The Era of Gods

Chapter 417: Chapter 417: The Gambling Duel among the Younger Generation

Of course, they truly had no other intentions; they simply desired a secure place to store some Power of Faith.

In the current state of the continent, the theoretically safest place was here with Lin Xiao.

The faith of a single province was but a drop in the bucket for Lin Xiao, who was not short of such power. Once he was ready, he would surely continue to expand his territory, and then there would be even less need to mention it.

Plus, by taking them in, he would at least have some peers to talk to and avoid loneliness.

After all, he was the only bachelor in command—a man with many thoughts and no one to share them with.

Time, no matter how the situation developed, always passed quietly by.

The situation on the continent was ever-changing, and the newly-formed Alphonso Kingdom had been very quiet without any significant moves. This gave the two neighboring kingdoms a sigh of relief.

Before long, two years had passed, and the situation on the continent had undergone tremendous changes. Firstly, after years of internal strife, the fate of the Saernos Empire gradually clarified. Several princes, including the once most powerful and first to rebel, the second prince, had been defeated and perished. Now, only two major powers remained in the Saernos Empire.

The government led by the former Imperial Marshal and Salnoss XIII headed by the seventh prince.

This seventh prince swiftly inherited all royal assets after the second prince’s defeat. With covert support from several of the human Descenders, he grew increasingly strong. A year ago, after recapturing the Imperial City through a surprise attack, he had already gained the upper hand and appeared to be likely to defeat the rebels and reunify the Saernos Empire.

In the Imperial Capital Sael City, inside the Imperial Palace, over twenty human Descenders gathered. The puppet prince was indulging in pleasures in another palace, completely neglecting the matters at hand.

Chao Ge sat in the throne that only the Emperor should occupy, while the other twenty-plus Descenders surrounded him, sitting casually, discussing important matters.

After deliberating on domestic affairs, Chao Ge immediately inquired of Xinhua:

“Have there been any reports from the spies in the Alphonso Kingdom?”

Xinhua nodded and said:

“Half a month ago, information was sent. Everything is as usual, and there are no signs of troop movements in the Alphonso Kingdom. This is the current deployment of the Alphonso Kingdom’s main army corps, which has remained unchanged.”

He laid out a map for everyone to see and pointed at several important markers:

“Adjacent to the Alphonso Kingdom are two kingdoms, the Finland Kingdom and the Sardinian Kingdom. The Alphonso Kingdom has stationed one army corps at each of the major borders with these two kingdoms, with the rest of the main forces stationed at the Royal Capital, unmoved.”

Chao Ge stared at the map for a long moment, then raised his head and said:

“Unmoved does not mean it will stay that way. Increase the surveillance.”

Xinhua nodded:

“I will.”

Chao Ge sighed and said:

“Although our territory now extends beyond that of the Alphonso Kingdom, our comprehensive strength is still slightly inferior to that of the Alphonso Kingdom, which has been recovering and growing for several years. We must never cease our vigilance against it.”

At that moment, someone spoke up:

“This Rore is really too unaware of his advances and retreats. There are still the Children of Nightmare and the Child of the Spirit Realm in this realm. At this time, he should cooperate with us first to defeat the Children of Nightmare and the Child of the Spirit Realm before anything else.”

“Exactly, I think he has other plans, intending to swallow the entire realm alone.”

“It’s such a waste after Chao Ge helped him before. I didn’t expect him to be like that…”

“Shut up!”

Chao Ge suddenly cut him off, saying sternly to the Descender:

“Don’t talk like that from now on. It’s normal for Descender organizations to help each other out.”

“But Chao Ge, you helped him, and yet he…”

“He has repaid the favor!”

Chao Ge said earnestly:

“Years ago, the support of his one thousand troops already repaid the debt. My help to him was important, but his support was equally important to me. In my heart, it’s of equal value, enough to repay the favor from the past. I don’t wish to hear any more about this in the future, nor should you use it to threaten him.”

He picked up his glass, drank it in one gulp, and said solemnly:

“I know what you all are thinking, but I, Chao Ge, act uprightly. Even if it is a competitor, we must defeat them fair and square. Even in defeat, it’s due to being outskilled, and there is nothing to resent.”

Everyone fell silent, but from their expressions, both agreement and disdain could be seen, though they kept it hidden without showing it outwardly.

Xinhua was even more dismissive internally:

“He wants me to ask Rore for resources while still saving face, what a hypocrite!”

“By the way, has the brother who went back to the Advent Base to purchase promotion materials for everyone returned? With ample Power of Faith but lacking resources, we can’t advance. Once we unify the Saernos Empire, the massive faith will enable us all to be promoted to Official Totem Masters, and with enough time, all members might even become Totem Lords.”

Xinhua quickly regained his composure and replied:

“They’ve been away for half a year now, and they should be returning soon by all logic, probably within this month.”

“That’s good.”

Similar discussions were happening in different places. The Children of Nightmare and the Child of the Spirit Realm were all discussing the continental situation and preparing to advance further. However, no matter the aspect, none could circumvent the now strongest, Lin Xiao.

