The Era of Gods

Chapter 454: The Name of the Totem – The Golden Dragon Master

This position held a part of the power of Godhood, but it wasn’t the true Godhood; if a descriptor had to be used, perhaps it could be referred to as a castrated and downsized version of Godhood.

Because the power of totems is basically consistent, or it could be said that all totems are extremely similar, whether it’s the King of Poison Lizards or the King of Ten Thousand Lizards, there’s only a distinction in the strength of totems, but their essence is the same, with only a few minor differences—which might be related to the distinctions within the Godhood.

“Could this be the secret of the totems of this plane?”

Recalling what Senior Chumo had told him about the Supreme Divine Position, a spark of enlightenment flashed through Lin Xiao’s mind, as if he had grasped something.

Combining the information he held, he had a bold hypothesis; however, with only one totem in hand, he wasn’t very confident in his speculation. He needed to find a way to plunder more totems to cross-verify each other, and only then would he know whether his guess was correct.

As for the totem he currently possessed, he might as well use it himself for now.

The method of use was quite simple: erase the will of the Poisonous Lizard King’s soul from the totem, making it an ownerless totem, and then he could inherit it.

This task did require the Creation Magic Cube. It’s not that he couldn’t do it himself, but erasing a soul’s will from a totem with the power of his incarnation would be time-consuming and would require a significant amount of Divine Power.

Time was not an issue; it could be erased in at most a few months, which he could wait out. However, the vast amount of Divine Power it would consume was something he couldn’t afford to waste.

A task that would take months and tens of thousands of Divine Power to complete, the Creation Magic Cube could accomplish in minutes, without needing to expend any Divine Power at all—why not take advantage of it?

The will-erased, blank soul of the Poisonous Lizard King was stored away for future use, to be granted to his subordinates.

The Wizards of this plane had methods to summon soul beasts, which involved summoning the souls of powerful creatures through secret spells. Depending on the summoning method, the summoner’s power, and the quality of the offerings, the soul beasts would have anywhere from the lowest thirty percent to the highest eighty percent of their True Body’s strength.

As for the corpse of the Poisonous Lizard King, it was of no further use. Its head had been melted by his Golden Dragon Breath, and the rest of the body couldn’t be animated with Undead Spells, so keeping it would lead to rot and spread venomous pollution into the environment.

After wholly subduing the Poison Lizard Tribe using the corpse of the Poisonous Lizard King, Lin Xiao burned the remains to ashes.

After conquering the Poison Lizard Tribe, the Vine Snake Tribe began to recuperate and reproduce, moving the vast amounts of iron ore stored in the Poison Lizard Tribe’s warehouses to their base. The Red Furnace Clan finally had work to do; the furnaces that had been idle for a long time fired up, beginning mass steel production.

Although the iron mine in the nearby small mountain range was not large, it was still sufficient to sustain the current Vine Snake Tribe.

The Star Spirits directly used spells to dig open the surface of the mountains, revealing the iron ore buried deep underground. A large number of Stone Golems were created for mining, and in less than a month, they had completely excavated the small iron mine.

And at this time, Lin Xiao also entered the final stage of fusing with the totem.

When he fused this totem into his incarnation and combined it with his own will and the status granted by the totem, everyone in the tribe, from the Leader down to the common folk, looked up towards the direction of their base.

Many Wizards knelt down towards him, loudly shouting his name:

“Mighty primal dragon lord, you are the Guardian of the Vine Snake Tribe, the totem of the Vine Snake Tribe, your will shall be our will!”

Several kilometers away, Lin Xiao also faintly heard these voices over and over again in a haze.

He slowly raised his head, transforming into countless golden mists, rising into the sky.

Shortly after, a streak of golden light flew over the Vine Snake Tribe, quickly transforming into a colossal body of gold. Having revealed his True Body, Lin Xiao could sense that he had formed an indescribable and mysterious bond with the tribe before him.

With a regal gaze looking towards the tribe, his grand voice echoed throughout:

“In the name of the primal dragon lord, I bestow the name upon the tribe—Dragon Tribe.”

“We follow the will of the Guardian!”

There was not a single dissent in the entire tribe; on the contrary, they were overjoyed, breaking into song and dance to celebrate.

The name of the tribe was inherently named after the tribe’s totem. Although the tribes of Snake Lizard Island had traditionally been either snake or lizard, with very few other totems, this did not mean that they could only choose between snakes and lizards. It was just that, historically, the only creatures on the island powerful enough to qualify as totems were snakes and lizards.

Having become a totem, Lin Xiao had to select new Wizards for the tribe, similar to priests serving deities, who needed to be designated and granted authority to activate the totem with his power.

This was easy to manage; he merely had to select some spiritually stronger and smarter young tribespeople compared to others.

Once these young tribespeople became Wizards, they would be eligible to obtain Totem Seeds from him through various offerings and then grant them to powerful warriors in the tribe, activating the totems and transforming the warriors into Totem Warriors.

The most common offering was the live sacrifice of various powerful fierce beasts or enemies, a practice that even Lin Xiao could not change.

It’s not that all totems are so ferocious that they must be worshipped with live sacrifices, those that evolved to have awakened wisdom and became powerful beings no longer kill mindlessly as they did before they gained intelligence. The main issue is that they deplete their own strength when they split off Totem Seeds. It’s manageable with a small number of Totem Seeds, but nobody can withstand the strain of creating a large number.

