The Era of Gods

Chapter 398: Chapter 398: Promotion to Totem Lord

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No sooner had the thought occurred when a massive rumbling came from within the city, like the sound of footsteps. Then, a colossal head emerged from behind the tall city walls. A giant, ten meters tall, climbed over the walls that were over a dozen meters high and casually lifted a huge boulder from the parapet to smash it down.

“Fuck!”

Upon seeing the fourth giant’s head appear, a group of Children of the Spirit Realm beat a hasty retreat in a crestfallen manner.

“This is too much. Where did this plane get giants from?”

Having eluded their pursuers, they found a place in the wilderness to hide. Over a dozen Children of the Spirit Realm gathered, all with unpleasant expressions on their faces.

They had thought to assassinate their target, but they had nearly met disaster before even entering through the city gates; the contrast was depressingly stark.

“It seems we can’t sneak in using normal methods. Let’s find another spot tomorrow to stealthily infiltrate.”

One of the Children of the Spirit Realm said,

“My Totem Talent is good at burrowing. I’ll find a spot to dig directly underground into the city tomorrow. I believe we won’t get caught.”

“Why wait until tomorrow? Let’s dig tonight.”

That night, the group appeared on a certain section of the city wall, a barren patch of land more than two hundred meters away from the wall itself. Under cover of darkness and the weeds, they began to dig.

The Totem Model of this Child of the Spirit Realm was a monster proficient in burrowing. He temporarily transformed into a monstrous form and plunged into the ground, effortlessly parting the soil to enter, quickly excavating a large tunnel. The others followed into the tunnel and entered the depths below.

Deep beneath the Life Grand Cathedral, Lin Xiao’s Totem Domain opening was entering its final phase.

As the dark golden waves expanded to a certain degree and were about to break away from his psyche, he knew this was his field’s limit.

The expansion of the dark golden wave ceased after reaching the psychic limit. At this point, his Sea of Consciousness had transitioned from a purely illusory Psychic Sea into a field of space that straddled the line between illusion and reality. Now, only one last step remained: to solidify the field, making it wholly real.

But before that, a branch from the Golden Ancient Tree at the center of his domain stretched out, with golden leaves cradling a piece of Divinity that was about to be completely unsealed.

With a single thought, the final layer of golden netting around the Divinity burned away, fully unlocking the Divinity. The previously sealed Rules burst free, spiraling out of control. A mighty surge of Rule fluctuations erupted from him as the center, rapidly piercing through the field of space that teetered between illusion and reality and disappeared like a bolt of lightning.

Inside the underground tunnel that stretched for hundreds of meters, over a dozen Children of the Spirit Realm were struck by this flash of light, freezing up on the spot and unable to move for a long while.

“What is this…”

It was a mix of astonishment and horror. All of the Children of the Spirit Realm felt a strong sense of palpitations in that instant.

After a long pause, a Child of the Spirit Realm whispered,

“I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should pull out and restrategize from scratch.”

Everyone nodded hastily. The sensation they got from that electric-like wave was too unsettling and had scared them.

As they were about to turn back, they suddenly heard a voice:

“Since you’ve come, you might as well stay!”

All of them froze, and then they saw the walls of the tunnel about two meters in diameter start to show golden threads forming a network.

No, not threads, but… countless golden roots intertwined to form a web of veins, sealing off the entire periphery of the long tunnel.

Looking up, they saw golden roots extending from the darkness of the tunnel behind them, swiftly forming a net of light to block their retreat as well.

A Child of the Spirit Realm wearing an eyepatch took it off, and a column of intense flames sprayed toward the rear, but the golden roots blocked it.

The flames continued to spray, turning from red to blue and getting increasingly hot. But even after a good ten seconds, they could not penetrate the seemingly soft net of light.

Another Child of the Spirit Realm lifted their arms, and several fleshy tendrils grew wildly. The tips of the tendrils viciously stabbed towards the net of light, only to see the golden roots flash brightly, and with a scream from that Child of the Spirit Realm, the flesh tendrils stabbing at the net were all sliced to pieces by the golden threads.

Yet another Child of the Spirit Realm’s pupils turned grey-white rapidly, and a grey holy light swept over them, causing a layer of petrified ash to fall from the surface of the golden roots.

“Hey? There are a few familiar faces!”

Suddenly, they felt the space around them change dramatically, becoming pitch black. When they regained their vision, they were startled to find themselves away from the previous underground tunnel, standing in a place with a transparent void beneath their feet, surrounded on all sides by clarity. Below the crystalline ground lay dense golden roots, an impressive sight.

But they had no mind to admire the view; all eyes were drawn to the towering Golden Ancient Tree at the center of this vast space.

“The Totem Domain!”

“The Totem Lord!”

They all looked desperate.

“Good insight. Since that’s the case, I’ll grant you a quick end!”

No sooner were the words spoken than countless golden roots rose from the ground. The Children of the Spirit Realm, fueled by rage, resisted. Various Totem incarnations appeared: a giant bird with wings aflame with black fire, monstrous creatures resembling massive worms, and common tentacle monsters. But what caught Lin Xiao’s interest the most was a Snake-faced monster.

Absolute strength crushed them, golden roots easily turning the monsters into sieves, consuming flesh and blood. Before long, nothing but the Snake-faced monster was left.

After three ineffective surges of petrifying light, the Snake-faced monster gave up resisting and shouted,

“Just who are you?”

“`

Countless golden roots stretched out and entangled to form a humanoid figure. The snake-faced monster saw the golden figure and revealed a hint of shock and realization:

“So it’s you!”

