The Era of Gods

Having confirmed the deck, Lin Xiao selected the ready option on the interface screen before him and began matching. The screen changed into a constantly twisting Chaos Vortex.

In less than two seconds, a beam of golden light shot out from the distorted Chaos Vortex. Lin Xiao felt his consciousness blur momentarily and found himself in an endless Void, spotting a cluster of golden light far ahead, plummeting down as rapidly as he was, arriving in front of a virtual plane.

“Please deploy your predetermined card group within one minute!”

“That was fast.”

He first glanced at the terrain of the plane, unlike the previous Summer Camp, there was no choice of terrain, only a random option.

Neither he nor his opponent could choose, only random.

“Good lord, they’re taking luck to the extreme!”

Setting the activation sequence for the three cards he had prepared in advance, he confirmed. A dozen seconds later, the opponent confirmed as well, and Lin Xiao felt his consciousness quickly sinking into the plane.

This was a very common hilly terrain, three kilometers long and wide. He could see across the plane, where an endless white light poured down, turning into countless figures that filled the ground.

From a distance, Lin Xiao saw that his opponent had three thousand Level 1 Frog People and about three hundred Level 3 Bear Goblin Knights. The setup was rather formidable.

Though the Frog People were of a low level, their numbers were great. Even ants can bite an elephant to death.

If he couldn’t cheat, Lin Xiao found it would be quite… difficult to defeat the opponent.

Alright, it was still pretty easy actually, as having five hundred Archers was quite powerful.

At the start, Lin Xiao only activated five hundred Archers and a hundred heavy infantry. The Super Large Fire Elemental wasn’t summoned, but as part of the Combat Card Group, it could be summoned at any time. Cards outside of the group couldn’t be used in this battle.

His opponent was an ordinary white young man who first looked up at his counterpart after summoning his troops. Seeing that his opponent only had five to six hundred troops, he was instantly filled with confidence, believing victory was in his grasp, and laughed loudly from afar:

It seems your luck is really bad, so I won’t be polite.”

Lin Xiao glanced at his opponent, crossed his arms, and said:

“I have five hundred Archer Shooters and one hundred heavy infantry, your minions are numerous but mostly Cannon Fodder, I can’t see how you think you’re going to win? Just because of those three hundred pig riders?”

“Of course!”

The self-assuredness of the white young man made Lin Xiao raise an eyebrow, taking another careful look at the opposition. They were indeed Level 3 Pig Knights, and he didn’t see any other hidden troops, how will you beat me?

He thought about probing further, but by then, time was up, the three-second countdown ended, and the battle commenced.

The white young man immediately waved his hand, and the three thousand Frog People shouted as they charged, followed at a steady pace by the three hundred Pig Knights. This strategy puzzled Lin Xiao.

But no matter what the opponent’s plan was, his operation here was simple: a hundred heavy infantry lined up in front to block, and five hundred Archers formed three rows behind the heavy infantry, waiting for the enemy to draw near.

When the enemy was about five hundred meters away, the three rows of Archers simultaneously launched a volley into the sky. Arrows filled the sky, drawing long arcs before raining down, striking a few Frog People to the ground.

The accuracy of the volley was a bit off, and the aim was even worse in the first round.

However, after the second volley five seconds later, which not only readjusted the angle but brought the enemies closer, this wave of arrow rain caused huge damage.

Yet, the other side showed no reaction and continued the charge.

After six continuous volleys that killed nearly one-tenth of the Frog People, the distance between the two sides was less than a hundred meters. Lin Xiao quickly ordered the Archer Shooters to change their attack method: the first row shot first then immediately stepped back to restring their bows. Meanwhile, the second row stepped up to shoot, then retreated for the third row to take their turn. Once the third row finished shooting, the first row was ready again, thus maintaining a continuous barrage without interruptions.

This was a common linear queuing tactic of eliminating the enemy, allowing the single-shot Hand Crossbows to maintain continuous offense through rotating volleys.

At least for now, it seemed very effective, with a large number of Frog People being killed. The short hundred-meter distance saw a higher death toll than the previous six volleys.

But what puzzled Lin Xiao was his opponent seemed unhurried, just watching his subordinates continue to die. Those three hundred Pig Knights were still lagging behind and that was…

At that moment, the white man’s face revealed a sly smile. He took out a Crystal Wand that looked very fancy, resembling an arm clenched in a fist, and slammed it into the ground. The Crystal Wand’s handle with five fingers, one of the knuckles embedded with a gemstone, burst open. The Void above the three hundred Pig Knights distorted and deformed, and they vanished into thin air.

“Damn it, a Teleportation Wand!”

Lin Xiao didn’t need to look for the teleportation spot to know the opponent’s plan.

Sure enough, a large invisible distortion appeared directly among the Archer Shooters. The three hundred Pig Knights were teleported amidst them, blades fell, and nearly half of the Archer Shooters were overturned in the chaos.

Although the Archer Shooters were of a higher soldier card rank than the Pig Knights, their strength lay entirely in ranged shooting, their close combat capabilities were simply non-existent, there was no way they could withstand the slashes of the Bear Goblins and the gnawing tusks of the Pig rides, the formation was instantly thrown into disarray.

The white man laughed heartily at the sight:

It looks like you’re going to lose.”

“Not necessarily!”

Lin Xiao took out the Red Light Wrapped Scroll and activated it. A distortion opened in the sky, and from it emerged a fireball the size of a house that descended from the heavens with a roar, exploding onto the battlefield, creating a ring of flames tens of meters wide. Accompanied by a roar that penetrated souls, flames rose slowly, coalescing into a more than fifteen-meter-tall Super Large Fire Elemental.

