What was it in the data she had entered about Brandon White that made the Knowledge Treasury conclude he was so compatible with her?
"Ninety-nine percent. Tsk, tsk. Keisha, weren't you always the one who believed in this data? Now that the numbers are right in front of you, what more can you say?"
"A male god indeed—but not Angel Yan's. He belongs to you, Holy Keisha."
Hexi rarely got the chance to tease Keisha like this, and she couldn't resist pushing it further. But her fun ended quickly, as the flustered Keisha grabbed her cheeks and kneaded them mercilessly, squishing her soft face back and forth.
"Even if it's nonsense… I still won't admit it."
Her voice came out garbled through Keisha's grip.
"You old witch—always quick to pounce the moment you get an opening, aren't you?"
"I'd like to see just how much you and he really share."
With a cold huff, Keisha released her and fed Hexi's own data into the Treasury. Free at last, Hexi rubbed her sore face, muttering in complaint.
"Anyway, it won't be higher than you—huh?"
"…Ninety-nine percent?"
Hexi stared blankly at the new result, then quickly covered her surprise with a cough.
"I think… this matter should be left for Yan to decide herself."
"If she's unwilling, well… Zhixin isn't bad either."
"…"
Keisha watched Hexi's obvious attempt to change the subject. The corner of her lips curved upward, her chuckle soft.
"What's this? No more teasing me?"
"Ninety-nine percent compatibility—not lower than Yan or Zhixin. Such a match, and you're really willing to hand him over? Yan said he's quite handsome too. By angelic standards, that makes him flawless."
"Are you sure you don't want such an extraordinary male god for yourself?"
At Keisha's words, a faint blush spread across Hexi's face.
Even Keisha couldn't help but note privately that the old witch looked rather tempting like this.
"Don't you start with me. You're the one at ninety-nine percent too. I'll let you have this male god, Keisha. Maybe he'll cure that temper of yours."
Hexi shot back without missing a beat.
"What's wrong with my temper? You're saying I have a bad temper?"
Keisha couldn't help herself—her hands darted out once again, pinching Hexi's cheeks. Hexi, unwilling to take it lying down, retaliated by digging her fingers into Keisha's waist and tickling.
"Your temper's foul and stubborn. Nothing about it is good!" she exclaimed in mock outrage.
The two bickered and wrestled playfully, laughter and mock complaints echoing through the room. Occasionally, their tussle revealed glimpses of pale skin, a fleeting beauty unseen by any other eyes.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Brandon White had no idea that two holy beings in the Super God universe had run his data through the Angel Civilization's greatest computing engine—and even less idea that the results had been so astonishing.
At that moment, he was tending plants within his small world.
Thanks to its limited area, the concentration of spiritual energy there was far richer than in reality. Though the place already held some vegetation, the species were too few, mostly ornamental. So he had brought in tree fruit and seeds from real-world fruit to cultivate within it.
In Huaxia, people were still dealing with the aftermath of the second spiritual tide and the beast tide invasion.
They had lost loved ones, seen their homes reduced to rubble, and suffered grievous wounds in desperate flights from mutant beasts. In a short span, they had endured more than most could in a lifetime.
If the first wave of mass awakenings had filled people with joy at gaining powers—mutant beasts were threatening, but so long as one stayed out of the wilderness, the danger remained distant—then the second tide had driven home a brutal truth: the world had irrevocably changed.
And yet, life had to go on.
At makeshift morgues, families came to claim the bodies of relatives and friends, cremating and burying them. Homeless survivors moved into temporary shelters provided by the state, awaiting the day their homes could be rebuilt.
Others, crushed by the deaths of loved ones and stripped of all ties to the world, chose to end their lives. Their numbers were not vast, but they were far from few.
Many more surely shared such despair but, for one reason or another, clung to life anyway.
Huaxia's casualties were heavy this time, yet compared to other nations, they were fortunate.
Protected by Skyler Quinn, Chris Frost, Firewing, Charles Longfellow, Nathaniel Gray, Ethan Yates, and others, their cities had swiftly been purged of mutant beasts once these guardians completed their second awakenings. Order was restored in short time.
Other countries, even major powers like the Lighthouse Nation, fared far worse. Though they possessed powerful ability users, they were too few, sometimes none at all.
Perhaps their populations lacked talent. Or perhaps their gifted ones had perished in laboratories before they ever saw the second tide.
It was far from impossible. Not everyone could stomach the idea of ordinary citizens gaining power beyond their control.
And there was another problem: without strong ability users to suppress the beasts, those nations had relied entirely on high-tech weaponry and overwhelming firepower. Inevitably, civilians were caught in the crossfire.
Some governments had unleashed bombardments before evacuations were even complete.
Fewer sacrifices to save more lives—was that justice? Perhaps not. But in the absence of perfect solutions, it was the best option they had.
Yet such choices bred new hatreds.
In the second spiritual tide, many ordinary abilities had undergone metamorphosis. Those who had set out to save their people found that their parents, spouses, or children hadn't died under beasts' fangs, but beneath soldiers' shells.
Would they turn dark? Would their hatred fall upon humanity itself?
Of course it would.
Not everyone was noble enough to accept so bitter a death for their loved ones.
This global beast tide had also revealed the terrifying power of the top ability users. They would become their nations' trump cards in the new spiritual age—living deterrents, as devastating as nuclear warheads had been.
Any country with sense would seek to recruit its most gifted.
But how? That was the real question.
Granting authority, offering wealth, providing resources—there were many ways. But to rely on coercion or threats was the most foolish. Offend a prodigy now, and when they grew strong, vengeance would surely follow.
Brandon White found himself curious. What would become of those countries that had captured their most talented, dissected them, experimented on them?
Would they, in time, face retaliation from forces of gifted rebels?
Would new powers rise from among those wronged, carving out kingdoms of their own?
Ruling from the mountains?
He smirked at the thought.
He would wait and see.
(End of Chapter)
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