The Era of Gods

The standards for the midterm exam were high, but with his uncle’s status, it wasn’t necessary to trouble this important figure to escort him, right? Could it be to protect his sister?

Xia Yu glared fiercely at Lin Xiao and then saw his little sister sitting quietly, both of them behaving identically. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

It wasn’t that he really disliked him; it was just that shortly after finding out he had a sister to pamper, he discovered she had been taken away by a pig, which inexplicably enraged him.

He snorted coldly, and his uncle’s voice came to Lin Xiao’s ears:

“Follow me.”

After speaking, he walked out of the room with his hands behind his back. He looked up and exchanged a glance with Shen Yuexin, who stuck out her little pink tongue, stood up, and whispered softly:

“Hurry up, or brother will get angry.”

The two of them stood up, and everyone else at the round table cast surprised looks their way. It seemed they had not seen the uncle who had just appeared.

Outside the room was a corridor with a row of rooms at intervals. The two entered a room with an open door. Xia Yu was sitting inside, focused on something. He saw his sister and smiled, gesturing for her to sit down, while he ignored Lin Xiao. Instead, it was their little aunt tugging his clothes to sit down, earning an unfriendly glare from their uncle.

They sat for a while with Xia Yu engrossed in something, apparently wanting to give Lin Xiao the cold shoulder. But with her long-drawn “Brother,” he could no longer pretend.

He sighed, looked up at the two, and eventually turned to Lin Xiao with reluctance and spread out his hand, tossing him a crystal card branded with a strange pattern.

Lin Xiao quickly caught it. The card felt cold and seemed very sturdy, but he had no idea what material it was made of or how to use it.

“Alright, you can go now.”

An invisible force got him up and made him walk out the door involuntarily.

Before leaving, he turned back to see his uncle giving Shen Yuexin a handful, maybe a dozen or more, crystal cards, and saying:

“Keep these safe. When you enter the Ruins of Myriad, each card will allow you to choose an initial option directly, and the effects can be stacked.”

Lin Xiao….

“Bang!”

The door closed, and he stood speechlessly at the door, examining the card in his hand.

Obviously, this thing represented extra resources at the start; one card equaled one set of resources. Thinking about the dozen or so cards in his little aunt’s hands, that was akin to cheating at the start of a game, and doing so a dozen times at that.

It had to be said, the gap in resources available to someone of high birth and someone of more modest means was truly enormous. At the very least, Lin Xiao’s family couldn’t provide anything for him in this kind of situation.

It wasn’t that his family was unwilling to provide, but they simply had no way to offer anything. Such privileges were unique, and typical True God families certainly had no way of obtaining extra privileges from the Ruins of Myriad.

Flipping the crystal card in his hand, Lin Xiao shrugged and pocketed it. After all, extra starting resources are not to be refused if they’re free.

Not waiting for his little aunt, he walked back to the gathering room with his hands behind his back. Just as he approached the entrance, a nearby room’s door opened and the class teacher, Jin Sisi, gestured to him:

“Come here.”

Then, six similar crystal cards were handed to him.

“Once you enter the Ruins of Myriad, each card will grant you an extra initial option, and the effects can also be stacked.”

“Ahem!”

A smile immediately spread across Lin Xiao’s face as he took the six cards from her and pocketed them, casually asking:

“Does everyone get these, or is it just me?”

“These are privileges allocated by the school as well as my own personal privileges.”

As she said this, her expression became serious, and she said in a stern voice:

“There is a cost to placing all my privileges on you. If you fail to achieve good enough results this time, the share of resources I can allocate from the school will decrease, which will affect my evaluation for this term and also affect the resources you can obtain in the future. So you must give it your all!”

Lin Xiao nodded seriously:

“I won’t let you down.”

“Good, you can go back now.”

Returning to the original room, Shen Yuexin was already sitting there chatting with the only other girl on the team. The other male classmates were also chatting among themselves; they all stopped when he entered.

Gu Xiaoming and Yun Shaoning nodded to him, a gesture that was quite unexpected to Lin Xiao, as even Yun Shaoning managed to squeeze in.

Then Li Xiushen and Dongfang Piaoxue both nodded to him. They had talked before and agreed not to attack each other in the Ruins of Myriad.

Besides them, he didn’t know the remaining eight people.

Including Lin Xiao, there were a total of fifteen students going to the Ruins of Myriad. Ten of them were from school slots—six from First School and four from Second School. The remaining five were personal slots obtained from who knows where. Lin Xiao guessed it was probably from the slots owned by their families.

All fifteen were avatars who had descended; everyone present was in their incarnated form, as no one dared to come in their true body.

They were all familiar with one another and recognized each other, but Lin Xiao did not know any of them.

As he took his seat, a handsome man with snow-white eyebrows slanting into his temples, Dongfang Piaoxue, stood up and said:

“Everyone knows that the participants of this Ruins of Myriad event come from the four major forces of the Main World, top colleges, and the descendants of top True Gods and noble families. The competition is fierce. Although we come from both the First and Second Colleges, we all belong to Radiance, so naturally, we must present a united front when the time comes.”

