Who Is Galacta’s Father?

"I…" When Silver Surfer was asked by Li Congxin about his plans for the future, he shook his head dejectedly. "I don’t know."

"I don’t remember who I am at all, nor do I remember anything from before I began following my master."

"The meaning of my existence is to find planets for my master to consume."

"So, the freedom you speak of means nothing to me, because I don’t even know what I could do after gaining my freedom."

Li Congxin smiled faintly when he heard this and beckoned to him. "That’s simple. Come here."

Silver Surfer blankly stepped forward, and Li Congxin then tapped him on the forehead.

The moment Li Congxin’s finger touched him, the Avengers present witnessed an astonishing scene. Starting from the point where Li Congxin’s finger made contact, the mercury-like metal shell covering Silver Surfer’s body receded like a tide, revealing a gaunt face barely different in appearance from that of an Earth human.

First came the face, followed by the entire head, then the whole body…

Once the silver shell that had granted him immense power had completely dispersed, Silver Surfer’s body trembled violently. He excitedly looked at his own hands and murmured, "I remember now. My name is Norrin Radd. I was originally just an ordinary person, an astronomer from my homeworld. Later, to protect my planet, I agreed to become Galactus’s herald."

At this point, Silver Surfer had completely understood the whole chain of events. He immediately bowed again to Li Congxin. "Thank you, Mr. Clark, for restoring my memories and body. Thank you!"

Li Congxin smiled faintly. "You’re a person worthy of respect. Even Galactus has to acknowledge that. Now, let me ask you the question I asked before. What do you plan to do next?"

"I want to go home." Silver Surfer spoke with great seriousness. "Although I’ve lost the ability to cross star systems, I can work on Earth until I save enough money to buy a spaceship. Then I’ll go home."

Li Congxin nodded lightly at Silver Surfer’s choice.

In fact, if Silver Surfer had asked, Li Congxin wouldn’t have minded casually sending him straight back to his homeworld. After all, that was no challenge at all for Li Congxin now.

However, since he wanted to earn his chance to return home through his own labor, Li Congxin decided to respect his choice.

It wasn’t that Li Congxin wanted to take the opportunity to exploit the labor of this alien scientist. In fact, with the great calamity approaching, returning to his homeworld early might not be a good thing for him. Compared to that, Earth, guarded by Li Congxin, was naturally much safer at a time like this. By the time he saved enough money, the calamity would probably be over.

Probably…

After assigning Galactus to Old Pi to arrange his work, Li Congxin returned to his villa. He first needed to see how Galacta was doing.

Since Galactus had entrusted her to his care, Li Congxin naturally needed to learn more about her situation.

As for the cosmic calamity…

They still hadn’t figured out what was happening, so they could discuss that later.

Although Li Congxin didn’t mind charging headfirst into trouble when he encountered it, even if he was going to charge in, he at least needed to know whom he was charging at. Right now, they didn’t even know who the enemy was, let alone where the enemy was. Rather than panicking blindly, it was better to wait and see.

After Li Congxin left, the other Avengers also departed from the hall one after another. Each used their own methods either to improve or hone their strength, preparing for the great battle that could break out at any moment.

Tony, who had just returned from his honeymoon in space, instead took the initiative to seek out Doctor Strange, Professor X, Beast Hank, Mister Fantastic, and Doctor Hulk. He said he had something important to tell them.

"Tony." Doctor Hulk, who was most familiar with him, was the first to voice his confusion. "You called all of us here so mysteriously. What exactly do you want to tell us?"

Tony gave a sly laugh and suddenly asked everyone, "Aren’t you even a little curious about the background of that girl named Galacta?"

"What’s there to be curious about?" Mister Fantastic asked, puzzled. "Wasn’t this already explained clearly? She’s Galactus’s daughter."

"Is it really that simple?" A wise light flashed through Tony’s eyes once more. At that moment, he seemed to have become Sherlock Holmes himself as he analyzed the matter seriously. "Before we fought Galactus, Clark once said that Galactus’s form of existence had surpassed our understanding. What we could see wasn’t Galactus’s true appearance, but the appearance most compatible with our ability to comprehend. But after that incident, I discovered something very interesting…"

"Oh?" Banner hurriedly asked from the side, "What is it?"

"Obviously, it concerns Galactus’s appearance." Tony continued, "Mr. Richards, do you remember how, after that battle ended, I asked you to draw the image of Galactus from your memory and send it to me?"

Mister Fantastic immediately nodded to indicate that he remembered.

Tony continued, "In fact, it wasn’t just you. I privately contacted everyone who participated in that battle and asked them to send me the image of Galactus they had seen. And then…"

As he spoke, Tony swept his hand through the air, and more than a dozen images of Galactus appeared in the laboratory.

All the projected images were practically identical, with no significant differences between them.

"These are the images of Galactus we all saw. They look very similar, don’t they?" Tony said confidently. "So, I think Clark was actually lying. Galactus’s appearance as we saw it wasn’t determined by our subjective consciousness. On the contrary, it was determined by Galactus himself. Whatever appearance Galactus wanted us to see was the only appearance we could see!"

The others listened and felt that it did seem to make sense. But the problem was…

Beast Hank couldn’t help asking, "Even if everything you said is true, what does that prove?"

Tony declared righteously, "It proves that Galactus’s true identity might very well be a female goddess. She only made us see him as he is now, so we subconsciously assumed that he was a male god. In other words, she might have been disguising herself as a man."

"And then?"

Tony’s smile grew increasingly lecherous. "Then I thought of another question: Who is Galacta’s father?"