The Era of Gods

This time he did not deny it again; one modest refusal was enough, and any more would seem too fake.

Moreover, he himself believed that he should be considered the strongest among his peers.

It was hard to say before, but now that he was in his senior year of high school and had encountered opportunities inaccessible to ordinary people, wielding precious treasures, he really didn’t think there was anyone who could rival him.

Wu Zhonglin?

Although this big spender also seemed to lead a cheat-like life, his cheats could never compare to Lin Xiao’s….

After that, no one else challenged him, and Lin Xiao clearly felt a change in everyone’s attitude. Even though he had not shown his full strength, just his current strength was enough to conquer them. However, he felt the main reason for their respect was the Minor Judgement Skill he demonstrated; this Divine Extraordinary Ability, exclusive to a higher echelon, was the primary reason for their admiration.

The Minor Judgment Skill was indeed too powerful. It cost him only about a thousand Divine Power to use this exclusive Divine Extraordinary Ability, yet the effect it produced required others to expend more than a hundred thousand Divine Power to forcibly remove. Under normal circumstances, who would be willing to use up so much Divine Power on a common challenge?

Don’t look at Lin Xiao harvesting nearly twenty million Power of Faith each day. According to the conversion rate of one million Power of Faith to one point of Divine Power, that’s twenty points, amounting to an astounding 7,200 Divine Power a year. For one hundred thousand, it would be close to fourteen years of Divine Power accumulation.

This was his annual Divine Power accumulation speed. Other peers at the same stage may not have such a high harvest of Power of Faith.

Leaving aside participants of the Celestial Talent List for the moment, the senior students of elite high schools generally accumulate at most only twenty to thirty percent of what he does annually, about five points of Divine Power.

By that calculation, it would take them over fifty years to accumulate one hundred thousand Divine Power.

Fifty-plus years worth of accumulated Divine Power used in a common challenge, no one would be willing to part with it.

Of course, if it were just ordinary elites, Lin Xiao would not need to resort to using such a powerful skill; he could easily level the playing field with just a part of his Clan.

Then, with Uther’s introduction, he met four other super elites from different forces, aside from Biggs.

They included Miss Tina, ranking number thirty-five in potential on the Celestial List, from the Ivy League Alliance of High Schools.

Utahs, ranked number eighteen on the Legend Vice List, from the Giant Enterprises Alliance.

Miss Lila, ranked number fifty-five on the Legend Main List, from the Aristocracy Council, who was also a stunning beauty that was no less than Miss Tina.

Lord Jonah, ranking number twenty-seven on the Celestial Main List, from the Ivy League Alliance of High Schools, a handsome Caucasian with blue hair.

It is worth mentioning that Miss Tina and Lord Jonah both come from the Ivy League Alliance of High Schools, and they are a couple.

Although they come from different camps, they still got along well. Being able to hang out with Uther, most were neutral parties who were not very concerned about camp alignment.

After all, even if the camps were in opposition, it was a matter of the camps, and it had nothing to do with private friendships.

Following his teacher’s advice and considering that he indeed needed to make more friends, Lin Xiao put up with it and participated in the gathering.

Of course, just attending the gathering did not mean becoming friends. The key was to see if they could get along and mesh well.

Unfortunately, the backgrounds of the people present were too different from his own. What they saw and experienced and those they normally interacted with were vastly different. On the topic of Divine Realm management, they did find some common ground, but apart from that, he could hardly contribute to the conversation.

Even in Divine Realm management, the discussion was feasible only initially. It became difficult to communicate once they reached the college stage.

For someone of Uther’s background, when he entered college and reached the Demigod Stage without restrictions, it meant direct access to vast resources from the Clan to fill his Divine Realm, continuously, as long as its capacity allowed.

Lin Xiao could not use this method of force-feeding strengthening that complied with the rules because he did not have such resources.

While his Clan would certainly support him with all their might when the time came, given the Clan’s condition, only middle to low-end common resources could be provided, such as various mines. The family did not possess rare, high-end resources, significantly limiting support.

The class teacher would provide some support; given their close cooperation, she would help if she could, with high-end and even top-tier resources. But as she had said, her resources were limited, so in the Demigod Stage, he would have to fight for these resources himself.

Of course, there were solutions, such as selling himself out.

With his potential and past battle record, many powers would willingly invest in him, including various civil forces, powerful True God families, and even military forces.

But as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Accepting investments means various bindings.

If it were only about restrictions, it wouldn’t be too bad. The fear lay in severely unreasonable conditions and future troubles, which were truly bothersome.

Therefore, Lin Xiao never considered accepting risky investments. It was better to rely on himself, at least that way, he had freedom.

After chatting for a couple of hours here, he also attended a cocktail party on the first floor. After the cocktail party, he excused himself and left.

Back at the dormitory, the homeroom teacher wasn’t there, leaving a message that he had gone to meet a friend.

