Scouting

Lin Xiao left the temporary tribe with fifteen Blackscale Nagas, diving into the sea not far from the shore and swimming south.

There were no humans in this world, and the seawater was exceptionally clear. A thin membrane covered the surface of the Nagas' eyelids, keeping seawater from entering their eyes. With their eyes open underwater, they could clearly see roughly a hundred meters ahead. Beyond that, things became somewhat blurry, though still faintly discernible.

The Blackscale Nagas moved even faster in the water than on land. With a swing of their thick snake tails, their bodies shot forward like arrows loosed from a bow. Sixteen snake-like figures, each four meters long and somewhat thick and stubby, streaked through the water.

A school of unknown small fish passed by. He casually caught one, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed. It had a faintly fishy sweetness.

Though his true body was human, after descending, his senses had become identical to a Naga's. His sense of taste had changed as well, and raw fish that would normally reek of fishiness tasted exquisitely delicious in his mouth.

Of course, while his sense of taste had changed, his mindset had not. At most, he could eat raw fish, and only the flesh. He did not dare eat the innards, nor did he dare eat the various sea insects.

When the Murlocs had cleared out that rocky reef earlier, they had casually grabbed many Sea Cockroaches hiding along the edges of the rocks and shoved them into their mouths. The burst of insect juices when they chewed them apart had disgusted him immensely. He absolutely would not dare eat that kind of food.

After swimming about a kilometer through the sea, he suddenly spotted dozens of Murlocs gathering kelp amid a patch of seagrass on the seabed ahead.

He immediately raised a hand to halt them, glanced around, then waved his hand. The dozen or so Nagas fanned out and closed in from both sides.

When they were about twenty meters away, one Murloc noticed the hostile Nagas. After freezing for a moment, it let out strange cries and pointed at the charging Nagas. The dozens of Murlocs fell into chaos, turned, and fled.

But they were slower than the Nagas in the water and were quickly caught. One Naga thrust a spear straight through a Murloc, and blood immediately gushed out, staining a vast stretch of seawater red. The Murloc raised its bone fork for a final counterattack, but it did not even pierce the Naga's scales.

In less than a minute, more than twenty Murlocs had been wiped out. Lin Xiao did not make a move, merely narrowing his eyes and observing from the rear throughout the entire fight.

Actual combat showed that these Murlocs were no different from the Gray Mist Fishmen in his Divine Domain. Their scales were only slightly different in color, and their combat strength was equally pathetic.

Only then did he finally relax. They did not clean up the battlefield. He merely had the Nagas quickly cut down and carry away the nearby kelp, making it look as though some foreign species had come to steal food.

The Murloc corpses were useless to him. Even if he tossed ten thousand of them into the Creation Cube, he could not extract anything beyond Murloc bloodlines. There was no point.

This kelp and seagrass, however, could be gathered and placed in the sea within his Divine Domain to reproduce freely.

Humans could use kelp as food, so naturally Murlocs could eat it as well. The fish raised in the sea of his Divine Domain could also serve as food.

A player's Divine Domain existed within Subspace. Things from the Main World had to be turned into cards before they could be placed inside a Divine Domain, but things from the Outer Realm were not subject to that restriction. As long as one obtained them—and had the ability to get their hands on them—they could be placed directly into the Divine Domain.

He did not know the reason, but he guessed it was most likely because the Main World was on too high a level.

After all, one day in the Main World was equivalent to one year in any Outer Realm world. The difference was obvious from the flow of time alone.

Of course, while there were no restrictions on placing Outer Realm items into a Divine Domain, the premise was that one's Divine Domain had to be able to contain them. There were also limits based on energy level. For a student like Lin Xiao, who was not even a Demigod, the limit was the equivalent of a level-five card.

For example, if he found a herd of over a hundred wild cattle in an Outer Realm plane, he could place them in his Divine Domain. But if there were ten thousand cattle, he could not, because his Divine Domain was too small to hold them.

For another example, if he discovered a juvenile beast with dragon blood in an Outer Realm plane, he could place it in his Divine Domain. But if he found an adult dragon beast or even a true dragon, then even if it were willing to follow him, it still could not enter.

Because it was too powerful, and the Divine Domain was too small to withstand it.

The result of forcing it inside would be for the Divine Domain to burst apart.

The sea in Lin Xiao's Divine Domain was still rather monotonous. Apart from the various fish he had placed there, there was almost no seagrass in the ocean, and the food chain remained very weak.

This Final Exam was an opportunity. He could gather more resources to place inside his Divine Domain, enriching the marine animals and plants.

They continued swimming forward for some distance and began to spot groups of Murlocs going out to search for food. To avoid being discovered and putting them on alert, Lin Xiao did not approach. He simply observed from afar before leaving.

He spent nearly half a month circling this large Murloc tribe. During that time, he even risked approaching the Coral Reefs where the main Murloc tribe's nest was located, observing the general situation of this large tribe from a distance.

This was a super-large Murloc tribe with more than twenty thousand Murlocs, living among Coral Reefs that spanned several kilometers. Its central area was a small coral island several hundred meters long and wide.

Lin Xiao merely glanced at it from afar, yet immediately sensed an intense threat.

After only one glance, he withdrew his gaze. He did not dare look any longer for fear of being discovered.

It was not some powerful creature, but an altar dedicated to the Sea God.

The ocean of this plane was ruled by a vast empire known as the Merfolk Empire. This large Murloc tribe was also part of its territory. As the most powerful Demigod in the sea, the Sea God possessed an extremely widespread faith, and believers could be found in many Sea Race tribes.

Of course, it was only a Demigod and not yet a True God. This was merely the lowest-grade altar enshrining a Holy Symbol, not even a temple. The Sea God's will could extend here, but divine power could not.

The threat he sensed did not come from the Sea God, but from that Holy Symbol.

As a Deity of the Main World, how could Lin Xiao not know the marvels of a Holy Symbol? Wherever a Holy Symbol existed, it could form an aura of faith covering an extremely broad area. Any creature with hostile intent that entered this region would be detected, triggering a warning.

Ordinary people could not see through his Saint Descent body, but a High-level Demigod certainly could.

Just think about it. If a Saint suddenly sneaked around near the followers of another deity, secretly observing them, anyone with a bit of sense would know something was wrong.

After observing the inside of the Murloc tribe, Lin Xiao returned.

When he returned to the temporary tribe, he was surprised to find that, through the Murlocs' diligent labor, the tribe had expanded by another full circle. The altar at the center of the tribe had become taller and larger, and even he, the chief, now had his own stone house.

That evening, Lin Xiao sat atop a huge rock beside the altar, his long snake tail coiled around the stone as he gazed into the distance.

He appeared to be spacing out, but in truth, he was considering how to conquer this Murloc tribe next.