The Era of Gods

As the main forces of the three elite students entered the fray with a large number of Fishmen, they quickly stabilized the disastrous situation.

Yan Renjie’s Lava Lizardmen were also of a mid-tier race, numbering around nineteen hundred in total, with over twelve hundred being Lava Lizardman Shooters. These were full-fledged race plus Archers of the occupational class, and the rest were all melee warriors.

The armor-piercing talent of the Lava, combined with the Shooter occupation, made the arrows of these Lava Lizardman Shooters extremely threatening, able to more easily penetrate the armor and scales of the Snake man Prayer.

Arrows with glowing red tips rained down from the sky, and many Frog People and Snake man Prayer fell.

The Harpies hovered about forty to fifty meters in the air, raining down arrows from their elevated position. Wan Ying’s hero, the Harpy Queen, shot arrows that came with lightning, and occasionally, with a flick of her finger, a thick bolt of lightning flew out and exploded among the group of Prayers, instantly killing many with crackling blasts.

It was undeniable that heroes were truly powerful, which made Lin Xiao envious.

The Nagas stayed behind the lines without engaging in combat, and neither Yan Renjie nor Wan Ying had any objections.

Quite simply, as the only powerful melee force among the three parties, they needed to act as cannon fodder later on when attacking the core of the Sanctuary to face the Snake People Demigod. Only the Level 4 Naga Shark Hunters were qualified to be cannon fodder; at that time, the Fishmen wouldn’t even qualify for that.

The Prayer within the Sanctuary differed slightly from those in the Divine Realm.

In the proper Divine Realm, once a Prayer died, they would immediately revive, but their life branding and strength would be weakened somewhat. After reviving over and over again, eventually, their life branding would be so weakened that they could no longer revive, and they would merge into the Divine Realm becoming part of it, thus strengthening the Divine Realm.

The Sanctuary, on the other hand, as an incomplete Divine Realm, did not have the function of continuous revival. In other words, the Sanctuary Rules set by the Snake People Demigod were not perfect. Once a Prayer died in battle, they would directly merge into the Sanctuary, with no chance of revival.

This was also why he had the courage to attack the Sanctuary. If there truly was an infinite revival, even attrition could deplete his tens of thousands of Fishmen and Clan members.

It must be said that having two helpers indeed made things much easier. Had it not been for Yan Renjie and Wan Ying, Lin Xiao estimated that it would take the demise of eighty to ninety percent of the Fishmen cannon fodder to defeat the Prayer inside the Sanctuary. The remaining forces would have had a hard time defeating the Giant Clam in the center of the Sanctuary, let alone the more powerful Snake People Demigod.

The Giant Clam that had died in battle and entered the Sanctuary was now more powerful under its blessing, and even if he took it on himself, he would not be able to kill it as easily as before.

Not to mention the Snake People Demigod at the core of the Sanctuary. Lin Xiao silently assessed that without helpers, the chances of him killing the Snake People Demigod inside the Sanctuary were…

He could only hope that the concentrated divine poison was potent enough or that the real power of the Snake People Demigod was lower than he expected.

But all this was uncertain — since the Snake People Demigod had not yet appeared, he did not know its current condition.

So, to be on the safe side, he was willing to share some benefits and pull in two classmates to help share the pressure.

Losing a bit of Divinity was still better than a disastrous loss with nothing to show for it.

When it’s time to let go, one must be willing to let go.

XXX

Using the Fishmen as cannon fodder, Yan Renjie, along with Wan Ying and nearly three thousand ranged forces, pushed forward and slaughtered their way towards the center of the Sanctuary.

When they saw the Giant Clam enveloped in a faint golden glow from a distance, about eighty to ninety percent of the Prayer had died within the Sanctuary, leaving only three to four thousand who still resisted fiercely, their morale undiminished, showing no sign of fear or intimidation.

This was because after becoming a Prayer, the concept of morale basically didn’t exist for them; each of them was a Fanatic Believer, willing to sacrifice their lives recklessly for their Deity.

However, being merely spiritual fanatics, the Prayers provided only one-tenth the Faith value when alive, and this further diminished with each resurrection, offering less and less Faith value.

As before, the Giant Clam had been strictly ordered to stay at the entrance of the Divine Palace and not to engage in battle, furiously hopping back and forth at the gigantic entrance.

Many might think the Snake People Demigod foolish, wondering why didn’t it order the Giant Clam to join the battle earlier and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop, instead of letting the foes breach its stronghold step by step.

However, actually doing so would be the true folly.

Put yourself in their situation: if you were severely injured and the enemy was at your door, would you put all your forces on the line in a desperate gamble, leaving no guards at all?

For a Demigod that had lived for thousands of years, their own life was extremely precious, and their safety was always of utmost importance, regardless of circumstances. Had they sent out the Giant Clam, Lin Xiao would have certainly dared to call upon Yan Renjie and Wan Ying to make a true assault on the Divine Palace and execute a beheading strike.

Of course, this also had to do with the fact that the Snake People Demigod wasn’t doing too well, lacking powerful subordinates.

This plane had no particular civilization or systematic professional system; one’s strength relied heavily on Talent. The racial ceiling for the Snake People was similar to Lin Xiao’s Black Scale Naga, and unless they achieved Divine Enthronement like the Snake People Demigod, the normal Snake People could reach only Level 4 at most.

Also, unlike the Deities in the Main World who could use Faith value to elevate their Clan’s level, within the Black Water Swamp home to ten to twenty thousand Snake People, less than ten had reached Level 4, and there weren’t many among the Prayers in the Sanctuary either.

About an hour later, all the Prayers within the Sanctuary, about thirteen kilometers in diameter, had been exterminated, leaving only the Giant Clam resembling a small hill before the golden Divine Palace, in addition to a few God Guards inside the palace.

The God Guards were also Prayers, but the Snake People Demigod had used Divine Power to alter their life essence, enabling them to reach the species limit in Strength and to travel between the Divine Realm and the material world. Normal Prayers couldn’t leave the Divine Realm.

The Fishman god guards in Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm were just a title, not actual God Guards. In essence, they were still Prayers; he didn’t have Divine Power to transform Fishmen into God Guards—that would be too extravagant.

Once they finished clearing all the Prayers within the Sanctuary and surrounded the Divine Palace, the Snake People Demigod who had been silent all along could no longer contain himself and revealed his presence. A blood column surged to the sky from the distinctly Different Domain-styled Divine Palace. The thick blood light warped within the column, conjuring the handsome face of the Snake People Demigod, whose golden-red, glassy vertical pupils were fixed on Lin Xiao, and he bellowed with Wrath:

“Gras’ patience has limits. Leave my realm now, and Gras will allow you to depart; otherwise, the only path left is Death!”

To amplify his presence, the blood light shooting up into the sky quickly spread across the Vault of Heaven, connecting with the roiling blood clouds above, causing both to resonate. The blood clouds covering the entire vault of the Sanctuary began to boil, slowly twisting into a vast face with a diameter measured in kilometers. A terrifying pressure descended from the heavens, and countless Fishmen, unable to withstand this pressuring force, showed faces stricken with fear.

“Blustering!”

Lin Xiao harrumphed coldly, infusing over five hundred thousand Faith value into this snort, forcefully rousing the Fishmen from their fear.