All we can hope for is that the internal chaos won’t affect their stance on mutated creatures. Otherwise, they’re bound to fall far behind other nations in terms of future development.
Nourished by spiritual energy, mutated creatures will see their intelligence grow rapidly—even undergo a qualitative leap. The most elite among them might achieve intellect on par with humans in a very short time.
And that’s not exactly good news for humanity. Because everyone knows what it means when mutated creatures gain higher intelligence.
Learning ability.
Powerful learning ability.
Over time, they’ll gradually absorb everything about humans—from language to technology, and perhaps even build a civilization of their very own.
By then, it won’t be so easy for humanity to keep them in check.
Earth will inevitably descend into a true arena of myriad races, with countless species locked in endless conflict.
And the mutated creatures won’t be at peace with one another, either. They won’t be inclusive. Just as they had natural enemies before their mutations, so too do they now—except that at this moment, they share a common, overwhelmingly powerful foe: human civilization.
A full-scale, all-out war between mutated beasts and humanity is inevitable.
Humans may be numerous and more combat-capable, but if all the mutated beast races band together, their numbers would far surpass humanity’s.
Right now, humanity’s stance toward mutated beasts is brutally simple: every race other than humans is the enemy—until those mutated creatures no longer pose any threat.
After the transformation of his [Natural Authority], Earth held practically no secrets from Bai Xuan.
If he wished, he could access any piece of information on the planet. But generally speaking, he chose not to. Because even if he knew, he wouldn’t intervene. As far as he was concerned, human civilization would evolve rapidly precisely because of the existence of spiritual energy and mutated beasts.
And the mutated beasts, in turn, would keep pursuing greater power in response to humanity—and to their own weakness.
It was a relatively healthy cycle. He didn’t see any need to break it.
After all, this was a war within Earth’s civilizations—not an external invasion by an alien race. If it were the latter, his attitude would be entirely different.
Just as he’d discussed with Angel Yan: the development of civilizations in the universe should follow a path of peace and stability. Even if war broke out, it should be internal strife, not external interference.
But in this internal war, the final victor had long been decided—human civilization.
No matter how strong the mutated creatures grew, even to the point of overwhelming humanity, Bai Xuan would never allow human civilization to fail. To be more precise—he would never allow Chinese civilization to fail.
Even gods have their selfish side.
Bai Xuan didn’t deny his preference for China. Take the items he’d materialized before—seventy percent of them were distributed only within China’s borders. The remaining thirty percent were scattered randomly across the globe, with China still included in the pool.
In other words, over seventy percent of all manifested items had landed within China.
And Bai Xuan could sense each and every one of them being claimed.
Qin Tian, recognized by the Flame Dragon Armor.
Chen Bing, acknowledged by the Demon God Manifestation·Devil’s Essence.
Ning Guang, who obtained the Smoke-Smoke Fruit.
Ye Feng, who received the Crown of Life.
In the Lighthouse Nation, someone awakened magnetic abilities and obtained the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
In the Bear Nation, someone awakened a berserker ability and was recognized by the Imperial Armament·Evil Ghost Entanglement.
In the Island Nation, someone awakened a longsword ability and obtained the Imperial Armament·One-Hit Kill·Murasame.
Worth mentioning is that the transformation belt Aguru from Kamen Rider Kuuga was also claimed by someone. Unfortunately, not long after obtaining it, he was seriously injured while protecting civilians during an escape—and then ambushed and killed.
What can you say? His physical constitution was too weak. Unlike Qin Tian, who had a powerful physique as a foundation and could unleash even more fearsome strength than in the original story, this person’s awakened ability was laughably feeble—it didn’t even undergo transformation during the second spiritual tide.
Even when he transformed into Kuuga, it was only the basic form. Managing to shield a few people during a beast tide was already no small feat. Getting badly hurt was almost inevitable. But what he never expected was to die at the hands of the very people he’d been protecting.
Sounds like a cliché story, doesn’t it? But that’s reality.
So here’s a lesson: next time you transform, don’t show off. Don’t materialize your belt right out in the open where everyone can see it—because people might start thinking anyone who wears it can transform too.
It’s only natural for greed to follow.
Perhaps because its chosen host was killed by the very people he shielded, Aguru has now returned to Bai Xuan. It probably won’t be seeking a new owner anytime soon.
As for the other transformation devices—they’re likely still waiting. Waiting for the one who will truly call out to them.
Bai Xuan shook his head. With a casual wave of his right hand, a pale blue screen materialized before him, displaying an enormous giant panda.
If Qin Tian were here, he’d surely recognize it as the mutated panda that had helped human ability users fend off mutated beasts at the heart of the battlefield.
As mentioned before, the spiritual energy resurgence didn’t only produce mutated beasts hostile to humans. Many domesticated pets, military dogs, and other animals retained their affectionate nature toward humans after awakening.
It’s just that their numbers were far smaller.
In fact, more people were bitten by their own pets—perhaps because of neutering?
Because of this mutated panda’s combat prowess and the severe injuries it sustained while protecting humans, China held immense trust and goodwill toward it.
Some had even suggested naming it the “National Guardian Panda.”
Others proposed forming an elite combat squad built around giant pandas.
These pandas, having been raised by humans since birth, shared close bonds with their keepers and maintained a deeply friendly attitude toward people. Even after mutating, the main change was a significantly larger appetite.
And their combat power was off the charts.
Just look at how that one mutated panda could take on multiple mutated beasts at once—and still dominate.
Pandas may be called “cats” in name, but if anyone actually treats them like cats, they’re in for a rude awakening.
They’re bona fide bears.
Mutated bears are already formidable—so imagine what a giant panda can do.
With proper training from humans, they could become an invaluable fighting force.
“Po. Panda.”
Bai Xuan smiled faintly. “That’s quite a coincidence. With a name and race like that, it’d be a crime not to give you its legacy.”
“Kung Fu Panda.”
“A Dragon Warrior that belongs wholly to China.”
