Before the Long Night, there existed in Yi Land a legendary empire that had endured for tens of thousands of years: the Empire of the Dawn.
Its territory stretched west to the Bone Mountains, east to the Gray Wastelands, north to the Shivering Sea, and south to the Jade Sea. Even Thunder Isle in the Jade Sea was part of its domain.
It could be said that all the lands around Yi Land that could be conquered had already bowed in submission to the Son of Heaven of the Empire of the Dawn.
Unlike Valyria's magical civilization, the Empire of the Dawn was a mythological civilization.
Its founders were gods: the God of Death and Darkness, the Night Lion, and the Queen of Light.
These two deities established a divine kingdom in the mortal realm, and its first ruler was the son of the gods, the Heavenly Emperor.
Well, this Queen of Light was not R'hllor wearing women's clothes. She was the Light King before R'hllor, the singer of the Song of Light, a true god.
The Heavenly Emperor was the son of the Daughter of Light and the Night Lion. Inheriting divine blood, he lived for at least ten thousand years.
The Heavenly Emperor's eldest son ruled the Empire of the Dawn for a thousand years, yet he lived far longer than that. After all, a thousand years was merely the length of his reign as Son of Heaven.
His father, the Heavenly Emperor, ruled for ten thousand years, so he must have served as Crown Prince for several thousand years as well.
After that, the lifespans of the Sons of Heaven of the Empire of the Dawn grew shorter and shorter, because the divine blood within them became increasingly diluted.
This raises a question: where does the strength of divine blood truly lie?
There is no denying that it must include more extraordinary genes. However, considering an undeniable reality of the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, even ordinary mortals with mediocre genes can immediately possess extraordinary king's blood once they become kings.
This shows that genes are not the sole reason bloodlines are powerful.
There is another, even more important reason: the degree of compatibility between a bloodline and the laws of the world.
If Zhu Yuanzhang were placed in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, his genes would be utterly unremarkable.
When he became the Hongwu Emperor, his genes did not change, yet his bloodline suddenly rose by tens of thousands of degrees, becoming the noblest bloodline under heaven.
If one were to use Old Zhu's blood to cast a curse, even Dany likely would not be able to withstand it.
Why was this so?
Old Zhu's genes did not change. However, once he proclaimed himself emperor, the master of heaven and earth changed, and the laws of the world changed with it. They became more compatible with the master of heaven and earth, namely Old Zhu and his entire clan.
One man attained enlightenment, and his entire family followed, transforming into noble imperial blood. Pick any one of them at random, and it would be enough for Mel to draw blood and create a shadow assassin.
One person elevated the bloodline of an entire clan.
Previously, the Imp had also envied the Dragon Queen's sorcery and had once stayed up late holding a glass candle.
Unfortunately, he lacked the talent. He was never able to light the candle, and thus could not learn meditation techniques.
But later, the situation changed. Dany used the most direct method to stir the laws of the universe: she ascended as the Wind God and comprehended the Fire Song of Creation.
The Gate Guardian was alarmed. The Sheep Egg was alarmed. R'hllor was alarmed.
Dany's genes did not change much, but the laws of the universe became more compatible with her bloodline.
What relationship did the dwarf and Dany share?They were half-siblings, brother and sister by the same father.
Large portions of their genes overlapped.
The dwarf's genes did not change, yet while sitting at home, fortune fell from the sky.
He did not change, but the laws of the universe did.
Think back to the scene when Dany burned herself in the Vajra Cavern.Not only elemental flames, she even withstood dragonfire and divine dragonfire.
So the fact that the dwarf was not burned to death by Mel was only natural.
In fact, Jon also benefited greatly. At the Wall, he still needed to wear a mask because he feared sunlight.
Once Dany achieved demigodhood and comprehended her own Fire Song, his fire sorcery cultivation became absurdly smooth. In less than half a month, he reached perfection in fire sorcery, surpassing Thoros and Qhys, becoming, like Mel, a shadowbinder who could walk in the sunlight.
Of course, the greatest beneficiary was neither Jon the nephew nor the dwarf, but the stable boy Simba.
As for the dear eldest nephew, Aegon, regrettably, he gained almost no benefits at all.
Seeing the dwarf gain such an unearned advantage made Dany very unhappy, so she devised three treatment plans to lure him in.
The dwarf thought to himself that selling his life to the Dragon Queen ten times or fifty times made little difference, and fifty times or a hundred times made little difference either. If that was the case, only a fool would not choose the VIP-MAX PRO Imperial Edition treatment plan.
Dany hoped he would think exactly that.
In truth, the standard version, although extremely ugly, resembling a fully burned Hound, was absolutely safe.
The VIP Premium Edition altered appearance and increased height, which sounded excellent.
But had he considered who he would become?And why the Dragon Queen wanted him to become that person?As for the VIP-MAX PRO Imperial Edition, it not only altered form but allowed a god to descend to the mortal world. Yet had the Dragon Queen ever performed such a transformation before? Could it succeed?
What?Was it the Holy Mother's divine art that helped with the transformation?
Well, the Holy Mother was currently fully focused, inscribing mysterious and profound runes upon the dwarf's organs and spine.
Back on the continent of Sothoryos, at the burial site of the spider demon, when Dany fulfilled her promise and bestowed the divine essence of the Song of Strength upon Vajra, she had once seen, within Vajra's sea of consciousness, a set of strange golden runes emerge upon Vajra's soul-state form.
At the Soul Vajra's forehead, chest, back, and limbs were enormous golden runes. Dany had memorized the entire set by heart, because she suspected these runes were connected to the Song of Strength.
