The Era of Gods

Chapter 627: Chapter 627: Grey Crow People World

In this world, most humans pursue the path of Reinforcement Wizards, seeking to strengthen themselves by acquiring the bloodlines of powerful creatures. Strictly speaking, Reinforcement Wizards also fall under the category of Bloodline Wizards; it’s just that most humans are not born with bloodlines and have to acquire them through external means to incorporate into their being.

The Thirteenth Legion’s garrison island has a huge fortress, inside which is an inter-world portal. It is said that this portal was built by the Sea King Empire’s first Emperor, who was also the most powerful one. It can connect with other worlds by consuming a massive amount of resources, thereby establishing a passage between two worlds.

There are a total of twenty-one such portals. Eighteen are controlled by different Sea Kings, and the remaining three are in the hands of the Sea Emperor. The one guarded by the Thirteenth Legion is just one of these.

After taking over as the commander of the Third Division, Lin Xiao closely observed this portal.

This device is a type of special witchcraft formation. The method of constructing the portal is not a closely guarded secret, and with his status and authority, he qualifies to learn it. However, the various conditions needed to build such a portal are beyond the capabilities of most Sea Kings.

Let’s not talk about the need for rare materials—the empire has been colonizing alien worlds for so long that their reserves wouldn’t be lacking. In essence, they should have basically everything.

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The most critical factor is actually strength. Currently, the empire does not possess any super-powerful beings like the first generation Sea Emperor. Without sufficient strength to pierce through the inter-world passage out of thin air, the portal’s first activation requires the creation of a spatial channel with a particular alien world. Thereafter, this requirement is no longer necessary. However, this calls for immense strength, at least a Rank 7 wizard.

Since the first Sea Emperor, no new Rank 7 powerhouse has emerged. All subsequent Sea Emperors have been of Rank 6 strength.

Of course, even if a Rank 7 Sea Emperor were to emerge, they might not be willing to do it since the empire’s current control over the space gates is sufficient for their needs; there is no necessity to create another one.

After all, the emergence of each new portal signifies the birth of an extraordinarily strong new Sea King if not personally crafted by the Sea Emperor. This would lead to internal strife within the empire.

Although he became the vice-commander of the Thirteenth Legion and took charge of the Third Division, Lin Xiao didn’t have much to do at the moment. He had no immediate assignments, and he spent most of his days resting, inspecting the troops, and occasionally, bonding with fellow officers and subordinates. His days passed by just like that.

The majority of the Legion’s members were from the Sea Clan, with humans being fewer in number. In this world where the Sea Clan was the dominant group, humans were one of the major races.

Before Lin Xiao’s arrival, the highest-ranking human in the Thirteenth Legion was a deputy battalion commander of a war battalion, a Level 3 Reinforcement Wizard. His strength was not formidable, so his status obviously wasn’t that high.

Therefore, when Lin Xiao arrived, the human officers immediately rallied under his command, ready to carry out his orders.

Indeed, most of the members of the Third Division were actually humans.

After nearly a year of uneventful days, Lin Xiao suddenly noticed that there was an increase in scouting parties being dispatched from the fortress to the alien world. Simultaneously, he received a summons from the Legion commander calling for a meeting of all major division leaders. Lin Xiao knew that there was work to be done.

As he expected, the Legion had made breakthrough progress in exploring one of the alien worlds they discovered. The main purpose of convening high-ranking officers for the meeting was to conduct the final assessment. If the assessment passed, it would be reported to the Sea Emperor, followed by preparations to conquer the alien world.

Following their assessment and reporting to the Sea Emperor, it was largely just a formality. Even the Sea Kings, who carry out their duty without heeding proclamations, had to report to the Sea Emperor before embarking on the conquest of an alien world; it was more or less a procedural step.

In the conference room, the secretary to the Legion commander distributed documents to the attending vice-commanders and division leaders, detailing the reconnaissance information of the world they were preparing to conquer.

The extremely tall Legion commander sat in the central seat, exuding a subtle suppressive presence and aura identical to that of the Sea Emperor. He also hailed from the powerful Dragon Whale race, the same as His Majesty the Sea Emperor, with a strength of Fifth Level, placing him on par with most Sea Kings.

Present were four vice-commanders and two division leaders who were not vice-commanders, totaling six high-ranking officials. Except for Lin Xiao, who was of the Human Race, and the commander of the Fifth Division, who was from the Feather Snake race, the rest were members of the Sea Clan.

This Feather Snake was not the kind one might typically imagine, but rather a race with a serpentine body and two pairs of wings, with a hood like a cobra at the back of their head, and a human-like face while still retaining many snake characteristics.

The Feather Snake race typically follows the bloodline path, possessing, on average, an extremely high bloodline potential. Moreover, this race is amphibious and can also fly, placing them high in the ranking of overall strength among the empire’s races—slightly superior to humans.

Although they belong to different races, the Sea Emperor founded the Sea King Empire and unified the world thousands of years ago, causing the races to intermingle. Intermarriage among different races is commonplace, and to be hostile simply because of racial differences is not standard practice.

Some naturally antagonistic races are exceptions to this.

After exchanging greetings with the others at his table, Lin Xiao picked up the hefty file to review.

The world under assessment was codenamed “Gray Crow.” The records indicated that the empire discovered this world over a hundred years ago. Since then, they have continuously sent scouting teams into that world. Tens of thousands of spies had been dispatched over the years, and only now, after over a century, had they completely explored the world and compiled all pertinent data for presentation.

Then, in accordance with the empire’s millenia-old protocols, a final evaluation of this world was conducted to determine whether to initiate a conquest war or seal the records and abandon the world.

