The Era of Gods

Chapter 350: Preparation and Departure

A tentacle thicker than the vessel itself was slowly tightening around the ship’s body. An indescribable presence assaulted their faces, and several warriors saw their muscles rapidly distort as the fused monster flesh and blood went berserk, quickly transforming them into terrifying monsters.

“Bang!”

The warship’s hull was crushed by the tentacle, and many crew members fell into the water, mutating. Only two Children of Nightmare were preparing to return.

But just as a light began to shine and before space could twist, power from the Human Divine Realm swept over them and directly dragged them into the God’s Domain War.

Not an hour later, the War ended, and the two Children of Nightmare disappeared without a trace.

From these two Children of Nightmare, Lin Xiao harvested nineteen units of Divinity, seventeen from one and, sensing danger, the other burned its origins, leaving only two units.

The harvest was not bad, Lin Xiao was quite satisfied. After a quick cleanup of the battlefield, he slowly sank into the depths of the sea.

“It seems that killing people and setting fires does bring in the gold. I should do this more often.”

Destroying Nightmare nodes weakened the Nightmare World’s power, and slaying numerous Children of Nightmare also reduced the Nightmare World’s potential in the same way.

He then stealthily hid on the sea bottom, destroying the warship of any Child of Nightmare who passed by with tactically efficient and swift strikes, before opening the Power of God’s Domain to drag them into full-scale combat.

Given the deep enmity and sensitivity between God’s Domain and the Nightmare Realm, as long as he initiated full combat through God’s Domain, the Children of Nightmare couldn’t escape and were forced to stop their actions and face the battle.

He quietly hid on the sea bottom, targeting lone or small groups of Children of Nightmare. He did not interfere with larger groups for the time being. Moreover, after each attack, he moved to a different location—around him, there were hundreds to thousands of kilometers of sea territory to operate in.

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Always lurking in the depths, the Children of Nightmare generally lacked the means to scout the sea, leaving them unprepared.

However, this tactic could only work for so long. When too many Children of Nightmare died, the rest naturally became more vigilant and started to appear in groups.

After Lin Xiao staked out more than ten large groups without finding any stragglers, he knew that the golden days of harvesting were over.

But during this time, he harvested no fewer than fifty or sixty Children of Nightmare. Each Child of Nightmare yielded varying amounts of Divinity, with the most being over twenty-five units, though those were few in number. Fewer than five could be completely harvested, most burnt their origins in desperation, leaving only a few points, and the ones who refused to be devoured detonated their origins, leaving him with just the minimal one unit.

Even the poorest yield had its minimum, adding them all up, this wave alone amounted to a total of three hundred seventy units of Divinity.

This was an extremely significant number for someone at Lin Xiao’s level. Including his previous balance, he had now accumulated a total of four hundred twenty-two units of Divinity.

If it were the past, that would have been enough to make his Godness value surge by more than ten points and step into the fifth Divinity Level. Unfortunately, his Divinity Level had already reached the ancient rank of Rank 6. At this rank, Divinity could only be increased through extremely rare special circumstances. Normal fusion of Divinity no longer resulted in an increase, even if he refined all of the four hundred plus points of Divinity, he could not raise it by even one point.

But that did not mean Divinity was useless; on the contrary, it was very important.

Not to mention using the Ancient Treasure, Shield of Truth, to forcibly elevate members of his Clan to Legendary Beings status, he could later grant Divinity to his Clan to become Divine Beings. If he became a Demigod or a True God, he could grant Divinity to elevate core members of his Clan to Demigods as his own divine subordinates.

Such as Slarda, Alemente, and the Flame Lord Kurbert, as well as other initial Heroes—if he later became a Demigod, he could also raise them to Demigod status. All of this would require a vast amount of Divinity.

It was also through battling the Children of Nightmare that he was able to acquire so much Divinity; normally entering an Outland plane and competing with indigenous deities for domains and faith didn’t yield nearly as much Divinity.

Yet battle with the Children of Nightmare was quite dangerous. It was a fight to the death: once God’s Domain clashed with a Field, one side was bound to fall. And there were no limitations in this kind of conflict, nor a one-on-one duel structure—if luck was poor, even the supreme elites on the peerless list could risk falling.

It was only because he now possessed this Body of Evil God by sheer fluke that he could venture so deep into the territory of the Children of Nightmare and hunt as he did. Otherwise, he would never dare to hunt so audaciously.

Afterward, Lin Xiao observed for a while longer and, seeing no further opportunities, he began to act in a more overt manner, forcefully killing off large groups of Children of Nightmare.

Yes, he killed them in the real-world sense, directly eliminating the Children of Nightmare without engaging the Divine Realm.

Destroying a Nightmare node wouldn’t be easy, and it would be problematic with a bunch of Children of Nightmare around. He resolved to kill off the enemy’s active forces first.

Against his violent assaults, even the largest groups of Children of Nightmare had no chance of resisting.

With every Child of Nightmare he killed, Lin Xiao could feel the joy and favors from both Gaia Will and the will of his own world—double joy, double favor.

Of course, there was also rage from Nightmare’s Will.

