The Era of Gods

Of course, he had only established a framework for now since the accumulated Divine Power was still insufficient to activate the entire network of foundational rules.

But it was foreseeable that once the entire network of foundational rules was activated, with his True Body presiding in the God Country, he could resist the Incarnations of Powerful Divine Power.

Just waiting for his True Body to ascend to Medium Divine Power, he would no longer fear any Powerful Divine Power—even if there were twenty Incarnations and their associated godly beings attacking simultaneously.

At the Outpost Base, Lin Xiao sat before the command chair, a massive screen displaying the auction system forum of the base, though there weren’t many adventurers speaking up on it.

Before the destruction of the Greedy Wolf Combat Team, in fact, there were many ordinary Descenders, as well as small Clans and corporate adventure teams, exploring this Crystal Wall Universe.

However, the battle that led to the Greedy Wolf Combat Team’s downfall also brought heavy losses to these civilian adventure teams. After all, the main battlefield was a base established by the Greedy Wolf Combat Team just outside the Primary Material Plane within the world, and a large number of adventurers descended through that base. Later, with the base’s destruction, an untold number of civilian adventure teams fell, taking a long time to recover.

As the Split Claw Dragon Battle Team stationed at the Outpost Base, the observing civilian adventurers began to reappear gradually.

Though not many, it was a good start.

Even though the Crystal Wall Universe labeled CY-00801 was designated as the Giant God Combat Team’s main camp world, it still allowed civilian adventurers to come in for exploration.

This didn’t mean allowing them to claim planes, but for now, allowing such action meant that in the future, if Lin Xiao managed to conquer this world, he would need to pay a significant cost to buy back lands and influence from civilian adventurers who have acquired territory in this Crystal Wall Universe.

If he could just offer some resources to buy them out, Lin Xiao would be very willing. This was also one of the routine methods used by combat teams when strategizing conquests of Different Domains, leveraging civilian adventurers’ power—especially valuable to a newly rebuilt, weaker combat team like the Giant God Combat Team.

It was quite a tragedy; the Giant God Combat Team consisted of just a few members, and he, the leader, even had to personally Descend, with scarcely any subordinates to assist him.

If it were a complete combat team, by this time, he would have long since ordered hundreds of subordinates to prepare their Incarnations for a covert descent, surrounding and eliminating The Lord of Darkness.

Even if this attracted the attention of the True Gods of the Primary Material Plane, by then he would have already consumed The Lord of Darkness’s Divinity and God Country, monopolizing the Dark Territory and unafraid of the surface gods.

Just as the indigenous Lord of Darkness could resist the gods of the surface with territorial advantage, so could he.

As long as he didn’t expose his connection with his subordinates, he would not incur a full-fledged siege from the gods of the Main World.

Unfortunately, he lacked the subordinates to carry out such a plan.

Observing the sparse comments of adventurers on the forum revealed that most civilian adventurers were below Demigod, with a mix of those who were not even Demigods—God-level Children of the God Realm. Their intention was not as lofty as Divine Enthronement, simply looking to gain benefits from this world.

For example, to grow into a Demigod within this world and, upon returning, refine their accumulated Divine Power, Divinity, and Divine Fire to enhance themselves. Territories could also be sold to the controlling combat team at the Outpost Base.

“`

If luck serves to find some rare treasures, or even Divine Artifacts in this world, then it’s a big win.

A large civilian Void Ship slowly approached the Outpost Base, getting permission to dock at berth number five. A group of middle-aged men and women, each with distinct appearances, disembarked, followed shortly by a dozen or so curious young boys and girls who looked around with interest.

“This Outpost Base doesn’t have many people.”

A handsome young man with snow-white hair and two small horns on his forehead, dressed in a luxurious robe, stood in the plaza and surveyed the surroundings. He nodded in response to his companions,

“Indeed, it’s not crowded, but that’s normal. I’ve heard that a while back, the Greedy Wolf Battle Team that was stationed here was annihilated in a major battle with other races and natives. As a result, the battle team was disbanded, and now a newly established battle team has taken over this Outpost Base.”

Then another young man with a tuft of yellow hair said,

“The situation isn’t very clear right now, the foot traffic is sparse, and everyone is still watching and waiting. I expect a large number of teams will come over after some time.”

He turned to his companions and chuckled,

“After all, many people have descended on the Primary Material Plane and have achieved certain feats. For example, we all have Clan Elders here, so unless necessary, nobody would just give up…”

At this moment, a beautiful young girl with a pair of delicate crystal dragon horns on her head and a lustrous blue rhombic crystal embedded in her forehead asked,

“Has the situation already become clear? I heard that a new battle team has taken over the base. Can they really hold this Outpost Base?”

“A newly established battle team obviously cannot hold it, but now, the Split Claw Dragon Battle Team is stationed here, a powerful two-star team known for its record of confronting Powerful Divine Power face to face. With the defenses of the Outpost Base, the fortress might not be as impregnable as a fortress of gold, but it’s still hard to break through. Even in bad situations, it should be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive.”

As the group passed through the Outpost Fortress plaza, a dozen young people huddled together for a discussion. One of them spoke a few words to the middle-aged man leading the group and then left the team to stay in the plaza.

The plaza was extremely wide, typically a place for civilian adventurers to interact and trade. At the moment, there were only a few sparsely arranged booths, and not many people browsing. In contrast to the previous daily foot traffic of several thousand during the Greedy Wolf Battle Team’s time, there were only about one-tenth remaining.

“This is all my territory!”

Lin Xiao walked around the plaza with great interest, alone. The Outpost Base took taxes from these booths, and civilian adventurers had to pay taxes on any transactions made at this base.

At the same time, if they wanted to sell resources obtained in this world, the Outpost Base had the right of first purchase, which the adventurers were happy to comply with.

After all, nobody worries about getting cheated when dealing with official bodies, and conducting transactions with the military over time accumulates points that can raise one’s access. With better access, one can buy items that are hard to come by on the outside.

Items such as various potions, blueprints, Golem constructs, and especially Steel Golems and legendary-level Diamond Golems, were among their favorites.

To Lin Xiao, Steel Golems seemed quite common; he had stockpiled a few thousand of them within his Divine Realm, and the Outpost Base warehouse had as many as a hundred thousand received from the Greedy Wolf Battle Team.

But for regular Children of the God Realm, with ordinary backgrounds and growth, Steel Golems represented a high-end, readily deployable combat force.

Most of them possessed neither Magic based Clans nor the technology to create Steel Golems, let alone the even stronger Diamond Golems or Mage Towers.

Although most knowledge is accessible online, top-tier techniques remained in the hands of scholastic elites and significant powers.

“Eh? Isn’t that Lin Xiao?”

A crisp female voice brought Lin Xiao out of his thoughts. He turned to see, not far off at another booth, a dozen boys and girls who had heard the same voice looking over. He quickly remembered some of the familiar faces among them and recognized several acquaintances.

“Ancient City, Tang Ling, Bai Ze, Dai Lingtong…”

They were youths he had traveled with during the Super Newcomer Summer Camp those many years ago, unexpectedly meeting them again here.

He waved and greeted them with a smile. The group of teenagers approached, with Ancient City showing a complicated look in his eyes and greeting with clasped hands,

“I did not expect to meet you here. I heard that you were admitted to Radiance; congratulations to you!”

“It seems you all have been developing well, are you here for training with your clans?”

Lin Xiao could see through their strength at a glance; they were all Demigods, but all seemed to have only recently reached Demigod status.