The moment the Angel God finished speaking, Poseidon was struck as if by lightning.
Even the other gods, hidden throughout the Divine Realm and eagerly watching this divine argument with their spiritual senses, were rocked by her earth-shattering words. Their senses surged violently, and they nearly lost their concealment.
"What?!!!"
"Marry... marry whom? The Angel God? Is this for real?"
"My heavens... Did I hear that wrong? Or is the Angel God talking nonsense?"
"That child... is the one Poseidon chose to inherit his legacy, isn't he? How old is he? The Angel God... she actually..."
"She's willing to offer herself up just to steal an heir? Th-this is going way too far!"
"No wonder the Angel God looked like that when she came out just now! So her scheme worked, and she's sure she's won?"
"Holy shit! That's incredible! What a move... I'm impressed! I could never pull that off!"
Spiritual senses surged and intertwined wildly in the void, colliding with one another in shock, disbelief, schadenfreude, and sheer astonishment.
They had thought this would be nothing more than the usual back-and-forth between Poseidon and the Angel God.
But to their surprise, with just one casual remark from the Angel God, it instantly became the biggest scandal the Divine Realm had seen in ten thousand years!
And its explosive nature went far beyond anything the watching gods could have imagined!
Even the Five God Kings, who presided high above the God Realm Hub and were usually so imposing and unconcerned with trivial matters, had fallen into silence.
Their spiritual senses intertwined. Though they made no sound, they could feel one another's astonishment.
They had never personally visited Douluo Continent, but that didn't mean they knew nothing about the lower realm's basic rules.
The humans on that plane seemed to undergo something called Martial Soul Awakening at a very young age!
Only then could they set foot on the path of cultivation.
In other words, the heir from the lower realm who had caught the eye of both the Angel God and Poseidon had to be very young.
And now, the Angel God, an ancient and powerful First-Level Main God, was claiming she wanted to betroth herself to a child who had only just awakened his Martial Soul?
No—judging by her tone, it sounded more like she herself was offering to marry him!
Even the well-traveled God Kings were taken aback by this.
Put nicely, she was willing to do anything to get what she wanted. She was ruthless with herself, and her resolve was astonishing.
Put less nicely...
This was fucking...
Insane!
She was willing to go after a child that young. Was the Angel God...
A little too depraved?
The onlookers had it easy, really. It had nothing much to do with them; they were just here for the gossip.
But Poseidon was different.
He was directly involved.
At that moment, Poseidon's mind had completely crashed.
He felt even the core of his divine nature trembling, his thoughts a complete muddle.
Who am I?
Where am I?
What did I just hear?
Was that really a language I could understand?
Why did I recognize every word, yet find them so strange and terrifying when they were put together?
"Ye Qing is going to marry the Angel God"?
"The Angel God agreed"?
Those words spun and crashed through his mind like the most vicious curse, like the most absurd joke. He nearly spat blood.
Seeing Poseidon's devastated expression, as though he were questioning his very existence, the Angel God was practically bursting with delight.
The little pang of frustration she'd felt after that little brat had indirectly rejected her in the temple had vanished without a trace.
She even felt like humming.
Heh heh heh. Poseidon, is that all you've got?
You still thought you could steal my heir?
I'll drive you mad!
Go back and train for a few tens of thousands more years...
No, train until the end of the universe, and it still won't help!
This heir is already spoken for by me, the Angel God!
Both the god and the position are spoken for!
A moment later, Poseidon finally managed to recover a shred of reason from the shock.
But that shred of reason only brought a fresh, surging fury and the absurd sensation that everything he knew had been turned upside down.
He jerked his head up, eyes bloodshot, and glared at the Angel God's beautiful face—which now seemed utterly detestable to him. His voice trembled with rage and disbelief:
"Angel God!"
He practically squeezed those two words through clenched teeth.
"Can't you have some shame?"
"That child! Ye Qing! How old is he? He just awakened his Martial Soul! He's still a little brat who hasn't even grown a hair on his body!!!"
