The Era of Gods

“Kill!”

Thunderous shouts erupted across the vast plains as two equally colossal armies, having lost their patience after a prolonged period of testing each other, finally entered into all-out war.

Yun Shaoning watched the chaotic battlefield expressionlessly, his thoughts having long since drifted elsewhere.

He wasn’t concerned about this battle in the slightest; on the surface, it seemed like a match of equals, but that was only because his core Clan forces weren’t even here. They had already secretly taken a detour to directly target the enemy kingdom’s Royal Capital.

The outcome of the war here was inconsequential. As long as they could hold out until the main force successfully launched a surprise attack and took down the enemy’s Royal Capital, victory and defeat would naturally be decided.

“Taking down the Royal Capital should add two or three Points, and if I were to annihilate this Kingdom, it would increase by at least twenty to thirty Points.”

Yun Shaoning glanced at his own score of one hundred and thirty-six Points and his sixth-place ranking, which was less than ten Points away from fifth place and less than thirty Points from the top three.

If he could destroy this Kingdom and then plunder its treasuries and some valuable rare resources, he would solidly enter the top five in the rankings. Whether he could break into the top three was uncertain; after all, there was a thirty-point difference, and while he was improving, so were others.

Looking at the rankings of the five from his own realm, another classmate had entered this realm during this period, and now he was ranked second, only a few Points behind the first. Destroying this Kingdom would definitely put him in the lead.

His gaze fell upon the names of the classmates from his realm, pausing briefly on the second to last name, a slight smile curving upwards at the corner of his mouth.

“Lin Xiao…”

“Country bumpkins will always be country bumpkins; a moment of good luck can’t last, and they’ll soon fade into obscurity.”

The more than twenty-name gap between himself and the sixth place brought an inexplicable sense of pleasure to Ning Shaoyun’s heart.

He quickly refocused his attention, surveying the battlefield and issuing a series of commands.

Even though this wasn’t the main battlefield and the outcome wasn’t key, he still didn’t want to lose.

In the far north of the realm, the wastelands of the Half-beastman Sacred City —Harlox—as the strongest Race’s sacred site, even at its weakest, had never been breached by an enemy. But today, Harlox was besieged by a formidable Beastman Legion like none it had ever seen before.

In other directions of the realm, and even in another part of the Underground World, the flames of war burst fiercely, much like the Wrath of the Black Dragon in front of Lin Xiao.

“Pitiful worms, Najelanmu grants you eternal Death!”

From over hundreds of meters away, the Black Dragon unleashed a breath of dark red Dragon Breath mixed with a terrifying Dragon Presence that blanketed the sky and swept over everything.

The faces of many Clan members and Natives slaves within the base changed simultaneously to fear, and nearly half turned to flee, including the Supreme Naga unable to withstand the Dragon Presence. However, the Wise Goblins’ bodies shimmered with magic light as their faces paled, flickering several times before stabilizing.

Lin Xiao’s face remained unchanged; as long as the Wise Goblins were fine, all was well. After all, he didn’t count on other Clans or slaves for this fight. He simply pointed a finger and called out softly:

“Ordinance. Reverse!”

A massive, transparent shield appeared in front of him, reflecting the Black Dragon’s breath back in its face.

Though the Dragon Breath had potent corrosive power, since the Black Dragon was spewing it, it wouldn’t affect itself—much like a snake can’t be poisoned by its own venom. However, this utterly enraged the Black Dragon, which flapped its enormous wings to create a fierce wind and charged furiously.

Lin Xiao watched the charging Black Dragon without any expression or attempt to dodge. Only when it was less than a hundred meters away did he extend his hand again and point, burning a bit of Divine Power as he shouted:

“Ordinance. Quake!”

Fueled by Divine Power, this enhanced Priest’s Divine Technique managed to break through the Dragon’s formidable Magic Resistance and took effect.

But he knew the effect would last only a second or two; without hesitation, he reached down to press his hand, chanting,

“Activate the Array!”

The Wise Goblin Mages, already positioned at the core of the Array, simultaneously expelled their Mana, instantly activating the Array. The center of the base lit up with a blinding light, and in an instant, it burst apart into several thick beams of light that shot quickly in all directions, aiming for the massive stone pillars surrounding the base.

The glyphs on the pillars lit up rapidly, the pillars themselves covered by dazzling light, becoming beams that shot into the sky, and in a moment, a terrifying power sealed off the entire space above the base. Both the stunned Black Dragon and Lin Xiao fell to the ground like stones.

To deceive the Black Dragon, even he didn’t spare himself from the Forbidden Sky Formation’s effects.

The massive Black Dragon crashed into the base, crushing several stone structures, but this also allowed it to awaken from the stun. Raising its head, it let out a sky-shaking dragon roar, its huge wings propping it up. A vortex of black energy gathered in its mouth and it unleashed a stream of dark red Dragon Breath that carved a massive ravine through the base, melting many Stone Golems hiding within.

“Activate!”

Lin Xiao’s mind moved, and in an instant, the thousands of stone golems and hundreds of armored golems hidden within the base activated. In a moment, thousands of gazes lit up, and thousands of wills awoke. The Black Dragon suddenly felt the presence of thousands of wills appearing out of thin air around it. Its rage dimmed considerably, realizing it was ambushed. Letting go of its inexplicable fury towards Lin Xiao, it spread its massive wings and attempted to flap, but it couldn’t take off.

