The Era of Gods

Two hundred Lizardman Archers emerged from the portal and lined up in a formation that stretched three to four hundred meters. His eyes narrowed as he looked towards the center of the Lizardman Archers, where there were several taller figures of their kind, each holding a larger bow. Under his watchful gaze, these larger Lizardman Archers, spaced hundreds of meters apart, drew their bows and released an arrow into the sky in unison.

Of course, they were not shooting at him but performing a long-range lob shot.

Each piercing attack flew over two hundred meters high before slantingly descending into the charging group of Fishmen, immediately toppling over a dozen of them.

As the Clan charged, seven volleys of arrows rained down in succession, claiming the lives of hundreds of Fishmen before they could reach halfway.

When the distance was reduced to about one hundred and thirty to forty meters, the regular Lizardman Archers also nocked and drew their bows to begin lob shooting. A sky filled with arrows fell, and a large number of Fishmen were struck down mid-charge.

Yet, not a single Fishman showed fear. Their unwavering faith caused them to momentarily forget their fear, and driven by the Nagas behind them, they charged towards the Lizardman Shooters while bellowing chaotically.

Decades of change, following the death of successive generations of Fishmen, including the Fishman Leader incarnation that Lin Xiao occasionally used who also perished of old age, the newly-born Grey Mist Fish People had completely surrendered to the superior strength of the Black Scale Nagas. By now, the Grey Mist Fish People had entirely become subjects of the Black Scale Nagas, and Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm was dominated by the Black Scale Nagas, with the Grey Mist Fish People serving them.

In terms of racial combat power, the Lizardman Archers were definitely stronger than the Fishmen, but there were too many Fishmen. More than two thousand Fishmen were projected from the entire Divine Realm, converging from all directions into a dense and overwhelming mass.

After releasing over a dozen waves of arrows, the Fishmen had closed in to within a fifty-meter range. The Lizardmen were planning on launching a couple more volleys before creating distance to kite the enemy. Unexpectedly, at that very moment, the leading group of Fishmen suddenly surged forward with explosive speed, much like warriors charging into battle. In the blink of an eye, they closed the fifty-meter gap and crashed fiercely into the unprepared Lizardman Archers, knocking many of them to the ground in disarray.

For Lin Xiao, these two rounds posed no challenge at all, simply because he now had too many members in his Clan.

Not to mention the Black Scale Naga, just the Fishmen alone numbered over two thousand, enough to pass this elimination round.

In less than two minutes, the constantly advancing Fishmen overwhelmed and submerged the group of Lizardman Archers.

The second wave… ended just like that, with the actual main force of the Divine Realm, the Black Scale Naga, not having to move at all.

The leaders of the Black Scale Naga shouted instructions for the injured and the exhausted Grey-scale Fish People, who had performed the Salted Fish Charge, to fall back. The other Fishmen chaotically formed several square formations behind the portal, waiting for the third wave of enemies to arrive.

In the Void, Wu Hai had just left a student’s sub-dimension.

The thought of this student’s Clan’s performance had him shaking his head.

In terms of strength, they were not weak, with nearly a thousand Grey-skinned Tree Frog People, including First Level Tree Frog warriors. However, they struggled so much against an assault of only five hundred Kobolds. When a single Magician’s fireball exploded, some Frog People were even scared into retreating.

What did this show?

It showed that this student’s training of their God Realm Kin was severely lacking.

While the Clan’s size met the standards, the cultivation of faith was gravely inadequate. To fight for the Deity they believed in, yet still have deserters when holding an advantage was unacceptable, Wu Hai thought as he continued to shake his head in disappointment.

Of course, the comprehensive strength of this student’s clan meant they wouldn’t be eliminated after the third round, but in his heart, he had already determined that this student’s future prospects were limited.

As a reserve deity, the most important aspect is the management of believers’ faith, for faith is the most crucial to a deity.

If one can’t even manage the faith of their own clan, how can they, in the future, conquer the natives in the different domains?

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but recall his student, Lin Xiao. The management of his God Realm Kin was exceptionally good; all members were True Believers with a high ratio of Devout and Fanatic Believers. Not just in his class, but even within the whole grade, he was ranked at the very top.

Though Wan Chuan and Yuan Hong were stronger than Lin Xiao, they fell short in believer cultivation compared to Lin Xiao; they lacked his talent in this area.

In the eyes of senior demigods and higher beings, the ability to cultivate faith in believers was a talent as well-considered a hidden talent.

The school taught theoretical classes on this subject. Throughout the tens of thousands of years of the Main World’s history, countless Deities had emerged, and there were millions of courses on how to cultivate believers’ faith. Apart from the classroom, there were plenty of free resources online; none of this was secret.

However, even if all students cultivated their followers according to the theoretical courses, the outcomes varied from student to student using the same methods.

This puzzled many, including several potent True Gods and a Deity of great divine power, who had researched this issue extensively. But in the end, they couldn’t come to a conclusion, and that great entity only said one thing: “Cultivating faith is also a talent!”

In Wu Hai’s eyes, Lin Xiao’s talent in this area was extraordinary.

Thinking this, the homeroom teacher Wu Hai suddenly stopped his steps towards Wan Chuan’s domain and changed directions. He suddenly wanted to see how this student was currently performing.

He remembered that this student had performed very well in the last foundation-level test. His clan, the Fishmen, was weak, but that powerful burst skill left a deep impression on him. He was curious if the student could continue to perform well in this final exam.

In the north of the Half Plane, a three-meter-tall teleportation gate stood on a barren land. With the shimmering of light, Pigge Pigmen, around one meter and eighty-nine centimeters tall and very robust with pig heads on human bodies, emerged from it.

The Pigge Pigmen were a type of beastmen, belonging to an intermediate race among the beastmen. They were somewhat stronger than humans but not by much. Their true strength lay in their formidable reproductive ability, ranking them at the top amongst all beastman races.

The third wave of enemies consisted of Pigge Pigmen, and because of their formidable strength, the total number was only slightly higher than the second wave, with three hundred regular pigmen plus thirty elite pigman warriors, but their overall strength far exceeded the second wave.

The threat level of this wave was about seventy to eighty percent of what Lin Xiao faced in the extra test of the foundation assessment. As he had passed even the additional test, not to mention this one, the current strength of his clan was far greater than before.

Over three hundred pigmen emerged from the portal and gathered in front of it. Thirty elite pigmen roared loudly while wielding clubs and spiked maces. After a brief rallying, they charged towards the dense crowd of Fishmen.

Above the Vault of Heaven, where mortals could not see, Lin Xiao leaned forward, gazing down and stroking his chin in thought before opening his mouth to issue a Divine-mandate.

The Fishmen, who were preparing to counter-charge, suddenly stopped, quickly parted, and hundreds of Black Scale Naga holding fine iron short spears swam out. Their long tails swished, and their thick scales screeched against the sandy ground. At the shouts of a few Naga leaders, they dispersed and charged toward the approaching Pigge Pigmen..