The Era of Gods

Just a cursory glance, and there were five cards inside: two purple epics, one orange legend, one golden mythical, and there was also an ancient card sparkling with crystal light. For grandfather, who is a demigod, this indeed was a super grand reward.

He didn’t refuse, stretching out his hand to accept it while saying sweetly:

“Thankyou, Grandfather!”

“Good boy, it’s what you deserve.”

The next morning, Lin Xiao was woken up early by his mother, got ready, had breakfast at his grandfather’s house, and heard that it was personally made by his grandmother. After breakfast, his grandfather took him and his father to the castle where his great-grandfather lived.

On the way, they occasionally saw some kin from the same clan. He clearly felt everyone’s unusual warmth towards him.

At the castle gates, he met his second great-uncle, who brought Lin Xu. Grandfather, with a rare smile, stepped forward with a fist and palm salute:

“Is Second Brother here to see Father too?”

In Lin Xiao’s usual impression, the second great-uncle, who never smiled or spoke more than necessary, now revealed a rare smile and nodded:

“Today, I brought Xu to visit Father.”

He then looked towards Lin Xiao and beckoned him over. Lin Xiao quickly went forward to salute:

“Xiao pays respect to Second Great-Uncle.”

“Very good!”

Second Great-Uncle nodded his head in approval and said:

“In our clan, you two are the most outstanding. You must support each other in the future.”

With that, he flipped his hand and three cards emitting golden light appeared in his palm and were passed over:

“Don’t refuse; this is a congratulatory gift from your second great-uncle. Although it can’t compare to what you gave to Xu, it’s my good will.”

“Then I will not be polite.”

Obviously, the second great-uncle knew about the demi-god statue and Divine Realm Card he gave to Lin Xu. This was a reciprocal gift.

One has to say that reality is very pragmatic. When he showed potential of reaching the pinnacle, even true gods like the second great-uncle couldn’t avoid following convention.

But that’s reality for you. Everyone is worldly. If it were Lin Xiao, he’d probably do the same.

It wasn’t long before they met their great-grandfather in the castle, a true god who looked like an old man with white hair, bearing a resemblance to the second great-uncle and grandfather, about seventy to eighty percent. This was the fifth time Lin Xiao had seen his great-grandfather since growing up, having only seen him during major family reunions.

True gods have immortal lifespans, and it’s rare to see them looking old.

For instance, Major General Keri seems old because his true body has already fallen.

The great-grandfather looked old because his mentality was aged; if he wished, he could revert to his youthful appearance at any time.

Like grandfather, the great-grandfather was also in good spirits today. After encouraging Lin Xiao and Lin Xu, he took out a delicate gift box for each of them, clearly filled with a stack of cards.

Lin Xu humbly took it, but Lin Xiao paused before accepting and said:

“Please forgive me, Great-Grandfather, but if possible, I would like to exchange these for some broken Ancient Treasure Fragments.”

Great-Grandfather’s long white eyebrows twitched, curiously asking:

“Broken Ancient Treasure Fragments?”

“Yes, any broken Ancient Treasure Fragments will do, even if they are completely useless.”

“Hmm!”

Great-Grandfather pondered for a moment, and without asking him why he wanted them, merely said:

“I do have a few collected fragments here, I might as well give them to you.”

Then the second great-uncle spoke up:

“I also have several collected fragments here, I’ll give them to you as well.”

Lin Xiao was delighted and quickly said:

“Your grandson thanks Great-Grandfather and Second Great-Uncle.”

Thus, a total of eight Ancient Treasure Fragments fell into his hands, each belonging to different Ancient Treasures. Two of the fragments clearly contained stronger energy, probably not just Rank 1 Ancient Treasure Fragments.

“If you want more, wait a few days and I will find some for you,” said the great-grandfather.

After returning from the great-grandfather’s place, Lin Xiao plunged into the Divine Realm.

If a complete Ancient Treasure was definitely beyond his reach, and a whole one was something even Powerful Divine Powers would not earn much, broken ones with no use other than for collecting were different.

The great-grandfather had already mentioned he would look for more in the next few days, probably at the platform for true gods’ interactions. Who knew how many he could bring back.

Lin Xiao really wanted to say he wanted as many as possible, but these things were not cheap. Even collectibles cost about a hundred million Power of Faith per piece, and the great-grandfather couldn’t possibly spend a few hundred billion to collect a bunch.

The key issue was that he couldn’t properly explain why he needed so many Ancient Treasure Fragments. Without a reasonable excuse, he wouldn’t be able to get too many.

In the Divine Realm, within the Divine Palace, two days in the Main World equaled almost two years in the Divine Realm. The Divine Realm had already absorbed a large number of Divine Kingdom fragments and expanded quite a bit.

The expanded Divine Realms were wastelands, but under the influence of the Divine Domain Heaven Card, the originally perfect heavenly ecology of the Divine Realm was slowly extending its reach, transforming the barren land into fertile territory.

The new lands obtained through Divine Realm Cards typically depend on the type of card: if the card specifies a water area, it yields a water area; if it specifies wasteland, then wasteland it is; and if it specifies Fertile Black Soil, then Fertile Black Soil you shall have.

If new lands are obtained through fusing a Sanctuary or a God Country, the type of land generally depends on the attributes of the fused Sanctuary or God Country. Normally, it’s wasteland, which one needs to transform themselves.

