South of Astapor lay a range of verdant, undulating mountains.
One hundred and fifty kilometers from the city, Daenerys selected a steep, towering peak as her retreat for cultivation.
With the help of Drogon and Rhaegal, she transported a group of Unsullied to the summit. Over the course of a week, they built a secluded estate named the "Five Dragons Cave."
The 3,000-meter-high mountain rose almost vertically from among the surrounding peaks, as if a god had thrust their sword into the mortal world.
Pale granite stones were interspersed with green pines and vibrant vines.
At the summit, beneath a massive boulder facing north, stood a wooden cabin. With two bedrooms and a living area, it spanned approximately eighty square meters.
In front of the cabin stretched a fifty-square-meter garden, where figs, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables were planted.
Beside the garden was a thirty-square-meter pond, chiseled by hand from the surrounding rock. It held a pool of jade-green water—Daenerys used it to practice her Fire Ladder Technique.
Outside the garden, scattered rocks formed a natural barrier. Some were as large as human heads, others the size of water vats, some taller than a man, and a few as wide as four or five meters. The rock piles encircled the garden, pond, and cabin, shielding them from the outside storms.
Beyond the rocks, a 25-meter-wide, 30-meter-long platform had been cleared.
Though originally uneven, it was now paved with a thick layer of gravel topped with green stone bricks.
Perfectly flat.
Beyond the platform lay a sheer cliff.
Standing at the edge, one could gaze out at the rolling green hills and shimmering silver rivers in the distance, while the cries of apes and birds occasionally drifted by.
Near the cliff edge, a large piece of blue jade—bigger than a millstone—sat polished smooth and warm to the touch.
Beside the jade, a voice like thunder recited: "Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooler, and yellow leaves fall from the trees one by one. A flock of wild, wild..."
He stumbled over the next word.
Daenerys wore a thin green dress, her silver hair tied back with a pair of small braids woven at her temples. As the breeze blew, her hair and skirt swayed gently.
She was seated cross-legged atop the jade, eyes half-closed, facing the distant mountain ranges. Her fair, delicate face shimmered with a soft glow under the sunlight.
"Geese—yan—wild geese," she corrected.
The rough, booming voice continued, "A flock of wild geese flies south. Sometimes they form the shape of the number eight, and sometimes—"
Daenerys abruptly opened her eyes. "Eight? You can't even recognize the character for 'person.' Are you even human?"
"No, no—I mean, yes. I'm a dragon, a dragon," Drogon stammered.
"You're a dragon, but you need to have humanity. You are a dragon with humanity!" Daenerys corrected.
Since that day he ate the rat chef, Daenerys had been teaching him language and literacy for over a month now.
She simply couldn't understand Drogon's "dragon speech" (which was actually Valyrian) and couldn't pronounce it either—her vocal cords weren't made for those sounds.
Western dragon-speech was impossible to teach. Helpless, she decided to teach him the dragon language of the East instead.
After all, the descendants of the Flame Emperors and Yellow Emperor were known as the descendants of dragons. Naturally, the language they spoke would be dragon-speak too.
That made things easier. She started with first-grade material—radicals, initials and finals, "a, o, e, i, u, ü"...
Then Daenerys was stunned: Drogon, her dragon child, was actually smarter than humans.
She'd initially thought he was dumb because when she taught him vocabulary directly, he would forget the words by the next day.
Now she realized he was smart—because when she followed the official curriculum of a Celestial Empire's first-grade textbook, he progressed faster than she had as a child.
She herself had taken a full year to finish first grade!
And she had started first grade at age seven, after three years of preschool.
Yet now Drogon could already recite the essay "Autumn Has Arrived."
In a few more months, he might truly become a qualified elementary school student.
That might sound lowly—but elementary students could still speak fluent Chinese!
"Skreee—!" A dark green dragon flew up from the cliffs below, carrying a black wild boar in its jaws.
"Skreee—!" Behind him, the smaller golden dragon clutched a thick, mottled forest python in its claws, following his third brother closely.
"Skreee, skreee—" The two dragons flapped their wings, circling in front of Daenerys, their cries clearly trying to win her favor.
Unfortunately, their display did not please their mother.
"You two idiots, all you know is eating all day. Even after over half a month of secluded training, you still haven't achieved Dragon Spirit Unity.
Keep being this dumb, and one day you'll be tricked away by the dragon trafficker Green Prophet.
Then you'll understand why motherless children are like rootless weeds."
"Look at your big brother. He's around your age, and he can already read 'Autumn Has Arrived.'"
She turned her head and said to Drogon, "You need to keep working hard. Don't be like your two foolish brothers who only care about playing. If you do well, I'll reward you with a red scarf."
Of course, the red scarf wouldn't be a piece of cloth. With the great war approaching and Drogon's power rapidly growing, Daenerys was considering giving him a scaled armor mantle.
It didn't need to cover his whole body—that would be impractical and hinder flight—but at least his throat and chest should be protected.
Hmm... maybe more of a belly-guard than a red scarf?
"Ah, foolish little brothers! Skreee!" Drogon roared at his siblings.
At once, Rhaegal and Viserion flew over obediently and dropped the wild boar and python at his feet.
Boom! Deep red dragonflame burst from Drogon's mouth, roasting the two prey items into charred husks before he began devouring them with loud chomps.
Strangely, when Drogon couldn't speak, he had no way to command his brothers with roars.
Now that he could talk—even in incomplete sentences—Rhaegal and Viserion somehow understood him perfectly.
