The Era of Gods

Chapter 349: Mythical Hero Slarda and the New Hero Divine Furnace

Fighting among one’s own clan members required caution to avoid accidents and fundamentally could not stimulate their potential, as they were bound hand and foot. This problem did not exist with Nightmare Creatures.

They would fight with all their might for survival, without holding back, and this type of battle, constantly facing death, was highly effective at stimulating potential and made them very likely to advance.

Due to the overwhelmingly huge power gap, most of the five Children of Nightmare were simply crushed, and only two, unwilling to accept their fate, burned their very origins, their Divinity, which is why the Divinity awarded for killing them was slightly less.

The five Children of Nightmare provided a total of sixteen, seventeen, nineteen, four, and five points of Divinity, adding up to sixty-one Divinity points.

Over a hundred different cards were obtained, among them were four Ancient Quality Cards.

The domains of the five Children of Nightmare must have been loaded with more than four Ancient Cards, but only these four could be extracted from the domains, one of which was an extremely valuable Ancient Five Star Card—the Well of Corruption, which could summon a well imbued with the Power of Corruption.

This was an Ancient Miracle Card; its effect was simple, load the card into the Divine Realm, and it would summon a miraculous building, the Well of Corruption.

The Well of Corruption contained the Power of Corruption, which could cause the target to become corrupted and fall.

Once the Well of Corruption was loaded, the surrounding land would turn into corrupted and fallen territory, where creatures of the good alignments would suffer continuous damage and corruption effects. Creatures from the evil alignments entering the corrupted land would receive continuous healing, and over a long period of absorbing the Power of Corruption, there was a possibility of advancing in rank.

Although this device was a miraculous building of the evil camps, it didn’t mean Lin Xiao couldn’t use it. He first decomposed most of the less useful cards into nutrients to strengthen the Well of Corruption.

Although lacking Creation Energy to enable its evolution, a vast amount of Creative Power could be used to enhance it on the existing basis, vastly increasing the scope of its effect radiation.

Then, it was directly loaded into the Underworld Divine Realm Space within the Divine Realm, placing the Tower of Corruption in this special divine domain space at the very bottom, specifically for detaining or banishing evil creatures.

Next, he sorted out various Ecology Cards, resource cards, and so forth, fusing them by category, and using the Creation Rubik’s Cube to purify the Nightmare Power contained within, synthesizing a batch of powerful cards for loading into the Divine Realm as needed.

Several super-large Ore Vein Cards were obtained and all were loaded into the Main Divine Realm.

After sorting these out, Lin Xiao consumed…

Thirty Divinity points and thirty thousand Divine Power to advance ten Rank 7 Supreme Naga warriors to the status of Legendary Lord of Nagas.

As for the remaining thirty-one Divinity points and just over twenty thousand Divine Power, he would save them for the time being, since Divinity and Divine Power could be used at any time here.

Seventeen Legendary Lord of Nagas and six Legendary Heroes were under Lin Xiao’s command. He now held as many as twenty-three Rank 8 Legendary Clansmen, which was an extraordinary high standard that many middling Demigods couldn’t match—a powerful and formidable force.

Before leaving the Divine Realm, Lin Xiao gave several Divine-mandates to Slarda.

There were three main ones:

One: Greatly increase the reproduction of the Clan members.

Two: Open the ancient arena, granting him the privilege to extract prisoners detained in the Netherworld, using real opponents to train warriors in hopes of gaining more powerful followers.

Three: Build an exceptionally strong Giant Fortress in the Main Divine Realm.

After issuing all Divine-mandates, Lin Xiao withdrew his Incarnation, reclaiming the two Divinity points that made it up, but of the ten thousand Divine Power points, he only recovered less than five thousand.

Additionally, an immense force of Evil God’s power had no place to go and was cast into the Underworld Divine Realm Space.

For him, the Underworld was like a dumping ground—anything that was negative, that other spaces in the Divine Realm couldn’t accommodate, could simply be thrown in there. He wasn’t worried about whether housing too much negative energy therein might cause any anomalies.

After all, the ceiling of the Divine Realm was set; no matter how much it would mutate, it couldn’t go far. Even if a terrifying existence were to emerge, as the Master of the Divine Realm, he would immediately know and it would not get out of control.

Two days later, Lin Xiao arranged all affairs and withdrew all his wills back into the crystal-like Soul case, floating above the divine throne. The crystal-clear sphere slowly vanished, and the Divine Realm dimmed once again.

Suddenly, a vast bulge, spanning several kilometers, emerged from the surface of the profound Black Sea. Shortly thereafter, an unimaginably massive Giant rose from the sea, its dangling tendrils swaying slowly as ripples of invisible auras spread out in waves.

The Giant’s deep gaze pierced through the endless dark mist between heaven and earth, looking off into the distance, towards the ocean. Upon the elevation of his soul’s essence to immortality, many secrets of the world automatically unveiled themselves to him. His gaze naturally viewed through the Truth Eye, clearly seeing the thick black fog everywhere, the boundless sea water, and…

The thick clouds in the Vault of Heaven, where a terrifyingly huge body loomed above.

The Evil God’s Eye of Truth enabled him to see past the ever-present clouds in the Vault of Heaven, revealing creatures on par with—or even larger than—himself winding above. Just beyond the dense layer of clouds, it seemed there was another world.

