More than a month had passed since Lynd suppressed Kohor with the might of a god. During this month, the scouts and informants of various city-states and kingdoms in Kohor used the fastest methods they could think of to relay what happened that day to their respective superiors.
Subsequently, all forces dispatched people to Kohor at the fastest speed to confirm the situation, because the high-ranking officials of all forces completely disbelieved the intelligence reports sent back by the scouts. The scenes they described completely defied common sense, especially their description of Lynd, which was no longer describing a person, but a true god.
However, after those dispatched arrived in Kohor, they saw the urban area with still a large amount of uncleaned rubble, observed the dilapidated state of the entire city, and listened to various local accounts of that day. They gathered all the information and sent it back to the high-ranking officials of all forces, and ultimately everyone had to admit the fact that Lynd, by himself, destroyed half of Kohor.
As a result, Lynd's reputation once again spread throughout the Free Trade City States, Slavers Bay, and even Yi Land. However, this time, in addition to titles like Chosen of the Seven and storm god, he also gained the titles god of magic and Calamity of the Present World, with the latter showing a strong momentum to replace his other titles.
Interestingly, Melisandre had originally thought that with the setback of the Black Goat God's faith, many people would abandon the Black Goat faith, and the Red Temple could seize the opportunity to win these people over. However, in reality, not only did the Red Temple fail to win over these people, but many followers of Rhllor also converted. Their conversion was not to the Black Goat, but to the newly emerged god of calamity faith in Kohor.
Extreme fear combined with extreme power inevitably leads to extreme devotion. Although the god of calamity faith had just appeared in Kohor, and the object of faith was the enemy who had just destroyed their city not long ago, everyone who had witnessed Lynd appearing in the sky, illuminated by light, was unable to harbor any hatred towards Lynd. Instead, after the god of calamity faith emerged, they all became followers of the god of calamity, including some whose relatives had died at Lynd's hands.
Without exception, these people were all fanatics. Driven by them, the god of calamity faith expanded at an extremely fast pace, reaching a status equal to that of the Black Goat Church and the Red Temple in just one month.
The chief priest of the god of calamity faith was named Marthus Pansion, the second son of the Pansion family, a top noble family in Kohor. His wife and children were swept away by a tornado and died in the city during the disaster caused by Lynd, but he did not hate Lynd. Instead, he developed an extremely strong and devout faith in Lynd, and when he discovered that people in the lower city were beginning to develop the god of calamity faith, he immediately joined in and used his family's power to expand the influence of the god of calamity. This is why the god of calamity faith was able to become the third largest faith in Kohor in a short period of time.
However, he was able to become the chief priest of the god of calamity not because of his devout faith; there were many more devout people among the god of calamity's followers than him. He became chief priest because he used his knowledge of religion to quickly compile a Calamity Codex, providing a basis for the god of calamity's faith to be preached.
In this codex, there are various descriptions of the god of calamity's divine authority. The most important one is that the souls of those who die in a calamity will fall into the hands of the god of calamity, where they will be punished for their sins in life in a place called the Calamity Realm. Only by believing in the god of calamity and atoning for their relatives' sins can they, after death, go to the Calamity Realm, see their relatives who died in the calamity again, and, with a ship formed by their faith, take their relatives out of the Calamity Realm to reach the Land of Ultimate Bliss, living happily there forever until the Eternal End arrives.
After the codex was completed, Marthus Pansion handed over the missionary duties to other priests and, taking the compiled codex, joined the escort team for Zoid as they traveled to Westeros.
In Marthus's view, no matter how good the codex he compiled was, it could not compare to the god of calamity's personal approval. Therefore, he needed to meet Lynd, hand over the codex to Lynd, and receive Lynd's blessing and appointment to truly become the chief priest of the god of calamity faith.
However, Marthus was not the only one to temporarily join this team. A large number of Warlocks from the Mages Association, Alchemists, Dark Warlocks, Necromancers, Cloudsky Arcanists, Blood Witches, and Pyromancers also joined the team. These people accounted for almost two-thirds of the Kohor Mages Association members, practically relocating the entire Kohor Mages Association to Summerhall.
