The Era of Gods

Another Summoning Card able to summon Oversize Air Elementals at the Transcendent Level was not bad either; it could summon tornadoes and lightning, and its combat power was no less than that of the Fire Element.

As for the last Defensive Barrier Card, it was also quite good—what else could you say about a defense?

The cards themselves were fairly good, but when combined, they became somewhat awkward because these cards could not strengthen the existing main Skeleton Army, making them appear as mere chicken ribs in the current round of challenges.

However, this didn’t mean they were unusable. “Chicken ribs” was just a relative term. Both the Transcendent-level Air Elemental and the Defensive Barrier were valuable assets.

Moreover, the Undead Army Card in his hand was just too powerful. After several enhancements, it had become a Supermodel Card surpassing the average Ancient Quality Soldier Cards. With this card alone, he would be sufficient.

Lin Xiao loaded all his cards, except for the Profession Cards, and bravely faced his opponent, starting the eighth round of the War.

Just as he had envisioned, the eighth-round opponent had three Super Large Fire Elementals, twelve Fifth Level Large Fire Elementals, seventy to eighty Medium Fire Elementals, and several hundred Small Fire Elementals. In addition, there were more than two thousand First Level Fishmen and Kobold Cannon Fodder, over three hundred Level 3 Fishman Tidecaller Magicians, five hundred Level 4 Human Archers, and five hundred Werewolf Warriors.

After viewing the composition of troops, Lin Xiao had a good idea what to expect. If he wasn’t mistaken, his opponent must have started with an Ancient Quality Fire Elemental Summoning Card, conjuring up so many Fire Elementals in one go.

The rest of the troops were all from cards won in previous Battles, which seemed like a lot, but actually, all added up, they still couldn’t compare to that single Fire Elemental Summoning Card.

“It’s settled then!”

With such a composition of enemy forces, as long as there wasn’t any super powerful card hidden up the sleeve, he should be able to beat them.

Unconsciously, the combined strength of his deck had become very powerful.

As soon as the Battle began, Yaseer immediately ordered the full army charge, with all the Fire Elementals gathering around the three Oversize Transcendent Fire Elementals to start casting spells. First, they summoned three waves of Fire Elementals to expand their ranks, and then, the sky turned dark red as a Rain of Fire began to descend.

The three Transcendent Fire Elementals used the Rain of Fire technique simultaneously, covering a vast area.

If it were any other player facing this move, they would have no choice but to tank it, but Lin Xiao also had a Super Large Fire Elemental. He quickly summoned three waves of Fire Elementals to congregate and then cast the Flame Defense Barrier to protect the Undead Archers covered by the Rain of Fire.

At the same time, another Oversize Air Elemental also cast an Air Barrier, shielding another key portion of the troops from the Rain of Fire.

As for the regular Cannon Fodder, they were ignored; if they died, they died—it was no great loss as their numbers were abundant, and it was fine as long as the main forces were unharmed.

Seeing that the Rain of Fire didn’t achieve the desired effect, the opponent’s forehead furrowed in concentration as they began to meticulously command their troops.

Lin Xiao chuckled to himself, not bothering with the micromanagement of his charging Undead Army—it was too draining.

Under Yaseer’s control, a massive number of Fire Elementals pressed forward, and upon reaching casting range, they hurled numerous Fireballs into the midst of the Undead, causing explosions.

These Fireballs were simple Fireball Techniques, their blast radii and power nowhere near a Flame Explosion’s level, though within the blast radius, they were still lethal to Cannon Fodder.

Small Fire Elementals could only throw three Fireball Techniques a day, Medium ones six, and Large ones nine. With thousands of Fire Elementals at Yaseer’s disposal, releasing them all at once would decimate the Undead Army. Still, the dozen or so Undead Mages wouldn’t just watch their forces get annihilated—they advanced towards the battlefield to cast their spells in unison.

Banishment sent summoned creatures back to their original world, so a large group of extra summoned Fire Elementals was banished home to “collect their boxed lunches.”

Undead Barrier utilized the innate Death aura emitted by the Undead to create a barrier. It wasn’t very strong but could hold off a few waves of Fireballs.

Weakening made the targets feeble through the power of Death.

Fearful Radiance, in conjunction with Weakening and Death, induced terror in enemies, causing a drop in morale.

Bone Shield was crafted from the shards of fallen Skeletons’ bones, forming a shield capable of blocking both physical and magical damage.

Although the combat power of the Undead Mages wasn’t as high as that of orthodox Mages, their utility on the battlefield was superior, exerting powerful buffs and debuffs that could significantly shift the tides of War.

Even though Yaseer’s magical power was formidable, Fire Elementals were not Mages and couldn’t dispel the various Undead spells.

His own Fire Elementals, summoned through magic, were all banished, while Lin Xiao’s summoned Fire Elementals remained in place.

He should actually feel fortunate that his original Fire Elementals, conjured from the Card, couldn’t be banished; otherwise, if a wave of banishment had been unleashed, he would’ve been rendered incapable of continuing the fight.

But as the Undead Mages powered up and the sneaky Self-Exploding Assassins infiltrated and detonated amidst the enemy’s ranged archers, wiping them out, the balance of the battle began to tilt once again.

Lin Xiao did not choose to detonate the opposing Fire Elementals, as with three Transcendent-Level Fire Elementals present, the Self-Exploding Assassins could not get close.

