The Era of Gods

The little guy stood in his palm, struggling to wrap his arms frantically around one of his fingers, finding it cool to the touch and quite soothing. Looking up with a delicate little face, he nodded repeatedly:

“Brother, what do you need Little DingDang to do?”

He flicked his finger, swinging Little DingDang’s tiny body from side to side, and smiled:

“Brother is going to make another world into another heaven filled with water, and let you be the queen of that world. Would you like that?”

The little guy asked curiously:

“What is a queen?”

“It’s someone very, very powerful, someone who everyone listens to, and wants to play with.”

The little guy immediately nodded his little head:

“Really? Little DingDang will go.”

He reached out his finger to gently touch her raised, delicate, and adorable little face, a look of affection on his own.

His idea was simple: to connect the Water Elemental Divine Realm with the Main Divine Realm, allowing the ecological effects of the Heaven Divine Sanctuary from the Main Divine Realm to spread through this channel to the Water Elemental Divine Realm, transforming it into a haven dominated by water, not just a simple Water Element ecology.

To have Little DingDang become the queen of the Water Elemental Divine Realm, ruling over everything within the Divine Realm, including the Water Element and its many creatures.

Not only the Water Elemental Divine Realm, but in the future, he also planned to open a channel in the space above the Main Divine Realm and the Heaven Divine Realm, extending the ecology of Heaven Divine Sanctuary there as well.

The four primary Elemental Divine Realms, plus the Heaven above and the Netherworld below, totaled six Divine Realms. Special transformations were only needed for the Water Elemental Divine Realm and the Heaven Divine Realm. Because of the presence of a large number of extreme elements, the other Divine Realm spaces didn’t need to be transformed into Heaven ecologies; average environments would suffice since elemental creatures are not particularly demanding. All that was needed was to specifically purchase a batch of Ecology Cards that suited the remaining four Divine Realm environments to integrate into them.

Of course, it was all just preparatory at this stage. Little DingDang didn’t need to go there yet. Lin Xiao estimated that it would take a few decades in Divine Realm time before the Water Elemental Divine Realm would be preliminarily transformed.

In the meantime, he would purchase a large number of powerful and fierce sea creatures and release them into the Water Elemental Divine Realm to propagate.

Unlike the Main Divine Realm, there was no need to nourish ordinary sea creatures in the Water Elemental Divine Realm; instead, they would breed a large number of fierce oceanic beasts.

Having toured his own Divine Realm, including the currently empty spaces of the Heaven Divine Realm and the Netherworld below, which were all barren lands without even an ant in sight and nothing interesting to see, he was pleased with his planning.

These were just his early plans; he didn’t currently have the means to develop these two Divine Realm spaces.

The Divine Realm was developing well, and Lin Xiao was overjoyed.

Withdrawing his consciousness from the God Country, he was about to return to the Main World when a thought struck him. He once again projected his will precisely to the City of Truth, appearing above a massive building.

This was the laboratory and workshop of the Wise Goblins Alemente. Upon entering, a wave of heat hit him, and at a glance he saw the vast workshop filled with various metal machines—winding goblins, mechanical fighting dogs, goblin bombs, goblin cannons, and other early mechanical constructs. They were early works with little utility.

His gaze was quickly drawn to a gigantic golem standing in the middle of the workshop, a four-meter-tall figure made entirely of metal.

It looked like a heavy infantry soldier with a four-meter-tall shield in its left hand and a door-sized Dual Hand Greatsword in its right, draped in thick metal armor with aggressive angles.

The Armored Golem — Alemente had actually researched and built a working model now.

Lin Xiao, using the privileges of the Divine Realm Master, scanned this Armored Golem from all 360 degrees and instantly spotted many problems; it wasn’t ready for real combat yet.

However, now that the first prototype had been researched and built, the subsequent adjustments would be easier.

With a little more time spent experimenting and adjusting, all the issues could be identified and fixed, making it battle-ready.