It is no wonder these Mages Association members were like this, because after witnessing the weather manipulation powers displayed by Lynd, all those who revered magical power, without exception, regarded Lynd as the embodiment of magic, a prophet, and even the god of magic.
Among these people, the faith in the god of magic was also spreading. Although it did not spread as quickly as the god of calamity and did not have as many followers, all those who believed in the god of magic were devout followers. Just like Marthus, they also collaborated to compile a Codex of the god of magic. During the compilation of this codex, the Cloudsky Arcanists were the most active, with nearly half of the codex's content being written by more than a dozen Cloudsky Arcanists, and the other half being revised by them.
The reason why the Cloudsky Arcanists were so active was entirely because they saw in Lynd the ultimate manifestation of the magic they wielded.
Despite Kohor's openness to the power of magic, in most parts of Essos, magic is actually viewed as an evil force and is prohibited and restricted.
However, Cloudsky Arcanists are an exception; not only do various city-states not restrict them, but even different religious denominations do not classify them as taboo.
This is mainly because Cloudsky Arcanists master the magic of air elements. They can predict storms for ships, bring rain to arid lands, and purify turbid air. For example, in places like Kohor, which are full of foundries, if there were no Cloudsky Arcanists to purify the air for them, the city would probably be shrouded in various dense smokes year-round, and it would certainly not be possible for so many people to live there.
It is precisely because of this that Cloudsky Arcanists hold a very special status in Kohor. However, this time, after witnessing the power displayed by Lynd, they still resolutely regarded Lynd as a prophet and devoted themselves to the faith of the god of magic. Their devotion was almost fanatical, and they immediately wrote to Cloudsky Arcanists in other city-states, asking them to come to Summerhall and follow Lynd together.
More than two thousand people from the direct and collateral lines of the Zoid family, as well as their related relatives, friends, employees, and servants, were escorted by two thousand Unsullied and one thousand mercenaries. Additionally, hundreds of Mages Association members, over a hundred followers of the god of calamity, and a large amount of wealth belonging to the Zoid family and compensation from Kohor formed this colossal escort team.
This massive escort team did not take the more convenient waterway, but instead traveled the Valyrian Road, detouring through Norvos to Pentos, then taking a ship from Pentos to King's Landing, and from King's Landing to Summerhall.
Within days of this team's departure, all news related to it spread throughout the Free Trade City States region.
Everyone knew that this team carried astonishing wealth. This wealth, not to mention the Zoid family's accumulation over thousands of years, merely the Valyrian steel compensated by Kohor to Lynd was already beyond description in terms of its value.
Although many people coveted this wealth, no one dared to act, because they clearly knew that this wealth belonged to Lynd. Touching Lynd's possessions would incur his wrath, and the last person who touched Lynd's things had their entire family turned into criminals. No one wanted to become the next Zoid.
Not only did no one dare to touch this wealth, but when this wealth passed through their controlled territories, they would even voluntarily send people to participate in the escort, because they were deeply afraid that something might happen to these valuables in their region, and then Lynd would use them as an outlet for his anger, making them the second Kohor.
While the city-states across Essos were discussing various matters concerning Lynd, Lynd himself had already boarded a Miracle Merchant Guild ship and entered the Dorne Sea, sailing towards Miracle Port.
He and Marwyn had already traveled down the Lorne River to the estuary at Volantis a month ago.
Upon reaching Volantis, Lynd did not announce his arrival, nor did he enter the city. Instead, he had Marwyn take his token into the city, find the Miracle Merchant Guild, and then have the Miracle Merchant Guild send a ship to meet him in the open sea.
The reason he did not enter the city was because he did not want to get involved in Volantis's internal political struggles.
Through Marwyn, he already knew that the Tiger Party and the Elephant Party in Volantis were now like fire and water. Some of the leading figures in both parties had been assassinated by their opponents, and the two sides were so tense it was as if a civil war could break out at any moment.
However, Lynd knew very well that Volantis would not be in danger of civil war for the time being, but the premise was that he did not interfere. Once he appeared in Volantis, he would inevitably have to choose a side.
Magistrate Illyrio Mopatis of the Tiger Party had a good relationship with Lynd. He was not only a senior member of the Miracle Merchant Guild but also the sole distributor of the Seven Mystery Medicine in Volantis.