As the first force to unify a kingdom, he attracted the attention and importance of all powers, and each faction sent spies to the Alphonso Kingdom to gather information and send it back.

Lin Xiao was aware of this, but he didn’t mind.

He followed the upright and forthright path of kingship, overpowering all with absolute strength. Tricks and conspiracies were of no use as long as his own strength was sufficient.

This royal path, along with increasingly thorough preparations, lead to his personal power growing steadily. Especially recently, he felt he had become strong enough to touch the boundary of a Totem Lord. With the continuous resource support from Yan Huang War Zone No. 5, his incarnation had finally reached the limit of an Official Totem Master and was about to ascend to Totem Lord.

Just one step away from ascending seemed close, but in reality, this step was not so easy to cross.

After all, in the Totem Civilization Universe, a Totem Lord is equivalent to other Divine Realm civilizations opening their Divine Realm. The Totem civilization does not have a mature and perfected method for Opening the Divine Realm, and Lin Xiao himself also lacked detailed information on this aspect.

Although he had stayed in the White Tower Sect before, he had never accessed its core. He only had a concept of how to ascend to Totem Lord, but no knowledge of the specifics.

It was like knowing that having a child required a male and a female to cooperate, the male providing gold, and the female providing eggs, and the combination would then nurture an embryo.

But knowing this was one thing, while understanding the structure and composition of gold and eggs or why they could nurture an embryo was completely beyond him.

Therefore, he decisively came to ask Lisha, and after hearing Lin Xiao’s question, she was very surprised and said:

“You’re going to ascend to Totem Lord? If I remember correctly, you weren’t even an Official Totem Master before descending, right? Where did you get the resources for the ascension? No wait, do you have a way to contact the outside for resources? But that doesn’t make sense, the outside….”

Her string of questions showed just how surprised she was in her heart. She looked very cute with her face full of confusion.

Lin Xiao waited for her to finish and calm down before replying slowly and courteously:

“Firstly, I am indeed going to ascend to Totem Lord; secondly, I have no channels to the outside; thirdly, although I have no outside channels, I have means to acquire resources. I cannot tell you the specifics, but I can offer to provide you with some of the resources you need for a fee.”

After hearing this she joyfully said:

“That’s wonderful! I have accumulated a large amount of Power of Faith now, but I can’t advance without resources. If you can provide me with some, I’m willing to tell you everything I know.”

“That’s good, tell me first what materials you need to light up your talents, and I will prepare them for you.”

“The Totem Model I’ve condensed is the Ice Spirit, a kind of ice-element high-level demon. I’ve already lit up three talents and need to light up three more. The first is a legendary-level ice material, any kind will do, but the higher the quality, the better.

The second is the core of an elite Ice Element, an Ice Elemental Elder would be even better.

The last one is at least a legendary-level ice element life form, like an Ice Element Elf or a Blue Dragon, the stronger the better.”

“Hmm, is there more?”

“That’s all. These three are enough for me to ascend to an Official Totem Master.”

“What about after becoming an Official Totem Master?”

To his surprise, Lisha waved her hand and said:

“It would be great if I could just ascend to Official Totem Master. This plane won’t be safe for long. Chaoge and the others have already sent people to leave this plane for the Advent Base plane to buy ascension materials. But people are complicated, and those who are sent all have their own ideas. The news will definitely be leaked. By then, countless Descenders will come here, and who knows how complex and chaotic this plane will be by then. Anyway, I will leave if the situation looks bad; I won’t stay here.”

“By the way, I can be one hundred percent sure that the news about this plane will leak. You better prepare early to face the onslaught of stronger beings.”

At this point, Lin Xiao’s expression had already become very grave, and he nodded, saying:

“Don’t worry, I have an idea and will have a strategy in place.”

“That’s good. Come here, I will teach you a few methods for ascending to Totem Lord.”

“There are more methods?”

“Of course.”

It was already the next day’s early morning by the time he left. He went back to the church with many worries in his mind. Lin Xiao pondered for a moment before ordering a messenger to invite Afonso.

Even though it was he who had made Afonso, Lin Xiao was very careful in his actions, giving Afonso and other key subordinates enough respect.

After a whole night of thorough exchanges with Lisha, while things inadvertently went too far with a man and a woman alone in a room doing some delightful things, he still asked everything he needed to know.

According to Lisha, the key to ascending to Totem Lord was to open the Totem Territory. In their words, it was to open an independent space, similar to a Son of God realm opening his own Divine Realm. Lisha only had a generic backdoor method of opening the Divine Realm while the fundamental opening methods used within the major schools, even though she was aware, were not in her possession.

Each school opened a different Totem Domain. For example, the White Tower Sect that Lin Xiao joined had a method of opening that corresponded to the meditation method he had learned, which could open a territory corresponding to the meditation method.

The key focus of this meditation method and corresponding territory lay in subsequent growth.