Under normal circumstances, given his feats, Nightmare’s Will would have come seeking him out in anger long ago, but with the interference and care from Gaia Will and the will of this world, Nightmare’s Will simply couldn’t touch him, let alone affect him.

With seven or eight teams dead in one fell swoop, and over a hundred Children of Nightmare, no more dared to set sail from the island. The island’s alert level was pulled to the extreme.

But not venturing out didn’t mean safety. When half a month passed without a glimpse of the Children of Nightmare’s fleet taking to the sea, Lin Xiao decided not to wait anymore and prepared to make his move on this Nightmare node.

However, he didn’t just brazenly charge in, but rather…..

He sneakily submerged himself under the sea near the island’s base, known as Nightmare Node Four, and once again activated his transformation ability, mutating his six massive tentacles into six sturdy flesh arms, the palms turned into two shovel-like appendages, two digging buckets, and two pincers; then he began digging at the island’s foundation.

Yes, he didn’t directly attack the island. That would have been too foolish.

Every Nightmare node would have an incarnation of the Nightmare’s Will guarding it, and charging in alone, he would likely be badly beaten.

Although his Body of Evil God was formidable, he didn’t believe he could defeat an incarnation of Nightmare’s Will who mastered all the rules of a world. Naturally, the best method was to use circuitous tactics.

Without going into the details, it was suffice to simply dig out the foundation of the island and cause it to collapse and sink into the sea to make it easier to attack.

The island, though vast with a diameter of over twenty to thirty kilometers, was no match for his enormous size; with each dig, he scooped up an area of mud and sand the size of a soccer field, quickly hollowing out a cubic kilometer.

In less than a day, half of Nightmare Node Four’s foundation had been dug out by him.

To be honest, when the Children of Nightmare on the island received this news from Nightmare’s Will, they were dumbstruck, and it took them quite a while to realize what was happening. Then, they became utterly confused and had no idea what to do.

This tactic was too cunning; it was unheard of, unexpected, and unprepared for. Who would think that an Evil God wouldn’t attack head-on but would use such a cunning stratagem to dig out an island’s foundation, like a top student bringing the correct answers to an exam—it was simply too bullying.

There was no solution; they knew that the island’s foundation was gradually being undermined and that one side of the island was starting to tilt, yet they were powerless.

Moreover, because such a move had never been anticipated, they were not only unable to stop it, but even the original precautions in place on the island for preventing Evil God-level monsters were rendered useless.

By this time, the Children of Nightmare on the island wanted to flee but were unable to. Even if Lin Xiao did not stop them, Nightmare’s Will would not allow them to leave the battlefield. All the Children of Nightmare were forcibly constrained on the island to prepare for the battle.

Finally, on the evening of the fifth day, the last part of the foundation was dug out, and the vast island slowly tilted and sank into the sea, setting off a wave several kilometers high that broke in every direction.

In the center of the island, a large black pillar of light trembled violently as a rage-filled will indiscriminately vented its fury. However, as the incarnation of Nightmare’s Will suppressing this node, it normally couldn’t leave the pillar of light. Once it left, the Nightmare node would lose its power and become very fragile, easily destroyed by external forces.

The will of this world utterly abhorred the Nightmare node, and if the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate left the node for even a short while, it would no doubt crumble unexpectedly.

Under the forced suppression of the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate, the island slowly submerged into the sea but did not shatter. The water displaced by the island refilled the space, forming a huge tide that surged onto the island. The island’s facilities were swept away as if they were nothing, and all were crushed towards the center of the island where they were stopped by a huge transparent shield. Beneath the shield clustered around the Nightmare node’s pillar of light were the remaining Children of Nightmare on the island, totaling seven to eight hundred.

In the sea was Lin Xiao’s home turf; his massive tentacles turned into battering rams and hammered down with a shock that filled the heavens. Huge ripples continuously spread across the transparent shield as fear appeared in the eyes of the Children of Nightmare inside, deeply pessimistic about their future.

“Boom!”

Suddenly, there was a bright light in the sky, accompanied by a deafening boom, a huge water column over a hundred meters in diameter rose from the sea, while a broken tentacle tumbled with the waves and surfaced.

A figure riding a rainbow cloud flew in from the distance, raised a hand, and another huge lightning bolt struck the sea, evaporating a large area of water and revealing a black tentacle about ten meters below the surface.

After two tentacles were blown off in succession, even though they were smaller branches from his body, it caught Lin Xiao’s attention. His colossal body raised billions of tons of seawater as he stood up from the sea, a ring of auras exploding, causing chaos on the island.

Lin Xiao did not pay heed to the chaos among the Children of Nightmare on the island. Instead, he looked up at the tall man standing on the rainbow cloud in the sky, his eyes narrowing slightly.

From this Child of Nightmare, he felt a considerable pressure; this Child of Nightmare posed a certain threat to him.

“Interesting!”

Clearly, this Child of Nightmare was a supreme elite of the Nightmare World, comparable to a prodigy ranked among human elites, and akin to a top existence at the Demigod Peak with the potential to achieve Divine Enthronement at any moment,