Calamity Messenger-Chapter 69 - 56: Calamity Update
In the mushroom house, Jie Zilong cleared the table and chairs, creating a large empty space, and gestured to Jie Yuan Shao: "Come."
Opposite him, Jie Yuan Shao held a longsword. She first pushed the sword guard away from the scabbard’s mouth, then drew out the longsword. The entire process was devoid of the screech of metal rubbing against the scabbard, showing how cautious yet skillful she was, fast but not chaotic.
When she completed this strange sword-drawing rite, a touch of eerie blue emerged from the sword, coating the blade in a layer of venomous sharpness. This shade of blue even merged with Jie Yuan Shao, counterbalancing her body’s gravity, making every move more agile and nimble.
This was precisely the power of the Second Turn Rare Token · Gui Cang Secret Sword.
Unlike most ’ready-to-use’ tokens, the Gui Cang Secret Sword requires the messenger to perform a sword-drawing rite to awaken its power. The drawbacks are obvious, but the advantage is that the more elaborate, solemn, and lengthy the rite, the more terrifying the power of the Gui Cang Secret Sword becomes. If a sword-offering ceremony were held for three days and nights, it could amplify the power more than tenfold, far surpassing the Third Turn.
Although most of the time, such sufficient preparation time is impossible, the Jie Family has long developed the most cost-effective sword-drawing method, which is Jie Yuan Shao’s ’Silent Sword Drawing,’ taking nearly two breaths, capable of unleashing thirteen and a half of the Gui Cang Secret Sword’s power.
"Be careful."
The moment the words landed, Jie Yuan Shao transformed into a solitary white figure, a sword sweeping past Jie Zilong! Seeing her as a woman wielding such a light weapon, most would assume she excelled in maneuvering and strategy, but little did they know her combat style was the most valiant, aiming to shatter weapons, break shields, and take heads, unending thunder rolling in!
Before Jie Zilong could turn around, Jie Yuan Shao had already struck out with a second sword, then a third! Each strike like lightning in the narrow space, the third sword surprisingly returned to the original spot. At this point, the ground had six charred marks made by her boots, as if thunder had passed.
"Your Gui Cang Three Swords already rival your father’s. When he was your age, wearing thunder boots he could only steadily step out the second stride." Jie Zilong touched the two blood stains on his face, "But you’re still slightly lacking in accuracy."
Jie Yuan Shao said nothing, only touched her neck.
Jie Zilong was startled, his fingers brushed across his neck, his fingertips stained with fresh blood.
"Well done." He raised an eyebrow, "That kid Qunyu can’t compare to you. Among this generation in the Liang Kingdom, no one is more outstanding than you — in a few more years, perhaps even in my generation, no one will surpass you."
"Still far off. If the Gui Cang Swordsmanship were fully mastered, I should have hit the same spot with all three swords just now, at least penetrating your Heart-Protecting Mirror’s threefold defense." Jie Yuan Shao returned the sword to its scabbard, "Also, the most outstanding person of my generation is no longer me."
"Admitted defeat?"
"I’ve accepted it; I’m not arrogant enough to think I’m the best in the world," Jie Yuan Shao said, "I am not disheartened, on the contrary, I am more ambitious than ever. I want to see who between her and I will touch the path to Foundation Establishment first."
"You rate her highly."
"Doesn’t Third Uncle rate her highly?"
"Evaluating someone requires looking at both talent and character." Jie Zilong sighed, "Not everyone has a future."
Jie Yuan Shao frowned, "I believe her talent is already great enough to warrant the family’s full support, even if only for the future benefits of Mansu Forest Land, she deserves our highest respect."
"Did you feel anything different when you activated the Power of Calamity?" Jie Zilong suddenly changed the subject.
"There was wind."
Jie Yuan Shao spoke seriously:
"When I activated the Gui Cang Three Swords, I felt a comfortable breeze blowing over me, as if... the entire forest was assisting me."
"It seems your Power of Calamity can only take effect within the forest, but the specifics will have to be determined after leaving." Jie Zilong pondered, "Did you sense when you obtained the Power of Calamity?"
"No, but it’s not hard to guess." Jie Yuan Shao said, "Yesterday, when we passed two levels, we didn’t have the Power of Calamity, today after passing the fifth level and defeating the Fourth-Turn Demon Fiend, we did."
"The fifth level, huh..." Jie Zilong touched the bloodstain on his throat, "It’s a pity your Power of Calamity is still too weak, unless it hits the eye, it has little practical value. Thankfully, your Power of Calamity is weak enough that everyone isn’t too tense."