At that moment, Alemente, who was dressed more like a craftsman than a Mage, was climbing over the bottom of the golem, disassembling what seemed to be a four-to-five-centimeter-thick metal plate to inspect something.

He was very pleased with this, promptly bestowing Divine-mandate praise on Alemente, and granting him ten points of Divine Power to boost Alemente’s strength to Rank 7.

No material rewards were needed; for a devoted believer, recognition and praise from a deity are better than any reward.

Returning from the Divine Realm, Lin Xiao was in an exceptionally good mood. Now that the Armored Golem had been created, with a one-day-to-one-year time conversion between reality and the Divine Realm, there would be thirty years until his next major lecture. He was confident that not only would the Armored Golem be perfected by then, but there would also likely be various models adapted to different situations and mass-produced.

He connected to the network first and purchased a batch of rare resources necessary for creating golems and Magic High Towers on the campus network, spending a large amount of Power of Faith.

But it was all worth it; the invention had incredibly thick armor and was unafraid of death, perfect for breaching operations. As long as there were enough of them, they could display a level of power beyond what most could imagine.

As they moved into their junior and senior years, the troops of the Divine Territory Players began to become more elite, no longer swarming out all at once at the start of a battle like before. Now, they valued quality over quantity.

He had intentionally conveyed this concept whenever Slarda prayed to him occasionally. After several times, Slarda had started to attempt to establish a stable full-time army, with the first experiment involving the Supreme Naga and a few Small Fishmen whose strength had reached Level 2 and above.

Now, the population of the God Realm Kin was still not large enough. It would be easier if there were millions of them.

The Divine Territory was developing rapidly, and Lin Xiao was in high spirits. He sent a message to Shen Yuexin:

“We haven’t seen each other for two months. I heard there’s a beautiful place called Moonlight Lake just outside the campus. Shall we go and see it?”

But there was no response for a long time.

By the time he finished a meal, during which he sent a few more messages without any reply, Lin Xiao tapped his forehead, thought for a while, packed up and left. He was ready to go out for a stroll and visit Glorious Middle School on the way.

Just as he stepped out of the school gate, he received a reply from Shen Yuexin:

“I was busy just now.”

“No problem, I don’t have classes today.”

After a while, she responded again:

“I might be busy today. Let’s go tomorrow.”

After sending the messages, Shen Yuexin heard a gentle male voice from across:

“Is it that little boy?”

Her lips tinted with red, she bit them gently and nodded slightly.

In front of her stood a strikingly handsome young man in white, looking at her with a gentle face. His eyes shifted to a certain direction, and he smiled, saying:

“Hmm, let me see. He’s come to visit Glorious Middle School. Should we go and meet him?”

Shen Yuexin showed a hint of hesitation. Before she could speak, the handsome young man in white flung his large sleeves over his back and said:

“Come on, let’s see if he’s worthy of being my sister Xia Yu’s boyfriend.”

As soon as his words fell, the two vanished simultaneously.

Lin Xiao traveled across two towering Floating Cities on a Crystal Disc to reach the Floating City where Glorious Middle School was located. From a distance, he could see the impressive school gates, with two colossi, hundreds of meters high and seemingly cast in gold, exuding a soft divine glow, standing tall on either side of the gate.

These were not real statues, but two mythological constructs comparable to High-Level Demigods—the Titan Colossi.

When he arrived in front of the Titan Colossi, he immediately sensed two gaze-like presences sweep over him, then disappear.

It meant he could enter Glorious Middle School grounds without being hindered.

This was because both Glorious Middle School and its neighboring school were part of the Glorious Middle School Department, and students from both schools could enter each other’s campuses.

The Crystal Disc descended slightly and headed towards the gate. Just about to enter the school, Lin Xiao suddenly stopped and quickly looked down towards the vast gate, where a familiar figure stood at the entrance, with a handsome young man in white standing very close in front of her.

