The Era of Gods

Chapter 523: Chapter 523 Preparation

Five years later, at the southern end of Duronger Fortress.

With a secretive smile, Bloodthirsty Keller, Lonely City, Yue Lingzhi, and several other human players were ambushed behind a small mound.

Today, five years later, the dozens of players who had been banished to the Void had mostly arrived at the Ornell Planet, the only life-sustaining planet in this Void. Initially, dying in the Void meant repeatedly going through the cycle of immediate death after resurrection, followed by another death and resurrection.

As the only world with life in the nearby Void, their resurrection point moved closer to the Ornell Planet with each death, until after sufficiently many deaths, they would eventually resurrect on the Ornell Planet.

So, by the time Wu Zhonglin and others found them, they had died countless times, and all their equipment had exploded due to severe damage. After accumulating the weakness of numerous deaths, they stayed in Duronger Fortress for nearly half a year to overcome the accumulated weakness from the resurrections.

Fortunately, Wu Zhonglin and the others arrived at Duronger Fortress early. With their help, the players prepared a basic set of green equipment and then gradually started grinding and accumulating new gear.

Latter on, when they encountered many Children of Nightmare again, old enemies were especially hostile upon meeting, leading to fierce battles between both sides.

It started with sporadic encounters in the wild, then escalated to group PKs, and now, both sides had stopped their regular activities, going out daily to seek fights with each other, and even tacitly avoiding the frontline, designating a large area for their battles.

Lonely City peered from behind two rocks to observe the other side, where a dozen Children of Nightmare were besieging an undead in the ruins.

The Children of Nightmare were also isolated, and though they joined the Ancient gods’ faction, they were far from their Main World here and couldn’t recruit minions. Aside from the Prophet Ricks, who was transformed into a Flesh Dominator by the Ancient gods and could control a large number of the Ancient gods’ minions, other Children of Nightmare, like the human players, had no subordinates; they all relied on their own abilities.

It’s worth mentioning that many Children of Nightmare received the power of the Ancient gods to be promoted to the Elite Template, and the human players wouldn’t be outdone. Having mixed in Duronger Fortress for so long, and given the currently dire situation, the conditions for exchanging and upgrading to an Elite Template and other top-tier equipment at Duronger Fortress were greatly relaxed, finally giving them a condition to compete with the Children of Nightmare.

After all, the essence of the entire world was here, with fewer than thirty players to share the abundant resources; there was enough to spare that they could sit down and discuss how to divide it before fighting over it.

Now, each of the thirty or so players had a set of T5 Level suits plus equipment of the same level, with even some pieces of T6 Level gear. A few players with strong abilities, good luck, and quick actions had exchanged for a piece of Orange legendary equipment in advance. Although not as complete as Lin Xiao’s Legendary suit, it was still far stronger than Epic equipment.

This set of equipment would be exceptionally rare in the Human Camp; paired with the Elite Template, the combat power was very strong.

“Yue Lingzhi, use your Mind’s eye to scan our surroundings, check for any ambushes, and see if the Prophet Ricks is around?”

Lonely City retracted his gaze and gave instructions to his companion in a low voice.

After years of experience, he had proven his organizational skills and was now the official leader of the team.

Yue Lingzhi nodded, her eyes glinting as she entered a trance.

Seconds later, she snapped back to attention and spoke:

“Within a hundred thousand meters nearby, no trace of the prophet Ricks has been found, but on the other side about seventy or eighty thousand meters away, a destruction node established by the ancient gods was discovered. There are a few Children of Nightmare there, as well as a large number of minions of the ancient gods, and there are actually five Flesh Dominators. It’s unclear what they’re planning over there.”

“Five Flesh Dominators?”

More than a dozen human players were all very surprised, and someone immediately said:

“This isn’t good. This area has never been a main war zone. Even one Flesh Dominator is too many, so five of them gathering together definitely has some purpose. I suggest we send this information to the fortress, or after we kill these dozen or so Children of Nightmare, we can go and check it out.”

“This is doable—if we discover an important plan of the ancient gods’ minions, we can again acquire a large amount of prestige.”

“Then what are we waiting for, let’s go!”

“Xiaoqiang, activate the fog, and we’ll sneak over there and take them out first.”

The player named Xiaoqiang was a priest, who took out a grey sphere and activated it. A cloud of grey fog diffused, shrouding them within it, instantly turning the group of people into an indistinct haze, soon turning into nothingness, with no trace of their figures visible.

A row of people charged rapidly towards the Children of Nightmare players who were leveling up and circled around behind them.

A Child of Nightmare, who was in the midst of casting a spell, suddenly felt something strange around him. He quickly turned around but saw nothing, and was about to continue casting his spell when he suddenly stopped and cast another spell. The next second, the whole world in front of him turned grey, all living creatures vanished leaving only their outlines, and then he noticed a group of blood-red outlined figures had appeared behind them without warning.

“There are human players…”

Bloodthirsty Keller suddenly appeared in front of him and stunned him with a kidney shot, followed by repeatedly striking with his twin daggers coated with lethal poison like lightning, unleashing all his burst skills in a matter of seconds. A teammate blinked in front of the Child of Nightmare, and an ice ring exploded, instantly freezing the surrounding Children of Nightmare.

