The Era of Gods

Early the next morning, Lin Xiao went to ask his old man for a piece of monster flesh and blood, which was a tentacle from the unknown Tentacle Monster they had killed last night.

This monster wasn’t very strong, its level was estimated not to exceed Level 20, making it the most suitable strength for a first-time fusion. Flesh and blood from monsters beyond this level contained a too potent eerie strength, not suitable for a novice’s first fusion.

This so-called level was a classification of strength in this world, with a significant threshold every ten levels. Every time one surpassed this threshold, their strength would undergo a qualitative improvement. This applied to the monsters of this world, the Children of Nightmare who descended into this world, and the classification of strength for Lin Xiao and his kind as well.

Although this muscular tentacle had been cut off, it still retained a hint of vitality. It had shrunk from the thickness of a thigh to that of an arm. The ship’s head chef had packed it into a thick metal box filled with ice and sealed it, initially planning to sell it back on shore.

This thing, being ready-made monster flesh and blood, could be sold to the Island Lords, or to various large trading companies, for a good price.

After ensuring the door was closed and there was no one outside, Lin Xiao used a hook to take out the fleshly tentacle, then unfolded the Magic Cube, creating a Chaos Vortex underneath the tentacle to swallow it.

The nearly dead tentacle swelled in an instant, trying to break free with great strength. However, one end was sucked into the vortex, and the other end was firmly caught by the hook, unable to escape.

After all, it had already been severed from the main body and was struggling only with its residual vitality. After floundering for about a dozen seconds, it expended the last of its strength and shrank back to its original size, being swallowed by the Magic Cube.

No sooner had the Magic Cube absorbed the tentacle into the Magic Cube Space than it went limp like a dead fish. With a thought from him, the ethereal Magic Cube in the Sea of Gods gently turned, and an imperceptible force crushed the tentacle into a ball of flesh and blood paste. He immediately saw a greyish tentacle shadow shrink and fly out from the blood, colliding around within the Magic Cube Space.

This was the remnant power within the monster flesh and blood, which normally had to be suppressed by Magic Potions and could not be completely suppressed.

But within the Magic Cube, this remnant power was frantically trying to flee in panic as if facing some catastrophic disaster.

Observing for a moment, Lin Xiao smiled slightly and turned the Magic Cube. The residual grey tentacle shadow was directly obliterated into specks of dust-like grey light that scattered, then with the second turn of the Magic Cube, these specks were ground down even smaller but still remained.

The third round.

The fourth round.

The fifth round, by which time this grey light had been ground down to the size of bacteria, imperceptible if not within the Magic Cube Space.

“They’re quite stubborn, aren’t they?”

This was after all in the Magic Cube Space, where with the power of the Magic Cube Space, any encounter would be easily obliterated. Yet this time, after five consecutive rounds, they hadn’t been completely obliterated. No wonder the people of this world could only suppress it with Magic Potions and not obliterate it completely—this thing was too tenacious.

But no matter how tenacious, it was not indestructible, only a matter of a few more rounds.

By the eleventh turn of the Magic Cube, the dust-like grey light, ground finer than bacteria, was finally obliterated into nothingness, turning into colorless dust particles too small for the naked eye to detect and scattered into the Magic Cube Space.

By then, these colorless dust particles had become pure undetectable power. Ignoring it for the moment, he used the Creation Rubik’s Cube to purify the remaining blood and flesh, then reintegrated the colorless dust particles back into the Magic Cube Space, and then…

He consumed four units of Creation Energy to merge into it, which was the maximum amount of Creation Energy this piece of monster flesh and blood could fuse with. Fusing more Creation Energy wouldn’t increase its power by even a bit.

As the Creation Energy continued to pour in, the red flesh began to radiate a faint glow. The blood and flesh became transparent and shiny, and a power indescribable began to seep through.

Until all four units of Creation Energy were integrated, the lump of flesh had turned into a transparent lump akin to frozen jelly, and then…

Lin Xiao opened his mouth, and a transparent, liquid jelly appeared in front of him and flowed into his mouth.

The texture was like sucking jelly, only without taste, and he finished it in a few gulps. Lin Xiao slowly closed his eyes.

About ten seconds later, his chest muscles suddenly bulged with a fist-sized lump which then quickly receded. Soon after, his shoulders and arms also gave a jump, and then, all over his body, muscles began to twitch continuously. His entire body’s muscles visibly swelled with speed, outlines becoming prominent, and his physique grew more robust.

At the same time, Lin Xiao could feel a fiery sensation in his muscles, as if they were burning, and a powerful force surged from deep within his genetic makeup and flowed throughout his body.

This fortification lasted a full hour. When he opened his eyes again, he found the whole world seemed to have shrunk.

No, it was he who had grown larger.

When he lifted his head to check, he found his clothes had burst open to reveal coiling muscles. Just his forearm had swollen several times in size, and his hand had grown much larger, feeling like it could grasp a basketball or completely encompass an ordinary person’s head.

