The Era of Gods

Chapter 30: The Test Begins

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Therefore, it didn’t matter what you were called before you condensed the Godhood and became a Demigod. You could even tell your followers that you were the Creator God if you wanted to. However, once the Godhood was condensed, you had to stick to whatever divine name was assigned; you couldn’t just call it anything.

To avoid the hassle of changing it later, Lin Xiao started making changes early on.

After all, he had already reserved the titles Creator and Naga for his Godhood. The Fishman title wasn’t certain yet, but there was a high probability that he could condense it.

At this moment, the prayers of the followers continued to ring in his ears:

“Your devout follower prays here, to the Supreme Creator, God of the Naga and Fishman, guide your devout follower.”

The prayer was repeated over and over by his side. Being a transmigrator who had received professional education in the Era of Gods and Spirits and had been influenced by countless fantasy divine enthronement novels in a previous life, Lin Xiao deeply understood the essence of shepherding his followers.

Unless it was an extremely urgent situation, one must never respond to their followers’ prayers immediately. One had to leave them hanging.

To put it more colloquially, you had to play hard to get, to make followers feel the difficulty of communicating with the divine. There needed to be a sense of distance, a sense of mystery.

Mystery creates fear, and fear requires a spiritual refuge. It’s at this time that prayers are most effective.

In this respect, Lin Xiao did very well. Not to blow his own trumpet, but there were few in his class, or even the entire grade, who were as adept as he was in cultivating followers.

After about ten rounds of prayers, Lin Xiao responded in a deep voice, which, when reaching the ears of his followers, sounded like thunder, making their eardrums vibrate:

“Evil is approaching, my children. Take up the weapons in your hands to defend my glory. My gaze shall be with you.”

After saying these words, Lin Xiao specially spent ten thousand faith points to cast a Divine Art—Seawater Essence.

Numerous pale blue essences of seawater, like specks of starlight, descended from the sky, enveloping all members of his Clan.

This didn’t actually do anything useful, but it made the followers feel his presence and strengthened their confidence.

“The first trial will begin in five minutes. Please prepare yourselves!”

A line of small text appeared in the corner of his eye. Lin Xiao looked at it without taking any action.

According to the previous prompts, they needed to defeat three waves of enemies to pass the elimination assessment. This was only the first wave; it couldn’t be that difficult.

When the five minutes were up, a three-meter-tall portal of light suddenly opened at the northern edge of the demi-plane. Goblins, not much different in size from the Fishman, walked out from it. Guided by an unseen force, they headed straight toward the settlement of the Clan at the center of the demi-plane.

In the Void, ten golden light orbs around the edge of a giant gold platform simultaneously emitted a beam of gold light into the platform, passing through it and plunging into a massive vortex at its center.

Shortly after, ten floating figures appeared in the Divine Artifact Space, surrounded by the void. Qiao Liang, the class head teacher of class one, looked up at the demi-planes in the surrounding void and said with a smile to the other class head teachers:

“How many students do you think can pass the three trials and then succeed in an additional two?”

The class head teacher of class two replied:

“Based on past performance, anyone in the top twenty of the whole grade might have a chance. But considering the state of command and the fact that each trial is different, with various species countering each other, I guess fewer than ten will make it.”

Class one’s head teacher Qiao Liang nodded:

“That number seems reasonable, it’s just hard to tell which students it will be.”

As he spoke, he looked up at the other class head teachers and suggested:

“How about we play a game to bet on which class will perform the best in this stage? The winners will receive three Five Star Cards from each of the losers. What do you say?”

The other class head teachers didn’t respond, and Wu Hai even turned his head away and pretended not to hear.

He didn’t want any part of that bet. Everyone knew the classes with the highest average level were class one and two. This bet was practically free money, and he wanted no part in it.

Qiao Liang glanced at the class two head teacher, who spread his arms and said:

“Don’t look at me. If nobody else is in, it’s no fun for just the two of us to play, right?”

XXX

“You want some meaning in this?”

An aged voice suddenly arose in their ears, causing all homeroom teachers to shiver in unison and call out respectfully:

“Headmaster!”

No one appeared, but without anyone looking up, that aged voice spoke:

“Here’s what we’ll do, I’ll take charge for a bit. After the third wave, 1 will open Endless Mode, and you’ll bet on whose student can last the longest after the three waves, the top ten to be exact. The winner will receive a reward from me, the headmaster—each of the top three will be gifted a super rare card, as well as a spot in the Super Newcomer Summer Camp.”

A spot in the Super Newcomer Summer Camp?

All homeroom teachers simultaneously revealed expressions of surprise, exchanging glances that clearly conveyed the shock in their eyes.

After a long while, in the absence of any sound, they knew the headmaster had left. Homeroom teacher Qiao Liang of class one slowly reined in his shock, a smile tugging at his lips that he couldn’t quite hide, as he cupped his hands towards a few colleagues and said:

“The headmaster is rarely in the mood, let’s join him. Gentlemen, 1 shall take my leave.”

The homeroom teacher of class two, Yu Xihua, left with a somewhat solemn expression, also cupping his fists in farewell.

The remaining eight homeroom teachers exchanged looks, Wu Hai laughing carefree and saying:

“If it’s the headmaster’s will, what more can we say? Besides, the reward isn’t coming out of our pockets.”

Despite such talk, they all knew that the students with the best grades were mostly in classes one and two, making the top three rewards difficult to attain. Only Yuan Hong and Wan Chuan in class three stood a chance to fight for the top ten, but even that was merely a possibility—with the slightest neglect, even the top ten would be out of reach.

This was still considered a good scenario; some classes might not even secure a single spot in the top ten. How would they save face if word got out?

After cupping his hands, Wu Hai turned and left.

Within the half-plane, Lin Xiao observed the first wave below, totaling a hundred ordinary Goblins, ten Big Goblins, and five Bear Goblins, wearing a somewhat solemn expression.

This…

The difficulty is rather high.

It wasn’t that he found it too challenging—such difficulty was still beneath his concern; rather, it seemed too daunting for the ordinary student. With the first wave this tough, and considering that each wave would get progressively harder, the third wave would undoubtedly be exceedingly difficult for the average student.

No wonder so many students are eliminated each year. With such difficulty, not being eliminated would be the real surprise.

Over a hundred Goblins rushed straight for the center of the plane, and very soon, clashed fiercely with the Fishmen who had also discovered the Goblins.

More than five hundred Fishmen erupted violently, their Salted Fish Charge reaching such a high speed that they appeared like warriors charging into battle, and in the blink of an eye, they penetrated the Goblin ranks, sending beings tumbling, blood and flesh flying everywhere.

And then, there was no ‘after’.

Given the nearly equal physique of the Goblins and the Fishmen, a five-fold critical hit from a Salted Fish Charge resulted in an instant kill, and even the sturdier Big Goblins could not withstand it, with only a few Bear Goblins managing to hold their ground by virtue of their robust bodies.

But that was to no avail. You can withstand one or two, but can you withstand five?

After one charge, the Goblins were nearly wiped out, and those that remained were knocked down by the Fishmen who followed closely after, never to rise again.

In less than half a minute, the first wave of Goblins was annihilated.

“Not bad!”

Lin Xiao whistled, quite satisfied with his Clan’s combat power.

Half an hour later, the portal reappeared, and the second wave of the trial began.

His gaze shifted towards the creature stepping out of the portal, Lin Xiao’s face immediately fell:

“Damn!”