"What do you mean?" Jie Yuan Shao asked in confusion, "Are you afraid of the Power of Calamity because it’s too strong? Or does this power bring disaster?"
"You’ve read too many novels." Jie Zilong was a bit speechless, "What kind of power brings disaster — even if there is, as long as the power is strong enough, disaster becomes a bearable price."
"As for the Power of Calamity... while it is indeed powerful, can it be more powerful than Foundation Establishment Messenger? When a Foundation Establishment Messenger slaps down, isn’t that a disaster? Not to mention the Power of Calamity often has particularly large restrictions, without the right timing, location, and people, it’s difficult to activate."
"What we fear is not the Power of Calamity itself, but that its appearance often heralds the arrival of calamity."
"Do you think Jiang Shi will bring calamity?" Jie Yuan Shao found it a bit amusing, "Although I’ve heard stories about the Power of Calamity since childhood, where it’s depicted as an ominous portent, I always thought it was a tale fabricated by adults to scare children... What exactly is calamity?"
"I don’t know."
Jie Zilong shook his head, "Strange, isn’t it? Despite the Power of Calamity being real, the stories and nursery rhymes accurately depict its effects, yet agreeably omit information on calamity itself."
"I only know that those with the Power of Calamity often excel in exploring the Secret Realm, and that it has been taboo through the ages. Lu Xiaoqi is likely rushing to report to the Ministry of Personnel and Taiji Hall by now."
"Even Your Majesty has been alerted?" Jie Yuan Shao widened her eyes, "Has there truly been an earth-shattering calamity? Why haven’t I seen it in the history books? If there really was such a calamity, there should at least be some records?"
"I don’t know." Jie Zilong spread his hands, "I only learned a part of the information about calamity while stationed at the Cyan Grass Mountain Secret Realm. Detailed records are probably only known to the royal family and the seven great family heads. However, while I may not understand calamity, I do understand us. As a Messenger Clan whose primary mission is survival, we tribute to the mighty, submit to tyrants, and follow sages, as long as you’re stronger, they obey your rules."
"If the Messenger Clan fears something so much that it’s been shrouded in secrecy through the ages, and everyone in the world tacitly conceals the whereabouts of these people, it only indicates that this calamity must breach their non-negotiable line—"
"The Secret Realm."
...
...
Calamity.
Yan Qing put down the Bingzi Pepper Forest and picked up a towel to wipe the sweat off his body — the towel supplied by the Shang Family was indeed much softer than the ones at the Ping City Military Camp. During the hour-long blade training earlier, while emptying his mind, Yan Qing finally remembered why this word could trigger a reaction from his cerebral cortex.
Because it was the theme of the version after next of "Messenger."
For other games he didn’t know, but the way "Messenger" was run, whenever a new version was updated, the main content for the next version was already being tested and debugged, while the studio began creating the core content for the version after next.
Yan Qing had overheard the balding, older planners cursing in the smoking room while he gorged on snacks in the pantry. They were saying the chief planner was crazy to insist on creating this ’calamity’ odd gameplay mode. While it’s difficult to implement programmatically, that didn’t concern them as they weren’t programmers, but the trouble was balancing the numbers was hard, requiring a lot of backup content for consumption, which couldn’t be done by AI, and tweaking manually had them nauseous...
That’s all the content he could recall, for after finishing the snacks, Yan Qing blissfully went to the restroom, missing out on hearing about the actual gameplay of the calamity version.
Is it possible that the calamity in the version after next is related to the ’calamity’ mentioned by those people in Mansu Forest Land?
Yan Qing thought for a moment and felt it unlikely. "Messenger" is a very traditional game where ’max level is just the beginning’, and even if players don’t need to reach max level for each new version, they at least need to keep up with the main group to experience the newest content.
The version before he crossed over was already the ’Grand Era’ version, significantly lowering the difficulty of Immortal Ascension, where most players could easily ascend to the Seventh Turn. Therefore, for the upcoming versions and the version after next, players would need to be at least Seventh Turn to qualify for play.
The Liang Kingdom folks, with even a Sixth Turn being the limit, had no qualifications to experience the latest and hottest calamity version.
Furthermore, the real damage triggered by Qian Gongyu just now, it’s unclear why they called it the Power of Calamity. But considering the main city’s safe zones are called ’Land of Divine Protection’, referring to real damage as the Power of Calamity does seem rather typical.
Ding dong.
The Nexar Game Console beeped, and when Yan Qing picked it up, he discovered it was Qian Gongyu approaching.
