Chapter 318: A Song of Ice and Fire

Dany wasn't sure whether it was the special nature of the "Spirit-Gifted" constitution of the Mother of Dragons, or if the soul converted from the greenseer's essence inherently had a multifaceted quality—just like how the greenseer's thoughts could split into countless strands, controlling thousands of ravens.

In any case, her soul space had gained a new lake—belonging to the origin of her soul, yet also a semi-independent fragment of the soul domain.

Within her original soul space of deep blue starlight, she failed to simulate the greenseer's meditation technique. Then, with nervous anticipation, she attempted the meditation again within the lake domain.

How should one put it?

First, ecstatic joy—then crushing disappointment.

Her most optimistic guess was confirmed: Dany effortlessly assembled the "Pale Raven" rune array atop the lake.

But she had no understanding of the foundational meditation runes of a skinchanger, and the meditation foundation she laid was highly unstable.

Just like Lisbon and Lalesa, who also lacked mastery of the 108 basic Valyrian characters and had no access to a structured legacy—such as a glass candle, which contained a complete set of composite rune techniques, akin to both a user manual and foundational textbook. As a result, they ended up with a distorted imitation—drawing a tiger but ending up with a dog—full of flaws and on the verge of collapse within the soul space.

Now Dany had fallen into the same dilemma.

"I need the greenseer's legacy, the foundational meditation teachings. I can't replicate anything with only a broken 'meditation foundation' corpse!"

A flash of inspiration struck her mind: why not learn from Big Black and Little White?

Back when they learned the Grand Sorcerer's meditation technique, the two dragons were in a situation ten thousand times worse than hers. But since they managed to cheat the system—why couldn't she?

Big Black had carved his meditation foundation into her Nine-Colored Vortex. Now, she also had a template—the broken "Pale Raven."

Whether or not the original greenseer was dead, she was absolutely certain the soul within this "Pale Raven" had been completely stripped away.

The template had no master and was even slowly dissipating into nothingness.

She could copy it without worry.

As soon as she touched the pale pink lake surface, it was like a wax statue falling into a steel furnace—the pale raven-shaped runes instantly dissolved into the lake.

Within a few blinks, the massive gray raven disappeared entirely into the soul lake, and the waters began bubbling and boiling violently.

It felt like boiling an entire duck in a giant pot.

Gradually, the lake calmed down, and its color shifted from pale pink to forest green.

A lush, tranquil lake of green.

No ravens emerged, and the original gray raven was gone.

Dany closed her eyes in meditation. A breeze rippled the lake's surface, and strands of natural magic were drawn in, merging with the lake.

"The meditation technique was successfully copied and is functioning well. It can absorb magic from the outside world and convert it into sorcery power." She opened her eyes, overjoyed.

But as she looked at the lake-shaped meditation foundation, a question arose: Why isn't it a raven?

Well, in fact, Dany had misunderstood something. The Three-Eyed Raven is a greenseer, but not all greenseers are the Three-Eyed Raven.

To put it simply, this particular greenseer had an unusual fondness for raven companions and already bore the alias "Three-Eyed Raven" before becoming a greenseer.

After inheriting the legacy of the previous greenseer, he shaped the foundation of his meditation technique into the form of a raven, based on his own will.

This form was better suited for enhancing his raven companions.

It was actually quite similar to the relationship between Valyrian sorcerers and dragons. The Nine-Colored Vortex in Dany's mind was in the form of "Dragonflame," and its conical spiral structure simulated the process of a dragon breathing fire.

"Time for the final test!" Dany rubbed her hands together, nerves tingling as she looked up at the sky.

The dragon soul connected to Big Black's soul space. Her small Nine-Colored Vortex tore through the sky and appeared out of nowhere in the deep blue soul space.

"Buzz... buzz..." The soul space began to tremble violently, sorcery energy activated on its own, and the Nine-Colored Vortex released a massive repelling force. The green lake was hurled outward, spinning wildly as though struck by a "Shinra Tensei" force blast.

Smash!—At the edge of the soul space, the green lake slammed into the invisible boundary wall and shattered into pieces.

"Ahhh!" Dany clutched her head and screamed in pain, the tearing of her soul nearly causing her to break down.

In the real world, Dany let out a muffled groan. It felt like some channel opened in her nasal cavity, and blood gushed out from both nostrils in a frightening flow. Little White anxiously hissed and whined.

Pop! The lake exploded into thousands of droplets, scattering in all directions, but the repelling force from the Nine-Colored Vortex remained. The shattered lake water was compressed into mist, which was then crushed into invisible steam—and the steam, bit by bit, was annihilated and vanished.

"Hahahaha!" Dany gradually caught her breath, then collapsed in her soul space, laughing maniacally.

"This part of my soul, even I can't destroy it. I did it. This is what soul immortality means!?"

Amid Dany's triumphant laughter, a thin ring slowly emerged from the void in her soul space, circling the Nine-Colored Vortex and rotating counterclockwise along the wall of the soul space.

This was the reborn soul lake—a second soul forged from the greenseer's meditation foundation, Dany's second "head."

"Big Black, Little White, come play cards!"

With a thought, her main soul entered the dragon soul state with Big Black as smoothly as ever, while the second soul ring linked seamlessly with Little White in dragon soul state.

In the next moment, one white and one black dragon stretched across the deep blue soul space.

Hiss— Big Black growled in surprise at Little White: "Why are you here again?"

Hiss— Little White roared back in confusion: "I don't know anything!"

In addition to connecting with Little White through dragon empathy, for the first time, Dany also sensed Little Green and Little Gold in Slaver's Bay. She could determine their locations, but couldn't connect with them through dragon empathy.

It was certain—the second soul band had strengthened her bond with the dragons.

