The Era of Gods

Chapter 320: The Evolutionary Chain Between Small Fishman and Supreme Naga

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A legendary nightmare behemoth was slain at the frontlines, but the battle was far from over, as the Children of Nightmare had no way out.

With one after another super large flesh monsters being slain, Lin Xiao’s heart also settled as a great number of these monsters fell.

These flesh monsters had the size, but their individual strength was too weak; even those of Rank 6 couldn’t match the combat power of steel golems and were utterly expendable in quantity.

However, being relieved didn’t mean relaxing; now was not the time to be carefree.

After all, this child of nightmare who was about as senior as a high school junior had strength roughly equivalent to that level at a higher education institution, and was one of the stronger ones among his peers, with abundant accumulation and not lacking in a few trump cards; it was too early to be too joyful.

Under the enhancement of several ancient treasures, even the weakest Small Fishman among Lin Xiao’s clan boasted a minimum combat power of Level 4, and the overall strength pressed forward, quickly forcing the opponent to retreat step by step. The Child of Nightmare tried to take action several times against him or his clan, but Slarda and the Flame Lord intercepted them, and Lin Xiao’s incarnation had not even made a move.

After advancing more than ten kilometers, one could see the first flesh nest with the naked eye.

It was a giant meat mountain hundreds of meters high, surrounded by a large, thick blanket of flesh. The surface of the meat mountain was covered in folds like a human brain and undulated with its breathing like a human stomach. Along the edges of this thing were long cracks that intermittently opened to reveal pink flesh, out of which slid flesh monsters wrapped in thick meat membranes.

These newborn flesh monsters were about five to six meters long and lay on the thick flesh blanket surrounding the meat mountain. The blanket would sprout many sprout-like flesh tendrils that would insert into the bodies of the monsters to provide nutrients, and in less than half an hour, these creatures could be accelerated to a mature state, freeing themselves from the dried membranes to join the battle.

This was equivalent to having a soldier-spawning barracks that could produce a flesh monster of paper-thin Rank 6 combat strength every half an hour – by no means weak.

And in this Nightmare Realm, who knows how many flesh nests there are.

There was no hesitation; Slarda immediately gave the order for the fire elements to begin casting rain of fire to scorch the earth, and a Rank 7 elite fire elemental gathered a group of fire elements to summon a hundred-meter-wide flame meteorite to smash down.

The flesh nest didn’t have enough accumulated nightmare power to form a shield, blocking the first wave, but couldn’t withstand the continuous bombardment of five or six waves of meteorites. Even though the Child of Nightmare intervened twice, in the end, the incessant meteorites broke through the defense, and one wave melted the flesh nest.

After its death, it left behind a crystalline blood-flesh seed as spoils, which was passed down through the ranks and finally appeared in the hands of Lin Xiao’s incarnation.

It was called the Flesh Seed Body; if one could prepare a lot of flesh and let this thing settle, the seed would absorb the flesh and grow, ultimately regrowing into a new flesh nest.

It’s referred to as a “seed body” because it’s separated from a “mother nest,” and being a child limit, its maximum growth potential is just as we have seen, at most able to hatch flesh creatures with the constitution and strength reaching Rank 6, unable to hatch stronger flesh monsters, even with a dragon corpse.

If there is a child, there must be a mother, and Lin Xiao looked deep into the Nightmare Divine Realm with great interest.

Four hours later, the scout team found a second flesh nest guarded by a horde of nightmare creatures in another location. Led by the Wise Goblins leader Alemente, a troop overtook this flesh nest.

As the Child of Nightmare’s main forces were defeated, the subsequent resistance was very weak. The majority of the outlying areas had given up defense, and hardly any semblance of stiff resistance was met along the way.

Lin Xiao speculated that the enemy had gathered their main forces at the very center of the Nightmare Divine Realm, preparing for a last stand.

There would be the True Body of the Child of Nightmare, at the same time located at the core of the Nightmare Divine Realm, not only being able to leverage its true strength but also relying on the core’s defense.

Generally speaking, the core defense of a divine realm is the strongest, influenced by the true body, and inherently suppressing the enemy – many examples can prove that many victories from underdog to conqueror in desperate situations were achieved at the core.

Therefore, a tough fight was still ahead; only by completely defeating the enemy’s last stand at the core of the field could the adversary be considered truly vanquished.

As the Child of Nightmare contracted its territory, the subsequent conquests of the outskirts of the Nightmare Divine Realm went very smoothly. It didn’t take long before one flesh nest after another was conquered, yielding one Flesh Seed after another.

It deserves mention that with the continuous conquering of the enemy’s territory, once the occupied land reached a certain extent, Lin Xiao’s God’s realm power began to enter the Nightmare Realm, starting to suppress the opposing field. The ubiquitous Nightmare Power within the Nightmare Realm, under this suppression, receded to reveal a gray world.

Under the influence of the Nightmare Power, the main body in this child’s realm was a grayish-black color; vegetation and creatures, constantly under this influence, turned grayish-black, and even the iron ore buried in the ground was tinged with gray.

The resources within this Nightmare Realm could not be used directly; they must first undergo a process of purification to remove the Nightmare Power before they could be utilized.

