The Era of Gods

As he envisioned, once he mastered this skill, he would be able to snap any material cleanly as if cut by a knife.

By knocking, all branches were broken off, and the thick tree trunks and branches were dragged to a selected clearing and then knocked into segments that piled up.

Next, he knocked down twenty to thirty similarly thick trees, dragging them all to the temporary camp.

With increasing proficiency, his knocking speed became faster, and the breaks were not as rough as before.

Unfortunately, he had no storage items, and even if he did, he wouldn’t dare to use them, as using spatial items would cause spatial fluctuations, which to the Plane Will would be as conspicuous as a bonfire in the night, instantly revealing his location.

After piling up all the wood, he casually picked up one, “Have you guys noticed? This junior’s clan must be Goblins, right? If I’m not mistaken.” He brought it to the central clearing of the temporary camp and gently tapped with his finger to break the thick tree into several segments. He then picked up a short section about two meters long, stood it upright on the ground, leaped up and with his palm as a blade, he fiercely chopped down, splitting the stump apart. With successive chops, he split several uneven slabs of wood.

Sixth Level Transcendent warriors have strong hands, capable of even splitting stones, let alone wood.

However, this was no big deal. Lin Xiao felt that he needed to delve deeper into these little tricks to harness their full potential.

Even roughly hewn planks were still planks. He split several uneven boards filled with splinters—of varying lengths and thicknesses—and set them aside.

After splitting about forty or fifty, he stopped and went to the center of the temporary camp.

He pulled up all the unknown weeds on a small patch of ground, revealing the moist soil underneath and overturning many small insects, including several earthworms.

Then, he split a wooden plank into two halves, taking the slightly narrower slab about thirty centimeters wide, and focused intently with both hands on the board. Spiritual power and magic power mingled to form a faint white light that emanated from his hands and spread into the board.

As the white glow slowly infused the board, the splinters on its surface began to vanish. The sharp edges became gradually softer and smoother, and the whole plank slowly altered its form.

Shaping!

A branch of Alchemy—Material Alchemy—is one of the most basic and core techniques, enabling matter to change according to one’s will.

Theoretically, with enough spiritual power and magic power, one could change the world by will alone.

Lin Xiao’s skill was far from this theory, but at least as a Divine Incarnation, he was very powerful, easily turning the rectangular board into a shovel with an slightly wide handle.

Then, with a point of his finger, two spells merged into the shovel in a flash, and the edge of the wooden shovel immediately took on the luster of metal.

Wooden Shovel: Sturdy LV1, Sharp LV1.

A simple enchantment made the wooden shovel sturdier and its edge sharper, allowing it to be compared to steel tools in terms of functionality, though not in durability.

After that, he used the same method to shape another wooden plank into a chopping knife, also enchanting it with Sturdy and Sharp effects.

With the shovel and knife, he quickly chopped down the rougher wild grass around a large clearing, then he cast the Petrification to Mud Magic on this space to soften the soil, and easily pressed the shovel down until the handle plunged in.

After casting Petrification to Mud Magic, even hard stones would become soft mud that even children could mold into various shapes. He danced with the shovel, digging up large chunks of soft mud and piling them to the side, soon excavating a large pit in the ground.

He then shaped the excavated mud into rectangular slabs, using five planks to smooth out the different-sized boards and make a mold for the bricks. He placed the soft mud into it, leveling the mud bricks on the ground, and then used Mud to Stone Magic to turn these mud bricks into solid stone bricks.

After that, he dug another large pit nearby, moved the rubble and dirt from brick-making and digging to it, and transformed them into gravel with Mud to Stone Magic. Then he piled up wood on top and started a large fire.

Once the fire was out, he smashed the stones inside, mixing them with the grass ash to make basic lime.

Next, he mixed some gravel with this lime, conjuring a small Water Element to jump into the pit and then disperse. The copious clear water combined with the materials, and after stirring, a simple mortar was ready.

He then dug out a foundation at the edge of the previous large pit, burying the solid stone bricks, one meter long, half a meter high, and thirty centimeters thick, into the foundation, and built them up brick by brick using the mortar.

Busy until sunset, a simple shelter took shape.

This structure, with more than thirty square meters inside and thirty- centimeter-thick stone walls, was rather sturdy; most wild animals wouldn’t be able to break through. Stronger Fierce Beasts might be an issue, but he would have preparations for them by then. For now, the first day was just about making do.

Next, he brought over a wooden post over two meters in diameter, shaved off about a quarter of it, flattened that section, and propped it at the entrance—a simple door was thus formed.

Then he took some soft mud and sealed the gaps in the door. He stuffed it about a meter thick, which upon natural drying and hardening would be sufficiently solid.

He arranged several leftover large stone bricks on the ground, placed a large plank on top, and flopped down on it with a big bird.

