The Era of Gods

Sixth Level troops had reached the Transcendent realm, equivalent to Steel Golems and other powerful Construct Puppets from the outside. Standing four meters tall, with bodies made entirely of Crystals and further weighted by an Array, a single punch could smash stone to smithereens.

It was also fortunate that the warship they had purchased came with a Magic Array for reinforcement; if it were an ordinary mortal’s wooden warship and suddenly had to bear so many overweight Golems, it would have likely been crushed or sunk long ago.

The summoned Puppets also received bonuses from strategic attributes and Talents. Sixth Level troops, augmented by his staggering fourteen points of Constitution and Strength, along with the most formidable bonus of nine points times two in Agility, moved like rabbits. Even the fleet-footed Dragon Flies were just slightly quicker than the Crystal Golems, and nothing else could outpace them.

This was without him even casting the Slowing Spell to reduce their speed; otherwise, their experience would have been even more bitterly exciting.

The outcome, of course, needs no elaboration: taking on two adversaries at once, a wave of unsurprising devastation swept across without any suspense.

He did not accept the surrender of the two players and eliminated them swiftly and efficiently.

It was now half a year later, in the third season, eliminating a player would yield thirty thousand experience points and a hundred Points, which he couldn’t afford to waste.

After taking out the two of them, he discarded the remaining troops; he was not short on troops, but on Gold Coins and experience.

After cleaning up the battlefield, he came to the front of this colossal ship only to discover that it was a Ghost Ship.

The so-called Ghost Ship, also known as the Nether Ship or Ghost Ship, refers to ships that mysteriously disappeared or sank many years ago but were spotted sailing on the seas again after many years, with no one aboard.

On the surface, this battleship looked well-maintained, but the material of the hull had decayed as if it had experienced countless years, turned grey-black, and seemed to crumble into dust at the slightest touch; a layer of faint grey luminescence covered the surface of the hull.

Lin Xiao’s warship stayed parallel to the silent Ghost Battleship that was drifting aimlessly in the sea. To be cautious, he did not immediately enter the Ghost Ship but quietly observed it for a while, and indeed he noticed something peculiar.

Every so often, the grey light on the surface of the Ghost Ship would ebb and flow like the tide. When it ebbed, it was just a silent Ghost Ship, but as it receded, shadows appeared on the grey light of the battleship’s surface. He looked carefully; it was as if a silent war movie was playing within.

Unfortunately, whether it be due to a lack of energy or some other reason, these shadows were indistinct and fleeting, also not continuous. After watching for a long time, Lin Xiao still could not make out any clear content.

He originally wanted to continue observing more cautiously, but at a certain moment, a sensation from the unknown told him that the Ghost Ship was about to disappear.

He could wait no longer and had to enter the Ghost Ship immediately.

The instant he set foot on the ship, Lin Xiao felt a powerful and icy will crash into him heavily, like being hit by a heavy truck while crossing the street. Even though he was prepared, the intensity of the will was too great, and it knocked him back.

“Damnit!”

Groggy, he held his head. The massive ship in the distance seemed to become more and more blurred. Shaking his head vigorously, the ship did indeed begin to fade and was about to vanish.

This would not do.

Lin Xiao, refusing to watch the tantalizing prize disappear before his eyes, swiftly ordered his warship to close in and rammed it with force.

“Whoosh…”

There was no anticipated impact as the warship collided with the Ghost Battleship and merged into it. That chillingly cold and massive will struck his consciousness again as the Ghost Battleship began to dematerialize.

“Not a chance!”

Lin Xiao, without a moment’s hesitation, concentrated all his mental strength and ferociously collided with the oncoming malevolent will.

“Boom!”

It was like the sound of thunder in his mind; in an instant, he lost consciousness.

Just at that moment, the gradually dematerializing Ghost Ship gave a slight tremor. A ring of gray, transparent ripples spread out, and as they hit Lin Xiao’s warship—which had collided with the Ghost Battleship—it also turned ethereal and vanished along with the Ghost Battleship on the open sea, leaving only waves of surging water to prove that a brief clash had occurred here.

When Lin Xiao regained consciousness, he found himself still standing on his warship, but he realized that his ship was now transparent. Looking down, he saw that he and all his subordinates had turned into ghostly figures, embedded on the edge of the likewise transparent Ghost Battleship, rapidly sailing through the pitch-black… Void.

“This…”

He was momentarily stunned, having never heard of such a state before.

If this was the Void, it didn’t feel like the Void he had traversed before.

He could feel that beyond this pitch-black Void, many extremely malevolent wills were staring at him with eyes full of hatred and greed.

He could see nothing, but through the contact of wills, he could sense that these wills, filled with hatred and greed, were twisted and corrupt in nature.

They stared at him like hungry wolves with rumbling stomachs, each one eager and filled with longing, yet none of them took any action.