Under Lin Xiao’s purposeful control, the new land forming on the right-hand side of his entire Divine Realm paralleled the bottom of the ocean, each new part giving rise to a new sea area as the water spread.

The section on the right grew normally, and it was all plain.

He indeed wanted to create some mountain ranges; while it was possible to do so operationally, the truth was that the resulting mountain ranges would be made of soil rather than actual stone mountains, effectively creating mounds of earth.

Of course, it’s possible that even soil mounds might turn into rock after a long time impacted by various geological activities, but that would take too long, and such a development could not be awaited in the early phase.

At this moment, the Divine Realm’s area had increased more than threefold compared to two years ago, but only about one percent of the Divine Kingdom fragments in the God’s Tomb had vanished. This meant that when the Divine Kingdom fragments were fully integrated, the total area of his Divine Realm could increase by over three hundred times its original size.

“That’s really exaggerated!”

The corners of Lin Xiao’s mouth almost split with his broad smile.

He rubbed his hands together, drawing forth a flicker of starlight that sketched out the Creation Rubik’s Cube before him.

Lin Xiao composed himself; there was no need to worry about the Divine Realm for now. As it was less than one percent complete, full integration would probably take three to four months, which was quite early.

He then stretched out his right hand, scattering a handful of Relic Shard fragments that floated in the void. With a light tap, eight Relic Shards fell into the Magic Cube one by one. The massive Magic Cube slowly turned, its mystical fluctuations spreading out.

The several Relic Shards he had acquired last time decomposed to yield just over one unit of Creation Energy. This time, two of the shards appeared to be from higher-ranked Ancient Treasures, and he felt they would yield more.

It didn’t take long for ripples to burst forth from a seam in the Creation Rubik’s Cube as it halted its spinning. With a thought, he sensed the change and a smile graced his face:

“Not bad!”

There were about four units and a bit of Creation Energy—enough to synthesize some nice things.

First, he took inventory of his cards. Lin Xiao currently had five Ancient Quality Cards—three from the Summer Camp, one from his grandfather, and one from his great-grandfather.

Then, there were twenty-four Mythical Quality Five-Star Cards, one Legendary Level Five-Star Card, and two Epic Five-Star Cards. Of the Mythical Quality Five-Star Cards, fifteen were from Summer Camp, one from his grandfather, three from his great-uncle, and five from his great-grandfather.

In addition, there were seven Mythical Quality Cards left from the first two phases of the Summer Camp, along with a host of various spoils of war.

All in all, the gains from this Summer Camp were indeed super abundant, surpassing the resources many ordinary True God descendants possessed, and allowing him to narrow the gap with those divine heirs instantly.

Lin Xiao now had six additional card slots available—an extra one from the Summer Camp and the regular monthly slots—allowing him to fuse six cards, which would enable a significant power boost.

He spread out the five Ancient Quality Cards first. His grandfather managing to provide an Ancient Quality Card was somewhat unexpected, as such cards were quite valuable even to Demigods.

However, upon seeing the attributes of the Ancient Card gifted by his grandfather, Lin Xiao fell into thought.

Five-Star Resource Card—Large Red Iron Ore Vein Card, when embedded into a Divine Realm, can create a renewable large Red Iron Ore vein at a designated location, with a small chance for random types of associated minerals.

This…

Couldn’t be called poor. On the contrary, his grandfather had been very considerate; after all, in normal circumstances, everyone lacks large ore veins.

And not knowing that he already had an Ore Vein Card at hand, it could only be said that their thoughts aligned.

With a bittersweet smile, he temporarily set aside the Ore Vein Card. He wasn’t disappointed; after all, it was a gift from his grandfather, an extra goodie. There was no reason for disappointment.

Moving on to the second card, a gift from his great-grandfather, his eyes lit up upon inspection—

Five-Star Summoning Card—Storm Giant (Ancient): Summons an adolescent Storm Giant.

“Good gracious, Grandfather has such things at his disposal!”

An adult Storm Giant, a powerful being comparable to a Dragon, capable of controlling storms, innately a Legendary Creature.

The adolescent Storm Giant before him had the strength of at least Rank 6 and could continue to grow until reaching the Legendary Level at Rank 8.

Of course, that assumes the God Domain Strength could accommodate a Rank 8 Legendary Creature.

Lin Xiao’s current Divine Realm Strength could accommodate creatures up to Rank 7 of the High Transcendent Level; this giant could grow until reaching the pinnacle of Rank 7.

But Lin Xiao’s thoughts went further than merely summoning a Transcendent creature. In that moment, a new idea flashed through his mind.

Could this Storm Giant and his Supreme Naga be compatible?

It was an intriguing notion, and Lin Xiao was quite interested.

However, to attempt this idea, a significant amount of Creation Energy would be necessary, and the four units he currently possessed were surely not enough.

After some contemplation, he put aside both the Storm Giant Card and the Fire Giant Essence Blood Ancient Card, planning to wait until he had gathered enough Creation Energy.

He then laid out the remaining three Ancient Cards before him, stroking his chin deep in thought.

He indeed had plans for these three cards, but after thorough consideration, he decided against them.

His idea was to fuse the three Ancient Cards, incorporating the two Large Ore Vein Cards into the Mountain Range Card, and add some Creation Energy to see if a special mineral card could emerge, such as an entire mountain composed of iron ore.

But after careful thought, he dismissed the idea as it seemed to be of little practical use.

At this stage, the two large iron ore veins were already more than sufficient for the Divine Realm. Creating another mountain of ore would be pointless.