The Era of Gods

Chapter 272: The Evil Spirit in the Unknown Void

In that moment, he sensed three powerful presences: three players who had activated their True Bodies were at the edge of a ruin that seemed already enveloped by the aura of death… as if they were in a standoff.

He recognized one of them, the player who had nearly blocked his way at the entrance to a dungeon before. Right now, he was mounted on a Heroic Warhorse, standing still outside of the Undead Relic, shrouded in white light. The other two players who had descended in their True Bodies stood to his front, one on each side, forming a pincer arrangement and similarly enveloped in a white glow.

At the same time, he noticed that each of the two players flanking had shot out a thick white beam of light from their arms, striking Li Wenze. Beside them stood a dozen followers each, a mix of players and native heroes, all staring at them with faces filled with a nervous, expectant gaze.

“Is this a two-against-one duel?”

Just then, he saw a player suddenly burst out from the nearby jungle, and before the others could react, rushed to the edge of the Undead Relic, quickly summoning all of their troops and disappearing into the thick fog.

“Has it really been activated?”

Lin Xiao knew that the Undead Relic had been in an inactive state before, appearing as an ordinary ruin during the day and only opening at night.

But now it was daytime, and the relic was already in an active state.

What surprised him more, however, was that the subordinates of the three players had ample time to mobilize troops and intercept, yet they didn’t stop the intruder, only making a token effort to block before letting them through.

Lin Xiao stroked his chin thoughtfully and sneaked around from the other side.

Soon he arrived at the edge of the relic, undetected by the guards. Although puzzled, he didn’t hesitate to charge into the dense, swirling presence of the Undead Relic.

No sooner had he made a move than a few players spotted him, but they, too, ignored him, merely glancing his way before turning their attention away.

Curious, Lin Xiao looked toward the scene, but an abrupt prompt caught him by surprise, causing him to instinctively halt.

Perhaps having drawn close enough, when he looked again, another prompt appeared before his eyes, revealing that the three True Body Descenders were engaged in full-scale combat, or more precisely, the other two were fully invading Li Wenze’s Divine Realm.

Right, it wasn’t a battle of heroic troops, but a direct connection of the three Divine Realms, a comprehensive invasion, synonymous with a fight to the death.

This form of battle, only possible when the True Bodies descended, was something Lin Xiao had heard of but never witnessed. In this mode, the Divine Realms of both sides would fully interface, directly invading the enemy’s Divine Realm, slaughtering the enemy’s Clan and plundering resources.

Whether attacker or defender, if defeated, all members of a Clan would be slain, and all resources within the Divine Realm would be plundered, with even the True Body facing the risk of falling.

This kind of all-or-nothing combat was not uncommon within the ruins. Those who dared to descend in their True Bodies were essentially gambling with their lives, indifferent to who they might offend as long as they saw an opportunity to strike fiercely.

For some reason, Li Wenze was alone and had been caught by the other two, now facing a life-and-death trial.

Outside the Ruins of Myriad, who knows how many people were watching this live broadcast? Long before the Divine Realms interfaced, betting houses had already placed odds on this battle, with the odds of Li Wenze winning alone against two being as high as two hundred to one, indicating little confidence in his chances.

The subordinates of the three were both tense and excited at this moment. A comprehensive invasion, a battle of life and death, was far more interesting than guarding the Undead Relic, especially since they had no way of entering themselves.

Receiving this information, even Lin Xiao himself was overcome with immense curiosity and couldn’t help but take a few steps forward, tempted to watch the battle.

At Lin Family Fortress, Lin Haolin saw his son suddenly appear at the edge of the live broadcast and froze, unintentionally crushing the teacup in his hand, tea spilling everywhere unnoticed.

Jin Yunzhu saw this and crushed the crystal in her hand, rushing over and grabbing her husband’s hand with a look of concern:

“Dear, our son wouldn’t be…”

Lin Xiao’s father patted his wife’s hand to comfort her:

“Don’t worry, he wouldn’t be that impulsive, he must be just curious to have a look.”

But still worried, she was about to ask further when Lin Xiao stopped in his tracks.

He suddenly remembered that someone had already entered the relic, and if he continued to watch, he might miss his opportunity to plunder the treasure first, deciding it was better to enter the Undead Relic and secure the treasure for himself.

While the relic didn’t limit the number of entrants, only one person could take the treasure, which would belong to whoever got it first.

As soon as he entered the relic, an icy chill hit him, but it felt much weaker than before.

This was normal, after all, he possessed two items that could increase his resistance: the Heart of the Stone Man that granted 10% Magic Resistance and the Wrath of the Demon which increased his negative status resistance by 10%. The deathly aura’s erosion counted as a negative status, which added up to 20% resistance. With an additional boost from his four points of strategic Constitution, even a Rifleman could withstand the death aura now.

There were no Ghosts to be found inside the relic, but after a minute had passed, a prompt popped up:

“The treasure of the Undead Relic will activate in one minute. After activation, you will be unable to exit…”

A countdown timer appeared before him.

Lin Xiao waited expressionlessly, while checking his troop configuration.

Fifty Ironmen, three hundred Elite Archers, and two hundred Elite Riflemen, but no Griffin Archers.

