Who Matters Most to You?

The sun god and the star god exchanged a glance, their hearts skipping a beat at the same time.

Then the moon god finished his work.

The Moonlight Clan stood there, every one of them powerful and extraordinarily beautiful. Their faces still bore the joy and adoration of beings who had just been created and met their god.

The sun god spoke.

"Since you are my younger brother's kin, as his elder brother, I should look after you a little more. I bless you: during the day, wherever sunlight shines, your power will increase greatly."

Having said that, the sun god turned his head, seemingly casting a sidelong glance at the star god.

The star god listened quietly to his elder brother's blessing.

Only then did he speak.

"Under the starry night, your opponents' abilities in every respect will decrease greatly."

The star god also raised his eyes and met the sun god's gaze for a moment.

Neither god spoke again. Their eyes met briefly before they both looked away, finally turning to the moon god.

"Elder brother."

"Younger brother."

The two voices rang out at once, one rising at the end and the other falling, overlapping like a duet.

Unfortunately, they were singing the same line:

"Whose blessing do you think is better?"

Whenever this happened, Wuma Xiu felt his temples throb.

Here we go again.

Again.

These two.

One was the star god who ruled countless stars, and the other was the sun god whose light shone upon all things.

Out in the world, weren't they both exalted beings?

Yet whenever they came before him, they were like two children fighting over candy, insisting that he decide which one was better.

Praise the sun god?

His younger brother, the star god, would pull a face longer than the Milky Way.

Praise the star god?

His elder brother, the sun god, would glare with eyes brighter than the solar corona.

Praise them both?

That would be even worse.

The one on the left would snort. "You're just humoring us."

The one on the right would deliver a pointed follow-up. "So in your heart, elder brother, he and I are the same."

Wuma Xiu: You're different to begin with, all right?!

The problem was, if he didn't pick a winner, these two great gods really would make a scene—and not some petty, playful fuss, either.

They would make a serious, spectacular scene.

The sun god would shift the sun three degrees west. The star god would arrange the stars in the sky to spell out "I'm angry" in huge characters, causing the observatories in the lower realm to collectively collapse while astrologers clutched their heads and wept.

That was right. Once the majestic sun god and star god shed their dignified, solemn divine exteriors...

At heart, they were just an elder brother and a younger brother competing for affection.

As gods, they had almost everything.

But they didn't want anything.

They just wanted a definite answer from their younger brother or elder brother.

—Who matters most to you?

Wuma Xiu had a way of dealing with this, though.

It worked every time, defeating the enemy in one move.

"I think..."

Wuma Xiu raised his head, met those two burning gazes, and curved his lips into a smile.

"My blessing is the best. Elder brother, younger brother, don't you agree?"

The air suddenly fell silent.

The tension between the sun god and the star god, who had been ready to come to blows just moments ago, seemed to be gently smoothed away by an invisible hand.

The two gods exchanged a glance.

Then they nodded in unison.

"You're right."

"That's right."

A smile curved Wuma Xiu's lips as he recalled that scene.

He missed it a little.

Here was something else that was both a fact and a joke.

You might not believe it.

Even without the sun god's and star god's blessings, the moon god's kin could pin their kin to the ground and beat them up.

Yes, you heard that right.

The Moonlight Clan, who looked cool and aloof, like handfuls of moonlight when they stood there, beat those two's Sun God Birds and Starry Sky Beasts as if it were child's play.

How it all started was rather interesting, too.

After Wuma Xiu finished shaping the Moonlight Clan, he dusted off his hands and left.

The sun god and star god had watched the whole thing from the side. Though their expressions gave nothing away, an idea suddenly occurred to them.

They wanted to create one too.

So the sun god went back and put together a flock of Sun God Birds. They were golden from head to toe, and when they flew, they looked like a burning cloud.

They were as majestic as could be.

Not to be outdone, the star god shaped a group of Starry Sky Beasts and released them into the Sea of Stars.

They swallowed and breathed out stars, their might overwhelming all before them. They were as domineering as could be.

The two gods looked at their creations and were reasonably satisfied at the time.

But they didn't give their own kin the same supercharged bonus they had given the moon god's kin, the Moonlight Clan, out of love for him.

There were no extra gifts slipped in for personal reasons.

Just an ordinary, perfectly standard blessing.

Originally, this matter shouldn't have escalated into the Moonlight Clan beating up the Sun God Birds and Starry Sky Beasts.

But the trouble was, the moon god found out.

When Wuma Xiu heard that the sun god and star god had followed his example and each shaped a race of their own, he raised an eyebrow slightly, intrigued.

"Oh? They made some too?"

"Then let's have them compete."

"Let's see who's stronger."

Those words reached the sun god and star god.

Neither god showed anything on his face, but their little private thoughts began spinning wildly.

Their younger brother or elder brother wanted to see a match?

He wanted to see who was stronger?

Then the result was far too important.

It wasn't that they wanted to compete.

Their younger brother or elder brother wanted to see it, so they couldn't very well disappoint him, could they?

And so, through the sun god's and star god's secret machinations,

the Sun God Birds and Starry Sky Beasts

quietly gained an additional trait.

A trait the two gods added with a tacit understanding.

[When encountering the Moonlight Clan, combat power decreases severalfold.]

Severalfold.

How many times, exactly? It didn't matter.

As long as they couldn't win, that was all that mattered.

And so the outcome of this contest to see "who's stronger" was decided from the start.

A Sun God Bird lunged forward, but before it had even spread its wings, it felt the golden light covering its body inexplicably fade by half.

The Starry Sky Beasts had it even worse. They could normally swallow stars just by opening their mouths, but when they faced the Moonlight Clan members who came to "spar," their throats felt as though something were blocking them.

Forget swallowing stars; even swallowing a mouthful of air was difficult.

The Moonlight Clan, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm.

Even after winning, they showed no particular pride. They sheathed their blades, bowed, and turned to leave.

The Sun God Birds and Starry Sky Beasts were left crouching where they were.

One side counted how many golden feathers they had lost.

The other counted how many tail feelers they had broken.

The same confusion filled both sides' eyes.

—Hang on, we're not usually like this!

—How come our limbs stop obeying us whenever we run into this bunch dressed in white?

The sun god and star god stood side by side, watching the battle from afar, their faces betraying nothing unusual.

"Oh dear, they lost," the sun god said, feigning regret.

"What a shame," the star god said with a long sigh.

"It seems elder brother's/younger brother's kin are a little stronger after all."

"Indeed."

The two gods played off each other, putting on a thoroughly convincing act.

As for the psychological scars their own kin had suffered?

They could just feed them a few more treats when they got back and nurse them.

Wuma Xiu: I'm not an idiot. Could you show me a little respect?