Chapter 6

However, not now. It will take some time; he doesn’t have much money right now.

The cards that can be used in the Divine Realm are not cheap. With Lin Xiao’s Golden Finger now activated, his strength will surely increase dramatically. One or two creature cards might not be enough, so he needs to prepare more. He plans to directly purchase a four or five-star food card or a species card that can serve as food. The price for these is not cheap.

The best approach is to wait until the baseline test.

At that time, if his grades are good, he can confidently ask his parents for money.

This is the difference between a good family background and a commoner. Everyone can use the same number of cards, one per month, but is a one or two-star card for a month the same as a three-star or higher card for a month?

In the following week, Lin Xiao would enter the Divine Realm every day through the Divine Realm login device to observe the situation of the favored races within and guide the faith of the gray fog fish people as needed.

According to the time difference of one day in the main world equaling one year in the Divine Realm, seven days is seven years.

Based on the average three years it takes for fish people to reach adulthood and reproductive age, after seven years, some of the first batch of fish people refugees who reproduced quickly are now grandparents. However, many fish people have also died of old age, as their maximum lifespan is only twenty years. But under these living conditions, most fish people don’t even live to twenty.

According to the rules of the Divine Realm over the past two hundred years, an ordinary gray fog fish person is considered old at fifteen and is no longer capable of fighting or hunting.

Thanks to the relatively abundant food in the Divine Realm and Lin Xiao’s conscious guidance, these old fish people can still get enough to eat and won’t starve to death.

If it were a wild fish people tribe with insufficient food, old fish people wouldn’t even get a meal; they might be used as food to feed the young fish people.

This isn’t because Lin Xiao has any concept of old-age care or is kind-hearted. It’s mainly because every believer is precious to him, especially the old fish people. At this age, their faith is usually strong, and they are likely to be true believers. They are all little lambs that can continuously provide faith points, and he can’t afford to let them go.

For a deity, even if you do nothing, just eat and sleep like a pig, as long as you can sincerely believe in them, you are a good believer and should be taken care of.

After seven years, when Lin Xiao logged out for the last time, the number of fish people in the Divine Realm had exceeded six hundred, approaching the food supply warning line. Any more population would exceed the supply.

Fortunately, the baseline test was the next day, and he was looking forward to it.

The next morning, he received a notification from his homeroom teacher. After a quick wash and brush-up, he lay in the Divine Realm login pod and logged into the Divine Realm.

However, this time he didn’t directly enter his own Divine Realm but arrived at a massive palace floating in the vast void.

The palace was entirely made of pure gold, emitting a faint divine light, and a powerful divine aura radiated from it. The sign on the palace gate read "Dongning City No. 5 High School, Grade 1, Class 3," which was a divine artifact of his homeroom teacher.

It was a school-issued divine artifact, and every homeroom teacher had one, used for collective classes for the students.

In this era, there was only one major class per week, so students usually stayed at home and entered the Divine Realm through the login device for regular classes. Major classes and ordinary baseline tests were conducted this way, while important mid-term and final exams required students to gather at the school in the main world.

Sometimes, important activities or competitions also required gathering at the school in the main world.

Lin Xiao’s consciousness transformed into a beam of golden light and entered the massive palace, appearing in a large hall and materializing as his true form on the golden floor.

At this time, not many people had arrived, so he found a corner to stand in.

As time passed, more and more classmates arrived, forming small groups and chatting quietly. There were also many students like Lin Xiao who stood alone.

As the saying goes, wherever there are people, there is a江湖 (jianghu, a term often used to describe the complex social dynamics in Chinese culture, similar to "society" or "world of the martial arts"). Even in a class, students who have the qualifications to open a Divine Realm compete from the moment they enter school, vying for the teacher’s attention, the school’s resources, and various rankings.

This competition naturally divides students into different levels, with top students and underperformers.

Though they are students, they are also competitors, so their relationships are not good.

For example, the three classmates standing to Lin Xiao’s right, with the leader being a super handsome man with a red crystal embedded in his forehead, is named Yuan Hong. He comes from a very good family, and his father is a true deity.

Although he is a newly ascended deity with weak divine power, he is still a true deity.

As the legitimate son of a true deity, Yuan Hong inherited his father’s bloodline and, in addition to the basic divine essence when opening the Divine Realm, he also has a bit of extra divine essence, making him inherently stronger than others. He is the strongest and best-performing student in the class, always ranking first or second, standing out even among the top ten in the entire grade.

On the other side, there is a very tall and muscular student, resembling a small giant. He is also a descendant of a true deity, but not a first-generation godling, rather a second-generation godling.

Although he didn’t inherit the extra divine essence, his awakened extraordinary power is very strong, and he has always ranked in the top five in the class and the top fifty in the entire grade.

In addition, there are several other very strong classmates, such as Meng Hui, Zhao Erju, and Yi Xiaoe. Although their backgrounds are not as good as these two, they are still very powerful due to their hard work.

Generally, top students are direct competitors, especially those in the top ten, top five, and top three. Therefore, each of these five has their own small circle, and many classmates like to attach themselves to these so-called strong students.

Lin Xiao has no interest in these circles and doesn’t rely on any classmates.

With his mid-ranking grades, he doesn’t pose a threat or competition to anyone, so his relationships with other classmates are lukewarm, limited to greeting each other when they meet.

However, this situation is expected to change after this baseline test. With his Golden Finger activated, he can no longer be a slacker.

He greeted the classmates nearby and quietly leaned against the corner, closing his eyes to rest.

There’s no help for it; out of the fifty classmates, there isn’t a single pretty girl, which is quite strange.

After about ten minutes, all the classmates had arrived. Two particularly bright beams of golden light accompanied by a powerful pressure descended from the sky. Lin Xiao immediately opened his eyes and saw two figures enveloped in a faint golden light.

One was a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance, wearing a black suit and a tie. This was their homeroom teacher, Wu Hai, a high-level demigod with the Scholarly divine domain.

The other was a young man in a white shirt named Zheng Wenzhuo, their tutor, a common demigod with the Healing divine domain.

Homeroom teacher Wu Hai’s gaze, filled with pressure, swept over all the students present, and he smiled at a few of the closest students, who were the top performers in the class.

"Today begins the final baseline test of the first year. The final exams are next month, and there will be no additional major classes in between, so this is your last chance to catch up."