If the assessment deemed the world too powerful, resource-poor, or the resources unattractive enough, then the data would be sealed, and the empire would give up on it.

If the world was not considered strong enough, then it would face conquest.

Moreover, depending on the specific circumstances of the world, decisions regarding the magnitude of forces to commit, whether to request assistance from several of the empire’s legions for a joint assault, and other considerations would need to be evaluated.

Classified between a large and a super-large world in size, this “Gray Shadow” would be referred to as a large plane in the terminology of the Main World, although the term “plane” is not used in the Wizard World.

According to the records, the sky of the Gray Crow World is covered by a thick layer of gray fog all year round, casting the entire world into perpetual darkness, similar to the night of the full moon.

The dominant species in that world is a humanoid race called the Grey Crow people. There are pictures of them in the records, looking humanoid, their bodies covered in thick feathers, their heads like that of a crow adorned with feathered crowns, and their arms extended with a pair of slightly degenerated wings.

Ordinary Grey Crow people cannot fly and can only glide short distances, but if they awaken their bloodline, they will possess the power of flight.

The mainstream power system in this world comprises Bloodline Wizards. Grey Crow people have a chance to awaken the bloodline of the Crow God, their ancestor, and gradually evolve towards the Crow God.

As the records show, the overall strength of the Grey Crow people is far inferior to that of the Sea King Empire. According to the currently available information, the strongest individuals in several Grey Crow Human Kingdoms and the Setek Temple, the sacred place of the Grey Crow people, are only Rank 4 at most. No Rank 5 powerhouses have been discovered yet, although after multiple scouting efforts, it was assessed that the Grey Crow World might have concealed Rank 5 powerhouses.

However, there certainly wouldn’t be many, at most one or two, which is within the capabilities of the Sea King World to handle. In fact, even the Thirteenth Legion would dare to conquer the Grey Crow World, albeit with some difficulty.

After all, the legion commander of the Thirteenth Legion is a Rank 5 powerhouse and there are eight Rank 4 powerhouses within the legion.

Originally, there were only six, now two more have been added, including Lin Xiao.

This power might not be sufficient to conquer the Grey Crow World, but they can request reinforcements, right? As the direct lineage of the Sea Emperor, it should be no problem to get support from other legions or even the royal family. If the war turns unfavorable, direct cooperation with other legions is also a viable option.

After evaluating the comprehensive strength of the Grey Crow people, Lin Xiao flipped to the back of the records, which listed a large number of valuable resources scouted in the Grey Crow World.

The main purpose of conquering worlds is to plunder resources. No matter how easy it might be to conquer, there would be no interest if the resources aren’t sufficient. No one would want to invest a great deal of effort and suffer losses to conquer a world of little value.

Of course, worlds that are capable of dispatching numerous scouting teams are unlikely to lack resources. Right now, the legions are scouting many worlds that have been preliminarily determined to be worthy of conquest before elaborate further scouting ensues. If a world lacks value, it would be abandoned and sealed off early on.

Resources, a broad term, cover a variety of items.

All sorts of minerals, creatures with powerful bloodlines, and even arable land are considered resources.

Even if there’s nothing else, as long as there are enough intelligent creatures, they are considered resources.

After all, for beings above Rank 4, the souls, flesh, and even emotions like fear and wrath of intelligent beings are resources. At their level of existence, they can start to utilize these things to enhance their strength.

Take Lin Xiao for example; he can collect a vast number of souls from Other Races, refine them into pure Soul Power, and devour it to improve his strength.

The pure Soul Power of two hundred thousand souls previously allowed him to advance to Rank 4. What if he could harvest one million souls? Or several million, even tens of millions?

The records indicate that the land of the Grey Crow World is not suitable for cultivating common crops due to the lack of sunlight but is fit for growing various fungi favored by the Grey Crow people. Some fungi have been transported by the scouting teams and found to be quite delectable, but this alone doesn’t add significantly to the world’s value.

Luckily, the Grey Crow World is mountainous, with plenty of mineral wealth.

Furthermore, the Grey Crow World has a vast number of its namesake inhabitants, with several kingdoms amounting to tens of millions of Grey Crow people, in addition to many other creatures scattered throughout the world.

Especially since the Grey Crow people form a civilization of a Wise Species, the quality of their souls is quite good, suitable for reaping a harvest of souls and flesh.

At least in Lin Xiao’s eyes, this world is worth conquering; he is just unsure what other powerhouses think.

As he set down the records he was holding, the resounding voice of the legion commander, Leo, rang out:

“Vice Legion Commander Lin Xiao, do you think this world is worth conquering?”

A few division commanders looked up at him, and he said with a smile:

“There is definitely value in conquering it. Regardless of the resources within the world, the souls and flesh of those tens of millions of Grey Crow people alone are of sufficient value. Especially since the Grey Crow people are said to possess the bloodline of the Crow God, such a vast number of them could provide enough Bloodline Essence to create dozens of top-tier wizards, with some to spare.”

In the Sea King World, top-tier wizards refer to Rank 4 Dawn Wizards.

Dawn Wizards are the formal term for true wizards, with different worlds having different names for their Rank 4 power structures.

Chapter 628

The commander of the Second Division seated opposite him, a Sea Snake Person named Arlen, nodded and added:

“The environment of this world is unsuitable for us to live in, even the highly adaptable Human Race would not be very comfortable. We don’t have an urgent need for minerals right now, so the best use would be a bloody slaughter, extractive plundering, then abandoning the world afterwards.”