The Era of Gods

The battle unfolded just as Lin Xiao had anticipated. Slarda promptly ordered a full charge, and after sustaining some losses while withstanding two rounds of Flame Explosions from the Two-Headed Ogre Mage, they closed in for a charge. A wave of Salted Fish Charges immediately flipped the Ogre’s situation.

Around a dozen Transcendent Supreme Nagas confronted the Two-Headed Ogre Mage. Li Shengyuan sent out numerous Ogres to block them. However, they did not focus on the Two-Headed Ogre; instead, they utilized the Salted Fish Charge’s ability to charge without a target, breaking through the interception to reach the Two-Headed Ogre Mage with a long-distance charge.

After that, the Two-Headed Ogre Mages were rendered powerless. With more formidable Transcendent opponents close at hand, they simply had no chance to continue bombarding the battlefield.

Although his forces suffered greatly from the two waves of Flame Explosions, their total strength was less than a quarter of Li Shengyuan’s, Lin Xiao still had seventeen Transcendent Supreme Nagas left. The remaining main force of Supreme Nagas was also far stronger than the Ogres, so their sheer strength still surpassed that of their opponent.

The situation was essentially decided, and victory was in sight.

Lin Xiao smiled down at the battlefield, occasionally glancing at Li Shengyuan in the distance. It had been a tough battle, but in the end, he had won.

The final melee dragged on for a full three hours, mainly because the Ogres were incredibly resilient, especially the eight Two-Headed Ogre Mages, whose vitality alone was on par with that of the Transcendent Supreme Nagas, even if they didn’t have the same kind of dominating presence.

Even when struck by the Salted Fish Charge of the Transcendent class Whale Hunting Knights, they couldn’t be killed with a single blow.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiao discovered a weakness in the Salted Fish Charge during this battle. This skill dealt piercing damage, which was miraculous against weaker enemies, but against large opponents with strong vitality, its lethality was a bit lacking.

A strike could easily pierce through the body of a Two-Headed Ogre Mage, but with their Transcendent physiques and vitality, it was not fatal.

Lin Xiao squinted his eyes, considering internally that perhaps he could develop a powerful slashing skill tailored for Supreme Nagas to deal specifically with large-sized opponents with strong vitality.

After all, there were still two units of Creation Energy left to experiment with in the future.

“Hmm, I’ll make a note of it as an option to consider,” he murmured, nodding his head and focusing back on the battlefield.

About half an hour later, with a few Transcendent Supreme Nagas finally free to gang up on the toughest Two-Headed Ogre Mage Leader, Li Shengyuan’s entire army was annihilated.

But Lin Xiao was also not faring well. In the end, he had less than three hundred Fishmen and just over two hundred Supreme Nagas left. Even two of the Rank 6 Whale Hunting Knights had died—they were killed outright by the Two- Headed Ogre Mages’ focused Flame Explosions.

Though a Dominator’s Body was strong, it wasn’t invincible.

After the battle ended, Lin Xiao reflected on the fight. Li Shengyuan was indeed the strongest opponent he had ever faced, the gap in strength between them was very small.

Don’t be fooled by the remaining forces he had left—that was because this was a wild battle on a map without any terrain advantages, completely unable to showcase the opponent’s strengths. If the battle took place on different terrain, even a terrain with slight advantages would have made it much harder for him towin.

Once the battle concluded, they rested briefly before the second game began quickly.

As part of the routine, they had to select a plane terrain. Lin Xiao casually picked the default option and looked up at Li Shengyuan in the distance, only to see the corners of his opponent’s mouth slightly curled up in a sly smile. Lin Xiao frowned, unable to figure out what he meant for a moment.

But he quickly understood why his opponent smiled like that. When their terrains were confirmed and the virtual plane displayed a map of a canyon cutting straight from the bottom left corner to the top right corner of the map, he knew what Li Shengyuan was planning.

Yes, feeling he could not overpower him with absolute strength, Li Shengyuan had played a clever trick by selecting the Sheep Intestines Canyon terrain during the map choice phase.

According to the default rules of the Summer Camp, the initial maps generally started with plains, wastelands, and other flat terrains.

Should both parties select terrain, the resulting terrain would be an ultra-complex composition of both choices, which could easily result in terrains unsuitable for either side. So most people would stick to the initial plains or wastelands.

If one side chooses a terrain advantageous to them during the challenge, it’s generally an admission that they can’t beat the other.

Of course, it doesn’t really matter. Not sticking to the default won’t affect the outcome of the challenge—it’s all about the results.

Sheep Intestines Canyon…

Lin Xiao frowned as he glanced at the map, filled with peaks and just the narrowest path down the center, barely a hundred meters wide at its widest point and just a few meters at its narrowest, flanked by sheer cliffs. He looked again at the smug Li Shengyuan and chose to surrender.

It was an impossible fight.

With just cannon fodder placed in the front and ten Two-Headed Ogre Mages standing in the middle continuously throwing Flame Explosions, they could easily dominate the battle, leaving no chance for engagement.

He couldn’t say much about it since Li Shengyuan had only bent the default convention and not broken any of the Summer Camp rules. He could only blame himself for not paying close attention when confirming the terrain.

Each winning one of the first two battles, Lin Xiao immediately chose the aquatic terrain for the crucial third match.

If his opponent wasn’t going to play by the rules, he certainly didn’t need to hold back and directly chose the terrain his clan was most skilled at.

Once both made their selections, a terrain layout that could leave anyone dumbfounded appeared before him.