Looking at his whole body, the muscles were bulging, resembling a highly muscular bodybuilder, developed but not deformed, with surprisingly elegant lines.

His height had also increased from about 1.8 meters to around 2.2 to 2.3 meters, a considerable increase.

But this was merely the external change. There was also an internal transformation.

For instance, his muscles were stronger and firmer, and he had inherited all the abilities of that tentacle.

He tried to extend his hand forward and press into the air. His arm muscles rapidly swelled many times over, and his arm length increased several times instantly, stretching over three meters and pressing against the door.

A thought stirred, and his arms and body muscles swelled alike, instantly transforming him into a three-meter-tall muscle-bound mini giant, his strength multipling several times in an instant.

And this was not even the limit; given enough space, he could grow into a five-meter-tall Flesh Giant, with arms that could extend over twenty meters long, possessing immense strength and extremely high restorative ability.

He tried exerting his strength gently, and a hard wooden table made from ship timbers was broken off a piece, which he pinched into powder with ease.

“Very good!”

The degree of enhancement from the first fusion with monster flesh and blood was unexpectedly large, and future fusions with even more powerful monster flesh and blood would inevitably make him even stronger.

Most importantly, he felt no abnormality from the fusion, as if he was always like this.

He spent the entire next day adapting to the sudden surge in strength, gradually returning his body back to its original size.

The Explorer sailed on the open sea, headed for the distant Pearl Island, a vast inhabited island ruled by a powerful Lord, and a place where they often docked to resupply.

In this world, there was no land, at least not in Lin Xiao’s memory, nor had the word ‘continent’ ever been mentioned—even by the experienced old captain. To them, the whole world was a vast, boundless sea, peppered with a myriad of islands.

Most islands were rife with danger, occupied by strange monsters, indescribable anomalies, or non-human Other Races.

Humans could only huddle together on islands with water resources, under the protection of powerful Lords.

In this world, the only method of transport was by ship. However, due to the ubiquitous strangeness and evil monsters in the sea, as well as the terrifying Other Races living in it, maritime trade was not prospering, and ordinary vessels dared not venture far from the safety of the islands into the open sea.

The Explorer was an exploration vessel that, aside from occasionally running some trade to make money, most frequently ventured deep into the unknown depths of the sea, exploring not just islands but other things as well.

This time, they had just returned from the far sea, stopping en route to buy a batch of supplies to sell at Pearl Island for a small profit.

At the moment, there was a five to six-day journey to Pearl Island, which was considered close, but not yet safe.

In fact, in this world, there was no place that was safe, not even near the main islands of the Great Lords. Strange creatures from the sea floor sporadically approached the islands, and almost every few days, there were reports of people dying accidentally.

After finishing his meal, Lin Xiao, knife in hand, went up to the deck; it was his shift today.

By the reckoning of hours, it was daytime, but the sky was pitch black as if night, and The Explorer plowed through the opaque black water.

A few sailors were on watch on the deck. They dared not stand up, for fear of seeing things that shouldn’t be seen, and could only crouch in a recess near the deck, hugging the cabin, listening to the sounds outside.

Lin Xiao walked quietly on the deck, where the railings were tall, nearly one and a half meters high, both to prevent them from inadvertently seeing the open sea and to prevent anything in the sea from seeing them.

After making a round and seeing nothing, he found a place at the stern deck to sit down and lay quietly.

There were no lights on the ship. They usually didn’t light any, fearing they might attract strange entities in the sea.

But Lin Xiao could clearly see his own arms; muscles expanded and contracted at his will, moving up and down like little mice—quite amusing when bored.

Hours passed without notice, and while half-asleep, Lin Xiao suddenly opened his eyes wide and listened intently. There were no other sounds besides the sea slapping against the hull; the ship was eerily quiet.

He closed his eyes again, but after a few seconds, he snapped them open and stood up with his knife, walking toward the ship’s bow.

His footsteps on the deck were especially pronounced in the silent night. Lin Xiao felt his heartbeat inexplicably speeding up as he slowly moved toward the front of the ship. He noticed from the corner of his eye what seemed like a gaze watching him from the darkness beyond the railing. He resisted the urge to look and proceeded.

A few steps to the bow, two of the three sailors were asleep, with the third leaning against the wall half asleep. Startled by Lin Xiao’s appearance, the sailor jumped up, waking the other two reflexively.

Lin Xiao surveyed the three men and asked,

“Any anomalies?”

The men shook their heads in unison,

“We’ve had someone awake at all times, no anomalies were detected.”

Lin Xiao nodded, glancing at the deck where a trace of sticky residue lingered beneath their feet. He withdrew his gaze, knife in hand, and left.

When he turned to the other side, he went towards the cabin door, pushed it open and entered. Taking a deep breath, he approached the old captain’s room and tapped lightly in a rhythmic pattern.

Three light taps, one heavy.