Scourge Messenger

Chapter 56 Natural Disaster Version
Inside the Mushroom House, Jie Zilong cleared out the tables and chairs to make a large open space, and beckoned to Jie Yuanshao: "Come here."

Opposite him, Jie Yuanshao held a long sword. She first pushed the hilt away from the scabbard, and then drew the sword out. The whole process was without the slightest scraping sound of the blade rubbing against the scabbard, which showed how careful and skillful she was in this action, fast but not chaotic.

As she completed this strange sword-drawing ritual, a dark blue aura emerged from the blade, coating the longsword with a malevolent sharpness. This dark blue aura even merged with Jie Yuanshao, counteracting her body's gravity and making all her movements more agile.

This is precisely the power of the second-tier rare artifact, the Gui Cang Secret Sword.

Unlike most "ready-to-use" tokens, the Gui Cang Secret Sword requires a messenger to complete a sword-drawing ceremony to awaken its power. The disadvantages are obvious, but the advantage is that the more complicated, solemn, and lengthy the ceremony is, the more terrifying the power of the Gui Cang Secret Sword becomes. If a three-day and three-night sword-offering ceremony is held, it is enough to strengthen the power by more than ten times, and the power is even far beyond that of the third level.

Although there is never enough time to prepare, the Jie family has long since figured out the most cost-effective way to draw the sword. It is Jie Yuanshao's "silent sword drawing" that takes almost two breaths and can unleash 13.5% of the power of the Guicang Secret Sword.

"Be careful."

The moment the words left her lips, Jie Yuanshao transformed into a solitary white figure, her sword flashing past Jie Zilong! Those who saw her, a woman wielding a light and agile weapon like a sword, would likely assume she was skilled in maneuvering and strategic maneuvering. Little did they know, her fighting style was the most valiant and fierce, aiming to shatter weapons, break shields, and decapitate enemies, unleashing a continuous barrage of thunderous attacks!
Before Jie Zilong could turn around, Jie Yuanshao unleashed her second and third sword strikes! With each strike, she moved with lightning speed within the narrow space. The third strike brought her back to her original position, where her boots had left six charred marks on the ground, as if struck by lightning.

“Your Gui Cang Three Swords are already comparable to your father’s. At your age, he could only reliably take the second step while wearing Thunder Boots.” Jie Zilong touched the two bloody marks on his face. “It’s just that he was a little lacking in the management.”

Jie Yuanshao remained silent, only touching his neck.

Jie Zilong was stunned. He ran his fingers across his neck, and his fingertips were stained with blood.

“Well done.” He raised his eyebrows. “That kid Qunyushu is no match for you. No one in this generation of Liang Kingdom is more outstanding than you—in a few years, perhaps even no one in my generation will be more outstanding than you.”

“You’re still far from it. If I had truly mastered the Gui Cang Sword Technique, I should have been able to hit the same spot with all three sword strikes just now, at least enough to break through your triple defenses.” Jie Yuanshao sheathed his sword: “Besides, the best person of my generation is no longer me.”

"Admit defeat?"

“I have accepted it. I’m not so arrogant as to think I’m the best in the world,” Jie Yuanshao said. “I’m not discouraged. On the contrary, I’m more ambitious than ever before. I want to see who will reach the Foundation Establishment Path first, her or me.”

"You think highly of her."

"Does that mean your opinion of me is low, Uncle?"

"To evaluate a person, you need to look at both their talent and their character," Jie Zilong sighed. "Not everyone has a future."

Jie Yuanshao frowned: "I believe her talent is so great that the family should protect her with all its might. Even if it's just for the future benefits of Mansu Forest, she deserves our highest level of respect."

"When you unleash the power of natural disasters, do you feel anything different?" Jie Zilong suddenly changed the subject.

"It's windy."

Jie Yuanshao said earnestly:
"When I activated the Three Swords of Gui Cang, I felt a very comfortable breeze blowing on my body, as if... the entire forest was helping me."

"It seems your power of natural disasters can only be effective within the forest, but we'll have to wait until we leave to find out the exact situation," Jie Zilong pondered. "Did you notice when you received the power of natural disasters?"

“No, but it’s not hard to guess,” Jie Yuanshao said. “Yesterday we didn’t have the power of natural disaster after passing two levels, but we will have it after passing the fifth level and defeating the fourth-level demon today.”

"The fifth level..." Jie Zilong touched the bloodstain on his throat: "It's a pity that your natural disaster power is still too weak. Unless it hits the eyes, it has little practical value in combat. Fortunately, your natural disaster power is weak enough that everyone is not so nervous."

