The Era of Gods

If it wasn’t for the fact that he didn’t have an appropriate Talent Card on hand, Lin Xiao really wanted to strengthen them all in one go before heading out.

But five of them should be enough for now.

He pinched his chin and rubbed his teeth, already imagining the performance of his Clan using these Extraordinary Abilities.

Having fused three Extraordinary Abilities, he considered himself fully prepared, and his consciousness returned to the local network—a Void filled with a large number of metal platforms floating around. Most platforms were occupied by shadowy figures with unclear appearances, identifiable only by their individual numbers.

Recalling the number Luo Shuang mentioned before, UG14854510, Luo Shuang’s projection soon appeared before him and asked loudly,

“Are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

“Then come on, let me see what differentiates you, a newly rising star, from the other talents.”

“I also want to see how formidable these super elites from the military really are.”

Lin Xiao was no less confident than Luo Shuang, his confidence even surpassing hers.

“Good, I like that look of full confidence on you—it gives me an even stronger will to fight.”

With a shift in the scene, his consciousness began to descend, and the challenge was about to begin.

As they were entering the virtual dimension for the challenge, elsewhere within the fortress barracks, in a certain room, Xie Yufei and a dozen senior military officers with an imposing air sat together, among them some with golden stars on their shoulders, generals in rank. In front of them, a huge screen displayed the scene of the challenge.

One of the officers, as strong as Xie Yufei but outrageously muscular, encircled his thick arms and said to her excitedly,

“Luo Shuang is my person, and that young man named Lin Xiao is yours. How about we make a little wager on them?”

Xie Yufei gave him a sideways glance and said,

“What wager? I’m not interested in ordinary bets.”

“I remember you have a standard Floating City blueprint card. If Luo Shuang wins, give me that card.”

Xie Yufei looked up at the towering colleague with a bemused expression and cursed,

“Lei Bo, you deadbeat, you even want that from me. Well, I won’t be polite either. I remember you have a standard Crystal Dragon blueprint card. If I win, you give me that blueprint. How does that sound?”

“Deal!”

“Then you’re as good as dead. My guy is on both the Power and Potential rankings, ranking eleventh on the Talent list.”

She slapped her thigh and laughed heartily.

However, Lei Bo laughed even louder and said,

“That’s because you don’t know my guy’s God Domain Strength reached Rank 8 a few days ago, and he’s hatched a sealed Terrifying Dragon Tribe member.”

The surrounding crowd suddenly erupted with ‘ohs!’ and Xie Yufei’s laughter came to an abrupt halt. She glared fiercely at the big man without saying a word.

Then, as Lin Xiao was setting the rules for the combat dimension, a reminder from the female colonel reached his ears,

“Kid, I’ve got some bad news for you. A few days ago, your opponent’s God Domain Strength reached Rank 8, and he hatched a sealed Terrifying Dragon Tribe member. You’d better be careful.”

“What’s the Terrifying Dragon Tribe?”

Not knowing, he asked, and Xie Yufei directly sent over a file. When he saw the figure of the giant beast on the file, the size of a mountain, he opened his mouth in surprise and said,

“This is the Terrifying Dragon Tribe? Such a massive size?”

After reading the detailed information, he shut his mouth.

The so-called Terrifying Dragon Tribe was a Dominator Race in some Crystal Wall Universe—a very powerful Race with an abnormally large size.

These beings had no relation to the Dragon Clan; they were named the Terrifying Dragon Tribe because of their colossal size. They belonged to a class of overpoweringly large Races, similar to the Dragons—a bug-like super strong Race.

The Terrifying Dragon Tribe consisted of Giant Beasts, extraordinarily large species. They often grew as big as mountains, and an adult would be at least a Rank 8 super Model creature.

The Terrifying Dragon Tribe member in Luo Shuang’s possession was not raised from young by him, but rather a captured adult that was sealed using special Divine Arts. He waited until his God Domain level was sufficient to accommodate the creature, then immediately unsealed it for hatching.

The Terrifying Dragon Tribe doesn’t practice magic, nor do they have Dragon Breath. But they usually have breath attacks of various Elements. Their power might not match Dragon Breath, but their wide range is excellent for clearing lesser troops.

At that moment, Xie Yufei’s crisp voice rang out again,

“I made a bet with someone. If I lose, I’ll lose a standard Floating City blueprint card. It’s a small matter if the item’s gone, but it’s annoying to lose. If you can defeat your opponent, you’ll be my brother from now on. I’ll have your back as a colonel, and as a reward, I’ll give you a standard Mage Tower blueprint.”

“Really?”

Taken aback by her own words, Xie Yufei raised an eyebrow and glanced at the other colleagues in the room before asking in a low voice,

“Can you actually hit that thing?”

Described as mountainous in size, this was not an adjective but a literal comparison to the terrifying size of the Terrifying Dragon Tribe, measuring over a hundred meters in length. Just think about it.

Even with such a huge size making its movements inevitably slow and its combat methods simplistic, the sheer bulk was a game changer.

Imagine, what would happen if that thing charged into your army formation? What could possibly stop it?

The largest creature in Lin Xiao’s God’s realm was the Black Dragon Nejelanmu, measuring only about thirty meters from head to tail in comparison to those one or two hundred meters titans, a mere speck that probably couldn’t even bite through their skin.

