The Era of Gods

Chapter 559: Chapter 559 Is the Greedy Wolf Combat Team Going to Split Up?

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After a full eleven years, Lin Xiao had finally gathered enough Divine Power to condense an Incarnation of God; the difficulty of the process was almost indescribable.

No wonder elders and teachers always advised that one should never seek Divine Enthronement without adequate preparation. Not to mention other factors, the accumulation of Divine Power alone was a significant challenge.

Even with his current daily income of a few thousand Divine Power, it had taken him so long to accumulate enough to condense an Incarnation of God. Without sufficient accumulation, it would have probably taken decades, if not a century, to condense the first Incarnation of God—a true ordeal.

Fortunately, the Emperor of Myriad Forms was not yet dead, and there was still a chance for him.

Speaking of which, before Lin Xiao’s enthronement, the Emperor of Myriad Forms had sent him to the All-Embracing Crystalline Universe, claiming to have a gift for him. Initially, Lin Xiao thought it would be something to aid his Ascension. It turned out to have nothing to do with Divine Enthronement.

It was a modern blueprint for constructing a Floating City—a modified version for the Main World of an exotic Floating City, the same one he had seen in the All-Embracing Crystalline Universe, with a diameter spanning hundreds of kilometers, the Floating City of the Phoenix.

There was also a blueprint for manufacturing a Heavenly Demon Idol. So-called Heavenly Demon Idols were a type of Super Golem with combat power comparable to that of a True God, requiring a Duron Energy Core or a similar Super Energy Core to provide power.

It is worth mentioning that “comparable to a True God” here refers only to its overall strength matching that initial level where one has just attained Godhood with Weak Divine Power, and it certainly cannot match the flexibility of a True God.

The third excellent item was three Duron Energy Cores, which required only minimal adjustments to adapt to any world’s rules.

Come to think of it, indeed, these were treasures. As long as they were constructed, they would immediately enhance the foundation and power of a newly born New God.

Over the past eleven years, Lin Xiao had not spent all his time at home waiting to condense the Incarnation of God; the time not dedicated to that was spent organizing the Star Spirits within his Divine Realm to start building a Floating City and a Heavenly Demon Idol.

The construction of the Floating City was situated in the Main Divine Realm, while the production of the Heavenly Demon Idol took place in the Earth Subordinate God Territory.

The biggest obstacle to building these two super projects was the Nesser Core, but now that he had acquired the Nesser Core, all that remained was to build them slowly.

Once the Incarnation of God was condensed, it was not necessary for him to attend to all matters in person; organizing battalions, too, could be handled by the Incarnation.

Lin Xiao’s rank of Brigadier General was already confirmed, with the awarding ceremony held several years ago. This included authorization to establish new battalions, and now his new battalion has been registered under the name Giant God Combat Team.

The Giant God Combat Team currently consisted of three official members and twenty reservists. That included Lin Xiao as the Combat Team leader, Lin Hong and Lin Bao as two True God level guards, and twenty Demigod-level guards.

Any regular combat team is divided into official members and reserves. Only True Gods can be official members, while Demigods not yet enshrined can only be reserves. Even an insignificant combat team that has just been established after Ascension follows this rule.

Therefore, the number of official members in any combat team is limited. For instance, the Furious Flame Battalion has just over four hundred official members, yet there are tens of thousands serving as reservists.

Any reservist member who becomes enshrined as a god automatically gets promoted to an official member of the battalion.

In some respects, a combat team is akin to a loose Divine System affiliated with the military, with the team leader serving as the Main God of the system.

Lin Xiao had not yet started to expand his team; without a foundational base, even if he did recruit more members, he would not be able to support them.

Over the years, he had occasionally tuned into the intelligence department within the War Zone, looking for newly discovered worlds of value suitable for conquest, but no appropriate ones had come up over these years.

The worlds of value found were not very suitable—too dangerous or inappropriate for large-scale colonization due to their planar characteristics.

Those that were suitable were not very valuable, such as having too little land or a weak concentration of planar energy. Sometimes a suitable one would emerge, but there would be only one or two planes, not a group, with total area being too minimal.

Time passed amidst preparations and waiting, and Lin Xiao was in no hurry. Now that he was enshrined, there were no restrictions; he could take it slowly, while gradually strengthening his power.

One must remember that his accumulation before Ascension was by no means meager; whether it was Divinity, the strength of his Godhood, mastery over it, as well as Divine Power income and so on, were all excellent, resulting in an extremely robust foundation. Not long after his initial Ascension, his God Level began to grow slowly.

From the initial Godhood Level Zero of a New God, he advanced to First Level in less than a year, then to Level 2 two years later, and reached Level 3 in the seventh year, before stopping at Level 4.

In fact, he could have advanced his God Level to Level 5 in one go. There were no issues with his Divinity or mastery over his Godhood. However, the Divine Power he was earning daily was still insufficient to support an immediate promotion to Weak Divine Power.

At the moment, Divine Power was his greatest limitation. To maintain a Divinity of God Level 5 with Weak Divine Power would require a daily expenditure of up to ten thousand Divine Power. Over the past decade and more, as the numbers of his Clan increased once more, the Divine Power he harvested each day also grew, but it was still far from the ten thousand a day he needed.

Moreover, even if he did eventually reach a daily income of ten thousand, he couldn’t advance right away. It would be wise to accumulate a bit more; otherwise, as soon as he reached the threshold, there would be no excess Divine Power after maintaining his Divinity.

With his Weak Divine Power at God Level 4, the power of his Incarnation of God also rose from the original Godhood Level Zero to Level 2, as the strength of the Incarnation was half that of the True Body.

