"Your Majesty is truly wise!"
Bu Tian's face lit up with a look of admiration, the kind shared between like-minded individuals. Stroking his beard, he sighed and said,"There are many types of spiritual essence. It differs from the division between the living and the dead, and it differs from the classifications of bodily functions into Type A, B, and C spiritual essences.
If genes are the manifestation of various bloodlines, then spiritual essence is the manifestation of various soul characteristics.
Yes, you could say that spiritual essence is the gene of the soul.
Unfortunately, the lens from the Eastern Lands is not as powerful as yours.
All these years, the Necromancer Association has only been able to analyze two types: Type A and Type B spiritual essence. Type B corresponds to organ vitality.
Type A, which represents mental willpower, remains our primary focus of research. Type B, however, is the direction for future development."
"What does the vitality of Type B spiritual essence mean?" asked Laresa, the dark-skinned girl.
"Young lady, can you understand this?" Bu Tian asked curiously.
"More or less." Laresa's dark face flushed slightly.
With the Dragon Queen, Kui Xi, Bu Tian, and Aemon—all powerful figures—watching her, she grew a little nervous. She licked her thick lips and said,"I've been observing spiritual essence lately. The theory of comparing spiritual essence to the genes of the soul is quite unusual, but it seems logically sound—at least that's how I see it."
Even Maester Aemon, who was learned and wise, appeared confused by the topic, yet this apprentice girl claimed to "more or less" understand.
The elder from the Eastern Lands was genuinely surprised.
"Young lady, you have real talent," he praised.
"Laresa's talent is indeed impressive. She lit the glass candle unintentionally, then surpassed her peers and became the fire mage with the most High Mage inheritances in the entire order," Dany nodded.
"You passed on the High Mage legacy to someone else?" Bu Cheng exclaimed in shock.
Dany shook her head. "The requirements for the High Mage legacy are too high. Even the most gifted, Laresa, who I personally trained, could only form a single-colored vortex. The others still only conjure flames and can't even form a vortex."
The ideal meditation foundation of a High Mage consists of a nine-colored vortex.
Laresa's meditation foundation was a blue flame vortex—only one color.
Among ordinary people, she would certainly be considered extraordinary, but within the Valyrian Council of Mages, she barely qualifies.
"That's still a rare feat. As one's understanding of magic deepens, meditation methods can evolve as well."
Bu Cheng looked at Laresa and said, "You've inherited the most orthodox fire mage legacy. If you work hard, your future is boundless."
The elder from the Eastern Lands wasn't just being polite.
In terms of pure potential, even his own meditation technique was inferior to Laresa's.
In other words, if Laresa devoted herself to years of rigorous training, she would likely surpass him.
And he was the president of the Necromancer Association. If she surpassed him, wouldn't that be a remarkable future?
"Thank you for your encouragement, Master. I'll work even harder," Laresa said, clenching her fists.
Bu Tian nodded and began answering Laresa's earlier question. "As for vitality, here are two simple examples:
A gecko's tail, when severed, can regrow. But a human arm, once severed, can never grow back.
Some skin wounds heal without leaving any scars; others leave large, noticeable marks.
After centuries of research, we've discovered that a certain type of yang-aspected spiritual essence influences tissue vitality.
That is Type B spiritual essence.
After a gecko loses its tail, the area shows an unusually active concentration of Type B spiritual essence. If you regularly extract that essence, the gecko loses the ability to regenerate.
Humans, on the other hand, exhibit almost no detectable Type B spiritual essence when uninjured. But once wounded, the body suddenly generates large quantities of it.
Of course, 'large' here is only in comparison to normal human conditions—not comparable to the levels seen in geckos.
Similarly, if you extract this essence, not only does the wound heal slower, but it also leaves grotesque, mouth-like scars."
"If Type B spiritual essence were added to the wound, could humans also regenerate lost limbs?" Dany asked.
Aemon frowned. "Your Majesty, I've never heard of any magic capable of regrowing limbs."
"Come on, R'hllor can bring back the dead. Compared to that, regenerating a limb doesn't sound that crazy. Besides, just because healing magic didn't exist before doesn't mean it can't be created now," Dany waved it off.
"Master Bu Tian, can your people imbue severed limbs with Type B spiritual essence?" Aemon turned to the elder from the Eastern Lands.
"We can't."
"If necromancers can extract Type B spiritual essence, why can't you reintroduce it into a patient? Extract it from a gecko and inject it into a human," Laresa asked.
Bu Tian closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were filled with a thick, cloud-like helplessness."The Necromancer Association has existed for over ten thousand years. We've been trying that exact thing all along, but we've never found a way to imbue essence."
"Extracting yang essence is like taking a life. Taking a life is already hard enough, but creating life out of nothing? That's nearly impossible.
Still, we haven't given up. We continue to try.
The road to truth is difficult. If this generation fails, then the next will try. If ten thousand years isn't enough, then we'll try for a hundred thousand!"
Gradually, the expression on the old man's face returned to calm—calm, but firm.
Dany looked at the old mage with admiration and sighed,"The Necromancer Association of the Eastern Lands keeps progressing and developing.
In comparison, the Citadel of Westeros is completely useless. It has achieved virtually nothing over the past few millennia, just going in circles."
"The Citadel?" Bu Tian was momentarily surprised. Then he shook his head and said, "Our goals differ. The maesters seek to reshape the world. We've always had a much simpler goal:
Longevity."
"It would be best to live ten thousand years, like the Celestial Emperor of the Dawn Empire."
"Uh…" Dany's mouth twitched. This Yiti master was certainly blunt!