The two illiterate dragons understood the Eastern Dragon Tongue?
"Well then, let's take a break for now."
With a helpless sigh, Dany stood up and returned to the small study on the left side of the wooden cabin. She picked up a pen and began writing a string of runes.
Just as Tam had said, no meditation technique is flawless—they all have the potential to evolve.
Every time she entered the state of "Song of the Wind," she could receive fragments of information from the wind. More precisely, the "Song of the Wind" helped her perceive the world and the universe, and these new insights gradually allowed her to improve her two main meditation techniques.
She modified some runes and created new ones.
She would record the newly acquired runes and analyze their meanings and functions.
During this period of cultivation aided by the "Song of the Wind," her Green Seer meditation foundation had changed by nearly ten percent. Dany considered this an optimization.
Could this optimization, if taken to the extreme, help her control more dragons?
Dany wasn't sure.
But the new meditation foundation was more in harmony with the "Song of the Wind," allowing her to enter that state more easily and maintain it for longer periods.
Compared to the Green Seer meditation, the progress in the Grand Sorcerer meditation foundation was smaller—less than four percent.
Still, it was evident that her ability to control fire had improved.
Take the last time she controlled wildfire, for example.
Back in the Citadel, even managing a bonfire with burning wood had been difficult. Now, she could mold wildfire into a massive fireball.
Even though it wasn't as effortless as wielding dragonflame, it was enough to earn the reverence of those fire mages.
Because it meant Dany was immune to wildfire.
Aside from the Nine-Colored Vortex and the Green Seer meditation technique, Dany had also devoted great effort recently to necromancy and the runes related to White Walkers' meditation.
Back when she parted ways with Bu Cheng, the Prince of Yi sent her five necromancy manuals as thanks for "Leila" saving his life: The History of Necromancer Development, Compendium of Basic Spells, Chai Jin's Notes, Bu Yi's Travel Journal, and Bu Cheng's Notes.
Compendium of Basic Spells belonged to the forbidden secrets of the Necromancer Association. Bu Cheng took a huge risk by giving it to her—he feared that Leila would study rogue necromantic techniques, fall into the dark path, and become something neither human nor ghost. So he chose to teach her orthodox necromancy instead.
Chai Jin had been the strongest necromancer of the Huang Dynasty. He broke the limits of mortality and lived for one hundred and fifty years.
Bu Yi, one of Bu Cheng's ancestors, had encountered various extraordinary professions and wicked sorceries during his explorations of the Far East.
Bu Cheng himself was researching whether yang-aligned spirit essence could enhance a mage's magical power.
All five manuals were highly valuable, especially for her studies on the White Walkers' meditation runes.
Back on the Wall, Dany had only been able to sense that the White Walkers' meditation foundation shared the same origin as the Green Seers', but she couldn't analyze it in detail like she could with fire magic.
After studying necromancy, however, Dany was shocked to discover that White Walkers bore several similarities to necromancers.
Spiritual essence is divided into yin and yang. In the living human body, all spirit is yang. After death, some yang essence transforms into yin, creating a blend of the two.
The necromancy of the Yi people disrupted this balance—artificially extracting the yang essence from corpses, leaving only the yin. These corpses would then "live" again as obedient and mobile undead.
Cersei's White Knight, Robert Strong, was a reanimated corpse created by Qyburn from the Mountain's body.
The Mountain's magically altered form was arguably the most powerful single combatant in the world of Ice and Fire: immense strength, endless stamina, and no physical weaknesses.
It appeared that the White Walkers' meditation technique also had the effect of transforming spiritual essence—converting yang essence into yin.
The living are composed of yang essence; the dead are a mix of yin and yang; the fully yin dead are wights; the fully yin living are White Walkers.
White Walkers were not only tied to the Green Seers but also deeply connected to necromancy.
This discovery startled Dany—and also inspired a clever idea for dealing with the Faceless Men.
The Yi people firmly believed it was the Bloodstone Emperor's necromancy that brought about the Long Night.
The last Long Night had the Bloodstone Emperor to take the blame. With a new Long Night approaching…
Why not pin the blame on the Faceless Men this time?
And so, she entered the "Song of the Wind" state once again and delved deeper into studying necromantic magic and the meditation techniques extracted from the mind of the young White Walker.
Could it be possible to create a form of "ghost cultivation meditation"—one that transformed a living person into a half-human, half-ghost?
Not a true White Walker—just someone who looked like one.
Then, when the Long Night descended, the House of Black and White—
For her dear boy Jaqen, Mother Dany had been working hard. And now, real progress had been made. You won't have to wait much longer.
...
After finishing her notes, Dany pulled a glass candle from the drawer.
A silvery-gray light filled the cabin, and a strand of her spirit entered the candle.
Isle of Steps, Torture Trench Bay.
Inside the captain's cabin of Princess Elia, Barristan sat upright, eyes closed, awaiting the arrival of the Dragon Queen—Little White had already flown by earlier to alert him.
As if by teleportation, a moment later, a beautiful young woman in a green dress appeared in front of the White Knight.
"Well? It's been half a month. Has Bronn found anything?" Dany asked.
Barristan opened his eyes. A flicker of admiration flashed across them as he said, "Your Grace, you should wear dresses more often. You look beautiful."
"If you could forge a dress like this from Valyrian steel, I'd wear it every day," Dany said with a laugh.
The old knight sighed, pushed the subject aside, and said solemnly, "The results are in. It seems Prince Aegon is the real one."
(End of Chapter)
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