Chapter 216: A Thousand Miles in an Instant

Beyond the spine-chilling ghost stories, there were also numerous erotic descriptions, comparable to the explicit content found in online adult fiction.

Of course, Tam wasn't some unscrupulous web novelist who relied on such content for clicks—he was engaging in "serious business."

By mating with men who possessed bloodline power, Shadowbinders extracted a mysterious medium from them. With the help of this medium, they could perform sinister blood sorcery.

"The outside world's perception of Shadowbinders is somewhat biased, but overall, not inaccurate," Dany murmured with a complex expression as she closed the diary.

Tam had been quite considerate. If Dany were to truly switch professions to become a Shadowbinder, she could perfectly replicate the sorcery experiments recorded in this diary. It would be as if a Shadowbinder were personally guiding her, step by step.

But Dany had no desire to practice such dark sorcery, so she could only turn down Tam's well-intentioned help.

Though she wouldn't use it, she had at least gained knowledge, significantly improving her ability to counter blood sorcery.

She truly owed the Shadowbinder a great favor.

Especially when she returned to her bedroom, opened the golden silk mahogany box, and took out the glass candle twisted into a lightning-like shape—she was able to sense the coordinates she had marked a few days ago.

Without hesitation, Dany locked the door, drew the curtains, and sat cross-legged on the sky-blue Myrish rug in her bedroom, placing the glass candle before her.

It was forty centimeters long, shorter than any other glass candle she had ever seen. Its gray crystal surface was veined with silver patterns resembling blood vessels.

Looking around and failing to find a base to hold the candle, she simply grasped its tail end with her hand.

"Whoosh!"

A murky gray light suddenly exploded, and silver threads, seemingly tangible, swirled around the crystal candle.

Each time Dany's gaze touched one of the silver threads, a rune appeared in her sea of consciousness—she understood that this was the sorcerous inheritance of Tam's school.

Ignoring the rune information, her own nine-colored, positively spiraling vortex slowly rotated as her sorcery power sketched out a unique set of runes at lightning speed.

"Buzz—"

Dany's consciousness blurred for a moment, as though she were falling into a massive whirlpool, spinning and plummeting endlessly. Countless flickering light and shadow illusions danced before her eyes, but in just an instant, she adapted to the scene, and her thoughts regained clarity.

She had no idea how much time had passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps hours—but she suddenly felt her sorcery power depleting at an alarming rate, like water gushing from a breached reservoir. Though she had plenty of power, it was vanishing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After losing about one-third of her sorcery power, the whirlpool before her eyes disappeared, replaced by a thin layer of pale red gauze. Stepping forward, she passed through it.

"Ah! Ahhh! Harder, fuck me!"

A familiar voice rang out—the one-eyed faceless man howled like a wild wolf, sounding both in pain and in pleasure.

"Who?!"

The entwined figures of a man and a woman froze instantly. The man roared and flung a dagger toward the source of the sound. At the same moment, Dany leaped backward.

"Thunk!"

The dagger embedded itself two inches deep into the wooden door, its hilt vibrating at high frequency.

"No one?"

The man sat up with a pop, shaking his exposed member as he scanned the small, shabby room—less than thirty square meters, with only a single bed, a bedside cabinet, and scattered clothing on the floor. The door was locked from the inside, with no sign of being opened.

"Damn it!" the man cursed a few times before pouncing back onto the naked woman.

But this time, the woman remained still, silent as she tilted her head to the side, her single eye warily watching the door.

"Smack!"

The man seemed displeased and slapped her, cursing, "Bitch, why aren't you moaning? Am I not working hard enough?"

A cold gleam flashed through the woman's eye, but she soon resumed her soft, fragmented moans.

"The Golden Tuna Tavern? Heh, I'm back in Astapor again."

Tonight, Volantis was shrouded in thick smog. The sky was dark, the stars rare, and the streets were lively.

Here, the night was dim, yet the stars shimmered brilliantly. The only sound aside from the city's bustle was the crashing of waves breaking against the rocky cliffs. The dark sea stretched behind her.

