The Era of Gods

Normally, even the second or last seats at a Super Academy would be more attractive than the top seat at a general higher education college.

At least for Lin Xiao, if the War Throne were to offer a special recruitment spot, the third and final seat would still be better for him than the top seat at any other higher education college.

But now, having already committed to Ether’s special recruitment, the War Throne, which Wu Zhonglin had already chosen, lost its priority; even if they offered him a special recruitment spot now, he couldn’t accept it unless Ether voluntarily gave it up.

In the past, they might have been able to use the method of benefit exchange to secure the spot, but under these circumstances, Ether definitely wouldn’t give it up unless they offered Wu Zhonglin in exchange.

However, the observer from Ether was feeling quite unhappy at the moment. Although the War Throne no longer had a chance, several of the top five Super Academies still retained the priority for the first special recruitment spot. There was no need for “ifs” since Radiance and Wrath of God had already publicly expressed interest in him.

That is to say, although Lin Xiao was nominally still under Ether, it was foreseeable that once Wrath of God and Radiance reached a conclusion, he would no longer belong to them.

The Main World boasts twelve Super Academies, with five located in the HuaXia District.

They are ranked as follows: Radiance in first place.

The War Throne in third place.

Inferno in seventh place.

Wrath of God in tenth place.

And Holy Crystal in twelfth place; each one a colossal entity with expansive ruling territories and terrifying strength.

The minimum standard to establish a higher education college is to possess a powerful divine power, as well as an extensive and complete divine system, in addition to having unified a substantial space dominated by a super-large plane capable of giving birth to powerful divine powers within a Different Domain.

That’s just the minimum standard; in reality, establishing a higher education college requires many more conditions.

After all, every few hundred or thousand years in the Main World, a great divine power emerges, but it has been several tens of thousands of years since a new higher education college was founded.

As for Super Academies, the conditions for their establishment are extra stringent. First and foremost, one must be based on a higher education college—that’s a prerequisite, and one cannot simply decide to create a Super Academy if a powerful god system wished it, even if the Main God of a powerful divine system suddenly advanced to great divine power, one could not skip this step.

Of course, should there really be a sudden emergence of a great divine power, upgrading to a Super Academy would just be a matter of time.

A Super Academy must have at least one God Level entity at Level 19, and dozens or even more powerful divine powers to support it, and it must unify a significant group of realms centered around the Primary Material Plane within a Different Domain.

The conditions are rather demanding, because within the Exotic Crystal Wall, the Primary Material Plane is generally the center of the Crystal Wall, connecting many powers throughout the Crystal Wall System, and the areas where the gods commonly dwell and tumble about are on the Primary Material Plane.

Unifying a group of Primary Material Planes is difficult…

To put it this way, among the current twelve Super Academies, besides the top-ranked ones, the Primary Material Planes unified by the others are those without great divine power or those unnoticed by supreme beings.

This is because some powerful Crystal Wall Systems have multiple Primary Material Planes, forming several centers within the Crystal Wall Universe, and what they unify are those places overlooked by supreme beings.

Being coveted by such behemoths, Lin Xiao naturally would not refuse, nor could he refuse.

“Which one will contact me first?”

Sitting on the Golden Throne, looking down, he saw each seat arranged such that from his perspective, it seemed as if subordinates were clustering around him in a fawning manner – a very pleasant feeling of being high above, with stars holding up the moon.

Sitting at this level, he was essentially at the top. What he now needed to consider was, if several Super Academies were to choose him at the same time, how should he decide?

The assumption here does not include Radiance. If the top Super Academy took interest, there would be no need for consideration.

Aside from Radiance and the War Throne, although the remaining Super Academies had different rankings, there was no substantial difference in strength, and that would be the real dilemma.

The youth, with his hand propped under his chin, was daydreaming without paying attention to the strange glances frequently cast by the other contestants on the Golden Thrones.

Curiosity mixed with a trace of defiance.

Well, mostly defiance.

This was mainly because Lin Xiao initially occupied a stone seat, so distant from them that he was a minor character whose name was hardly remembered.

Yet, after two rounds, he had surreptitiously climbed to a Silver Seat, and not only ascended to the Gold Tier, he also overtook Wu Zhonglin in the final phase to grab the first place, on top of inheriting the legacy of ancient ancestors, which was simply…

If Wu Zhonglin had come first, they would have accepted it.

If Lin Xiao had achieved first place on merit, they would have accepted it too.

But he didn’t; he had gotten the first place by luck, and they were very dissatisfied with that result, quite unhappy indeed.

Yet, there was nothing they could do. The outcome had already been determined; they could only express their dissatisfaction through their gazes.

Of course, just feeling dissatisfied didn’t mean they would do anything about it. Setting aside the firmness of the result, even overturning Lin Xiao right now wouldn’t change the outcome; they were simply really unhappy with it.

