[Lord of Abundance] Chapter 50 — The Call from Within the Gate of Fertility
Chapter 50 — The Call from Within the Gate of Fertility
Kun had never been particularly fond of festivals.
Whenever celebrations came around, the lively Marquis's Estate stood in stark contrast to the lonely little courtyard where he lived.
Marquis Lawrence and the Marchioness would be invited to the royal palace for banquets.
Technically, Kun was also qualified to attend.
Yet he had never once stepped through the palace gates.
As for the other children, the butler would escort them to places like the Royal Grand Theater or the cathedral to enjoy the festivities.
Every annual celebration felt less like a holiday and more like an obligatory social event.
Back when he was still an insignificant mage, things weren't too bad.
No one bothered paying attention to him.
But after revealing his extraordinary talent for magic...
Simply dealing with the endless stream of insincere greetings exhausted an entire year's worth of fake smiles in just two or three days.
There was hardly any room left to actually enjoy the holiday.
Which was why Kun was genuinely looking forward to celebrating on Blue Star this time.
After entering the hidden chamber behind his study, he walked past Dawn, who remained asleep within a magical formation, and reached the golden Gate of Fertility at the very center of his laboratory.
Six high-grade wood-element beast cores rested at the six corners of the magic array, serving as a stable energy source that continuously sustained the gate.
Kun wasn't worried in the slightest about anyone discovering the Gate of Fertility.
After all...
Anyone besides himself who entered that gate would simply die.
He stepped inside.
Beyond the doorway wasn't the corresponding Gate of Fertility on Blue Star.
Instead, a golden rainbow bridge stretched endlessly before him.
Surrounding it was a boundless void...
Along with countless "seeds" of different colors.
To Kun's eyes, these stellar seeds varied greatly.
Some overflowed with vibrant life, exerting a powerful attraction upon him.
Others were utterly lifeless, shrouded in the aura of death.
The rainbow bridge responded directly to his thoughts.
If he wished, he could stroll leisurely across it for an entire month while admiring the scenery of the void.
Or...
With a single step...
He could arrive at the Gate of Fertility on Blue Star in an instant.
Convenient hardly began to describe it.
After traveling repeatedly between the two worlds over the past two years, Kun had gradually come to an important realization.
The golden rainbow bridge wasn't truly a "bridge."
It was a peculiar energetic connection linking two worlds.
Rather like his spell Blue Planet.
Even his own body had likely become synchronized with that mysterious connection, allowing him to cross the unimaginable distance between worlds in a single instant.
Just as Kun prepared to step onto Blue Star—
A strange voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.
"Please... save us..."
His footsteps froze.
Immediately, Kun scanned the golden bridge with wary eyes.
"Where did that soul voice come from?"
"Is it a trap set by some Demon God?"
"Or the prayer of believers directed toward a true deity?"
"How could it resonate through the void itself?"
Over the years, Kun had heard soul voices only a handful of times while traveling through the void.
Every previous occasion had been baited by terrifying void creatures.
Like anglerfish lurking in the deep sea, they patiently waited for prey to swim willingly into their mouths.
Fortunately...
The golden rainbow bridge beneath his feet possessed miraculous properties.
A single thought was enough to whisk him away.
Otherwise, he would have long since perished within this seemingly tranquil void.
But this time...
It was different.
The soul voice was astonishingly weak.
It lacked the overwhelming presence of powerful void entities setting traps.
More importantly...
Its intention was unmistakable.
It was pleading for help.
Kun remained standing on the bridge for quite some time before the voice spoke again.
"Please save us..."
"Whether you are an evil god... or a demon..."
"As long as you can save this continent..."
"You may take my life..."
"Even my soul..."
"It doesn't matter..."
"Please..."
"Anyone..."
"Please save us..."
Following the direction of that devout prayer, Kun arrived before a peculiar planetary seed.
Half of its surface glowed an eerie crimson.
The other half shimmered silver.
He frowned.
"The Gaia Will here is unbelievably weak."
"This world is beyond saving."
Unlike Blue Star, whose Gaia Will merely slumbered...
The Gaia Will of this planet resembled a terminally ill patient, barely clinging to its final breath.
At the same time...
Kun clearly sensed another Gaia Will steadily growing stronger.
Compared to the first...
This second consciousness was far more twisted.
Far more chaotic.
If he had to compare them to something familiar...
The difference resembled that between healthy flesh...
And cancer cells.
They looked similar.
