The Era of Gods

Alongside Xiao Ni, he stood by the ship’s rail and waved goodbye to Professor Jin and two other Descenders. The speed of the giant ship increased, quickly leaving the port behind, and in less than half an hour, the entire island was reduced to a mere shadow.

The ocean was vast and boundless, with waters of a dark blue hue, looking both deep and gloomy down by the edge of the ship’s rail, as if the abyss itself was staring back at you.

“Let’s go inside the cabin, I’ve heard it’s not very safe on the sea.”

Outside the world in the Fortress, Lin Xiao sat on the platform and exhaled softly. This avatar was lucky; it had already set on the right track.

Just waiting to reach the main continent and join the Totem Master School, with the aid of the Creation Magic Cube, he was bound to rapidly climb to the pinnacle. Perhaps this time there was a chance to go to the very end and become a Totem Lord.

Speaking of which, he was even more surprised that the Creation Magic Cube could also be used this way. Through the Cube’s sharing function, he could directly communicate with the Incarnation, though there was a slight time lag due to different time flows in different worlds, which prevented real-time communication, but it was many times better than no communication at all.

Moreover, he could use the Creation Magic Cube as a conduit to transfer necessary items. Whatever the Descended needed, the True Body could directly send it down, which was like having a cheat in real-time, incredibly thrilling.

The only regret was that the Creation Magic Cube could not transfer living beings; otherwise, sending down a batch of Supreme Nagas or even legendary members of the Nagas Clan would be exceedingly exhilarating.

“Hmm, next I should prepare some advanced equipment for him.”

Lin Xiao pinched his chin, recalling the two children’s toys given to him by his girlfriend. With a flick of his hand, a small sword emitting a faint light and a pair of wings with slowly undulating radiance appeared. After pondering for a moment, he pointed with his hand, and a surge of golden Divine Power flowed out and infused them.

While he was preparing several pieces of equipment for his Descended Incarnation, he suddenly heard Jin Sisi’s voice in his ear:

“I just received news that someone in the Nightmare World has successfully become a Totem Lord. They are now escalating the Descending effort. The Fortress military is convening a meeting with all the major forces, and it’s expected they will also increase the scale of Descending.”

“Totem Lord!”

According to the hierarchy of Strength, a Totem Lord was equivalent to a level above Legend but below a True God. In other words, a Descended Child of Nightmare in the Nightmare World had stepped into the level equivalent to a Legendary Totem Lord, which wasn’t exactly good news for them.

Each Totem Lord in this world was quite a renowned figure and had come to the attention of the world’s will. They had already obtained certain authorities and corresponded to Divine Realm civilization, much like those who had just opened the Divine Realm or Nightmare Realm.

That was precisely why the Gaia Will placed such importance on this world—the power system here was truly incredible, bearing traces of both a pantheon of gods and a Divine Realm civilization.

Lin Xiao did not know how the Divine Realm of humans or Nightmare Realm of Nightmare World, or rather the Spirit Realm civilization that opened Spirit Realms, came about, or if they suddenly existed, or slowly evolved like this Totem civilization. In any case, if he were in charge, he would definitely not allow such a civilization to grow.

But these matters were of no concern to him now. Whether the Fortress decided to increase the Descending scale was irrelevant to him. His concern was to survive and become stronger. When his Incarnation could also grow into a Totem Lord, then he would be someone of note who could be of help.

The two little trinkets were already quite stable. He didn’t add any extra attributes; instead, he stored a vast amount of Divine Power within them for charging and attached one powerful defensive spell and one powerful attack spell, each usable only once.

Afterward, he tossed the small sword and wings into the Creation Magic Cube.

It was several months out at sea when Lin Xiao’s Incarnation discovered the Sword of Angel and Angel’s Wings. By this time, the giant ship had long been deep in the ocean, having left the safe zone and entered the dangerous waters.

Though the escorts on the ship did not restrict them from going on deck and only warned them upon entering dangerous waters, they were all wise enough not to cause trouble, staying mostly inside the cabin or their rooms without venturing out.

“Boom!”

A white-hot lightning bolt crossed countless kilometers from the sky into the sea, with endless bolts flitting through the thick clouds, an awe-inspiring display of nature’s might.

The sound of fine rain quickly intensified. Lin Xiao stood at the window on the third floor of the giant ship and watched as the multitude of raindrops rapidly linked together, growing heavier and soon filling the world with a constant roar, while moist air carrying the tang of salt assaulted his face.

The howling wind and torrential rain, lightning and giant waves, successive 20 to 30-meter-high waves ferociously struck against the ship’s rail, throwing up a spray that blanketed the sky.

Since entering the deep sea, the weather had become unpredictable, tranquil one moment and within the blink of an eye, the sky would turn dark within minutes, followed by roaring winds and towering waves.

Far off, the sea was churned up by a vortex, forming towering water spouts thousands of meters high that spanned the turbulent ocean surface—a sight both spectacular and staggering.

This rare spectacle held Lin Xiao’s rapt attention as he faced the oncoming spray.