Being able to directly perceive these hidden aspects of heaven and earth, and to have a glimpse of a True God’s perspective ahead of time, was a rare opportunity for Lin Xiao, one that few ever experienced.

Being able to experience this now was special, as once he left this world, he would likely have to forego the Body of Evil God and the vast Soul of the Evil God. Such chances wouldn’t come again.

In the guise of an Evil God, this inexplicably sinister existence, the evil-alien race, the fearsome Dark Sea was to Lin Xiao what an ordinary sea was to the typical world. He himself was the most inexplicable and nameless entity; he was the ultimate form of sinister.

Using the Eye of Truth to peer beneath the waves, in the ocean far away, countless unimaginable bizarre creatures lurked silently on the seabed. A five-kilometer tall behemoth swept through the waters, from which the strange creatures fled in haste, including some of particularly large stature. This feeling was incredibly satisfying.

After a long while, the behemoth let out a thunderous roar before slowly sinking back into the sea, leaving behind a vast whirlpool and then vanishing.

……….

Black Flag Island, more than three hundred kilometers to the south in the ocean, a fleet composed of a five-masted colossal sailship as its flagship and over a dozen three-masted large sailships was tangled in a fierce sea battle with a fleet of seven Ironclad Ships.

The sail fleet had a numerical advantage in terms of ships, but they were at a disadvantage in the sea battle against the ironclad ships. Seven ironclads were able to distance themselves and use their greater number of cannons for long-range bombardment. Already, two three-masted sailing ships had been sunk, and the wreckage was now covered with a type of monster bristling with tentacles. They secreted a viscous substance that enveloped the hull, turning it into flesh, while more monsters were tearing at struggling sailors and corpses in the water.

Lured by the cannon fire and flashes of light, a large number of monsters converged nearby. Normally, the fleet would have fled long ago, but at this moment, they continued to fight under the strict suppression of the commanders from both sides.

Five Children of Nightmare gathered on the deck of the ironclad ship, watching over the battlefield, frequently glancing maliciously at the five-masted giant sail ship several kilometers away. Standing on the deck of the bow of this nearly two hundred meter long gigantic sail ship were four Human Divine Territory Players. One of the women took a glance at the distant ironclad warship in the light of the exploding cannon fire and said to her companions with a bit of worry,

“The ironclads have too much of an advantage at sea. Although we have more people, it doesn’t necessarily mean we can win. I think next time we need to switch our warship and cannons.”

“Next time…”

Another Divine Territory Player pointed at the Children of Nightmare who were occasionally glaring at them with cold eyes and said,

“There won’t be a chance for a next time. They have the advantage in numbers and in firepower; they won’t let us leave.”

The leader amongst the four, stroking his chin, paused for a moment before smiling and saying,

“Don’t worry too much. Although they outnumber us by one, who wins and who loses is still uncertain; no one knows how strong the opponent is until the battle is fought.”

“Besides, our reinforcements are already on the way. Black Flag Island has already received the message. The Alliance Hierarch has sent support. We just need to hold on until help arrives.”

However, his words failed to reassure his companions. The first woman to speak said,

“That’s easy to say, but the main issue is whether we can last until the reinforcements arrive.”

The leader chuckled and suddenly gave out a loud command:

“All hands, fight and retreat in the direction of Black Flag Island.”

The signalman immediately conveyed his command to the entire fleet using flags and drums and the massive fleet of sail ships began to fight while retreating.

The perennial darkness of the Black Sea persisted, the waves as ever-present. The melee between the two large fleets was minuscule in the vast ocean, like a speck in the sea. Explosions and resounding booms that occasionally lit up attracted monsters from around, including extremely bizarre creatures and gigantic beasts.

Plans rarely went as desired. The sail fleet retreated as they awaited reinforcements, aiming for a distant lighthouse.

This lighthouse was one among many near Black Flag Island, used to guide nearby vessels. In the perpetual night of the Black Sea, ships on long voyages could only navigate by the lights of the lighthouses.

After an indeterminate amount of time fighting and retreating, Wang Nan, who had been intently commanding the fleet, suddenly furrowed his brow and asked his companion Tai Li,

“How long has it been since we started retreating?”

Tai Li hesitated before answering,

“Two hours.”

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone’s color drained, and they rushed to the deck’s edge to see the lighthouse still unchanged in the distance, cold sweat involuntarily breaking out on their foreheads:

“Damn, under normal sailing conditions, we should have already been close to the lighthouse after two hours, but the distance remains the same as it was two hours ago.”

“I think we’ve encountered something big.”

Wang Nan took a deep breath to stave off despair and calmly issued orders,

“Assess our current position, determine the direction of Black Flag Island or the lighthouse, reestablish our course, and leave this area as quickly as possible.”

“Also, send a message to the other side, let them know about our situation.”

“What if they ignore it?”

“Then we die together.”

Three minutes later, the response from one of the Children of Nightmare appeared before them,

“Die in the sea or face us in a decisive battle!”

Wang Nan sneered,

“Quite the braggarts.”

He then hardened his expression, looked at his companions, and said,

“Prepare to engage in full combat. I want to see why, being of high Rank 3, you Children of Nightmare are so confident.”

New communication Gaia Will

Above the Black Sea, the thick fog slowly dissipated,