The Era of Gods

Impatient, Lin Xiao then threatened:

“Either fight him now, or take us both on in a mixed doubles, your choice.”

Zhang Taihua looked incredulous:

“How do I know you won’t attack me while I fight him?”

Lin Xiao said furiously:

“Are you questioning me?”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the anger on his face vanished, replaced with a smile, as he waved his hand, ordering his troops to attack:

“You guessed it right, that’s exactly what I was thinking!”

After speaking, he turned to Lin Xu and said:

“You don’t mind if I interrupt your duel with him, do you?”

Lin Xu crossed his arms and laughed:

“Of course, I don’t mind. It’s a melee anyway. As long as he loses, I win.”

“Fuck!”

Zhang Taihua looked humiliated, pointing at the two of them, unable to squeeze a word out for a long time.

He really hadn’t planned to wait until they’d settled their fight before intervening. Having seen their Clans, he could roughly assess their strength, and waiting any longer seemed pointless.

Since it was a melee, intervening early could also let Lin Xu win the challenge. As for whether it would be considered cheating or looked down upon, he didn’t care; they were all enemies, so what was the point of following rules.

Besides, under the melee model, taking action himself wasn’t against the rules—after all, they had called him into the fray.

Zhang Taihua’s main Clan was the Dragon Snake Man, a kind of Snake people with a small amount of Dragon Clan’s Bloodline, bearing more resemblance to dragonkin. They were much larger than the Snake people, about two meters twenty or thirty, with its fine dragon scales providing stronger defense than snake scales and individual quality far surpassing that of the Snake people. After reaching Rank 5, they could cast several powerful Class Spells—quite formidable.

According to assessments, Dragon Snake Men belonged to the very top of High Grade Species, only slightly inferior to Sub-legendary species. The normal species cap is Rank 6 at the Transcendent Level, but the Dragon Clan’s Bloodline enables them to break through limits and ascend to Rank 7 more easily than other species.

Zhang Taihua seemed to have acquired the powerful species, Dragon Snake Man, in that strange encounter, replacing Snake people as his main Clan. The ten thousand individuals he brought into battle were all Dragon Snake Men, and among the twenty-five thousand, there were about a thousand Rank 6 Dragon Snake Men and less than fifty Rank 7 Dragon Snake Men, including a Legendary Dragon Snake Man Hero.

If he were to face other young members of the Lin Clan, this strength would be absolutely formidable. But against Lin Xiao and Lin Xu, it wasn’t enough.

Yes, not to mention Lin Xiao, even Lin Xu alone might be too much for him to handle.

Lin Xu’s strength was surprisingly great after not seeing him for a long time.

He remembered that Lin Xu’s main Clan used to be Half-Elf, with the Forest Lizardmen as cannon fodder.

Now, his main Clan was no longer the Half-Elf, but a Sub-legendary species—Moon Elf.

It was a branch of the High Elves, possessing lifespans of over five hundred years and skilled in the use of star power. Along with exceptional archery skills, they also had remarkable spellcasting abilities.

Their long lifespans ensured that every senior Moon Elf was both an archer and a spellcaster. With the two combined, their combat power was quite formidable.

Watching his men attack Zhang Taihua together with Lin Xu’s forces, with the other side barely able to fight back, Lin Xiao flew to Lin Xu’s projection and whispered:

“Is this the welcome gift your future father-in-law gave you?”

He nodded:

“Precisely speaking, it’s a Moon Ancient Tree that can purify the bloodline of Half-Elves, allowing them to evolve into Moon Elves.”

“Oh!”

Lin Xiao suddenly understood.

The so-called Moon Ancient Tree is actually a variant of the Tree of Life, a sort of advanced version capable of evolving any Elf into a Moon Elf.

The former main Clan of Lin Xu used to be Half-Elves, which had already reproduced in large numbers, totaling hundreds of thousands. Coupled with the purification of the Moon Ancient Tree, it was akin to amassing power over time. Now, he had amassed nearly thirty thousand Moon Elves, including a Legendary Moon Elf Hero and three Legendary Moon Elf Elders.

No wonder he was confident in accepting Zhang Taihua’s challenge. With a Clan that was not inferior, or perhaps even slightly superior, to Zhang Taihua, and as the top Elder of the Dark Moon, with a quite promising future father-in-law and several Ancient Treasures on his person, it was normal for him to be strong. All things combined, Zhang Taihua, with only two Legendary subordinates, surely couldn’t outlast Lin Xu.

The battle unfolded just as he had predicted. Zhang Taihua, who had been able to stand up to Lin Xu before, completely collapsed and fled defeat under the joint encirclement of Lin Xiao and Lin Xu.

After the main forces were defeated, Zhang Taihua swept a cold glance over Lin Xiao and Lin Xu, eventually fixing his gaze on Lin Xiao and said coldly:

“Kid, don’t get cocky—this was just a small part of my true strength. I let you win this round. If you have the guts, come up and fight in the unrestricted formal wager next. Grandpa will show you what a top Senior Son of the God realm truly looks like.”

“Wow!”

Lin Xiao said with interest:

“Are you saying that your real strength is much stronger than us?”

Zhang Taihua gave a cold snort without any intention of replying, choosing to surrender instead, and the still-resisting Dragon Snake Men turned into light and soared towards the sky.

But the war was not over yet, because there were still some remnant troops of the defeated Zhang Family within the realm.

However, it wasn’t long before the remaining troops either left the realm or were exterminated, leading the system to declare their victory.

Regaining consciousness in reality, Miss Jin Yunzhu raised her thumb in praise and exclaimed:

“Son, you were amazing!”

