The Era of Gods

Lin Xiao also showed an expectant expression. By now, he could already imagine how happy his parents, especially his mother, would be to hear this news.

He suddenly laughed, envisioning in his mind how his mother would boast in front of her relatives.

Just then, Shen Yuexin, who had been crouching on the Golden Throne like an ostrich, suddenly lifted her head, her petite mouth slightly agape and a look of surprise on her pretty face, as if someone was contacting her.

At that moment, a ray of starlight fell from the sky onto her, the twinkling starlight swirling around, making the already beautiful girl look enchantingly gorgeous.

Meanwhile, beams of starlight descended from the vault of heaven onto the seats, shrouding each selected cadet in a resplendent pillar of light, where threads wove together to form strange marks that slowly settled upon those chosen.

The many ordinary students below looked on with envious eyes, for these marks signified that they had been officially specially recruited by the superior schools.

The previous offers were also special recruitments, but since the Summer Camp hadn’t ended yet, nothing was final—it was akin to a promise. Only when the Summer Camp concluded and the official mark was applied, as now, would it indicate a confirmed position.

Beam after beam of starlight fell intermittently, and everyone engulfed in starlight showed a delighted expression. Regardless of whether they got first place or were in the top three, simply being specially recruited meant that they were among the best of their peers. This was recognition from the superior schools.

The mark slowly forming on Shen Yuexin—it looked like a mark from Super Institution Mingluo, ranked seventh?

She was specially recruited by Mingluo?

Lin Xiao was about to ask her when suddenly, a point of light on her exploded, the invisible ripples shattering the freshly-formed Mingluo mark, a roar sounding briefly before stopping abruptly. Then, specks of light converged on her wrist to form a new mark.

When he saw this mark, Lin Xiao’s pupils dilated and his heart skipped a beat. He felt a profound sense of disappointment because this was the mark of Radiance, the number one Super Academy, which had just given her a special recruitment spot, forcibly snatching it from Mingluo.

According to the default rules, this obviously meant that Radiance would not be offering him a special recruitment spot.

Feeling a slight disappointment, but still smiling, he said to the girl,

“Congratulations, this is a special recruitment invitation from Radiance.”

At this time, the girl was still somewhat dazed and said in surprise,

“I haven’t received an invitation from Radiance!”

“Then how…”

Lin Xiao’s voice stopped abruptly as a ripple of light formed in his pupils, reflecting an attractive young man in white stepping out of the ripples. The voice appeared directly in his mind:

“Hmm, kid, consider yourself lucky!”

Then, a ray of starlight fell from the sky, enveloping him within it, and numerous light threads intertwined to form on his hand a mark identical to the one on Shen Yuexin.

“Ah, this…”

Both he and Shen Yuexin were stunned. He rubbed his eyes vigorously and said in a low voice to the girl beside him,

“If I’m not mistaken, have we both been specially recruited by Radiance?”

“Who’s ‘we’ with you?”

The girl glanced at him disdainfully and said,

“It seems so. Radiance can give special recruitments to two people at the same time?”

By this time, others had also noticed the marks on them. The few contestants sitting with them on the Golden Thrones could no longer maintain their youthful pride. Almost simultaneously, they widened their eyes in disbelief, “How is this possible?”

“Isn’t it that each of the five super colleges can only choose one?”

“But this is Radiance!”

Wu Zhonglin said indifferently, nodding his head towards Lin Xiao and Shen Yuexin as a greeting.

“This is Radiance…”

“Yes, this is Radiance…”

The young men muttered to themselves, settling back into their seats, no longer surprised, but unable to hide the intense envy in their eyes.

The row of young cadets calmed their emotions and were no longer as shocked as before. Below, however, more people heard or saw, and a mix of shocked, envious, and puzzled gazes were cast upon the two, while countless murmurs combined into a growing buzz.

Until suddenly, a bell rang out. A pillar of light from the podium revealed the host’s figure, and the hall quieted down.

Instructor Mo, with a commanding presence, swept his gaze over everyone present, silencing the audience before he spoke,

“The third stage of this session’s Summer Camp has come to an end. First, congratulations to all of you for your victory in the exchange matches with the Ivy League Alliance of High Schools. This is a great accomplishment that will be recorded in your files. It may not seem significant now, but it will bring you additional benefits whether you decide to go to college or join the military in the future.”

After a pause, he continued,

“According to the scheduled program of the Summer Camp, the third stage is also the final stage. After receiving your rewards shortly, this session of the Summer Camp will officially end. You may stay within the fortress for three days. During this period, some students may receive invitations to the military reserves. I hope those who do will carefully review the invitation contents and, if possible, accept this invitation.”

“Of course, it isn’t mandatory, but as a personal note, it’s a good opportunity.” “Now, everyone, receive your rewards!”

As his words fell, thousands of beams of light descended from the sky, landing on all the students.

Although there were only barely over twenty players from the HuaXia District in the competition before the exchanges, according to the Summer Camp rules, anyone who stayed until the end could get an additional Card slot. Then, according to the final position they sat in, they’d receive a certain number of rewards. The higher the position, the more rewards they’d get, and each person in the Gold rank would also get one additional Ancient Quality Divine Card and five Golden Mythical Quality Five Star Cards.

This meant that by winning first place in the exchange competition, Lin Xiao had not only the four additional Card slots from placing first in the exchange competition but also one more for a total of five additional Card slots, as well as three Ancient Quality Divine Cards and fifteen Five Star Cards of random quality.

So many rewards…

Lin Xiao rubbed his hands together, quite expectant.

