Chapter 143 - 143 Communication and Probing
As each cadet emerged from the transport platform, uncontrollably revealing their True Bodies before quickly concealing them again, Lin Xiao watched several and combined his own experiences upon arrival to astonishingly discover that the golden Divine Power auras expanding beneath the feet of all the cadets as they stepped out were actually related to their Divinity.
Put simply, the more Divinity one possessed, the larger the radius of the Divine Power aura under their feet.
Lin Xiao, who had four points of Divinity and two points of uncondensed Divinity, therefore had a four-meter radius for his Divine Power aura, with an additional two meters of semi-transparent aura.
And these cadets who were arriving successively all had auras ranging from four to six or seven meters, a small difference overall.
Even Lin Xu had only six points of Divinity, and Ancient City seven points of Divinity, while the others in the group each had five points of Divinity. In contrast, Lin Xiao’s four points were the least among them, but he had two more points of unsettled Divinity, which only needed enough Power of Faith to stabilize and coalesce, and thus overall he was considered upper-class within the squad.
As for Shen Yuexin, she emerged early on, so her consolidation of Divinity wasn’t seen, but considering she effortlessly secured the Silver Seat and later became one of the strongest twenty-one, her strength is certainly formidable.
In fact, Lin Xiao had always been unable to clearly discern her strength, suspecting it was stronger than imagined, yet he had no proof.
As one cadet after another teleported in, and having watched for a while, Lin Xiao turned back to casually chat with the others. He hadn’t said much when suddenly a chorus of surprised voices came from the side. He swiftly turned his head and saw a figure shrouded in an invisible distortion, standing on a Divine Power aura that reached over ten meters.
“Goodness, twelve points of Divinity!”
That gap was a bit exaggerated. Compared to Ancient City and the rest, this was a whole major level stronger.
As the Divine Power swiftly retracted, an extraordinary and somewhat proud young man was revealed. It was Ding Ye, one of the five who had arrived with Wu Zhonglin.
Although the young man had concealed his Divine Power, there was a cluster of distorted Divine Power behind his head that he couldn’t completely retract. He walked out expressionlessly and stood alone in a corner, causing the surrounding cadets to involuntarily clear a space for him.
Shortly after, Zhang Guan, also one of the Six Elites, emerged with Divine Power under his feet, exceeding ten points of Divinity, eleven to be exact, just one point fewer than Ding Ye.
Within a minute, a third young man with more than ten points of Divinity exited the portal.
Then came Qin Fengyan with ten points of Divinity and another young man named Gao Yongsheng, who also possessed ten points of Divinity.
With that, five of the Six Elites of this Summer Camp appeared, each with slight anomalies, indicating that their Divinity was so overwhelming that they couldn’t fully contain it. Now only Wu Zhonglin had yet to show himself, with nearly everyone’s gaze fixed on the transport platform, even the three towering figures whose indistinct faces were shrouded in surging Divine Power occasionally glanced over.
“What do you think, each of them has eleven or twelve points of Divinity. Wu Zhonglin is evidently stronger than them by a margin; how many points of Divinity do you think he has condensed now? Has it exceeded fifteen points?” Su Tong asked softly while looking at them with envious eyes.
Ancient City replied seriously,
“Definitely.”
Lin Xu also nodded,
“At least fifteen points, maybe even seventeen or eighteen.”
” Isn’t that a bit too exaggerated? We’re not even close to one-tenth of his strength?”
Lin Xiao chuckled,
“Have some confidence, we’re not even close to one-tenth of his strength.”
Shen Yuexin also commented,
” If he didn’t have a potential and strength far exceeding ours, how could he be listed on the Vice-Talent list with those senior students from grades two and even three while still in grade one?”
“So powerful!”
Everyone exclaimed in awe.
Just then, a Divine Power aura within the transport portal suddenly exploded, and a blinding golden light covered a much wider area than any before. Lin Xiao had not yet seen who was enveloped by the distorted Divine light when someone next to him gasped,
“Damn, twenty-one points of Divinity!”
The Divine Power aura quickly contracted towards the towering figure at the center, forming into a man three meters tall, his body adorned with golden dragon patterns. This person bore a resemblance to Wu Zhonglin, with a stern countenance and a defiant look, and atop his head, a pair of flame-ignited dragon horns, radically different from his previously mild appearance.
No, this was the true appearance of Wu Zhonglin.
Compared to the other people whose appearances after retracting their Divine Power didn’t differ much from how they looked in the Subspace, Wu Zhonglin’s appearance, even when his Divine Power was restrained, was utterly unlike his former self.
With a three-meter stature that stood out from all the others, a layer of Divine Power distortion that he struggled to contain still clung to him, and atop his head blazed a pair of fiery red curved dragon horns that appeared like ruby red crystals. The surrounding Void seemed to collapse subtly towards the dragon horns, and anyone focusing on them could feel a scorching sensation assail them.
“Terrifying!”
Such an intense aura was exuded unintentionally; if he were to release his Divine Power without restraint, who knew how terrifying it would be.
Lin Xiao could be one hundred percent certain that Wu Zhonglin definitely held a godhood related to dragons.
Just like the Creator godhood he had obtained in advance, waiting only for the moment he became a demigod to immediately coalesce it.
“Hiss!”
At this, Lin Xiao suddenly realized that Wu Zhonglin had already gathered twenty-one points of Divinity; when he became a demigod two years later, wouldn’t he easily amass over fifty points of Divinity? Wouldn’t that mean he could start with at least two powerful godhoods?
