The Era of Gods

“That’s unfortunate for you, we were both outstanding participants from the last Summer Camp. If I could make it here, there’s no doubt you could as well.”

Lin Xiao laughed heartily, not dwelling on this and said with a look of eagerness,

“We talked about having a friendly match last time, and unexpectedly we meet here. Why wait for another day when today is as good as any, how about today?”

Wu Zhonglin’s eyes immediately lit up, full of fighting spirit, he said,

“That’s exactly what I want!”

“Right now?”

“Right now!”

“Hey, wait a second…”

The dozen or so men and women who came with Wu Zhonglin snapped out of their daze. The man in the center with a peculiar mark on his forehead couldn’t help but laugh and cry as he reached out to stop Wu Zhonglin, saying,

“Hold on, I was here first.”

He then said to Lin Xiao,

“I’ve heard that you were recently listed on the Celestial Talent sub-list, ranking even higher than me. I can’t accept that.”

Lin Xiao looked the man up and down, realizing from his tone that he too was a powerhouse listed on the Celestial Talent sub-list, which was a bit surprising to him.

Before being listed on the Celestial Talent List, it was rare to meet another; now that he was just listed, he immediately met one. If there weren’t only thirty-six slots on the entire list divided among the four major forces of the Main World, he might have thought it was the era where becoming a Celestial Talent was as easy as reaching out and grabbing one.

Since he was also a super elite listed on the Celestial Talent List, Lin Xiao’s attitude was naturally different. He gave a clasped fist and a bow as he formally introduced himself:

“Lin Xiao, from Class One Elite of the Shining High School Department.”

“Yan Huang War Zone Five, First Expeditionary Army, Third Division, Nirvana Battle Group, Elite Second Lieutenant— Luo Shuang, code name Draco.”

Draco…

That’s quite an imposing code name. And this Luo Shuang was from the military rather than an academic institution, which explained why Lin Xiao hadn’t heard of him before.

“This isn’t a place to fight, follow me.”

Luo Shuang turned and walked away, followed by a crowd of military elites. Soon only he and Wu Zhonglin were left, exchanging glances. Wu Zhonglin gestured forward as he walked and talked,

“Things in the military are very straightforward, respect is given only to the strong. Although you’ve just been listed on the Celestial Talent List, you don’t have any solid combat achievements. They certainly won’t respect you. If you want to earn their respect like I did, you must defeat them with strength, convincingly.”

“I understand.”

He understood this point very well. It wasn’t just the military; even at Shining, it was the same. Wasn’t his title as the top student at Shining achieved by defeating top students like Li Xiushen and Dongfang Piaoxue? Without absolute strength, who would respect him?

“By the way, now that you’re on the Celestial Talent sub-list, traditionally, you can choose a code name for yourself.”

“A code name?”

“Yes, something that causes people to be awestruck when they hear it. To put it in a more flamboyant way, it’s called prestige.”

Lin Xiao turned his head unexpectedly. The terms ‘flamboyant’ and ‘prestige’ coming from Wu Zhonglin’s mouth sounded strange. In his memory, wasn’t this guy always low-key and silent?

Could it be…

He wasn’t reserved and silent but rather coyly ostentatious?

Curious, he asked,

“Everyone has a nickname, what’s your code name then?”

After the question, he saw Wu Zhonglin reveal a strange smile on his face, and after a long time, he uttered two words:

“Dragon Emperor!”

“Ah…”

Now it was confirmed; he was indeed covertly flamboyant.

But…

A code name with unlimited prestige indeed sounds interesting.

As a super elite listed on the Celestial Talent sub-list, traditionally, one is entitled to a prestigious code name. No matter how arrogant the name you choose is, no one would think you are just showing off because you truly are that amazing.

After all, out of so many young elites in the vast Main World, being one of the best thirty-six is already an incredible achievement.

In fact, besides the Celestial Talent List, many elites on the Supreme Hundred and Eight List, and even on the Three Thousand Talents List, have their own code names. It’s just that they aren’t as arrogant; they don’t dare to choose such showy names.

For example, the code name “Dragon Emperor” is something that elites on the Three Thousand Talents List wouldn’t dare to take on. Otherwise, someone displeased with them might confront them at any moment.

A flashy code name that you can’t live up to will not be acknowledged by others; it can only be enjoyed privately. If you promote it publicly, there will be a constant stream of people challenging you, until you change it.

As for his own code name, Lin Xiao did not have a clue yet.

He had just heard the news and hadn’t thought of a suitable code name. He would consider it when he had some free time.

Luo Shuang, full of energy, led him to a room designated for internal challenges among the Military Divine Domain warriors. She casually lay down in a login pod and, while closing the hatch, said to Lin Xiao:

“This is an internal local network; my ID is UG14854510. Let me know when you’re ready.”

Lin Xiao gave a thumbs up for OK and lay down as well.

Familiar with the routine, he returned to the Divine Realm and immediately checked for any changes during his absence. Then he pulled up the Extraordinary Magic Network table and, looking at the two Extraordinary Abilities listed on it, he thought for a moment and flipped his hand. Suddenly, a stack of shimmering gold cards appeared in his palm.

Since it was his first time challenging a participant from the Celestial Talent List, he had to prepare thoroughly, at least acquiring several Extraordinary Abilities for the Clan to summon.

Currently, there were only two Extraordinary Abilities listed on the Extraordinary Magic Network: Precognition and Godspeed.

