The laws of this world were peculiar. On one hand, they allowed soul-shifting Shapeshifters powerful enough to break the rules like living bugs; on the other, they granted ordinary souls such strong defenses that even gods could not invade them.
A dying Shapeshifter might attempt to possess the healthy, strong-willed body of a spear-wielding woman.But even an average demigod would struggle to bend a mortal's will.
Dany, unlike the Three-Eyed Crow, could not silently slip into someone else's soul sea.
She had to force her way in, riding a dragon and using a unique form of True Dragon Roar.
That time with the spearwoman of the Hardfoot tribe was an exception—her soul had already been ravaged by the six-formed Valarr, left riddled with holes.
It was like a castle wall full of breaches. Dany simply slipped in through one of them.
Jaqen, however, was different. His will was firm, his body healthy, and his mental strength had been honed to an exceptional level. His fortress was solid and sealed tight.
Under normal circumstances, even if Dany pinned him down and blasted him with her True Dragon Roar a hundred times, the best she could do was smash the "castle" entirely—driving Jaqen mad and reducing him to a vegetable.
Unless Jaqen chose not to resist and opened the gates himself.
But Jaqen wasn't a fool. Why wouldn't he resist?
In fact, even a fool's mental space would automatically fight back, thanks to the unique soul laws of this world.
There was only one exception when the soul space wouldn't retaliate: if the invader was the Three-Eyed Crow.
Now, due to a stroke of luck—or perhaps Dany's calculated manipulation—Jaqen actually chose not to resist. On the contrary, he consciously opened the door wide, allowing Dany to enter his soul space.
This was Dany's second time entering someone else's soul space. Like hers and the Hardfoot woman's, Jaqen's soul space had a backdrop of a deep-blue starry sky.
The Hardfoot woman had been possessed by the six-formed Valarr. Her spiritual core was shattered like broken glass, and each shard held a fragment of memory.
Dany's own spirit core was perfectly round, hidden within a nine-colored vortex. With not a trace of mental energy leaking out, no intruder could glimpse her memories unless they broke through the vortex.
Jaqen's spirit core was equally reserved—like a multifaceted crystal concealed within a mist of deep blue.
Occasionally, the mist would part, and Dany would catch a fleeting glimpse of a scene reflected on the crystal's surface—a memory of Jaqen's.
But most of the time, the crystal was shrouded in fog, and Dany could see nothing.
"Scholar Hades?" A wave of mental energy pulsed from the blue mist.
There was a strong note of shock in the tone, revealing Jaqen's inner turmoil.
Understandably so—the spirit of the demon jar within his mental sea now appeared like a blazing golden-red sun, imposing, domineering, exuding an overwhelming aura of power.
One glance, and it felt like he was a beggar on the streets suddenly brought before the King of Gods.
It was no illusion. The being before him was no human, but a powerful demigod—Dany, merged with her black dragon and infused with the Song of Wind, as well as the immense faith of the Faith of the Seven.
Even the Black Goat of Qohor didn't radiate such majesty.
"It's me," Hades rumbled, shaking the entire soul space with his voice.
"So this is the might of a demigod? Unbelievable," Jaqen muttered in astonishment.
"Hah, you're just an ordinary person without supernatural power. It's natural you'd feel this way before a demigod," the spirit chuckled lightly, then continued, "Enough small talk. I'm going to demonstrate the Death God's 108 Runes for you."
As soon as it finished speaking, a ray of light shot out from the golden-red sun, rapidly sketching out mysterious runes in the air.
At first, Jaqen remained wary, his mental focus so intense that the blue mist nearly solidified, tightly shielding his spirit core.
But gradually, he realized the demon jar spirit was genuinely focused on teaching. The runes were so profound that even as he relaxed slightly, he had to devote most of his attention to studying the forbidden knowledge of the Death God.
As a result, the blue mist began to surge like steam rising from a newly opened pot. His spirit core was exposed, and memory images flickered across the crystal's surface like a slideshow.
Dany learned many secrets of the Faceless Men: their weekly gatherings, Jaqen's various assassination missions, even bits of his apprentice days.
But it was a chaotic mess, with ninety-nine percent of the memories being useless.
And Jaqen hadn't completely let his guard down—Dany could hardly touch the most classified information.
Such as the total number of Faceless Men, their roster, or the techniques behind their face-changing.
Still, memory peeking was only a secondary goal. Her main objective was to nourish her "good son."
The Necromancer Association in Yi Ti had recently developed two new soul essences outside the Yin-Yang paradigm: Alpha-Will and Beta-Vitality.
Abandoning her old brute-force "seeding" methods, the Dragon Queen this time focused on channeling Alpha Yang Essence into her good son, Jaqen.
Since no corpses were burning nearby, the spiritual energy Dany could extract from nature was already scarce. With non-Alpha types excluded, the rain of essence became more like a thin fog.
This was because Jaqen's soul was mature and complete—he couldn't absorb too much spiritual essence.
Hardfoot Lari's soul had been shattered, allowing her to absorb vast amounts from Dany. But Jaqen's soul was intact—just a small amount was enough to reach saturation.
It was the same for Dany herself—she couldn't absorb infinite spirit essence either. That's why most of it ended up being fed to her gluttonous dragons.
The misty Alpha-Will essence entered Jaqen's soul space, where the second soul ring engraved strange runes upon it.
Then, the lightly processed "Trojan Horse" essence began to seep into the blue mist and was absorbed by the crystal spirit core.
Almost visibly, the blue mist thickened, making it harder for Dany to see the crystal's memories.
At the same time, the crystal became brighter and more transparent, as if freshly polished glass.
Jaqen also felt increasingly refreshed and alert.
