The Era of Gods

Chapter 328: Chapter 328: Monster on the Island

The situation was as follows: as the war of attrition continued, the subordinates who remained loyal to the Children of Nightmare dwindled in numbers. Although the troops who fell in battle were absorbed and hatched by the Flesh Mushroom Blanket extending from the Mother nest of flesh and blood into more powerful Flesh Monsters, this transformation had its limits. After all, there was only one Mother nest, and with so many dying at once, only a handful could be transformed, leaving the majority of the flesh to amass underground, useless.

Such attrition lasted nearly half a month, and Lin Xiao, who had been patiently waiting, finally on the sixteenth day, saw tens of thousands of Transcendent Water Elementals surround and kill the last guard protecting the Mother nest of flesh and blood, toppling the massive nest and obtaining the Mother Seed.

This Mother nest of flesh and blood was situated at the very core of the Children of Nightmare’s domain, less than ten kilometers from where the True Body of the Children of Nightmare resided, equivalent to the location of the Divine Palace that housed the True Body in Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm.

With the collapse of the flesh nest, the gathered Nightmare Power dissipated, and one could now see the vast shadow beyond the Mother nest of flesh and blood, even larger in size.

This was the origin of the Nightmare Realm; this vast Domain of Nightmare initially spread out from here, with a continuous flow of Nightmare Power also extending from this point. The Children of Nightmare sat enthroned at the core, looking down and governing the entire realm.

But today, its rule came to an end.

After resting for two days, another seventy thousand Transcendent Water Elementals were summoned to launch the final assault on the Nightmare God Mountain at the core.

Unlike Human Divine Realms, there is no God Country or Prayers in the core of the Nightmare, only a few core guards, including that legendary six-winged Wingman.

But there was only one legend, surely not enough to withstand the successive waves of Transcendent Water Elementals. In the end, after killing two to three thousand Rank 6 Transcendent Water Elementals, the legendary Wingman was surrounded and succumbed to death.

Once the guards had perished, it was time to face the Children of Nightmare’s True Body.

At this point, the control of the Children of Nightmare over their own domain was suppressed to an extreme, with even their consciousness being restricted to the vicinity of the core. He had lost control over much of his domain, and naturally, his power had significantly diminished.

Facing such relentless tactics, He was extremely frustrated, but helpless.

He now deeply regretted not choosing to engage in an all-out war earlier. Although slightly disadvantaged then, it was not to the point of being indefensible; there was still a chance of victory. Instead, hesitating at that moment had led to today’s desperate situation.

There was no turning the tables.

Without any external interference, after holding out stubbornly for four days, the Children of Nightmare’s core shell was forcefully breached, and, having exhausted all of their strength, they were slain.

Lin Xiao, watching from afar, observed that the True Body of the Children of Nightmare resembled a magnified version of a giant serpent, over seventy meters in length and growing multiple legs—apparently a four-legged serpentine creature transformed by the power of Nightmare. At the moment of its death, a black light shot up to the sky, returning to the core of the Nightmare.

This reminded him of the Children of Nightmare he had seen in the bizarre world—a human exterior, but with a cold, serpentine demeanor.

Once the Children of Nightmare had died, Lin Xiao felt the Nightmare Divine Realm lose all resistance, and he quickly drove his own Divine Realm to engulf the Nightmare Realm.

Outwardly, this was seen as the edges of the Nightmare Realm crumbling, disintegrating into countless particle-like mists of light flowing through the tunnel between the two realms into Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm.

Lin Xiao’s True Body, located at the core of his Divine Realm, immediately sensed the continuous influx of the Divine Realm’s essence merging into his own, causing the slowly expanding edges of his Divine Realm to start growing wildly.

According to the rules, the time he could devour the opposing Divine Realm started from the fall of the Children of Nightmare and varied depending on the size and strength of the opponent’s realm. Generally, the larger and more robust the realm, the longer the time allowed for consumption.

Lin Xiao was not certain how long it would take, as he had never before battled to the death with another Divine Territory Player.

Nonetheless, no matter how long, the consumption was a net gain.

Furthermore, seizing this opportunity, he ordered his Clans to scatter throughout the entire Nightmare Realm, thoroughly plundering the resources within.

Most of these resources were either unnecessary or difficult for him to use, but the most common mineral resources were universal; he gathered them and stored them within the Fire Elemental Domain, using the Power of Flames therein to first Purify the remnants of Nightmare Power.

Besides that, Lin Xiao personally entered the core of the Nightmare Realm to plunder the core treasures of the Children of Nightmare.

Just as Lin Xiao’s Divine Realm core housed the Divine Palace, so too did the Nightmare Realm have a core located within the mountain formed by the Nightmare Power. Whatever Cards were merged into the Nightmare Realm, or personal treasures such as Ancient Treasures, would all be here.

For example, if someone were to defeat Lin Xiao, they could enter his Divine Palace and plunder it, seizing the many Cards and miraculous structures he had integrated into his Divine Realm, including his Soul of God.

Generally, only item Cards and the like were subject to plundering, as special consumable Cards like Breeding Cards, once used, could not be reclaimed.

Since the Children of Nightmare had fallen, the Nightmare Domain had lost its master, and the core’s rules had been disabled, or rather, vastly weakened, rendering them virtually ineffective against Lin Xiao.

Stepping into the core palace, Lin Xiao immediately spotted something hanging in the dome of the Nightmare palace… a piece of paper?