Lin Xiao didn’t pay much attention to it and sobered up a bit before entering the Divine Realm.

By the time he returned from the Divine Realm, Jin Sisi had already come back and brought him definite news,

“It has been decided. You will need to descend in a new way next. I’ve queued up for you. Here is a list of precautions regarding the new method of descent. Please read it carefully, as your turn to start descending is the day after tomorrow.”

“Alright!”

After receiving the material, Lin Xiao ignored Jin Sisi and buried himself in the room to go through it.

He was clear about the general process of reincarnation and spiritual descent, but as it varies from world to world, the method of reincarnation and descent in this world was more stringent than normal.

According to the material, due to the world’s absolute resistance, not only them, but also the Children of the Spirit Realm from the Nightmare World could only successfully descend through the method of reincarnation and rebirth. Whether one could awaken or not would depend on luck and skill.

Furthermore, the material recorded that military personnel had attempted this method of descent before. The success rate of mere descent was higher than previous methods, but the probability of awakening after descent was very low, and the vast majority could not awaken even after descending, living as ordinary people until death.

The few that did awaken successfully might not live long, not to mention making any significant achievements.

Descending was one thing.

Awakening was another.

Whether one could achieve success after awakening was yet another issue.

Despite the long attempts with slim hopes of success, one thing was for sure, this method of descent was reliable, and after countless attempts, it was determined that there was an approximate 10% rate of awakening. That is to say, on average, one would successfully awaken once in every ten births.

Remember, this is on average.

It is possible to awaken successfully on the first descent, or it may take a hundred descents to awaken once.

“I hope my luck isn’t too bad!”

With such thoughts in mind, by the third day, Jin Sisi prepared a delicate metal box for him. Opening it, a blast of cold air rushed at him, and the rising chill was filled with small crystal vials as thick as fingers, containing a liquid that shone with a blue glow.

Divine Liquid, a special Alchemy potion made from soul essence and the water of life, capable of strengthening and repairing soul damage.

This substance requires Magicians above Legend to create and is highly valuable. Rarely sold on the market, whenever it is available, it is immediately bought out, and this whole box was exchanged for only a few ordinary Cards from the homeroom teacher.

Descent does not require going to any particular place but can be done anywhere within the military barracks of the Fortress, provided that one holds a special magic instrument to resonate with the Descending Array.

As the appointed time arrived, Lin Xiao looked up at the ceiling, his gaze piercing through the Void to see an invisible wave slowly descending.

As he prepared to descend, invisible fluctuations simultaneously surged at different places within the Fortress, with over a thousand people ready to descend into this world at the same moment.

Accompanied by the sweep of the invisible fluctuations, Lin Xiao felt a sliver of his consciousness being dissected and bound by an invisible force, falling into the Void, soon losing all sensation!

Saren Duchy, Nock Province, Westton Outpost.

Rolle. Kroek, clad in officer’s military attire, stood with his hands behind his back on the third floor of a grey stone watchtower without moving a muscle for more than ten minutes, two sentries stood rigidly at the side. In front of him lay the endless wasteland, the grass as tall as half a person bending with the wind like undulating waves.

Occasionally seeing giant shapes passing in the distance, both sentries couldn’t help but grip their weapons tighter, their faces showing tension.

Rolle also saw the large predator’s shadow, but there was no panic in his heart; in fact, his thoughts weren’t even on it at that moment.

“Rolle. Kroek, a member of the Punk Empire Kroek Family, the loser in the family successor struggle three years ago. It’s less that he left on his own and more that he was banished from the Punk Empire, and owing to his noble birth, enlisted in Saren Duchy, becoming a non-commissioned officer, and eventually commander of the border outpost, Westton, directly entering the ranks of officers.”

If nothing unexpected happened, relying on his noble birth, he would slowly accumulate tenure and eventually become a junior officer.

If he was lucky or could marry a noblewoman in the future, he might even leapfrog the junior officer ranks to become a senior officer, potentially being transferred to some city as something like a security chief or another military officer post.

Normally, this would be Rolle’s life trajectory. However, with the awakening of his past life’s memories, Rolle—or rather, Lin Xiao—was certainly not satisfied with his current status.

He didn’t wish to return to the Punk Empire to seize a noble title, nor did he desire a higher position. These worldly powers and statuses were as fleeting to him as clouds; what he pursued was the supernatural power system of this world—Totem Power.

But his limited memory told him that what he was dealing with was worldly and had nothing to do with Totem Power, at least not what he had encountered so far.

However, he was certain that there must be a connection between the worldly and the transcendent Totem forces. In his memories, he had heard some unverifiable rumors that some individuals within the Great Empires were transcendental warriors with strength to sweep through armies.

It’s speculated, only speculated, that less than a few hundred miles from Westton Outpost, in Quenching Fire Fortress, resides a significant figure. It’s rumored that this person possesses strength beyond the ordinary