The Era of Gods

Many Clan members crouched down in agony, covering their heads; their muscles started twitching and distorting, showing signs of corruption and degeneration.

Within Lin Xiao’s Sea of Gods, more than half of the remaining Lines of Faith turned dim, as if a layer of sludge had begun to cover these pure Lines of Faith.

“Divine Power Wash!”

Regaining his senses, Lin Xiao decisively consumed a hundred units of Divine Power to cleanse his Lines of Faith with his believers, washing away the gray and sludge from the Lines of Faith as if using water, then immediately issued a Divine-mandate. His voice, imbued with Divine Power, was like thunder as it awakened his followers and ordered them to quickly retreat into the city and activate the defense systems.

Entities from the bizarre world that had lost their physical bodies were even more terrifying than when they had flesh. Unbound by a body, the evil soul formed from countless gathered souls directly affected others’ souls, even corrupting the Lines of Faith — utterly horrifying.

At this moment, Lin Xiao recalled an extremely terrifying existence from the Chaos Sea of Void—the Ancient Evil Objects!

This thing, having fused millions of souls, had already undergone a qualitative change and was beginning to transform towards being an Ancient Evil Object.

This thing now possessed the foundation to transform into an Ancient Evil Object; if any single remnant soul within this Soul Agglomerate could defeat the others and unify the agglomerate, it would immediately transform into an Ancient Evil Object that even a True God could do nothing against.

Even an evolving Ancient Evil Object was terrifying, and Lin Xiao had prepared himself for substantial losses.

Even though, the current target of this evil being was the incarnation of Nightmare’s Will.

Of course, not to mention the Soul Agglomerate which might evolve into an Ancient Evil Object, even the incarnation of Nightmare’s Will that seemed to have possessed a Child of Nightmare was extremely terrifying.

Both formidable beings had given up their physical bodies, escaped from exile, and returned, finding their way to Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm.

The incarnation of Nightmare’s Will was equivalent to an incarnation of Gaia Will; even an extremely small fraction of it was supremely horrifying.

The two extremely terrifying beings had returned from exile and collided heavily with each other. It looked like a huge bunch of grapes covered in sludge colliding with a massive ball of Light, with no earth-shattering visual effects, just shockwaves that made one’s soul tremble spreading throughout the Main Divine Realm.

The two central cities in the Main Divine Realm had raised a thick Shield of Faith. This was a shield formed from the purest Power of Faith; its defense against physical attacks was almost non-existent, likely penetrable by a mere arrow, but its spiritual defense was extremely strong, able to block the terrible psychic shocks generated by the fierce battle between these two dreadful beings.

However, as the battlefield of the horrific beings shifted, the dreadful psychic shockwaves drew closer, causing more and more Clan members to collapse under the strain.

In Lin Xiao’s perception, Lines of Faith within his own Sea of Gods, already dimmer than before, were breaking apart. Each collapse represented a Clan member’s fall or their transformation into a twisted creature.

In less than a minute, several thousand Lines of Faith had collapsed, marking the fall of thousands of Clan members.

“No, this can’t go on,” said Lin Xiao.

Taking a deep breath, he ordered Slarda to abandon everything in the Main Divine Realm and transfer everyone to the Heaven Divine Realm.

Although opening a passage might pose a risk, the situation had turned dire. If he didn’t move the Clan members, they might all perish.

The two cities might be destroyed in the War, but if the cities were destroyed, they could be rebuilt. If the Clan perished, all would be lost; the Clan must be preserved, so that everything could start anew.

With the order given, the Teleportation Array in Naga City was activated, and a torrent of Clan members fled the perilous Main Divine Realm. The Mages of the City of Truth were even more massively transporting Clan members.

The space fluctuations caused by the continuous teleportation finally caught the attention of the fearful beings battling in the sky. The incarnation of Nightmare’s Will did not react, but the Soul Agglomerate, like a shark that had caught the scent of blood, broke free from its entanglement with the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate and pounced down.

Filthy black sludge fell from the sky, contaminating everything in its path, even affecting the Void itself by leaving tainted gray stains. Whole swathes of already struggling Clan members collapsed; they either died on the spot or were corrupted and mutated into senseless monstrosities.

In that instant, over twenty thousand Lines of Faith snapped, an unprecedented loss.

As the terrible evil being pounced, Lin Xiao could no longer sit idly by. His True Body rose from the throne, reached out with a sweeping gesture, plucked the ancient arena and the Tower of Truth—these two miracle cards, and stepped out from within the Divine Palace. Above Naga City, a ripple of space spread open, and dazzling Gold light exploded, blocking the falling sludge. Vast clouds of gray smoke billowed out, the Divine Power turned into Gold light quickly dimmed and stained black, spreading its corruption towards him.

“Supreme and Almighty True God of Creation and Truth, you are the One, you are the Many, you are the transient, and you are the Eternal!”