In the middle of the night, Lin Xiao suddenly woke up, faintly sensing the ground vibrating and hearing soft footsteps and deep breathing outside. Not long after, he heard a heavy set of footsteps approaching from a distance, and the breathing nearby quickly disappeared, as if a large creature had passed by.

Fortunately, that creature didn’t come closer, likely just passing by from afar, which made him sigh with relief.

The next morning, upon waking up, he saw the thick beams overhead, and upon letting his eyelids droop, he saw the eager big bird, fluttering its wings as if ready to take flight.

He patted the somewhat exaggeratedly sized creature a few times and muttered to himself:

“Hold on a little longer. You can only see your young aunt after your father-in- law agrees, I can’t do anything right now.”

A new day had arrived, but Lin Xiao wasn’t in a hurry to continue adding to the building. First, he moved the logs that were blocking the doorway. There were many animal tracks outside the door, even claw marks upon the logs themselves; it was unclear what kind of beasts they were from, but normal beasts wouldn’t be able to move logs of two meters in diameter.

The morning air in the forest was extremely fresh, and the chirping of the birds was incessant.

The grass leaves were covered with dew, and he saw a nameless insect perched on the edge of a leaf, drinking the dew.

After circling around the shelter, he picked some wild fruits to eat while inspecting the surroundings. Just as he turned behind the stone house, he suddenly stopped. In the thick shrubbery ahead, he saw a pair of cold, ruthless, pitch-black eyes surrounded by a ring of black fur.

He was overjoyed and quickly retreated. The shrubs shook, and a beast as large as a water buffalo and resembling a leopard crawled out.

Its fur was oily black and shiny, and it had a well-proportioned body. Even though it was muscular, it didn’t look bulky; on the contrary, it appeared nimble, silently pouncing towards him with a few bounds.

As he watched the beast leap nearly five or six meters towards him, Lin Xiao pointed his finger and said,

“Beast Paralysis Spell!”

The beast that was pouncing towards him suddenly became rigid and fell in front of him, unable to move. The last thing its pitch-black pupils saw was a large wooden blade.

“I was just thinking about eating meat, and here it comes, how convenient!”

Before long, a bonfire was lit, and a large chunk of meat, its belly sliced open and washed, was roasting over the fire, turning back and forth.

Strictly speaking, a Divine Incarnation doesn’t necessarily need food – Divine Power alone can sustain life without eating or drinking, but doing so consumes Divine Power.

Moreover, eating was a habit, a proof of one’s humanity.

It took almost an hour to roast the meat properly, and he consumed it all in one go, storing all the energy to last a long time.

After eating his fill, he continued with the second day’s work.

But before that…

He cleansed and treated the stripped hide to remove the gamey smell, then cut it open with his large thumbnail. Fetching a small piece of wood, he pinched it between his fingers, and as if by magic, with a few squeezes, the wood turned into a needle.

Then he took some bark, tore it into fibers, processed it a bit, twisted it into a thread, and threaded the needle. He sewed the cut pieces of hide into a leather vest and a leopard-skin skirt.

“Now I don’t have to go around bare every day.”

Even though no one could see him, it was still uncomfortable to be like that every day.

After completing these tasks, he finally started the work for the day.

But before he began, he first created a circular fence around the shelter using not-so-thick branches.

He cleared the weeds and shrubs with a wooden knife, driving thick wooden stakes, thigh-sized and three to four meters long with sharpened ends, into the ground around the shelter. Using horizontal sticks and binding them with vine and bark as rope, he made five or six layers of horizontal bars. The spacing wasn’t wide enough to stop smaller animals, and probably wouldn’t stop larger beasts either, but it would allow him to be alerted beforehand.

Then he chose a spot not far away to start digging up soil, making bricks for later use.

However, this time, the bricks weren’t for building walls but for laying the inner walls.

After making enough stone bricks, Lin Xiao entered the shelter. He turned the center floor of the stone house into soft mud and dug it out.

Each large patch of mud he unearthed, he cast a spell to turn the unaffected soil beneath into more mud and continued digging. By midday, he had dug a hole about ten meters deep and over five meters in diameter, and then he started digging at an angle downward along the bottom of the big pit.

That’s right, he was excavating an underground base.

The massive shaking last night suggested that there were many large beasts in the wilderness, and the shelter was not sufficient.

Moreover, not only was the defense inadequate, but staying above ground was also too conspicuous. An underground location was both hidden and safe since most beasts lacked the ability to dig.

For the entire next day, he stayed underground, digging downward. He turned the excavated mud into stone bricks and directly used cement to build them onto the walls, creating not only space but also a waterproof barrier.

Digging that deep, groundwater was bound to seep out, but an all-stone and cement-sealed structure would prevent any water from leaking through.

In two days, he had excavated a depth of five or six meters, only stopping upon reaching a layer of rock to rest before beginning to dig horizontally.

First, he hollowed out the rock layer, creating a huge temporary underground base hall a hundred meters long, fifty meters wide, and ten meters high. To prevent collapse, he erected several large stone pillars for support.