As the territories gradually cleared, most of the Nightmare Realm became bright once more, leaving only the densest part of the central region occupied by Nightmare Power, resembling a video game map where only a small central portion was shrouded in the black fog of war.

Through the occasional brave scouts sent in to explore, it was found that the mother nest of flesh and blood was indeed inside it. Because the area was full of nightmare creatures, it was unreachable, but from afar one could see a Giant Meat Mountain nearly three hundred meters tall, with an even larger shadow behind it, emitting a terrorizing aura that made the scouting Air Elements struggle to maintain their form.

After no less than a hundred scouting attempts, sacrificing several hundred scouts, Lin Xiao had a pretty clear understanding of about half of the core area’s interior.

Combining all the information, he fell silent.

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The enemy had amassed forces here that were stronger than he had anticipated.

Or rather, the defenses the enemy had in place here were stronger than he had anticipated.

What caught his attention the most were the biological defense pillars that had spawned from the mother nest of flesh and blood, thick meat pillars dozens of meters high, growing from the ground with a giant eyeball at the top. The eyeball could still rotate, serving both combat and surveillance functions; many of his scouts had been detected by these things.

In this core area, the mother nest of flesh and blood was crazily spewing out super large flesh monsters, expelling them much faster than its offspring. The number of super large flesh monsters that had accumulated over this period was already around four to five thousand. Along with the previous ones and the existing high-end nightmare creatures, the combat power barely reaching Rank 6 was already seven to eight thousand strong.

Although most of them were substandard, and might not be able to defeat a true Rank 6 Transcendent being, even two against one, there is still strength in numbers. If other elites without access to the Extraordinary Magic Network were to come here, they truly might be defeated.

After all, the enemy is already a seasoned warrior and a Nightmare Lord who’s about to take the college entrance exam at the end of their senior year, with an entire year of power accumulation over them.

The rate of accumulation during the senior year is much greater than in freshman year. In some cases, it’s even more significant than the combined total of the first and second years.

A direct assault under these circumstances was definitely not feasible. The same old strategy it was then: summon water elementals from the Extraordinary Magic Net as cannon fodder.

By now, he had already occupied all territories surrounding the Nightmare Realm with no concerns for his rear.

Moreover, this time he summoned not merely thirty thousand, but he rallied all seventy thousand of his subordinates—thirty thousand Wise Goblins, twenty thousand Supreme Nagas, and twenty thousand Earth Dwarves—together for the summoning.

A massive seventy thousand Rank 6 super large water elementals split into four columns, each consisting of fifteen thousand. They would converge towards the center from four directions, launching a head-on assault in conjunction with other troops.

Yes, other troops were just for support; they would not engage in the battle.

His method was very straightforward: if the opponent was defending in such an obnoxious manner, he could similarly attack in an obnoxious manner.

He would summon a wave of water elementals every day to continuously whittle down the enemy’s manpower, slowly grinding them down without any rush.

It must be understood that this battle was crucial for the survival of Lin Xiao’s God’s realm and his own life and death. There was no room for propriety; as long as victory was assured, even the dirtiest of tactics were permissible.

As it turned out, shameless tactics were called so because they left the opponent quite helpless.

He kept summoning water elementals to die and expend the enemy’s resources, and when their ranks thinned sufficiently, he would retreat and continue the summoning the next day.

With this daily summoning and attrition, the legion of Nightmare Creatures garrisoned in the heart of the realm visibly dwindled. By the sixth day, the attack had reached the very center where the mountainous mother nest of flesh and blood could be seen with the naked eye.

The progression of the battle was quite smooth, and the more it proceeded, the more Lin Xiao played a coy game. Initially, the Clan had provided support for the offensive, but later they simply stayed far away from the battlefield, leaving waves of water elementals to attack and exhaust the enemy.

This tactic was extremely shameless, leaving the Children of Nightmare without an opportunity to launch a full-blown counterattack.

By now, the Divine Realm had extended its reach to occupy all the outer perimeters of the core, and the Nightmare Child’s control over its own realm had been significantly weakened. If they dared to break out of the core, Lin Xiao would immediately be aware and ready to respond, leaving them no chance for a desperate fight.

Whenever the True Body made a move, Lin Xiao would keep his distance, while the Nightmare Child did not dare leave the core. If it did, Lin Xiao would be ready to encircle and eliminate it.

The Nightmare Child’s strategy of contraction might sound good, akin to burning one’s boats or fighting with one’s back to the river, a fight for survival after being put in a desperate situation. However, if it was at too much of a disadvantage, it just meant waiting for death.

Moreover, the enemy had made a critical mistake; they had not been resolute enough to withstand massive losses and launch an all-out attack but had instead divided the campaign into three stages.

They suffered great losses after the initial full-scale clash when both realms had just fully merged and did not continue the offensive.

A second round of battle was fought just outside the core.

The third round entailed a desperate defense of the core.

If they had the resolve, the first onslaught could have been a decisive surge of full-blown attack—no guarantee of victory, but they certainly wouldn’t have lost so miserably.

At the very least, even if Lin Xiao could win, his losses would have been substantial.

Alas, there are no ifs in war. The dynamics can change in the blink of an eye, and missing the opportunity means death.

That was the situation now, with continued attrition leaving the Nightmare Child with fewer and fewer subordinates.