Call Me Speaker

The rules of the world truly were cold and ruthless. Look at it another way, and they could be understood as something like the Heavenly Dao.

The Heavenly Dao of higher worlds possessed its own consciousness. Josh had already witnessed that through Akathosh’s memories—the mastermind that had once caused the entire Muya Continent to collapse into its current state. There were also the things Josh knew from various mythological tales.

He was very familiar with stories like Hongjun directly becoming one with the Heavenly Dao.

This was something unique to high-level and top-tier worlds, but Josh did not think such worlds could be all that wonderful. Just imagine it: the world you lived in itself possessed consciousness. What a terrifying thing that would be.

Imagine some world where someone died, came back to life, died again, and simply could not stay dead no matter what. When the protagonist crawled out of a grave and endured countless hardships, only to learn that the enemy he had to face was the Heavenly Dao of that world… who knew how he would feel?

If it were Josh, he would probably suffer a complete breakdown.

Thinking of this, Josh could not help looking at Akathosh. Come to think of it, he really had to thank this idiot dragon. If Akathosh had not fought those two main gods so fiercely that he forced out the world consciousness, which then launched a world-ending attack before falling asleep…

And it was the permanent kind. Both Akathosh and the inheritance in Josh’s mind had already confirmed that.

It had to be said that the world consciousness of Muya Continent was fairly mild. If it had truly been like the one in Josh’s memories, there might not even have been a generation like theirs.

"Hey, why are you looking at me so strangely?" Akathosh asked, baffled.

"Well… thank you."

"Thank me for what? Oh, damn it! Do you think I wanted to end up like this? The unluckiest thing that ever happened to me was running into you!"

"Oh? Is that so? Then disperse the Void magic power within you and clear your name."

Akathosh’s expression froze, immediately turning awkward.

He was only able to see the light of day again because of those Void elements. If he dispersed that Void magic power, Akathosh would probably truly have to say goodbye to this world.

Josh did not continue mocking Akathosh. He had been genuinely frightened by this world’s rules.

How utterly cold and merciless. To a world, its living beings were its children, yet for the sake of operating more "healthily," it had directly made those beings slaughter one another.

Josh had truly never expected that. He even wondered whether World War II in his previous world had something to do with that, or perhaps the outbreak of the Black Death in Europe.

But Josh quickly shook his head and stopped dwelling on it. The more he thought about it, the more irritating it became.

How a world operated was a matter of its own rules. Josh had no way to stop it.

But someone like Josh could indeed change a world’s rules, because he could freely enter those worlds. Especially in low-level worlds, Josh could completely ignore those so-called rules.

And high-level worlds? To be honest, Josh had worried about that too. But after a brief exchange with his inheritance, he discovered that as long as he did not court death by entering worlds where the world consciousness had awakened, he would be absolutely fine.

So-called plots were merely part of the world’s rules. If a section of the plot was destroyed, the world consciousness would find an opportunity to repair everything itself.

Of course, it was also possible that if something like this happened once, it might not bother dealing with it anymore and simply wait for another opportunity to do it again.

"Looks like as long as I stay away from worlds with highly active world consciousnesses, I’ll be safe. Fine then, this plot-destroying machine can keep having fun."

Josh rubbed his nose and could not be bothered to agonize over it anymore. He had never been someone who enjoyed seeking challenges—or courting death. He preferred steadily increasing his strength.

Of course, when Josh did court death, he was absolutely capable of leaving people dumbfounded.

For example, in The Desecration, Josh had brazenly stolen Rogue’s greatest opportunity. Later, the leakage of Angel’s aura had caused Josh to be hunted down.

Josh would not forget that grudge. It was the first time since his transmigration that someone had beaten him like a dog.

"When I get the chance, I’ll definitely go back to that world and find out which bastard attacked me! But I should at least wait until I reach the ninth tier."

Rubbing his nose, Josh might hold grudges, but he was not stupid. He had no interest in doing things that would get himself killed.

But when he thought of that world, Josh suddenly remembered the skeleton in his territory. During the seven days he had spent back home, he had truly neglected her. He wondered how that skeleton was doing now.

The Origin of God, the Void Origin, and a brand-new environment with a higher upper limit—Josh felt that she definitely would not become the former Goddess of Wisdom again. The most likely outcome was that she would become a brand-new Void Goddess.

"I’ll take a look after I get back."

Josh leaned back, resting his head directly on Natasha’s thigh behind him. To be honest, he was indeed planning to return. Although he had been in this world for less than a month, Josh had already more or less obtained everything he needed.

Smaug had been devoured by Akathosh. Elrond and the others had long prepared the student list and could leave with Josh at any time—Legolas was an exception. He was following Josh around.

