The Era of Gods

Chapter 355: Chapter 355: The Descent Begins

A tentacle thicker than the ship’s hull was slowly tightening around the vessel, bringing with it an indescribable, nameless aura that hit them full in the face. The muscles of several warriors contorted rapidly as the fused monster flesh and blood instantly went berserk, grotesquely mutating them into terrifying creatures.

“Bang!”

The ship’s hull was crushed by the tentacle, and numerous crew members fell into the water, mutating, while only two Children of Nightmare were preparing to return.

But just as the Light began to shine and space was about to warp, a surge of power from the Human Divine Realm swept in, drawing them directly into the battle within the Divine Realm.

In less than an hour, the War was over, and the two Children of Nightmare simply vanished.

Lin Xiao harvested nineteen units of Divinity from these two Children of Nightmare, a complete seventeen from one, while the other, sensing danger, burned its essence, leaving only two units behind.

The harvest was decent. Lin Xiao was quite satisfied and after a brief cleanup of the battlefield, slowly sank to the seabed.

“Indeed, murder and arson bring a golden belt, I need to do this more often.”

Destroying Nightmare nodes weakens the power of the Nightmare World, and killing large numbers of Children of Nightmare also diminishes the potential of the Nightmare World, both are similar.

Next, he stealthily hid at the bottom of the sea. If any Child of Nightmare passed by, he would launch a stealth ambush as swift and overwhelming as thunder, rending the chiming bells irrelevant, drawing their warship into full engagement with the power of the Divine Realm.

Given the sensitive and hostile relationship between the Divine Realm and the Nightmare Realm, as long as he initiated full-scale combat from the Divine Realm, the Children of Nightmare could not escape and were forced to halt their actions and confront the battle.

He quietly remained hidden at the seabed, targeting lone Children of Nightmare or small groups. He temporarily ignored the large groups that were forming, and after each strike, he relocated to another place. Anyway, the surrounding sea spanning hundreds to thousands of kilometers gave him plenty of room to operate.

He continued to hide deep under the sea, and since the Children of Nightmare typically lacked the means to scout underwater, they were utterly unprepared.

However, such tactics could only work for so long. When too many Children of Nightmare were killed, the survivors naturally became wary and began to move in groups.

After lying in wait for more than ten large groups without finding any stragglers, Lin Xiao knew that the beautiful days of harvesting were over.

But during this period, he harvested no fewer than fifty or sixty Children of Nightmare. The Divinity obtained from each Child varied, with the most being over twenty-five points, although there were very few of them. Fewer than five could be fully harvested before most burned their essence in despair, leaving only a handful of points. The least willing to be consumed exploded their own essence, leaving behind only the minimum of one point.

However, even the worst had a minimum guarantee, and all combined, he harvested a total of three hundred and seventy points of Divinity from this wave alone.

This was an incredibly exaggerated number for someone at Lin Xiao’s level. Including his previous and remaining reserves, he now had accumulated a total of four hundred and twenty-two units of Divinity.

If it had been before, this amount would have been enough to cause his Godness value to surge by over ten points and enter Rank 5 Divinity, but unfortunately, he had now reached the ancient echelons of Rank 6. Advancement at this level could only be achieved through extremely rare special circumstances, as normal integration of Divinity no longer offered any increment, even if he refined all of his current four hundred-plus points.

But this didn’t mean Divinity was useless—in fact, quite the opposite.

Not to mention using the Ancient Treasure, Shield of Truth, to forcibly elevate his Clan to Legendary Beings, in the future his Divinity could also be bestowed upon his Clan to become Divine Beings. When he becomes a Demigod or a True God, he could grant Divinity to elevate his core races to Demigods as his vassal gods.

For example, Slarda, Alemente, Flame Lord Kurbert, and other initial heroes. When he becomes a Demigod, he could also raise them to Demigod status, which would require a substantial amount of Divinity.

It is only in combat against the Children of Nightmare that he could obtain so much Divinity. Normally, when entering the Outland planes to compete with native deities for planes and followers, it would be generally impossible to acquire so much Divinity.

But fighting the Children of Nightmare is also quite dangerous; such battles are a matter of life and death. Once the Divine Realm connects with the Field, one side must fall, and these battles have no restrictions or one-on-one mechanisms. Even the mightiest elites on the Hero list are at risk of falling if luck turns against them.

It was only because he now unwittingly possessed the Body of an Evil God that he dared to venture so deeply into the territory of the Children of Nightmare and hunt like this. Otherwise, he wouldn’t dare.

Afterward, Lin Xiao observed for a while longer, and finding no opportunity, he began to attack openly and boldly, forcibly killing large groups of the Children of Nightmare.

Yes, killing them at the physical level, killing the Children of Nightmare directly, without connecting to the Divine Realm.

It’s not easy to destroy a Nightmare node, especially with a bunch of Children of Nightmare nearby being a hassle. He decided to kill the enemy’s living forces first.

Facing his violent assault, even the largest groups of Children of Nightmare had no power to resist.