This thing had gradually been lost in the previous battles, and now, with less than thirty left, it could not form a scale. Its combat power was limited, not as good as being replaced by twice the number of elite archers.

The countdown ended quickly, and at the moment it reached zero, he felt the void in front of him start to distort, infinite white light filling his vision. When he regained sight, he found himself and his subordinates standing on the walls of a city.

The sun shone high in the sky, with a rifleman and archer stationed at intervals along the city wall. A stone road extended from the city gates into the distance, where convoys and pedestrians were coming and going, with troops patrolling up and down the road.

Far beyond the city wall lay flat grasslands, with large patches of cultivated farmland. Many thatched cottages were built along the edge of the fields where farmers worked diligently.

Lin Xiao looked behind and saw houses packed closely together inside the city, with a bustling crowd moving along the main roads—a scene of prosperity.

“The ruins before they were destroyed?”

As he finished speaking, a screen of light popped up in front of him, and rows of twisted characters formed by light slowly emerged:

“A level 3 Undead Hero has sworn to destroy this beautiful city, and as a holy Cathedral Hero, you are required to ensure the city does not fall within one month.”

“Hint: For this month, you will be the city’s highest commander, with absolute authority over orders.”

“Hint: The integrity of the city must not be less than 75%.”

“Hint: Civilian survival rate must not be less than 75%.”

“Hint: You and another challenger will start the challenge at the same time; the one with the highest completion will gain the ownership of the Ruins’ treasure, the loser will be eliminated.”

“Hint: If any of the minimum conditions are exceeded, the challenge will be considered a failure, and you will be trapped within the Ruins, unable to escape.”

“Hint: The Vanguards of the Undead will arrive in three days.”

Lin Xiao looked back at the city and the guards on either side of the wall. He felt that he could command these guards just as he commanded his own troops.

However, there were too few guards, and the entire city’s defense forces combined were not as numerous as his own subordinates.

And his opponent was a level 3 Undead Hero, with strength many times greater than his…

It is worth mentioning that among all the factions, the basic individual strength of the Skeletons ranks at the bottom. However, they only take up half the population of other faction’s first-level soldiers, meaning two Skeletons account for one population slot. This is the origin of the infamous Skeletons Sea of the Undead faction, where an Undead Hero of the same level commands the most troops.

Lin Xiao had three days to prepare. He didn’t immediately do anything but instead sat on the back of a griffin and made a full circle around the entire map.

The space he was currently in was a projection of the Ruins map, recreating the scene before the city was destroyed, with an approximate range of a thirty-kilometer diameter centered on the city.

There were no dense forests surrounding the city as in reality, but many villages and farmlands scattered around.

After observing the surrounding terrain, Lin Xiao found that there were no advantageous terrains to utilize, not even places for ambush; they could only stand and defend head-on.

To be precise, they could only defend the city and then counterattack.

To be more precise, they had to hold out first.

After returning to the city, he entered the City Lord’s Mansion and swiftly issued several orders to the officials. He declared the city to be in a state of war, ordered every civilian outside the city to be gathered within, and by the way, all food supplies were confiscated into storage. Martial law was implemented in the city, and all merchants’ food supplies were requisitioned, even if it incurred the strong dissatisfaction of the merchants.

Whether or not they were satisfied was a matter for later; for now, the priority was to get through this challenge.

After the requisitioning was complete, Lin Xiao looked at the full food warehouses with satisfaction and nodded.

Regardless, there was definitely enough food to last a month, with some to spare.

There was no chance for shortcuts in this battle. They could only take a direct approach and rely on the city’s fortifications and the current troop strength to fend off the enemy.

In the three days, Lin Xiao tried everything to increase strength, including temporarily hiring guards from the wealthy merchants within the city, mostly first-level soldiers with a few at the second and third level, among which he found ten level 4 swordsmen and two knights from an aristocrat.

Fortunately, their opponents were the Undead—completely uncommunicative. The city’s merchants and aristocrats were very enthusiastic in contributing their wealth to the effort.

The three days passed quickly, and on the morning of the third day, Lin Xiao, accompanied by the original military officers of the city, appeared at the top of the wall. From afar, they could see a dark mass approaching them slowly.

Upon getting closer, they realized it was a sea of skeletons and zombies sprawling from east to west over more than two kilometers, with hundreds of ghosts gathered in a pale mass, floating towards them, making Lin Xiao’s eyelids twitch.

A level 3 Hero can command up to Fifth Level soldiers. The Undead’s first-level soldiers are Skeletons, second-level Zombies, third-level Ghosts, fourth-level Vampires, and fifth-level Corpse Witches.

This Undead Hero was followed by about fifty Corpse Witches, around two hundred Vampires, three to four hundred Ghosts, approximately a thousand Zombies, and the rest were Skeletons, probably numbering over ten thousand —a sight that sent shivers down the spine.

As for Lin Xiao, he only had two hundred elite riflemen, three hundred elite archers, fifty Iron Men, and the city guards, still fewer in number than his own men, as well as hastily assembled guards from the wealthy merchants and aristocrats, around a thousand in total.