The Era of Gods

These were not monsters but a native species of this world, akin to the kobolds and Fishmen of other worlds, belonging to Other Races.

As for their appearance…

They had no fixed appearance, for these creatures were transparent like jellyfish and could freely change their shapes, meaning they could transform into any creature they had seen,

Furthermore, these creatures could exist independently or gather in large numbers to form a powerful collective consciousness.

Before Lin Xiao’s arrival, these creatures had been living independently on the ocean floor. When his massive body swept over the ocean valley, these little guys quickly came together to form a super-sized, jelly-like life form that was even larger than him.

With a curious mind, Lin Xiao tore the creature apart to observe it carefully, even collecting a small part and storing it in the Divine Realm.

There was no other intention but to enrich the gene pool.

All the Nightmare Creatures within the five Children of Nightmare that were killed earlier were chased into the Main Divine Realm. Most were killed, some were imprisoned in the Netherworld, and their bodies were completely digested by the newly planted Flesh Seeds, with the genes stored in the genetic repository of the Flesh Trees hatched from the Flesh Seeds.

The genes this creature possessed were interesting and held significant value for research and storage.

From then on, Lin Xiao no longer hurried on his journey but wandered around the ocean floor, searching for interesting monsters or species.

With the strength of his Body of Evil God, he could go to most places in this world. With such an advantage, he naturally had to make the most of it.

Anyway, destroying the Nightmare nodes was not urgent, so a slower pace was fine.

Two days later, Xiong Chu Mo’s warship arrived in a deep-sea area. A beautiful girl with her hair tied into a ponytail stood at the bow of the ship, looking confusedly at the sea surface, then at the glowing orb in her hand. After a while, she slowly lowered her head to look into the dark depths and said in surprise,

“Could it be at the bottom of the sea?”

The girl beside her was also puzzled,

“That’s unlikely, isn’t it? The sea bottom is so dangerous, how could Lin Xiao stay down there?”

Her team members were all senior high school students from Shining High School Department. This time, the seniors from the Shining High School Department’s first and second branches who had come were divided into four teams. She was in the third team, which consisted of classmates she was close with on a regular basis.

Another team member wearing glasses adjusted his specially designed glasses that could block the spiritual power that could be controlled through the eyes and said,

“Normally, of course not, but let’s not forget about Wu Zhonglin of the War Throne, the Dragon Emperor. He had transformed into a dragon to survive in this dangerous world. Lin Xiao may have the ability to transform into a powerful aquatic creature.”

The other teammates nodded, agreeing that this guess might be right.

But now came the problem, Xiong Chu Mo spread her hands and asked,

“If he’s under the sea, how do we find him? How do we communicate with him?”

“Uh, this…”

Everyone hesitated before someone suggested,

“Then we wait, and stay above the coordinate where Lin Xiao is. He can’t possibly stay under the sea forever. He’ll come up eventually, and when he does, he’ll know we are here.”

“This… Well, alright!”

It was the only solution.

In the dark depths of the sea, Lin Xiao wrapped a tentacle around a monster as long as a hundred meters that resembled a sea cucumber, covered in tentacles. Using his nails, he pried open the creature’s spiraling inward layers of sharp teeth, turning its body inside out like a hose to reveal an elastic meat column inside that resembled a tongue.

The meat at the top of this column was tough and unusual, capable of transforming into various maritime creatures it had seen before. It could use this to extend from its mouth to lure other creatures into thinking it was prey. Once bitten, the creature’s catch would be hooked and dragged back into its mouth.

Its unique physiological structure made Lin Xiao click his tongue in wonder at the strangeness of the creatures in this world.

Such peculiar creatures were everywhere at the bottom of the sea, and the complexity of their abilities was astounding.

Naturally, it was better to have more of such treasures; whenever he saw any species, he would collect a sample and store it.

As his mastery of the Creation Law increased, even without using the Creation Rubik’s Cube, he could start attempting to create life on his own. The more species he understood and the broader his horizon, the more perfect the creatures he created could be.

He had been wandering aimlessly for who knows how long when one day, he suddenly picked up the Star Chart and realized he had deviated from his course and arrived near another Nightmare node.

Above the sea, Xiong Chu Mo was looking at the distance with a speechless expression. At this moment, in her perception, Lin Xiao was more than a hundred kilometers away from her. She didn’t dare to approach further, for if she did, she would enter the regular patrolling range of one of the Nightmare nodes.

Although she was an exceptional candidate on the reserve list of gifted youths, she didn’t think she could infiltrate a Nightmare node and come out unscathed. Moving forward could result in being discovered by a Child of Nightmare nearby at any moment, and several Children of Nightmare might quickly surround and ambush her.

Fortunately, it was always night in this world, and as long as they didn’t turn on the lights, ships passing by a kilometer away wouldn’t notice them.

