The Era of Gods

The player he had challenged was named Li Shengyuan, who had already defeated three different opponents and was considering which Golden Contestant to challenge next.

Although he, like Lin Xiao, was a Silver Contestant, his role within their respective teams was top-tier, so if he wanted to challenge above his level, he could only challenge a Golden Contestant, to be precise, only those three Golden Contestants, as no one else dared to challenge the other six at this time.

When Li Shengyuan received the challenge from Lin Xiao, he was stunned at first and then inexplicably became angry.

Out of so many people to challenge, you pick me? Do you think I’m an easy target?

“Don’t think you’re someone special just because you’ve beaten one Silver Contestant. Today, I’ll let you know that there’s a huge gap even between Silver Contestants!”

“???”

Lin Xiao watched in utter confusion as his opponent on the other side of the challenge interface rattled off this nonsensical rant.

Just entering the challenge screen, that person lashed out as if he had consumed gunpowder, making Lin Xiao pity him; he had no intention of looking down on the opponent—it was just a random choice of challenger. Was it really a matter of luck, and what did it have to do with respect?

However, the opponent obviously didn’t want to hear his explanation and quickly began to deploy troops on the randomly chosen battlefield.

Lin Xiao could only shrug helplessly and quickly organized his projected Clan onto the default plain battlefield, while observing the forces of the opponent.

The sight took him by surprise, and the relaxed expression on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a serious one.

Li Shengyuan’s main fighting Clan was, surprisingly, the notorious Ogres—a species rated in the high school textbook ‘Exotic Species Register’ as one of the ten strongest yet most cumbersome Intermediate races.

Ogres are simple-minded, physically robust creatures, typically standing around three and a half meters tall and weighing three to four hundred kilograms. They are savage, violent, cannibalistic, cruel, lustful, incestuous, etc., with an unsightly appearance and extremely low intellect.

Although rated as one of the strongest Intermediate races, in reality, few people choose Ogres as their Clan due to the aforementioned drawbacks.

The most critical flaw is the Ogre’s low intelligence, which results in one of the lowest Faith values among Intermediate races. Along with their large appetites and destructive impulses, which make them hard to control, it’s rare for anyone to develop them as their main Clan.

Of course, another significant reason for this is that as Divine Beings worshipped by Ogres, one will inevitably be influenced by their Clan to some extent.

The most obvious manifestation is a propensity for anger, which Lin Xiao now understood to be the likely reason behind Li Shengyuan’s sudden outburst—it was probably the influence of his main Ogre Clan.

The reason Ogres are rated as one of the ten strongest Intermediate races is that the lowest level Ogres are Level 3 soldiers, on par with Supreme Naga; they can advance as high as Level 5 Ogre Leaders, and there is a very small chance of mutation or, rather, awakening as a Two-Headed Ogre Mage, an even more monstrous Transcendent species than Kobold Draconic Magicians.

Such Two-Headed Ogre Mages are truly Transcendent beings, possessing Transcendent Level physiques, strength, melee combat power, and magical combat abilities. They are exceptionally powerful.

And amongst those more than three thousand Ogres, Lin Xiao saw no less than ten of these formidable Two-Headed Ogre Mages within Li Shengyuan’s ranks.

“This battle is going to be dangerous!”

Three thousand Ogres slightly less powerful than Supreme Naga, ten Transcendent Level Two-Headed Ogres, nearly ten thousand Hyenamen, along with over four thousand Grey Dwarves, likely there to forge weapons and equipment for Hyenamen. Ogres do not commonly wear Armor due to their brutal, bloodthirsty nature and their extraordinarily high Vitality, requiring only a single weapon to leverage their monstrous strength.

The Grey Dwarf is a race of Dwarves, inherently more powerful in combat than the Hyenamen.

Quite the lineup, two Intermediate races, plus ten thousand Hyenamen—Li Shengyuan’s forces tallied up to seventeen thousand, exceeding Lin Xiao on paper.

No wonder he was considered a top-tier player, and recognized as an elite who once held a seat on the Golden Throne; he was far stronger than Li Xiangyang, another fellow Silver Contestant.

Gathering his wits, he issued a Divine-mandate to all his followers, his authoritative and grand voice booming like thunder:

“Evil has never been so formidable. My bravest warriors, grip your weapons tightly and deliver Judgement upon evil. I watch over you from the heavenly domain!”

All Fishmen and Naga immediately knelt in reverence, praying softly:

“Praise to You, the Supreme Creator, King of the Great Sea, God of Naga and Fishmen, Your might is unrivaled, Your glory enlightens the world. Your most devout followers have heard Your call, prepared to defend Your honor and devote everything to our Lord!”

“Your courage is felt by me. I watch over you from the heavenly domain, awaiting your triumphant return!”

“Woo ”

The elongated horn sounds echoed within the plane, and the clans at both ends of the plane began to deploy troops. The armies of both sides, equally gigantic, slowly expanded and soon covered the entire plane.

In the pupils beyond the visible plane, more than a dozen powerful wills were observing the battlefield.

Compared to the over fifty powerful wills that observed Lin Xiao’s battle with Li Xiangyang last time, there were much fewer observers this time. If he could sense it, he would realize that those missing were the very colleges that he had rejected.

Indeed, that was the case. When he turned down their special recruitment invitations, the observers from those higher-level colleges gave up on watching him.