After months of research, Dany still had no way to turn the runes she had named the "Vajra Song of Strength" into a meditation technique.
She even began to suspect that the Song of Strength could not be comprehended through seated meditation at all.
Then another idea occurred to her. Could she brand the Vajra Song of Strength runes onto the surface of the body to awaken mystical power?
Unfortunately, she tested tattoo pigments made from many kinds of magical materials and conducted numerous experiments on Unsullied volunteers, but not a single attempt succeeded.
After meeting the dwarf and discovering that he had inexplicably awakened a talent for witchcraft, Dany formed a new idea. Could she use the power of fire creation to shape his internal organs, and in the process of creating those organs, brand the Vajra Song of Strength runes into them?
This involved two major difficulties. The first was using the power of fire creation to shape internal organs.
Previously, everything she had shaped had been complete living beings. Although the divinity of her fire creation had increased steadily of late, she was not confident she could create individual bodily organs with flame. If the dwarf had not been roasted like that by Mel and still survived, Dany would never have thought in this direction at all.
The second difficulty was this: if the organs could be created, how could she ensure that organs branded with runes would not be rejected by the body?
Clearly, there would be danger during the experiment.
But the dwarf had betrayed her trust, taken advantage of her, awakened a talent for fire witchcraft, and now wanted her to save his life.
On what grounds?
Dany did have a legitimate reason. The dwarf swore that if she was willing to save him, he would sell his life to her five hundred times over in the future.
Being a lab rat would count as the first time he sold his life.
"Aoooo!"
The unconscious dwarf suddenly opened his eyes and let out a painful howl that sounded inhuman.
Even the thick oak door could not stop the sound from carrying outward.
"What's going on? Ahh!"
Old Aemon, who had just rushed in, did not even have time to ask before his eyes widened and he let out a terrified scream at the same volume as the dwarf's, though filled with a very different emotion.
The dwarf's pain cut to the bone; Aemon's cry was pure shock and horror.
There lay the dwarf like a fat pig that had been split open, his belly gaping to reveal his internal organs. At that moment, his viscera were burning in vivid red flames. Fat rendered into oil, sizzling with sharp sounds, and the stench was overwhelming.
"Ugh!" Aemon dropped to his knees and vomited pools of clear liquid. He had already emptied his dinner outside earlier.
"Sir, don't get worked up. Hurry and fetch a bottle of concentrated poppy milk and pour it down Tyrion's throat."
Dany's complaining voice came from beneath her thick mask.
"He's screaming like a pig being slaughtered. It's unbearable."
Aemon's face twisted.
"It hurts, it hurts so much! Your Majesty, what are you doing?" the dwarf howled in agony.
His head, neck, and limbs were strapped to the operating table, so he could not see his own opened abdomen.
After quite some time, old Aemon, his hands trembling, poured a full liter of concentrated poppy milk into the dwarf. The slaughterhouse-like screams gradually weakened and finally fell completely silent.
"Dany, what are you doing?" the old man wiped the cold sweat from his brow and asked in a trembling voice.
"Tyrion has awakened the bloodline of fire witchcraft." Without pausing her work, Dany briefly explained how the dwarf had taken advantage of her.
"That's a good thing!" Aemon said in delight.
"It is a good thing. Tyrion's resistance to fire has improved considerably," Dany nodded in agreement.
The muscles in Aemon's aged face twitched a few times as he tried to persuade her. "I know you dislike his behavior, but he doesn't know his own origins. Everything he does is for his family, not for selfish desire."
"He's a good man," the old man emphasized.
"He's also good experimental material, very resistant to burning."
Before the old man could say more, Dany continued at once. "Don't worry, he won't die. It's just some physical suffering. If my 'Divine Descent' blood witchcraft modification succeeds, my own strength will increase tremendously."
"Can it be popularized?" Aemon asked.
"It should be possible, but…"
The greater benefit was that it would allow her fire creation divinity to advance once more.
Simply put, divinity was a kind of specialized knowledge, and knowledge could be enhanced through research and practice.
Transforming the great fog into fire spirits was practice. Blood witchcraft performed on the dwarf was also practice. Both allowed divinity to grow.
If her divinity grew into a divine office, and even into a Song of Law, she would become a true "Goddess of Fire and Life."
That benefit was the real reward for saving the dwarf.
At dawn, Meereen was still shrouded in thin mist, while the top of the pyramid, more than two hundred meters high, was already bathed in golden sunlight.
On a dewy green lawn stood a long table. Dany sat at the head, with the ministers who lived in the pyramid seated on either side.
However, Meereen had long since entered a state of war. Most of the generals were on duty at the front, so only seven or eight people accompanied the queen at breakfast.
"I heard Tyrion screaming last night," the bear mother sitting beside the Great Bear said indistinctly while chewing on a thick slice of ham.
"If he can scream, that means he's still alive," the Great Bear replied casually.
"The queen was helping him clean the rotten flesh from his internal organs, scraping bone and cutting meat. Of course it hurt," old Aemon lied with a straight face.
"He's in much better condition today than yesterday. You can go see for yourselves," Dany said.
She glanced toward the end of the table at the blonde girl who was quietly dipping bread into cherry jam, then deliberately called her out. "Myrcella, later go read a passage from the Seven-Pointed Star Scripture to your uncle."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the young girl replied softly.
"Myrcella."
Maggie turned her head and examined the daughter born of the Kingslayer and Cersei's illicit affair. She had milk-white skin, thick golden curls, delicate features, and a gentle, quiet bearing.
(End of Chapter)
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