The summoned Fire Elemental roared towards the sky, a faint halo of firelight rapidly diffused, the grass on the ground quickly turned yellow, withered, blackened, and burned, transforming into an area with a diameter of over a hundred meters that became the Land of Flames.

“This is impossible!”

The Caucasian man stared at the massive Fire Elemental as if he’d seen a ghost.

“Kill them.”

With a wave of Lin Xiao’s hand, the arms of the super large Fire Elemental, formed of flames and towering as high as a four- or five-story building, rose high into the air. The sky rapidly turned red, and countless fist-sized fireballs fell from above, bombarding the Frog People.

The Rain of Fire technique was the most powerful spell mastered by the super large Fire Elemental of Rank 6, capable of summoning a vast rain of fire to incinerate enemies from above.

Waves of Rain of Fire set the Frog People ablaze, and the magic flames’ potency far exceeded that of ordinary fire, burning many of the Frog People to death and causing a surge in morale, leading to their collapse and flight.

Even though they were summoned troops, they were real, and no one could withstand such terrifying magic and casualties.

As the Frog People fled, Lin Xiao immediately ordered the only eighty or ninety remaining heavy infantry to return and support the Hand Crossbow Shooters.

The super large Fire Elemental’s arms rose again to sprinkle a large swath of red light, bestowing a fire shield that could reflect fire damage onto all the infantry, as well as enhancing their blades with fire damage.

The rest of the battle was uneventful; even if the boar knights killed all the Hand Crossbow Shooters, they were obliterated by a few spells from the super large Fire Elemental, which still counted as his victory.

The battlefield they were in was virtual, and the death of soldiers did not affect the next battle, as everyone would be at full strength shortly after.

At the end of the battle, a roulette wheel appeared before Lin Xiao, and he knew this was the opponent’s Card Pool. According to the rules, he could draw one to three cards from the opponent’s Card Pool to supplement his own.

He pressed his hand onto the center of the wheel, which began spinning quickly, slowing down after about ten seconds, until it came to a stop, and two new cards emerged before him.

“Not bad.”

He carefully examined the two cards, one was a three-star, common-quality Boar Knight Card, and the other was a two-star Summoning Card, capable of summoning a small pack of Seat Wolves, which could be ignored.

It’s a pity he didn’t draw that Teleportation Card, or it would have been fun.

Next, after defeating an opponent, he could also choose one card to add to his Combat Card Group.

After some thought, Lin Xiao took out the Boar Knight Card and added the two-star common Goblin Card. Both cards summoned Goblins, and the Bear Goblin was also a Goblin, so they could be fused.

The fusion of the two cards resulted in a three-star rare Soldier Card, capable of summoning three hundred Bear Goblins and three hundred ordinary Goblin Cannon Fodder.

Although the added combat power wasn’t significant and didn’t greatly enhance his strength, this bunch of Cannon Fodder was just what he needed to buy more time for the five hundred Hand Crossbow Shooters. A hundred heavy infantry was far too few to hold back the enemy’s advance.

Besides, he didn’t have any significant items, and neither did the others.

Everyone’s Card Points were limited; they didn’t have that many high-level card combinations.

After a brief rest, Lin Xiao did not leave the battlefield but immediately continued to match with a second opponent.

Meanwhile, at the God’s Tomb Square, as time went by, the first round of battles was gradually concluded. Lin Xu, after defeating his first opponent and having fully prepared, returned to the square. He found that more than two-thirds of the players from the HuaXia District had been eliminated.

He was shocked by the substantial gap.

Compared to the relaxed chatter and laughter among the players from the College League, the atmosphere in the HuaXia District was silent and extremely heavy, everyone feeling resentful and dissatisfied.

If they had been outplayed, that would be one thing, or if it was sheer bad luck, they might have accepted it. But to start with a disadvantage in the match was not an easy pill to swallow.

But those were the rules, as the master of the God’s Tomb wasn’t one of their own.

Lin Xu was powerless; although he too had an advantage and not bad luck, adding up to a decent start, he was sure he wouldn’t make it to the end.

Glancing around, Lin Xu saw that both Lin Xiao and Shen Yuexin were still there, meaning they hadn’t been eliminated, which offered him some consolation.

He wasn’t very optimistic about Lin Xiao, having seen before that his Card Pool was not much stronger than his own, but he had high hopes for Shen Yuexin. Her luck was exceptionally good, owning an Ancient Godly Card from the start, combined with several gold and orange cards, she had a good chance of making it to the end and claiming the God’s Tomb.

He felt that the hope of the HuaXia District rested on her.

With a trace of consolation, Lin Xu’s consciousness sank down, and he started his second round of challenges.

In the virtual realm, Lin Xiao scrutinized his opponent’s forces and immediately summoned the super large Fire Elemental at the frontline before the Hand Crossbow Shooters. Further ahead were a thousand heavy infantry and three hundred Goblin Cannon Fodder; another three hundred Bear Goblins had long since broken away and circled around, forcing the opponent to divert some forces for defense to avoid being attacked from behind and ambushed at the Archer’s formation.

This opponent was clearly much stronger than the last, boasting not only a force of five hundred Half-elf Archers but also a very large group of around a thousand Ice Wolves native to the polar ice plains. What worried him the most was that this opponent had a small group of Mammoth Beasts.

These were incredibly powerful Giant Beasts, standing four meters tall and seven or eight meters long, with a tank not even able to describe their might. Their robust physique and terrifying strength made them start at Fifth Level.

Fortunately, there weren’t many, only ten, and there were no Mammoth Giant Beasts of the Transcendent Level.

Facing such an opponent, a frontal confrontation was difficult, even though he had a Transcendent Level super large Fire Elemental..