In that moment, Lin Xiao felt as if his brain had been smacked by something, and he flashed down from the sky.

The young man in white didn’t look up but gently said to Shen Yuexin:

“Let’s guess, what will your little boyfriend say first…”

“Don’t!”

Her exquisite face suddenly lost its color as she saw a fist descending from the sky and striking the young man in white’s face.

Then, she stood there, mouth slightly agape, stunned.

The young man in white was unmoved, not even a muscle on his face twitched as if the punch had landed on stone, yet his expression was quite something.

Shock, wrath, surprise, amusement, and so on, all these expressions flickered across his face in a flash.

He slowly turned around to face the young man looking at Shen Yuexin with grief and anger. All expressions vanished from his face as he touched his face and suddenly laughed:

“How many years has it been? Aside from my father, this is the first time someone has struck my face.”

The face he lifted showed a nostalgic expression.

However, neither Lin Xiao nor Shen Yuexin paid any attention to him. Shen Yuexin at the moment was covering her mouth, her eyes revealing shock and joy, while Lin Xiao looked at her with a mix of sadness and anger, clearly waiting for her explanation.

For quite a while, no one spoke until the boy in white finally sighed:

“Kid, you dare hit me, you’re finished.”

Lin Xiao suddenly turned his head and glared fiercely at the boy in white. For a moment he felt a sense of familiarity, but after thinking carefully, he had no recollection at all. Shaking his head to cast away the jumbled thoughts, he reached out to grab her hand and pulled her into his embrace to declare ownership, saying each word distinctly and seriously:

“She is my girlfriend!”

The boy in white looked expressionless towards Shen Yuexin. Her face was flushed with red, but she did not struggle.

The boy immediately burst out in anger:

“Who says she’s your girlfriend, I want to challenge you to a duel!”

Lin Xiao was equally defiant in accepting the challenge:

“Come on, who’s afraid of whom!”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he felt Shen Yuexin pinching his waist, something he couldn’t stand anymore. He comforted her loudly:

“Don’t worry, even if he’s the top student in the elite class of Grade One, I’m not scared, just wait.”

The boy in white displayed a face of anger that looked completely fake, yet Lin Xiao couldn’t see through it. The boy shouted loudly:

“Good kid, you’ve got guts, follow me.”

As he spoke, he secretly sent a message to Shen Yuexin:

“Little sister, don’t get in the way. He dares to hit me the first time we meet, I can’t let this slide. I will beat him so his mother won’t recognize him.”

The little aunt watched the two young men, who were acting like fighting cocks, with a helpless look. She found herself being pulled by Lin Xiao to stand on the same crystal disc, wanting to shake his grip off shyly, but he held on tightly, giving the other party a provocative look from time to time.

The boy in white was very familiar with the Grade One surroundings, and soon led them in front of a tall tower where they landed.

Many students from Grade One passed by, but no one paid any attention to them.

“Kid, it’s still not too late to regret it now!” the boy in white said, standing with his hands on his hips in the empty classroom, an expression so irritating on his face that Lin Xiao was incensed but undeterred in his response:

“What a joke, I’ve never been afraid of anyone my age!”

“Good, I hope you won’t regret it later!” the boy in white said. With a wave of his hand, Lin Xiao saw the world before him collapse, his will swiftly plunging into the abyss.

In that instantaneous darkness, he sensed the presence of a shadow outside the abyss, one that sent shivers down his soul, causing him to shudder instinctively.

But before he could ponder it further, his will had already arrived at a vast virtual plane. The boy in white glanced at him with an indiscernible expression, saying:

“Summon all the projections of your Divine Territory Kin; hold nothing back, or you will be defeated miserably!”

Lin Xiao snorted coldly:

“That’s what I was going to say to you.”

“Hehe!”

The strange laughter gave him a bad feeling. As the moment of confrontation approached, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

But now, the arrow was on the bow; he felt there would be trouble if he backed down.

