The Era of Gods

The battleship circled the plane and dispatched three small detectors to approach and explore the plane.

After more than ten minutes, the detectors were retrieved, and the Void Battleship turned away from the plane.

Not long after the vessel left, a tall, humanoid creature covered in scales emerged from the plane, gazing into the Void for a long time without speaking.

Six days later, the Flying Snake No. once again arrived in front of another plane, this one emitting a pale green flame, and the spaceship quietly moored itself outside the Plane Crystal Wall, with two small detectors approaching to explore the plane.

Lin Xiao stood in front of the bridge, carefully observing the nearby plane through the observation window, updating the Star Chart while asking,

“How many planes have we discovered this month?”

His subordinate immediately replied,

“This is the fourth, averaging one per week.”

“Hmm! Such a high frequency, we must have come to a dense cluster of planes.”

He then said to Shen Yuexin beside him,

“Have you discovered anything?”

She retracted the glow in her pupils and shook her head,

“I haven’t detected the traces of our seniors yet, but that does not exclude their presence. If they haven’t appeared outside the plane for a long time, the original traces would have disappeared, and we wouldn’t be able to inquire further.”

This was her Divine Extraordinary Ability after obtaining the Fate Ancient Godhood, called Destiny Trajectory.

As the name implies, she could see the targeted destiny trajectory up to a certain extent. The extent of details she could understand depended on the strength comparison between her and the target; the more powerful the target, the harder it was to peer into their destiny.

However, after all, it was an Ancient Deity’s power, stronger than most people would imagine. With her current strength, she could briefly glimpse the destiny of ordinary Indigenous True Gods, track the trajectory of demigods of the same rank for a long time, and completely track those weaker than herself.

If a creature was below Rank 6 Transcendent, without a Powerful Magic Device or special Talent, she could see through their entire life’s trajectory at a glance, tracing all the way back to their birth.

During these days, whenever they approached a plane, they would let her observe the Destiny Trajectory around the plane, looking for traces of their seniors or other unknown powerful beings.

Although they haven’t found much, they did encounter several terrifying Void Creatures and traps, allowing them to evade dangers in advance.

They had already entered the Void where this cluster of planes was located a year and a half ago. The planes in this cluster became increasingly dense, especially as they went deeper, with the number of planes encountered increasing from one every one or two months to four or five per month now.

From their interactions with the planes over the past year and a half, this should be a cluster of planes not yet discovered by the Sons of the Divine Realm, or at least not by many. So far, they had not officially encountered any Sons of the Divine Realm, though they did find traces on several planes that seemed to be left by them.

But without evidence, it was impossible to prove these were traces left by Sons of the Divine Realm, and no markings were seen. However, to be cautious, they left those planes without making contact.

The detectors embedded into the Plane Crystal Wall swiftly sent back a chunk of gathered information, and a holographic screen popped up in the center of the bridge, displaying a vast ocean that stretched on for thousands of miles.

Quite coincidentally, the area the detectors scanned had clear skies, cloudless, with an endless ocean surface where fish would occasionally jump out and colossal sea creatures could be seen chasing after prey.

“A large plane!”

One detector found the vast stretch of ocean, while the other saw an equally massive continental mountain range, with glimpses of soaring figures and traces of civilization in the swiftly passing imagery.

Such starkly different terrains within the same plane, when combined, gave a preliminary estimate of the plane’s size, which could potentially meet the standards of a large plane.

“Launch two more detectors; also check again if any of our seniors left a mark!”

Lin Xiao was slightly excited. From what was being displayed so far, this might be a large plane likely inhabited by intelligent life forms. The plane’s energy intensity and resource richness weren’t as important as the current presentation alone, which was enough to prove its extraordinary value.

Lin Xiao was already planning to descend onto this plane to establish a Spatial Waymarker. Now he just waited to confirm that the plane had no owner and was undiscovered by other students before descending.

The four detectors circled the plane and continued to explore while the Flying Snake No. carefully searched around the Plane Crystal Wall.

This thorough search lasted an entire month, going back and forth three times, and they concluded that there were no signs left by the students. Only then did Lin Xiao relax and prepare to descend.

Throughout this month of exploration, the detectors had mostly mapped the internal terrain of the plane and had drawn up a detailed map.

First off, this is indeed a large plane, with a total area comparable to that of two Pacific Oceans. It is almost as large as the Moon Cloud Realm, which is kind of coincidental.

The plane has three continents: the main continent lies in the east, while the west harbors two similarly-sized and closely situated Twin Continents.

There are intelligent life forms on these continents, and not just one kind. The primary species is the indigenous humans, with a level of civilization akin to the Bronze Age. They are transitioning from tribal to city-state societies and have slaves—in essence, their stage of development is similar to the ancient Xia and Shang dynasties of China.

Besides, this plane seems to have other races as well, fewer in number than humans but individually much more powerful.