It seemed to be a deeply colored parchment, and through a transparent glow that shielded it from the black Nightmare Power of the pavilion, densely packed unknown writings were barely visible underneath.

Lin Xiao had learned many of the mainstream languages commonly used in the Crystal Wall Universe, including the languages of the Dragons, Elves, Dwarves, Demons, and so on, but he had never seen the script written on this piece of paper.

Clearly, the Children of Nightmare had been utilizing the power of the Nightmare Domain to whittle down the power of the paper before, a process known in the East as Refining.

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It seems that there is still some resistance left on the paper; it must not be fully refined yet.

He waved his hand to disperse the Nightmare Power within the Divine Palace, and slowly, the paper floated down, revealing the many cards embedded in the dome. The cards were also constructed from Nightmare Power for enhancing the field of the Nightmare World, but since they were saturated with Nightmare Power, they couldn’t be used directly in the Human Divine Realm.

Thirty-seven cards could be retrieved from the Nightmare Realm. He didn’t care what they were; he took them all out, including two Ancient Treasures at the center of the dome, which were also eroded by Nightmare Power.

Additionally, there was the Soul of God belonging to the Children of Nightmare, whose True Bodies died and fused into the core of the Nightmare. It seemed to contain the essence of the Children of Nightmare and might hold some secrets.

Without the time to study this, Lin Xiao first examined the Ancient Treasures.

The Ancient Treasures were all First Level, with simple effects—adding one point each to Constitution and Strength.

He put them away and then took down the paper to check its properties, revealing a trace of surprise.

It turned out to be a Rank 2 Ancient Treasure, not a part of some Divine Artifact book as he had imagined.

In his memory, the famous Divine and Sub-god Artifacts like the Book of Nasir, Book of All Laws, Book of Sanctity, Book of Squalor, and others were all in the form of books. He thought this was a page from such a book, but it was a Rank 2 Ancient Treasure.

However, on second thought, although it wasn’t the page of a Divine Artifact book he had envisioned but rather an Ancient Treasure, it was indeed part of a book, which itself was an Ancient Treasure.

Simply put, this Rank 2 Ancient Treasure, resembling a page from a book, was just part of a book-like Supreme Ancient Treasure.

The name of the Ancient Treasure was quite badass—Rule Book, and this particular rule was named Spring.

Unlike other Ancient Treasures, normal First Level Ancient Treasures have only one attribute, Rank 2 Ancient Treasures have two, and Rank 3 Top-tier Heirlooms have three, whether passive or active. But this one, fully named Book of Law: Spring, has only one effect.

Ancient Treasure: Book of Law: Spring (Rank 2 Ancient Treasure)

Passive Effect: Spring is the season of revival for all living things. When loaded into a Divine Realm, during the spring season, it drastically enhances the reproduction effect and speed for all beings and additionally provides a minor Purification effect to all creatures in the Divine Realm every week.

Evaluation: Spring has come, and all living things are reborn.

Such Ancient Treasures are quite miraculous. They don’t increase any attributes, and their effect doesn’t seem impressive at first glance. However, when loaded into a Divine Realm over an extended period, one will realize their significant impact.

It’s a pity it’s limited to spring. If he could collect the rules for all four seasons to form a cycle, that would be ideal.

After scavenging all the spoils of war, Lin Xiao returned to his own Divine Realm. There was nothing left to scavenge as the resources from the Nightmare Divine Realm were mostly of no use to him, given the difference in racial power systems and the fact that he was from a different race.

Taking advantage of the ongoing assimilation of his Divine Realm, Lin Xiao went back to his Divine Palace to sort out the spoils of war. He would use what could be used and dispose of what could not.

He was not in a normal state now, and once the absorption of the Nightmare Realm was complete, he would sever his connection to the Divine Realm and return to the bizarre Different World. He anticipated encountering more Children of Nightmare and facing the same type of life-or-death total wars, so he needed to maximize his Divine Realm’s power.

First, he asked Slarda to strengthen the construction of faith without affecting it, and to hold more mass, large-scale Prayers, and similar grand events to accumulate Divine Power in preparation for the next battle.

If he had had enough Divine Power in this battle, he wouldn’t have had to fight so cautiously and desperately.

Next, he planned to adjust some of the Extraordinary Abilities on the Extraordinary Magic Net.

The previous battle revealed that although these Extraordinary Abilities on the Magic Net were powerful, they were not very practical except for summoning Water Elementals; principally because they had too high requirements for use.

Well, with the exception of the Foresight transcendental ability.

This Extraordinary Magic Net, which he had envisioned to be usable by all Clans within his Divine Realm, was actually only frequently usable by the Wise Goblins and Supreme Naga. The Earth Dwarves could barely manage to use it once, and the Small Fishman couldn’t use it at all. This limitation was too big, and it was a waste not to utilize the full potential of this treasure.

He considered adjusting the five Extraordinary Abilities on it, changing what needed to be changed and weakening what needed to be weakened.

After all, these were only Rank 1 Extraordinary Abilities; they had such high requirements now, but what about when the treasure upgrades and can load Rank 2 Extraordinary Abilities?

The first was Foresight, transformed from his own Extraordinary Ability. With its minimal consumption, even Small Fishman could use it; this one needed no change.

The second was Godspeed. After pondering for a moment, Lin Xiao cut its power in half.

Extraordinary Ability: Godspeed.

Passive Attributes: Increase Speed by 50%, ignoring ordinary deceleration abilities.

Active Attributes: Consume spiritual power to actively cast.

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