“Could it be because of this Ghost Ship!”

He guessed that the only reason could be the protection of the Ghost Ship; those hungry wolves either didn’t dare to approach or were unable to do so.

No matter the reason, at this moment, Lin Xiao didn’t dare to move an inch, for he dared not bet on what might happen should he leave the Ghost Ship.

No, he had a strong premonition that if he were to depart from this ghostly state, the consequences would be quite dire.

Beyond this pitch-black void, devoid of a single star, lurked dense and countless wills. In his perception, they seemed infinite, their numbers so exaggeratedly vast it was shocking. The wills deep in the blackness evoked even greater fear in him, especially in the deepest reaches of his perception, where many unbelievably terrifying existences lay hidden.

He couldn’t sense them clearly, but from the fleeting moment of contact with the scarcely noticeable fluctuations of their presence, his own will couldn’t help but tremble.

Yes, it trembled involuntarily.

From this one could infer the horror of those unfathomable existences.

He sat dutifully on the ship, completely still, his mind constantly working, pondering his current state and what to do next.

He didn’t dare to make any movements, not even returning to his cabin or opening the system panel, fearful of triggering any change that might cause him to leave this state.

This stillness lasted for a week.

Sitting motionless on the deck for a whole week, the Ghost Ship also maintained its course without any change for a week, surrounded by the same pitch-black void as always.

Honestly, if not for the perception that the greedy wills within the pitch-black void were all different, he would have thought that the whole week had been spent stationary.

“Sigh!”

Lin Xiao sighed heavily, feeling depressed about his luck.

With not a single gain in a week, his strength would surely drop significantly. He didn’t dare to open the panel to check the leaderboard now, but he was certain his rank had dropped by several places, possibly even outside the top ten.

But there was no helping it, life was precious. All he could do was pray that the Ghost Ship wouldn’t keep roaming this unknown void and would soon leave for a material plane.

Just as this thought came to mind, a glimmer of light flashed in the corner of his eye, the first light he had seen in a week, which immediately drew Lin Xiao’s attention. Looking in the direction of the light, he saw a twinkling star not too far in front of the Ghost battleship.

As the Ghost battleship slowly approached, the little points of starlight gradually grew larger and brighter, turning from mere pinpoints of light into a glowing orb, and then into a ball of white light.

A day later, the light had grown to resemble the sun itself. The Ghost Ship headed straight for the sun-like orb, which grew bigger and brighter in his vision until

Upon closing the distance, Lin Xiao saw clearly that the sun was actually a small Floating Island illuminated by a fireball burning with milky white flames?

The island wasn’t large, with a diameter of just over ten kilometers, looking like an upturned mountain peak, its surface covered with broken arrays, some still oozing white energy and active, while other parts were being devoured by unending black distortions, leaving the edges of the island gnawed and incomplete.

Yes, gnawed.

In the shadowy regions the burning fireball couldn’t reach, countless pitch- black liquid-like Evil Spirit Entities ebbed and flowed, stubbornly enduring the flames as they gnawed away at the edge of the island.

Many Evil Spirit Entities crammed together and evaporated into black smoke upon touching the flames, while the island’s edge was nibbled away bit by bit.

Every so often, a vortex would appear in the pitch-black void at the edge of the Floating Islands, then a shadowy figure, as if a Black Hole devouring the surrounding light, would surge onto the island. The power from the fireball above the island turned its liquid-like black body into ascending steamy fumes. Yet, the shadowy figure endured the power of flames, charging into the island.

Then, amidst a huge altar within the island, one of the golden statues, towering dozens of meters high, came to life, stretching out a hand of cast gold to grasp at the air, and a torrent of white light converged into a thick bolt of Lightning, violently hurled out to completely shatter the black liquid figure.

“Titan Giants?”

“Boom!”

The Ghost battleship broke through the evil twisting Spirit Entities like splitting waves, heavily docking against the Floating Islands. Then, a massive grey vortex appeared along the ship’s edge, and one… a Barbarian Hero, glowing faintly white and somewhat translucent, flew out from it toward the Floating Islands, along with a massive contingent of Barbarian Troops.

As the Barbarian Troops entered the island, a circle of light from the burning fireball enveloped them, turning into pillars of light that precisely targeted each soldier, leaving a small white circle of light under their feet where the pillars dissipated.

Then, with a roar, the Barbarian Hero commanded the troops to block another black figure that had just surged onto the island, and they started fiercely fighting.

About ten seconds after the Barbarian Troops left, a second Hero, an Elf Hero, burst out. Lin Xiao was surprised to find this Elf Hero was Level 3, and their troops were even stronger than his and the previous Barbarian Hero’s.

The third, the fourth… an unending stream of Heroes and their followers poured out from the Ghost battleship.