Yet they were fundamentally different.
Something horrific was unfolding upon this world.
"Please save us..."
"Someone..."
"Anyone..."
Kun stood silently before the crimson-and-silver planet, ignoring the ever-growing chorus of soul voices flooding his consciousness.
Soul voices differed from ordinary sounds.
The more sincere the prayer...
The stronger the soul...
The farther those voices could travel.
The greater the chance that a true god might hear them.
However...
Prayers without a specific deity carried tremendous danger.
They were akin to throwing blood-soaked bait into the sea.
More often than not...
They attracted the attention of evil gods.
This was precisely why the people of Eternal Dawn were forbidden to pray to any deity other than the Six Gods.
Such restrictions existed to prevent the descent of malevolent gods.
Ordinarily...
The world's Gaia will protect it from invasion.
Evil gods couldn't simply descend and harvest souls at will.
But a dying world...
One whose Gaia Will had become critically weakened...
Was irresistible to them.
They could descend with very little cost.
Although Kun felt genuine regret for this dying planetary seed...
Each living world was an unimaginable miracle within the desolate void.
He had no intention of interfering.
He wasn't an evil god.
He had no need for souls or life force.
And perhaps...
For this seed...
Death itself might become a new beginning.
After all...
The Gaia Will was nothing more than the collective subconscious of every living creature on a planet.
If the old lifeforms could become Gaia...
Why shouldn't a newly born life one day replace them?
Still...
Looking at this collapsing world...
Even surviving a little longer would be extraordinarily difficult.
After all...
Who had ever seen someone survive after cancer had completely overtaken their body?
It was merely borrowing time from the future.
"I... don't want to die..."
"Old man..."
"Why won't you die already?"
"Die!"
"Only after you're dead can my child live..."
"Ancestors of the Spiritfolk..."
"Has the glorious civilization built over nine thousand six hundred years truly reached its end?"
"I refuse to accept this..."
Nine thousand years?
Kun suddenly stopped walking.
His eyes blinked.
Even counting neither the Ancient Elves nor civilizations before them...
Human civilization on Eternal Dawn had existed for only about 2,800 years.
As for Blue Star...
How old was its oldest civilization?
Five thousand?
Seven thousand?
When Kun looked once more upon the crimson world beneath him...
His eyes blazed with unmistakable greed.
In that instant...
He looked no less covetous than an evil god.
"I may not possess the power to save this dying planet..."
"But I can preserve its civilization."
"Rather than letting every achievement become dust within history..."
"...it would be far better to entrust them to me."
Having quickly justified his actions to himself...
Kun casually scattered a handful of crimson seeds toward the planet.
He was no longer the naïve young mage who had once stumbled blindly onto Blue Star.
After fully appreciating the dangers of descending into foreign worlds...
He had developed numerous countermeasures.
For example...
The seeds he had just scattered—
Seeds of Flesh.
They could parasitize native lifeforms and avoid the Gaia Will's initial purge.
To improve his odds...
Kun circled the planet, scattering every last Seed of Flesh he carried across multiple regions.
Satisfied, he dusted off his hands.
"As long as even one seed successfully germinates..."
"I'll be able to approach this world next time."
"And I won't lose its coordinates."
"The rest..."
"...depends on luck."
It would take at least ten days, perhaps half a month, before those seeds could germinate.
Besides...
Kun still knew almost nothing about the world itself.
Judging solely from the Gaia Will...
Some kind of massive biological extinction had occurred there not long ago.
As an Abundance Mage...
He could instinctively sense the world's profound lack of vitality.
It was...
Unfertile.
Meaning the chances of his Seeds of Flesh successfully finding hosts were far from optimistic.
Failure remained the far more likely outcome.
Casting one final glance at the bizarre planet split between crimson and silver...
Kun turned away without hesitation.
To many Demon Gods...
Such a world would be an unimaginably precious treasure.
But to Kun...
Who possessed the Gate of Fertility...
It was merely one ordinary seed among countless others scattered throughout the void.
He hadn't even fully absorbed Blue Star's civilization yet.
He understood perfectly well that greed only led to choking.
Thus...
Even a civilization boasting over nine thousand years of history wasn't something he absolutely had to possess.
What he truly regretted...
Was the precious wealth painstakingly accumulated by generations of sages.
Knowledge differed from material treasure.
Once the civilization that gave birth to it vanished...
Much of that knowledge lost all meaning.
For instance...
