The Era of Gods

An indescribable force thunderously descended, and the Black Dragon plummeted like a meteor. Its massive limbs slammed into the ground, and a ‘boom’ erupted as an invisible aura swept the broken stones clean in a wave, with the earth collapsing and sinking around the Dragon to a diameter of fifty meters, as dust billowed and soared into the sky.

The Outpost Base fell silent, with only the heavy breathing of the crowd remaining.

After a few seconds, driven by a thought from Lin Xiao, the nearest dozen Stone Golems and Armored Golems started to approach with heavy steps.

“Well, this junior wants to capture a Dragon alive?”

At this moment, inside the Void Battleship, many seniors gathered in front of Senior Kang’s screen, including class head Jin Sisi and counselor Zhu Hong. Eighteen pairs of eyes were fixed on the scene, all filled with anticipation, curious as to whether Lin Xiao’s plan would work.

The dust in the collapsed pit gradually dispersed, revealing an eerie silence with no other sound than the heavy footsteps of the Golems.

However, there wasn’t a hint of joy on Lin Xiao’s face, but rather extreme solemnity.

In his perception, although the quiet pit was silent, there was an unnerving presence slowly gathering, as if something were building up its strength. The first Stone Golem reached the edge of the pit and, without hesitation, leaped down in an axe-chopping stance, followed by a ‘crack’ as sparks seemed to flash.

The second Stone Golem also jumped down in the same posture.

The third was an Armored Golem, wielding a steel battle-axe and leaping down fiercely.

And in that instant…

“Roar!”

A soul-shaking roar erupted from the pit, and the dust whirled inward before exploding outward. A wave of black flames, twisting even the Void itself, gushed out and engulfed the surrounding Golems, cutting off Lin Xiao’s connection with them.

Endless black flames filled with powerful corrosive forces spewed from the pit, and a massive dragon-shaped silhouette rose up into the air with outstretched wings, like a stone statue about to take flight but with its wings rigid and immobile.

“Dragon Language Magic!”

Besides melee combat and Dragon Breath, a Black Dragon normally wouldn’t wield such form and might. Only the renowned Dragon Language Magic could produce such an effect.

The Black Dragon, maintaining this state, ignored the Forbidden Sky Formation and quickly ascended to thousands of meters in the air. Its pupils, filled with dark fumes, slowly turned, as the sound of modulating dragon chants could be heard, although its mouth did not move.

“This Black Dragon has quite a pure bloodline to use Dragon Language Magic consecutively!”

The seniors were now at the peak of their interest, eager to see how Lin Xiao would handle the situation.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiao swiftly activated his Divine Extraordinary Ability—LV3 Prophetic Art-to foresee the threat this Dragon Language Magic posed from the Black Dragon named Nejelanmu.

In an instant, he saw countless images flicker before him, with several becoming fixed. These were the various outcomes based on his different reactions. He immediately spotted the most favorable foresight result for himself, reached out with a quick gesture, and took control of the spiritual power tethered to the Wise Goblin Mages connected to the ‘Gold’. He transferred their spiritual power to himself, combining it with ten points of Divine Power transformed into Mana, and slowly pointed his finger as the Void itself seemed to twist:

“Ordinance. High Immunity to Energy Damage…”

A membrane that intuitively conveyed impregnable strength emanated from him, enveloping the entire base within it.

“Ordinance. High Deviation Field…”

A force field, not much different in appearance to the high-level energy barrier, settled over it.

Ordinance Divine Techniques are a special type of Divine Arts that cannot be used by ordinary Priests. Only Divine Incarnations and Priests of at least Rank 7 who have been granted permission by their Deity, or those who are of Legendary status on their own, can utilize this ability, as it involves manipulation of rules, something a regular Priest cannot touch without the power of a Deity.

Consequently, this Divine Technique is incredibly powerful, far surpassing the capabilities of ordinary Divine Arts.

The Ordinance Divine Technique system does not consist of standard Divine Arts. Its core lies in the utilization of rules, allowing for freeform application during casting. It can easily mimic any Divine Art or Spell, including those rarely seen from Wizards and Druid Spellcasters.

At this stage, apart from Lin Xiao himself, only Slarda among All Favored Ones is qualified to use his power to employ this system of Divine Techniques.

“Ordinance. Group Vajra Invincible Body…”

With Devil Resistance and physical immunity enhanced, and dodging augmented by Divine Power and the collective spiritual power of All Favored Ones, the strength of these three spells exceeded that of Rank 9, yet did not reach the level of Legendary Spells, placing them somewhere in between.

After he had finished bestowing three spells, the Black Dragon in the sky completed its dragon curse. Its body, engulfed in black flames, swelled into a black sun. Streams of thin black flame detached and fell straight from the sky, showering the base like a rainstorm.

From the black smoke, Lin Xiao sensed immense terror. The insignificant- looking black smoke fell straight from the sky like rain upon the High Immunity to Energy Damage Magic Barrier, triggering ripples that made his heart skip a beat.

Theoretically, a barrier that could completely immunize against any non-Legendary spells vibrated violently on an invisible level, causing his spirit to surge wave after wave.