His father also gave him a look of admiration, and turning to Xie Yufei, she slightly tilted her head to reveal a profile with perfect curves.

With the duel over, several of the Lin Family’s younger generation joyfully received the spoils of the duel, and even Lin Xiao got a share. It wasn’t much, just ten thousand Divine Power, which was of little use to him, but he was in a good mood.

The one who gained the most was naturally Lin Xu. Zhang Taihua, who lost the most, was somewhat unwilling and shouted loudly at them:

“Hey, do you two have the guts to go on stage later too?”

Lin Xiao was certainly not intimidated and, with his hands on his hips, he shouted back:

“Although I’d like to meet you, a defeated general, whether I can enter the battle is not for me to decide.”

After saying that and clapping his hands, he was speaking the truth—his grandfather was most likely not going to let him partake.

It might seem like they had just won, but a restricted duel like this could only prove that they had strong potential. The Clan members were more elite than ordinary people like them, but when it came to overall strength, no one would believe that those who had just ignited the Divine Fire and became demigods could compare to decades of accumulation by others.

Without restrictions, even if the Clan members were inferior, they could easily overwhelm them with numbers, having accumulated decades or even tens of times their number, and simply crush them to death.

Lin Xiao might not be afraid, with the formidable power of the Legendary Being, the Supreme Naga, giving him confidence in defeating even ten times as many Snake people or Dragon Snake Men, but his grandfather didn’t know he was that strong.

So…

As he was murmuring to himself, suddenly the Zhang Clan Leader on the other side stood up and loudly said to the grandfather:

“Since the younger generation has this desire, as elders, how can we not fulfill it? Let them have a match.”

This sudden proposal took everyone by surprise. The grandfather was about to refuse when the Zhang Clan Leader spoke again:

“If you’ll let this young brother take part, we agree to have Taihua fight this young brother.”

The refusal that the grandfather hadn’t yet voiced was swallowed back, with a look of interest appearing on his face.

According to the duel’s rules, it’s best out of five battles, with each person allowed to fight only once. Zhang Taihua had been the Zhang Family’s trump card, and none in the Lin Family could stand against him. Their greatest fear was having their strongest few chosen to fight him. Now that the Zhang Family agreed to let Zhang Taihua challenge Lin Xiao, it was akin to eliminating the strongest contender. This was like the strategic horse racing of the ancient tale—heavyweight versus lightweight—they immediately reclaimed some advantage, hence the temptation.

However, the grandfather hesitated to agree and suspiciously looked at his old rival, asking:

“This doesn’t seem like your style. What are you up to, old man?”

The Zhang Clan Leader stroked his beard and smiled:

“What could I possibly be plotting? I’m just trying to satisfy the unicorn of my Zhang Family and teach your kid a lesson to shatter his confidence, that’s all.”

The words were astonishingly candid, but the grandfather, having lived for over a thousand years and spent hundreds of thousands in the Different Domain, was no fool and could not be so easily deceived. His eyes swept back and forth between his old opponent and Zhang Taihua before he suddenly said:

“Are you planning on getting serious in a one-on-one?”

Everyone stirred, and the father raised his eyebrows toward the opposing side, a hint of murderous intent flickering in his eyes.

Getting serious meant that while it appeared to be a challenge in the virtual realm, it was, in fact, a fight to the death with the Divine Realms fully interlinked.

Such a fight for life or death was not limited to encounters with Other Races’ Children of Nightmare or Child of the Spirit Realm. Sons of the Human Divine Realm also often engaged in deadly battles due to conflicts.

And according to statistics, far more Sons of Divine Realms perished at the hands of their own kind than in the battles against Other Races, as the vast majority of ordinary Sons of Divine Realms might never get the chance to encounter Other Races in their lifetimes.

Forcing full-on war through Divine Realm interlinking, one party could drag the other into battle, and external intervention also required Divine Realm connection. At that moment, if the Zhang Family were to obstruct and delay even slightly, and if Zhang Taihua’s strength was much greater, he could easily end the fight quickly.

There might not be enough time to completely destroy a Divine Realm, and if reinforcements were timely, even the Divine Realm might remain impenetrable. However, if they could kill many of the opponent’s Core Races and plunder or damage key structures, severely weakening their potential would be sufficient.

Of course, that presupposed he truly was very strong, much stronger than Lin Xiao.

The Zhang Family would certainly not want to see talents like Lin Xiao and Lin Xu, who were almost guaranteed to reach Divine Enthronement, rise to prominence.

Such actions would, of course, break the rules, but after the deed was done, even if they accepted their punishment afterwards, they would still come out ahead.

Understanding these intricacies, the flicker of complacency that had just dawned on Lin Xiao vanished entirely.

Indeed, society was far more complicated than the school. In school, the rules kept excessive behavior in check, detering people from even contemplating, let alone taking, forbidden steps. But in an unconstrained society, a misstep could easily lead to being tricked, and encountering someone ruthless could result in outright destruction.

A conspiracy unveiled is no longer a conspiracy. Of course, the grandfather did not agree, and the Zhang Family did not show any unease at having their scheme exposed. The elder Zhang Clan Leader even smiled kindly at Lin Xiao as if he had never considered what the grandfather suggested.

Zhang Taihua, however, made no effort to conceal the disappointment in his eyes, even making a throat-slitting gesture with his hand knife at Lin Xiao, full of provocation.

Lin Xiao’s eyebrows twitched, and he was about to respond when suddenly he saw the sky brighten sharply. Looking up, he saw the clouds in the Vault of Heaven parting like waves, revealing a massive Military Void Battleship.

The arbitrator of the duel, the Seventh Action Fleet, had arrived.