The Era of Gods

Chapter 286: 286 What has this incarnation done again?

This was a Branding deep within the spirit entity’s will, which was naturally obtained once the requirements were met.

In the world of the gods, this was the “Wrath” Godhood, which allowed him to continuously draw strength from the wrath of all beings and grow increasingly powerful.

The most direct experience was that the instant he obtained the Authority of Wrath, he could feel a fine, invisible thread between himself and the dense, evil spirit entities around him. That was the power of the Authority, and as long as they harbored the emotion of anger, it would contribute a thread of strength to him.

Perhaps this power was insignificant, and even when added up from all those around him, it wasn’t much, but it was enduring and continuous, and his absorption range would greatly increase as his strength grew in the future.

The stronger the emotion of anger, the stronger the power provided.

Moreover, with this Authority, he also had control over evil spirit entities that didn’t possess an Authority.

That is to say, with the “Wrath” Authority, he could completely command any evil spirit entity below Level Eight to do almost any command except for self- destructive ones like dying.

While advancing, Lin Xiao also sensed a vast and abyss-like will deeper in the sea, a great will of malevolent thoughts dissimilar to his own kind.

Indeed, after racking his brain, he could only describe this will as great in terms of its power and terror.

The moment he ascended, he felt the will look over, and with just a glance, his own will was frozen in that instant, unable to feel his existence. Lin Xiao had a strong feeling that if the will desired, it could strip away his Authority, which was terrifying beyond measure.

Fortunately, this great will bore no malice, merely taking a glance.

But that didn’t mean the will was benign; it was merely because he was too weak. If he wasn’t mistaken, that will should belong to the holder of another Authority, a complete holder, its level unknown.

When he fully ascended, Lin Xiao felt an invisible force envelop him, breaking open space and appearing in…

The upper layer of an endless black sea, where countless writhing and twisting evil spirit entities formed a sticky black liquid sea. The moment he appeared, the surrounding energy triggered a vast vortex around him. The evil spirit entities, which were previously as unsettled as a pot boiling over, calmed down after his arrival, backing away to form a protective circle around him.

‘Wrath’ Lord!

Lin Xiao’s will spread unrestrained over this black sea, with most of the evil spirit entities around not daring to come close but a few extremely powerful ones seemingly harboring other intentions. He could feel their restless yearning.

This black sea was the same black void that the Ghost battleship had traversed through before; he had now become one of the countless twisted and writhing evil spirit entities he had seen. He couldn’t help but marvel at the capricious nature of Destiny, indeed fickle.

This black void was not immutable. Though it seemed unchanging, it was constantly in flux, their position shifting continuously.

Just as people on earth think the sun is stationary in space, but in reality, the earth orbits the sun at a velocity of over twenty kilometers per second, and the sun, carrying its planetary entourage, is hurtling through the galaxy at a speed of over two hundred and forty kilometers per second. But because velocity is relative and we are too insignificant in the grand scheme, we can’t feel it while on earth.

Lin Xiao felt similarly, floating in this vast and boundless void, imperceptible and unfelt. Seemingly motionless, yet he could sense the shift in his position.

This drifting was timeless.

Lin Xiao remained in this vortex created by his own ‘Wrath’ power, quietly absorbing the endlessly generated ‘Wrath’ strength.

Slow, yet pure and continuous.

He was tempted to devour the surrounding evil spirit entities, but he could not, because of the constraints of that great will in the void; upon their arrival here’ from their place of birth, they weren’t allowed to devour each other without cause.

However, this didn’t mean they couldn’t fight each other in an orderly manner; proactive challenges to individual targets were allowed.

For example, before long, Lin Xiao sensed the stirrings of a powerful evil spirit entity, which had been restless from early on, now pushing through the others to approach and simultaneously issuing a challenge.

This was exactly what he wanted, and he immediately accepted the challenge.

Then, the powerful evil spirit entity of Sixth Level with a nearly ten-meter span of a vast, sticky, black sludge-like body lunged towards him.

“Wrath!”

His body twisted and transformed into a tall humanoid with several tentacles made of thick sludge. Though he had just ascended, as a Lord his strength immediately leaped past Levels Four and Five, reaching Sixth Level. With a point of his finger, the power of Wrath affected his opponent, causing it to instantly flare up in inexplicable anger, losing its reason and pouncing with a distorted form that had originally been postured.

The power was similar to Godhood, an irresistible force for beings below Legends; even if they knew what he was going to do, watched him do it, and constantly thought to resist the influence, the moment the power descended, they would be involuntarily affected and unable to fend off.

In a state of fury, one would lose reason in an instant and forget one’s purpose. This creature had quickly forgotten its intentions and attacked wildly without any coherence.

