Saint Descent

When Lin Xiao returned from the Divine Domain to the Artifact Platform, a day had already passed.

By now, the students had basically made their choices. Many, like him, had returned to their own Divine Domains to prepare. Only a little over a hundred students remained on the Artifact Platform, gathered in small groups to chat and pass the time.

Lin Xiao's appearance drew the attention of several nearby students, who all nodded to him in greeting.

As the third-to-last student to return, he had already made a certain impression on the other students.

He smiled and nodded back. Then, he conjured a chair at the edge of the Artifact Platform and sat down, pulling open a light screen with both hands as his fingers tapped across it.

He opened one of the novel sites he frequented. The moment he entered, he saw a notification on his bookshelf. One glance told him that one of his saved novels had updated. Opening it, he saw that the novel at the very top of his bookshelf, Start with a Pocket Universe, had updated again. Its author was Yi Xi Cheng Dao, and it was nearly nine hundred thousand words long.

"Hmm, it's fat enough to slaughter now!"

He opened the novel and reclined comfortably as he began reading.

Before long, he was completely absorbed, deeply envious of the protagonist's Golden Finger.

He looked at his own Golden Finger, then at the other guy's Pocket Universe. They were on completely different levels. If his Creation Cube could turn into a Pocket Universe, that would be incredible.

With a casual wave, he could unleash Annihilation Light capable of destroying an entire star system. With a beckon, he could use a Two-Way Foil for a Dimensional Strike. Or he could summon a Stellar Battleship powered by a star itself. Tsk, tsk. If he had something like that, even Greater Divine Power would be nothing much. As he thought about it, drool began to trickle from the corner of his mouth.

Just as he was about to wipe it away, he suddenly sensed something and looked up. Yuan Hong was sitting not far away, drinking tea. He had probably happened to look up just in time to see Lin Xiao drooling, and undisguised contempt showed on his face.

"Damn it, did it have to be this perfect?"

Lin Xiao turned his head expressionlessly, feeling that he had utterly lost face.

Fortunately, the novel was excellent. He soon became immersed in its plot and forgot the embarrassment from before.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Xiao felt the platform tremble slightly. A notification popped up on the light screen before him: "Dear student, the platform has arrived in the Outer Realm and is connecting to the mission plane. Please wait."

He closed the light screen and stood up. The surrounding students had received the notification as well and rose to their feet. With a thunderous boom, more than ten pillars of golden light descended once again, forming the figures of the ten Class Teachers and the vice principal. Xu Yundong wore a stern expression as he said in a low voice, "We have arrived at the designated plane. You have one hour to prepare before being projected to the mission location. During this time, you may choose a new mission. If you have not departed after one hour, you will be randomly placed near the location of your chosen mission. If you still have not made any choice by then, three missions will be randomly selected and you will be randomly sent to one of them."

After saying all that in one breath, the vice principal left again. However, the ten Class Teachers remained. Each of them clapped their hands, calling their students over.

Lin Xiao and the other students from his class walked toward Wu Hai, the Class Teacher of Class Three. Although they would no longer be classmates after the Final Exam, they were still classmates for now.

Wu Hai swept his gaze over all the students and said, "I've already said everything that needs to be said, so I won't repeat myself. I'll only remind you to put caution first. If you feel that you are outmatched, you can give up. Never force yourselves. If your losses are too great, you will regret it when classes begin next semester."

After speaking, his gaze fell on Lin Xiao, Yuan Hong, and Wan Chuan. He paused, glanced at Meng Hui again, and said:

"You four stay. The rest of you may go prepare."

The others looked at the four with envy before turning and leaving.

"You all have a chance of being selected for the Elite Class. Judging by the current rankings, as long as you complete a mission worth seventy-five to eighty points, you will basically be selected for the Elite Class. You all know the benefits of joining the Elite Class, so work hard!"

After saying that, Wu Hai's figure slowly turned transparent and vanished, leaving the four staring at one another.

Yuan Hong was the first to turn and leave.

Wan Chuan chuckled and left as well.

Lin Xiao exchanged a glance with Meng Hui, clasped his hands in salute, and left too.

Though they were classmates, their relationship was more like disciples of the same sect in a novel, competing with one another—or even becoming hostile—for resources.

Lin Xiao had nothing much to prepare. After looking over the four missions, he chose to first take on the mission to destroy the Murloc tribe.

The overall difficulty of the four missions was not too different, but Murlocs were the easiest for him to kill. He could use the slaughter of large numbers of Murlocs to accumulate experience and first raise the levels of the six hundred Naga in his Divine Domain.

The level cap of his Kinfolk was Level 4. Right now, they were basically still at their initial Level 1, with only a little over a hundred Level 2 Naga Warriors. Their potential had barely been tapped.

The strength of a Level 4 creature was far beyond that of a Level 1 or Level 2 creature. He would first kill Murlocs to level up; once their levels were higher, the other two missions would be much easier.

Having made his decision, he connected to the artifact and tapped a point on the map. An artifact notification popped up: "Please confirm the number of Kinfolk to be teleported."

"Everything!"

"Please confirm your method of descent!"

"What descent modes are available?"

The Artifact Platform immediately responded:

True Body Descent, Avatar Descent, Projection Descent, Saint Descent!

Lin Xiao pondered for a moment, then said:

"Saint Descent mode!"

"Saint Descent mode confirmed. Descent will begin in fifteen seconds. Please wait."

The so-called Saint Descent mode meant descending with one's consciousness into one's own believer, using that believer as an avatar. It was like the Murloc Chieftain Lin Xiao had often used before—that was Saint Descent mode.

Its drawback was that it had little combat power. After all, nothing was brought along; only a strand of consciousness descended. Its sole additional advantage was that it granted extra bonuses to all attributes according to the Divinity one possessed.

For example, Lin Xiao had only one point of Divinity, so the vessel his consciousness descended into would receive a +1 boost to all attributes.

And that was it.

If it were True Body Descent, then even a Divine Creature like him with only one point of Divinity would be a minor superhuman with all attributes above 10 after descending into the Outer Realm, overwhelmingly stronger than low-level species.

Naturally, where there were drawbacks, there were advantages. The advantage of Saint Descent mode was that even if he died, he would suffer no losses whatsoever.

True Body Descent was powerful, but if he died, he would be truly gone—fallen.

Fifteen seconds passed in an instant. As an invisible force descended, Lin Xiao felt the void around him collapse, and he rapidly fell downward.

On the S-451574 Plane, streaks of meteors invisible to mortals descended from the sky, crashing down across every part of the plane.

Lin Xiao felt as if he were a meteor plunging rapidly toward the earth. Twisted air surrounded him, while the ground below grew ever closer. Several dozen seconds later, the vast land became an endless flat beach, and a large group of Naga and Murlocs shrouded in translucent white light appeared before him.

With a thought, he slammed straight into an especially robust Naga Leader, flashing into the body of this Apostle he had previously designated.