However, this did not mean that the Elephant Party's relationship with Lynd was poor. In fact, compared to the Tiger Party, whose business was mostly in weapons, the Elephant Party's trade with Summerhall was much more diverse. Many specialties produced only in Essos were purchased through the Elephant Party's merchant guild, so the Elephant Party played a very important role in Summerhall's trade development.
Once Lynd sided with either party, it would instantly break the balance, ultimately leading to the outbreak of civil war. However, Lynd still needed Volantis to attract some attention and could not afford to deplete its fighting strength due to civil war. That is why he chose to bypass Volantis and not get involved in these political struggles.
On the ship, Lynd was reviewing various intelligence reports that had been delivered yesterday. Soon, he was drawn to a report from Braavos: the Sea King Palace Vault had been robbed, and the magical armor was missing.
Initially, upon seeing this report, Lynd felt something was amiss.
Not to mention whether the Sea King Palace Vault, with its strict guards and numerous mechanisms, could even be robbed, even if someone managed to overcome all the guards and mechanisms and enter the vault, logically, it should be impossible to steal that magical armor, because the out-of-control Ice Dragon Rune could easily freeze anyone who touched it to death.
But Lynd quickly realized he was taking too much for granted. Indeed, directly borrowing the magical armor from the Sealord of Braavos would certainly lead to being frozen to death. However, if someone knew beforehand that the Valyrian steel plaque engraved with the Ice Dragon Rune was the source of the magical armor's power, and took the plaque beforehand, placing it in a sealed box, then the magical armor could likely be stolen.
"I think you should look at this intelligence report." Just as Lynd was wondering who had stolen the magical armor, Marwyn, who was assisting Lynd in processing these reports, handed a report to Lynd and said, "This report should be related to the Sea King Palace Vault theft."
Lynd took the report and read it, his brows slightly furrowing. The report stated that Euron Greyjoy had appeared in Braavos, and his appearance coincided with the time of the Sea King Palace Vault theft. Moreover, when Euron Greyjoy left, he had a large sealed box with him, and someone had seen a crystal coffin inside through a crack in the box.
"A crystal coffin?" Upon seeing this, Lynd immediately understood what Marwyn meant by "related." Clearly, the crystal coffin Euron took away must have been the one from the Sea King Palace Vault, containing the body of an ancient civilization race that had not been transformed into a wight.
Lynd had once mentioned this to Marwyn, and Marwyn, who had a deep understanding of ancient civilizations, was very interested in the body of that ancient civilization race and the current situation of ancient civilization races. He planned to find an opportunity to visit Braavos and Beyond the Wall, so when he saw the crystal coffin mentioned in the report, he immediately made the connection.
"Why did he steal the crystal coffin and the magical armor?" Lynd asked, puzzled.
"Could it be that he wants to transform them into wights?" Marwyn guessed casually.
Although Marwyn just made a casual guess and didn't think much of it himself, Lynd felt that perhaps Euron Greyjoy really intended to transform them into wights, after all, Euron was a madman who couldn't be judged by normal standards.
At this moment, Lynd also felt some regret, regretting why he hadn't taken the magical armor and the crystal coffin back then. Regardless of why Euron took those things, Lynd felt it was not a good thing.
After considering for a moment, Lynd quickly signed an order and handed it to the captain, instructing the captain to send the order via the ship's carrier pigeon.
The content of the order was simple: to command the Miracle Merchant Guild to closely monitor Euron Greyjoy's movements, and once his whereabouts were discovered, to capture him at all costs.
At this moment, Lynd had already raised Euron Greyjoy's danger level.
A few days later, when Lynd returned to Miracle Port, news came that the Sealord of Braavos's fleet had pursued Euron Greyjoy's ship in the waters near Skane Island in the North. Euron Greyjoy's ship struck a reef, sank, and he was lost at sea.
Although the message definitively stated that Euron Greyjoy had died, Lynd did not believe it at all. In his opinion, Euron should still be alive, and the so-called being lost at sea was merely a disguise. Now, Euron most likely had already gone Beyond the Wall.
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