What humanity needed now was a guardian deity—someone whose very presence could put hearts at ease, someone who could make people unconsciously grow braver and more confident the moment they saw him.
If he set foot on the battlefield, the outcome of that war would already be decided.
Humanity would triumph.
Any Awakened could be molded into a "guardian deity," yet those shaped guardians were the ones people preferred to call heroes.
They were great, unafraid of sacrifice, worthy of everyone's trust; yet their power still couldn't make the populace feel truly secure.
Previously, Skyler Quinn, Firewing, and Chris Frost had possessed that kind of capacity, but this time they did not display it—even if their intention had been to eliminate the mutated sea beasts more quickly, to prevent them from endangering human cities.
Disappointment was disappointment; this was not the guardian deity people had hoped for.
What they wanted was a figure who, no matter how powerful the mutated creature, could crush it as effortlessly as snapping kindling—that was the "guardian deity" who could make them feel safe.
To shatter the darkness brought by spiritual energy's resurgence with the most flamboyant bearing and the greatest strength.
To make people feel hope, to make them feel secure.
Everyone else could appear battered—he could not.
Everyone else could be injured—he could not.
Everyone else could fail—he could not.
Because he was Huaxia's guardian deity, entrusted by all with faith and admiration.
The image he shaped had to be one that stood at the summit and looked down on everything, for whom even the greatest danger was something to be flicked away with a snap of the fingers.
He was the brightest sun that only this era could forge, shining upon everyone, bringing dawn to all—lighting the road of humankind.
That image was beyond Skyler Quinn. Beyond Firewing. Beyond Chris Frost.
Only one person could fulfill it—Brandon White.
What looked like fantasy to everyone else was Brandon's reality.
He possessed power that towered over everyone.
The planetary will had entrusted him with the Authority over Nature.
The only pity was that, in Brandon's eyes, the scope of concern was not limited to a single human civilization but extended to the civilization of the entire Earth.
In his view, all his actions had but one end: for Earth's civilization to advance toward a higher, stronger plane.
He would not mind whatever sacrifices that entailed—be it of other life, or of humans.
Huaxia was Brandon's country; he had been born there and grown up there. So even when he became what he was, he would, to a vast extent, render aid to Huaxia.
But that aid would never be without limit. Civilizations must grow; Huaxia's future was for its own people to govern.
And that was enough.
Right now, the internet was awash in all sorts of videos related to Haicheng, yet the most clicked were still the clips of the angel's descent and Brandon White's appearance.
One was a sacred being from Western mythic imagination; the other was currently Huaxia's strongest combatant. Most crucial of all were the reactions of the two mutated sea beasts below when those two appeared—those were the details that fed the public's curiosity.
"Maybe it's because I've watched too much One Piece, and since Devil Fruits really did show up in real life, the first thing I thought when I saw that angel was: did she eat some Mythical Zoan—Angel Form—Devil Fruit?"
"But I also noticed she emerged out of a black hole, and when she appeared those two mutated sea beasts went rigid, not daring to move. That was obvious fear of her power. If it were just a Devil Fruit, that wouldn't happen."
"It's not like no one around me has eaten a Mythical Zoan. Sure, they got stronger, but they're nowhere near those two mutated sea beasts in the video."
"@upstairs Big Boss—you've got someone around you who ate a Mythical Zoan? My focus is elsewhere, though. I compared the beasts' reactions when the angel appeared versus when the White Emperor showed up. It's obvious their fear was greater when the White Emperor arrived."
"And judging from the way the White Emperor and the angel interacted, their exchange was clearly between equals. That means the White Emperor's strength merits the angel's respect."
"Is that all you're noticing? Nobody thinks that angel is gorgeous? I could feel the sacred air through the screen. In the past, I would've, uh, you know, tried my luck right away—but now I feel… nothing."
"I feel like merely having that thought would be a sin."
"I thought it was just me. Guess not."
"Maybe it's my imagination, but I swear the way the angel looked at the White Emperor seemed a little… shy?"
"I thought the same—and the White Emperor's looks are unreal. Can cultivation actually make you that handsome?"
"Criminally handsome!"
"…"
The topic drifted further and further off-course after that. Eventually even foreigners were chiming in, insisting the angel had been sent by God to save them.
Netizens immediately swarmed them: if she'd come to save you, why didn't she appear in the West? Why show up in the East?
Even though the conversation veered in all sorts of directions, the clicks kept climbing. Brandon White hadn't displayed any power compared to Skyler and the others, yet merely that entrance, that conversation with the angel, and the fear on the faces of the mutated sea beasts below—
—together those were enough for people to sketch, in their minds, the shape of the strongest.
Some better-informed users even revealed that the Devil Fruits, Imperial Arms, and Armor Hero transformation devices now present in the world were made by the White Emperor, and that those anime and tokusatsu series were also his handiwork.
Most people shrugged that off as a joke.
No matter how strong the White Emperor was, there was no way he could create things out of anime.
But a few wore grave expressions. After all, the works on that mysterious website had appeared first—then came items like Devil Fruits and Imperial Arms. The resurgence of spiritual energy couldn't have birthed those things.
Clearly, someone had created them.
The White Emperor was Huaxia's strongest living force. If those items were man-made, there was only one person they could belong to.
But if that were true… just how strong was the White Emperor, really?
Even so, those with such thoughts largely kept them to themselves. Whether the possibility was true or not meant nothing to them in practical terms.
If it meant nothing, then what use was further speculation? They would learn what they needed to when the time came.
"Does this count as a successful momentum build?"
In the Capital's General Bureau of Spiritual Energy, a man spoke in a tone of odd humor.
"He hardly needs us to build momentum." The middle-aged man beside him gave a bitter smile. "It's just that Skyler and the others… what a shame."
Their attitude toward Brandon White was complicated. Someone so favored by heaven and earth could not truly belong to Huaxia.
It wasn't that they wanted him to do anything; it was just a pity.
In truth, it wasn't bad for them either.
What would it even mean for Huaxia's future to be entrusted to a single man? The future should be the result of everyone's collective effort.
Besides, it wasn't as if Brandon offered no help to Huaxia. It was just that his contribution didn't take the form of meeting Huaxia's crises head-on; instead, he cultivated more powerhouses for Huaxia in his own way.
(End of this chapter)