The Era of Gods

“Holy crap!”

Lin Xiao was so envious his balls were about to burst.

Being specially recruited by the ‘War Throne’ Super Academy, which ranked third, was equivalent to a special recruitment from world-class universities like Harvard or Oxford in his previous life—he would go directly to the affiliated high school and then enroll in the academy without any exams after his senior year.

If it weren’t for the fact that this world did not allow skipping grades and required all, no matter how monstrous the talent, to complete three full years of high school, he would probably have been specially recruited into college much earlier.

“That’s amazing!”

Tang Ling and Shang Xiaoxue also showed envious expressions, they were just like him on this point.

After quickly finishing their meal, they got up to head for the public building, crossing the shaded path to the entrance where Bai Ze sat down on a chair and said:

“Wait for a moment, the boss and the others will be here shortly.”

Lin Xiao didn’t say anything and simply found a stone bench to sit on and started searching for information on his wristband.

Only a few minutes had passed when he heard someone calling out nearby:

“Ling Tong, I’m here.”

Looking up, he saw Tang Ling, as if subconsciously, smoothing down his hair. He looked up to see four beautiful and youthful girls coming from the other side, and he recognized Shen Yuexin among them at a glance, giving her a wave in greeting.

Shen Yuexin also recognized him and responded with a slight smile.

Tang Ling was quite familiar with them; to be precise, he was one of their suitors. Both Tang Ling and Bai Ze went up to meet them, while he and Shang Xiaoxue didn’t move.

Except for Shen Yuexin, he didn’t know any of them, and even his acquaintance with Shen Yuexin was limited to a nodding relationship. As for Shang Xiaoxue… he just turned his head to the other side without even a glance. Lin Xiao, curious, asked:

“Don’t you even look at beautiful girls?”

Shang Xiaoxue turned his head back with a plaintive look and said:

“What’s the use? They won’t take a second look at me.”

“How do you know if you haven’t tried?”

“I’ve tried.”

“No success?”

“They say my name is childish, that my blonde hair makes me look like a petty hoodlum.”

Lin Xiao:….

“Condolences!”

After pondering for a long time, that was all he could say, and not laughing out loud was considerate enough.

His blonde hair… It was a raging flame of pride in subspace and the Outland, but it just turned into yellow hair in the Main World, which was rather baffling.

The usually reserved Tang Ling was very active at the moment, speaking politely and eloquently, and Bai Ze was even funnier. His sense of humor kept the girls laughing continuously, leaving Lin Xiao and Shang Xiaoxue to enjoy the scenery.

Fortunately, they did not have to wait long before Lin Xu from Ancient City and another teenager named Qiao Kaiyuan arrived. Then he saw the faces of several clearly break into welcoming smiles as they went up to greet them. As Lin Xiao had expected, Lin Xu indeed had his sights set on Shen Yuexin, but the young lady seemed to have no feelings for him at all, and her obvious distance and rejection were plain for anyone to see.

“Love is blind!”

Seeing this, Shang Xiaoxue huffed to Lin Xiao:

“Forget about them, let’s get going.”

“Okay!”

Finding a public Divine Realm Login Cabin on one of the floors, Lin Xiao returned to his own Divine Realm before entering the local network.

It had been about ten days since the final exams ended, which meant almost ten years had passed in the Divine Realm. Ten years of rest and recuperation, and the Clans had recovered some vitality.

The Naga, under his strong encouragement, kept breeding. Now overall, well, if you don’t understand it, that’s correct because I don’t understand it either. But don’t think too much, because he received an invitation to the Super Newcomer Summer Camp. We’ll see him once the Summer Camp starts.”

“He received an invitation to the Super Newcomer Summer Camp as well? Why isn’t he here?”

“Hehe, although he is also from Yunmengxing Province, he’s different from us. He has already been specially recruited by the ‘War Throne,’ ranked third among the twelve Super Academies. Next semester, he will transfer to the War Throne’ affiliated high school, and after his senior year, he can directly attend the ‘War Throne¹ Super Academy without taking the college entrance exams.” Their number had already exceeded six hundred, of which about two hundred were from the new generation, nowhere near as strong as their parents who had participated in the battle against the Snake People Demigod.

Fortunately, Naga live much longer than Fishmen, so not a single Naga died in those ten years. On the contrary, thousands of old Fishmen who participated in the war passed away due to the end of their lifespan.

The good news is that Fishmen have strong reproductive abilities and with abundant food in the Divine Realm, the overall number of Fishmen has now surpassed thirteen thousand.

It’s worth mentioning that although it had been ten years since he showed up to perform miracles, the atmosphere of faith in the Divine Realm was still very strong. The key factor was the existence of the Fishman Hero, Slarda.

The Epic Hero who had embarked on the path of a Saint had vigorously developed and maintained his faith within the Divine Realm while he was away. After becoming the leader of all the Naga, he insisted on holding a large sacrifice and prayer event every month and a smaller prayer event every ten times. Under his leadership, a large number of newborn Naga and Fishmen were guided on the path of correct faith. Even though his miracles were inconspicuous, all newborns had a solid faith before reaching adulthood, and once they attained adulthood, they became True Believers.

Beyond that, he directed the Fishmen to engage in the cultivation of kelp and other aquatic plants to store food.

On land, the Divine Realm wasteland produced by the Devouring Sanctuary was reclaimed, and grass seeds scattered, creating a large pasture that now thrived. The batch of wild bison raised within the Divine Realm had reproduced under their taming, amassing nearly three hundred in number.

