The Era of Gods

Chapter 405: Chapter 405: The Possibility of Becoming an Ancient God

The return was without any surprise or danger, without any twists or turns. After all, he was riding on Commander Xie Tianyan’s flagship, escorted by a small contingent of Void Battleships. No one dared to stir up trouble at this time.

He directly returned to the edge of the Main World and appeared at China’s No. 5 Super War Fortress, located in the Subspace, via the Teleportation Array. Before he even had the chance to disembark and greet Xie Yufei, he noticed the space in front of him gradually becoming transparent. A gentle will imbued with joy, with which he was familiar, slowly descended. He immediately understood that it was the Gaia Will, and now it was time to discuss merits and distribute rewards.

Although his Golden Ancient Tree Avatar and the descending Gaia Will were banished to an unknown place by the Totem World Will through the hands of an unknown powerful being, the Gaia Node had been successfully established. It was time for the merit discussion and reward giving.

Although communication was impossible, within the Starworld of the Main World, the Gaia Will was omniscient, able to clearly know his thoughts. Soon, a screen popped up in front of him, displaying a series of data.

The rewards were very straightforward and raw, totaling five items, some of which were fixed while others required him to make a selection.

The first reward: Ten thousand units of Crystal Wall Origin, equivalent to a full one hundred thousand units of Creation Energy.

This amount… gave Lin Xiao the impression that Creation Energy was cheap.

However, compared to his achievements this time, ten thousand units of Crystal Wall Origin force was well-deserved, not an exaggeration.

The second reward: The identity of Son of Divine Realm.

Although he had previously obtained the true name of Gaia, and this identity was almost certain, it was not officially confirmed until now.

The method of confirmation was a mark, a permanent BUFF, and a privilege.

The mark was a beautifully intricate and mysteriously profound symbol that was branded on his forehead and integrated into his soul. Upon receiving the mark, he would gain a permanent BUFF, similar to a stronger version of the previous Gaia’s Blessing—

Son of Gaia: The peerless prodigy of the Main World, the child favored by the Gaia Will.

Attribute One: Within the Divine Realm, all life reproduction speed +300%, survival rate +100%, and lifespan limit +100.

Attribute Two: Within the Divine Realm, all creatures’ combat experience and professional experience gain +300%, making it easier to raise species levels, increasing the probability of breaking through species limits, and increasing the probability of becoming a hero.

Attribute Three: The Divine Realm is favored by the Gaia Will and will continuously attract broken Divine Realm Fragments from the Void, thereby gradually strengthening itself.

Child of Gaia’s Favor: The child favored by the Gaia Will can communicate with the Gaia Will at any time and will not get lost within the influence radiance of the Main World.

This was essentially a stronger version of the Gaia’s Blessing he had gained when he ascended the list of outstanding prodigies. The boost wasn’t much different, but this one was permanent.

The previous blessing only lasted for one hundred years in Divine Realm time before disappearing, but now, as long as he did not die, it would always be effective, the effects everlasting.

As for the second privilege of the Son of Gaia, it took Lin Xiao by surprise. It was a privilege that allowed him to touch and master the Fundamental Laws.

In simple terms, it was giving him the opportunity to become an Ancient God.

As everyone knows… well, very few people know, ancient gods are extremely powerful, but not many know how to become an ancient god or why they are mighty.

Lin Xiao didn’t know before either. He only knew that having a Divinity Level above fifth order before becoming a Demigod was a possible prerequisite for becoming an ancient god, or rather, it was just one of the prerequisites. The second, and most critical, prerequisite, is to master one of the Fundamental Laws underpinning a universe.

Yes, one Fundamental Law, the kind that great beings in legend command.

Strictly speaking, the so-called great beings are essentially ‘pseudo’ beings with Great Divine Power and can be considered as ancient gods who have taken their Fundamental Laws to a certain extent.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that all ancient gods can become great beings. It’s merely one path to achieving Great Divine Power, only more likely than other power systems, although the actual probability is still very low.

Throughout the long history of the Main World, there have been several dozen recorded Sons of Gaia. If you count those not recorded, it’s feared there would be over fifty or sixty. So many Sons of Gaia have had the chance to master Fundamental Laws, but to date, there are only about ten great beings and beings with Great Divine Power in the Main World, and most of them are not Sons of Gaia.

This demonstrates that embarking on the path of an ancient god does not guarantee one can take that crucial step.

However, one thing can be confirmed for sure: an ancient god is definitely stronger than any Son of Divine Realm, as proven by dozens of predecessors.

As the Son of Gaia, the Gaia Will would open up the network of the Main World’s Fundamental Laws to his observation, allowing him to select and comprehend a single Fundamental Law network, until he had mastered it.

It’s worth noting that the fundamental rule you select can only be one that no one has chosen; if it has already been mastered by another great existence, you cannot choose it.

