The Era of Gods

Chapter 309: Chapter 309 Full Integration of the Divine Realm and Nightmare Realm

Early the next morning, Lin Xiao went to his father and got a piece of monster flesh and blood, which was a tentacle from the unknown Tentacle Monster they killed last night.

That monster wasn’t very strong, estimated to be no more than Level 20, and it was the most suitable strength for a first-time fusion. The weird powers contained within the flesh and blood of monsters above this level were too strong and not suitable for newcomers’ first fusions.

This so-called Level was a division of the power hierarchy in this world. There was a significant threshold every ten levels; exceeding these thresholds meant a qualitative improvement in strength. This classification of power applied to the monsters in this world, the Children of Nightmare that came to this world, and even for humans like Lin Xiao and others.

The muscular tentacle, though already sliced off, retained a hint of vitality. It had shrunk from the thickness of a thigh to that of an arm now. The ship’s chef had packed it in a thick metal box filled with ice to seal it shut, originally planning to transport and sell it back on shore.

This thing was ready-made monster flesh and blood, which could be sold to various Island Lords or major trading companies, and it would fetch a good price.

After ensuring the door was closed and no one was outside, Lin Xiao used a hook to extract the solid flesh tentacle, then he unfolded the Magic Cube and opened a Chaos Vortex underneath the tentacle to swallow it.

The half-dead tentacle that was swallowed suddenly swelled, trying to break free with considerable force. However, one end was sucked into the vortex, and the other end was hooked and held tightly, unable to break free.

After all, it was already severed from the main body; despite its residual vitality, after struggling for a dozen seconds, it exhausted its remaining strength and shrank back to its normal size before being completely swallowed by the Magic Cube.

The moment it was taken into the Magic Cube Space, the tentacle looked like a dead fish and stopped moving. At the thought of Lin Xiao, the illusory Magic Cube in the Sea of Gods gently turned, and an invisible strength came forth, grinding the muscular tentacle into a lump of flesh and blood mush, and immediately, a reduced grey outline of the tentacle shot out from the flesh and started darting back and forth within the Magic Cube Space.

This was the residual power within the monster’s flesh and blood, which normally needed to be suppressed with a Magic Potion, and it could not be completely suppressed.

But at this moment within the Magic Cube, this residual power was frantically trying to escape, as if facing some kind of catastrophic disaster.

Lin Xiao observed for a bit, then with a slight smile, he turned the Magic Cube and the residual grey tentacle shadow directly vanished into specks of grey light and scattered; then with the second rotation of the Magic Cube, the specks of light were ground even smaller but were still present.

The third rotation.

The fourth rotation.

The fifth rotation. By now, the grey light had been ground down to the size of bacteria, which would be imperceptible outside the Magic Cube Space.

“Too tenacious, huh!”

This was in the Magic Cube Space, where with the power of the space and the effortless annihilation of anything it encountered, it had to grind five times, and yet it still hadn’t been completely erased. No wonder people in this world could only suppress it with Magic Potion and not obliterate it, this fellow was too resilient.

But no matter how resilient it was, it was not indestructible; it was just a matter of a few more attempts.

When the Magic Cube turned for the eleventh time, the grey light, now smaller than bacteria, was finally ground away into nothingness, turning into colorless specks indiscernible to the naked eye and dispersed into the Magic Cube Space.

At this point, these colorless dust particles were now pure unknown energy. Ignoring them for the moment, he used the Creation Rubik’s Cube to purify the remaining flesh and blood, then reintegrated the colorless particles back into the Magic Cube Space, and then…

He expended four units of Creation Energy to fuse into it, which was the upper limit of how much Creation Energy this piece of monster flesh and blood could absorb. Infusing more Creation Energy wouldn’t increase its power by even a bit.

As the continuous Creation Energy fused in, the red flesh and blood started to emit a faint glow, becoming translucent and shiny, and a power indescribable began to emerge slowly from it.

After all four units of Creation Energy had been infused, the lump of flesh and blood turned into a transparent mass, resembling aspic, and then…

Lin Xiao opened his mouth, and a transparent substance like liquid jelly appeared in front of him and flowed into his mouth.

The sensation was like sucking jelly, except it was tasteless, and he finished it in a few sips, then slowly closed his eyes.

About ten or so seconds later, the muscles in his chest suddenly formed a lump as big as a fist and then quickly retracted, followed by his shoulders and arms, which also jumped slightly. Then, muscles all over his body kept twitching; his muscles visibly swelled at a rate observable to the naked eye, contours became more prominent, and his body bulked up.

At the same time, Lin Xiao could feel the heat in his muscles, as if they were burning, and a powerful force surged throughout his body, stemming from deep within his genetic makeup.

This enhancement continued for a full hour, and when he opened his eyes again, he found that the whole world had shrunk.

No, it’s more accurate to say that he grew bigger.

He looked up to check and found his clothes had burst, revealing his bulging muscles. His forearm alone had ballooned several times larger, and his palm had become more massive; he felt he could grip a basketball in one hand or completely wrap around an average person’s head.