It could be said that his return to the Divine Realm this time brought Lin Xiao immense surprises.

After understanding the changes in the Divine Realm during this time, Lin Xiao fell into deep thought.

The matter of establishing a Church had been brought forward on the divine agenda.

Previously, he had no laws, and everything still required his personal, divine intervention, which was quite lacking in prestige. Now that Slarda was on the right path, whether it was about freeing himself or fostering the Epic Hero Slarda, he had to prepare to establish a Church.

Of course, due to the current limited manpower, only a framework could be built for the time being, to be gradually filled in later.

After giving it some thought, Lin Xiao decided to tentatively select the Epic Hero Slarda as the first Pope of the new Church, then choose ten Devout Believers and ten Fanatic Believers to be the first generation of Priests.

For now, they would be Priests in name only, as true Priests required the consumption of Divine Power to change their profession and be granted Divine Arts, tasks that can only be accomplished with pure Faith value. He had a pile of Faith value at the moment, but not much of it was from the pure Faith value provided by the Believers, so it was only possible to set up the titles for the time being and follow up later.

He would also select a group of elite Naga and Fishmen to be the Guardian Holy Warriors of the Church, tentatively set at one hundred Naga and two hundred Fishmen.

This didn’t need to be too large for now, as the Divine Realm’s believers’ faith was very devout, and the Church did not need much armed suppression.

In this way, the structure of the Church was established, led by the Pope, supported by twenty Priests, and guarded by three hundred Guardian Holy Warriors.

Initially, Lin Xiao gave them a mission to familiarize themselves with Church affairs and, by the way, to baptize the newborn members of the Clan.

After completing these tasks, Lin Xiao nodded in satisfaction, logged out of the Divine Realm, and entered the local network, where he found some free time to practice with Shang Xiaoxue.

However, upon logging out, he discovered many people in the local network, not only his companions like Bai Cheng, Lin Xu, Tang Ling, and the four vibrant young women but also eleven boys whom he did not recognize, each with their unique auras and extraordinary appearances.

For instance, one of the girls had a pair of petite dragon horns on her head and a blue rhombic crystal embedded in her brow.

Another girl had pupils that emitted a green light, clear and translucent like gemstones.

There was also a girl whose lower half was a twisting mass of water, with a blue light swirling above her head.

And Shen Yuexin appeared surrounded by the Void, seemingly distorted by an invisible force, with her pupils releasing a faint purple-red flame and a blazing purple flame above her head, where one could vaguely see a purple-gold crown, both noble and authoritative.

Come to think of it, this was the proper way to engage with the College. It was abnormal that Lin Xiao’s original class had so few attractive female students.

Pairing young geniuses with vibrant young women was quite appropriate.

These four women were from female student circles outside of those Lin Xiao was part of in Yunmengxing Province, and they had a decent relationship with them as well as another group of male students. After all, beautiful women were quite popular, at least in his view, with boys from both circles fancying a few of the girls.

As for who liked whom, Lin Xiao didn’t pay attention; it was none of his business, as women would only influence…

Well, that was just one of the reasons. In reality, he lacked self-confidence; his backbone wasn’t strong. Considering his comprehensive strength was probably the weakest among those present, where would he find the courage or reason to flirt?

Lin Xiao was well aware that without strength and capability, even breathing was wrong. Chasing girls at this time was purely a waste of time and life.

He knew clearly that whether it was his former life or the current era, only strength was the hard truth and only then could one talk about women.

Thus, before he had enough strength, he wouldn’t consider anything else.

He could only say he had great potential, truly speaking, no one present could match his overall strength, and a single victory in a duel proved nothing—he was still far behind.

However, the Super Newcomer Summer Camp was a good opportunity for him. It was a feast cultivated by the various Super Academies and advanced colleges to nurture elites, offering guidance from seasoned high-school teachers and astounding various rich rewards. It was rumored that someone once obtained a Card of quality beyond the Golden Mythical Quality at the Summer Camp, making participation an opportunity in itself.

He didn’t necessarily have to compete with those top elites, especially with monstrous talents like Wu Zhonglin around—he couldn’t compete at the current stage.

All he needed to do was to perform well, showcase his abilities even better, and seize more benefits for himself.

Lin Xiao clearly recognized his own strengths and weaknesses. The first year was about laying the foundation; the second year would be his time to rise. He had to bridge the gap between himself and other top elites during his second year and make his move in his third year.

With the help of the Creation Rubik’s Cube, he planned to fully tap into his Talent and would not rule out the possibility of making it to one of the three lists by his third year.

It might be difficult to expect a spot on the Peerless Genius List or the Unparalleled Genius List, as he had yet to witness such talent, but at the very least, he should aim to be on the Outstanding Talent List, one in a million, which would be quite prestigious to mention.

With that in mind, he stealthily sent a message to Shang Xiaoxue:

“Buddy, since we’re both free, shall we have a chat?”

Shang Xiaoxue was free as well and immediately agreed, greeted his companions, and the two of them walked aside.

The two who acted independently indeed attracted the attention of several female students, but their attention was soon drawn back by the conversations of others.

The two opened a separate room, which was an independent virtual plane. This time it was not random, but each set terrain that was advantageous for themselves, with the system then balancing it, resulting in a miniature plane interwoven with plains and a web of rivers and swamps.