Its body shuddered, and numerous golden roots sprayed out from within it.

“Hmm, not a bad taste!”

The golden roots forming the humanoid figure dissipated, and a voice emanated from the towering golden ancient tree at the center of the domain.

Among the children of the Spirit Realm, the weaker ones were merely Totem Master Apprentices, while the two strongest had already become seasoned Official Totem Masters. However, in Lin Xiao’s hands at that moment, they were but a dozen tiny mice, easily crushed.

Yes, he had now successfully opened his Totem Territory, becoming an official Totem Lord, just waiting for his main consciousness to leave the domain and return to his true body. He would then have to withstand the scan of the Will of the Totem Crystal Wall and the impact of the World Source Sea.

Of course, it was also the time for him to communicate with his true body via the power of the Element Tides.

While others were slowly preparing, and perhaps hadn’t even found the method yet, he had already leaped across a gap that others might not manage in decades, advancing to Totem Lord in one fell swoop.

The domain was already opened.

The Divinity had already been refined.

To command Divinity with Totem!

Above the Array, Lin Xiao slowly opened his eyes. A blinding flash of golden light passed by, like a bolt of gold lightning exploding, and the underground space suddenly brightened.

“Boom boom boom…”

A series of rolling thunderous sounds that only he could hear at this level began to resound in his ears. A will that made him tremble slowly descended and pierced through the thick Earth to cast down upon him.

The Will of the Totem Crystal Wall arrived at the very moment he ascended to Totem Lord.

What came with it was not just favor, but also the terrifying onslaught of primal energy. Normal Totem Lords simply needed to withstand this impact, and the primal energy brought by the Will of the Crystal Wall would remain and become the nourishment for the Totem Lord’s growth.

But Lin Xiao was not a normal Totem Lord.

A second after the terrifying will descended, it erupted with palpitation-inducing fury. The gradually advancing rolling thunderous sounds in that instant turned into roars of rage. The primal energy that had been gently descending like waves turned into a berserk tsunami.

The Will of the Totem Crystal Wall sensed Lin Xiao’s identity as one of the Other Races and his inappropriate actions, and flew into a rage immediately. The descending primal energy soared tenfold, a hundredfold, and in just a dozen seconds, it increased exponentially.

Other Totem Lords who had just opened their territories would have been unable to withstand such ferocious primal energy assault…

No, even Lin Xiao’s territory, stronger than a normal Totem Lord’s, could not bear the impact of primal energy tenfold, a hundredfold greater; it could only lead to destruction.

Fortunately, he had a Divinity that had been processed by a powerful entity and which he could refine at his level. After refining the Divinity, he temporarily possessed the authority of a Deity.

The authority contained within the Divinity was Spatial; thus, he acquired True God Level Spatial Authority.

With the Spatial Authority to stabilize his Field, it wasn’t just tenfold; even a thousandfold or ten thousandfold primal energy impact was futile against him. Instead, this primal energy was constrained and refined by him, continuously strengthening his newly opened Field.

The Will of the Totem Crystal Wall was filled with Wrath, but was temporarily helpless, merely exerting malice and oppression on him.

The will of a universe, although powerful, is still a conceptual entity and does not have a physical form. Normally, it cannot directly harm an individual. Generally, it can only repel, exert malice on its target, and oppress. In such situations, any life from this world that is repelled by and filled with malice towards the world’s will would also feel that malice and would not hesitate to strike, thus inflicting indirect attacks.

So, after realizing the primal energy onslaught was ineffective against Lin Xiao, It began to influence the living beings of this plane.

However, the vast majority of commoners within the Alphonso Kingdom were devout followers of the Gods of Life and Wisdom. Lin Xiao’s surface identity was now as the chosen of the Gods of Life and Wisdom and the Pope, and their firm beliefs could shield against the world’s will influence.

While the followers in the Alphonso Kingdom could avoid such influence, other creatures within the plane could not escape it.

The most critical point was that the Plane Will of this world had already awakened and inherently held great hostility toward him. Influenced by the will of the Crystal Wall Universe, the entire plane began experiencing some unpredictable changes.

Directly, Alphonso discovered that several local Indigenous Churches that received his funding suddenly severed relations with them and were brimming with malice.

Even many underlings in the controlled territories of various Descenders expressed strong malice towards the Alphonso Kingdom and the Church of the Gods of Life and Wisdom, and many Descenders received direct complaints from their subordinates against the Gods of Life and Wisdom.

“What has he done to incur such Sky Wrath and resentment? Could it be because he’s too strong and threatened the authority of the Holy God? But how could this affect our subordinates and followers?”

In the Saernos Empire, several Descenders discussed this during a routine gathering, with someone expressing great confusion.

Brother Chao quickly provided an answer:

“It’s simple, this brother Rore is no ordinary individual. Not only has he ascended to Totem Lord and opened a territory, but his strength is too formidable, which alerted the Holy God. But most importantly, we can infer that the Holy God has been replaced by the Plane Will, and we’re no longer confronting the Holy God but an Incarnation of the Plane Will.”

“The situation is becoming more interesting. With such large territories held by a few of us, there will definitely be those who are envious. I wouldn’t rule out someone making covert moves behind our backs.”

He pondered for a moment and then said:

“Show some goodwill to the Holy Church, prepare a unit of Cannon Fodder to join the Holy War Army. The scale cannot be small, prepare a standard legion.”

After speaking, Xinhua continued:

“Meanwhile, lend Rore some support. Although I’m not very optimistic about him, we children from the Divine Realm always love creating miracles; perhaps he might just win.”

“Hmm!”