The Era of Gods

The Chieftain, brandishing his bone staff, called the fishmen to return home. Lin Xiao watched them leave with a smile, but as soon as they were out of sight, his smile faded and he turned to shout loudly:

“Children, gather the spoils of battle; we’re going home!”

The many excited fishmen rushed toward the lobstermen’s floating corpses in the seawater, and hundreds of fishmen pushed the bodies together, adeptly tying them up with seaweed and dragging them away.

Guided by the fishmen, Lin Xiao also arrived at the Lobster Man’s Nest and collected several large items that his subordinates couldn’t carry.

Back at the tribe, the fishmen excitedly piled the dead lobstermen in the center of the tribe and, under the Naga’s direction, arranged them around the altar, preparing for a large prayer ceremony.

As for Lin Xiao, he gathered all the living lobster men into the Creation Magic Cube, disassembling them, first extracting and preserving the lobstermen’s bloodlines.

He hadn’t yet decided how to handle them—whether to directly convert them into a Lobster Man card or to merge the lobstermen’s bloodline with that of other tasty creatures to create an even more delicious being.

He had an idea to use the lobstermen as a base to concoct an extremely tasty and nutritious food, rich in energy, that would be a unique specialty of his Divine Realm.

Once players became demigods and the Divine Realm expanded significantly, after satisfying the needs of the Clan, there would be surplus land in the Divine Realm to cultivate economic products or crops. These could be traded with other Divine Realms to earn Faith value or Divine Power.

The Faith value and Divine Power obtained from purchases cannot be used to increase strength but can be used as consumables.

For instance, converting cards requires Faith value, crafting Demigod Artifacts or Divine Artifacts needs Faith value, as does upgrading the level of the Clan, and all of these require Faith value.

Using his own hard-earned Faith value or Divine Power seemed too wasteful, so if he could trade Divine Realm specialties with other players in exchange for Faith value, spending it, no matter how much, wouldn’t hurt as much.

“Clang, clang, clang, clang…”

A series of knocking sounds startled him awake. The fishmen had already set up the prayer ceremony site, and at the sound of the knocking, many Nagas and fishmen surrounded the altar.

Under the watchful eyes of the many members of his Clan, Lin Xiao swam to the edge of the altar. Surrounded by fervent prayers, he circled the altar, finally standing in its center, and shouted passionately:

“Children, your valor greatly pleases our Lord.”

He paused for a moment, and all the believers raised their heads, looking eagerly toward him. With a solemn expression meeting the expectant gaze of his followers, he said loudly:

“You have fought for our Lord, the Supreme Lord of the Ocean, the god of Naga and fishmen. He will not let your valor be in vain. The Supreme Lord has told me, He will bestow strength upon all the valiant warriors.”

At this point, his voice suddenly soared, and a point of blue light burst into being above his head, exploded, and turned into a sky full of Sea Water Essence spreading out to envelop all the fishmen.

Amidst the even more fanatical prayers of his followers, he roared:

“In the name of our Lord, a gift of grace!”

As soon as his words fell, the true body of Lin Xiao inside the Divine Realm suddenly opened his eyes, a burst of golden light exploding within his pupils. The remaining over a million Faith value was mostly consumed at that moment.

Over seven to eight hundred golden lights of varying sizes flew out from the Holy Proof in the center of the altar and entered into all the kneeling Nagas and fishmen.

In that instant, a Naga lying prostrate before the altar let out a low roar. His muscular back arched at a visible pace, his entire body trembling, and his aura visibly growing stronger—he was advancing to Level 3.

Lin Xiao’s thoughts moved, and a screen only he could see popped up before his eyes, displaying the attribute table of the newly ascended Level 3 Naga warrior.

Race: Black Scale Naga.

Category: Sub-human Species.

Level: Medium race.

Level: Level 3.

Occupation: None.

Talent: Underwater breathing, Intermediate Strength, Basic Regeneration, Hard Scale Shell.

Skills: Bloodthirsty, Following Stroke, Basic Step Method LV2, Salted Fish Charge.

Expertise: Intermediate Swimming, Intermediate Speed, Monkey Arm.

Constitution: 3.8 (You possess a constitution akin to that of a wild buffalo.)

Strength: 3.7+2 (Inherent Divine Power, nearly six times the strength of an adult male.)

Agility: 2.7+1 (You are now an excellent professional sprinter.)

Spirit: 1.3 (Your spirit is stronger than ordinary people’s, and with training, you might become a magic caster.)

Evaluation: This is an unprecedented amphibious humanoid species with far greater strength than ordinary people.

Compared to a Level 2 Naga, basic constitution and strength agility each increased by one point.

Talent, skills, and expertise each had one upgrade, which are Basic Strength upgraded to Intermediate Strength, Basic Footwork from LV1 to LV2, Basic Speed to Intermediate Speed; the rest remained unchanged.

“Not bad!”

He didn’t expect them to be as strong as his Saint Avatar, but this was already quite good; at least, they were not opponents for ordinary Level 3 creatures.

This time, a total of ten Level 3 Naga were promoted, and including those promoted on the battlefield, there were now eleven Level 3 Naga.

Forty-nine Level 2 Naga, plus those previously owned, meant that the clan now had a total of one hundred seventy-six Level 2 Naga.

Eleven Naga perished, and the remaining four hundred and two Naga had experience bars more than half full, estimating that killing about a dozen more Fishmen would suffice for promotion.

This wasn’t urgent, as there were plenty of sea monsters for them to kill.

As for the Fishmen’s promotions, there were quite a few; there are now a total of forty-four Level 2 Fishman warriors, seven hundred eighty Level 1 Fishman warriors, and one thousand five hundred ninety-six ordinary Fishmen.

Besides that, after this large-scale prayer ceremony ended, the faith of a large number of clansmen increased to various extents, resulting in over two hundred Devout Believers and thirty-seven Fanatic Believers.

It might not seem like much, but in reality, the effect was dramatic. These were Devout Believers and Fanatic Believers—the most steadfast and core followers of any Deity, naturally difficult to advance to such a status.

If True Believers might appear en masse due to environmental influences, then Devout Believers must be guided step by step, deepening their faith progressively. Except in some individual circumstances, the vast majority of Devout Believers evolved from True Believers gradually—it was highly unlikely for a believer to become a Devout Believer swiftly upon adopting a faith; it required a process.

If that’s the case for Devout Believers, then even more so for Fanatic Believers.

Many people don’t understand what Fanatic Believers are, and some might confuse them with overzealous fans.

In reality, these are two entirely different beings. To make a simple comparison, Fanatic Believers fervently worship their venerated Deity, their faith as firm as steel, embodying the teachings of the Church in every word and deed, willing to risk their lives without a second thought for their faith, even unto death.

Overzealous fans, on the other hand, are just a momentary impulse, their preferences changing with even slight disruptions. How can such fickle sentiments compare to Fanatic Believers?

The key point is that overzealous fans merely like something; they don’t worship it. That’s a fundamental difference..