The Era of Gods

Once the Gaia Node had been successfully established, what followed was no longer his concern. Whether the incarnation chose to stay in this world or return, or even if it were to be destroyed by the wrathful will of the totem, it didn’t matter, for he had completed what he set out to do.

Of course, it would be better if it could continue to survive, given all the effort and blood he had poured into it, not to mention the vast amount of Creation Energy expended. It would be quite a pity for it to be lost.

However, these were not decisions he could make with his will alone. Whether or not it could survive was entirely up to fate.

As his connection with the incarnation grew clearer, Lin Xiao felt the overwhelming fury and terrifying pressure that came with it, deep in his soul.

In the Totem Universe, the vast Void rippled, and suddenly, at the center of the ripples, it arched, quickly swelling into a large bulge. Accompanied by a roar, a pair of immense pitch-black claws pierced through the Void and emerged from it.

These claws, resembling pincers but tens of kilometers in size, slammed down towards the Void. With a thunderous boom, the Void shook, and countless spatial rifts cracked at the center of impact, slowly revealing the enormous figure of a giant beast beneath the Void.

This was a black giant beast, as tall as a hundred kilometers, resembling a giant scorpion standing erect. Its glossy black carapace was studded with large hollow holes, from which thick black smoke billowed, forming a black smoke ring with a diameter of seven or eight hundred kilometers around the feet of the giant scorpion. Distorted faces of countless beings could be faintly seen howling and roaring within the smoke.

The giant scorpion appeared not far from the Plane, its single ominous red eye slowly closing in on the Plane.

As this terrifying existence drew nearer, the flowing Void around it showed signs of stagnation.

Lin Xiao’s incarnation frowned slightly and slowly lifted his head.

At the same moment, a few Children of Nightmare leading the Holy War Army rested in a newly conquered town, chatting spiritedly when suddenly one of them, seeming to sense something, looked up at the Vault of Heaven. After a long silence, his bowl of rice fell to the ground, shattering, scattering rice everywhere. The other Children of Nightmare, engrossed in conversation, looked up reflexively upon hearing the noise.

“Bang, bang…”

The Children of Nightmare stood up with their mouths agape. After a long moment, they murmured in disbelief:

“Good heavens, am I seeing this right? What is that?”

In the distant Imperial City of Sarnos, Chao and the others stood on the Imperial Palace terrace looking up at the Vault of Heaven, faces ashen:

“I think we’re going to die.”

“This is impossible!”

Xinhua exclaimed in surprise and disbelief,

“How is this possible? How could such a powerful being descend upon us?”

Chao replied with a bitter smile,

“It seems things are more interesting than we imagined, we miscalculated. Brothers, it’s time to abandon everything and leave. If we wait any longer, it’ll be too late to escape.”

With that, he turned and left.

The others exchanged glances, slammed their wine glasses down, and followed suit.

Before long, the Plane Crystal Wall’s edge lit up with the Teleportation Array on the metallic platform, and beams of light shot into the sky, revealing Chao and six other Descenders.

The six of them saw the slightly tilted metallic platform and the dozen or so Children of Nightmare who had already returned, all staring wide-eyed at the enormous Giant Scorpion Demon God in the distant Void, gasping in shock.

“This must be a Totem King, right?”

Although it took the form of a scorpion Demon God, it didn’t exude the chaos and berserk nature of a devil but perhaps represented the advanced stage of Totem evolution, where the Totem King merged the body with the totem and the domain. This was one path they could take if they continued on the Totem path – to become one with the totem creature and focus solely on the True Body, the opposite of pursuing the Field domain.

If they could continue down their current path, they might also attempt this one.

The Giant Scorpion Demon God, presumably summoned by the Will of the Crystal Wall from somewhere, was now as massive as some smaller Planes. Merely its approach and existence already affected the mortal world, now even interfering with the surging Element Tides.

Lin Xiao’s incarnation, of course, could see this scene; just sensing it from afar told him he stood no chance against the Giant Scorpion Demon God.

This wasn’t just any Totem King – it had to be a Totem King of resources that had ascended long ago. Even if he were to ascend properly and strenuously to a true Totem King, he wouldn’t stand a chance, not to mention now, as only a false one.

But now, winning or losing was irrelevant. It was already too late – the descent of the Giant Scorpion Demon God had come too late.

Real life isn’t quite like the movies or novels where the antagonist always arrives just in time to challenge the hero, highlighting the hero’s badassery. Either they arrive early enough to prevent the plot, or they’re simply too late.

And now it was a step too late. As the Giant Scorpion Demon God, driven by Plane instinct, made forceful contact with the Plane Crystal Wall, a deafening boom echoed through the air. Lin Xiao’s consciousness, with the help of the vast energy from the Plane Fortress Array, forcefully made contact with the incarnation, connecting with it in the nether.

At the moment of connection, the abnormal energy fluctuation on the Totem Crystal Wall Universe’s outer Crystal Wall erupted suddenly. A fountain of grey energy sprayed thousands of meters high into the Void and, a second later, rapidly shrank.

In that instant of connection, Lin Xiao swiftly communicated with the Gaia Will through the privileges he possessed.

