The Era of Gods

Chapter 353: Chapter 353: The Current Status of the God Realm Kin

“What’s happening!”

Jovis quickly scanned his surroundings and commanded loudly:

“Turn off all searchlights, abandon the original plan, and everyone get on the ship.”

His eyes gleamed as he looked around, then suddenly he jerked his head up to look deep into the island, and a hint of shock flashed through his calm gaze. The next second, he swung around and bellowed:

“Everyone listen up, leave the island immediately!”

“Prepare the main cannon, aim at the island, and wait for my command!”

At the same time, he spoke to Elton and Hall, who were still on the island, on the private channel reserved for the Children of Nightmare:

“Forget your men, just get back here quickly.”

Hall asked over the channel:

“What did you see?”

Jovis didn’t hide the truth and replied:

“I saw the mountains inside the island moving.”

The Children of Nightmare were horrified. Hall and Elton, who had been considering rescuing their subordinates, said nothing further, abandoning their men and rushing to the already activated Ironclad Warship.

“Isn’t this a mining island? How could it…?”

Jovis stared intently at the distant colossus that had moved again, this time with even larger movements than before. Based on his experience…

“I suspect a god happened to come upon this island, and that’s what caused Bernie and the others’ deaths.”

“A god?”

This name sent shockwaves through the Children of Nightmare’s hearts. They looked towards the island in horror, just in time to see the mountains shrouded in black mist stir again, causing their hearts to skip a beat.

Two Children of Nightmare boarded the ship with incredible speed. The multi-tentacled monster also lifted its body from underground, transforming into a ball roughly the size of a small building and rolling towards the sea, causing many sailors aboard the ironclad ship to feel nauseated, dizzy, and many near the railing instinctively climbed up, wanting to jump off.

Fortunately, one of the Children of Nightmare pointed a finger, and with a ‘pop’, a crisp sound brought everyone back to their senses.

As the mass of tentacles submerged into the sea, disappearing without a trace, the Ironclad Warship had started but was temporarily still docked at the shore, awaiting the rest of the crew.

However, at that moment, a deep, unconscious growl like that of a giant beast emanated from the center of the island. A gust of air pushed a wave of grey mist their way, and the sailors about to board the warship who had approached close to shore suddenly collapsed, one after another. The gray mist swept over the ironclad, and the sailors on deck collapsed in unison, leaving only the six Children of Nightmare and a few powerful warriors of the Blood Source to remain standing.

At the same time, the towering mountain range in the distance began… to lift and rise. A faint but fear-inducing will was slowly awakening.

“Forget about them, evacuate immediately!”

Steam billowed from the warship’s smokestacks as the massive ship slowly moved away from shore, leaving behind a few dozen members of the exploration team who had fallen less than fifty meters from the shore.

But at this time, no one was accusing anyone of failing to rescue the fallen, because the mountain range at the center of the island had already risen several hundred meters. A suffocating and frightening will had already awakened, sweeping unconsciously over the area, and they could see countless strange creatures in the sea around the island fleeing the area.

The six Children of Nightmare stood on the deck, looking into the distance. Another Child of Nightmare, Max, said with a shocked tone:

“Is that the god of this world?”

Jovis nodded:

“If I’m not mistaken, it probably is.”

After speaking, he turned around, clapped his hands to attract everyone’s attention, and said:

“Stop staring, lest we draw Its attention. The warship is prepared to speed away from this area, and report the situation to Lord Gainey Lun. Please ask Lord Gainey Lun to handle it personally. This is beyond our level of contact.”

“But Lord Gainey Lun is currently in pursuit of a human prodigy. I fear he may not be available.”

“Then we’ll wait until Lord Gainey Lun is available to discuss it. Anyway, this is none of our concern anymore.”

The Children of Nightmare were silent.

“Boom!”

Another deafening explosion drew their attention. Instinctively, they turned their gazes towards the distant sea, where a dome several kilometers in diameter rose on the endless surface. The next second, a terrifying chill hit them, and they vaguely…

“Stop looking.”

Jovis snapped his companions out of it with several slaps, and the Children of Nightmare were shocked to find themselves at the edge of the deck, having moved there without realizing it, when they heard the stern rebuke of their companion:

“Don’t think, don’t speak, just leave the deck immediately.”

“Roar!”

A heaven-shaking roar sounded, accompanied by a colossal wave that lifted the hundred-meter-long Ironclad Warship into the air and then slammed it back down with a cold, bone-chilling splash mixed with a subtle hint of mind-warping suggestion.

However, this slight mental suggestion was not enough to affect the Children of Nightmare, who quickly ran towards the cabin without a reaction.

It wasn’t until they all squeezed into the cabin that they finally took a breath of relief. The Children of Nightmare looked at each other, and one of them asked:

“Who was that just now?”

Jovis asked with a grave expression,

“It’s another god!”

“Another god?”

“It seems to be heading towards that island.”

“What does It intend to do?”

No one answered, yet they all had an answer in their hearts.

Elton looked at the others, including Captain Jovis who appeared somewhat excited, eager to give it a try but no one spoke up first.