Although Josh had lost some of Lonely Mountain’s treasures, that did not affect what he had truly gained.

More importantly, he had obtained the operating rules of an entire world!

That was what Josh valued most. Though it was of no damn use to him right now, Josh always felt it would be of great use in the future. He had always trusted his instincts.

Holding Natasha, Josh soon entered deep meditation. In the Elven army’s camp, there was probably nothing he could do even if he wanted to, and as his strength continued to rise, the number of times he meditated had gradually begun to decrease.

It was not because Josh had become lazy. Rather, the stronger a mage became, the harder it was to enter deep meditation. Besides, meditation truly was not as effective for high-level mages as it was at lower levels. Naturally, Josh had gradually stopped forcing himself into deep meditation every day.

Of course, another reason was that Josh now had Natasha. He was not an ascetic. He had long understood that the purpose of growing stronger was to live better, so he would not force himself to do this or that purely for strength.

It was exhausting, and it would make the person he liked unhappy. Josh would not do something so emotionally clueless. As for safety?

Josh had anchored so many worlds, and they were not without places where he could take refuge whenever he encountered great danger.

The limits of those worlds were not high. With Josh’s current strength, he could enter them and become a god outright! There were higher-level ones too, such as the Marvel Universe, but Josh had long left enough contingencies there. He could live there quite comfortably.

After resting peacefully for an entire night, Josh got up early the next morning.

However, after thinking about it for quite a while, he still refused Garen’s invitation to go on a morning run. Garen could not help rolling his eyes, but he said nothing and went off to train.

Josh realized that he really was rather lazy. Other than not feeling sleepy after waking early, he found that he did not seem to want to move at all.

Shaking his head, Josh decisively comforted himself with the fact that he was just a mage. Then there was nothing more to it.

As dawn broke over Middle-earth, the darkness receded, revealing enchanting scenery. Even out in the wilderness, it was not bad at all, and Josh found it quite pleasant. So he found a nice spot, sat down, and stared blankly into the distance. He did not even notice Natasha training behind him.

Who knew how long passed before two figures suddenly entered Josh’s field of vision.

One was tall and the other short, making for a rather comical sight. Both looked extremely bedraggled, but Josh recognized them at a glance.

"Gandalf and Thrain? Those two are moving pretty quickly."

Their appearance naturally drew the attention of the Elven soldiers, especially since the two were heading in their direction. It looked as though they had discovered the Elves’ trail.

Josh was not surprised by that. Although Gandalf the wizard greatly disappointed Josh when it came to magic, he truly was a master in other respects.

Whether it was geographical knowledge or all manner of miscellaneous learning, Josh felt there seemed to be nothing this man did not know.

Thinking about it, Josh found it only natural. Gandalf was also a Maiar, and his age was truly terrifying. If he had lived for so long without learning so much, he would have lived in vain.

Gandalf and Thrain soon came into contact with the Elven guards, who notified Josh and Thranduil. Before long, the two were brought before Josh and Thranduil—Thranduil had come over to wait beside Josh of his own accord.

"Your Majesty Josh, Your Majesty Thranduil."

"Your Majesty Josh, Speaker Thranduil."

Gandalf and Thrain were extremely respectful before the two of them. Thrain in particular did not even dare raise his head before Josh, which Josh found rather amusing.

By comparison, Gandalf seemed much more normal, although Josh had shocked him beyond words—twice.

However, the two clearly addressed Thranduil somewhat differently. Josh could tell that this Dwarf, Thrain, did not share his son’s attitude toward Elves.

He merely responded in a neither warm nor cold tone, and Thranduil did not care about it.

"You needn’t call me Speaker or Elf King anymore. My current identity is one of the Speakers of the Elf Empire Council. Thrain, it has truly been a long time. I have not seen you since you were attacked by Orcs more than a hundred years ago."

"Speaker Thranduil, there is truly no point in mocking me now. Though I deeply resent that you did not uphold the alliance between Elves and Dwarves, I can understand your actions. Just as you said, more than a hundred years have passed. Let it go. We now have something more important to tell you—and Your Majesty Josh."

Thrain’s tone remained flat, but both Josh and Thranduil could sense that he truly bore no hatred. This was clearly different from his son Thorin.

That surprised Josh somewhat. It seemed Thrain was truly a decent man. At the very least, he could distinguish right from wrong.

"What news?" Thranduil glanced at Josh and saw that he had no intention of asking, so he could only continue the questioning himself.

Gandalf took a deep breath and said gravely, "The Destroyer, Azog. That white-skinned Orc warrior has already led his army toward this place. If nothing unexpected happens, they will arrive today!"

Thanks to reader SevenShang for the donation~ I did not even realize I had written this much already—