The Era of Gods

Strands of green light converged toward the center, infusing into the light shield formed by the Emerald Serpent High Priest, quickly staining the shield an even brighter green.

As the energy poured in, the sphere of light slowly ascended, sending rings of invisible ripples spreading in all directions. A dazzling green beam of light burst forth into the Vault of Heaven, exploding into rings of green light. The massive face of an Emerald Serpent slowly opened its vertical pupils.

Lin Xiao felt an invisible force sweep through the void, a layer of emerald stone quality emerging on the body surface of countless Small Fishmen.

At this moment, Alemente, King of Wise Goblins, who had stayed back without Lin Xiao’s order to act, snorted coldly and took a step forward. An Any Door appeared out of thin air before him, and behind him, a great mass of Wise Goblins Grand Magicians, dressed in silver-edged magic robes, simultaneously summoned Any Doors and stepped through them.

The next second, over a hundred Any Doors appeared in the sky, and a large group of Rank 6 Grand Magicians stepped out. Even without casting spells, the mental power fluctuations produced by more than a hundred magicians standing together were enough to cause Li Xiushen and many onlookers to visibly change expressions.

They did not need to take positions, or rather, when their Any Doors appeared in the sky, they were already in formation. Alemente, at the center, muttered incantations and reached out his hand to grasp at the air. The huge Emerald Serpent face in the sky was violently and invisibly twisted, rapidly deforming and collapsing.

The Emerald Serpent High Priest below grunted, the greenish light shield around him shattered, countless fragments ignited with a ‘boom’, turning into rings of green flame that spread out. The surrounding Jade Serpent Priests, upon contact, burst into green torches.

“Fuck, a Rank 7 Magic based Hero!”

Li Xiushen instinctively tightened his grip on the Crystal Staff in his hand, preparing to throw it, as the air rapidly distorted. The light was absorbed, turning into a black void, and then he hurled it with force.

“Truth above all!”

Slarda, stationed with the Central Army, noticed this, grabbed a massive anchor looking like a stone pillar, and lifted it. Magic auras sparked brightly on the anchor, rings of light illuminated, and with a ‘boom’, a deafening sonic explosion rang out as the anchor tore through the void in a fleeting instant.

I he next second, the void a few dozen meters from Alemente suddenly exploded with a tremendous boom, followed by intense vibrations that surged back and forth. Accompanied by a piercing screech that tore through the air, a large and small pair of twisted shadows collided heavily.

“Boom!”

I he terrifying sound blast that ruptured eardrums exploded, and the large and small masses of distortion split upon impact. A tiny dark figure vanished as soon as it appeared, returning to Li Xiushen’s hand, while the massive anchor was flung several hundred meters, tumbling through the air before crashing down heavily onto the ground, instantly killing dozens of Small Fishmen and several Snake People.

Slarda reached out with an empty hand, and the huge anchor lightly took flight, landing back in his grasp. However, he found that the head of the anchor had broken, and many of the spells on it had failed, though it was still functional as a weapon.

Li Xiushen having acted several times, and Slarda no longer anchoring the Central Army, gripped the colossal anchor and stepped into the battlefield to restrain the opponent.

His immense size and fearsome strength brought an unrivaled intimidation, forcing Li Xiushen to abandon his original plan to intercept and instead ordered his Emerald Priest Group to stop the opposing Mage team.

But his priests were far outmatched by the Goblins Mage Group of Wisdom; not only lacked they a Rank 7 Magic based Hero, but the number of mages who had reached Rank 6 in his group was just a bit more than a tenth of that in the Wise Goblins Mage Group. Alemente, with merely a third of his mages, easily suppressed the Emerald Serpent Priest Group.

With no obstruction, Alemente’s leading Mage team could cast spells with ease. Nearly a hundred Rank 6 Grand Magicians, along with one Rank 7 Hero, joined forces to summon a wave of an exceptionally large Meteoric Fire Rain which, under Li Xiushen’s despairing gaze, covered a vast expanse of the battlefield.

Under their joint casting, the power of this wave of Meteoric Fire Rain reached the level of legends, and it could be described as a spell of War. As the sky filled with explosive meteors fell onto the battlefield, the successive blasts severely damaged Li Xiushen’s troops.

Without an opposing mage of the same rank to block or defend, the full power of the legendary spell was unleashed, spelling disaster for the ordinary soldiers.

The outcome was determined from this point on. Already at a disadvantage, Li Xiushen’s forces completely collapsed after the barrage of Meteoric Fire Rain. Even though his Clan fought with extremely resolute will, they could not endure such adverse conditions and resist effectively. Overwhelmed by the surging Small Fishman, they stood no chance.

Li Xiushen watched his entire army being wiped out with a trace of desolation, his mount, the three-headed serpent Xi, was caught and torn to shreds by the Black Dragon. In the end, only he remained, slowly rising into the air with his spear pointed at Slarda:

“I challenge you!”

Slarda had been commanding the Central Army the whole time, and even when he made a move, it was merely to restrain Li Xiushen. He knew very well what he should do as an outstanding commander.

It wasn’t his role to break the stalemate with brute force- that was the General s job. What he was supposed to do was to command the Central Army.