Lin Xiao noticed their gazes but didn’t mind; it was quite normal. Any outstanding talent who admits no peers would have their pride.

Whether they were satisfied or not was their business, and he had no control over that.

At the moment, he had no time to bother about it either because he had just received a message from Ether’s observer to terminate the contract. The observer spoke with a tone of regret:

“We had hoped you would join Ether, but unfortunately, due to the rules of the Summer Camp, you are going to be selected by one of the Super Academies.”

Lin Xiao felt a secret delight, but his facial expression remained unchanged. He placed his hand over his chest in a salute and said in a deep voice:

“I regret that I am unable to go to Ether.”

The Ether Observer paused for a moment before responding:

“With your talent, you are bound to stand out in the future. I hope to hear good news from you, goodbye.”

“Thank you!”

The communication was cut, and Lin Xiao sat down calmly.

That communication from the Ether Observer almost certainly represented that a Super Academy had taken an interest in him, but it was not clear which one or how many.

In a certain space, three figures surrounded by twisted voids stood in the air. Opposite them was another figure covered by distortions. The four were engaged in a heated argument, and the one facing the three did not fall behind in the slightest.

The one in the middle of the three said:

“We have had our eye on this contestant for a long time.”

The person opposite crossed their arms and replied indifferently:

“You gave up on your own.”

The figure on the right of the three continued:

“We have already made arrangements with his alma mater; he will join our Holy Crystal.”

“The alma mater is the alma mater; it has no power to make decisions for him.”

The figure on the left of the three immediately said:

“We have decided to offer him the top spot.”

“We have also decided to offer him the top spot.”

“Old man, are you determined to compete with us?”

The Observer from the Wrath of God said with a calm and collected tone:

“It is you who are competing with me.”

“Not even a bit of face to give?”

“No.”

…The three Observers from Holy Crystal felt a sense of suffocation. This person was already tough to deal with, and the rank of Wrath of God was higher than that of Holy Crystal. Furthermore, they had given up on Lin Xiao once before, so they did not have much confidence in this contest.

They hadn’t expected this young man to be so formidable. Only Old Li had seen him as a promising seedling, but even he had only regarded him as such. Who would have thought that in the end, they would be so pleasantly surprised? Now, in their eyes, Lin Xiao’s potential was second only to Wu Zhonglin, even stronger than the other Golden Contestants who were just below Wu.

If given another year or so of nurturing, reaching the deputy list of remarkable figures or even higher by the end of sophomore year would not be an issue for him. They certainly didn’t want to give up on such an outstanding contestant.

But there was still the same problem: If they could see the young man’s strengths, so could others. Snatching him away would be a big problem.

According to the rules, if both sides could not resolve their dispute and neither would yield, the result would still have to be decided by the young man himself. In that case, Holy Crystal, which had once given up on the young man, would have no advantage.

“This is really a headache!”

The three Observers from Holy Crystal thought hard but realized there was no way out. Whether persuading the young man or deterring the opponent was completely impossible, since they not only lacked any compelling advantages but were also slightly inferior to their opponent.

The three fell silent, and the Observer from Wrath of God laughed out loud: “Feeling troubled, aren’t you? That’s right, you gave up on Lin Xiao during the team distribution before, and your Holy Crystal’s ranking can’t compare to our Wrath of God. We share the same level of acquaintances, so I wonder how you’ll compete with me.”

“Oh yes, Inferno has already decided to give up on Lin Xiao. Now, it’s just between us and Radiance. But Radiance usually only makes a move once every dozen years or so—last time was two years ago—so they probably haven’t sent anyone this year, which means…”

The three were speechless; the leader, Old Guo, opened his mouth, but another voice was heard.

“Really?”

All four suddenly looked up in surprise. They didn’t know when an extra voice had entered the space.

A ripple spread where a speck of starlight flickered, and a strikingly handsome young man in white emerged from it. At first glance, he seemed like an ordinary person without any anomalies, but the four reacted as if they had seen something terrifying upon seeing him, especially the Observer from Wrath of God who instinctively took a step back before quickly regaining composure, knowing where he was.

The three Observers from Holy Crystal exchanged glances and then bowed to the young man in white, asking:

“What brings you here, sir?”

The young man in white glanced at them and said indifferently:

“To take away two people.”

All four sensed something amiss and asked:

“Sir, who do you wish to take away?”

Inside the hall, Lin Xiao was having a casual chat with Lin Xu. He had just received information from Lin Xu that he had been specially recruited by ‘Dark Moon,’ ranked forty-first among higher education institutions. Although it wasn’t as the top candidate but as the last, it was already quite favorable for him.

At this moment, they had left the original group. Since the end of the exchange competition, Ancient City hadn’t communicated with them at all, and they couldn’t care less, preferring not to engage with someone they had nothing in common with.

“After the Summer Camp ends and we return, Grandfather will surely be overjoyed..”