Fortunately, this was just Projection Descending, which wouldn’t affect the Divine Territory itself; that’s why he dared to stay. If it were a real battle in the Divine Territory, he would definitely not be so impulsive.

With a thought, he connected to the Divine Territory, feeling its growing strength and gaining some confidence.

This young man in white looked somewhat familiar, as if I had seen him before, yet when I thought carefully, I had no impression of him. However, the fact that he was always around my little aunt clearly meant he was from the Glorious Middle School. Since my little aunt is now a student in the elite class, I guessed he probably was as well.

In terms of ability, the elite class of Glorious Middle School is generally a bit stronger than Level 2, but not by much. I myself am one of the top five students in my class at Level 2, and the other elites are on par with me. There’s no superstar like Wu Zhonglin among us, so the difference between us shouldn’t be too significant. If I were placed in Glorious Middle School, I’d still rank near the top.

No need to be afraid.

Lin Xiao’s heart steadied as he summoned all his clan members for a Projection Descending.

In an instant, a sea of white light descended from the sky into the plane, revealing more than ninety thousand various clan members.

As the Pope, Slarda was the first to loudly call out, organizing the troops and arranging formations.

On the other end of the plane, the young man in white was taking an interested look at Lin Xiao’s clan members, pointing and commenting:

“Not bad. It looks like they have grown quite a bit during the summer camp. The potential of the core races has been somewhat realized. However, if you think that’s enough to marry my sister, you’re still far from qualified.”

“These few heroes aren’t bad. They have potential. If they’re well trained, they could have a future.”

“Eh, this cannon fodder…”

“Still a low-grade race, but the potential… there’s some substance there!”

Xia Yu, stroking his chin, observed Lin Xiao’s numerous clan members and found more surprises the more he looked.

At first glance, there seemed to be three races among these clan members: Fishmen, Naga, and Goblins. But upon closer inspection, he saw that they weren’t the common varieties of these races; they were all mutated species, which piqued his interest.

Tilting his head in thought, he ‘snap’ his fingers, and a beam of light descended onto the plane, revealing an old man standing on a magnificent flying carpet, draped in a lavish magic robe, wielding a crystal wand.

“Then, let’s begin!”

The young man in white, Xia Yu, took a step back into the void and snapped his fingers again, bringing the projection of his little sister into view beside him.

His little sister cast her gaze into the virtual plane and took a quick look around before saying:

“Brother, don’t bully him.”

The young man in white raised an eyelid and replied sullenly:

“Already turning your elbows out? Besides, I’m not bullying him. I haven’t sent any of my divine creatures. I only sent one Legendary believer.”

Shen Yuexin bit her pale red lips lightly, speechless with exasperation.

On the other side of the plane, Lin Xiao looked at the old mage standing on the flying carpet and did not see a second projection descending. He called out loudly:

“That’s it?”

The young man in white waved his hand and turned to his sister, spreading his hands as he said:

“You see, he doesn’t even take this one seriously.”

With another ‘snap’ of his fingers, an old man wearing a washed-out linen garment and holding a rusty sword descended from the heavens onto the earth.

Lin Xiao frowned slightly, squinting at the sword-wielding old man, who seemed unstable even walking. Instantly, Lin Xiao recalled the low-profile masters from the Xuanhuan novels he had read in his previous life.

“Damn, something feels off here!”

This appearance, this outfit, it all screamed of the legendary Concealed sword saints, the super-powerful masters from the stories.

But at the normal Rank 2 stage, who would have such a super clan member?

Normally, at the Rank 2 stage, the strongest clan members are at Rank 7, and they are special heroes. Clan members reaching Rank 7 is unheard of.

But-

Lin Xiao still felt that something was off, it just seemed too incongruent.

PS: I went to my mother-in-law’s house today and didn’t have enough time, so I could only write a bit over four thousand words..