Take note, you cannot choose, not that you can’t attempt to. If you insist on doing so, you can select the same fundamental rule that someone has already chosen.

But if you do that, then you have to face a life-and-death challenge from the other master of that fundamental rule, and one of the two must perish.

Unlike normal Godhood, where the same position can be held by many deities—for example, in the Main World there is a great being, the War Master, but there are also many Gods of War, like Jin Sisi’s main deity position being War.

However, one is mastering the fundamental law ‘War,’ and the other is mastering the overt rule of war; they are not in conflict.

Of course, specifically because the fundamental rule ‘War’ already has a master, unless Jin Sisi changes her main deity position, she will never be able to ascend to great divine power through the war godship. As long as she holds War as her main deity position and reaches level 19 in godhood, she will face a challenge from the War Master.

This challenge must result in a victor, either she overthrows the original War Master—an almost impossible feat—or she falls, or should she give up her War Godship, she can survive.

Fortunately, when Gaia Will opens the permissions, it will remind you which ones already have masters. As the space before Lin Xiao slowly vanished, a network formed of thick golden light veins emitting indescribably mysterious auras appeared before him. He intuitively knew that this was the fundamental rule network of the Main World. Everything in the Crystal Wall Universe is built upon this network of fundamental rules. Should this foundational network collapse, so too would the Main World.

At this moment, Lin Xiao’s state was very mysterious. He himself did not move, yet his spiritual will had already entered a realm unreachable by most Sons of Divine Realm in their lifetime.

His gaze—or rather, his consciousness—overlooked the network of fundamental rules. He did not count them, yet he knew there were a total of ninety-nine fundamental rule networks.

That is to say, any Crystal Wall Universe can birth at most ninety-nine ancient gods who master fundamental rules; any more than that, and one must seize the laws held by others.

Most of those ninety-nine fundamental rule networks already had masters, but there were still many without masters. He could only choose from those without masters.

His gaze fell upon the many dazzling rule pathways, and information about each fundamental rule automatically surfaced in Lin Xiao’s mind. There is no concept of time here, and he has ample time to review each one.

Earth, Water, Flame, Wind, Death, Destruction, War, Slaughter…

Among the golden veins formed by these fundamental rules, some of the brightest are Creator, Truth, Chaos, Order, Balance, Energy, Matter, Space, Time, and other supreme laws.

He found that these fundamental rules are all powerful deity positions that could enable deities to ascend to powerful divine power. Among them, the brightest, which are the main networks in this light web of fundamental rules, are those that potentially break through powerful divine power into supreme deity positions.

But all these brightest fundamental rules already had masters, which seemed normal; people who chose before would naturally pick the strongest, just as Lin Xiao would choose the strongest few.

Of course, although so many had already been picked, most had not yet reached that step. They were not great divine powers or great existences yet, but were on the path to becoming so.

Powerful fundamental rules were gone, even the rule of Life had been chosen, as were Creator and Truth. Lin Xiao could only pick one from the remaining fundamental rules.

Since there is no concept of time here, Lin Xiao has ample time to review each one at his leisure, slowly making his selection. He even checked those already chosen—there were no restrictions, and there was no harm in looking.

But as he seriously observed these many fundamental rules, Lin Xiao did not notice the changes happening within the mind of his True Body.

To be exact, it was the changes within the shell that housed his Soul.

He had previously refined the Crystal Wall System’s Core to be the shell that housed his Soul. Originally, this thing was a shell for the Core of a Crystal Wall System, intended to contain the Origin Core of a Crystal Wall Universe, as well as the network of fundamental rules within that universe. Within the shell, there still were traces left by that original network of fundamental rules.

These remnants should have disappeared long ago, and had Lin Xiao held onto it for so long without any anomalies surfacing.

But as his consciousness browsed through the fundamental laws of the Main World one by one, and as he reviewed each fundamental law, his Sea of Gods housing his Soul within the Crystal Wall core shell began to exhibit unusual fluctuations. Traces, invisible to the naked eye, were slowly coalescing into form.

Initially, Lin Xiao was unaware of this until he had finished looking through many of the main threads of the fundamental law network in the Crystal Wall outer shell. As each of the main threads was repaired, and a network formed by faint threads reappeared on the inner wall of this Crystal Wall System’s Core, Lin Xiao suddenly realized what was happening and was astounded.

Instantly, he understood what this meant and was ecstatic. After the surge of joy, he calmed down.

After much deliberation, he injected a sliver of Crystal Wall Origin’s strength directly into it and could almost see those few main threads brightening a bit.

“Indeed it is so!”

Lin Xiao took a deep breath to suppress the excitement in his heart. His will once again turned to the rest of the fundamental rule networks that he hadn’t seen, filled with fervor.