I he greatest role of an army commander was to stabilize morale and direct his soldiers in what they needed to do. All he had to do was stand there, letting his subordinates see that he was present.

So, he completely ignored Li Xiushen’s challenge. His huge palm rose and gently waved down, signaling the Goblins Mage Group of Wisdom to begin casting their spells.

“You look down on me!”

Li Xiushen, holding the Crystal Staff tightly, scoffed coldly, as a rich green glow burst forth from his body, turning him into a giant torch. With a ‘hum’, the torch suddenly vanished in a flash, and Slarda, surrounded by his subordinates, snorted and shouted:

“Scatter!”

He tossed the anchor from his right hand to his left, and his huge right hand formed a fist as big as a house, smashing it viciously in front of him.

“Boom!”

A massive green fireball collided out of nowhere with his thrusting fist. The Void came to an abrupt halt and then exploded. The next second, the green light ball burst open, and a shockwave that twisted even the Void itself exploded, mixing with crumbling green flames to form a vast wave of distortion that spread in every direction until it reached a hundred meters away.

The enormous green aura expanded out to a hundred meters and then slowly dissipated. Slarda, who had maintained his punch, slowly retracted his fist-sized-hke-a-house back to his eyesight and gently pressed his left hand on top of it, plucking a Crystal Staff as thin as a fine needle out of the middle and throwing it to the ground.

“Wow!”

An astonished exclamation burst from countless onlookers at the same time, their eyes shining as they watched Slarda’s every move, and countless excited voices shouted:

“So cool, this hero is so strong!”

After killing Li Xiushen’s avatar, the fight automatically ended. Lin Xiao’s will returned from the projection plane and discovered to his surprise that this battle had attracted over two hundred spectators, bringing him an audience income of one hundred twelve Divine Power points.

By defeating Li Xiushen, he automatically took over his ranking, pushing Li Xiushen down to the fourteenth place, while he secured the thirteenth, and his little aunt was squeezed to the sixteenth position.

Having defeated the opponent, Lin Xiao didn’t immediately challenge the next one but instead tapped his wristband. The projection of a handsome man with snow-white eyebrows slanting into his temples appeared before him, who said upon meeting:

“I am Dongfang Piaoxue.”

“I’m Lin Xiao. What’s up?”

“I just watched your fight with Li Xiushen, and I can’t beat you.”

Lin Xiao raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised, and said:

“So you’re… asking me to throw the fight?”

Dongfang Piaoxue smiled:

“Of course it would be best if you threw the fight, but you definitely won’t, and

I didn’t come to you for that. It’s about the midterm exam.”

This was quite surprising to him. Lin Xiao remembered that his classmate, Gu Xiaoming, also mentioned the midterm exam before. This guy… He suddenly recalled that he seemed to have forgotten to check out that so-called “All Phenomena”.

Dongfang Piaoxue said:

“It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m first or second on the leaderboard. What I need is just the ancient treasure that comes with a top-three ranking-the other rewards, whether more or less, I don’t care about. I care more about the midterm exam.”

He looked at Lin Xiao with a smile, his tone inquiring:

“We both come from Radiance, strictly speaking, we are our own people, with no major conflicts. During the midterm exam, we can live in peace and work together against others. How about it?”

This…

Lin Xiao seemed to have guessed a bit but didn’t have clear details, so he didn’t agree immediately and simply replied:

As long as you don’t attack me or harbor any malice, or if there’s no conflict with my mission, I’m certainly willing to live in peace.”

“That’s great.”

After saying this, the projection disappeared, followed by a friend request along with a message:

“As a gesture of sincerity, I will admit defeat later.”

What kind of twisted sincerity is this… He grumbled wordlessly.

Right then, Shen Yuexin’s call came through. She held up a thumbs-up, smiling:

“I just saw you, awesome!”

Seeing her, Lin Xiao’s mood improved. He reached out to tap her raised thumb and chuckled:

“I’ve got something even more awesome. Wanna see?”

“What’s more awesome?”

She was puzzled at first, then in the next second, her delicate face blushed beguilingly as she spat:

“Teh, pervert, I’m not talking to you.”

“No, wait, I was wrong.”

“Hmph! I’m angry now.”

Lin Xiao… promptly changed the topic and asked:

“By the way, do you know what this ‘All Phenomena’ in the midterm exam really is about?”

“All Phenomena? Don’t you know?”

Shen Yuexin was evidently distracted by the change of subject and curiously said:

“With your results, didn’t your teacher tell you?”

“Maybe the teacher thought I knew.”

“Stupid, you should ask your homeroom teacher about this kind of thing.”

“Heh heh, 1’11 definitely ask next time,” he said, amused.

The girl covered her face, speechless.

“The so-called All Phenomena is a heritage guarded by a very ancient divine system. This ancient divine system is now a folk organization originating from the remnants of a top-tier college called ‘All Phenomena’ that perished over a hundred thousand years ago, formed by six Powerful Divine Powers. Its main purpose is to protect ancient ruins left by that top-tier college.”

“Top-tier college remnants, six Powerful Divine Powers? Ancient ruins?”

I he first thing he thought of were the relics of Major General Keri from the summer camp..