The Era of Gods

Yes, like the Ancient City Clan, he was also of the Kobold race, but his Kobolds were different from the others.

Firstly, just by eyeing their size, they were definitely taller and stronger than ordinary Kobolds, and he had more of them than Lin Xiao had ever seen amongst his contemporaries—up to thirty thousand Kobolds. It was uncertain if he still had any in reserve within his Divine Realm, not participating in the battle.

Yet, this wasn’t the reason everyone had their worldview shaken. After all, a Kobold is still a Kobold, no matter how much stronger it may become through mutations; as long as it doesn’t ascend in rank, it’s not considered powerful.

What truly made everyone doubt their lives was the presence of a formation of Kobold Dragon Vein Magicians amidst the Kobold army.

Yes, not a few isolated individuals, but an actual formation—estimates put it at a minimum of over two hundred.

Considering that the Ancient City owned just two Kobold Dragon Vein Magicians and could build a battle system around them to ascend the Silver Throne at the Silver Level, what kind of experience would having two hundred of them be?

The challenger Tang Ning was completely flabbergasted, unable to comprehend how two hundred missiles, each with the explosive power of a 500 kg warhead ballistic missile, could rain down from the sky—then it was all over.

Lin Xiao recalled that in his previous life, a ballistic missile with a 500 kg warhead could blast a crater thirty meters long, twenty meters wide, and five meters deep into the earth, which was larger than a standard basketball court of twenty-eight by fifteen meters. Imagine what the impact of two hundred such ballistic missiles carpet bombing would be.

In any case, thousands of spectators each used a Five Star Card just to end up watching a solitary display of fireworks.

It was a total, relentless crush. Tang Ning’s proud Clan was wiped out to the last, with the final survivors rumored to be in single digits.

The challenge ended, and everyone had yet to recover from the shock as countless gazes of awe, admiration, and reverence turned towards the black­haired young man who had replaced his opponent and was sitting atop the most central of the nine Golden Thrones at the top tier—everyone was utterly convinced by his power.

Even Lin Xiao was wholly convinced, as that lineup indeed had a level of strength that made it invincible.

Comparing his own strength to his opponent’s, Lin Xiao felt that unless he increased the size of his Clan by tenfold and had the advantage of a watery terrain, or if he could evolve his main Clan, the Black Scale Naga, once more, perhaps he would have a chance to contend.

But that was assuming this was the full extent of Wu Zhonglin’s power—if he had more hidden strength, then it was a different story.

Within five minutes after Wu Zhonglin’s challenge had concluded, the other five likewise defeated their opponents, earning their places on the topmost Golden Thrones.

The six eliminated individuals then set their sights on the remaining three Golden Thrones, causing those occupants to grow restless. Anyone with a bit of ambition would want to take on a challenge to exert every effort in staying on the highest level.

Similarly, the numerous Silver Throne residents on the second level were nervous as well. With six more spots taken by the eliminated challengers, the only option was to descend a level, meaning that six from this tier were bound to be eliminated—nobody wanted to be the one challenged.

Everyone was eagerly watching the tense unease of these high-and-mighty elites, while Lin Xiao quietly made his way to the stairs leading to the first Tier. Some noticed his movements and asked in the group chat:

“Lin Xiao, what are you going to do?”

“I’m challenging, of course, I still have one opportunity left—it shouldn’t go to waste.”

Everyone was speechless, but only Tang Ling laughed and said:

“Then you’re indeed wasting it, who could you possibly beat with your level of skill?”

Lin Xiao coldly glanced at Tang Ling, thinking to himself, why does this fool enjoy provoking me so much?

He shrugged his shoulders and shot back without politeness:

“So what if I lose? It’s certainly better than some people who have a chance but are too cowardly to take on a challenge.”

“Who are you calling cowardly?”

Tang Ling’s expression immediately turned cold.

“Whoever is cowardly knows it themselves, don’t wear the cap if it fits.”

Sure enough, they’d always had a poor relationship, so Lin Xiao didn’t hold back.

Without any interest in wasting words, he promptly used an Epic-quality Five Star Card to challenge a student seated on a Stone Throne nearby.

It was a pity he didn’t have two Epic Cards on hand, otherwise, he would have preferred to directly challenge someone on the Iron Throne.

As the opponent confirmed and the transmission to the planar battlefield was about to start, he heard Lin Xu’s voice in his ear:

“Taking on a challenge is harmless, consider it gaining insight and experience. I can only help you once after all, and I won’t be able to assist you much in the next stage, so it’s hard to get such a chance again in the future.”

He nodded, and in a flash, vanished from sight.

Upon the familiar virtual realm, before Lin Xiao was the setting for the planar terrain, but his attention was caught by the space above the virtual realm. There was not a single spectator, just a huge pupil, identical to the one he had seen before, also appearing here.

He pondered for a moment and guessed that this wasn’t a big shot observing him; rather, all the challenges across the realms were within the range of these big shots’ gaze.

At the start of the first day, the big shots didn’t appear. It’s the last day today, and only now have these big shots shown interest in observing. Naturally, should there be a strong performance, it would catch their attention.

However, Lake didn’t have much hope for this. The big shots were certainly more focused on levels above silver, and they hardly paid any attention to those below it. No matter how good the performance, it couldn’t compare to the elite at the very top.