At that moment, someone suggested,

“Senior sister Xiong Chu Mo, let’s retreat a bit and observe from a distance. Maybe he was just passing by.”

“What maybe, he definitely was,”

Laughed another team member.

“`

“Do you really think he dares to assault this Nightmare node? Stop joking.”

Everyone burst into laughter, and Xiong Chu Mo also spread her hands and said:

“Then let’s turn around and find a safe place to wait and see which way he goes…”

Her voice had not faded when suddenly, about ten kilometers away, the sea surface arched abruptly, and she stopped talking, her red lips slightly parted.

“Is it here?”

Lin Xiao felt the increasingly familiar Nightmare Power drawing closer, less than a hundred kilometers ahead of him, he sensed a very powerful Nightmare’s Will, as well as a myriad of weaker Nightmare wills. If nothing went wrong, it should be a Nightmare node.

His enormous True Body slowly broke through the water’s surface. Lin Xiao suddenly paused and slowly turned his head to look at a super large battleship about ten kilometers away, scrambling to escape.

“?”

“Run fast, it’s spotted us.”

Chaos erupted on the ship, and the Sons of God realm who had been puzzled just moments ago were now muttering, ‘Damn it,’ as they frantically urged the warship to flee:

“We need to go faster; that thing is looking over here.”

“Don’t rush me; this is the fastest speed already, the steam engine is already overtasked.”

“Damn it, it’s moving; it’s coming towards us.”

Their voices were trembling:

“Senior sister, what do we do? Should we return immediately?”

Xiong Chu Mo bit her red lip, not daring to look directly at that unimaginably massive and terrifying presence. Instead, she only glanced occasionally using her peripheral vision, but even so, the naturally emanating undiscernible aura was extremely uncomfortable for her.

At this moment, her mind was battling, quickly pondering what to do.

But no matter how much she thought, there was no way out; the creature was too terrifying, utterly unopposable.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiao had already gotten a clear view of the figures on the ship, especially the beautiful young girl at the bow—wasn’t it Senior Sister Chu Mo?

In this world, it was rare to see an acquaintance. He was delighted and immediately raised his hand to greet her.

However, the moment he raised his hand, from the ship’s perspective, a huge tentacle, hundreds of meters in diameter and thousands of kilometers long, rose from the sea towards the warship.

“It’s over!”

Everyone looked at Xiong Chu Mo. The girl took a deep breath and shouted:

“Return immediately!”

As her voice fell, a cleansing light rose to envelop all the Children of Nightmare, and the surrounding space quickly twisted.

“Senior sister, Chu Mo senior sister, I am…?”

Lin Xiao looked dumbfounded as he watched the equally baffled and regretful Chu Mo senior sister vanish into light, with the lifted tentacle frozen in mid-air, unmoving.

After a long while, he stiffly looked up at his tentacle which was thicker than the warship lying horizontally, and his body as vast as a mountain and immediately understood everything.

“Damn it!”

At this moment, he really wanted to recite a poem to express his ‘damn it’ feelings…

“At first sight of senior sister, my heart rejoiced; alas, the younger brother isn’t human. If time could flow backward, I’d agree on a secret signal with senior sister…”

“This is truly speechless!”

Lin Xiao hung his head in dejection for a good while before regaining his spirits. He turned to look towards the distant island, sparkling with lights, where a pitch-black pillar almost as wide as his body stood in the center. A constant flow of Nightmare Power mixed with the unique Rules of the Nightmare World poured into this world from there, gradually changing this world.

At the same time, this Sky-reaching Light Pillar was also the descent channel for the Children of Nightmare. The eight major Nightmare nodes were like eight gates, essentially the birth points of the eight Children of Nightmare in this world.

If just one were destroyed, the war potential of the Nightmare World in this world would be reduced, the world’s will to resist would grow stronger, and the Human World’s pressure to invade this world would also lessen.

In fact, when Lin Xiao appeared in this sea area, he could sense the existence of this world’s will, which was gradually becoming active, as if it knew what he was doing.

A warship sailing out from the island where the Nightmare node was located broke through the darkness, appearing in this sea area. The sea was quiet, and the ship without lit lanterns had yet to notice the anomaly on the sea, until suddenly the warship shook violently as if it had collided with something, prompting sailors to rise and observe, only to see the ship’s prow struck a massive pillar so tall its top was out of sight.

There were loud inquiries inside the cabin; a sailor was about to answer when he saw the pillar move. On a closer look, his facial muscles twitched rapidly as his body visibly distorted into a bizarre humanoid monster.

This kind of mutation was beyond even Lin Xiao’s control, and the forms that a hundred individuals would take could all be different.

The people inside the cabin quickly noticed the abnormality, and several warriors armed with weapons rushed out of the cabin, freezing in the doorway.

A tentacle thicker than the hull of the ship was slowly tightening around it, exuding an indescribable and unspeakable presence

“`