Before, he didn’t have the resources to work on this, but now he held three Quality Ancient Cards and over twenty Mythical Quality Five Star Cards in his hand. Especially noteworthy were the ten Mythical Quality Five Star Cards his homeroom teacher Jin Sisi had rewarded him with. Half of these were various ability cards he had requested in preparation for this, proving to be particularly useful now.

With a flick of his wrist, a stack of cards hovered in the air. He swiped his hand over them, and twenty-five golden cards aligned in a row. His gaze swept across these golden cards, quickly picking out three impressive ability cards to use as enhancement materials.

The three cards were a Summon Water Elemental Card, a Berserk Card, and a Fireball Technique Card.

The effect of the Summon Water Elemental Card was to randomly summon one to three Rank 6 Super Large Water Elementals. This was not a spell, but rather, a Talent Ability of the Rank 6 Super Large Water Elemental.

In fact, whether it’s Water Elementals or other Elements, they inherently possess the class spells to automatically summon elements of their own kind.

Class Spells are the innate abilities of various creatures.

This ability was already quite good by itself, but after being invested into the Creation Rubik’s Cube and infused with Creation Energy…

A full ten units of Creation Energy were invested, which was the enhancement limit for a Rank 1 Extraordinary Ability.

Through exploration, Lin Xiao discovered a pattern: the limit for enhancing a Rank 1 Extraordinary Ability was ten units of Creation Energy. If the consumed Creation Energy for enhancement stayed below ten units, the upper limit of the resulting Extraordinary Ability would not surpass Rank 1.

If it exceeded that—even by just 0.1 unit of Creation Energy—the level of the Extraordinary Ability would surpass Rank 1 and become temporarily unusable.

The ability to summon elementals has a very high enhancement ceiling because the strength of Elemental creatures knows no bounds. Rank 10 Element Lords, comparable to Demigods, abound in the Chaotic Void among the Crystal Wall Universes, not to mention those who exceed Rank 10 and are on par with True Gods, the Elemental Gods. Theoretically, an infinite amount of Creation Energy could be invested for enhancement.

However, this is only theoretical; in reality, such an extreme enhancement is not possible. Lin Xiao guessed that the maximum enhancement would be to summon Rank 10 Element Lords comparable to Demigods, and summoning an Elemental God would be impossible.

Or rather, even summoning a Demigod Elemental Lord would be extremely difficult. An Elemental Lord of that ranking would be able to decide whether to respond to a summon. If unwilling, no matter how powerful the summoning spell, it would be impossible to bring them forth.

Such high-level summoning spells usually involve personally negotiating with a Deity, establishing a contract, and offering tribute to summon their Incarnation. It is nearly impossible to summon their True Body.

Of course, Lin Xiao did not plan to enhance to such an extent. He would consider enhancing the Extraordinary Magic Network to Rank 2 or even Rank 3 later on. For now, his focus was on pushing it to the peak of Rank 1.

The ten units of Creation Energy were thus consumed and merged into the card which resulted in a glistening card appearing before him.

The enhanced Summon Water Elemental: By paying enough spiritual power, randomly summon three to five Rank 7 Elite Water Elementals. The base duration for these Water Elementals is one hour. If exceeded, they will consume additional spiritual power from the summoner. If spiritual power is insufficient, they will return to the Elemental Plane.

The second card, Berserk, was derived from the Berserk Talent of trolls. Its original effect was to increase the troll’s attack speed and moving speed by 30% upon activation, with a slight reduction in pain and a minor improvement in resistance to negative states. The effect would strengthen with the severity of the injuries, with a maximum enhancement of 50%.

Simultaneously, in a state of Berserk, rationality would decline. The deeper the Berserk state, the lower the rationality, which for trolls with already low intellect, meant becoming completely unrestrained and aggressive.

Lin Xiao used this Talent as a base and invested ten units of Creation Energy for enhancement, refining an Enhanced Berserk which he named Transcendent Berserk.

Transcendent Berserk: By paying enough spiritual power, increase one’s own attack speed and moving speed by 100%, significantly reduce pain, greatly improve resistance to negative states. The stronger the injury received, the stronger the effect, with an immunity to most negative states and a maximum enhancement limit of 200%.

The ten units of Creation Energy may not seem to have made a substantial enhancement, primarily because most of it was used to eliminate the detrimental side effect of reduced rationality. This meant that the Enhanced Berserk would not lower rationality, vastly increasing its utility.

The third card, the Fireball Technique Card, came from a fire attribute creature’s innate class spell, similar to the Spell Fireball Technique.

A regular Fireball Technique is akin to a shell with a small area of effect (AOE), resembling fire magic that covers a range equivalent to a small room in size. Its strength is not to be underestimated.

After being strengthened with ten units of Creation Energy, Lin Xiao opted to add most of the Creation Energy into the explosion range rather than power, resulting in an enhanced Fireball Technique with an exceptionally wide explosion radius.

Cloud Burst Fireball: By paying enough spiritual power, summon a powerful fireball that causes direct explosion damage to enemies within a thirty-meter diameter and inflicts a Burning effect for several seconds. The strength is higher than the regular Fireball Technique.

The enhancement of the three Extraordinary Abilities used up thirty units of Creation Energy, then were separately slotted in, consuming forty-seven, forty-five, and forty-four units of Creation Energy respectively. In the end, a total of one hundred sixty-six units of Creation Energy were spent, leaving him with four hundred sixty-nine units of Creation Energy remaining.

“Having money sure feels great!”

After spending so much Creation Energy, he still had this much left. With over four hundred units of Creation