The Era of Gods

Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“`

But not now, he has to wait a while; he doesn’t have much money at the moment.

Cards usable in the Divine Realm are not cheap, and with Lin Xiao’s Golden Finger activated, his strength is bound to soar. One or two Biological Cards might not be enough — he needs to prepare more. He plans to directly purchase a four- or five-star food card or a Species Card that can be used as a food resource, and these are not inexpensive.

The best plan, of course, is to wait until after the baseline test.

If he performs well then, he can proudly and justifiably ask his parents for money.

This is the difference between those born into privilege and commoners. When it comes to the number of cards used, everyone is the same: limited to one card per month. But can a month’s use of a one- or two-star card compare to that of a five-star card?

As for why the offspring of the elite still have to go to school, it is mainly because only the Federal Government possesses the method for Opening the Divine Realm. No matter how powerful the elite, even the heirs of Powerful Divine Power must attend school to open their own Divine Realms.

Over the next week, Lin Xiao will enter the Divine Realm daily through the Divine Realm Login Device to observe the situation of the Clan and guide the faith of the Grey Mist Fish People as the situation demands.

Given the time difference between the Main World and the Divine Realm, where one day equals one year, seven days would equal seven years.

Considering that Fishmen mature and are capable of reproduction in just three years, after seven years, some of the initial batch of Fishman refugees are now grandparents, though many Fishmen have also died, as their life span is capped at twenty years. But given their living conditions, the vast majority don’t live to reach twenty before dying.

According to the pattern established over the past two hundred years since the Divine Realm was opened, ordinary Grey Mist Fish People typically live to fifteen years old, which is considered old. By this age, they are unable to fight or hunt.

Thanks to the relatively sufficient food supply within the Divine Realm, and Lin Xiao’s deliberate guidance, these elderly Fish People still have enough to eat to avoid starving to death.

If this were a wild Fish people tribe where the food was not as abundant, the old Fishmen wouldn’t just have to worry about having enough to eat—they might even be used as food themselves to sustain the younger Fishmen.

This isn’t because Lin Xiao harbors any notions about caring for the elderly or because he’s kindhearted; for him, every believer is precious, especially the elderly Fishmen. By this age, their faith is usually strong, and they’re likely to be True Believers, a constant source of Faith value. He wouldn’t dream of letting them go.

To a Deity, even if you do nothing all day but eat and sleep, sleeping and eating like a pig, as long as you devoutly believe in them, you are a good believer and worth nurturing.

After seven years, by the time Lin Xiao exited for the last time, the number of Fishmen in the Divine Realm had exceeded six hundred, approaching the critical line for food supply. Any further increase in population would be hard to sustain.

Fortunately, the baseline test was set for tomorrow, and he was filled with anticipation for it.

The next day, early in the morning, he received a message from his homeroom teacher. He quickly washed up, lay in the Divine Realm Login Cabin, and logged into the Divine Realm.

However, this time he did not enter his own Divine Realm but arrived at a massive palace floating in the boundless Void.

The palace, pure Gold and emitting a faint Divine light, radiated a powerful divinity. The inscription above the grand doors read “Dongning City’s Fifth High School, Class 1-3,” which was his homeroom teacher’s Divine Artifact.

It’s a common Divine Artifact supplied by the school, with one assigned to each homeroom teacher for the students’ collective classes.

In this era, there is only one major class each week, so students usually stay at home and enter the Divine Realm through the Divine Realm Login Device for regular classes and ordinary baseline tests. Only for important mid-term and end-term exams do they gather at the school in the Main World.

Well, sometimes they gather at the Main World’s school for important events or competitions as well.

Lin Xiao’s will transformed into a golden light that entered the grand palace, appearing directly in a great hall and taking the form of his True Body, standing on the golden floor.

“`

At this point, not many people had arrived, and he casually found a corner to stand in.

As time passed, more and more students arrived, and the crowd grew. They formed small groups and chatted in hushed tones. There were quite a few students like Lin Xiao, standing alone among the groups.

As the saying goes, where there are people, there are societies, and even a classroom is no different. For students like them, who have the qualifications to open the Divine Realm, competition begins upon enrollment. They vie for the teachers’ attention, the school’s resources, and various rankings.

And through this competition, naturally, a hierarchy is established, with top students and those who lag behind.

Though they were students, they were also competitors, so naturally, their relationships weren’t great.

Like the three students standing to the right of Lin Xiao, the one in front, with a red crystal embedded in his forehead like an eye, and extremely handsome, was named Yuan Hong. He came from a very good background; his father was a True God.

Although he had just been divinely enthroned with Weak Divine Power, he was still a True God.

As a direct descendant of a True God, Yuan Hong inherited his father’s bloodline, and when opening the Divine Realm, he possessed an extra bit of Divinity beyond the basic one. He was innately stronger than the rest, the top student in the class with the best results, his ranking always fluctuating between first and second, standing out on his own. He could even rank within the top ten of the entire grade.

Looking at the other side, among the four students, there was a very tall and muscular man, built like a small Giant. He, too, was a descendant of a True God, but a second-generation rather than a first.

Although he did not inherit any extra innate Divinity, the Transcendent Power he awakened was very powerful, and his grades always hovered in the top five of the class, within the top fifty of the whole grade.

Beyond these, there were several other very strong students, such as Meng Hui, Zhao Erju, Yi Xiao’er, and so on. Though they didn’t have as impressive a background as the first two, their postnatal efforts made them quite formidable.

Typically, excellent students were directly in competition with each other, especially those ranked in the top ten, five, three, and so on. Hence these top students each had their own small circles, with many other students liking to attach themselves to those they guessed could be called strong.

Lin Xiao had no interest in these matters and didn’t cling to any other students.

With his mid-ranking grades, he posed neither competition nor threat to anyone, so his relations with other students were lukewarm at best. They could greet each other when they met, but that was about it.

However, this dynamic was probably going to change after this baseline test, with the activation of the Golden Finger; he couldn’t remain idle anymore.

After greeting the nearby students, he quietly leaned against the corner and closed his eyes to rest.

There was no helping it. Among the fifty students in the class, not a single one was a beautiful girl, which was quite baffling.

About ten minutes later, when all the students had arrived, two exceptionally bright flashes of gold light, accompanied by a powerful awe-inspiring force, descended from the sky. Lin Xiao immediately opened his eyes and saw two figures enveloped by a faint golden glow.

One was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man in a black suit and tie; he was their homeroom teacher, Wu Hai, a High-Level Demigod with the Godhood of erudition.

The other, a young man in a white shirt, was named Zheng WenZhuo, their guidance teacher, and a Normal Demigod with healing powers.

The homeroom teacher, Wu Hai’s, forceful gaze swept across all the students present, his face breaking into a slight smile as he briefly looked at a few of the closest ones—these were the consistently top performers of the class.

“Today marks the start of the final baseline test for the first year of high school. The end-of-term exams are at the beginning of next month, and there will be no extra large classes in the meantime. So, this is your last chance to catch up,” he said.