The magical notebook that the two apprentice mages in the Fengrao Territory regarded as an irreplaceable treasure...
If taken to Blue Star, where magic didn't exist...
It would become nothing more than a meaningless collection of absurd fantasies and incoherent ramblings.
If life itself was the miracle born from desolation...
Then civilization...
Was the flower of truth blooming upon that miracle?
Kun's actions resembled those of a traveler discovering a flower about to wither.
Unable to save it...
He nevertheless wished to preserve its beauty while it still remained.
Whether that would succeed...
Was left to fate.
After all...
The Flesh Seeds he had modified through Abundance Magic were incredibly fragile.
If released upon an ordinary living world...
The omnipresent Gaia Will would detect and destroy every single one immediately.
This dying world possessed only a feeble Gaia Will...
But at the same time...
Its scarcity of life greatly reduced the chance that any local organism would encounter—and become infected by—a seed.
Still...
The shortcomings couldn't entirely be blamed on his creations.
Invading an entire world...
Was never something a mere fourth-tier mage should have been capable of.
Reaching even this stage...
Was already an astonishing feat.
He had spent only a short while within the void.
Scattering those parasitic seeds had consumed very little time.
Moments later...
Kun stepped through the Gate and arrived on Blue Star.
He carefully examined his surroundings.
Good.
No one was inside the room.
After changing into local clothes, he quietly opened the door.
Just as he was preparing to sneak off to the anime convention—
Someone caught him red-handed.
"Got you!"
"You sore loser!"
Li Xiaoyu grabbed Kun by the arm, glaring at him furiously.
"You lost at Dou Dizhu!"
"You promised you'd grant me one request!"
"And then you disappeared for days!"
"What, do you think I really have the memory of a goldfish?"
"Only seven seconds long?"
Standing nearby, Li Tianyun chuckled with unmistakable satisfaction.
"I told you."
"There was no need to hurry out."
"If we waited long enough..."
"...some melon-patch raccoon would walk straight into the trap."
Kun looked utterly helpless.
Clearly, the brother and sister had teamed up to swindle this clueless "foreign mage."
Who could have guessed...
That the so-called "simple request"...
Was dressing him up as King Arthur.
More importantly...
This King Arthur was the female version.
Eternal Dawn wasn't nearly as open-minded as Blue Star.
He was still a kingdom noble.
A territorial lord.
Cosplaying was one thing...
Cross-dressing as a woman was another entirely.
Didn't he have any dignity left?
...Though admittedly...
He did like that character.
Purely from an appreciation standpoint.
"Ahem..."
"Xiaoyu..."
"How about we negotiate?"
He pointed to his own golden hair.
"With this hair, I could perfectly cosplay Gilgamesh."
"But Gilgamesh is already taken."
"...Who?"
Kun immediately frowned.
"Who has the nerve to steal my character?"
"Doesn't he value his life?"
"Me."
Li Tianyun grinned wickedly.
"You look exactly like one of those big-eyed anime villains."
"Just as devious."
"Thanks for the compliment."
Seeing Kun still struggling internally...
Li Xiaoyu finally revealed her trump card.
She waved three convention tickets triumphantly before his eyes.
"I went through a lot of connections to get these."
"Do you know how popular this convention is?"
"The tickets sold out over a month ago."
"You couldn't buy one now even if you had money."
"If you won't agree..."
"Forget it."
"I'll just go by myself."
Li Tianyun nearly burst into laughter.
The tickets really had sold out.
That part was true.
But...
Scalpers still existed.
Kun still had well over a million yuan sitting untouched in his bank account.
Buying tickets wouldn't have been difficult at all.
Of course...
That little lie worked perfectly on an "otherworldly archmage" who only understood half of Blue Star's common sense.
Kun stared at the convention tickets fluttering teasingly before his face.
His expression twitched repeatedly.
Finally...
He squeezed a few words through clenched teeth.
"You win."
"Yay!"
Li Xiaoyu beamed victoriously.
"Quick!"
"Go change!"
"I've already prepared your costume and props!"
"Once you're dressed..."
"I'll do your makeup!"
She turned toward her brother.
"You too!"
"Hurry up and change!"
"We're going to be late!"
Pushed back into his room once again, Kun stood there blankly, staring at the outfit that had supposedly been prepared for him long ago.
A plastic holy sword.
A golden Crown of the King of Knights.
None of those were the problem.
The real problem...
The immaculate white wedding dress was lying neatly beside them.
"...Do we really have to take it this far?"
...
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