There was no need to choose the terrain; in the interest of fairness, both parties agreed to random selection. As expected, it resulted in a simple grassland plain.

Apart from two small hills and a few trees, the entire plane was flat grassland, only half a foot high, offering no place to hide. There were no rivers or lakes, but the land wasn’t dry. It was acceptable.

For this battle, Lake had invested a total of fourteen thousand Fishmen, one- third of whom had not been promoted, as well as eight hundred Naga who had grown, half of whom had not been promoted.

When the vast army teleported to one end of the plane, a soft exclamation came from an undetectable place, and a gaze was cast over.

“Mutated Fishmen?”

“No, hybrid Fishmen?”

“That’s not right either!”

“Interesting!”

Standing in the Vault of Heaven above the plane, Lake quietly watched various Clans form ranks and file under Slarda’s command. On the other end of the plane, around three thousand five hundred werewolves dressed in exquisitely crafted leather armor, bent at the waist with a steel claw on each hand moved into formation, flanked by two Hyenaman formations of about three thousand each.

But what most caught Lake’s attention was a group of about two thousand Hyenaman cavalry riding large Seat Wolves behind the werewolf formation.

With the commanding Werewolf Hero tilting its head back and letting out a long wolf howl, a swipe of a claw, the werewolves and Hyenamen began to move. The Hyenaman cavalry circled around from the back, taking a long route along the edge of the plane, likely aiming for a pincer attack from behind.

This person was somewhat stronger than Tang Ling or Shang Xiaoxue and others. If it had been two days earlier, he would have been easily crushed, but two days later, today, things were different.

The enhanced Fishmen could almost be considered a different race, reaching the limit of a low-level race. If paired with the All-around Warrior profession, with both combined, they were in no way inferior to average professions of intermediate races, such as Werewolves, Centaurs, Grey Dwarves, Half Beastmen, and so on.

In other words, his current fourteen thousand Grey Mist Fishmen were equivalent to someone else’s fourteen thousand intermediate race.

What was even more important was that after purchasing a batch of weapons, they had covered their last weakness.

He had no intention of commanding himself, letting the Supreme Nagas Slarda command the Clan into left, center, and right wings, and marched forward to meet them head-on.

From above the Vault of Heaven, Luo Yichen watched the two armies approach each other, his gaze sweeping over the opposite Fishmen who looked slightly different, seemingly stronger than regular Fishmen. He crossed his arms and chuckled:

“I’ve got three thousand five hundred werewolves and eight thousand Hyenamen. These mere fourteen thousand Fishmen dare to challenge me? They truly have a death wish!”

By now, he had deduced that Lake was one of those students who, lacking real strength and only completing tasks with the help of teammates, did not want to waste an opportunity and chose to challenge on a whim.

Of course, he looked down upon him in his thoughts, but he still treated the tactics seriously and was not careless.

As the two armies made contact, a triumphant smile was already appearing on his face.

However, when the left and right wings of both sides collided, the first contact between the Fishmen and the Hyenamen did not result in the standoff he expected, where his Hyenamen, with their superior equipment and slightly superior physical quality, would gain the upper hand. Instead, when they were about to clash, and still some tens of meters apart, the Hyenamen launched their charge first, only for the Fishmen to overwhelm them in their charge and send them flying.

As both sides charged at each other at roughly the same time, it was his side that was utterly routed, crushed without a chance to fight back. Luo Yichen could hardly believe his own eyes.

But that was the reality.

How could the basic warrior profession’s charge used by the Hyenamen stand against the powerful skill Salted Fish Charge, tailored with Creation Energy? Wave after wave, the Fishmen faced the Hyenamen head-on, and wave after wave, they were defeated, with over seventy percent being instantly killed in the frontal assault.

To use an apt analogy, it was as if both sides just died to each other’s onslaught.

This outcome was completely unexpected for the Hyenamen and werewolves. Up in the Vault of Heaven, Luo Yichen’s face turned pale with shock as he wanted to change the formation and tactics, but it was already too late. The wings of both sides had already commenced battle; at this point, to order a retreat would be to admit defeat.

Reluctantly, he could only hope his central army werewolf main force could overwhelm these Fishmen, and he instructed the circling Hyenaman Seat Wolf knights to speed up and come to a pincer attack—this might still turn the situation around.

However, the collapse of the left and right wings was faster than he had anticipated.

Lake’s left and right Fishmen wings outnumbered Luo Yichen’s, and they didn’t need anything else. Just a single wave of the Salted Fish Charge was enough to crush them layer by layer like decaying wood under a rolling wheel, as swathes of Hyenamen were killed instantly on the battlefield.

In less than two minutes, the left and right wings had already collapsed, while the central army had just begun to engage, and the Hyenamen Seat Wolf cavalry coming from behind were about to arrive. But what awaited them was a contingent of Fishmen warriors prepared for them in advance.

Following Lake’s Divine-mandate, Slarda didn’t let the Naga centered in the Central Army engage, allowing only the Fishmen to enter the battle.

He wanted to see for himself what the combat ability of the Fishmen, enhanced with five units of Creation Energy, was and whether it was worth the investment.

It’s worth noting that the Salted Fish Charge only cost one unit of Creation Energy, the same as the Divine Domain Heaven Card, a five-fold investment.