Poseidon's voice suddenly rose, his accusation almost breaking into a shout:
"You! You're a woman who's lived for tens of thousands of years! And you actually... actually used your looks to deceive and seduce a six-year-old child! Are you even a person... no, are you even a god? What happened to your divinity? Your principles? Did the dog eat them?"
He had really lost it. Completely lost it!
The other gods might not know Ye Qing's exact age, but how could Poseidon not know?
That boy was barely six years old!
And the Angel God was an ancient relic who had ascended around the same time as Poseidon himself!
The age gap between them was more outrageous than the distance between the Divine Realm and Douluo Continent!
A woman of his generation, an old rival he'd fought against for ten thousand years, was now shamelessly declaring she wanted to marry a baby boy who had been born ten thousand years later and was only six years old!
If he hadn't heard it with his own ears—and if it hadn't been the Angel God herself saying it—then even if Poseidon were beaten to death, no, even if every god in the Divine Realm were beaten to death, none of them would have believed something so absurd could happen!
She had no principles!
No shame!
She was willing to do absolutely anything to steal an heir!
She'd thrown all dignity to the wind!
Sure enough!
As soon as Poseidon finished his soul-searching tirade, the gods who had been whispering among themselves, shocked by the Angel God's ruthless tactics, drew another collective gasp. Their spiritual senses trembled even more violently.
"Right! I almost forgot when the Sea God said it! The child just awakened his Martial Soul! How old is he?"
"Six? Seven? My heavens... The Angel God... This isn't even about being ruthless anymore..."
"This is... shamelessly taking advantage of one's age? No, this is downright insane!"
"Tsk tsk, even if age doesn't matter after ascending to godhood, this gap is still way too much! It's deeper than the abyss in the God-Demon Forbidden Land!"
"The Sea God's right. Where are her principles? The dignity of a god?"
It wasn't just them. Even the spiritual senses of the Five God Kings wavered noticeably.
Their feelings were a mixture of utter speechlessness and a touch of indescribable admiration.
They even felt a little inadequate by comparison!
After all, they couldn't bring themselves to pull a stunt like that.
Yet faced with Poseidon's furious accusations and the silent disdain of the watching gods, the Angel God looked utterly unbothered. She even seemed amused.
She picked at her ear before finally speaking in a careless tone. "Poseidon, why are you shouting so loudly? You'll scare the flowers and plants."
She glanced sideways at the Sea God, golden eyes full of innocence and an expression that seemed to ask, "Why can't you take a loss?"
"Hadn't we already agreed? We'd each use our own abilities to win that child over. Whoever he was more willing to accept as his inheritor would win."
She shrugged, her tone as casual as if she were talking about the weather:
"Now, it seems I'm... just a little ahead of you for the moment. What, you're blaming me for being clever because you couldn't get the job done?"
She deliberately stressed the words "being clever," then looked Poseidon up and down. A taunting, mocking smile spread across her face. "If you've got the guts, marry him yourself!"
"Oh, right!"
As if she'd suddenly remembered something, she added, her tone even more infuriating: "That is, if the child is willing to have you~"
"But then again..."
The Angel God drew out her words, her gaze sweeping over Poseidon's burly, masculine, powerfully built frame. She clicked her tongue twice.
"With your big, burly, bearded, utterly clueless lout of a face... I doubt anyone would want you even if you were free. Aww, how pitiful~"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The Angel God could no longer hold back and let out a string of triumphant, bell-like laughter.
Then, without giving Poseidon a chance to argue or fly into another rage, she turned gracefully.
Her skirt swept through a beautiful arc as she made her light, graceful way back to the Angel God Temple.
"Bang!"
The temple doors slammed shut behind her without mercy.
They shut out Poseidon's rage and pent-up humiliation, now nearly tangible, along with the complex, wordless thoughts of all the watching gods.
All that remained for Poseidon and the other spectators was her endlessly lovely—and, at that moment, infuriatingly smug—silhouette.
The gods: "..."