Looking at his whole body, the muscles were bulging, resembling an extremely buff bodybuilder, well-developed but not grotesque; instead, the lines were very beautiful.

At the same time, his height had increased from around 1.8 meters to 2.2 or 2.3 meters, quite a significant increase.

But this was merely a superficial change; there were also internal changes.

For instance, his muscles were stronger and firmer, and he had inherited all the abilities of the tentacle.

He tried stretching his hand forward and pressing in the air, and his arm muscles rapidly expanded multiple times in size, and the length also shot up several times, with his arm swelling to over three meters and reaching the door.

With a thought, his arms and body muscles swelled as well, turning him into a little muscle giant over three meters tall, his strength instantly multiplying several times over.

Moreover, this wasn’t the limit—given enough space, he could transform into a muscle giant raising to five meters, with arms that might extend up to a staggering twenty meters, possessing impressive strength and an exceedingly rapid restorative ability.

He tried exerting just a bit of force, and a chunk of the sturdy wooden table made from ship timber was instantly snapped off, lightly crushed into powder with a pinch.

“Good!”

The first fusion with monster flesh and blood had an unexpectedly large enhancement range, and future fusions with even stronger monster flesh and blood would undoubtedly make him more powerful still.

What was most important was that he felt no abnormalities after the fusion with the monster’s flesh and blood; it was as if this had always been a part of him.

He spent the entire following day adapting to the sudden surge in strength, gradually returning his body to its original size.

The Explorer sailed upon the sea, headed towards the distant Pearl Island—a vast residential isle governed by a powerful Island Lord where they often anchored to resupply.

In this world there were no mainlands, at least Lin Xiao had never heard the term in his memory, nor had the experienced old captain ever spoken of it; in their perception, the entire world was an immense, boundless ocean peppered with numerous islands.

Most islands were rife with danger, occupied by bizarre monsters, indescribable anomalies, or non-human Other Races.

Humans could only cluster to live on islands with water resources, protected by powerful Lords.

Ship travel was the sole mode of transportation in this world, but due to the pervasive strangeness and malevolent monsters in the sea, or the terrifying Other Races inhabiting it, maritime trade was not thriving, and common vessels dared not venture far from the safety of islands into the open sea.

The Explorer was an exploration ship that, aside from sporadically running trade to earn some money, typically embarked into the depths of the ocean on voyages into the unknown, to islands or otherwise.

This time, they had just returned from a distant sea journey, taking the opportunity to purchase a batch of goods to sell at a profit on Pearl Island.

They were now five or six days away from Pearl Island, which was considered close, but not yet safe.

In truth, no place in this world was ever safe—in the vicinities of the islands under the Great Lords’ dominion, strange creatures from the depths of the sea would approach the islands from time to time, with news of accidental deaths heard every few days.

After dinner, Lin Xiao took his curved blade and went on deck, as it was his turn on duty.

If judged by the hour, it was daytime, yet the sky was pitch-black as if it were night, and The Explorer moved through the darkened waters.

Several sailors kept watch on the deck while hesitating to stand up, fearing they might see something they should not; they dared only to hide in a recess near the deckhouse, listening for sounds from outside.

Lin Xiao walked quietly on deck, the railings nearby being quite high—almost one and a half meters—which served not only to prevent them from inadvertently seeing out to sea but also to stop whatever in the sea from seeing them.

After making a round and noticing nothing, he sat down at the rear of the deck to rest in silence.

The ship had no lights; they never lit lamps, for fear of attracting the eyes from the sea’s oddities.

Yet Lin Xiao could clearly see his own arms, muscles swelling and rising at the command of his will, moving in and out like little mice, quite entertaining when he felt bored.

Hours passed unknowingly, and in a state of half-sleep, Lin Xiao suddenly opened his eyes and listened intently—aside from the water slapping against the ship’s hull, there were no other noises, the ship was eerily quiet.

He closed his eyes again, and seconds later, abruptly opened them and stood up with his blade, heading towards the bow.

His footsteps upon the deck, though light, were particularly distinct in the silent night, and for some unknown reason, Lin Xiao felt his heartbeat speeding up; slowly arriving at the bow, he caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a gaze watching him from the darkness beyond the ship’s edge, and though his eyebrow twitched, he managed not to look.

Approaching the bow, he found that two of the three sailors had fallen asleep, while the only one awake was slumped against the wall with half-closed eyes; realizing Lin Xiao’s presence, he jumped up instinctively, the two asleep were startled awake as if by reflex.

Lin Xiao surveyed the three and asked,

“Any abnormalities?”

They shook their heads quickly,

“We’ve been vigilant, no abnormalities found.”

Lin Xiao nodded, glanced briefly at the deck where a thin residue of some viscous substance lingered beneath the three men’s feet, retracted his gaze, carrying his blade as he left.

After rounding a corner, he headed to the door of the deckhouse and pushed it open, taking a deep breath before reaching the old captain’s cabin and lightly tapping with a rhythmic pattern.

Three light taps followed by one heavy.