For Lin Xiao, advancing his God Level greatly enhanced his use of Divine Power, making it more sophisticated and powerful, but he gained no new Extraordinary godhood abilities. These would only emerge upon reaching the significant thresholds of Weak Divine Power, Medium Divine Power, and Powerful Divine Power. Merely advancing God Level does not add new abilities.

Of course, acquiring a new Godhood can also bring with it Extraordinary godhood abilities related to the new Godhood or unique transcendent powers.

Moreover, his Ancient God’s Divine Level… still remained at Level 1.

The method of advancement for Ancient Gods is different from that of New Gods. Ancient Gods must venture into Exotic Crystal Wall Systems and Plunder the rule-based power from these domains to enhance themselves; staying in the Main World for ten thousand years would not result in any advancement.

With the combination of both New God and Ancient God attributes, plus his seriously strong Extraordinary godhood abilities, Lin Xiao’s true strength was definitely on par with that of a God Level 5 or higher with Weak Divine Power.

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That day, Lin Xiao was in the Divine Realm, discussing the internal structure of the Floating City with the Star Spirit Alemente that was being constructed, when suddenly he received an urgent message from Xie Yufei. With just a glance, his only Incarnation immediately left the Divine Realm and headed to the Super War Fortress in subspace.

The message was about a major event—the three-star Greedy Wolf Combat Team, which belonged to the Sixth Division of the Second Expeditionary Army, had been completely wiped out in the Outland.

Lin Xiao had some recollections of this; it seemed that the Greedy Wolf Combat Team had suffered a defeat eleven years ago. Later, Xie Yufei even proposed he should take over the Greedy Wolf Combat Team, but he had refused. He hadn’t paid much attention to it afterward and didn’t expect that this time they would be completely annihilated.

He quickly returned to his office in the fortress, where Xie Yufei was waiting for him. When they met, she said:

“This is serious. The Greedy Wolf Combat Team, which was conquering the CY-00801 Crystalline System, has nearly been wiped out. Over three hundred official members died, leaving only twenty to thirty lucky survivors. Now another two-star combat team has gone to take over.”

“How could this have happened?” Lin Xiao wondered aloud.

“Could it be that the other Divine Realm civilizations have united against us?”

“No, a third Powerful Divine Power emerged in that world. The newly born native Powerful Divine Power and the other native gods attacked our outpost base, defeating them in one fell swoop.”

“Hmm…”

Lin Xiao tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, his gaze inadvertently catching the exaggerated curve of her waist, stirring something within him. He reached out and pulled her into his arms, letting his firmness press against her softness, bit her delicate cheek that was as fragile as the skin of an egg, then took a deep breath before asking:

“So, you called me back for what reason? To take over the remnants of the Greedy Wolf Combat Team?”

She bit her red lips and chided him while pressing down on his mischievous hand:

“Stop fooling around, let’s talk business.”

“Considering the Greedy Wolf Combat Team’s repeated decision-making failures and the near-total casualties of the main officers, the headquarters has decided, after discussion, to disband the Greedy Wolf Combat Team. I called you here, naturally, to have you share in the spoils.”

“There must be many eyeing this piece of fat, right?”

“What of it?”

“Will your father agree?”

Lin Xiao felt a little apprehensive because his clandestine dealings with Xie Yufei had long been discovered by Commander Xie Tianyan, who had never shown him much of a welcoming face in the few times they’d met over the years.

Xie Yufei fluttered her long eyelashes and gave him a look:

“You still know how to be scared, huh? Why weren’t you scared when you were bullying me?”

She extended her slender, straight jade finger and tapped his forehead:

“You’re so silly. If my dad didn’t agree, you wouldn’t still be alive after frequently taking liberties with me. Go and see my dad later and have a good talk.”

“Ah…”

If it hadn’t been necessary, Lin Xiao would have been very reluctant to go, mainly due to his feelings of guilt.

Standing alone at the entrance to the headquarters building, a bloody golden lightning bolt roared down from the sky, striking not far from him and transformed into a middle-aged man wearing the uniform of a major general. Seeing the hesitant Lin Xiao at the door, the man revealed a hint of amusement and waved to greet him:

“Lord Lin Xiao, you’ve come? Is it also for the matter of the Greedy Wolf Combat Team?”

Lin Xiao let out a light “ah” in response, returned a military salute, and said with a bitter smile:

“Major General Li Jia, are you here for this matter too?”

Li Jia, Major General, the leader of the Dragon Elephant Combat Team—a two-star combat team. Li Jia himself was a Medium Divine Power close to Powerful Divine Power, and this was one of his Incarnations.

In the past, facing a Medium Divine Power, he would have been scrupulously respectful, but now he too was ranked as a general and a combat team leader. Although both his strength and his combat team were far inferior, his position was not much different, warranting equal treatment.

Li Jia looked at the young man before him with a mix of amusement and envy.

He had achieved divine enthronement before even completing the first year of his studies, and held a position most Sons of God Realm could never hope to attain in a lifetime. Commanding military authority and winning the favor of the Commander’s only direct daughter, all these factors combined meant that even if Lin Xiao was younger than his own grandson, Li Jia had to treat him as an equal.

And this was only temporary. Given the boy’s potential and the Commander’s cultivation, in the future, he was bound to become at least one of the strong decision-makers of the military district. With a little more luck, he might have the opportunity to inherit the Commander’s position and control a million True Gods in the Fifth War Zone.

Thinking about this, even Li Jia, a divine son of heaven sealed for hundreds of years, couldn’t help but feel various shades of envy and jealousy.