The Era of Gods

At this moment, Lin Xiao had already swum to the top of an elevated mound. His thick and powerful snake tail propped up his body, which rose nearly five meters high as he stood on end. Clutching his weapon, he raised it aloft and bellowed loudly:

“Children, the Supreme Creator, Lord of the Ocean, the God of the Naga and Fish People, is watching us from the heavens. Show our master your courage, and His glory shall shine upon us.”

Under the watchful eyes of all the fish people and Naga, he swung the short spear in his hand fiercely:

“Kill!”

His thick snake tail coiled and then forcefully propelled him more than ten meters forward, landing in the mud to create a large crater. With a powerful thrust of his tail, he shot forth like an arrow released from the bow, plunging into the Frogman Tribe. The twenty or so Naga guarding him followed closely behind.

The moment he entered, it was time for a full-on assault.

However, outside of the battlefield, he had left several Naga squads as a supervising team, tasked specifically with cutting down deserters.

And over a thousand fish people as reservists, in case of unexpected circumstances.

Though it was a one wave charge, it was necessary to have supervising teams and reservists. The newly conquered fish people couldn’t compare to his own clan; should the battle turn unfavorable, deserters were likely to emerge. Without the supervising teams to execute the deserters, a widespread rout could easily trigger a collapse of the battle lines.

The great majority of the fish people were mere cannon fodder. The primary forces for killing frog people were the Naga and the Grey Mist Fish People.

The strength of the Naga speaks for itself, as each individual was stronger than the frog people. The Grey Mist Fish People, whose individual strength equaled that of ordinary fish people, chiefly relied on the burst of the Salted Fish Charge Skill.

Those Grey Mist Fish People who had not leveled up would lie down to die after their burst, but those who had leveled up still retained some strength after the burst; with a bit of luck, they might even escape.

Fortunately, there were so many fish people on the battlefield, one burst would generally result in killing a frog person. Even if the frog did not die, it would lack the strength to fight back. After the kill, the fish person would lie down on the ground and play dead. The surrounding frog people, unable to spare their hands because of the sheer number of fish people, would not seek revenge.

After resting on the muddy ground for a period and catching their breath, they would be ready to repeat the operation.

The Frogman Tribe had between five and six thousand frog people. Subtracting the sentries and the initial wave killed in the stealth attack, fewer than five thousand remained, which ordinarily could easily annihilate a fish people tribe of ten thousand.

But at this moment, they had been rudely awakened from their deepest sleep and were not in the best state. Coupled with the mixed Naga and two thousand Grey Mist Fish People, the very first burst alone had slayed close to one thousand seven or eight hundred frog people, and the remaining frogs were inevitably put at a disadvantage.

Especially with the addition of Lin Xiao in battle, whose combat power was close to Level 4, the frog people stood no chance, and he cut through their ranks with unstoppable force, repeatedly charging back and forth.

After ten minutes, the Salted Fish Charge Skill cooled down, and the second burst detonated within the frog people’s lines, blowing their defenses full of holes.

About three thousand frog people were decimated by half in an instant, leaving only around fourteen hundred. After a brief moment of bewilderment, one frog person let out a shrill cry and turned to run, sparking a chain reaction. More and more frog people fled, and even the Frogman Leader, who was supervising the battle from behind, began to flee under the escort of his subordinates. The frog people promptly collapsed.

However, Lin Xiao had no intention of letting them escape, and many Naga chased after them.

The Naga, being faster than the frog people, quickly caught up, continuously taking down one frog person after another.

Lin Xiao, most valiant at the forefront, would occasionally charge into the groups of frog people, cutting them off, and the following Naga would finish them off.

This pursuit and flight lasted nearly half an hour. In the end, of the thousand or so fleeing frog people, only a very few managed to scatter into the swamp, vanishing without a trace, while the rest were overtaken and killed, including the chieftain of the Frogman Tribe.

When Lin Xiao returned to the Frogman Tribe, he saw a huge pile of frog people corpses in the center of the settlement, with the fish people already having cleaned up the battlefield.

The corpses were naturally turned into food, and he had no interest whatsoever in the Frogman species.

Although a bit stronger than Fishmen, there was nothing noteworthy about this species. Besides, he already had the powerful Naga species, so there was no need for other clans in the Divine Realm. All he needed was to properly cultivate the Naga and Fishmen.

On the other side of the pile of corpses, there was a mess of random items, the spoils looted from the Frogman Tribe.

Lin Xiao approached with interest to examine them but was sorely disappointed; there wasn’t a single item in the tribe that caught his eye.

But thinking about it again, it made sense. Black Water Swamp couldn’t compare to the ocean, and the Frogman Tribe didn’t have a habit of collecting treasures; there certainly wouldn’t be any good items.

He didn’t take it to heart. No war trophies meant no war trophies; harvesting some faith value was also acceptable.

He turned around to the center of the Frogman Tribe, where there was an altar made of broken stones, and in the middle of the altar stood a pillar engraved with the figure of a male half-snake, half-man…

“A man’s head on a snake’s body?”

Lin Xiao instantly realized this was not the Sea God; the Frogman Tribe didn’t worship the Sea God, but a Snake People Demigod.

He gazed somberly at the male half-snake, half-man on the altar; a faint pressure emanated from the statue, surrounding the whole Frogman Tribe, rendering all the pervasive poisonous insects of the swamp powerless against its subtle authority.

He looked up at the sky, then towards the depths of the swamp, clenched his teeth, suddenly turned, and left without even harvesting the faith value contained within the Holy Proof.

It wasn’t that he had forgotten; he just didn’t dare.

Because of the power exuding from this Holy Proof, he discovered the Snake People Demigod was actually in the swamp. Unlike the Sea God who was far in the depths of the ocean, if he dared to harvest, the nearby Snake People Demigod would immediately become aware and rush over, and then he’d be finished.

Luckily, this time it was Saint Descend, only a fragment of consciousness descending into this shell. If his True Body had come, the Snake People Demigod would have detected his divinity the moment he stepped into Black Water Swamp.

Two hours later, the more than eight thousand surviving Fishmen and Nagas emptied the entire Frogman Tribe of its loot, and the massive group turned back to the rendezvous point.

On the way back, Lin Xiao was somewhat frustrated. There were hardly any war trophies, and not only did he not harvest any faith value, but he also got this bad news.

The obliteration of such a large Frogman Tribe would surely prompt an investigation by the Snake People Demigod, whose source of faith value had suddenly dropped so much. What to do with his future missions?

He still had to annihilate four Frogman Tribes, as well as one Snake Tribe.

Not to mention the Frogman Tribes, the Snake Tribe was very likely the lair of the Snake People Demigod. If he approached it, there was a ninety-nine percent chance of being utterly defeated by the enraged Snake People Demigod.

“Damn it!”

With irritation, he whipped his tail, gouging a trench in the sandy beach, sending fine sand flying everywhere.

“Am I to abandon these two missions and pick up another two?”

This seemed to be the only viable option now. Demigods were beings he absolutely must not provoke at the moment; any one of them could easily snuff out his life like crushing an ant, no matter if his strength increased tenfold again..