The Era of Gods

Chapter 360: Strengthening Totem Runes

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Soon, a random plane one hundred kilometers in length and width took shape. Lin Xiao chose to enter from the south, while Biggs chose to enter from the north.

As soon as they entered, he directly blocked off the space near the entry point to prevent spectators from watching. As combatants, they could choose whether to allow spectators, so under the watchful eyes of the audience, his southern entry point turned pitch-black, and nothing could be seen.

“This Junior Brother Lin Xiao seems unwilling to let us know his true strength,” said a woman with a pair of transparent wings on her back that scattered starlight with every flutter, smiling at Uther and the others.

“Perhaps he has some trump cards that he doesn’t want to reveal just yet.”

They weren’t too upset about it; they had all done the same thing at some point. At their level, having one or two temporary secrets was quite normal.

Uther nodded in understanding, shifting his gaze away from the north where Biggs was, and said,

“It seems that this junior’s strength is even greater than we imagined. Biggs may not be a match for him.”

The opinions of several spectators were surprisingly unanimous.

That was to be expected; their insights were not something ordinary people could compare with. Being of a higher tier than the combatants themselves, they could roughly anticipate the outcome with just a glance. Such an assessment was not surprising.

Under the cover of shadow, Lin Xiao mobilized all his clans except for the Elements, even bringing the Crimson Furnace Clan and more than a dozen Legendary Nagas into the fold, since this was just a projection.

You must respect your enemy in strategy even if you scorn them in tactics.

Confidence is nothing but confidence; victory or defeat can only be determined after the fight. No matter how formidable, the enemy was still one of the top contenders on the peerless list, and they deserved a certain level of regard. Most of his clans still needed to make an appearance, but how many troops to actually send into battle was a different matter altogether.

From the moment he decided to descend into this world and began preparations for an entire month, which equates to thirty years in the Divine Realm, plus the time before that, almost fifty years had passed in the Divine Realm since Lin Xiao escaped from the Nightmare World.

Almost fifty years of full-throttle development, without a halt, using the Creation Rubik’s Cube to synthesize Enhancing Breeding Cards. Now, the position of the Lesser Nagas, which was originally around sixteen to seventeen thousand, has nearly doubled after vigorous reproduction, reaching up to thirty-two thousand, swiftly approaching twice the peak number of Small Fishmen of the past, and it won’t be long before they catch up.

As for the overall strength, there’s no need to speak of multifold increases; the Lesser Nagas alone are now several times stronger than the Small Fishmen were in their entirety.

The Crimson Furnace Clan, numbering just over forty-five thousand, reproduces at a moderate rate and doesn’t require any significant acceleration.

The Wise Goblins, having never suffered major losses especially given the massive damage to the Divine Realm in the prior battle, mostly retreated as nearly all were mages. Over the years in the Divine Realm, their total number has grown by two-thirds compared to the initial count, now boasting about forty-five thousand.

This growth is also due to the small population base of the Wise Goblins and their relatively weak reproductive abilities. Even with the boost from the reproductive divine transcendental abilities, the augmentation from Divine Sanctuary, and the Breeding Card Bonus, their population growth rate isn’t very high.

Finally, the Supreme Nagas, whose growth rate was quite unexpected for him.

With their formidable strength and survival abilities, they didn’t suffer much in the previous major battle. Not only have they fully recovered, but their numbers have also surpassed their peak times. Now with over thirty-seven thousand Supreme Nagas, they’re close to reaching forty thousand.

The main reason for such growth is the racial bond and evolutionary system between the Lesser and Supreme Nagas. With more and more Lesser Nagas reaching Level 3, under Slarda’s direction, they began to eradicate creatures from the Netherworld below. The intense and brutal battles caused their bloodlines to boil, making it easier for the Lesser Nagas to break through their bloodline limits and transform into more powerful Supreme Nagas.

It’s worth mentioning that most of these newly-transformed Supreme Nagas, evolved after surpassing their bloodline limits, have exhausted their potential and find it hard to advance further, with most trapped at the Fifth Level for life.

However, a very few may enter a state known as a bloodline eruption, where after evolving into Supreme Nagas, their bloodline boils even more fervently, allowing them to rapidly ascend to Rank 6 Supreme Naga warriors, and within a very short time, reach the pinnacle of their bloodline limit, which is the Rank 7 Supreme Naga champions.

This bloodline eruption is quite mysterious, and even Lin Xiao, their creator, has not yet discovered its cause. He can only speculate that it might be the magic of the Creation Law at work behind the scenes.

For now, he’s not too fixated on the issue; it’s just a matter of not being able to understand it at the moment. Once his own power grows and his understanding of the laws becomes clearer, everything will become obvious.

All the above reproductive speeds take into account the lifespan of the species, including birth, aging, sickness, and death.

For instance, during these fifty years of relentless reproduction, the Lesser Nagas have given birth to more than just sixteen to seventeen thousand new members. Church records indicate that over two hundred twenty thousand Lesser Nagas were born in the past fifty years—were it not for the initial sixteen to seventeen thousand, the number should be around thirty-six to thirty-seven thousand. The reason there are only thirty-two thousand is that the extra four to five thousand have died.

