Chapter 620: Natural Blessings

Seeing that the problem between them had been resolved, Hawking, relying on their previously decent relationship, boldly asked, “I wonder what His Highness Donald is doing here…”
Donald turned to look at him and said, “You know what my domain is. Do you have any objections?”
Hawking replied awkwardly, “Of course not!”
By now, the theory of natural balance was well-known among the gods and various forces in the main world. Anyone who understood Donald’s role as the guardian of nature could easily guess his purpose for coming to this most dangerous place on the continent.
Donald ignored the demigod and instead heard a voice that resonated deep within his soul speak:
“In the name of nature, grant life to this land! May the dead return to the earth, and may life cycle endlessly!”
Before the words faded, a green glow suddenly appeared in the Ash Forest, like the dawn sun, illuminating the entire forest. The sacred light instantly changed the color of the whole forest.
Although the altar and magic array in the depths of the Withered Valley, deprived of their source of power, could no longer convert undead energy to erode the main world’s space or sustain the Death Domain, the plane’s rules would gradually restore the environment here.
However, this process would be slow—taking at least a hundred years to fully restore the natural environment.
So Donald planned to accelerate this process artificially to obtain some natural gifts.
In fact, these gifts were no longer essential for him at his level, but they could bring significant progress to his church organizations and the Apostles of Judgment. Yet, the Death Domain here had accumulated such intense darkness over thousands of years that even powerful demigods found it difficult to purify completely. Thus, he unleashed a large-scale miracle to cut off its source of power first. While this wouldn’t eradicate the darkness entirely, it would leave room for others to continue the purification.
Donald didn’t want to claim all the credit for this. After using the miracle of natural blessings to initially cleanse the most intense death energy, he issued an oracle to all his followers who used natural power.
Immediately, natural believers from various places put aside their other tasks and used the magical teleportation channels set up by Dalaran to reach the nearest Ithil Kingdom, then headed toward the Ash Forest to participate in this rare event.
Not far away, the Heroic Party was utterly shocked to witness a true god displaying his miracle.

Only the gods can possess such unparalleled power that mortals cannot compare to—this is the strength of true gods!
“I think we already have the answer!”
Hakli said to his teammates.
“I now understand why this prince doesn’t need Jason to change his faith, because the god of adventure and sailing is precisely this great prince’s subordinate god!”
Thief Nick exclaimed after recovering from his shock.
Jason added, “Since the great Ciri is also the subordinate god of the great Nature Guardian, there’s no conflict in me believing in both true gods!”
As these people harbored thoughts of faith and reverence, Donald saw the threads of faith appearing above their heads and generously waved his hand, sending out several beams of golden light through those threads to reward these four new believers.
“Since you already have the answer in your hearts, this is my blessing for you!”
The four adventurers immediately felt a sacred and vibrant force enter their souls and spread throughout their bodies.
A golden, sacred glow appeared around each adventurer.
This was divine grace!
The adventurers were overjoyed.
Divine grace refers to the rewards given by true gods to mortal believers beyond their usual level of faithfulness. As long as the recipient does not abandon their faith, this grace will continue to affect them.
Any priest or believer can sense the presence of divine grace, so those who possess it hold a much higher status than others of the same rank.
More importantly, unlike divine spells granted through faith, divine grace can significantly enhance the overall physical condition of the recipient, bringing many benefits for future advancement.
With these advantages, those who receive divine grace are almost equivalent to those with lesser divine scrolls. Apart from not having the benefits of those favored by the gods, such as eternal youth and extended lifespan, their powers are not much inferior.
Since Donald hadn’t established a church, the Nature Guardian Council was merely a loose organization formed spontaneously by believers.

Apart from the Apostles of Divine Punishment and Summoning Apostles, Donald did not have any specialized clergy such as priests or ministers like those in the True God Churches. Even the elven priests created by him were merely believers under him, the Guardian of Nature. Therefore, he granted powers to ordinary believers based on their level of devotion. Even weak and elderly believers without much ability could cast some low-level divine spells once they reached the status of full believers, while true believers could acquire the immense power of bronze-ranked professionals.

Granting such large-scale divine spells was quite demanding even for mid-tier gods. Moreover, if they continued this for a long time, these deities wouldn’t need to do anything else. Yet Donald was considered a newcomer among the True Gods, and he could still afford to expend such divine power. This allowed him to gain a large number of believers in just a few years. Although most of them were merely casual believers, his faith spread across almost the entire continent. This was something even some established mid-tier gods could not achieve.