Distracted by its confusion, the surrounding golems had already regained consciousness. The nearest golem raised its hammer and battle-axe, chopping down.

A series of attacks sent sparks and stones flying, but they did not harm the Black Dragon, which seemed to feel insulted and erupted in fury. With one motion, it swept its huge wings and flung more than a dozen stone golems, each weighing two to three thousand kilograms, into the air. Its hard dragon claws crushed two stone golems into rubble, and another breath of dragonfire melted three or four dozen golems in a line. In a deep, furious roar, it bellowed:

“Lowly insects dare to harm the great Najelanmu, you’re seeking your own death!”

Its enormous wings flapped continuously to the left and right, and its thick dragon tail knocked away several attacking golems, the dragon turning its body to fly out of the base.

“So clever?”

Lin Xiao was somewhat surprised and pointed again, burning five points of Divine Power:

“Ordinance. Binding!”

A force far stronger than before descended, and the huge body of the Black Dragon that had just smashed several stone puppets to pieces suddenly halted, unable to move, while its large dragon eyes still slowly turned.

It must be said that dragons, as super-model creatures, have truly terrifying strength. A high-level Ordinance Divine Technique, fueled by an entire five points of Divine Power, could not fully restrain it.

This was still a Black Dragon, which, within the Crystal Wall System’s Dragon Clan hierarchy, is not the strongest among the five-colored dragons. If it were a strong adult Red Dragon or Golden Dragon, it’s likely that even an array on this scale would not be able to restrain them.

Most crucially, this Black Dragon was only at Rank 7 and had not ascended to the Rank 8 Legendary Beings. At the same Rank 7 top tier, Slarda probably couldn’t beat this Black Dragon at present.

At level seven, just one step below is Rank 8, the Legendary Beings. Although it seems to be just one rank difference, the actual gap is immense, and the difficulty of crossing this threshold is unimaginably high.

Even for heroes, advancing beyond this threshold is considerably difficult, not to mention the ordinary races.

To put it this way, even those demigod seniors from the university, the core races, have a growth ceiling between Level 6 and Level 7. Only a very few, such as those ranked among the top talents or absolute outstanding rankings, have a core race growth ceiling that can reach the Rank 8 legendary level.

Note, this refers to the growth limit, not that everyone can reach it.

For example, Lin Xiao’s Supreme Naga have a growth limit of as a Rank 6 Whale Hunting Knight, but ordinary Supreme Naga only reach Level 3 at adulthood and must undergo countless battles to grow to the racial cap of Rank 6.

And those races that can grow to legendary status, that’s just their growth limit. In reality, this is only a wishful thought. The vast majority, even after going through countless brutal battles and living to their life span without dying, are not guaranteed to ascend to the legendary level.

There’s a huge barrier between them, which could be called a chasm.

Of course, the hardest chasm will eventually be crossed by some. Having this upper limit and the chance is much better than those races that can never aspire to the legendary level.

As a renowned legendary species from the Chaotic Void Sea Crystal Wall, the Black Dragon possesses all the defy-the-heavens racial talents of dragons, its extra strong physique, magic resistance, strength, and the well-known Dragon Language Magic unity, even before ascending to legendary status, it’s extremely formidable. Seeing that its eyes were slowly turning faster and faster as if it would break the seal, Lin Xiao immediately added a spell to reinforce the binding.

He couldn’t keep layering Divine Arts because not only would the effects gradually decrease, they would also begin to build resistance. Only a spell could be stacked, but only once, and using it again would cause resistance to develop.

But this was enough, and Lin Xiao shouted:

“Sealing Spell, prepare!”

Over a thousand Wise Goblins quickly took their positions, with the Wise Goblin leader Jin at the core, chanting together. Streams of spiritual power and mana rapidly merged and flowed toward Jin, forming a huge, invisible circular distortion. The powerful spiritual force broke through the effects of the large Forbidden Sky Formation and rose slowly with the currents, twisting the very air and making it suffocating.

“#@%￥ #…#%￥!”

As Jin finished the incantation quickly, his eyes brimming with wisdom suddenly opened wide, and in that instant, Lin Xiao felt the world suddenly brighten.

The bound Black Dragon felt the sensation of death for the first time, the light in its pupils expanding, an invisible ripple emanating from the center of the Black Dragon, the boundless black flames spontaneously igniting, turning the Black Dragon into a black fire dragon. Then, with a silent ‘pop’, the explosive wave burst outward, breaking the binding.

Instantly, a series of ‘bang, bang, bang’ resonated together, numerous stone columns exploded outward, and the Wise Goblins stationed around the columns had their heads shattered, their flesh and blood scattered. The damage only stopped as it reached the edges.

In that single moment, more than two hundred Wise Goblins were killed.

All of them were official mages with a mage level of over Level 4. The loss was so great that it pained Lin Xiao’s heart.

But by now, the arrow was on the string, and no matter the loss, there was no giving up halfway, only to persevere.

Fortunately, the Sealing Spell Jin and many Wise Goblin Mages executed had taken shape. Accompanied by his pointing, the indescribable and invisible light appeared above the Black Dragon’s head and rapidly fell. The dragon, as if it bore the weight of the entire world, let out a thunderous roar of rage. Its body, poised to fly, was forcibly pressed down.