“That’s terrifying!”
This was simply being too powerful without equals, no wonder he was listed among the prodigies in the secondary rankings during his high school phase. And there were so many young prodigies like him; with his current strength, Lin Xiao couldn’t even make it onto the weakest, three-thousand-strong secondary prodigy leaderboard—the gap between them was indeed huge.
Once Wu Zhonglin appeared, three of the five elites stepped forward and stood together with him, all willingly standing behind him, taking him as the leader.
Only Qin Fengyan and Ding Ye were unwilling to be subordinate to him; after giving Wu Zhonglin a silent glance, they each left with a few companions.
With two taking the lead, the others began to disperse in succession, and Ancient City clapped his hands, saying,
“See that? Everyone’s forming groups now. Let’s move on too.”
The group withdrew their gazes, following the signs floating in the air and the markings on the ground toward a certain direction of the platform that extended for who knows how many kilometers.
Their destination seemed to be a military war fortress located in some unknown Exotic Crystal Wall, its size unknown; this platform alone was thousands of meters wide, perhaps over ten kilometers long, and more than one hundred meters high.
This ten-kilometer-long platform, resembling a runway, was flanked on both sides by numerous gigantic semicircular metal gates. From time to time, one could see flying vehicles emerging from one of these metal gates, turning into another, or passing straight through one gate to the one opposite.
The soldiers passing by all slowed down curiously to observe them, envy apparent in their eyes.
Lin Xiao knew that these soldiers envied their status, the status of Divine Territory Players.
These were ordinary soldiers, not Divine Territory Players.
Many believed that all the military’s soldiers were Divine Territory Players like them, but that wasn’t the case; the vast majority were normal people who nevertheless practiced various powerful force systems from Extra-dimensional planes, each possessing at least transcendent-level combat strength.
These non-Divine Territory Player soldiers were called “soldiers,” making up the bulk of the military’s bottom-ranked cannon fodder, using regular military ranks.
As for soldiers like Lin Xiao who had opened their own Divine Realm, they were referred to as “non-commissioned officers,” the elite of the armed forces, using elite military ranks. If they joined the army in the future, they would start as elite non-commissioned officers.
At the same rank, elite military ranks were one major level higher than regular military ranks and had higher priority.
For instance, an Elite Second Lieutenant held the same level as an ordinary Lieutenant Colonel and had a higher priority. Typically, an Elite Second Lieutenant was considered half a rank above an ordinary Lieutenant Colonel and could give orders to them.
This wasn’t discrimination but rather a recognition that the tasks undertaken by officers with elite military ranks were far more difficult and dangerous than those of ordinary soldiers, and thus they received higher treatment.
However, correspondingly, if an ordinary military rank surpassed a major level above the elite rank, it would still be considered higher. For example, a common Major General could command any officer below the rank of Lieutenant Colonel with an elite rank.
The command priority of this kind of order was as high as that of elite ranks commanding regular ranks; there would be no instances of elite officers arrogantly refusing to heed the orders of ordinary Lieutenant Colonels. Anyone daring to do so would unequivocally face severe consequences.
After all, ordinary soldiers who rose to the rank of general had become True Gods through their own abilities, and their God Level was not low.
They might not be able to defeat Divine Territory Players of the same rank, but those one or two ranks lower would be a different story.
Despite the enormous disparity between ordinary soldiers and elite non-commissioned officers, with all ordinary soldiers at least at the transcendent level, there were still not a few legendary-level powerhouses who could threaten them. Yet, their gaze unanimously expressed one thing – intense envy.
Amidst numerous envious stares, they followed the signs and walked several kilometers forward until they reached a turning point pointing directly at one of the gigantic metal gates – their destination lay beyond that portal.
The metal gate was twenty meters wide and fifty meters high, with large grooved patterns etched upon the huge metal frames, where light occasionally flowed through.
This was a marvel of Modern Technology fused with Magic Technology and the extraordinary sciences from other Exotic Crystal Systems, creating a thin, translucent membrane covering the metal surface, enhancing the metal’s resistance to various Elements.
All sorts of Void Battleships, war fortresses, and legions of Golem armies like Steel Golems used this technique, which granted them strong resistance to Spells. Coupled with the super-hardness of modern alloys, they held significant advantages in wars against the Natives of exotic worlds.
The large gate was covered with a thin transparent membrane that obstructed the view, not allowing one to see what was on the other side. As the group passed through the membrane, Lin Xiao felt a momentary sense of weightlessness; this thin layer actually encompassed a teleportation function.
Once his vision cleared, Lin Xiao found himself standing on a teleportation platform about ten meters in diameter. Ancient City, Shen Yuexin, and the others were on the side, and at each corner of the platform outside stood a five- meter-tall Steel Golem, resembling ancient armored warriors, each holding a massive six-meter alloy sword with the hilt planted firmly on the ground, motionless.
The group descended from the teleportation platform, looking around curiously.
Their teleportation point turned out to be a gigantic battleship navigating the Void.
This was a standard model Void Battleship of the military, with a length of over ten thousand meters—over ten kilometers. The massive hull was made from specially processed high-strength alloys, providing immense structural integrity and energy resistance. It was the military’s most commonly used and minimal operational unit in wars in the Outland.
Each Void Battleship functioned as a single combat unit, under the command of a Main World True God from the Main World Divine Domain; typically, these were True Gods with Weak Divine Power, number…