His intelligence even seemed to rise inexplicably. His comprehension of the deep, deathly meditation runes grew rapidly.
No one knew how much time passed, but eventually, Jaqen's soul reached full saturation and could no longer absorb the Alpha-Will essence Dany provided.
The Dragon Queen stopped stretching the plot and quickly wrapped up the final phase of her lesson.
"All right, I've finished teaching you the full basics of meditation. I'm about to enter slumber. If you have any questions, ask them now."
"I feel like my mental strength has increased. Is that just an illusion?"
As one of the Faceless Men's elite, Jaqen immediately noticed the positive changes in his soul.
"Your mental energy has become more refined. Once I leave, you'll experience some fatigue. Get a good night's sleep. Starting tomorrow, as you begin learning magic, your mental strength will gradually grow."
"The meditation technique you taught me—it doesn't seem like it came from a Grand Sorcerer's tradition," Jaqen asked again.
"The Grand Sorcerer's legacy I inherited is incomplete—there aren't 108 runes. Sigh, this is basic knowledge; you could ask any sorcerer on the street and they'd tell you.
I'm only telling you this: what I've passed to you is my own original creation, forged through the refining of a hundred scriptures and the fusion of ten thousand paths—The Reaper's Canon.
If you're afraid of ending up looking like this ghostly figure I've become, then just practice the first third. You'll still inherit my title, Flame Demon.
Ouch, time's up. We'll meet again next time."
Before Jakun could ask more—especially questions about building a foundation for meditative focus, which she'd never trained in and couldn't answer accurately anyway—the golden-red sun vanished in a flash. Jakun felt a sudden emptiness. He slowly opened his eyes. The magical jar spirit was gone.
Looking up at the sky again, Jakun was shocked to see that the moon hadn't moved much at all.
Which meant... the spirit hadn't lied. The mental transmission, though it felt long, had lasted only a few minutes—ten at most—and yet it had accomplished such complex teaching?
"Ugh!" Jakun had just stood up when his body suddenly swayed. Exhaustion surged over him like a tide, and the world blurred before his eyes.
His legs gave out, and he began to fall forward.
But the magical jar was right ahead, placed on the rooftop.
Thud! Jakun twisted his body just in time to avoid crashing into it, tumbling sideways onto the wooden roof.
"Phew—no, wait!"
Just as he exhaled in relief, he saw the magical jar shake from the impact on the roof. With a few wobbles, it rolled off the ridge and started tumbling down the other side.
Clang, clang— The sound of the jar rolling grew louder and faster. Jakun's eyes widened in panic, and he struggled to crawl forward with increasing desperation.
By the time he propped himself up and lay over the roof ridge, he could only watch helplessly as the jar flew through the air and plummeted toward the ground.
"No——!"
His scream tore through the night like a starving wolf's howl—mournful and piercing. The nearby construction workers in the wooden huts jolted awake from their dreams.
Crash—
The sound of the jar shattering was sharp and clear, like ten thousand ice daggers piercing Jakun's heart, draining his vitality and freezing his soul.
"Nooooooooo——"
"What the hell are you yelling about? It's the middle of the night! Some of us are trying to sleep!"
A neighbor climbed out of bed, opened the door, and started cursing in the direction of Jakun's house.
These were sailors forcibly conscripted by the Royal Navy, building wooden houses, leveling land, and planting seasonal vegetables at Queen's Point.
Mainly to prepare for the soon-to-arrive Wildlings.
The house Jakun was staying in was newly built—one of many, enough for each person to have their own.
"The jar spirit did warn me there'd be a period of fatigue after it left. Why didn't I take that seriously? Why did I have to hold a ritual on the roof? Why did I—"
Looking at the shattered shards strewn across the ground, Jakun's face was filled with despair. Regret and sorrow surged endlessly within him.
In truth, Jakun had no reason to blame himself—the jar had been knocked over and smashed by the Dragon Queen.
It had been four months since she first impersonated the jar spirit.
Especially after the initial success in researching a cure for Greyscale, Dany had plenty of time to sit and philosophize with Bu Tian and Kui Xi.
Finally, she roughly worked out the meditation method titled "Teach You to Become a Wraith."
Yes—roughly.
Dany wasn't entirely sure whether this meditation technique could be safely practiced, or if it might backfire and kill the practitioner.
But she could guarantee one thing: this was definitely not a meditation method meant for ordinary people.
Now that the technique had been passed on to Jakun, the jar's mission was more or less complete.
As for "Death God's Forbidden Arts"? She didn't know them herself, so how could she teach them?
Not only did she destroy the jar, but Dany also removed the soul mark she had placed on Jakun. From now on, she could no longer use spirit projection to track him.
This time, Dany wasn't projecting from afar—she had been hiding in the hills behind Jakun's wooden house the whole time.
Only at close range could her spiritual projection perform magic, enter his soul space, bestow sentience, remove the soul mark on his wrist, and inscribe complex sealing runes on the jar.
Even when she decided to destroy the jar, she still used fire magic to burn numerous mysterious runes into its inner walls.
After all, this wasn't some "Dragon Queen's Law Only" world. Braavos was full of talent. Would it really be impossible to find a mage capable of testing whether a jar was magical?
In fact, Braavos had an island called "Isle of Gods," home to the Temples of the Moon-Singers, the Many-Faced God, the Red God, and many others. There were countless priests and extraordinary figures.
That was also why Dany had kept Jakun bound to this place.
If he had actually gone to Braavos, her trickery would almost certainly have been exposed.
Of course, removing the soul mark didn't mean Dany had let Jakun go.
Rather, something ten times more secret and a hundred thousand times more terrifying had been planted deep in his spiritual sea.
The Dragon Queen's version of an Elder God's Whispers!
Dany's whispers.
(End of chapter)
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