Until…

A great roar sounded again from afar, accompanied by an even more terrifying growl. The eyes of the six Children of Nightmare lit up simultaneously. Jovis suddenly stood up and roared,

“Let’s do it!”

The other five Children of Nightmare also rose to their feet and whispered in unison,

“Then let’s do it.”

Jovis took a deep breath to calm his excitement and said in a low voice,

“Don’t get excited yet, let’s first assess the situation, then find the right opportunity, we…”

In the depths of the island, in the eyes of the Children of Nightmare, at the heart of the mountain, was actually a huge flesh ball spanning over three kilometers, situated at the center of the island.

This massive flesh ball’s surface was full of folds and a hard keratinous layer, making it look like a pile of rocks.

There were no living creatures on this meaty mound, save for the breathing fluctuations of the mound every few days.

Recently, these breaths had become more frequent, usually signifying that the Sleeper was about to awaken.

To outsiders, the mound seemed ready to awaken, but inside, at the core of this fleshy mountain, amid the tough meat walls in an inner space, a gray Chaotic Vortex filled with evil and destructive aura was slowly rotating. In the center of the vortex, a mysterious Magic Cube oscillated between reality and illusion, slowly turning. With each turn, a wisp of gray mist escaped through the crevices of the cube, merging into the surrounding Chaos Vortex.

The Creation Rubik’s Cube!

Lin Xiao’s Creation Rubik’s Cube.

If anyone could see inside this Creation Magic Cube right now, they would find that within its boundary-less space, at the center, floated a shimmering sphere, surrounded by… an already thinning Chaos Vortex.

Upon closer inspection, it would become apparent that this thin Chaos Vortex was actually composed of strands of remnant souls, akin to eerie pollution.

The Crystalline Spherical orb rotated leisurely, emitting faint invisible forces of attraction. This intangible force spread outwards into the Chaos Vortex, drawing remnant souls into the sphere.

As waves of indescribable mystical energy surged forth, a little bit of gray mist was expelled, and the light inside the sphere grew brighter, with the invisible force of attraction becoming stronger.

Inside the Crystalline Spherical orb was a pure and unmatched ocean formed by numerous lights. In the center of the ocean, Lin Xiao’s transparent figure sat, with a halo blossoming behind him.

This was his Soul of God. The surrounding sea of astonishingly pure light was an array of remnant souls that had been completely purified by the Creation Rubik’s Cube.

With the Soul Agglomerate, looking to devour his Soul of God and take over his divine body being consumed by the Creation Rubik’s Cube, all the Children of Nightmare fell, bringing the War to its end.

No one knew what happened after the War had ended. Since his Soul had entered the Creation Rubik’s Cube for survival, Lin Xiao lost touch with the outside world. All he knew was the start of an unknown duration of refining, using the power of the Creation Rubik’s Cube to refine the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate along with the Soul Agglomerate.

The incarnation of Nightmare’s Will was refined early on, nearly exhausting the remaining Creation Energy. Consequently, without sufficient Creation Energy to refine the Soul Agglomerate, the process had to be slow and thorough. Now, over ninety percent of the several million souls within this Agglomerate had been refined, and it wouldn’t be long before the rest were completely purified.

As for the shimmering sphere he resided in, it wasn’t an anomaly caused by refining the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate and the millions of Soul Agglomerates. It was the Core of the Crystal Wall System’s Origin.

Yes, the Crystal Wall System’s Core.

As he refined the millions of souls and the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate, particularly after refining the Nightmare’s Will Incarnate, he realized his Soul of God simply couldn’t withstand the power of the Nightmare’s Will.

Neither in quality nor quantity could he cope.

After all, it was the Nightmare’s Will, an entity that ruled over many Great Dominators, comprised of powerful Lords numbering in the hundreds, and Nightmare Lords that rivaled True Gods by the tens of millions, if not billions. Its realm and the power it wielded were unimaginable to most, let alone him, at his level.

In fact, it was fortunate that he encountered them in the God Realm where the battle took place and the domain of those three Children of Nightmare was limited to Rank 8, restraining Its power. Had he been in this world, he would have had to face a true God-level Existence.

And to deal with such a formidable existence, even a fraction of its power, he had to use almost all of the Creation Energy in the Creation Rubik’s Cube and spent an indeterminate amount of time eroding its will, leaving only the Origin.

Lin Xiao’s Soul of God was completely outmatched by this unmanageable Origin, which nearly assimilated his soul.

Thus, Lin Xiao had a sudden inspiration. He removed the Core of the Crystal Wall System’s Origin to bear this beyond-the-digestible-range Origin, and then submerged his Soul of God into the shell of the Crystal Wall System’s Core, to digest it slowly.

But then he encountered a new problem. He had indeed dealt with the core of the Nightmare’s Will—digested it, but then another issue arose.

As his Soul of God entered the Crystal Wall System’s Core to digest the Nightmare’s Will’s Origin, he discovered something… both peculiar and shocking.

He found that the Nightmare’s Will’s Origin, upon entering the shell of the Crystal Wall System’s Core, integrated unimaginably well with it. It entered as if coming home, harmoniously merging within.