Chapter 223: The Fury of Nature
The middle and lower reaches of the Izumo River are narrow but still wide enough at 100 meters. Its mouth is located on the left side of the Leighton Port area, making it a natural and excellent waterway for shipping. Residents of coastal villages in eastern North County and northern East County can travel downstream to reach Leighton Port, the capital of East County. By taking the water route under Lord Gry, one can cover thousands of kilometers from north to south, and it only takes about two days to reach Leighton Port.
Compared to traveling by carriage, which takes many times longer, the Izumo River is undoubtedly a much more convenient and faster means of transportation for trade between the two regions.
Although the River of Everwinter, developed by Dalaran, is still quite shallow at present and can only accommodate small boats and canoes, unable to carry large ships for cargo, transporting goods by land from Dalaran through Redmap Town to the Izumo River outside Lord Gry’s territory only adds half a day to the journey. Once ships are prepared, they can then travel by water all the way to Leighton Port.
The trade plan between the two territories is far more complex than Donald’s previous minor dealings, requiring coordination on various aspects. However, with Augusta, a talented merchant, handling this matter, Donald has no complaints and simply leaves it in her hands.
As for diplomacy, there’s Jesse, a diplomat from Dalaran. Donald doesn’t need to get involved directly; he represents Dalaran at banquets and tea parties hosted by various nobles every day, handling himself with ease among the nobles of Leighton Port—truly worthy of being a noble from the royal capital.
With nothing much to do and unable to leave Leighton Port, Donald spends his days accompanying Catherine, attending necessary events, and dedicating the rest of his time to training.
During this period, the female sword saint, Abel, also came to challenge Donald a few times. However, after the first two encounters, Donald had reached a bottleneck in his swordsmanship. Unless he advanced to the Gold rank, he couldn’t improve quickly.
Moreover, the stolen martial arts theories he had in mind were thoroughly exhausted by the female sword saint after a few attempts—what remained was either too inconvenient to reveal or inconsistent with the logic of this world. So, she hadn’t come to bother him in recent days; likely she was practicing hard somewhere!
Free from the female sword saint’s harassment, Donald stopped focusing on swordsmanship and instead devoted himself to learning magic.
One night, while in deep meditation, he suddenly saw that the Heart of the King sword, visible through his soul pillar, was much more solid than before.
Recalling that the power of faith around him had surged significantly in recent days, he guessed that news of what happened in Leighton Port must have spread to other parts of the kingdom.
Whether it’s the appearance of dragons or the repelling of sea beast attacks, both inevitably draw greater admiration and discussion. The power of faith is on the verge of an explosion, which favors the sword intent of the Heart of the King. Apart from taking 30% of the divine power converted through the idol of the evil god, the Truth Book has, under Donald’s orders, infused the rest into the Heart of the King. His intention is to see just how far this sword of will can grow. Indeed, initial results have already appeared: the blade of the Heart of the King now appears more tangible than before, no longer as illusory as when it was first formed. Moreover, since it is formed from sword intent, its power manifests at the spiritual level. According to the Truth Book, as long as the Heart of the King exists in one’s own consciousness world, even without the protection of the Truth Book, spiritual attacks below the gold level cannot affect it, and gold-level attacks won’t be as ineffective as those of ordinary silver-tier attacks. Furthermore, if one is willing to sacrifice this sword of will, by using it in a single act of self-destruction against a target, the resulting power could severely damage even the souls of legendary warriors. In Donald’s mind, the significance of the Heart of the King has also increased significantly—it is no longer just a fleeting sword intent created merely to master sword techniques and easily abandoned. Instead, it has become a means to strengthen the soul and an additional trump card in critical moments. Yet, upon seeing the green light flashing on the blade of the Heart of the King, Donald began to consider other possibilities. “This will representing natural retribution must not be wasted. It was stronger than the Heart of the King even when first formed. If it could also be shaped into a weapon, it might bring me even greater benefits than the Heart of the King!” In Donald’s view, although the sword intent of the Heart of the King is good, it is merely an impulsive effort that can be abandoned if necessary. At worst, it would only result in the loss of faith power, which can always be reformed. Moreover, he has no intention of taking the relatively simple but ultimately limited path of becoming the Lord of Humanity. “But natural retribution will is different. It is a major branch of the higher laws of nature. If one can successfully comprehend and master it…” With that thought, he took action immediately. In his consciousness world, he began to control his mind, extracting that small yet powerful pale green will of natural retribution from the Heart of the King, and then shaping it into a long spear before the pillar of soul light.