But the Children of Nightmare also had mages, and several ice rings exploded in succession, freezing them in place as well.

A flash of purifying light on Lonely City’s body dispelled the freezing effect, and with a roar of battle fervor, he bellowed commands, roaring twice in succession before charging into a Child of Nightmare and rapidly following with a Thunder Strike and an enhanced hamstring. He roared to the sky, going Berserk as he swung his dual two-handed axes.

But immediately a Child of Nightmare fell to the ground, quickly transforming into a four-to-five-meter Flesh corruption beast, opening its grotesquely huge mouth and shooting out a thick tongue to wrap around Lonely City and drag him closer.

The next second, a bolt of lightning thundered down, shocking the Flesh Corruptor stiff, but Lonely City, instead of retreating, advanced towards the Flesh Corruptor, hacking with his axes, causing flesh and blood to fly everywhere.

In just a few seconds, an intense battle erupted between the two sides.

However, the human side had the advantage of ambush, and they took control of the situation by quickly eliminating several Children of Nightmare right at the start.

After the Children of Nightmare reacted and worked together to stabilize the situation, they still found themselves at a disadvantage due to losing the initiative, and their defeat was only a matter of time.

Just then, a Child of Nightmare suddenly took out a piece of flesh still dripping with blood and threw it while rapidly chanting. The flesh hovered in front of him, quickly burning into a ball of blood flames, expanding rapidly into a blood flame ring with a diameter of two to three meters. Accompanied by a familiar phrase, a tentacle stretched out from it, and a green beam shot out from the middle, hitting Lonely City.

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“Prophet Ricks!”

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The Lonely City was instantly controlled, and with a turn, a counter-charge stunned Bloodthirsty Keller. A Thunder Strike followed by a valiant hit plus an execution, instantly killing Bloodthirsty Keller who was only at half health.

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“Damn, how could they summon Prophet Ricks?”

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Although he only had one tentacle, Ricks, who had advanced to the hero template and obtained the power of the ancient gods, was more powerful than all of them combined. Even with just one tentacle, he could change the course of the battle and easily help the Children of Nightmare turn the tables.

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“Please ask the Dragon Emperor for help, otherwise, we’ll just keep getting corpse-camped.”

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“I already did. The Dragon Emperor has instructed us not to resurrect immediately after dying; wait for him to arrive.”

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Five minutes later, the last human player lay dead, while the remaining Children of Nightmare stood guard near their corpses to prevent them from reviving. Meanwhile, the Children of Nightmare who had died earlier were now flocking to the side of Prophet Ricks’s True Body, who had also hurried over.

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“F*ck, I didn’t expect Prophet Ricks to be nearby, and he’s grown stronger. I didn’t see him with my mind’s eye just now.”

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“They’re definitely up to something here. We must stop them.”

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“There’s nothing we can do. Let’s wait for the Dragon Emperor to arrive, only he can handle Prophet Ricks.”

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“Who says? I can handle it too!”

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With a forced smile, she said subconsciously:

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“Don’t talk big, you can’t handle anythi… Huh? Lin Xiao, you’re out of seclusion?”

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“Yeah, I’m out of seclusion. You guys keep it up; let me lend a hand.”

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“Ah, this…”

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There was a moment of silence in the chat, and Lin Xiao asked curiously:

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“What’s the matter?”

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After a while, Lonely City spoke:

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“Lord Lin Xiao, it’s not that we don’t trust you, but that so-called Prophet Ricks, one of the Children of Nightmare, is just too strong now. Ever since he entered this world, he’s been favored by the ancient gods and promoted to the hero template. He’s extremely powerful now, casually taking control of us, and he can control several of us at once. Only the Dragon Emperor can resist his spiritual control.”

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“That strong?”

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“Yes, that strong!”

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“But I’m pretty awesome too!”

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“You are awesome, but…”

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The others did not continue, but the implication was clear – you might be impressive, but he’s even more formidable.

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It’s no surprise they thought this way. Mainly because Lin Xiao had left the fortress to level up in the domains controlled by the ancient gods long before they arrived, moving constantly and never staying in one spot for more than two days. This meant that even though they knew he was on the Ornell Planet, they never actually met him.

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Having never seen him act, they were unaware of his power, and this included Wu Zhonglin.

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“Stop wasting time, share your coords!”

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Everyone…

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“Go ahead and send them. If he’s so skeptical, let him come. It’s his own embarrassment if he makes a fool of himself.”

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“Heh, if he does make a fool of himself, it’ll be a funny story. He’ll no longer be able to boast so much in front of us.”

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“Then let’s send them!”

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Soon, Lin Xiao checked the coordinates they had shared in the chat and found they weren’t too far from the fortress.

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Flying out from the fortress, he saw a Dragon rising into the sky, flapping its wings in the same direction as him, and this Dragon was known as ‘Dragon Emperor.’

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He waved from afar, and Wu Zhonglin stopped and was momentarily stunned to see Lin Xiao.

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This was because, although Lin Xiao appeared the same, he gave off an aura that exerted enormous pressure on him, which surprised him greatly.

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“It’s been a while; you now…”

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He hesitated, then held back his prepared question and rephrased it directly:

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“I sense a powerful and oppressive aura from you. You must have gained some special opportunity!”

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