The Era of Gods

Under the enhancement of thousands of units of the Power of Faith, his voice, originally plain, rang in the ears of the believers with the deafening boom of thunder, shaking their very souls.

Lin Xiao had specifically studied many books on communication between Deities and their followers, together with many classic speeches from Earth in his previous life, including many success quotes from masters, which provided him insights on how to stir the emotions of his followers.

He found that the success teachings of masters from his previous life were surprisingly effective in managing believers, as long as he adapted them appropriately, the results were quite remarkable.

The fusion of masterful success teachings, his own Talent, along with devout Faith, allowed him to use simple language to emotionally engage his followers, inspiring their fighting spirit.

As the Divine-mandate descended, members of the Clan across the half-plane surged with vigor as if injected with adrenaline; several Naga leaders loudly commanded the Fishmen to gather near the portal, ready for battle.

Ten minutes passed in a blink, and as the portal flung open, a large group of Cowardly demons, about one meter thirty to forty tall with bluish skin, squeezed out and rushed towards the Fishmen group not far away.

The Fishmen, already impatient, let out strange cries and brandished their weapons eagerly, yet they dare not charge forward without the command of the Naga leaders.

It was only when the group of approximately five hundred Cowardly demons got within ten meters that a Naga leader furiously waved his Short Spear and roared. Nearly eight hundred impatient Fishmen swarmed forward, halting the demons’ advance.

The school encyclopedia mentioned that Cowardly demons are a species naturally stupid and slow, standing about one meter thirty with a pair of claws, but with low Combat power, relying mainly on their Talent for damage reduction and the Human Sea Tactic to hold off enemies. Much like Goblins, the more companions they have, the braver they become; the fewer there are, the more cowardly they get.

Therefore, when several more groups of Fishmen rushed over and surrounded them, the Cowardly demons’ innate timidity took over, and they huddled together, passively enduring the beating.

It must be said the Cowardly demons’ passive damage-reduction Talent was indeed formidable; despite appearing to have no thick scales or keratin layers, and seemingly soft defense, the Fishmen’s spears did not inflict the damage they expected, as if a tough film protected the demons, absorbing some of the harm.

Moreover, although Cowardly demons were rated very weak in the encyclopedia, such weakness was relative; after all, they were Demons. Lin Xiao was surprised to find that these Cowardly demons were actually slightly stronger than the Fishmen in combat.

More than a thousand Fishmen besieged them, yet they held their ground. As the Cowardly demons gradually realized that the Fishmen assaulting them were not that strong, they grew bolder and launched a counterattack, fighting the Fishmen to a stalemate, which confounded Lin Xiao.

A few minutes passed in such back-and-forth fighting, and suddenly the portal reacted again. Rings of faint light rippled and expanded, and another group of Cowardly demons emerged.

Seeing reinforcements, the morale of the surrounded Cowardly demons soared, and they even dared to mount a counterattack.

Lin Xiao’s brow furrowed tightly, but he remained silent, not intervening in the command of his own Clan.

A Deity shepherds their followers with measure, and it is not the action of a qualified Deity to command their Clan in battle at every turn.

Moreover, the addition of another five hundred Cowardly demons did not pose a threat to his Clan; it would only make his Clan feel threatened and drive them to respond correctly.

From his position above the Vault of Heaven within the half-plane, Yuan Hong looked down upon the Earth as wave after wave of arrows, loosed by his Clan, harvested groups of Cowardly demons, his face expressionless.

After decades of development, his clan of Swamp Lizardmen had grown to nearly 3,200, including over a thousand Lizardman Archers.

In the initial stages, everyone was a low-level race, facing primarily low-level enemies, with the occasional encounter with intermediate races but not often. Archers held extremely high strategic value at this stage, with a thousand archers unleashing a volley of arrows, which could decimate the clans of most students directly.

He had passed the first three waves of elimination tests almost without loss, and he was also unscathed in the ongoing additional challenges of the Endless Mode.

As arrows filled the sky and rained down, wave after wave of Cowardly demons could not even get close, falling midway through their charge.

Yuan Hong had not initially thought about continuing with the additional challenges. As a Son of the True God, he knew that after the three rounds of elimination, the extra challenge would only randomly reward a five-star card, which was not attractive to him.

It was mainly because he had received a reminder from his homeroom teacher that he became interested, knowing that the old principal had mentioned this additional challenge.

The rewards didn’t matter much to him, nor was he necessarily after the top three rewards; what he valued most was the spot in the Super Newcomer Summer Camp, which was of great importance to him, and he had to strive for it with all his might.

Just as he had thought, Wan Chuan was interested in continuing the challenge of the Endless Mode for the sake of the Super Newcomer Summer Camp slot as well; otherwise, he had been ready to return after three rounds of elimination.

In the entire class, only four students received reminders from Wu Hai, including Wan Chuan and Yuan Hong, as well as Lin Xiao, and Meng Hui. Other students didn’t get any teacher’s reminders, and after three rounds, they voluntarily chose to return, knowing they could not compete with the other outstanding students.

It wasn’t that the teacher was being partial. Any student with a chance would have been reminded. After all, they were all his students, and it made no difference to him who received the honors.

After observing the students’ overall strengths, Wu Hai believed that only these four had the potential to enter the top ten. The remaining students lacked the strength and opportunities, so they didn’t need to waste time on the challenge.

Not just Class 3, but throughout the ten freshman classes, there were less than fifty students in total who the teachers considered had a chance to stay.

These fifty were considered the most outstanding students of this year by their homeroom teachers, and most of them were expected to be selected for the elite class after the final exams.

The end-of-term exams had not yet finished, but in the eyes of the homeroom teachers, the members of the elite class had essentially been predetermined. Lin Xiao was honored to have been acknowledged by his homeroom teacher as one of the elite, with a prediction that he would rank quite highly within it.

But what he didn’t know was that his homeroom teacher viewed his potential as even higher than he had imagined.

He was currently overlooking the battlefield from a half-plane, watching as groups of Abyss ferocious wild boars, right after a wave of Cowardly demons had been cleared, burst through the portal and charged berserk, scattering the Fishmen in chaos.

These creatures, as tall as horses, had backs that rose steeply like a slope. Their small red eyes were filthy, surrounded by a body covered in black steel fur, with magic flies the size of fingertips swirling around them.

This was the result of ferocious boars entering the Abyss and being corrupted by the will of the Abyss to become even more brutal than their savage kin, with a slightly larger size.

Some demons liked to tame these beasts as mounts, and in the Abyss, there were even specialized Abyss ferocious boar knights; when they charged in groups, they rivalled human cavalry..