Bu Tian continued, "Maesters study everything. Even our Necromancer Society has caught quite a few maester spies. But for thousands of years, we have focused solely on the study of yin and yang spirits.
"Maesters are broad but not deep. Each wears a long chain and dabbles in nearly everything.
"We, on the other hand, specialize in necromantic magic. Many of us can't even recount the history of Yiti's current dynasty, let alone understand astronomy.
"It's not that the Citadel is useless—it's just that each has their own strengths."
"Your Grace, the key now is to research a cure for greyscale," Aemon reminded her.
Dany was momentarily stunned, then let out a muted laugh. "Master Bu Tian's theory on spirit essence had me so absorbed, I nearly forgot the real task. Can we repeat the previous experiment?"
"What experiment?" Aemon asked.
Dany pointed to the Yitish mage's right hand hanging at his side. The pale, dead finger had returned to normal.
"Shouldn't the real task be researching greyscale?" Aemon sighed helplessly.
"We have to first understand the distinction between human yang spirits and celestial yang spirits. Otherwise, how can we study greyscale?" Dany replied, sounding entirely justified.
"All right," Bu Tian agreed with a casual nod.
With Bu Tian's guidance, Dany finally identified the so-called Type-A spirit essence.
It was highly unscientific—purely magical.
While the blood remained within the body, the Type-A spirit essence behaved one way. But the moment it left the body, it immediately transformed into a different property.
"If we used scientific methods to study magic, it might actually lead somewhere."
Dany found the concept fascinating and was struck with inspiration.
In the past, when she used her spirit-bestowing ability, she made no distinction between yin and yang spirits, converting everything into the most basic form of spirit essence.
But if she could break that down further—or perhaps even transform the raw spirit essence into specialized types…
If she could bestow spirits without entering another person's sea of consciousness…
Then wouldn't her spirit-bestowing ability evolve into something like a will-erasing brainwashing spell, a will-fortification spell (Type A), a healing spell (Type B), or even a myriad of miraculous techniques?
"Perhaps spirit-bestowing could develop into its own magical discipline, just like pyromancy for fire mages."
Over the following days, Dany suddenly became exceptionally busy.
First, with daily epidemic inspections in Astapor and Meereen, more cases of greyscale were being discovered.
Astapor fared better—only seven new cases were found, all among brothel patrons, most of whom were sea merchants.
Not a single commoner in the whole of Astapor had been infected.
To be blunt, the Lust Gardens were like a royal banquet. Even if you didn't eat or drink, just holding hands with the lowest-ranking Red Priestess would cost at least two silver coins per visit. Ordinary folk couldn't even afford to enter.
Meereen had discovered thirty-nine cases, with total infections surpassing a hundred.
If greyscale were merely introduced into the well water, it wouldn't be overly dangerous—unless it mutated into greypox.
Or put another way, greyscale doesn't spread easily without direct contact with an infected area.
Currently, there were tens of thousands of greyscale patients in Sorrow's Reach.
And yet, over the past two thousand years, nearly a hundred thousand stone men had sunk into the section of the Rhoyne flowing through Sorrow's Reach. Countless villages along the lower banks drank directly from the river, yet very few were ever infected.
Greyscale is like AIDS—frightening, but not contagious without contact. Greypox, on the other hand, is like a flu variant of AIDS—terrifying and extremely contagious.
The key to preventing greyscale is stopping it from mutating into greypox.
Aside from patrolling the three cities and urging residents to report greyscale patients, Dany also spent time in the lab with Qhiz and Bu Tian researching a cure.
Namely—special dragon dung.
Dany couldn't quite understand how dragon dung could possibly cure greyscale.
Bu Tian, however, offered an explanation:
"You can think of greyscale as a curse, akin to the supernatural radiation ordinary people experience when exposed to a sorcerer's power.
"If we were to classify radiation energy, the source of greyscale likely comes from the residual energy of the True God's battle with the three hundred dragons, placing it in the highest tier of magical energy.
"So, any medicine used to treat greyscale must also contain top-tier magical energy."
"Dragons are immune to greyscale. Their skin, flesh, bones, and blood are undoubtedly high-tier magical materials.
"Originally, some people tried bathing in dragon blood to cure greyscale.
"Now we know—even if the blood didn't burn them to death, it still wouldn't work.
"Changes in the Type-A yang spirit within dragon blood actually turn it from an antibody into a breeding ground for the virus."
"If the flesh and blood of dragons aren't viable, then what about dragon dung? That, too, is a high-tier material.
"Ordinary dragon dung can suppress the illness's progression, but it can't effectively kill the virus.
"So, what if we fed the dragons special herbs to produce a unique, high-energy dung? It could be used both internally and externally to treat greyscale."
The Necromancer Society had been researching greypox for years and had developed a relatively mature theory.
In short—two words: eat shit.
When he traveled from Dragonstone, Bu Tian had even brought several hundred pounds of precious magical herbs, all meant to be fed to Drogon to produce specialty dragon dung.
"Won't your herbs harm my dragon?" Dany asked, visibly reluctant.
"They won't. These herbs are safe for humans too. If you're still worried, I'll taste them myself before each feeding," Bu Tian promised solemnly.
Dany reluctantly agreed but ordered Aemon to supervise the process: Bu Tian must take a bite, wait an hour, and only if he didn't die or suffer diarrhea could they mix the potion into the roasted meat for Drogon to eat.
Thus, a bizarre cycle was born:
Bu Tian ate a bite, Drogon had a meal; Drogon had a meal, defecated; and then Tyrion had a dose.
Yes, the little imp was the volunteer for testing the medicine.
(End of Chapter)
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