The reason he felt confident was precisely because the massive size of the beast made its reactions and movements unavoidably sluggish, suitable only for assaulting fortified positions and not open field battles.

Of course, this was his speculation. Whether it was as he surmised could only be confirmed through actual combat. Luo Shuang wouldn’t rely on this as a trump card without a good way to utilize the giant beast.

As the common saying goes, there are no absolute useless things in the world, it all depends on how you use them.

The choice of terrain was random; both parties were too proud and haughty, and since it was a one-on-one challenge to the death, the default was random.

As for the choice of Clan members for the battle, the default rules of single combat within the army were followed: low-grade races counted as one population unit, medium races two, high-grade races four, and any above high-grade races were a flat ten units. Heroes and special creatures, like the Dragon Turtle and Black Dragon from Lin Xiao’s God’s realm, or the Terrifying Dragon Tribe from Luo Shuang’s realm, all counted as a hundred units, regardless of strength.

Taking into account that at their level, the number of Clan members in their divine realms was immense; and full mobilization would be too grand and risk exposing all of their strengths, they agreed to dispatched two hundred thousand population units worth of Clan members each, freely combined.

Among the Clan members Lin Xiao had, the Asura Naga were a sub-legendary race, exceeding the high-grade races and counted as ten population units each.

The Small Fishmen were a low-grade race, counting as one population unit.

Besides them, the Wise Goblins and Earth Dwarves were all medium races, counting as two units each.

Since the four elements from the four subsidiary divine realms couldn’t provide direct Power of Faith to Lin Xiao, they couldn’t be counted as Clan members under these rules and were therefore unable to participate directly in the battle. However, they could be summoned by the Wise Goblin Mages.

The Flame Lord Kurbert was a hero and could be summoned, counted as a hundred population units.

The four great heroes and the Black Dragon Nejelanmu would definitely be summoned. Notably, after the Water Elemental Divine Realm was transformed by the Divine Sanctuary and developed a complete ecosystem, under his deliberate stimulation, the Water Elemental Little Spirit, Little DingDang, had successfully risen to become the Lord of the Water Elemental Divine Realm, making her an Epic Hero.

It should be mentioned that the quality of the heroes in his hands were all quite high, the poorest being Epic-grade heroes.

Calculating at ten units per population, ten thousand Asura Naga already accounted for a hundred thousand units, the remaining hundred thousand allocated four thousand to twenty thousand Wise Goblins, and the leftover sixty thousand units deployed just over fifty-nine thousand Small Fishmen.

Preparations completed, selection ready.

Immediately, the scene changed before his eyes. Luo Shuang moved even faster than he did, and as both sides were ready at the same time, the plane began to take shape.

In less than a minute, a large plane encapsulated by war fog, measuring one hundred kilometers by one hundred kilometers, took form, and Lin Xiao chose a direction to descend at random.

The projection of ten thousand Asura Naga was entirely made up of elites, with all above Sixth Level deployed.

Over three thousand Rank 6 Naga warriors and more than sixty Rank 7 Asura Naga Knights.

Upon descending, the twenty thousand Wise Goblin Mages immediately began summoning various Summon Creatures, and the Magicians among the Small Fishmen, under the lead of Tide Lord Akens, began to summon Water Elements.

Before long, scouts from both sides discovered each other at the center of the plane. Lin Xiao and Luo Shuang, as if by unspoken agreement, chose to face off directly, and the ready armies advanced towards a large plain in the center of the plane.

Above the challenge plane, more than a dozen elite soldiers from the army, including Wu Zhonglin, were watching the battle, most of their attention focused on Lin Xiao’s side.

Having known Luo Shuang’s constant challenges and interactions over the years, they were more or less familiar with his capabilities. They were more intrigued by Lin Xiao, congregating on his side, pointing out and commenting on the marching Asura Naga and the Wise Goblin Mages, each adorned with a magic robe and wielding a magic wand.

The Small Fishmen, although slightly different from the ones commonly seen, were not much different. To them, the Small Fishmen were at most seen as a variant of the Fishman race, drawing little interest.

In stark contrast, the Asura Naga, with their tall statures, ferocious appearances, and overwhelming killing aura were clearly a very powerful fighting race. What was crucial was their presence as a new sub-legendary core race that clearly exceeded high-grade races; this caught their eye, particularly Wu Zhonglin’s, who was to fight Lin Xiao later.

However, as the two sides drew closer, a beast resembling a sauropod but with a much larger head, nearly a hundred meters tall and two hundred meters long from head to tail with earth-shaking heavy footsteps approached, immediately capturing everyone’s attention.

This creature resembled a sauropod or rather a Brachiosaurus, but with a thicker and shorter neck, a huge head with a layer of thick keratin armor on top, a huge battering horn on the front, and while lacking a keratin armor layer on the body, it had extremely tough and thick skin. It had a long tail, with a spike-studded tail club at the end.

By the looks of it, it didn’t seem to be a carnivorous fierce beast but also wasn’t as harmless as common herbivorous giants; just its mass and weight alone would be insurmountable for even a Dragon if it were stepped on.

Nearly two hundred meters long and eighty to ninety meters tall, this… this was the size…

This was Lin Xiao’s first challenger on the Celestial List, with such formidable might!

A patch note, the Extraordinary Ability of enhancing Water Elements has been changed from summoning three to five Rank 7 elite Water Elements to summoning one to three.