Misery and Victory

His true form was incredibly powerful. After all, he was a Divine Creature, bolstered by the home-field advantage of his Divine Domain. He could easily slaughter all two hundred Snake-Men by himself.

But if his true form made a move, the Snakemen Demigod hiding behind the Snake-Men would definitely seize the chance to act. How could a mere Divine Creature like him possibly contend with a demigod?

With teachers guarding him nearby, the Snakemen Demigod would not be able to seize his divinity, but he would still suffer a severe loss of vitality. For a newly born Divine Lifeform like him, that would be fatal.

Fortunately, his Kinfolk were tough enough. Even when facing the powerful Snake-Men, they showed no fear.

And the extremely Rare skill, Salted Fish Thrust, gave them the ability to fight back. They charged forward wave after wave, each one dealing tremendous damage to their target. Every Murloc who died was accompanied by the fall of a Snake-Man.

The Snake-Men were far fewer in number than the Murlocs. Every Snake-Man that fell reduced their pressure by another fraction.

By the time the Faith Threads in Lin Xiao's Divine Sea had dwindled to just over four hundred, nearly half of the Snake-Men had fallen. More importantly, almost every surviving Snake-Man was wounded, most of them pierced clean through.

The overall situation seemed settled.

He let out a breath of relief. This was within his expectations.

The Murlocs were certainly no match for the Snake-Men in individual combat, but he held the advantages of home ground and numbers. Trading life for life, the Snake-Men could not afford the exchange.

One injured Snake-Man after another fell beneath the charge of the following Murlocs. Though Murlocs continued to die to counterattacks, the frequency of death was far less terrifying than during the first wave. Compared to the one-for-two exchange of the first wave, it was now one for one, mostly the Snake-Men's final counterattacks before death.

There was no helping it. Although Salted Fish Thrust had an incredibly high burst of power, its aftereffects were severe as well.

Given a Murloc's stamina, after one burst, they could barely even remain standing. It was either kill or be killed.

As more and more Snake-Men fell, the battle gradually became clear. With victory close at hand, Lin Xiao's gloomy mood over the tremendous losses among his believers improved somewhat.

The losses were great, but compared to the value of a Five-Star Divine Domain Card, they were worth it. He had not lost out.

No reversal occurred afterward. The Portal that summoned the Snake-Men was actually a card, and its rules limited it to only two hundred and twenty Snake-Men: two hundred Common Snake-Men and twenty Level Two Leader Snakemen. Not even a true god could break that rule and send more subordinates through.

Thus, as more and more Snake-Men fell, the surviving Snake-Men were surrounded. Murlocs continuously used Essence of Sea Water to quickly recover from the weakness caused by their previous burst, then unleashed Salted Fish Thrust again and charged back into the battlefield, knocking down Snake-Man after Snake-Man.

Before long, fewer than ten Snakemen Leaders remained, trapped within layers upon layers of encirclement. Their formidable physiques had kept them alive, but it was only a matter of time.

At that point, Lin Xiao cast a massive-area Essence of Sea Water once more to restore his Kinfolk's stamina and injuries. Together with the previous use and the casting of the Transcendent Power Tide Calling, he had spent a full three hundred thousand Faith Points this time. Of the five hundred thousand Faith Points he had accumulated before, only two hundred thousand remained.

These expenditures were necessary and well worth it.

As long as these Murlocs survived, every one of them would become a Devout Believer. They had also accumulated enough combat experience to advance into Level 1 Murloc Warriors, and quite a few had gained enough experience to advance into Level 2 Murloc Warriors.

One only needed to look at the combat strength of those Snakemen Leaders to understand the strength of Level 2 Murloc Warriors. Perhaps they could not match the Snake-Men due to racial differences, but among First Year of High School students, they would absolutely be elite-level combatants.

After all, everyone had lowly races on the level of Murlocs. They were much of a muchness, and none of them had particularly impressive combat power.

Outside the Divine Domain, Zheng Wenzhuo, the tutor who had been watching the battle, wore an expression that could only be described as spectacular.

Before the battle began, he had not believed at all that Lin Xiao could pass this additional test. At first, he had even been wondering when this normally low-profile student, who had suddenly distinguished himself in the semester's final Placement Test, would ask him for help.

Yet the outcome of the battle had completely exceeded his expectations.

This student had actually used an exchange tactic, willingly paying the price of massive Kinfolk casualties to wear down the Snake-Men one by one until they died.

More than three hundred and seventy Murlocs had died on the spot, with countless more injured, yet they had forcibly fought all two hundred and twenty Snake-Men to death. This was entirely beyond his expectations.

The thought lingered on the tip of his tongue for a long while before he suddenly smiled. "Promising!"

"Very promising indeed!"

Class Teacher Wu Hai appeared out of thin air. The card that had summoned the Snake-Men was his, so he naturally knew that the summoned Snake-Men were about to be wiped out. He had immediately come over from the Divine Domain of another student he thought highly of.

He had no interest in knowing why this student had kept such a low profile before, nor did he care to investigate why a student with clearly average grades had suddenly become so outstanding. All he cared about was that this student's current performance was excellent.

Once this additional test ended and he fused that Divine Domain Card, Lin Xiao's Divine Domain would gain a large expanse of fertile land.

The increase in the Divine Domain's area was one thing. The key was that the additional land would no longer be ocean, directly solving the innate limitation of Lin Xiao's original Divine Domain.

A single-type Divine Domain had no future. Only diversified development offered real prospects.

With this landmass, roughly half the size of his original Divine Domain, Lin Xiao's Divine Domain could develop a second land-based race in the future.

The battle within the Divine Domain was about to conclude. Only two blood-covered Snakemen Leaders were still resisting desperately, and their deaths were only a matter of time. Class Teacher Wu Hai smiled at his assistant.

"Looks like this month's Placement Test is going to produce a dark horse."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"You observed the whole battle. What do you think of this student's potential?"

Zheng Wenzhuo pondered for a moment, then held up four fingers.

"Preliminary assessment: four stars. His Kinfolk are nothing special, but the skill they have loaded is simply too powerful. If he gets the chance to obtain a Bloodline Card in the future and strengthen his race, his potential will rise by leaps and bounds."

"Hmm, that depends on whether he can live up to expectations."

Wu Hai did not have any Bloodline Cards on hand, but the school did. As long as a student's performance and potential met the requirements, they could apply to the school for such Rare cards, which were exceedingly difficult to find outside.

And the prerequisite for all of that was performance and potential.

Lin Xiao's current potential was still not enough for Wu Hai to specially apply for such a Rare card on his behalf.

"The battle is about to end."

Within the Divine Domain, while the last Snakemen Leader swung his blade and killed a Murloc, the Murloc Chieftain suddenly sprang up and drove his spear through the Snakemen Leader's neck. A great spray of blood splashed across his face.

Not far away, the last Level Two Snakemen Priest had relied on a layer of spell shield to hold out until the end. But as Murloc after Murloc suddenly charged forward and slammed heavily into the shield, this divine spell, estimated to be Level Two, could not hold much longer. It was about to shatter.

The overall situation was decided.

Lin Xiao finally let out a breath of relief.