Chapter 86.1: Manifest
By the time Cheng Qisheng shifted most of her attention over, more than a hundred Holy Bombs had already been hauled onto the shore.
This stretch of coastline was a broad slope. The Blue Sea Safe City stood behind it, while boats were being lowered into the water on all sides. The Blue Sea residents who were preparing to set sail had originally been lining up in orderly queues.
But once they saw people fishing up Holy Bombs, no one bothered lining up anymore.
Instead of heading out to sea, they helped the lucky anglers haul the Holy Bombs ashore. Then, reaching into the side of their backpacks, they pulled out one—or several—fishing rods, walked to the water’s edge, and cast their hooks into the sea.
Everyone fishing in this area could reel in Holy Bombs!
That could only mean one thing—
There had to be a whole school of Holy Bombs beneath the surface!
Just like anglers sometimes stumbled across schools of fish…
Naturally, you could stumble across a school of Holy Bombs too.
The logic was impeccable.
In no time at all, the long shoreline was packed shoulder to shoulder with people.
Even more arrived a little too late. Unable to squeeze into the already crowded spots, they could only carry their fishing rods farther along the coast, hoping to find an empty place to cast.
Even the two children who had inadvertently started all of this were swept up in the lively atmosphere. They completely believed there was a school of Holy Bombs on the seabed here and eagerly cast their lines again, hoping to catch even more.
Cheng Anjing said to Sylvia with a solemn expression, “It must be our God’s blessing that there are so many Holy Bombs! Praise be to our God!”
Sylvia nodded in wholehearted agreement. She even knelt and gave the sky a formal kowtow.
“Praise be to our God!”
Cheng Qisheng: “…”
Out of the three possible identities—the President, the Marshal, or the Pope—the Great Creator God had chosen the Pope as the one to connect with these two young ability users.
Yes, two of them.
Just one second before more than a hundred anglers started pulling Holy Bombs from the sea, the faith chains of eight-year-old Cheng Anjing and twelve-year-old Sylvia had both lit up.
The difference was that once Cheng Anjing’s faith chain lit up, it remained brightly illuminated.
Sylvia’s chain, on the other hand, flashed brightly for an instant before quickly fading to a muted glow, matching the typical behavior of a Luck-type ability user.
Yet for that brief moment, the two children’s faith chains seemed to overlap.
Cheng Qisheng suspected that their abilities had formed some kind of combo skill—much like Song Xi and Tuoya’s—which had resulted in hundreds of Holy Bombs being reeled in simultaneously.
The Pope, dressed in white holy robes with black wings spread behind him, soon descended gracefully with his entourage.
The clergy carried out the will of God.
Everyone bowed their heads slightly in respect as the clergy approached.
The Pope walked unhurriedly over to the two children.
Cheng Anjing’s eyes were wide with curiosity and admiration as she looked up at him.
Sylvia was far more timid, yet her gaze was equally full of reverence and longing.
“My good children.”
The Pope gently patted both girls on the head and said with a smile,
“Our God has blessed you. You have received divine grace and have now become ability users.”
Cheng Qisheng, who had witnessed the entire scene: …
She was used to it by now.
Old Eighth was always like this—every good thing got credited to Her.
If someone failed to awaken, it meant they hadn’t worked hard enough or simply lacked the aptitude.
But if they did awaken?
That was naturally the blessing of their God.
Cheng Anjing accepted the explanation without the slightest hesitation. She placed a hand over her chest and bowed her head slightly toward the sky.
“Thank You, our God.”
Sylvia accepted it just as naturally. Although she had no idea what an ability user was, her parents had told her stories about the gods when she was little.
Whatever the gods bestowed, mortals should receive with gratitude.
Not to mention that the great God had saved her life.
Imitating Cheng Anjing, Sylvia placed a hand over her chest.
“Thank You, our God.”
At that moment, even if the high clergy had asked Sylvia—as in the stories her parents used to tell her—to offer her hands, her eyes, her ears, and even her heart to the gods, she would have done so without the slightest fear.
Yet the Pope asked nothing of the sort.
Instead, he simply took Sylvia and Cheng Anjing to the temple for a full physical examination and an assessment of their supernatural abilities.
Considering that they were both minors, the Pope also offered to let a parent or guardian accompany them.
The moment Cheng Anjing’s older sister, Cheng Huopo, heard that her little sister was being taken to the temple, she blurted out almost eagerly,
“No! N-No need! My little sister is a very good girl. She doesn’t need a guardian with her. She was already running away from home when she was five, right, Anjing?”
Cheng Anjing proudly lifted her chin.
“That’s right!”
Cheng Huopo continued, “When she was six, she wanted to try surviving in the wilderness. While we were back in our hometown, she snuck off into the mountains when we weren’t looking and hid inside a crack in the rocks. If she hadn’t caught a rabbit that night and started a fire by rubbing sticks together to roast it, we’d never have found her. She really doesn’t need anyone watching over her.”
Cheng Anjing looked positively smug.
“Exactly!”
She held up five fingers.
“Five whole hours! Mom, Dad, and Sis searched for me for five hours and still couldn’t find me! That rabbit tried to run away too, but I caught it with one hand!”