This was the harbor district.

Standing on a rooftop, Dany could vaguely make out the shop signs across the street—one belonged to a hotel owned by a newly freed citizen who had taken out a loan from the queen.

It was late, and the hotel had already closed.

Beyond the city walls, she could see flickering firelights drifting high in the sky—patrols atop the pyramids.

Ever since the Dragon Horn had been stolen, the 32nd step of the pyramid had been secured with a massive net, which the Unsullied regularly inspected for any breaches.

"Let's see what that faceless man is up to…"

With a thought, Dany melded into the tiled rooftop as if performing Earth Release, disappearing from view.

Yes, very much like Tobi from Naruto.

Like the demon Quaithe, Dany was no longer physically present; she had projected her spirit here using the glass candle.

The moment she arrived, the two entangled figures in the room sensed her presence.

When the dagger flew toward her, she instinctively flipped backward, and in that moment, her sorcery power drained at an alarming rate—about one-tenth of her reserves—before she phased through the wooden door and landed in the hallway outside.

Stunned for a moment, she quickly realized what had happened, and excitement surged within her. She immediately attempted to phase into the walls.

—Earlier, she had moved too fast to properly experience it before landing in the hallway.

As parts of her body entered the solid structure, her sorcery power drained rapidly. However, she also discovered something astonishing—within the walls, she could almost teleport instantly.

With just a thought, she reappeared on the rooftop, taking in the surrounding scenery.

Apart from the heavy energy consumption, there were virtually no drawbacks.

Wait—no, there was one flaw.

When she tried to return to the pyramid, she was suddenly blocked by an invisible barrier.

In that instant, she understood—she couldn't move beyond a certain range from her marked coordinates. About twenty meters? Maybe a bit farther.

Listening in from outside the room, she only caught a few words exchanged between the two individuals, as they were far too occupied with their passionate entanglement.

But those brief exchanges were enough for Dany to deduce their identities— a sailor and a prostitute!

The Faceless Man had only been released for two or three days. He left with not a single copper coin—could he have been trying to raise money for a ship ticket?

Maintaining a spirit projection also consumes sorcery power. In total, it lasted no more than five minutes. Dany's figure flickered for a moment before completely disappearing.

Volantis, House of Merchants, Second Floor, Dany's Bedroom.

"Whew—" She gasped for breath, her body completely dry, yet she felt as exhausted as if she had just finished a marathon.

The farther the distance, the more sorcery power was consumed by the glass candle projection—this, Dany could understand.

But just a week ago, she had spoken with Quaithe. That conversation lasted more than ten minutes, and Qarth was 1,500 kilometers away from Astapor in a straight line!

Dany could observe the sorcery power within others' spiritual seas through their eyes. While she couldn't see the fundamental runes, she could infer a person's profession and skill level from the shape of their sorcery power.

In Volantis, the most powerful individual had been that unfortunate man who was burned to ashes by dragonfire—Cobitt, the high priest of the Black Goat Cult.

The Black Goat he worshiped seemed to be real, much like the Red Priests, able to cultivate as a priest even in this era of declining magic. Being over fifty years old and stronger than Tamm and Bu Cheng was normal.

Yet even in his Black Goat form, Cobitt's sorcery power was not even a tenth the size of Dany's nine-colored vortex.

To put it in simpler terms, Dany's "chakra" was as abundant as a Tailed Beast's.

But Quaithe's endurance surpassed even that of a "Tailed Beast." Even if one ignored the half of her sorcery power wasted by phasing through walls, Quaithe was merely the top youth of Asshai's younger generation—not some ancient monster who had cultivated for centuries!

That guy's inheritance and talent surely surpassed Tamm's by a large margin.

His ambition was also extraordinary. While Tamm and the others sought cosmic truths from the process of hatching dragons, Quaithe had his eyes on the very source of miracles from the start—Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons.

Dany touched her right wrist and made a silent decision: once she returned to Astapor, she would reverse-project Quaithe, find out where his lair was, and see what he was up to.