In this moment, countless devout followers silently recited Lin Xiao’s godly name in their hearts. That instant’s unprecedented devotion of faith brought him an exceedingly pure Power of Faith. The pure white Power of Faith burned atop the Gold light of Divine Power, astonishingly holding back the spreading corruption.

With the support of this incomparably devout Power of Faith, Lin Xiao managed to withstand the impact of the Soul Agglomerate.

During this time, a large number of Clans evacuated, and soon only a deserted city remained.

As the last of the Clan withdrew and the Teleportation Array was destroyed, Lin Xiao also breathed a sigh of relief.

The moment he breathed that sigh of relief, the Divine Power shield above his head could no longer hold and collapsed, the sky filled with polluting black mud engulfed him.

In the Heaven Divine Realm, over a hundred thousand Clan members gathered outside the Heavenly Cathedral, where devotees prayed in a reverent manner, whispering Lin Xiao’s divine name in unison towards the cathedral, with not one exception.

The Divine Realm suffered heavy losses, with nearly three hundred thousand Clan members, over a hundred thousand had perished in battle; yet, the Clan’s faith was not shaken in the slightest but instead grew even more devout.

All believers firmly believed that the current suffering was only temporary and that the great Truth and the Creator would eventually lead them to defeat the enemy and reclaim the Divine Realm.

In the Main Divine Realm, as the polluted black mud spilled down, Lin Xiao instantly felt a strong murmur and whisper directly manifest in his Sea of Gods, but it was instantly devoured by the Creation Rubik’s Cube at the center of the Sea of Gods.

This Creation Rubik’s Cube activated automatically the moment Lin Xiao was polluted, automatically devouring these surges of pollution.

Externally, the moment his True Body was covered by the polluted black mud, its golden divine radiance was also extinguished, making him look like a clay figure who had just climbed out of the mud, with Divine Power and the forces of pollution wrestling on his body, constantly emitting grey smoke, but in reality, his Soul was unaffected.

But the True Body inevitably suffered its effects; the Creation Rubik’s Cube could only devour the pollution entering the Sea of Gods, but it was unable to expel the pollution within his flesh.

Thus, in less than a minute, the golden divine light on his body had dimmed, and the golden, cast-like flesh of his True Body began to turn black; his flesh was starting to mutate.

By this time, Lin Xiao could no longer care about these things because the Soul Agglomerate had found him a delicacy and suddenly gave up its entanglement with the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate to pounce on him; several soul agglomerated tentacles wrapped around him and pulled him into the sky.

Lin Xiao was naturally aware of his own plight, but he had no way to deal with it at the moment; due to insufficient Divine Power, he was utterly unable to resist, he could only…

Hold on to his core, hoping his Golden Finger was strong enough to protect his Soul of God.

As long as his Soul of God was not extinguished and his will was not tainted, anything was possible.

As for the flesh, he would leave it to fate.

Tentacle after tentacle wrapped around his flesh, dragging him into the air, and chains made of souls embedded in his body; his already tainted divine body was no longer solid, but began to slowly swell and distort.

By the time he was dragged high into the sky, close to that Soul Agglomerate, and the Soul Agglomerate fighting with the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate extended several tentacles again to grab him and draw him into its massive body.

At that moment, the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate suddenly erupted in dazzling light; this light, like substance, twisted and intertwined into strands of light tentacles that reached out and hooked onto Lin Xiao’s True Body, emitting grey-white smoke upon contact.

But the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate paid it no mind, with a continuous flow of strength countering the force of pollution as it pulled and dragged Lin Xiao’s True Body away.

This action enraged the Soul Agglomerate; its main body gave up its entanglement with the Nightmare’s Will and lunged towards Lin Xiao’s True Body.

And the Nightmare’s Will, as if it had been expecting this, also lunged down at the same instant; a dazzling orb of light collided with the horrific entity at the same time it struck Lin Xiao, instantly covering heaven and earth in blinding light.

No one knew how long the light faded slowly, revealing a sphere entangled with pitch-black mud and dazzling chains of light hanging in the air.

Within the Sea of Gods, Lin Xiao watched the ominous mud surging out from all directions of his Sea of Gods and the fearsome radiance of Divine Power; gazing down at his Soul, he looked at the slowly rotating Creation Rubik’s Cube and murmured through his fear:

“Beloved, we have been through so much together, you have always been so powerful, I hope this time is no different!”

Having said that, he silently immersed himself into the Creation Rubik’s Cube.

The instant his Soul entered the Creation Rubik’s Cube and disappeared, the sun in the Vault of Heaven of the Divine Realm suddenly darkened, the world changed color, and soon plunged into night.

“The night shall pass and the light will come!”

Inside the Heavenly Cathedral, Slarda looked up at the dim and lightless contour of the sun, his powerful voice echoing throughout the Heaven Divine Realm.

The devotees, with unwavering wills, prostrate themselves and call out Lin Xiao’s divine name:

Supreme Truth and Creator, you are one, you are all, the moment, and eternity!