The Guardian of Nature was not stingy with his gifts, and his reputation had already spread throughout the mortal world. His believers came from all walks of life—nobles, commoners, adventurers, and more. Even some farmers would choose to worship Donald, the god representing nature, neutrality, and peace, just to gain spells that could simplify their lives. This was one of the reasons why the Harkley Squad was able to quickly accept and begin to worship this True God.

To those adventurers whose devotion had not yet reached that of true believers, Donald granted additional blessings, bestowing upon them divine spell power equivalent to that of bronze-ranked professionals. Feeling the power surging within them, Harkley and the others were overjoyed and wanted to thank their True God, only to find that Donald’s avatar had disappeared. Instead, the Elect of the King of Lies remained in place.

Hawking gave those lucky mortals a meaningful look and abandoned his initial plan to deal with them casually. Having been seen in his awkward moment earlier, this scheming Apostle of Darkness was not willing to let these mortals go. He planned to act once Donald’s avatar left. But now, these mere pawns had suddenly become believers of the Guardian of Nature, and moreover, believers who had received divine blessings—this was no ordinary status!

“Let them be lucky enough to escape. I certainly don’t want to offend Donald, this highly popular and powerful True God, just for the sake of face.”

So after the other party left, realizing there was no benefit in staying, this elect of the God of Intrigue also departed. The young Nick, who was rather insensitive and unaware that he had inadvertently escaped disaster, was happily trying to wield the divine powers he had acquired, while the experienced Harkley trio were sweating with anxiety until that demi-god warrior left before they could relax.
“Thankfully, the great Nature Guardian is here; otherwise, with that demi-god from Rosenberg’s temper, we would likely all have perished today!” said Jason the Scarred, still shaken.
For these adventurers who roamed the central and southern regions of the continent, they were well aware of the reputations of the three major forces in the chaotic southwestern region of Fallen Tharlin. The Shadow Demon City had the most powerful warriors, and the Thieves’ Guild operated secretly with influence across the continent, but the most feared existence in Fallen Tharlin was those madmen from Rosenberg.
The followers of the King of Lies, who aimed to spread intrigue and chaos, were not only cruel to outsiders but also extremely ruthless toward their own rivals—nearly no normal person would want to associate with them, lest they be betrayed with no chance of recourse.
After completing his tasks in the Ashen Forest, the avatar returned to Dalaran and immediately went to the Tower of the Dusk Mage, gathering all mages of silver rank or above, including those stationed in other territories outside Dalaran such as Hentia and Jerm.
Currently, the mages within Dalaran’s territory were led by the elder mages Messel and Chikofield. The former was the teacher of the Nature Guardian in his mortal life and also a legendary warrior. As for the latter, due to his bloodline, he was not only a distant noble of the Merlinna family but also a powerful legendary archmage. Thus, these two could rightfully be considered the leaders of Dalaran’s mages.
“This is a spell array and altar I obtained in the Ashen Forest. It is these two that turned the Ashen Forest into a land of the dead!” Donald revealed the two spell arrays and altar taken from the bottom of the Withering Gorge before the mages.
“Your Highness! Are you saying the situation in the Ashen Forest was caused by humans?” Mage Chris, who was always most curious about such matters, rushed to ask.

Donald smiled and said, “Of course, it involves a very important secret. But I’ve already uncovered it, so there’s no big problem in revealing it. In fact, I want to spread this news through you to cause some trouble for any potential enemies in the future! Everyone is free to speak their minds after hearing this—this place is shielded by my divine power, so even if the true name of the deity is spoken, it won’t be detected by the outside world!”

With that, Donald began to recount his experiences from discovering the Ashen Forest and entering the Withering Gorge, naturally omitting the existence of higher-tier divine weapons. As for the Destroyer Golden Body puppet, he only gave a brief introduction.

Donald’s storytelling skills far surpassed those of many professional bards, especially since it was a topic they were extremely interested in. He even conjured illusory images to recreate the scenes, making the story vivid with both words and visuals. The mages present were utterly captivated, and when Donald reached the thrilling parts, they couldn’t help but exclaim in awe.

Finally, the existence of interdimensional passages, demi-planar beings, those undead demons and monsters, and even the appearance of Oscar, the legendary fallen king of the undead, left these mages in raptures. This was probably the greatest wonder and secret they had ever witnessed in their lives.