The Next Morning

At the break of dawn, as Dany was still floating in the world of dreams, a thunderous knocking on the door jolted her awake.

"Who is it?" she yelled through the door.

"It's me."

It was Barristan. Annoyed, Dany climbed out of bed, unlatched the door, and headed back to her bedroom.

The White Knight placed a tray piled with sausages, bread, and milk on the table in the sitting room. Curious, he asked, "Didn't we agree to leave first thing in the morning?"

"You were up all night. Aren't you tired? Go back to your room and catch up on some sleep." Dany buried her head under the down blanket, her voice muffled.

"I'm too excited to sleep!" The old knight began eating heartily, leaving her alone.

At noon, when Dany went downstairs for lunch, she found everyone talking about the Dragon Queen setting a city ablaze.

News had already spread, causing an uproar in Volantis. In the House of Merchants, guests whispered mysteriously about how many nobles had perished behind the Black Walls and how much treasure had been lost.

A Summer Islander merchant, wearing a feathered cloak, pounded his chest and swore, "I was in the eastern city on business last night. I saw it with my own eyes—the Tower of the Sky burned like a torch! The flames from the demon dragon's mouth poured down like the waters of the Rhoyne, ceaseless and all-consuming.

Believe me, Volantis is finished! The Black Walls are nothing but ruins now, and the old nobles are all dead!"

Someone immediately refuted him: "I just saw Elios speaking at Fountain Square this morning! He was rallying the people to unite—those with money should donate, those without should enlist, all to avenge the fallen!"

A Myrish merchant, dumping his high-end lace stock at low prices, muttered in fear, "I have no choice. The Mother of Dragons has led an army of 200,000 across the Dothraki Sea. In at most half a month, she'll be marching south to Volantis. Selling cheap is better than getting stuck with unsellable goods."

"Is that true? Is it really happening?" Other merchants were stunned.

"Of course! The army follows, but the dragons arrive first. That's the Dragon Queen's standard strategy—Astapor, Meereen, Yunkai, all fell the same way.

The dragons take a tour first—either burning buildings or dropping declarations of conquest—then the army surrounds the city. The defenders lose heart, and the city falls with ease," the Myrish merchant swore.

Panic spread like wildfire. Merchants began offloading their goods at bargain prices, and soon a wave of desperate selling swept through the market, with more and more traders joining in, mourning their losses.

But Dany noticed something peculiar—nearly every discounted product, as long as it was below cost, was being snapped up by mysterious buyers.

"Someone's profiting from this crisis," she whispered to the White Knight.

That Afternoon

At around 2:30 PM, Dany and the White Knight returned their room keys, packed their luggage, and rode out of the House of Merchants—only to see a group of Unsullied jogging toward them.

"Make way! Make way for the Archon!" the Unsullied called out.

"How coincidental. When we entered the city the night before last, we ran into Doffas' procession. Now, as we leave, he's here to see us off again.

Two archons who were certain to be re-elected are now dead, and there are only four days left until the vote. I wonder if he has a chance to turn things around," the White Knight said wryly.

"No chance. You heard it that day, didn't you? Because of his 'cowardly' stance toward the Mother of Dragons, even the common free folk despise him," Dany shook her head.

A towering war elephant, carrying a grand fortress on its back, halted 50 meters ahead of the House of Merchants. In the nearby square, a sea of slaves knelt.

The Tiger Cloaks guarded the elephant's surroundings as Doffas stood up, gripping the tower's railing. He shouted to the gathered merchants and free folk:

"No army has entered the Lower Rhoyne Plains! Volantis stands strong! Someone is deliberately spreading false rumors to incite merchants into dumping their goods at low prices!"

As Doffas repeated his proclamation over and over, more and more merchants emerged from the House of Merchants, gathering around the massive elephant.

"He has only four days left in office, no hope for re-election, yet he remains so diligent and responsible." Dany's expression was complex. With a sigh, she murmured, "The people of Volantis are blind. Doffas is far more intelligent and rational than the likes of Malachio."

(End of Chapter)

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