The Era of Gods

Above the virtual plane, Lin Xiao gazed at the nine cards laid out in front of

him and fell into deep thought.

The quality of the cards in his hand was quite high, with two Ancient Godly Cards of Five Star quality, two Mythical Quality Five Star cards, one Three Star Mythical card, one Legend quality Five Star card, two Epic quality Five Stars, and one Rare quality Five Star card.

Moreover, because they were a fusion of the strengths of various cards, the fused cards he held generally possessed stronger effects than their counterparts.

He was now considering fusing certain cards in his hand that were suitable for fusion again, breaking down the less useful cards to enhance others, and trying to make himself stronger to face the upcoming enemies.

It was foreseeable that among the nine competitors remaining, including himself, each one possessed Ancient Quality cards, some probably had more than one or two, like Shen Yuexin, who had the luck of a Europe Emperor.

After some thought, Lin Xiao first threw the warrior Profession Card into the Creation Rubik’s Cube for disassembly, as it was of high quality but somewhat redundant in this type of competition.

Then, chin in hand, he pondered and threw the Five Star card that could summon four Large Earth Elements along with another Mythical card that could summon a Sixth Level Oversize Air Elemental, as well as the initially fused card that could summon a Super Large Fire Elemental- three elemental summoning cards in total-into the Magic Cube, to disassemble and refine them.

Only then did he take out the Ancient Summoning card-the Ancient Flame Melting Sea card and put it into the cube to refine its core essence, incorporating the distilled essence from the previous three elemental summoning cards into it.

Having done this, Lin Xiao pondered for a while and then threw the Five Star Mythical card that could summon ten Mammoth Beasts into the Magic Cube as well.

Hesitating for a moment, he took out the shimmering Ancient Godly card of

the Undead Army…

Lin Xiao’s gaze flickered for a long time; he had a very bold idea in his heart, whether he could fuse these two Ancient cards, using the Flame Melting Sea to cover the Undead Army to create a card that could summon an Undead Army with the traits of the Fire Element.

With an experimental mindset, he put the Ancient Godly card into the Magic Cube Space, but he didn’t disassemble it right away. Instead, he verified its feasibility through the Creation Rubik’s Cube first.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Lin Xiao opened them with a surprised expression.

The idea was indeed feasible, the Creation Rubik’s Cube could indeed do it, but the prerequisite was to have enough Creation Energy to change the rules and turn decay into wonder.

That was not possible, as he didn’t have Creation Energy on hand.

However, apart from his previous idea, the two cards could indeed be fused, but only by selecting one card as the main one, substantially enhancing itself by absorbing the other card, and adopting one or two advantages from the other card.

This made Lin Xiao quite hesitant. After pondering for a good while, he still couldn’t make up his mind and shook his head, saying,

“Let’s talk about that later.”

Mainly because he only knew it was possible to fuse, but he couldn’t know the specific result of the fusion in advance, so he didn’t dare to try it recklessly.

Next, he infused the three elemental summoning cards and the Mammoth Beast summoning card into the Flame Melting Sea card along with the nutrients from the disassembled Profession Card, resulting in a newly minted Ancient Summoning card with an even richer crystal luster.

Ancient Five Star Summoning Card-Flame Melting Sea: Each use, summons a pseudo Flame Lord named Kurbert from the Flame Melting Sea, five to eight Super Large Fire Elements/Oversize Magma Elements/Flame Giants, fifteen to thirty Large Fire Elements/Large Magma Elements/Flame Beasts, eighty to one hundred and twenty Mid-Size Fire Elements/Mid-Size Magma Elements, four hundred to six hundred Small Fire Elements/Small Magma Elements.

Note: influenced by the Flame Melting Sea, the appearance rate of Fire

Elements is the highest, followed by Magma Elements.

“Good grief, what a hodgepodge!”

The elements summoned were clearly influenced by the cards that were fused; Magma Elements are formed from a combination of Fire Elements and Earth Elements, while the Flame Giant should be the result of the ten Mammoth

Beasts being fused.

As for the fused Oversize Air Elemental summoning card… it’s not mentioned

in the introduction.

Lin Xiao guessed that Fire and Air Elements just don’t mix. Across the myriad realms, there probably isn’t such a special element. Fusion also has to adhere to basic principles, so after integrating into the Flame Melting Sea, it couldn’t take shape, and it was probably used as nutrients to strengthen the card in his opinion.

After all, this card could already summon a pseudo Flame Lord.

What a pleasant surprise.

What is a Flame Lord?

It’s the master of the Fire Elemental Plane, similar to masters like the Death Lord and the Demon Lord. It’s a status, unrelated to strength.

Powerful lords, such as a Demon Lord who occupies a layer of the Abyss, can rival a True God in their domain. However, a lesser Demon Lord might not even reach the rank of legend.

The Flame Lord is the same, with the authority to command all Fire Elements within their domain.

As for a pseudo Flame Lord, it’s an entity that has not fully acquired the lordship. Generally, it’s a being that has the authority but lacks the strength to command respect.