This spear was not something like the ancient red-tasseled spear from his past life, but rather resembled the rigid knight’s lances of this world, only much shorter—only seven feet long. Its tip was hexagonal and formed a single piece with the shaft. On the six sides of the tip, faint images of flames, soil, water currents, gentle breezes, as well as beasts and plants could be seen, while the shaft was as smooth as a mirror. Since it was a weapon formed from light and shadow, it appeared blurred. Once this emerald-green spear took shape, Donald suddenly felt a tremor in his consciousness, as if the heavens and earth were shaking. An immense force appeared out of nowhere, breaking through his consciousness and creating a crack in the sky. A pale green aura rushed in from beyond the sky and then disappeared into the spear. Donald’s soul projection stretched out a hand, and the spear, glowing with emerald light, came to his hand on its own. As soon as he grasped it, his soul seemed to float into the sky, his vision expanding thousands of times over, as if he could see the entire world. A gentle yet vast consciousness enveloped him, and then Donald began to perceive countless scenes: seeds sprouting into seedlings, which grew into full plants and bloomed into camellias. Insects pollinated them, then the petals fell and fruits formed. When the fruits ripened, they were eaten by small animals, and the seeds fell back to the ground to sprout again, in a cycle that represented the cycle of life. There were also various animals, from birth to growth, then hunting, migrating, mating, and reproducing the next generation, before gradually growing old or being hunted by other beasts or intelligent creatures. Some would end up injured and unable to move, becoming prey for other wild animals. Their bodies were decomposed by scavengers, covered by dust and leaves, and eventually merged into the earth to become fertilizer for the plants growing around them. This was the cycle of the food chain, the law of nature where the strong prey on the weak. Of course, what Donald saw most often were scenes of those who destroyed nature: forest fires, the release of toxic substances, the erosion of the earth by negative energy, the existence of undead creatures, the invasion of forces from the abyssal realms, and the disasters brought by demons. Seeing these, Donald felt an endless rage well up from deep within him, a desire to utterly destroy all those who recklessly destroyed nature. Once this rage arose, all the scenes suddenly stopped, and that vast will disappeared, leaving only a faint connection that maintained communication between Donald’s consciousness and the spear in his hand. “How is it possible to communicate with the true will of nature?”
After experiencing those recent changes, Donald quickly understood why such things were happening. That vast consciousness was clearly the world’s natural will, also known as the World Consciousness. It seemed to be a natural punitive will formed from his memories of past lives related to environmental protection. By chance, it won the favor of the natural will, thus endowing him with the authority to punish those who damaged nature—represented by the long spear he had conjured. Moreover, the natural will subtly conveyed to him that as long as he continued to uphold the path of natural punishment and eliminated the threats to natural harmony in the material world, he would receive rewards from it. The more he did, the more he would gain, and it wasn’t even impossible for him to become a deity who governed certain laws. “Does that mean that as long as I reach semi-divine strength, I can use the authority of this spear, embodying the will of natural punishment, to attain divinity and become a true god?” Looking at the spear in his hand, which still appeared somewhat illusory but was much more solid than the Heart of the King, Donald was both overjoyed and hesitant. He was happy to have obtained such incredible power granted by the World Consciousness, along with the authority from the previous Human King’s will, giving him two paths to becoming a powerful true god at any time. However, he hesitated because, ever since he became a mage, he had set his sights on becoming a powerful archmage. With more choices now before him, he didn’t know how to decide. In the end, Donald shook his head and decided not to think about it for now. “Anyway, I haven’t reached the Golden rank yet, and even if I did, I’m still far from becoming a true god. Doing more tasks of natural punishment can only bring benefits, not harm. There’s no need to think that far ahead for now!” Then, in high spirits, he said to the spear in his hand, “Since it embodies the authority of natural punishment, let’s call it ‘Anger of Nature’!” After saying that, the emerald-green spear emitted a sound, clearly approving of the name. Thus, Donald’s soul pillar, which previously had two weapons—a sword and a spear—now had the green glow of Anger of Nature added to it, accelerating and strengthening the growth of his soul. The two weapons continuously exchanged radiant light—pure white and emerald green, imbued with the essence of nature and endless vitality—gradually transforming his soul’s core. As for the Heart of the King, from which the will of natural punishment emerged, the light depicting mountains, rivers, plants, and trees on its blade had dimmed significantly, but new patterns appeared on its hilt.
Donald looked closely. On one side were several decrees currently in effect in his territory, while on the other side were the farming techniques available there. As he focused his mind on them, he discovered that the methods for producing canned goods and bandages, which he had invented, were also listed among them.
“This is truly a sword of humanity!”