The Pope maintained his gentle smile.
In a warm voice, he reminded Cheng Huopo,
“We’re only taking the children for a checkup. You’ll still need to pick her up before nightfall.”
Cheng Huopo readily agreed.
“No problem!”
By evening, their parents would be off work anyway. They could come and pick Anjing up then.
Sylvia also spoke up.
“I don’t need my brother to come with me either.”
Now that she had become one of their God’s followers, everyone here was family.
And if she was with family, what was there to be afraid of?
Besides…
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Cheng Anjing, filled with admiration.
She was amazing.
Sylvia wanted to become that amazing too.
Liam looked at Cheng Anjing with the same expression that said, ‘There really is someone this incredible in the world. After staring at her in amazement for several moments, he readily agreed.’
“We’ll leave them in your care.”
And so, the two little girls were taken to the temple.
Sylvia had never undergone a medical examination before. When she saw the enormous hall—so vast that it seemed to stretch endlessly—and the strange-looking machines inside, she felt a little nervous.
But the gentle demeanor of the clergy, combined with Cheng Anjing’s expression of This is nothing worth worrying about, soon put her at ease.
Once the examinations were finished, they were asked to wait on a bench in the hallway while the results were prepared.
The deacons even brought them some candy.
It was the first time in Sylvia’s life that she had ever seen candy.
The sweets were shaped like little animals and wrapped in beautiful colorful paper. Sylvia was almost reluctant to unwrap hers.
But after watching Cheng Anjing deftly peel off the wrapper and casually pop the candy into her mouth with a click, Sylvia copied her and quickly tossed hers in as well.
It was so sweet!
She treasured the sensation as the candy slowly melted in her mouth, growing smaller and smaller.
Suddenly, Cheng Anjing’s voice rang out from ahead.
“Big Brother, can we have two more candies? I still want some. It’s okay if they cost points—my parents will pay when they come to pick me up.”
The friend who had been sitting beside her just moments ago had somehow wandered over to the reception desk. Tilting her head up at one of the deacons, she asked for more candy.
“Of course.”
The deacon smiled warmly at the little girl, grabbed a generous handful of candy, and placed it into Cheng Anjing’s hands.
“No points needed. Go ahead and enjoy.”
The temple had always been exceptionally well-funded.
And in Blue Sea, although most people had little desire to raise children themselves, caring for children remained everyone’s top priority.
As a result, the temple’s pediatric department always kept candy on hand to coax young patients into cooperating with examinations, injections, and medicine.
Even now, in the middle of the apocalypse, the temple had preserved that tradition.
Just as Blue Sea’s nursing homes hadn’t been shut down because of the apocalypse, neither had this tradition disappeared.
Cheng Anjing immediately beamed.
“Thank you, Big Brother!”
She carried the candy back and began counting.
“Seven pieces altogether. I get four, and you get three. Since I was the one who asked for them, I get one extra. Any objections?”
Sylvia parted her lips to speak.
But Cheng Anjing cut her off first.
“Don’t say you don’t want them. The grown-ups gave these candies to us kids, so don’t feel embarrassed. When I grow up, I’ll give candy to little kids too.”
She stuffed three pieces straight into Sylvia’s hands.
Sylvia had only managed to get out a “Thank—” before Cheng Anjing was already chattering away, painting a picture of the future.
“When I grow up, I’m going to open a candy factory. I’ll make lots and lots of candy and eat it every day at home. Strawberry candy, grape candy, starfruit candy, peach candy, branch-fruit candy…”
Strangely enough, although Sylvia had never seen any of the candies Cheng Anjing mentioned, vivid images of them appeared in her mind—each wrapped sweet decorated with pictures of different fruits.
Nearby, the white-robed bishop Yuan Ben slowed his steps.
How does this child know so many kinds of candy?
His own mind was now filled with images of all sorts of candy, bouncing merrily around.
Yuan Ben quickly walked over to the reception desk, where his laid-back colleague was smiling happily at the two children. The man nudged him with an elbow.
“See? Kids are adorable as long as they’re talking instead of running around, aren’t they?”
Yuan Ben, a member of the Velvet Star race, nodded.
“They are adorable. But I’ve got a question. I’ve never seen starfruit candy before, yet now I can picture it perfectly in my head. These two kids came here to have their supernatural abilities tested, right? Do you think it’s possible that she…”
Crash! Clatter!
The deafening sound of an enormous pile of objects hitting the floor echoed through the temple.
Such a thing had never happened in the normally quiet temple.
The two men instantly tensed. Bracing themselves with one hand on the reception counter, they vaulted over it in one swift motion and sprinted toward the two children.
After taking only a couple of steps, both men stopped.
A tiny mountain of candy had appeared where the bench was.
The two little girls poked their heads out from the pile.
Sylvia looked completely bewildered, several pieces of candy resting on top of her head as she still hadn’t figured out what had happened.
Cheng Anjing, meanwhile, had two pieces of starfruit candy clenched between her teeth. Her left hand was clutching a huge handful of peach candies, while her right held a smaller handful of strawberry candies.
She looked so blissfully happy that she was on the verge of fainting.
“Wow!!”
“So much candy!”
“As expected—a combo skill.”
