Second Sequence—even though there were considerably more of them than First Sequence, it was still only a handful.
In the entire Imperial Capital, those who could be called Second Sequence numbered no more than ten.
When war came in the future, the threat they posed to humanity would be absolutely terrifying.
Deliberately leaving them for us, huh? I really should thank you for that. Though honestly, you didn't have to.
Skyler grumbled internally, then thought about how he absolutely had to mention this to Firewing when he got back. Maybe they could find those mutant beasts and kill them preemptively.
"What, thinking about killing them early?"
Brandon seemed to have seen through Skyler's thoughts and spoke with a smile.
"Give it up. It's impossible."
"No matter what they were in the past, once they've awakened powerful talents and abilities, it means they've received this era's favor."
"Just like you, Chris Frost, and Firewing—your talents destined you to stand at the top of this era's pyramid. The same is true for them."
"Even if some of these geniuses or talented mutant beasts die to more powerful existences, it doesn't mean their fate was altered or their fortune went unrealized. Rather, this itself was their fate."
"Those who are meant to die will die no matter how you try to stop it. Those who aren't meant to die won't die no matter how dangerous the situation."
The reason he had spared those mutant beasts was precisely because he had glimpsed their fortune and some interesting futures.
"Fate—can you see fate?"
Skyler looked at Brandon. From his words just now, it seemed as though Brandon could see their destinies. But was such a thing truly possible?
Did [Authority of Nature] include the ability to see the future?
"Only part of it."
Brandon spoke calmly. Originally, he shouldn't have possessed this ability, but the Chronicles of Time had granted him the power to observe fate.
Rather than calling it observing fate, it was more accurate to say he was the one directing this world's fate.
There were no so-called alternate timelines. From beginning to end, he could only see a single path. And whenever he did something different from what was shown in that timeline, the future he could see would change.
But only he could bring about such changes.
Without his existence, everyone else's futures were already determined.
No.
Even now, their futures were already determined.
Only Brandon White could influence this world's future. Only Brandon White could decide which direction this world's future would take.
"Then will humanity's future be—actually, never mind. That was a meaningless question."
"With you here, how bad could humanity's future possibly be?"
Hearing Brandon confirm that he possessed the ability to observe fate, Skyler's eyes lit up. He was about to ask about humanity's future, but then thought of something and shook his head with a bitter smile.
Brandon's existence meant that humanity would be the ultimate victor of this era. The outcome was already determined—only the process would vary.
"Humanity's growth requires an opponent."
"No matter how much we don't want to admit it, threats, danger, and war are the things that accelerate a civilization's progress the fastest."
"In a world without threats, without danger, with complete peace—everyone would become lost in it, growing lazy and leisurely, thereby slowing civilization's advancement."
"I don't deny that such a world would be happy. But at least for now—at this stage when the spiritual energy resurgence has only just begun—humanity needs to make good use of this precious time."
"If you want a civilization to grow rapidly, a powerful opponent is indispensable."
Brandon spoke in a gentle tone. He hoped humanity could properly seize this era—this mysterious power called spiritual energy.
Furthermore, the spiritual energy resurgence wasn't limited to Earth alone. Earth had simply received the largest portion. In the fate he had observed, Earth would welcome new guests—new civilizations.
Cultivation civilizations, beast-taming civilizations, demon-beast civilizations, magical civilizations...
He had never imagined Earth would attract so many visitors, nor had he ever imagined Earth's future would be so spectacular.
"You're someone Earth has trusted and granted authority to. So when you look at things, your perspective shouldn't be limited to humanity's viewpoint—it should encompass Earth, encompass this Earth civilization. I understand that."
"It's not just me. They all understand this too."
If one were to describe it using the terms from Mo Dao Zu Shi's framework, then Brandon White was the supreme god of Earth's civilization. As its supreme god, his philosophy was Earth civilization's philosophy.
Skyler hadn't watched Mo Dao Zu Shi, but he knew everyone had their own path to walk—their own Dao.
His Dao was China. Brandon's Dao was Earth, civilization, and the future.
The two of them conversed as they walked unhurriedly deeper into the wilderness. Whenever they encountered mutant beasts, they casually slew them and stored them in spatial rings.
"A civilization's growth requires time, but time is precisely what we lack most right now."
"Even though China remains stable for now, many people still lack a sense of security. It's not just because of the casualties caused by mutant beasts that they see online. More importantly, it's because they themselves lack strength."
"Because they have no strength, in their imagination, encountering a mutant beast leaves them only two options—die or flee. Because they have no strength, they have no expectations for their own future. Some even resent those who do possess strength, simply because they themselves lack it..."
"The spiritual energy resurgence awakened abilities in 97% of humanity. But not many have decent cultivation talent. The vast majority may have awakened abilities, but their rate of spiritual energy absorption is abnormally slow. They're not much stronger than they were as ordinary people."
"No—I should say the standard for what qualifies as 'ordinary' is much higher now than before."
"We've considered whether there might be ways to change this. For example, cultivation methods that could increase people's training speed."
"Since spiritual energy has appeared, perhaps those ancient texts our ancestors left behind—what we once assumed were cultivation manuals—might actually work now. But the results were disappointing."
"Whether Daoist or Buddhist, or even the various folk sect cultivation methods we sought out—none of them proved useful."
At this point, just as Skyler was about to continue, Brandon interrupted him.
"I don't know how you conducted experiments on these cultivation methods. But in the future I've observed, both Daoism and Buddhism produced practitioners of considerable strength. The Golden Light Mantra, Thunder Techniques, Sword Control Arts, the Eight-Character True Words—all of these were demonstrated."
"When you conducted your experiments, did you ask the relevant religious sects whether anyone had successfully cultivated? Or did you simply gather the relevant information and conduct random experiments on your own without consulting anyone else?"
Hearing Brandon's words, Skyler froze.
He only knew that the Research Institute had tested cultivation methods and concluded they were useless. He wasn't familiar with the actual process.
But Brandon couldn't possibly be lying. Did that mean those cultivation methods actually worked?
— End of Chapter —