Li Xiushen also stood up and said:

“As representatives of Radiance, we are seen as formidable rivals in the eyes of outsiders. Precisely because of this, we will undoubtedly face challenges from many enemies, especially those from the other non-China super academies who will definitely not accept us easily. Based on past events, before entering the ruins, there will surely be challengers. Together, we can share the pressure and avoid embarrassment in front of the billions of Main World viewers.”

” Billions of Main World viewers?”

Lin Xiao asked Shen Yuexin in a low voice, and she replied:

“There’s a slight change in the rules this time. I heard that a True God with ‘gambling and betting’ godhood persuaded the guardians of the Ruins of Myriad to open this event to the public and set up an official lottery center, allowing the public to place bets.”

“Ah…”

Lin Xiao was extremely surprised, his mouth agape.

“Is that really possible?”

“Why not? It’s not unprecedented. Every one or two hundred years, this happens. Many people have made a fortune from it.”

Li Xiushen, who was explaining, smiled and said:

“Actually, this is also a good thing for us. If we perform well in the ruins, we can showcase ourselves directly to billions of viewers. It serves as a credential. This is beneficial for our reputation. As long as we are strong enough, once the event ends, we can immediately rank on the ‘Peerless List’ or ‘Heroes List’ without the need for complex inspections and verifications. Moreover, in the future, when we apply for college, whether we establish a divine system or do anything else, we can easily get sponsorships.”

“Moreover, we can also place bets on ourselves.”

Dongfang Piaoxue’s eyebrows twitched as he said to Lin Xiao:

“If you’re confident, you can bet on your own ranking according to your estimated strength—big winnings if you win.”

At this point, a young man with blue auras spiraling inward inside his pupils said:

“I heard that over two thousand years ago, there was a major upset. A contender who wasn’t outstanding put a bet on himself to take first place and, against all odds, he actually succeeded. Not only did he leap into prominence with the resources from the first-place prize, making it onto the ‘Progeny Sublist,’ but the winnings from his bet also massively increased his fortune, making him instantly comparable to the total assets of a small-sized divine system.”

“Comparable to the assets of a small divine system?”

This example was exciting. Lin Xiao immediately got some ideas—as perhaps he could take a chance on himself.

Suddenly, he thought of something and quickly asked:

“Wait, can you bet on yourself?”

Li Xiushen shook his head and said:

“Definitely not, but you can have your family or friends place the bet for you. And don’t even think about exploiting loopholes; you can’t bet on yourself to lose or predict the timing of your loss, and so on.”

Lin Xiao:….

With a topic at hand, the group of young people quickly got into a lively discussion and began to introduce themselves:

“Lin Xiao, from the Second College.”

“Li Xiushen, from the First College.”

“Dongfang Piaoxue, from the First College.”

“Lin Huang, from the First College.” “Xu Zhen, from the First College.” “Yun Yi, from the First College.” “Lu Zhou, from the First College.”

Well, a clean sweep from the First College. Out of fifteen people, eleven were from the First College, and only four were from the Second College. This gap was quite significant.

The time passed in casual conversation among everyone. Although by background Lin Xiao could be considered the least remarkable, he had already used his own strength to dispel their prejudices. Or perhaps for these elite youths, Lin Xiao, with such potential, was destined to be on their level, so naturally, they got along.

After all, there was an old Chinese saying that had been passed down to this day

“Princes and generals have their own kind!”

The ancestors of the many youths present also started as ordinary people and grew step by step until they reached divine enshrinement and established vast clan fortunes. Even the father of Shen Yuexin, that great being, started from a humble background.

Fortunately, her father was still around. If it had been another high-profile family, he might not even have had the chance to pursue her.

The Void Battleship they were on had just left from Yan Huang No. 2 Super War Fortress and was heading toward the Crystal Wall System where the Ruins of Myriad were located.

Normally, to get to the Crystal Wall System in the Chaos Sea of Void, one could directly teleport there through one of the major super war fortresses. However, the Crystal Wall System where the Ruins of Myriad were located was different, as per the information given by their homeroom teacher. Once a top college’s fortress, the Myriad Images Conquest’s Crystal Wall System used to be directly accessible.

But after a significant upheaval, the Myriad Images God System, which was once regarded by billions of deities in the Main World as potentially advancing to become the thirteenth super college, was destroyed. Countless gods fell in that catastrophe, and even the Crystal Wall System itself collapsed, shrank, and imploded during that earth-shattering change.

To this day, almost all passageways to the outside world have disappeared, including the one leading to the Main World. To go there now, one must first travel to the edge of Myriad via a transit point in a Crystal Wall System and then through the Myriad Images God Temple. Only by obtaining the permission of the remains of the Myriad Images God System’s six Divine Power Tomb Guardians, each exceeding God Level Fifteen, can one enter the collapsed Crystal Wall System.