Lin Xiao’s mouth hung open as he stared at the simulated terrain in the plane before him, his lips slowly curving into a long arc. Looking up at Li Shengyuan, who was just as stunned, Lin Xiao suddenly pressed his forehead and burst into laughter.

“This is really karmic retribution!”

His choice of terrain was aquatic, while Li Shengyuan most likely chose mountainous canyons again. Thus, combining both their choices resulted in a bizarre terrain of countless fragmented mountains, water areas, and flatlands mixed together.

Several small, flat-topped hills were surrounded by water. Occasionally a piece of land sat in the midst of water, or sometimes grasslands were submerged by shallow waters; or a large expanse of flatland was bordered by mountains on one side and water on the other, and reaching other landmasses required swimming across.

In short, this was a chaotic terrain. Although different spaces, such as clearings and grasslands, weren’t completely blocked off by mountains and there were paths to walk through, many areas were intercepted by bodies of water that required swimming to cross.

That’s why Lin Xiao, upon reviewing the terrain, called it karma, because this terrain was almost like a bane to Li Shengyuan, just as the opponent had chosen Sheep Intestines Canyon as his bane before. Now, Li Shengyuan’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

This is one of the reasons why selecting terrain by default is necessary: because different races are suited to different terrains. If both sides choose terrains that are suitable for their own clans, they end up with this sort of problematic terrain when combined.

And that’s not even the most bizarre part. If one side selects terrain from the Underground World and the other chooses a normal ground terrain, an even more ridiculous map results where one side is completely unable to fight.

At the moment, Li Shengyuan, with a darkened face, sent his clan onto the battlefield. Fortunately, despite the odd terrain, there was a large clearing at each end of the plane where the clans of both sides could enter. It was basically surrounded by mountains on three sides with only one narrow valley exit leading out to a vast body of water.

Li Shengyuan released all his clan members and had the cannon fodder block the valley’s mouth, seemingly intent on holding his position and countering the attacks.

Unfortunately, that was not going to happen.

At the command of the epic hero Slarda, numerous Fishman Great Nagas swarmed out of the valley mouth, cheerfully diving into the water, winding through both land and water pathways within the plane.

The path was extremely convoluted. Although the straight-line distance wasn’t very long, winding around like that made it much longer.

After nearly an hour of marching, the army stopped by a body of water not far from the canyon where Li Shengyuan’s clan emerged.

Slarda climbed up a mountain to survey the terrain and then ordered the Naga magicians to begin summoning Water Elements.

Wave after wave of Water Elements was summoned, and after four waves, nearly five thousand Water Elements had accumulated. Then the magicians rested a while before starting to use Mockery, slowly causing the nearby lake water to rise.

The summoned Water Elements also had the power of Mockery, and with the combined forces of over a thousand magicians, they gathered water from even farther reaches, ultimately creating a wave more than thirty meters high that surged towards the valley mouth.

From the Vault of Heaven above, there was a murmur of admiration as someone said with certainty,

“Li Shengyuan is doomed to lose!”

“The moment the terrain was revealed at the start, he was doomed.”

“That hero is quite formidable, isn’t he? He has such excellent command and adaptability.”

“By defeating Li Shengyuan, this lad’s strength is already among the strongest of the second tier in this Summer Camp. Both in terms of ability and potential, he is outstanding enough to warrant a special recruitment invitation.”

“Are you sure you want to offer one?”

Someone asked,

“I remember that Ether only has five special recruitment spots this year, right?”

“Yes, I have two on hand, but in reality, I might not even need the second one.” “That’s true. Those six have been predetermined, and it’s already quite good to grab one among the dozen or so people in the second bracket. Those below tier two lack enough strength and potential for a special recruitment spot.”

“You don’t want it?”

“Ido, but I only have one special recruitment spot in my hand. I was planning to offer it to him, but I just discovered another good seedling, and they have accepted the invitation.”

“Then that’s unfortunate.”

“Isn’t it? It’s a pity there are so few special recruitment spots, otherwise I would definitely compete with you.”

“Hehheh…”

While they chatted idly, the battle within the plane was drawing to a close.

The Naga magicians had only summoned two tides. The first wave surged into the enclosed valley and swept out most of Li Shengyuan’s cannon fodder. The second tide swept away all but ten Two-Headed Ogre Magicians. The torrential river waters formed a whirlpool outside the valley under the urging of the Fishman magicians and Water Elements. Many Great Nagas submerged and dragged the enemies who were pulled out into the water, drowning them alive. After that, there was no after.

With only the ten Two-Headed Ogre Magicians left, there was absolutely no chance for a turnaround. They were slaughtered by the swarming Fishmen who rode the crashing waves into the valley.

Thus, the battle ended. Lin Xiao’s seat was raised to the position of Li Shengyuan while the latter’s seat plummeted to the Bronze Tier.

With that, all the challenges for this stage were over. Six divine cards of mythical quality and five stars, one Ancient Godly Card, and two extra card slots were now in hand.

Hmm, it was not settled yet, as there were still challengers whose battles were unfinished, but he was now secure. Now Lin Xiao comfortably sat fishing, perched just below the nine Golden Thrones on the top Silver Throne, watching other contestants still challenging each other and occasionally glancing at the chairman’s stand.

By this time, most contestants had finished their challenges, and over two- thirds of those without seats had been eliminated. Below the five-tiered seating, only two or three hundred people were standing there.

The host, Instructor Mo, had also stepped onto the chairman’s stand, smiling as he watched the few remaining challenges, occasionally communicating with the observers from various colleges in the Void, now and then showing a grin. Suddenly, he cocked his head to one side, his ear…