"A great harvest, truly a great harvest! Hahaha, now I'm truly invincible!" With Big Black on her left and Little White on her right, Dany was brimming with pride.

"No, I can be even stronger," Dany said, her expression intense. "If... if I take out Bran, convert his soul into soul essence and absorb it, the second soul might ascend to a new level. Who knows, I might achieve triple, quadruple, even quintuple dragon empathy. With five layers of dragon empathy, imagine how terrifying the true dragon's roar would be!In a fivefold dragon empathy state, if I overlay the meditation vortexes of all five dragons onto myself, even the Night King might burn to ashes with just a glance from me!"

When Dany ended her dragon empathy state and her consciousness returned to her body, the sky was a silvery gray, and a full moon hung over the treetops.

She pulled a silk scarf from her backpack, dug up several chunks of hard, shadowed snow from a crevice, and dampened the scarf to wipe the blood crust off her mouth and nose.

After tidying herself up for a while, Dany stepped on the soggy, decomposing leaves and made her way back to Little White. Just before climbing onto his back, she noticed the large raven she had previously discarded.

She walked over and picked it up. It was stiff, already dead.

"Maybe it's a magical ingredient. Worth taking back for study. Hmm, at the very least, more magical than Tyrion's little Tyrion."

Thinking that, Dany grabbed the raven by its leg, mounted the white dragon, and took to the skies. Big Black also struggled to his feet and sluggishly followed, heading toward the Wall.

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Hmm, Big Black was a bit weak. They should've rested overnight at Crown Hill and returned tomorrow.

But Dany recalled something. After the fierce battle this morning, so many had died—it was certain there would be a burning of bodies tonight.

She planned to harvest some soul essence to help Big Black recover.

"Let's hope the corpses haven't been fully burned yet."

In fact, the Wall was in utter chaos, and no one had yet dealt with the corpses outside.

When Dany had suddenly flown off on her dragon that afternoon, it hadn't caused much alarm. But as night fell and Ser Barristan had already returned from outside the Wall while Dany remained missing, panic began to spread.

Old and shrewd Maester Aemon wasn't wrong—a small faction plotting "how to deal with the Dragon Queen" was quietly forming between the Night's Watch and the Two-Stag cavalry. It split, then silently merged again.

Melisandre had lied.

The plan for the "Mother of Dragons to unite with the Prince That Was Promised" was not her spontaneous idea—Stannis knew, and so did the nobles under his command.

In fact, the very proposal to marry Daenerys to King Stannis came from one of Stannis's top advisors.

Following that, the knights under Stannis split into two camps—some supported the dragon-stag union, while others were firmly against it.

It was complicated.

Stannis was the Duke of Dragonstone, so his original followers were vassals of Dragonstone—sixteen years ago, vassals of House Targaryen.

Houses like Velaryon and Celtigar had been loyal to the Targaryens and were now core members of the Two-Stag camp.

Of course, the defeat at the Blackwater had been disastrous—Velaryon and Celtigar were nearly wiped out and didn't follow Stannis beyond the Wall.

Still, Dragonstone had more than just those two families. Seven or eight other families had joined the Two-Stag host beyond the Wall.

—Truth be told, they were eager to switch sides and pledge loyalty to Queen Dany.

It wasn't shameful to surrender to their former liege—many of their families had fought and died with Rhaegar to the end.

Had Lord Velaryon not died, or Lord Celtigar not been captured at King's Landing, either of them would have led the Dragonstone nobles and knights to Queen Daenerys the moment they saw her at the Wall.

But the Dragonstone nobles had suffered greatly during the Blackwater. Their remaining strength within the Two-Stag faction was weak, and any sign of disloyalty could get them sacrificed to R'hllor—the red priests had already burned several for speaking ill of the Lord of Light.

They feared the Red Priestess could foresee their betrayal.

Before news of the Dragon Queen's arrival, the Two-Stag faction had two political groups: the "Royalists," who still worshipped the Seven, and the "Later Loyalists," who had converted to the Lord of Light.

After learning that they might encounter Dany, the factions splintered again:

The Dragonstone Royalists loudly championed the dragon-stag union.

The Stormland Royalists were hesitant.

The Riverland Later Loyalists firmly opposed it.

The non-Riverland Later Loyalists supported it.

Yes, it only grew more complex.

Stannis originally held only Dragonstone.

His younger brother Renly was Duke of Storm's End (Lord of the Stormlands) and had married into House Tyrell of Highgarden (the Reach).

After killing Renly, Stannis inherited part of his brother's legacy: Stormlands nobles and a few Reach nobles.

Among the Reach nobles, House Florent of Brightwater Keep led the way—Stannis's wife was from House Florent.

The Dragonstone faction and the Red Priestess supported the dragon-stag union. The Stormlands were hesitant due to their role in Robert's Rebellion (in which they helped overthrow the Targaryens). Naturally, the Later Loyalists were unwilling to see Queen Selyse demoted to a discarded consort.

But once Dany made her stance on the dragon-stag union clear, the fractured Two-Stag camp reunited. As old Maester Aemon had feared, some of them silently reached a consensus—to eliminate Dany.

And now, with Dany gone, they were panicking.

Those with ill intentions were anxious, and the neutral Night's Watch were also worried.

There were still so many wildlings outside, dozens of giants building the wall at Castle Black, and the Dragon Queen had promised them gold dragons and food.

Couldn't she at least clean up this mess before leaving?

Of course, the Night's Watch was more concerned that a conflict between the dragon and stag might've driven the Queen away in anger.

Hmm, none of them knew that the Dragon Queen had already cast off "the whispers of the crow" and was no longer the same woman she had been that afternoon.

(End of chapter)

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