As each ripple spread, he could feel a layer of the energy-immune membrane being dissolved. In less than five seconds, the High Immunity to Energy Damage Magic Barrier was perforated with countless tiny holes.

Then, it reached the base below.

From the screens in front of the senior students, the entire base seemed as if a black rain had begun to fall. The black flame rain slipped through the membrane and onto the ground, creating black ripples on impact, swiftly dissolving anything it touched, be it rocks or broken weapons, leaving overlapping craters on the surface.

When it hit the Wise Goblins and Golems, many were deflected by their shining auras and fell to the ground, corroding large pits. But some could not be repelled by the High Deviation Field, penetrated the field and upon contact, the Golems simply melted away with holes.

The Wise Goblins had been bestowed with group fortification spells, and when the black smoke touched them, their magic robes lit up continuously, indicating that the protective spells of the robes were repelling the black smoke.

Every qualified Mage had a set of passive defensive spells; the more powerful the Mage, the more formidable and harder to kill.

But the power of this Dragon Language Magic was too great; various defensive spells failed one after another, the magic robes were quickly destroyed, and the prepared spell sequences of the Wise Goblins were activated. The last flickers of light shimmered as they were teleported away, but some Mages’ prepared spell sequences contained not teleportation spells but Any Doors.

Compared to a teleportation door, Any Door was more flexible for use in offense and defense, but after being activated, it required consideration for the landing point and the action of entering, hence it wasn’t an instant teleport. Usually, Mages could make the decision easily, but at this moment, all the Wise Goblins were supplying their Mana and spiritual power to Lin Xiao, which led to a delayed reaction and thus, Death.

Drops of black rain fell upon the Wise Goblins, and even though their temporary steel-like bodies granted them invincibility similar to that of the Calabash Brothers, they were penetrated after only a moment’s resistance by the terrifying Dragon Language Magic, dissolving their bodies into nothingness.

Lin Xiao watched as one by one the precious Mage Clan members died, his heart aching unbearably, but there was no choice—it was the least loss he had foreseen.

There was no escape; they were locked on. Even if they were to teleport out as a group, Black Dragon Nejelanmu would follow them. All Dragons possessed a certain level of spellcasting abilities. It’s just that a Dragon’s physical strength was so overwhelming that it was often overlooked.

Unfortunately, his Divine Incarnation had limited Divine Power for a one-time burst, unlike his True Body, which could unleash hundreds of points of Divine Power all at once. Ten points of Divine Power was the limit.

Luckily, Black Dragon Nejelanmu¹ s use of Dragon Language Magic hadn t lasted very long. After ten seconds, the black rain stopped falling, the invisible, twisted black smoke slowly dissipated, revealing an evidently weary Black Dragon. Seeing that there were still so many enemies below, it opened its mouth to release a Dragon Breath that was noticeably smaller in scale than before, instantly killing more than a dozen Wise Goblins and coincidentally destroying some of the defenseless pillars of the Forbidden Sky Formation.

Of course, by then, the base below was completely devastated; the Forbidden Sky Formation had long been dissolved beyond function.

Out of thousands of Golems, only a few hundred remained, and two-thirds of the thousand Wise Goblins died in one go, causing Lin Xiao immense heartache. But now was not the time to grieve. Having cast two spells on par with Legendary Spells in a row, the Black Dragon had exhausted its spiritual power and Magic Power. After all, it wasn’t yet a Rank 8 Legendary Dragon, and casting two spells at a Legendary level consecutively with just Rank 7 was a testament to how incredibly powerful the Dragon Race was.

Strike when the enemy is sick; seizing the opportunity, while the Black Dragon hesitated after flying a circle in the sky and began to escape with its flapping wings, Lin Xiao wasn’t having it. Burning ten more points of Divine Power, he pointed at the Black Dragon in the sky:

“Ordinance. Shackles!”

Empowered by the expanding Divine Power, a massive white energy shackle formed above the Black Dragon and fell, crisscrossing before tightening and effectively binding the Black Dragon’s front claws and wings, sending it tumbling down, crashing into the rugged terrain with a booming sound as stones flew everywhere.

“Child of my Lord, lend me your strength!”

Lin Xiao soared into the sky, his shout reaching the heavens as the surviving Wise Goblins and those who were teleported afar began converging on him. Their residual spiritual power and Mana soared into him from all around, and feeling the immense spiritual power and temporary Mana inside him, Lin Xiao didn’t hesitate to burn another ten points of Divine Power and reached his hand towards the sky:

“Ordinance. Seal!”

Countless lights converged at his center, becoming so condensed that the surrounding light dimmed. As he slowly pressed his hand towards the Black Dragon, for the first time, a hint of panic appeared in the behemoth’s immense pupils as it bellowed:

“Dragon God Above, you cannot treat Nejelanmu this way.”

Though there was nothing in the palm, the Black Dragon’s essence visibly weakened at a swift pace.

This was a sealing from the realm of rules, as normal seals couldn’t contain a Black Dragon.

“We’ve actually caught it.”

The seniors were quite surprised; in their opinion, it wouldn’t be difficult for Lin Xiao to kill this Black Dragon with his Incarnation and these few Clan members, but capturing it alive was another story—it was quite difficult indeed,