As time passed, the pillars of light began to disappear one by one, and soon only about twenty remained, then ten, and finally there were only Lin Xiao, Shen Yuexin, and Wu Zhonglin left.

Based on their rankings, their lights extinguished one after another, until Lin Xiao was the only one remaining, continuing to receive the influx of Subspace energy under the watchful eyes of many.

Truth be told, the feeling was really exhilarating, exceedingly so.

But even with all that exhilaration, everything must come to an end. When the influx was over, a screen of light unfolded before Lin Xiao, and the much-anticipated reward collection process began. Excitedly, he rubbed his hands together and began to examine his rewards.

First up, the collecting of three Ancient Quality Cards.

When he opened the Ancient Card interface, a stream of crystals rained down, even more than the last time he’d seen them.

A dazzling array of cards was laid before him, leaving him dizzy and uncertain about which to choose.

However, he had a trick up his sleeve: first and foremost, search for the ones with the smallest quantity. Generally, the cards that are least in number are more valuable than mass-produced Ancient Cards like the Frost Magician profession he had picked before.

After setting the search parameters, the screen changed, and the number of cards before him rapidly dwindled, leaving only a few unique Ancient Cards, with the first one immediately catching his eye.

Five Star Item Card – Fire Dragon Essence Blood (Ancient): Acquire a drop of mature Red Dragon’s essence blood, which can endow a target with the bloodline of a fire dragon. There’s a chance to promote the target to Hero status.

“This is the good stuff!”

Lin Xiao didn’t hesitate to snatch up this treasure first.

If any other Divine Territory Players got this, they could create a bloodline Magician with a Red Dragon lineage that starts with a Transcendent Sixth Level, capable of reaching up to Rank 8 Legendary level.

But for Lin Xiao, it meant more than just creating a bloodline Magician. He wasn’t so shortsighted as to only create one, with the Creation Magic Cube in hand, his ambitions were much grander than ordinary people’s.

Next, he looked at the second unique Ancient Crystal Card, which was a very rare Resource Card – a Miniature Mithril Vein.

Loaded into the Divine Realm, it could form a tiny Mithril Vein underground in a designated location. Most crucially, this vein wasn’t a one-time thing, but a continuous source. As long as this Ancient Quality Card was present, it could continuously produce new Mithril.

This…

The value was indeed very high since Mithril is a crucial material for high-level Magical Equipment and highly valued in the market.

But here’s the problem: it was somewhat superfluous to them at present, because at their current level they weren’t yet involved in the crafting of Magical Equipment. Unless they waited until his Wise Goblins grew and began to try making Magical Equipment, they could only mine it and store it in a warehouse or sell it on the trading platform.

So, PASS!

His gaze quickly moved on to the third card—a Weather Card. When loaded into the Divine Realm, it could create the climates of ‘Lightning and Storm,’ and the Divine Realm Master could also use Divine Power to manipulate lightning storms to enhance their majesty and prestige in the eyes of their followers, or harm enemies who invade the Divine Realm.

Currently, his Divine Realm lacked any kind of weather or climate, except for the initial, accompanying light breeze—no overcast or rainy days, no spring, summer, autumn, winter, lightning, etc. Having this card would mean that his Divine Realm could form these two climates at specific times, while also giving him the power to unleash lightning storms, which could be quite powerful.

But still…

“I’ll keep it as an option for now!”

He didn’t reject it; such cards that completed the rules of the Divine Realm were all necessary for him, and he intended to collect them sooner or later.

But with so many cards available, and limited slots at hand, it was better to see if there was something more suitable first.

He continued to look at each card—if there was one that suited him particularly well, he’d mark it and keep looking. He’d go through all the cards before deciding.

After all, there was no time limit. If he wanted, he could squat there and go through them all day.

Of course, it didn’t take that long. With only a few hundred Ancient Quality Cards, it didn’t take him too long to skim through them.

In fact, by the sixteenth card, he’d found one that suited him perfectly and without hesitation, he secured it, taking up his second slot.

It was a Large Iron Mine Card. When loaded into the Divine Realm, it could form a large Iron Mine at a designated location.

Ore Vein sizes range from Miniature, Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large, to Giant—seven different scales in total. The scale doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the card rank but relates to how rare the mineral resource is.

For example, a Five Star Ancient Quality Ore Card of Mithril can only form a Miniature Vein, while Iron can reach a Large scale.

Considering basic minerals like Iron, Large is the upper limit for a Five Star Card. An Extra-Large Iron Mine would require cards above Five Stars.

Given that after Summer Camp, he would have a long period to focus on building up and absorbing the fruits of the camp, he would definitely concentrate on cultivating his Wise Goblins. In the future, he would surely need a large supply of Iron for them to practice steel refining and weapon forging, and purchasing it would be both troublesome and impractical, which made a Large Iron Mine very necessary.

In fact, a single Large Iron Mine wouldn’t be enough. This time, having inherited Major General Keri’s God’s Tomb, the Divine Kingdom fragment inside might be larger than he anticipated, which was the fragment of a Divine Realm belonging to a being of Powerful Divine Power. He didn’t know the exact area yet, but he was certain it was at least ten times larger than his current Divine Realm.

Once such a vast Divine Realm was developed, the demand for resources would be enormous.

It wouldn’t do to have vast expanses of the Divine Realm be empty wildlands, so this time, he would choose various Resource Cards for most of his rewards.

A mature and well-developed Divine Realm should have no weaknesses, especially for someone like Lin Xiao, who had too many secrets and wasn’t suited to working in a team at this stage. His Divine Realm had to be self-sufficient and perfectly regulated.

Keep in mind that in the sophomore stage, many of the test courses are in the Outland..