With each Child of Nightmare he killed, Lin Xiao could feel the joy and favor emanating from both Gaia’s Will and that of this world—double the joy, double the favor.

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

Under normal circumstances, with his battle achievements, the furious Nightmare’s Will would probably have come knocking on his door long ago, but with the interference and care of Gaia’s Will and the will of this world, Nightmare’s Will was unable to reach him, let alone affect him.

After seven or eight teams, amounting to over a hundred Children of Nightmare, died in one fell swoop, no Children of Nightmare dared to venture out to sea, and the island’s vigilance was raised to the extreme.

But staying on the island did not mean safety. After waiting for half a month with no sign of the Children of Nightmare’s fleet taking to sea, Lin Xiao decided not to wait any longer and prepared to take action against this node of Nightmare.

However, he didn’t just rush in recklessly but…

He stealthily infiltrated the seabed near this place called Node Four of Nightmare, reactivated his shape-shifting ability, turned six huge tentacles into six sturdy arms, and transformed the hands into two shovels, two buckets, and two pincers, then he began to dig at the island’s foundations.

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

Each node of Nightmare was guarded by an incarnation of Nightmare’s Will, and if he charged in alone, he would most likely be thoroughly defeated.

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

Without going into further detail, he first needed to hollow out the foundation and collapse the island into the sea before attacking.

Although the island was massive, with a diameter of over twenty to thirty kilometers, his size was too large. He was digging blocks of silt and mud as big as a soccer field. In a few strokes, he would have carved out a cubic kilometer of a void.

In less than a day, he had hollowed out half of the island base of Nightmare’s fourth node.

To be honest, all the Children of Nightmare on the island were dumbfounded when they received this news from Nightmare’s Will. It took a good while before they could react, and then they were all stupefied, not knowing what to do.

This tactic was too cunning — no one had heard of, thought of, or prepared for such a ploy. Who would have thought that an Evil God would not confront them head-on but instead use such a cunning stratagem to dig out the foundation of an island? It was like a top student bringing a cheat sheet to an exam, a total bully move.

There was absolutely no way to stop it. They were well aware that the island’s foundation was being progressively hollowed out and that one side of the island had begun to tilt, but they simply had no remedy.

Moreover, such an unexpected strategy had never been anticipated before. Consequently, they were not only unable to prevent it, even the original methods on the island used to defend against God-Level monsters were rendered useless.

At this time, the Children of Nightmare on the island wanted to leave but couldn’t. 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, preparing for battle.

Finally, on the evening of the fifth day, the last part of the foundation was hollowed out, and the massive island slowly tilted and sank into the sea, pushing up a swath of water several kilometers high in all directions.

In the center of the island, a thick column of pitch-black light trembled violently. An extremely angry will was rampantly venting its fury. But as the incarnation of Nightmare’s Will that suppressed this node, it usually couldn’t leave the column. Once it did, the node’s power would be weakened, becoming very vulnerable and easily destroyed by external forces.

The will of this world hated this node of Nightmare to the bone. If the incarnation of Nightmare’s Will were to leave it for even a brief period, the node would be in danger of being shattered in an instant.

Even with the forceful suppression of the incarnation of Nightmare’s Will, the island sank slowly into the sea without breaking apart. The water displaced by the island’s weight flowed back, forming a tide of hundreds of meters that surged over the island, destroying the facilities like dry weeds and stopped only at the center of the island by a huge transparent shield. Under the shield, gathered around the column of Nightmare’s node, stood the remaining Children of Nightmare, totaling around seven to eight hundred.

In the sea, Lin Xiao was in his element. His massive tentacles transformed into battering rams, smashing down ferociously. Amidst the thunderous noise, the transparent shield rippled with huge waves, and the Children of Nightmare trapped inside looked on in fear, deeply pessimistic about their future.

“Boom!”

The world suddenly brightened, accompanied by a deafening explosion. A massive column of water, over a hundred meters in diameter, rose from the sea, and at the same time, a severed tentacle churned to the surface amidst the turbulent waters.

A figure riding a colorful cloud flew from afar, raising a hand and hurling a huge bolt of lightning into the sea, evaporating a large area and revealing a dark tentacle more than ten meters below the water’s surface.

After two tentacles were blown off in a row, although they were minor extensions of his body, it caught Lin Xiao’s attention. His enormous body heaved up billions of tons of seawater as he rose from the sea, a ring of auras exploding, creating chaos on the island.

Lin Xiao didn’t pay attention to the chaos among the Children of Nightmare on the island but looked up at the towering man standing on the colorful cloud in the sky, squinting his eyes slightly.

From this Child of Nightmare, he felt a significant pressure. This Child of Nightmare posed a certain threat to himself.

“Interesting!”

Clearly, this Child of Nightmare was a super elite of the Nightmare World, equivalent to a leading figure among human prodigies, and furthermore, one akin to a Demigod at the peak, on the verge of Divine Enthronement. Only such powerful beings would dare face an Evil God directly.