At the same time, the powerful Divine Powers that had been prepared all along struck together. The terrifying strength twisted the Void, leaving Lin Xiao with a feeling of his consciousness and all senses being distorted, following by rage-filled roars.

When his distorted senses recovered, he had fully regained contact with his incarnation, and in an instant, all the experiences and memories accumulated during the descent were reclaimed.

If he wanted to, he could instantly recall his incarnation.

But he couldn’t do that, and of course, he couldn’t do it now; his incarnation still needed to serve its purpose as a beacon. If he recalled it, the Will of the Totem Crystal Wall on the other side would immediately seal the newly opened gap.

What he needed to do now was wait for the Gaia Will, which had descended upon his incarnation and temporarily deprived him of control over this avatar, to suppress the Will of the Totem Crystal Wall. The other powerful beings must take action to subdue the Giant Scorpion Demon God and other powerful entities from the Totem World rushing over, ensuring the passage could be securely fixed.

Yes, he was no longer able to control his incarnation now, for the descending Gaia Will had already taken over, managing this avatar temporarily, leaving him unable to do anything.

However, after all, it was his incarnation. Since the Gaia Will had not completely stripped his avatar, his True Body’s will could still reach out to it, gaining memories of the incarnation… to be precise, the mysteries of the rules contained within the Gaia Will.

He didn’t know if this was a reward, but the Gaia Will that had descended upon him this time had removed all his restrictions, allowing him to access everything the Gaia Will had brought, just as he would communicate and retrieve all experiences and memories from his incarnation.

This scene was much like the moment a deity became divine, freely navigating the Source Sea during the feedback from the universe’s origin, readily drawing upon the secrets of the rules contained within the Source Sea to benefit himself.

In that moment, Lin Xiao’s True Body was enveloped by a flowing, mysterious light, emitting fluctuations that made Jin Sisi and Xie Yufei utterly envious.

But envy aside, Jin Sisi still remembered her responsibilities as a teacher. Her Divine Power infused her voice as it entered Lin Xiao’s ears:

“This is an incredible opportunity, a reward from the Gaia Will. This is the moment to ignite the Divine Fire; remember, first draw on and refine the mysteries of the rules as much as possible from the Gaia Will’s feedback, do not hasten to ignite the Divine Fire.”

Lin Xiao could hear her voice, which calmed his erstwhile anxious heart, allowing him to peacefully immerse himself in the unceasing mysteries of the rules.

As he continued to draw from the endless Source Sea of rules, Lin Xiao suddenly discovered he had acquired a third Divine Position—Life.

Probably a feedback from the interaction between his incarnation and the Golden Ancient Tree Totem, his understanding of the rules of life skyrocketed while drawing persistently on the feedback given by the Gaia Will, quickly surpassing the threshold of five percent.

Other Demigods, even upon Divine Enthronement, struggle to have more than five percent understanding of the rules. Under the feedback from the Gaia Will, he had easily crossed this threshold, and it continued to grow.

His main rules of Creation and Truth grew even faster, the pace of which left him somewhat palpitated.

Yet what surprised him more was the birth of a fifth Divine Name from the feedback given by the Gaia Will, which made the fifth Divine Name seem miraculous yet inevitable.

Divine Name: Cyborks. Meyer. Ao. Ober. Gaia.

Indeed, he had obtained ‘Gaia,’ a Divine Name segment akin to the Human Main World.

That Divine Name segment had only one meaning: the identity of a Child of Gaia. In the history of the Human Main World, every Child of Gaia has had ‘Gaia’ as part of their Divine Name.

This meant that when his incarnation successfully opened up the Totem Crystal Wall Universe akin to a turtle’s shell, allowing the Main World to gain an absolute advantage in the competition against the Nightmare World and the civilizations of the Spirit Realm, the Gaia Will recognized his accomplishments and granted him the status of a Child of Gaia.

With the acquisition of the fifth Divine Name, his mastery of God’s Law greatly increased, and with the grasp of the Lifeline, his Divinity surged accordingly.

His initial Godness value was one hundred and four points, but now it had soared to one hundred thirty-five points and was still increasing.

Ordinarily, refining a few dozen points of Divinity wouldn’t increase a unit, but now it was leaping up like a broken water meter, as if Divinity was not at all valuable, jumping up several points at a time.

However, considering the significance of his actions this time around, these rewards seemed utterly justifiable.

Deity Interface:

Username: Lin Xiao (Citizen number txwd542154895147)

Divine Name: Cyborks. Meyer. Ao. Ober. Gaia.

God Name: God of Truth and Creation

Divinity: None

Godhood: Truth 11.5%, Creation 18.42%, Life 8.14%.

Godness: 233 points.

Divine Fire: Ignited.

Divine Power: 269481.

Superhuman Divine Power: Extraordinary Predictive Art Lv5, Reproduction, Minor Judgment Skill.

God Country: Magic Cube Kingdom.

Sects: Church of Truth.

Followers: Asura Naga, Lesser Naga, Wise Goblins, Red Furnace Clan, The Four Elements.

Career: God Warrior/Hero, Divine Power Warrior, Frost Magician, Mage.