Lin Xiao merely extended a few tentacles to block the opponent’s charge; another tentacle wrapped around the opponent’s rear, transforming into a sharp spike and stabbing down, ending the battle.

The tentacle-turned-whip lodged in the corpse, and the black liquid that made up its body shattered completely. The core was gone, already extracted and collected by him.

He had no use for these impure bodies, but to other Evil Spirit Entities, they were a supreme delicacy. Once he made it clear that he didn’t want them, the surrounding Evil Spirit Entities swarmed and devoured everything, returning calm to the vortex.

But before long, another powerful Evil Spirit Entity, having forgotten the pain of its injuries, challenged him again, and so…

Another delicacy was delivered right to his doorstep.

Lin Xiao was very keen on such deliveries, as they not only allowed him to harvest Creation Energy but also gave him something to do in this barren world —having nothing to do coidd be torturous.

Days passed by just like that; every day, what he looked forward to most was someone foolish enough to challenge him. Without a challenge, he felt bored.

Anyway, with the powers of a Lord and his battle experience, none of these non-Legend Evil Spirit Entities could defeat him in a one-on-one fight.

As for the other Lords with powers…

He hadn’t seen any, and he couldn’t sense a single one either-perhaps there were too few or they were too far away. In any case, he hadn’t encountered anyone within his sensory range.

The Treasure Land of All Phenomena was a floating land suspended in the void, with a massive fireball hanging mid-air, radiating surges of heat and sheltering the creatures on the land below.

Compared to the Hero Continent, the area of the Treasure Land of All Phenomena was much smaller, but the terrain was more complex, the monsters more numerous and stronger, and the resources more abundant and of higher grade. It contained a large number of ordinary treasures, as well as many special treasures prefixed with “All Phenomena.”

As a map specially prepared for players, the competition was naturally intense. There were no native heroes, and only players were allowed in and could not leave once they entered.

Inside, there were no rules; players were free to engage in Player versus Player (PvP) to eliminate each other. They could fight solo or team up with others to eliminate other players until the game ended after one year, at which point all players would leave the Ruins of Myriad and the points would be tallied to determine the rankings.

The rules and map introduction were simple, but the content was anything but —for some players, they regretted coming in.

When Wang Xiao first entered the Treasure Land at Hero Level 4, he was ranked within the top hundred in overall strength and was full of confidence, hoping to demonstrate his abilities upon entry. However, reality dealt him a harsh blow.

Upon entry, he found himself in a small canyon and saw a group of Lizardmen monsters ranked as “countless” at the mouth of the canyon. There was a Golden Chest next to it. Delighted that the resources were indeed richer, he didn’t think much and charged straight at them.

Then, he realized how foolish he was.

The monsters weren’t wrong, and neither were the Level 2 Lizardmen, but their sheer number was terrifying-fifteen thousand Lizardman Shooters, raining down a barrage of arrows that left him stunned, truly living up to the “countless” rating.

Luckily, his forces were decent; he had raised a large batch of Fifth Level Thunderbird Troops. With their speed advantage, they broke into the Lizardman Shooter formation, creating complete chaos. When the main force of over two thousand Half-beastman axe throwers joined the fray, they managed to wipe out the Lizardman Shooters at the cost of losing over three hundred Half-beastman axe throwers and about fifty Thunderbirds.

Compared to the victory, the loss seemed negligible, but this was just any ordinary monster! With no faction cities to replenish troops, one could only rely on their own barracks. Wang Xiao felt like crying; even acquiring a Golden Chest couldn’t ease his sorrow.

Then, as he walked out of the canyon, he saw another Golden Chest at the path’s entrance, guarded by a “countless” number of Skeleton Guardians, and he fell into deep indecision.

He was torn, wanting to go forward but not daring to.

The experience from the last battle made him apprehensive, but the fact that the weakest monsters were the Skeletons gave him hope. This feeling…

“Damn it, I’ll risk it. I can handle this loss,” he said.

He proceeded to draw out a certain number of Half-beastman axe throwers from his troop storage to replenish his army and charged at the monsters.

“Fuck!”

As his figure faded, a frustrated curse was faintly heard.

In another swamp, Li Xiushen watched calmly as a huge Black Dragon, rated as “many” and radiating a scorching aura, lay in front of him along with a Dark Gold Exquisite Treasure Box it was guarding. He casually took out a meat pie and started eating. After he finished, he even found time to wash the grease from his hands in the swamp water nearby before calmly turning to leave.

“What a joke, with a ‘many’ suffix, if there aren’t over fifty, I’ll jump down here right now,” he said.

He pointed to the filthy, insect-infested swamp nearby and hastened his steps, as if afraid the Black Dragon would awaken and charge at him.

Although he had never seen monsters aggressively attack heroes, who knew if the ones in the Treasure Land were different?