Some died in battle, others from illness, and some just from natural depletion of their lifespans.

However, due to the extremely long lives of the Supreme Naga, even those who are unable to advance possess a basic three hundred-year lifespan. Fifty years only represent one-sixth of their life, and with the robust constitution of the Supreme Naga, sickness is unlikely, so over the years, they essentially kept whatever number they were able to reproduce.

After so many years of preparation, Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm has reached a certain maturity. Ordinary demigods, the Sons of God realm, are no longer his match.

He’s now just waiting for this descent to successfully establish…

No, he merely needs to firmly establish a foothold in this world. The feedback from Gaia’s world will be sufficient for him to ignite the Divine Fire and become an Ancient God, a being of much greater strength than a typical demigod.

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Yes, Lin Xiao has already met many of the conditions to become an Ancient god, and now he just needs to ignite the Divine Fire.

Moreover, becoming an Ancient god does not conflict with being a Faith Demigod that is to say, if he ignites the Divine Fire normally, he would still be a Faith Demigod but would also obtain the Ancient God system, with both being compatible.

The so-called Ancient God stream, in the mindset of most Divine Realm’s Sons, is also known as Rule God. It is the incarnation of rules, capable of directly obtaining Divine Power from the underlying rule network, unrestricted by faith and can stack with Faith Gods, super powerful but also extremely demanding.

This stacking is a perfect overlay.

To draw a comparison, it’s like when playing competitive games where other players can only control a regular hero, while you control a hero with double attributes, skill damage, and effects. One can only imagine how big the gap is.

This skill damage and effects are a perfect overlay. For instance, a normal skill has double the damage, double the control stun duration, summons are doubled, even the critical hit multiplier and chance are doubled. How terrifying is that?

Ancient God stream is exactly this, because it can perfectly overlay with the faith stream.

Three minutes later, an army consisting of five Rank 8 Supreme Naga Lords, thirty Rank 7 Supreme Naga Warriors, five Rank 7 Grand Magicians, three thousand Rank 6 Supreme Naga Warriors, two hundred Rank 6 Wise Goblins Grand Magicians, fifteen thousand Level 5 Supreme Nagas, and up to a hundred thousand Lesser Nagas, led by Tide Lord Akens, left the descent point and marched towards the central region of the plane.

Including Tide Lord Akens, there were six Rank 8 creatures at Legendary Level from the Core Races, more than thirty Rank 7 beings, and over three thousand Rank 6 beings. This force was his probe against Biggs.

This merely included about a quarter of Lin Xiao’s combat power, just a probe to gauge the strength of the once-celebrated list candidate who had defeated a genius sub-list player and to assess his own current combat prowess.

When this force left the descent point’s dark area and appeared within the plane, the gazes of all the onlookers immediately shifted, and Uther’s brow furrowed as he observed for a while before saying:

“What is this?”

For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

“Is this the main force all out but only half the regular troops?”

Tina, looking at the odd configuration of the force within the plane, fluttered her translucent wings gently, twinkling with starlight.

“Looking at this setup, there is clearly such a possibility, and…”

“Say, are you not focusing on the wrong thing? Didn’t you notice that these five Legendary Creatures all belong to the same race?”

“I saw, but so what?”

Tina counter-questioned the man who had spoken:

“You don’t seriously think he has a Legendary Race that can directly advance to Rank 8, do you?”

“Don’t make me laugh. It’s been tens of thousands of years since a new Legendary Race emerged. If this were truly a Legendary Race, he would immediately become the number one on the genius sub-list and has a high chance of becoming Gaia’s Son.”

“Um, alright then!”

The man who had spoken also realized he might have thought too much.

As the great army pressed on towards the center of the plane, Lin Xiao’s vision quickly followed the scouts and saw Biggs’s main force.

A Legendary Elf Hero, a Legendary Sun Elf Elder, nearly eighty Rank 7 Sun Elf Temple Guards, over three thousand Transcendent Sun Elves, and more than eighty thousand Sun Elves from the Sub-legendary Race.

Biggs was about to consolidate his Godhood in the domains of Elves and the Sun, with Sun Elves being his Core Race and regular Forest Elves as his secondary Clan. The Advanced Race had not yet appeared, and his Cannon Fodder Race was the Sylvan Sprites, a small fairy-like species living in the woods, which could gain a massive boost in combat power in environments with plenty of trees like forests.

He also had a contingent of Sky Elf Archers mounted on Forest Pegasi, totaling around twenty thousand.

With air superiority combined with long-range capabilities, they held a significant advantage in this aspect.

Speaking of which, Lin Xiao still didn’t have an aerial species, mainly because he couldn’t afford the airborne species he wanted, and didn’t want those he could afford.

Powerful aerial species are more expensive than any others, costing several times more. He didn’t have enough wealth to afford them yet.

Actually, acquiring a weak aerial Clan and strengthening it with Creation Energy is also an option, but he just hadn’t decided which one yet.

Anyway, there is no rush. Aerial species aren’t a must-have, and after all these years, even if he got one, it wouldn’t be battle-ready immediately. It’s better to take his time choosing, and who knows, he might suddenly come across a powerful and suitable aerial species someday.

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