Chapter 56: The Natural Disaster Expansion Pack

Inside the mushroom house, Jie Zilong cleared away the tables and chairs to make a spacious open area, then beckoned to Jie Yuanshao: "Come."

Opposite him, Jie Yuanshao held a long sword. First, she nudged the sword guard away from the mouth of the scabbard, and then drew the blade. Throughout the entire process, there was not the slightest grating screech of friction between metal and leather, which showed how cautious yet skillful her movements were—swift without a trace of disorder.

When she completed this singular sword-drawing ritual, a wisp of dim blue light emerged from the blade, coating it with a vicious sharpness. This dim blue light even merged with Jie Yuanshao herself, neutralizing her body's gravity and rendering all her movements even more ethereal and nimble.

This was precisely the authority of the Tier 2 rare keepsake—the Guicang Secret Sword.

Unlike the vast majority of "plug-and-play" keepsakes, the Guicang Secret Sword required its envoy to complete a sword-drawing ritual to awaken its authority. The disadvantage was obvious, but the advantage was that the more tedious, solemn, and lengthy the ritual, the more terrifying the sword's authority would become. If one were to hold a sword-offering ceremony for three days and three nights, it would be enough to amplify the authority tenfold, making its power far surpass even Tier 3.

Although such ample preparation time was almost never available, the Jie family had long since figured out the most cost-effective way to draw the sword. It was precisely this "silent sword-drawing" performed by Jie Yuanshao, which took nearly two breaths of time, allowing her to unleash one hundred and thirty-five percent of the Guicang Secret Sword's authority.

"Be careful."

The moment her words fell, Jie Yuanshao transformed into a solitary white shadow, her sword sweeping past Jie Zilong! Anyone who saw her, a woman using a light and nimble weapon like a sword, would most likely assume she excelled at maneuvering and tactical sparring. Little did they know that her fighting style was the fiercest of all, pursuing the shattering of weapons and shields and the severing of heads, rising like a continuous succession of terrifying thunderclaps!

Before Jie Zilong could turn around, Jie Yuanshao had already unleashed her second and third strikes! With each blow, she moved like lightning within the confined space. Her third strike abruptly returned her to her starting point, by which time her boots had already scorched six charred trails across the ground, as if lightning had passed over it.

"Your Three Guicang Swords are already a match for your father. At your age, his thunder-stepping boots could only stably execute the second step." Jie Zilong touched the two bloody scratches on his face. "It's just that your execution is still slightly lacking."

Jie Yuanshao remained silent, merely touching her neck.

Jie Zilong was stunned. He dragged a finger across his throat, his fingertips coming away stained with fresh blood.

"Well done." He raised an eyebrow. "That Qunyu Shu brat can't hold a candle to you. In the State of Liang's younger generation, no one is more outstanding than you—in a few years, perhaps even in my generation, no one will be superior to you either."

"I'm still far off. If I had truly mastered the Guicang Sword Technique, I should have been able to strike the exact same spot with all three blows just now, and at the very least, I would have pierced through the triple defense of your heart-protecting mirror." Jie Yuanshao sheathed her sword. "Besides, the most brilliant person of my generation is no longer me."

"You concede?"

"I've accepted it. I'm not arrogant enough to think I am the greatest in the world," Jie Yuanshao said. "I am not disheartened; on the contrary, I am more ambitious than ever before. I want to see which of us will touch the path of Foundation Establishment first."

"You hold her in very high regard."

"Doesn't Third Uncle hold her in high regard as well?"

"When evaluating a person, one must look at both talent and character." Jie Zilong sighed. "Not everyone has a future."

***

Jie Yuanshao frowned. "I believe her talent is already great enough to warrant the family throwing its full weight behind her. Even just for the sake of future yields from the Overshrough Woodlands, she is worth our highest courtesy."

"When you unleashed the power of the natural disaster, did you feel anything different?" Jie Zilong suddenly shifted the topic.

"There was wind."

Jie Yuanshao said earnestly:

"When I unleashed the Three Guicang Swords, I felt a very comfortable breeze blowing over me, as if... the entire woodland was helping me."

"It seems your natural disaster power can only take effect within the woodland, though we can only know for sure after we leave," Jie Zilong mused. "Have you noticed when you actually acquired this natural disaster power?"

"No, but it's not hard to guess," Jie Yuanshao said. "Yesterday, when we cleared the first two trials, we didn't have it. Today, after clearing the fifth trial and defeating the Tier 4 fiend, we had it."

"The fifth trial, you say..." Jie Zilong touched the bloody scratch on his throat. "It's a pity your natural disaster power is still too weak. Unless you can hit someone in the eye, it has little practical combat value. Fortunately, your natural disaster power is weak enough that everyone isn't too panicked."

