GA: Chapter 127: The Light That Shines Through War — No One Knows Who Will Stand at the End
The director of the capital's Spiritual Energy General Bureau watched the last of the vehicles disappear into the distance and let out a quiet sigh.
"They're all gone then."
"Yes... all gone."
"Every warrior who could be spared — everyone except those needed to hold the city — they've all left."
A middle-aged man standing beside him spoke with a complicated expression.
"Hard to say how many of them will come back."
The director seemed to think of something. His expression turned faintly pained, and he shook his head.
"They'll come back. All of them."
"With Qin Tian and the others' capabilities, a crisis at Haicheng's current scale would be resolved easily enough."
The middle-aged man said it quietly.
"But if you add that into the equation..."
The thought of the enormous shadow in the ocean — the same one that had torn Haicheng's defenses apart — settled over the room. No one said anything.
However much confidence they had in Qin Tian and the others, no one believed victory was guaranteed.
And the most critical point was this: when gods clash, it's the mortals who suffer.
At their level of power, even the residual shockwaves of the fight alone weren't something just anyone could survive.
Qin Tian and the others would hold back their strength — but what about that mutated sea creature?
Don't forget — it had intelligence too.
So all they could do was watch those figures disappear into the distance, sigh, and hold the most sincere wish they could muster quietly in their hearts.
As time passed, the battle in Haicheng grew increasingly brutal.
More and more mutated sea creatures climbed out of the ocean and poured onto dry land, hurling themselves at the city in wave after wave.
Haicheng had descended into complete chaos — humans and mutated sea creatures, mutated rats and everything else, all locked in savage slaughter together.
Like now.
"Even if I die, I'm taking you with me!"
A powerfully built man glared at the mutated crab before him, his expression ferocious. Four or five meters tall, it forced him to look up at it. If fury hadn't consumed the fear inside him, he would never have said those words. He would have turned and run at the first moment.
But the image of his wife and daughter — killed by these creatures, their bodies devoured before he could even reach them — had flooded his eyes with red. He raised his broadsword and brought it swinging down at the mutated crab.
Clang.
The sound of metal striking metal rang out. The broadsword left not a single mark on the crab's shell. Not even pain registered on the creature.
Without any visible emotion, the mutated crab made a sharp motion. With a sickening crack, the man in front of it was split in two. Then it picked up the body and pushed it into its mouth.
No eyes were visible — but the enjoyment was unmistakable.
"You filthy animal!"
A nearby Spiritual Energy Bureau ability user saw the scene and tried to intervene — but was immediately cut off by other mutated sea creatures. A mutated sea serpent lunged and clamped its jaws around his neck. The surrounding sea creatures surged together and buried him beneath them.
The sea serpent, having struck first, had claimed the most bodies. Even as the others fed, it felt a visible shift in its presence — its aura climbing sharply, rising by a considerable margin.
Humans and mutated creatures were each other's food.
Humans could eat mutated beast flesh to accelerate their cultivation and increase their strength.
Mutated beasts could consume human bodies to do the same.
And because humans had been blessed most generously during the first spiritual tide — with nearly every person awakening some ability — even those without particularly strong gifts still carried spiritual energy within them.
So in the eyes of mutated creatures, every human was the finest food available.
The slaughter in Haicheng was mutual. Humans killed many mutated sea creatures. Mutated sea creatures killed many humans.
The single difference was that the human side had no time to process what they'd killed — they needed to cut down more mutated beasts, save more lives. The mutated creatures faced no such urgency.
Every human body they killed, they consumed on the spot. Every fallen mutated beast they came across, they ate as well.
So as the battle continued, the human side would weaken through attrition and exhaustion — while the sea creature side would only grow stronger.
Hissss...
Regret flickered briefly in the mutated sea serpent's cold, flat eyes.
Just as humans grew addicted to eating mutated beast flesh, mutated beasts grew addicted to consuming humans.
The flesh of powerful ability users was difficult to obtain — but ordinary people, those who carried spiritual energy yet posed no threat whatsoever, were perfect prey. They existed in enormous numbers. They couldn't fight back.
It wasn't only this sea serpent and that crab that had benefited from the battlefield. Countless mutated sea creatures had consumed human bodies and reaped the rewards.
One, two, even ten or twenty ordinary people wouldn't move the needle much.
But a hundred? Two hundred? Thousands?
And among the fallen were Spiritual Energy Bureau warriors whose spiritual energy far surpassed that of ordinary civilians.
Yet the gains here weren't one-sided.
Between life and death, there wasn't only great terror — there was also great opportunity.
At that moment, in a corner of Haicheng.
Spit.
A cold-faced young man was sent flying by a mutated crab's strike, his body slamming hard into the wall behind him. Blood welled steadily up from his throat.
"Brother!"
Beside him, a girl of fourteen or fifteen called out in alarm. Then she looked up at the two-meter mutated crab, bit her lip, and stepped in front of her brother.
"Little sister — get back!"
The boy's expression changed the moment he saw what she was doing. He reached out, trying to pull her behind him — but the pain wracking his body had stripped every scrap of strength from his arms.
"Brother — we die together."
The girl forced down the terror threatening to swallow her whole, and turned to give him a smile.
Thud.
As if that smile itself had unlocked something in him, strength came from nowhere. He shoved her away with everything he had.
"Run!"
"Get away from here!"
"Who said anything about dying together?!"
The boy hunched forward, his voice cold with fury.
He hated himself. Hated that he'd awakened no real ability — hated that the power he'd been given was the weakest imaginable. Just light. An ordinary gleam that couldn't harm anyone, couldn't heal anyone, carried no holy power.
In the middle of the day it was invisible. Even at night, it only illuminated a small patch of ground — slightly more convenient than a flashlight, nothing more.
This wasn't what he'd wanted.
What he'd wanted was strength. The kind that could protect his little sister no matter what this world threw at them.
Ever since they were small children, that had been the promise between them.
And now — that promise was about to shatter.
"Why — why did you give me something like this?!"
"What good is this useless light to me?!"
In that moment he almost wished the demons from the stories were real. At least then he could have traded his soul for the power to keep her safe.
But there were no demons.
There was nothing.