The blood and soul of the powerful fierce beasts sacrificed alive can substitute for a large part of this consumption, which is one of the primary reasons why primitive tribes favor live sacrifices, saving where they can.

By renaming the Vine Snake Tribe to the Dragon Tribe, symbolizing the tribe’s transformation, the totem warriors, who made up the tribe’s main military force, were also due for a change.

In the former Vine Snake Tribe, the totems activated by totem warriors were mostly snake totems, with only a handful of non-snake totems, such as the totem of the former strongest member of the tribe, the Flying Dragon Totem. Unfortunately, he died fighting as a rearguard during the tribe’s previous escape from the Poison Lizard Tribe.

Now that the tribe has given birth to a new totem and has changed its name, the totem warriors naturally need to change as well.

Through the Creation Rubik’s Cube, Lin Xiao obtained a thousand diluted samples of the Big Naga’s Blood Essence from the True Body. Then, after multiple blood sacrifices in the tribe, he bestowed a hundred of them, starting with replacing the totems of the tribe’s original warriors.

According to tribal rules, after a new tribe splits off and births a new totem, the original main tribe’s totem will reclaim the power granted. The old totem warriors in the tribe will gradually lose their power, now that Lin Xiao has become the new totem, and eventually they’ll be unable to activate their totem and become ordinary mortals.

Similarly, for the many tribes he has conquered, such as the Poison Lizard Tribe, the original Totem King has died, and their totem warriors will also face the dissipation of their powers.

The Dragon Tribe, having conquered the Poison Lizard Tribe, now has nearly forty thousand tribespeople, and the remaining members, added together, number less than sixty.

Of course, this is because most of the totem warriors died in the battles. Normally, the ratio of a tribe’s population to totems is about one to fifty. That is, a tribe with a population of fifty thousand could have a hundred totem warriors.

Lin Xiao’s first one hundred shares of the Big Naga’s Blood Essence were intended to create a hundred totem warriors to test the waters, to see the strength of totem warriors activated by the Big Naga’s Blood Essence and then adjust the concentration of the essence accordingly.

Under his close supervision, the selected wizards began using the one hundred shares of the Big Naga’s Blood Essence as materials to tattoo totem patterns onto the selected tribal warriors.

The so-called totem is tattooing; using essence as material, the pattern of the totem is inscribed on the body, and then the totem is activated through a secret spell, thereby gaining the strength of the fierce beast represented by the essence.

For example, if you use the essence of the Flying Dragon to tattoo a totem, the activated totem will be the Flying Dragon Totem.

What he used was the Big Naga’s Blood Essence, so the activated totem would be the Great Naga Totem.

As the first warrior washed away his original totem and had a new totem freshly tattooed, a vividly lifelike Supreme Naga was entwined around his entire body, looking extraordinarily majestic and terrifying.

A wizard stood before the warrior who knelt naked in front of the Totem Pillar, coincidentally, this warrior was Luo, the very totem warrior who first discovered the base.

The wizard placed a hand on Luo’s forehead, where the forehead of the Great Naga totem tattoo was located, chanting under his breath. An invisible force slowly descended.

Meanwhile, on the distant Gemini Continent, on the northern landmass, to the farthest east, there is a river that runs from west to east across the entire continent. At a tributary near where it flows into the river, a delta reveals a vast alluvial plain. To the west of the plain is a highland with scattered houses, where numerous primitives in simple linen clothes are busily moving about.

In the center of the tribe, many tribal warriors have gathered, with a few wizards currently tattooing totems onto some warriors.

Not far from the tribe, there is a mountain peak with a stone staircase winding up the mountain side to a plateau. There sits a cave, from which a faint mist pours out, the area devoid of any insects or pests.

Deep inside the cave lies a sanctuary, where Li Xiushen sits on a stone platform, with a screen of light unfurled before him showing precisely the scene of the tribe’s wizards tattooing totems on the warriors.

He watches with a frown as the tattoos are completed, and his wizards set about activating the totems for the warriors.

As the Totem Seeds are activated, the tattooed totems on the bodies of the five warriors light up with a faint emerald glow, causing many of the warriors’ faces to show a trace of pain. Their facial muscles start to twitch as if enduring some agony.

This is the most difficult part of activating the totem. The so-called totem involves forcibly assimilating a new bloodline. Although the Transcendent Power of the totem enables humans to lower the rejection of the totem bloodline, any reduction still involves some degree of rejection. Not only is it extremely painful, but there’s also a high probability of failure.

If it fails, death is inevitable.

In less than ten seconds, one warrior screams in agony as he leaps up, his skin where the totem tattoo was made bursting open and blood spraying out. He falls to the ground, convulsing for a few seconds before dying outright.

In under thirty seconds, two more warriors fail in succession, causing Li Xiushen’s brow to furrow deeply.

Fortunately, although the remaining two warriors’ faces twitch incessantly, they ultimately endure the most dangerous phase, their bodies trembling and muscles spasming, yet without losing control.

Having endured the most painful and dangerous phase, the power of the totems becomes visible covering their entire bodies, and their naked skin begins to change color, turning from a blood red to a stony gray, then from the petrified gray to the green of jade.