"What do you mean?" Jie Yuanshao asked, puzzled. "Are you all wary of the natural disaster power? Is it because it's too powerful? Or does this kind of power bring disaster?"

"Have you been reading too many novels?" Jie Zilong was somewhat speechless. "Where is there such a thing as a power that brings disaster—even if there truly were one, as long as your power is great enough, the disaster simply becomes a price one can bear."

"As for the power of natural disasters... while it is certainly formidable, can it possibly surpass a Foundation Establishment envoy? When a Foundation Establishment envoy slaps down with a single palm, isn't that a disaster in its own right? Not to mention that natural disaster powers often come with massive restrictions; without the right timing, favorable terrain, and harmony among people, they are extremely difficult to deploy."

"What we fear is not the power of natural disasters, but rather the fact that the appearance of such power often heralds the descent of a natural disaster itself."

"You think Jiang Shi will summon a natural disaster?" Jie Yuanshao found this somewhat amusing. "Although I've heard stories about natural disaster powers since I was a child, the tales always described them as ominous omens. I thought they were just made-up stories told by adults to scare children... What on earth is a natural disaster?"

"I don't know."

Jie Zilong shook his head. "Strange, isn't it? Even though natural disaster powers truly exist, and nursery rhymes and legends can even accurately describe their specific effects, on the single most important piece of information—the disaster itself—everyone uniformly maintains absolute silence."

"All I know is that those who possess natural disaster powers tend to excel at exploring secret realms, and throughout various dynasties, such powers have always been taboo. Xiao Qiji is probably speeding horses right now to send a message to the Secretariat and the Taiji Palace."

"Even His Majesty has been alerted?" Jie Yuanshao widened her eyes. "Has a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering natural disaster truly occurred in the past? But why haven't I seen it in the history books? If such a thing really happened, surely there would be some record?"

"I don't know either." Jie Zilong spread his hands. "I only learned a fraction of the information regarding natural disasters when I was stationed at the Qingmao Mountain Secret Realm. Detailed records are probably only known to the imperial family and the heads of the seven great clans. However, while I may not understand natural disasters, I understand our own kind. As an envoy family whose primary objective 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 rules you set."

"To be feared to such an extent by the envoy families that successive dynasties have kept it shrouded in deep taboo, and the entire world tacitly conspires to erase the traces of these people, it can only mean one thing: the so-called natural disaster inevitably touches upon their absolute bottom line—"

"Secret realms."

***

Natural disasters.

Yan Qing put down the Bizi Jiaolin towel and used it to wipe the sweat from his body—the merchant-exclusive towels were indeed much softer than those in the Pingcheng military camp. Amidst the hour of sword-swinging training he had just completed, his cleared mind finally recalled why this particular term could trigger a reaction in his cerebral cortex.

Because this was the theme of the version after next for *The Envoy*.

He didn't know about other games, but the operational model of *The Envoy* was that once a brand-new version went live, the main content for the subsequent version had already been developed and entered the testing and bug-fixing phase, while the studio immediately began working on the core content of the version *after* that.

When Yan Qing used to gorge on snacks in the break room, he had often overheard bald, veteran game planners cursing up a storm in the smoking room, complaining that the lead planner had lost his mind and insisted on creating this bizarre "natural disaster" gameplay mechanic. It was bad enough that it was difficult to implement programmatically—after all, they weren't programmers—but the real problem was that balancing the numbers was a nightmare. It required a massive amount of reserve content to burn through, and since it couldn't be done by AI, they had to grind it out by hand every day until they felt sick to their stomachs...

That was all he could remember, because once Yan Qing finished his snacks, he happily went to squat on the toilet and never actually heard about the actual gameplay content of the Natural Disaster version.

Did the natural disaster of the version after next have any connection to the natural disaster mentioned by those people in the Overshrough Woodlands?

Yan Qing thought about it and felt it was unlikely. *The Envoy* was a very traditional "max level is just the tutorial" kind of game. Even if players didn't need to reach max level for every new version, they at least had to keep pace with the main vanguard to experience the latest version's content.

The version right before he time-traveled was already the "Grand Era" version, which drastically lowered the difficulty of ascending to immortality, allowing most players to easily reach Tier 7. Therefore, the game content for the next version and the one after that would naturally require players to be above Tier 7 to even be eligible to play.

For those people in the State of Liang, having a single Tier 6 was already the absolute peak; how could they possibly be qualified to experience the newest, trendiest Natural Disaster version?

Besides, what Qian Gongyu had triggered earlier was clearly true damage; why on earth would they call it a natural disaster power? However, since the main city safe zones were called "Blessed Lands," having true damage referred to as natural disaster power seemed fairly normal.

Ding-dong.

The Naisai gaming console emitted a prompt tone. Yan Qing picked it up and saw that it was Qian Gongyu approaching.