This isn’t fiction, but reality. Unless he was someone like Wu Zhonglin, who was ranked on the Divine-mandate list as a vice lister at a very young age, he would have the privilege of colleges still trying to win him over after his rejection. Normally, one rejection meant no further invitations; after all, prestigious colleges have loads of geniuses clamoring for their invitation letters. Why would they tirelessly pursue someone like in the novels? They do have their dignity to consider.

The ones who continued to observe were mostly colleges that had only shown interest but not offered a special invitation, along with a few new observers.

They were more interested in the challenge against Li Shengyuan than the previous challenge against Li Xiangyang.

The terrain of the plane was the default plains, fair for both sides, with almost no undulation or other terrains, a flat expanse ideal for large-scale battles.

The vast armies took nearly half an hour for the vanguards of both sides to approach each other. Over two thousand Small Fishmen and more than four thousand Hyenamen made contact, charging at each other simultaneously.

As expected, the Small Fishmen, with their Salted Fish Charge, easily overturned the Hyenamen, who only possessed the basic warrior profession. A wave of them overturned a swath of enemies, and after breaking into the Hyenamen ranks, successive Thunder Strikes exploded, completely disarraying the formation of the four thousand Hyenamen vanguard, turning it into a mess with no formation, and allowing for organized extermination by the Small Fishmen.

Li Shengyuan immediately ordered the vanguard to retreat, at the same time ordering the Ogre troops to speed up their charge. The left and right flanks, along with the rear forces, also accelerated, aiming to use their numerical advantage to provoke an all-out melee.

This suited Lin Xiao just fine; both the Small Fishmen and the Supreme Naga were races designed for head-on combat.

In less than ten minutes, the main forces of both sides approached a distance suitable for a charge.

As the saying goes, with more than ten thousand soldiers, there was no end in sight. Viewed from the sky above, the two colossal armies slowly came into contact, quickly entangling into one mass, with heads blanketing the hills and fields.

A towering, four-meter-tall Ogre Leader brandished a thick Wolf Fang Club and swung it fiercely. With a ‘boom,’ a Small Fishman was smashed into the ground, broken weapons scattered over him and blood and broken bones flowing out.

With a backhand swing, another Small Fishman was sent flying over ten meters. The Leader grabbed the flesh and blood stuck to the Wolf Fang Club and stuffed it in his mouth, his small eyes filled with cruelty and bloodthirstiness. He bellowed and rushed toward another Small Fishman a few meters away.

Just then, a massive dark shadow charged over and sent the Ogre Leader flying —it was a Supreme Naga warrior.

After landing, the Supreme Naga warrior lashed out with his thick snake tail, smashing a Hyenaman nearby into a meat patty. He lifted two Dual Hand Greatswords and chopped down fiercely, followed by a piercing sound of metal tearing, two Grey Dwarves, armor and all, were cleaved in half, with blood and entrails splattering the ground.

Both Ogres and Supreme Naga were incredibly tough and strong, turning into killing machines on the battlefield. Compared to them, the somewhat capable Small Fishmen and Hyenamen appeared to be mere trinkets and stood no chance at all.

After wiping out a circle of Small Fishmen or Hyenamen, the Level 5 Supreme Naga warriors and Level 5 Ogre Leaders roared as they charged at each other. With a ‘bang,’ they collided, unleashing an invisible shockwave that sank the ground beneath their feet.

Both of these large creatures tangled together; the Supreme Naga warriors, three meters tall and four meters long, and the four-meter-tall Ogre Leaders were both monstrous in strength. Their tussle deterred any smaller soldiers from coming close.

Such battles were ubiquitous on the chaotic battlefield.

The Ogres far outnumbered the Supreme Naga, nearly tripling them in number. However, the average strength of Ogres couldn’t compare to all the Level 5 Supreme Naga.

Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm featured an ancient arena that could be used to train and enhance the combat experience and professional experience of a species, but Li Shengyuan’s Divine Realm had no such facilities. The Ogre and Hyenamen levels within his Divine Realm were obtained through regular combat to accumulate professional experience, allowing only for professional level upgrades, making it difficult to enhance species experience.

Thus, whether Ogres or Hyenamen, their levels were inconsistent. Of the three thousand Ogres that reached the fifth level, there were less than two hundred leaders.

Moreover, even if they reached Level 5, the Ogre Leaders could not win against the Supreme Naga that Lin Xiao had adjusted multiple times with the Creation Rubik’s Cube and had undergone transformative evolution. Even at the same level, the strength difference was substantial.

In battle, this was shown by the Supreme Naga using their bulky tails to wrap around and trip the Ogre legs, causing them to fall. With a powerful serpentine waist, they withstood the heavy blows from the Ogre’s Wolf Fang Club, raised up and plunged the sharp Dual Hand Greatswords down, with blood spurting everywhere.

But immediately, other Ogres lunged forward, clubbing the Naga down. The Ogre beneath had not yet died but instead became even more vicious from injury, grabbing onto the Supreme Naga and biting down with its misaligned, meat and stench-laden yellow teeth, piercing through the sturdy scales on the spot.

Although the vitality of the Ogres was not as domineering as the Supreme Naga’s Dominator’s Body, they were still known to be tremendously strong. They weren’t easily killed by these two slashes.