The next morning, Lin Xiao was awakened by a succession of clear bell rings. Groggily, he awoke and activated his wristband, and the projection of his young, beautiful mother appeared before him.
Jin Yunzhu smiled and tenderly rubbed her son's confused head, handing him a delicate little box as she said:
"Son, this is what your father has prepared for you. Also, after this final exam, you need to decide whether you will follow the academy stream or the war stream. It's best to make a decision early, so we can begin preparations for you."
"Academy stream or war stream...."
Lin Xiao hesitated before replying:
"The war stream it is!"
The so-called academy stream and war stream refer to a choice that all students who open a new Divine Realm must make after their first year of adaptation.
The academy stream means that students will focus on the development of faith within the Divine Realm in their subsequent growth.
On the other hand, the war stream means that students will focus on the development of their clan's combat power in their subsequent growth.
It's tough to explain this using professional jargon, but it can be described simply: those from the academy stream typically stay in some safe planes after graduation, focusing on defense.
The war stream, however, is responsible for entering unexplored dangerous planes or even the New Crystal Wall System, and for conquering and plundering other planes, engaging in direct combat with the indigenous deities of those planes.
In plain terms, the academy stream is akin to civilian roles in the military, while the war stream is the combat troops on the front line.
Thus, the two streams have their own emphases in growth, and classes are divided both by grades and directions. Generally, students from the academy and war streams are not placed in the same class.
Of course, these two streams are just directions and don't mean that if you take the academy stream you will definitely stay safely and farm your land for life, nor does the war stream imply you'll always be on the battlefield. It's just an orientation, and war streamers can farm as well.
It's just that such people are rare and mentioning it might earn disdain from others.
If you ask Lin Xiao which direction he'd choose, of course, he'd say the war stream. Although it's riskier and has a high casualty rate, the war stream is more powerful. At the same God Level, the war stream is definitely stronger than the academy stream and can go further.
His mother didn't oppose his choice but gently caressed his cheek and bent down to kiss him, saying:
"Child, mom respects your choice."
His mother left, leaving behind a box with an unknown number of cards inside, as well as a kiss mark.
After wiping his face, he excitedly jumped onto his bed with the box, opened it, and a soft golden light exuded from it, revealing four cards, all five-star cards.
"As expected of my dad, so reliable!"
Five-Star Species Card—Black-Backed Jackal Man (Rare): Summons 300 Black-Backed Jackal Men at once. Note: Half male, half female.
Five-Star Resource Card—Large Shoals of Shallow Sea Fish (Common): Summons five large random shallow sea fish communities at once.
Five-Star Species Reproduction Card (Rare) *2: Increases species birth rates by +300%, survival rates by +300%, duration 10 years. Note: This card cannot stack with other cards of the same type; only one can be used at a time.
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From these four cards, one could see Dad's thinking.
Although Hyenamen are also rated as a low-grade race like Fishmen, they are far stronger than Fishmen in terms of individual combat power. In the early stages, when neither the Divine Realm nor divinity can bear a medium or higher race, Hyenamen are one of the most cost-effective low-grade races.
Once he loaded the Divine Realm and released the Black-Backed Hyenamen, then consecutively used two Breeding Cards, he could breed enough Hyenamen before the final exam, and combined with the existing Fishmen, it would not be difficult to achieve a good score in the final test.
His father's plan was very suitable for his current situation, but Lin Xiao didn't think so, he had a better plan.
Four new five-star cards, plus the original two for a total of six, were enough for him to implement his plan.
He put away the cards, entered the Divine Realm Login Cabin, and returned to the Divine Realm, where he laid out seven cards in a row. The glow from cards of different grades varied, the higher the grade, the brighter the glow, and among the row of cards, the legendary quality Divine Realm Card shone the brightest orange.
First, he took up the Divine Realm Card. This card could certainly not be used for decomposition and fusion.
"Load!"
With his soft call, the Divine Realm Card shattered into a stream of golden light and flew out into the void.
The next second, a rumbling sound came from his ear. Lin Xiao's thoughts moved, and he disappeared from sight, reappearing at the farthest left of the Divine Realm. This place used to be a long, narrow beach, which originally appeared to be an endless beach illusion, but upon arriving here, one would be blocked by an invisible membrane, unable to move forward.
But at that moment, the beach suddenly began to boil, the grains of sand at the edge hopping around. The illusion of the beach began to twist, deform, and then shatter inch by inch like glass, falling away to reveal the black land behind the illusion.
As the illusion crumbled bit by bit, it was like a cloth covering the beach was slowly being rolled back, inch by inch of black land was revealed, until...
The power of the Divine Realm Card was exhausted, and a black land 3.5 kilometers long and just over a kilometer wide materialized out of nowhere on the far left side of the Divine Realm.
In terms of the entire Divine Realm, this meant the area of the Divine Realm expanded from the previous 5 kilometers east to west and 3.5 kilometers north to south, to now being over 6 kilometers east to west while still being 3.5 kilometers north to south. He had placed the entire newly created land on the left side of the Divine Realm, combining it with the area where the Fishmen were active.
Inside the Divine Realm, at first the Fishmen noticed nothing unusual, the tremors caused by the expansion of the Divine Realm were only perceptible to Lin Xiao, the Divine Realm Master, the lives within the Divine Realm were unable to detect it.
It wasn't until an hour after the full integration of the Divine Realm Card that a Fishman casually passing by the edge of the old World Crystal Wall suddenly discovered that the invisible barrier here had disappeared. Surprised, he walked into the newly appeared land, then turned around and ran back to the tribe shouting, attracting more curious Fishmen to come over.
Lin Xiao didn't pay attention to the shock of the Fishmen, he just made sure the Divine Realm Card had successfully integrated before returning to his own God Country.
He had more important things to do now.
First, he took away the herd of wild buffalo and the card of the large shallow sea fish school; these two cards could not be used.
No matter whether his next idea would work or not, neither of these two cards should be decomposed now, as his Divine Realm was currently in need of food.
He extended his hand, a spark of light flew out rapidly spinning, outlining the form of a Magic Cube, which quickly solidified into reality.
His gaze fell upon three cards. First, he took out the Goblin tribe card and threw it into the Magic Cube. As his thoughts moved, the cube began to turn, and inside the Creation Rubik's Cube, the Goblin tribe card was completely decomposed into three parts: pure Bloodline Origin, Goblin Race Brand, and Bear Goblin Race Brand.
Then he reached out, picked up the Black-Backed Hyenaman card, twirled it in his palm, bit his lip with indecision, and then threw it into the cube.
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