The Era of Gods

Just like how Lin Xiao’s school only releases a few cards at the end of each year exam, which is not nearly enough to go around, only the most excellent few students have the chance to snatch them.

Although descendants of True Gods are not necessarily short of Divinity, having Divinity doesn’t mean it can be fused easily.

You should know that Divinity not condensed through one’s own Power of Faith is impure, and Divinity doesn’t just appear out of nowhere; it’s all condensed by other Demigods or True Gods through the Power of Faith provided by their own followers, naturally containing a large amount of psychic energy from foreign followers as well as the spiritual Branding of the condenser.

This requires spending time to thoroughly Refine the spiritual Branding within before it can be assimilated into oneself; otherwise, under the influence of different spiritualities, at the very least it can affect character, and at worst, it can affect potential.

Lin Xiao previously fused with the Divinity of a Snake People Demigod because he used the Creation Magic Cube to directly extract pure Divinity, saving him this step.

Other True God descendants who obtain additional Divinity can only slowly Refine it; there’s simply no fast way about it.

Anyone who wants to go further will not fuse a large amount of Divinity at once, as it can affect their very self.

Upon exiting the Divine Realm, Lin Xiao received a brief message from his mentor:

Challenge over, you may move freely but must not leave the Fortress; you must assemble on the morning of the third day.”

There were hardly any restrictions, but he had nowhere to go anyway. After thinking it over, he sent a message to Lin Xu. He didn’t wait for a reply after a while and went ahead and ordered a meal, while also applying to receive his reward.

He should be among the earliest batch of students to complete the elimination task for his team. Since the task was finished, naturally, he could claim his reward.

After waiting for a bit, the meal he ordered arrived, and he browsed the trade platform while eating.

Speaking of which, Lin Xiao found that even cards of ancient grades were available on the trading platform; however, Divinity Cards and Divine Realm Cards were rarely seen, and the few times they did appear, they were instantly snatched up. These cards were completely in short supply.

The reward of five Mythical Quality Five Star Cards for completing the mission, although it was said that he could choose freely from any category, did not include Divinity Cards or Divine Realm Cards.

Just as he was thinking about this, he received a message. When he opened the light screen, it displayed the reward he had just applied for, prompting him to select the category for his reward cards.

He put down his chopsticks and after contemplating for a moment, the first Card he chose was the Goblin Species Card.

A Mythical Quality Goblin Card represented a full three thousand Goblins, half male and half female.

Choosing this species, which couldn’t even be considered cannon fodder, was mainly in preparation for the third race in his Divine Territory.

Currently, within the Divine Territory, both the Fishmen and the Supreme Naga could be considered combat Races, but a well-rounded Divine Territory cannot consist solely of combatant Races. There must be one or two advanced Races, and Goblins were the Auxiliary Race he had chosen.

Strictly speaking, Lin Xiao was already eligible to choose an intermediate race, but he chose Goblins for two reasons.

One reason is that an Advanced Race does not have to be very powerful; as long as it can reproduce well, it fits the criteria. Goblins meet this standard as they can eat anything, including grass roots, leaves, and even rotting flesh, which makes them exceptionally easy to sustain.

The second reason is that he possessed a Talent called Afterglow of the goblins, a rather extraordinary Talent. He wanted to try if he could use this Talent to recreate some of the brilliance from the epoch of the Ancient Goblin Empire.

Okay, the likelihood of that wasn’t very high.

The brilliance of the Ancient Goblins lay in their fabrication of virtual gods, something no True God would tolerate, not even Lin Xiao.

If they were able to create deities themselves, how could one expect them to retain their faith and worship you?

It’s more likely that the first thing they’d do would be to overthrow him as the perceived false deity.

Just like with humanity in the Main World, when they can open the Divine Realm on a large scale to create deities, the ordinary people of the Main World no longer worship gods. Thus, Divine Territory Players can only plunder foreign Races from Different Domains and then convert them into Divine Domain species to provide faith.

Unless Lin Xiao could become the Supreme god, the King of All Gods, the God Above Gods as spoken of in legends, perhaps only then could he control these virtual deities.

But that would be too troublesome, and frankly, if he really became the

Supreme god or the God Above Gods, he wouldn’t care about these matters anymore.

Therefore, it was essential to limit their potential for growth from the very beginning.

Or to put it another way, not to unlock the curses of the gods within the Goblin Bloodline. As long as the curse remains unbroken, no matter how the Goblins develop, they could never replicate the splendor of ancient times.

After all, he only needed an Auxiliary Clan dedicated to forging weapons and constructing engineering machinery for the main combatant species of the Divine Territory. Being adept at these was sufficient; they need not aspire to anything more.

For the reward of five Mythical Quality Five Star Cards from the task of resisting the Blood Legion, aside from the Goblin Card, he chose two Talent Cards and two Specialty Cards that were very suitable.

Two Talent Cards—Higher Level of Enlightenment, High-level Enlightenment.

Two Specialty Cards—Spiritual Power Genius, Clever Heart and Skillful Hands.

Enlightenment and the opening of the mind are used to develop intelligence, and High-level Enlightenment and Higher Level of Enlightenment are the enhanced Mythical Quality versions. The current Goblins were very crude; without Enlightenment and the opening of the mind, they were practically useless; so these two Cards were essential.