"What do you mean?" Jie Yuanshao asked in confusion, "You are so wary of the power of natural disasters? Is it because it is too powerful? Or is it because this power will bring calamity?"

"You've been reading too many novels," Jie Zilong said, somewhat speechlessly. "Where would there be a power that brings disaster? Even if there were, as long as the power is strong enough, the disaster would become a bearable price."

"As for the power of natural disasters... although the power of natural disasters is very powerful, can it be more powerful than a Foundation Establishment Messenger? Wouldn't a Foundation Establishment Messenger's slap be a disaster? Not to mention that the power of natural disasters often has very large limitations, and it is difficult to activate without the right time, place and people." "What we fear is not the power of natural disasters, but the fact that the appearance of the power of natural disasters often means that a natural disaster is about to strike."

"You think Jiang Shi will bring about a natural disaster?" Jie Yuanshao found it a bit funny: "Although I've heard stories about the power of natural disasters since I was a child, they all describe it as an ominous sign. I thought it was just something adults made up to scare children... What exactly is a natural disaster?"

"I do not know."

Jie Zilong shook his head: "Isn't it strange? The power of natural disasters is real, and nursery rhymes can even accurately describe the specific effects of the power of natural disasters. Yet, they all agree not to mention the most important information about natural disasters."

"All I know is that those who possess the power of natural disasters are often good at exploring secret realms, and that the power of natural disasters has been taboo in all dynasties. Lu Xiaoqi is probably sending messages to the Ministry of Works and the Taiji Palace at top speed now."

"Even His Majesty was alarmed?" Jie Yuanshao's eyes widened. "Could it be that a truly earth-shattering natural disaster has occurred? But I've never seen it mentioned in the history books. If there really was such a natural disaster, surely there would be some record of it?"

“I don’t know either.” Jie Zilong shrugged. “I only learned about part of the natural disaster when I was overseeing the Qingmao Mountain Secret Realm. Detailed information is probably only known to the royal family and the heads of the seven great families. However, although I don’t understand the natural disaster, I understand ourselves. As a messenger family whose primary task is survival, we will worship the strong, submit to tyrants, and follow sages. As long as you are stronger than them, they are willing to abide by the laws you set.”

"The fact that the messenger family is so wary of them, to the point that successive dynasties have kept them a closely guarded secret, and that the entire world has tacitly concealed their whereabouts, can only mean that the so-called natural disaster must have touched upon their bottom line—"

"Secret Realm."

……

...

natural disaster.

Yan Qing put down the Bingzi pepper lin and picked up a towel to wipe the sweat from his body—the towels specially supplied by the merchant were indeed much softer than those in the Pingcheng military camp. During the hour-long sword-wielding training just now, Yan Qing, who had been emptying his mind, finally remembered why this word could trigger a reaction in his cerebral cortex.

Because this is the theme of the next version of "The Messenger".

He didn't know about other games, but the way "The Messenger" operated was that when the game was updated to a brand new version, the main content of the next version was already made and entered the testing and bug-fixing phase, while the studio started to work on the core content of the version after that.

While Yan Qing was showing off handfuls of snacks in the break room, she overheard the bald, older planners cursing in the smoking room. They were saying that the lead planner had lost his mind and insisted on implementing this bizarre "natural disaster" feature. It was one thing that it was difficult to implement in terms of programming—after all, they weren't programmers—but the problem was that balancing the values ​​was difficult, requiring a lot of backup content to consume, and they couldn't use AI to do it. They were tired of manually working on it every day...

That's all I can remember, because Yan Qing happily went to the toilet after finishing her snacks and didn't hear about the actual gameplay of the disaster version.

Is the next version of the Cataclysm related to the Cataclysm mentioned by those people in Mansongwood?

Yan Qing thought about it and felt it was unlikely. The game "The Messenger" is a very traditional one where "reaching the maximum level is just the beginning." Even if players don't need to reach the maximum level in each new version, they at least need to keep up with the main group to experience the latest version's content.

The version before his transmigration was already the 'Great Era' version, which significantly reduced the difficulty of ascension, allowing most players to easily reach the seventh reincarnation. Therefore, in the next version and the version after that, players will inevitably need to be at least at the seventh reincarnation to be eligible to play.

The Liang Kingdom people are lucky if they reach level six, how could they possibly be qualified to experience the latest and trendiest version of the natural disaster?

Furthermore, the damage triggered by Qian Gongyu just now was clearly true damage, so I don't know why they called it the power of natural disaster. However, the main city's safe zone is called the 'Land of Divine Blessing,' so it seems normal for true damage to be called the power of natural disaster.

Ding dong.

The Nesser game console beeped, and Yan Qing picked it up to see Qian Gongyu approaching.

(End of this chapter)