The indigenous humans are mainly concentrated on the main continent, but there are also city-states of indigenous humans on the Twin Continents. Hence, when choosing a landing site, Lin Xiao’s initial choice was not the continent but a slightly larger island outside the continent, preparing to safely establish the Spatial Waymarker before returning.

Considering the value of this large intelligent life plane, it was enough for him and his girlfriend to score a good grade together.

When the time comes, whether they choose to sell the plane’s coordinates or develop it themselves, both options are very promising.

Of course, his decision to land on an island rather than the main continent was mainly because of the Transcendent Powers within this plane.

Even though the plane’s civilizational level is not high, it possesses Transcendent Powers, and they are quite formidable.

Information collected indicates that this plane has also developed the Power of Faith, giving rise to a kind of Totem that is similar to deities but not quite deities.

Note that this Totem is different from the kind Lin Xiao encountered in the previous Totem Crystal Wall System; it shares the same name but belongs to another power system, a variant of Divine Enthronement through faith.

In simpler terms, it could also be called ancestral worship or local deities.

Since civilization is transitioning from tribal to city-state systems, the most primitive form of ancestral worship is retained. Some renowned ancestors receive adoration from their descendants, and, over time, gather the Power of Faith, eventually becoming Totems with a specific Godhood but without a God Country or Incarnation—these are also called local deities.

The most common Godhoods are the Totems of different tribes, such as the Thunder Tribe Totem, the Fang Tribe Totem, and so on.

Or the local deities of different areas, like the Silent Mountain Guardian, the Senario Mountain Guardian, the Night Song Forest Guardian, and so forth.

Generally, Totems are divine human ancestors, whereas most Guardians are powerful lifeforms of a region, deified by the ignorant worship of mortals; however, there are also humans who become Guardians.

The strength of these Totems lies between Demigods and True Gods; due to the restriction of Godhood, they have no God Country and cannot create Avatars like True Gods. They must always personally intervene, thus their actual strength is much lower than that of True Gods.

Nevertheless, no matter how inferior they are, they are equivalent to Demigods. If it’s a powerful Totem or Guardian, their strength far exceeds that of an ordinary Demigod. The strongest among them, even True Gods, cannot do anything to them in their home turf.

This large plane is dotted with tribes and city-states, each having its own Totem, and some powerful planes may have several. Plus, with the various Guardians in different places, even though this plane does not have True Gods, it is filled with Totems and Guardians equivalent to Demigods—probably not thousands, but certainly several hundreds of them, which is quite dangerous.

As newcomers, they would be naturally repelled by just entering the plane, and establishing a Spatial Waymarker would make them direct targets of the Plane Will’s hostility. By then, enemies would certainly come to sabotage. Having landed in the main plane, they might have to face an attack by a group of Totems or local deities any minute.

Despite the dangers, as the saying goes, “Fortune favors the bold,” and the value of this plane warrants the risk.

After completing all the preparations, the Flying Snake No. breached the Plane Crystal Wall and entered the plane.

The moment they entered the plane, Lin Xiao felt a repelling force acting upon himself.

Turning to look at his girlfriend, Shen Yuexin nodded, while it seemed that the numerous subordinates aboard the battleship felt nothing.

They were devoid of Divinity and Divine Power, and strictly speaking, were merely mortals. As long as they didn’t arrive with evident malicious intent, the Plane Will generally wouldn’t repel them.

Luckily, what they brought was only a Demigod Avatar, whose power was insignificant compared to the hundreds or thousands of Totems in this plane. If it were a True God arriving now, there would likely be lightning and thunder striking immediately.

The Flying Snake No. remained stationary in the sky for a long while upon entering the plane, allowing him and Shen Yuexin to slowly acclimate to the rejection before transforming into a meteor and flying towards an archipelago at the edge of the main continent.

Simultaneously with their landing, in the south of the main continent, on a plain situated between two mountain ranges, stood a city built of giant stones. Warriors of tall stature, bare-chested and barefoot, wearing necklaces of teeth, and armed with long spears, stood atop the city walls.

The city was heavily fortified; within, the stone and wooden structures were crude yet orderly, and although the commoners, clad in hemp garments and adorned with various animal teeth or bones, were not particularly wealthy, they appeared clean.

The streets were bustling with people. Commoners walked on either side of the main road, reserving the center solely for the aristocrats’ ox carts.

Following the main street all the way forward, after passing a huge square, the terrain began to rise. Layers of stone steps, built upon each other, extended upwards like a pyramid.

From a high vantage point, one could see that this vast city, spanning over ten kilometers in both length and width, was divided into three tiers: the lowest and outermost layer, the middle layer standing over thirty meters above the outer one, and the core central layer that rose another thirty meters above the middle one.

In the center of the largest pyramid made of bluestone at the very heart of the city…