Anyway, once the opponent’s regular forces were wiped out, the remaining group of Fire Elementals couldn’t turn the tide.

One thing that surprised Lin Xiao was that, even after the battle had ended and the three towering Super Large Fire Elementals had collapsed with a roar into a sea of flames, the opponent had not used a combined, over-frequency powerful move like he had.

Even without summoning additional Fire Elementals, given the amplification of so many Fire Elementals present, there was no reason they couldn’t cast beyond their normal capabilities, right?

“Could it be because this Fire Elemental of mine possesses a special ability derived from the fusion of multiple Elemental Summoning Cards?”

Lin Xiao could only speculate thus.

Having defeated Yaseer and entered the top ten, Lin Xiao had secured two additional card slots and an Ancient Godly Card, setting other considerations aside.

With anticipation, he opened the card drawing roulette. After an exciting spin, a solitary card appeared before him, but his face lit up with joy, for the card emanated a crystalline glow—it was Yaseer’s Fire Elemental card that he had drawn.

Ancient Five Star Summoning Card—Flame Melting Sea: Each use summons randomly between three to five Super Large Fire Elementals, ten to twenty Large Fire Elementals, fifty to one hundred Medium Fire Elementals, and three hundred to five hundred Small Fire Elementals from the Flame Melting Sea.

“Damn, this card is pretty bad-ass!”

Though it wasn’t quite on par with the Undead Army Card, it was only slightly less powerful and now it was his.

With the card in hand, Lin Xiao was full of confidence for the upcoming matches, his consciousness returning to the Divine Realm plaza for a quick look, which much to his surprise, led to quite a shock.

After the last round of matches, only nine players remained in total. Lin Xiao wanted to see how many were left from the HuaXia District and whether his little aunt and Wu Zhonglin had been eliminated. The result, unexpectedly, was that six players, including himself, were still in the game from the HuaXia District, while the Ivy League Alliance of High Schools was reduced to only three, a contrast that was nothing short of astonishing.

What surprised him even more was that the last two players from the Yuming Trading Company were still holding on, indeed, they had made it this far as dark horses.

These two were the team leaders Li Cheng and Wang Jiechao. Without a doubt, no matter the outcome, both were certain to receive the military’s special recruitment and training, which would change their destinies forever.

This was quite rare, indicating a significant chance for them to become Demigods and holding a tiny chance of becoming True Gods in the future.

Going from the one-in-a-billion chance of the average adventurer to the one-in-a-hundred-thousand still seemed pitifully small, but it was far better than the almost impossible odds they had faced before.

For average adventurers who were eliminated during high school, advancing to Demigod was difficult, let alone True God, a possibility so remote it could be disregarded. History has shown that each year the Main World produces billions of students who get eliminated, accumulating to a frighteningly large number over the years. Yet, fewer than ten eliminated Divine Territory Players manage to achieve Godhood annually.

The vast majority of these have major powers backing them, and it’s exceedingly rare to see someone from an entirely ordinary adventurer background achieve this.

This illustrates the difficulty for Divine Territory Players to achieve Divine Enthronement.

Of course, this doesn’t include those who give up their Divine Territory Player status to achieve Godhood in a Different Domain, becoming similar to Native deities with various restrictions, akin to pure faith-based deities.

The difficulty of Godhood for such Indigenous Gods is much lower than for Divine Territory Players. After all, with a Divinity in hand or enough followers, a bit of luck could make Godhood possible. Numerous Natives have attained Godhood by fortune of finding a Divinity.

Such deities are confined to the planes where their followers are most numerous, bound by faith, their personalities influenced by their divine duties, and their actual combat power far less than that of Divine Territory Players supported by followers and a God Country.

But, inferior as they may be, they are still deities with immortal life. Many Divine Territory Players choose to become Indigenous Gods when they see no hope of achieving higher Godhood.

Outside the God’s Tomb in the Void, several instructors from the Summer Camp and many observers gathered together, chattering and laughing as they looked at the contestants on the plaza of the God’s Tomb. Their animated discussion was a stark contrast to the grim expressions of several instructors from the Ivy League Alliance of High Schools nearby.

This outcome was unexpected not only to Lin Xiao but also to many of the instructors.

Initially, the Ivy side held an absolute advantage, with the ratio between the two sides once dropping below eight to two. However, as it got to the top hundred, the gap quickly narrowed until it was reversed at the end of this round.

This meant that the Ivy League Alliance of High Schools had an absolute majority within the top hundred, but the situation flipped in the top ten.

Unable to see the battles inside the God’s Tomb, the instructors could only guess the players’ states from their expressions.

Naturally, the Fury Flame Team instructor had the best mood of all, as among the six HuaXia District contestants who made it into the top ten, aside from the two lucky ones from the Yuming Trading Company, her own team held two spots, the War Throne Team one, and the Wolf Fang Team one, while the Holy Crystal Team didn’t manage to secure a single position.

However, a cheerful mood for the Fury Flame Team’s instructor didn’t mean the Holy Crystal Team’s instructors felt equally downcast—in fact, they weren’t concerned with wins or losses at this stage. They didn’t care what their team members ranked; what mattered was whether any HuaXia District players overcame all opponents to claim the top position, becoming Major General Keri’s inheritor to the ancient God’s Tomb.

As team instructors, they had learned from a prominent figure about a very special treasure hidden within the God’s Tomb. They weren’t informed of the exact nature of the treasure, but they were repeatedly reminded to do everything in their power to obtain it..