first met long ago, "This time I won't wait. Let Lan go cry. Lord Marshal, you must beat him up for me, this unfilial son, beat him."
Zero looked at her quietly, and agreed.
The old woman spoke for a long while, then gasping, her breath weak like silk, she asked, "Lord Marshal, my son, does he make you proud?"
Zero answered without hesitation, "Of course. He is my most outstanding subordinate."
The old woman could not suppress her coughing. Zero instinctively reached out to help, but was refused.
With those cloudy yet still faintly shining eyes, she stubbornly looked at Zero and asked, "What he did, did it have meaning?"
'Did what Lan did… have meaning?'
Frankly speaking, the player had never thought about this question.
After learning about the events of Luofu, Zero was greatly puzzled. Even he, when facing high-level NPCs, had to yield somewhat.
Not to mention NPCs with even higher stats.
With the body of a human, trying to shake the miracles of the divine.
Trying to use shallow, pale words to block the Xianzhou people who had chased longevity for generations.
Was it meaningful?
Zero thought not.
In the game, the player is the absolute controller. Besides him, the thoughts of the vast majority were unimportant. Their struggles had no meaning.
But facing a sickly, dying old woman, he heard himself firmly say, "It had great meaning. He saved countless Xianzhou people."
Hearing this, the old woman relaxed. Her breath weak, she unknowingly sank into sleep.
Zero deliberately slowed his movements, silently left, and went back to deal with affairs.
When Zero later heard the news of the old woman's death, the Strategist spoke a few words more.
"According to ancient sayings, at her age it counts as a happy passing. In her sleep, no illness, no disaster. Quite good."
Zero thought it over and over, asked his subordinates, and decided to give up on using a planet to settle the old woman.
Better to bury her in Yaoqing.
Her husband and son were both Yaoqing people, then let her rest in Yaoqing.
Zero personally, together with his subordinates, arranged the funeral for the old woman. Following ancient systems and customs, they saw her on her final journey.
Immediately after, they once more threw themselves into heavy work.
The question Lan's mother asked before her death, Zero quickly pushed to the back of his mind.
———
By the time he thought of that question again, thousands of years had passed.
How long was that? Long enough for Zero to clear away dozens of waves of Aeons' infiltrators in the Xianzhou.
Long enough to go through countless assassination attempts.
Long enough for the Abundance Abominations to forget their earlier lessons and try to stir up conflict once again.
Long enough for the Xianzhou to nearly lose control. Mm, fortunately, nothing too major happened in the end.
Long enough for Xianzhou people who had gained longevity, after finishing a bowl of thin porridge, to rise up in rebellion.
Long enough…
Those subordinates who once drank beneath the moon with him in Yaoqing, many of them died beneath Colossi.
Their bodies never recovered.
Zero tried to use the resurrection item Heaven-Mending Fang.
That was a divine weapon from another world, usable only once per person. If one had a heart of pure compassion, it could save a hundred lives at once.
But he failed. He could not use this item.
Zero then tried other items, and finally came to a conclusion, items from another world would have greatly reduced effects in this game world. But if one met the right person, they could unleash their full power.
He stared at the four words "Heart of Compassion," and silently closed his inventory.
Too much time had passed. He could not even recall their faces and voices, could only open the system or call up their files, looking at those pale words that summarized their lives.
Zero could not remember what he felt the first time he learned his subordinates had gone to a planet about to use Colossi, carrying death in their hearts.
As one who had witnessed the power of Colossi countless times, before the Xianzhou upper ranks made such a decision, just how much determination had they needed?
Zero did not know.
He only knew that the "Mara-struck Body" he had ignored had become an incurable affliction for his subordinates.
This was a problem even "Mechanical Ascension" could not solve. By the time he searched for ways to ease the Mara-struck, they no longer wished to try.
Zero did not understand.
'Isn't immortality good? Isn't this the dream the Xianzhou people had longed to achieve?'
Facing the weary, exhausted faces of his subordinates, he could not bring himself to ask this question, he could only bury it deep in his heart.
But "immortality" was like a bone-clinging tumor, long and slow in its torment. At last, in some moment, it reached a breaking point.
The subordinate once teased for being timid and introverted, over time became increasingly steady.
One day, that subordinate brought the Marshal a finely crafted treasured sword.
"Eh, Lord Marshal, be careful, don't hurt yourself, "
Zero ignored his protests, deliberately removed his half-palm glove, and accepted the sword.
He did not understand forging or materials. He stood up, casually twirled the sword into a flower, and was just about to turn his head to say something when he heard a strange sound.
Like something tearing. Like something growing, trying to break free from restraint.
Zero felt it ominous. He looked toward the source, saw silver ginkgo leaves, glaring yellow, sprouting from his subordinate's chest and shoulders.
The subordinate froze in place. Next, the leaves surged upward wildly.
With difficulty, in a hoarse voice, he said, "Lord Marshal, be careful…"
Then, with the last of his reason, he moved his body, throwing himself against that sword.
The subordinate had said this sword was a treasure he'd sought with great effort, able to easily slay enemies.
Just as he said, the sword easily pierced the armor on his chest, cut open the leaf-covered flesh, pierced through his chest cavity, and stabbed through his spine.
The sword went straight through his chest.
Zero gripped the hilt with one hand, seized the subordinate with the other, to prevent further injury.
He looked toward the wound. Flesh that once healed instantly now showed no sign of recovery.
Then he looked into his subordinate's vacant, scattered eyes, and froze, his thoughts spinning uncontrollably.
'Wasn't it supposed to be immortality?'
'Fake, then.'
Zero wanted to raise his hand to test his subordinate's breath, but was blocked by the hot blood flowing down.
His palm was sticky, wet, nearly making him lose his grip on the hilt.
He stood there passively, reminding the surrounding subordinates, "The Lord Marshal truly is… capable of anything…"
To actually, actually end the curse of immortality...
One of them muttered, eyes burning with unconcealed fervor.
Hearing this, Zero's mind went blank, then spread boundlessly outward.
So that's it.
No wonder, no wonder "immortality" was a debuff, a negative effect.
Could it be, he had some special constitution, a chosen one?
As the player, did he have to personally cut down his subordinates?
'What kind of trashy cliché plot is this?'
'Weren't games rated for seven years old and up? And you throw me this?'
'Bad review.'
Zero was pulled back by his subordinates and the Strategist. A group of people rushed in panic, tugging at him until he lost balance and fell to the ground.
He watched them summon doctors, then watched them pull out the sword. Finally he saw the Cauldron Division master, hunched, kneeling on one knee, bringing his gaze level, and to the still-seated Zero, cautiously said, "My condolences..."
Zero lowered his head, staring blankly at the blood-soaked palm.
His thoughts scattered, even drifting boundlessly back to the old woman's final question.
("Did what Lan did… have meaning?")
'Yes.'
So he thought.
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