Spiritual Power Genius was to exploit their spiritual power, a necessary Talent to create Magical Equipment, as without spiritual power, it is impossible to create magic items.

As for Clever Heart and Skillful Hands, it literally meant having a more vigorous mind and more dexterous hands and feet.

With these two Talents and two Specialties, a new Race full of potential sprang to life in Lin Xiao’s mind.

With the items in hand, Lin Xiao did not use them immediately but put them away first.

He remembered his instructor saying that any student who survived the internal elimination round of the team would receive two Mythical Grade Five Star Cards. Although he was almost certain to stay, the other students had not yet finished their trials, so he couldn’t get those two cards just yet.

Moreover, he didn’t have any extra card slots, so…

He had to wait.

Speaking of which, the organizer of the summer camp was indeed very wealthy; Mythical Grade Cards didn’t come without significant cost. During this trial alone, he had acquired a total of seven Mythical Grade Five Star Cards, five plus two, which was unimaginable back in Dongning No. 5 Middle School.

Of course, this did not mean that such cards were so common as to be worthless; they were still quite valuable.

It’s just that the organizers of the summer camp came from over a hundred higher education institutions in the HuaXia District, supported by the military as well, so they had these resources available.

No matter how rare the resources, they ceased to be rare at a higher level.

When he returned to Dongning No. 5 Middle School, when the second year started, he probably wouldn’t come across such good opportunities again. Then, the situation would revert to where even one Epic Grade Card would be considered good, and Mythical Grade Cards would only be seen during midterms or final exams.

With different levels, comes different experiences. Lin Xiao suspected that, after the summer camp, he wouldn’t be very impressed by the rewards offered by the school.

So, he planned to take full advantage of this phase of the summer camp and do his utmost to earn more resources, to quickly narrow the gap between himself and those top elite scions when it came to resources during his freshman year.

Two days flew by in the blink of an eye, and this morning, after Lin Xiao finished washing up, he received a message from the instructor—

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The three-day period has ended, immediately head to the field for assembly!

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He immediately went out, took out a flying skateboard, set the route, and arrived at the square where he first came. From a distance, he saw that many people were already gathering there, chatting in groups. He noticed that everyone’s faces didn’t look very good.

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Could it be that everyone performed poorly?

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At this moment, he saw a graceful silhouette among a few figures standing apart from the other students on the other side; it was none other than Aunt Shen.

Not far away, there were a few acquaintances, but they stood on the other side and did not interact with Shen Yuexin.

After some thought, he decided not to go over and greet them.

By this second phase of the summer camp, everyone was pretty much looking out for themselves. Even most of those who had come from Yunmengxing Province together had already been eliminated, and the ones left had been divided among four teams. Now, apart from Shen Yuexin, there were only a few not-so-familiar faces in the Fury Flame Team.

Since helping others during team eliminations was impossible, and because they were not very familiar with each other, there was naturally no need for contact.

He had contacted Aunt Shen during the period, but at the time she was still undergoing a trial and did not respond.

The flying skateboard stopped beside Shen Yuexin. These people were the few that the instructor had taken a special interest in, and even the weakest of them was a Silver Contestant, with Lin Xiao being the weakest among them.

Of course, that was in the past; now, he certainly wouldn’t be considered the weakest.

Lin Xiao self-evaluated that his current strength could definitely reach the level of a Silver Contestant, and even one of the strongest, now qualifying to compete for the three Golden Thrones.

The reason he said he was qualified and not that he could snatch one was because of his inadequate Clan equipment.

The problem with weapons had been resolved, but not the armor; the Fishman’s body was different from that of Humans, so he couldn’t wear the armors they’d taken.

There were armors suited for different races available on the market, but the problem was that both his Fishman and Naga were unique creations; their body types were not the same as the normal Fishmen and Naga, so there was no fitting armor. He either had to find someone to tailor-make it for him or…

Or, there was no or. There were no Fishmen armors for sale on the market at all; there simply wasn’t anyone dedicated to crafting armor for Fishmen, who were considered to be just cannon fodder.

That also explained his reason for wanting to procure a third Advanced Race— he wanted to be self-sufficient.

Without armor, facing an equally matched opponent would put him at a major disadvantage—one protected by thick armor, the other left to withstand blows with his flesh and blood, the outcome would naturally be grim.

Shen Yuexin greeted him openly, and he responded with a smile and a wave; others just nodded slightly in acknowledgment: some returned the gesture, others acted as if they hadn’t seen it.

Clearly, these people hadn’t noticed nor acknowledged his strength; if there had been an opportunity, it’s likely someone would have wanted to challenge him.

Lin Xiao didn’t bother with them—whether they acknowledged him or not, they would come to know the truth through actual confrontation. If they really wanted to challenge him, he would give them a surprise.

Ignoring them, he stood beside Shen Yuexin, speaking in low voices.

After talking a few times, he found that although he should call her Aunt because of seniority, she was not much different from other girls. Strictly speaking, she was indeed a young girl, not very old, but just from a higher generation. They were the same age, and he found their conversations quite agreeable.

While talking, he couldn’t help but discreetly look up, openly admiring her charming face.

Yes, charming!

He thought that describing her as pretty or beautiful was inadequate for her appearance and demeanor. Under the influence of Divinity, it was difficult for female deities to be ugly; one might say they could all be goddesses. But with her outstanding looks, figure, and presence, Lin Xiao thought that only the word “charming” could describe her.