This Ancient Flame Melting Sea card of Lin Xiao is probably such, with this pseudo Flame Lord named Kurbert having the lordship, but with personal strength only at Level 6 and not enough to suppress all fire creatures in the territory. Whenever he gains further strength, such as reaching Level 8 or becoming legendary, he then qualifies to become a true Flame Lord.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Lin Xiao, as after the contest, this card would be gone.

“Truly a headache!”

It would be a lie to say I wouldn’t regret it; having such a card would be fun. I could gradually enhance it to summon an actual Flame Lord as my trump card in the future.

“Or maybe 1’11 give it a try later?”

Lin Xiao rubbed his teeth, casually added the card to his combat card group, and chose to match with an opponent.

Merging a pile of cards, he now had only four cards in his hand, pitifully few compared to others.

It didn’t take long for the match to succeed, and the scene shifted to an even larger virtual plane above, where, as the competition progressed, the scale of everyone’s forces grew too large for the initial battlefields to accommodate. The combat plane had now expanded to a vast area of ten kilometers by ten kilometers, enough to fit all the troops of both sides.

After entering the plane, Lin Xiao glanced at his opponent out of habit, and the next second, he froze. His opponent, upon seeing him, also froze, and both of them blurted out an expletive at the same time:

“Damn, it’s you?”

Lin Xiao immediately realized that, just like in the previous high school leagues, it was inevitable to face an internal battle within his own side, as there were only three people from the HuaXia District high school alliance.

His opponent this time was the captain of the dark horse duo, Li Cheng. Lin Xiao glanced at Li Cheng’s forces and could only sigh at how someone’s luck can be so indescribably good when it comes together.

Within the plane, Li Cheng’s main force was astonishingly a Furious Demon Legion totaling five thousand, plus a multitude of different soldier cards amassing an army over ten thousand strong, quite formidable.

It wasn’t the tens of thousands of troops that were terrifying, even though all were above Level 3 and included two transcendent creatures, but none were as frightening as the five thousand Furious Demon Legion.

The strength of Furious Demons was about Level 4, but the problem was that these were belligerent demons, an organized Demon Legion.

Demons were always amongst the strongest of their kind, and armed as an organized force, they were incredibly terrifying. With this five thousand Furious Demon Legion, Li Cheng mowed down his opponents all the way to the current point.

To be honest, without the newly acquired Flame Melting Sea card, the Undead Army alone definitely couldn’t beat the opposition.

No, even before the Flame Melting Sea card was enhanced, the outcome was uncertain.

Now, though, Lin Xiao was absolutely confident in taking down Li Cheng, the key being that pseudo Flame Lord.

A pseudo Flame Lord was still a Lord, and while it was only Level 6, with it, the power of the card had undergone a qualitative change.

The two chatted casually while arranging their formations, and as Lin Xiao appeared nonchalant, Li Cheng had a smile on his face but took his opponent very seriously, holding back a strong determination.

Having battled his way here, defeating one elite from prestigious schools after another, no words could describe the exhilaration he felt. He longed to defeat more opponents, harboring a strong desire to best everyone and stand atop all, to trample the thousands of other elites from the Summer Camp and high school leagues beneath his feet, proving his abilities to everyone and showing that so-called elites were no big deal.

Especially since he had now entered the top ten, he knew that just a few more victories would secure his position at the top. He meticulously arranged his troops, looking towards Lin Xiao’s seemingly immense Undead Army and sincerely bowed with a salute:

“I was thinking we’d face off in the finals, but here we are meeting early. I look forward to your guidance shortly!”

“Ohl-

Lin Xiao could hear the strong confidence in his voice and was quite surprised. He scrutinized Li Cheng’s seemingly sincere but undisguised self-assurance, and with a hint of a smile, returned the salute from a distance:

“Fair enough, fair enough. Let’s exchange some pointers!”

With a smile, he withdrew his hand to conclude their exchange and, as the countdown to the start of the battle ended, quickly activated the Flame Melting Sea card to begin summoning.

A colossal flame vortex unfurled on the ground, with endless flames spiraling out from the center and quickly spreading around to form a sea of fire, while a deep voice echoed through the plane:

“I am Kurbert, master of the Flame Melting Sea!”

The flames in the center of the vortex surged, and from it emerged a twenty-meter-tall flame giant crowned with a crown of fire.

“In the name of the sovereign of the Flame Melting Sea, I call forth my subjects!”

As the flame giant roared softly, flames and magma erupted from the vortex like a fountain. Endless flames and molten lava expanded rapidly to a diameter of a thousand meters, and beings made of fire drilled out, transforming into fire elements or flame creatures.

“Wow, what a spectacle!”

The Flame Lord’s entrance was even more imposing than Lin Xiao had imagined; he wondered whether its actual strength lived up to such an entrance.

Across the plane, Li Cheng’s confidence was halved in an instant by the Flame Lord’s appearance. It was hard to say how strong it really was, but the endlessly dignified manner of its arrival truly shocked him, especially when he saw the flame crown atop Kurbert’s head and said incredulously:

“How is this possible? How could a Fifth Level card summon a Lord creature? Aren’t those only summonable by Sixth Level and above Demigod cards?

His voice was unguarded, and Lin Xiao, on the other side of the virtual plane, heard him and said in surprise:

“I wondered why it was a pseudo-Lord. Turns out it was the card’s limitation..”