Suddenly, a towering water spout thousands of meters tall trembled violently out in the distance. Then, a vast expanse of black water below shot up, larger in diameter than the spout itself, shattering the water spout on the spot. The endless sea parted to reveal a vast blue-black back, while several enormous tentacles emerged from the sea bed, slapping the ocean surface and creating colossal splashes.

Lin Xiao felt as if struck by some enormous creature, jolting backward to sit abruptly on the ground, dazed. Nosebleed trickled slowly from his nostrils, taking over ten seconds to regain his senses. He wiped off the blood, eyes filled with a hint of fear and relief.

Sitting on the floor, he didn’t stand up for a while. The mental shock had been too intense, and he hadn’t recovered yet.

A Super Demon, that glimpse just now revealed the terrifying existence of a Super Demon.

Fortunately, it had only surfaced to breathe. Had it targeted them, the large ship would not have withstood its impact, and it would easily have been smashed to pieces and plunged into the sea.

While he felt relieved, suddenly the ship violently shook, then quickly rose and heavily crashed back into the sea. In mid-air, he faintly heard the cracking sound of the hull breaking, and his heart shuddered and fell along with the ship. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a massive tentacle sweep past the gaping fracture.

“Damn it!”

Had that creature really set its sights on their ship?

He quickly took out the Angel’s Wings and the Sword of Angel from the Magic Cube Space, and then firmly pressed against the wooden boards in the corner of the room.

The nearly three-hundred-meter-long ship flew hundreds of meters before crashing down again, its hull immediately splintering, especially the keel at its base, which was directly broken by the tremendous force, compromising the ship’s structure and letting seawater pour in through the cracks. Amidst the storm, the giant ship was slowly sinking.

“Shit, do I have the protagonist’s calamity constitution? Even taking a boat is problematic.”

He was simply at a loss for words.

However, he soon found his earlier worry was unnecessary; the unknown Super Demon hadn’t targeted them after all. It was just passing by underwater and accidentally collided with their ship, breaking the keel before disappearing into the sea without a trace.

It wasn’t until they were sure it had left that the cloaked figures tasked with protecting the ship began to come out to repair it.

Fortunately, the ship was big and sturdy enough. Though the keel had snapped and cracked, there were only a few large breaches, and it was still repairable.

At the summoning of the cloaked figures, everyone was mobilized to go down to the bottom of the ship to repair it, and Lin Xiao was assigned to remove wooden planks from the ship to plug the breaches at the bottom.

Along with Xiao Ni, he carried a wooden plank over twenty centimeters thick and several meters long down to the ship’s bottom, where he saw several cloaked figures standing in the water-filled hold, holding out their hands and creating an invisible force that sealed the several-meter-wide gap, keeping the seawater out.

One of the cloaked figures saw them and pointed to a crack above the waterline, shouting:

“Bring it here, seal it up!”

There weren’t many among the cloaked figures who could pull off this feat. They could only seal the bottom of the ship, and they didn’t have the manpower to deal with parts above the waterline. As the wind and waves surged, wave after wave of giant waves crashed in, bringing copious amounts of icy seawater over the waterline and into the ship.

Lin Xiao and Xiao Ni struggled to carry the plank over, where several people were already working to repair another section. One of the youths looked up at them and gave a strange smile.

“He’s a Child of Nightmare.”

Xiao Ni whispered to Lin Xiao, lowering his voice:

“Be careful, don’t let them play any tricks.”

He nodded, and as he was about to throw the plank onto the crack, suddenly something brushed past where his foot had just been, nailing itself onto the deck—it was a large nail, shot from the direction of the Children of Nightmare, but it was unclear who had fired it.

“Interesting!”

Lin Xiao’s eyes narrowed slightly, and just as he was about to retaliate, he sensed something and looked up. He caught the gaze of one of the cloaked figures, then heard a scream. He quickly turned to see that one of the smirking Children of Nightmare had somehow fallen into the crack, with the others trying to pull him up.

“Quite ferocious!”

The fate of this guy interrupted the slight caution that had just risen within him. Obviously, with the ship sustaining such severe damage, the few cloaked escorts were in a foul mood, and this person had taken the brunt of their anger.

However, given the shortage of hands on deck, especially after the recent calamity that had claimed many lives, they had only meted out a small punishment instead of casting him off completely.

But then suddenly, there was a scream. The body sliding into the crack convulsed violently, blood gushed out, and then they saw a dark figure biting up along the victim’s body. Another Child of Nightmare picked up a hammer and smashed it down on the strange fish, dragging the unfortunate Child of Nightmare down with long fleshy antennae, hurling it back into the sea. Lin Xiao, with his keen spiritual awareness, vaguely saw the man struggling fiercely in the near-dark blue seawater, but he was quickly bitten in half by another strange fish.

With the sudden death, the nearby area fell into silence, and everyone lost the heart for further scheming, quickly covering and nailing down the wooden planks.

“Bang!”

The plank that had just been nailed twice shook violently.