Dany's lips curved into a faint smile and she nodded. "You guessed right. Big Black only just gained the Wind God's space-time talent, and he cannot even open a portal on his own.
Even with my help inscribing the sorcery runes, each teleport spans less than ten kilometers.
And earlier, breaking through your space-time freeze drained all his divine soul."
Goat Egg seemed to realize something. His golden pupils contracted for an instant, then he shook his head again and again, his voice unsteady. "If that is the case, how did you escape?"
"You are the ancestor of dragons. Can you not guess the trump card of a Dragon-Spirit Knight?"
"No, no, no!" Goat Egg's earlier wild suspicion was confirmed, but he became even more incredulous. "You are mad. Mad!"
"What is insane about reverse overclocking?" Dany asked in confusion.
"You gave a true god's talent to a dragon, and you even reverse overclocked with the dragon. You are utterly insane!" Goat Egg roared emotionally.
"I really do not understand what you mean," Dany replied indifferently. "Are you not clear about the relationship between dragons and Dragon-Spirit Knights?
And Big Black and I are more than dragon and rider. He is my child.Man and dragon as one, souls intertwined. What is mine is his and what is his is mine. I already possess my own innate ability, but Big Black has nothing and is so stupid. How can I not help him?"
What she said was not a lie, but about thirty percent embellishment.
The Gate God's legacy was too rich, and his unprovoked generosity made Dany uneasy.
A complicated thinker will always suspect deeper complications.
No doubt, Dany was not a simple white lotus. In fact, she possessed the vigilance and thick-skinned cunning that were essential for survival in Heavenly Dynasty Earth.
Now that helping old grandmas cross the road had become a benchmark of class and wealth, could you expect Dany to blindly trust someone who treated her well without limits?Even a wild barbarian from the frontier would not believe that.Of course, the Gate God's character was solid, so Dany only harbored thirty percent doubt.
But thirty percent doubt was still doubt.
So she thought of Big Black.What difference was there between herself and him?Just like the Faith of the Seven: Big Black was clearly the Seven, yet Dany played the Holy Mother without the slightest discord, and wielded the Seven's divine offices with just a thought.
Handing the Gate God's space-time talent to Big Black meant that, if the Gate God truly intended malice in his dying breath, then Dany and her other four dragons could teach him that "good people live in peace, villains perish with shattered souls."
Conversely, if Dany were ambushed, the five dumb dragons would probably do nothing but panic helplessly.
Facts proved that, while this world may have no love without reason, bravery and self-sacrifice were not entirely extinct.
The Gate God left no backup at all. His divine soul power and godforce were completely depleted, his life imprint broken beyond repair and rapidly collapsing.
The life imprint is the foundation of a living being. When it disappears, the soul returns entirely to heaven and earth. Not even a shred of remnant soul can survive.
Dany felt a moment of awkwardness, then shame for a while, regret for half a day, and eventually let go of her last bit of resentment. If she encountered such a situation again, she would still make the same choice.
After all, hearts are unpredictable and the world is treacherous. Only those who think deeply survive longer.
Besides, if the meat rots in the pot, as long as she entered Dragon-Spirit mode, Dany could borrow Big Black's space-time talent to comprehend the laws of space-time the same way she used his eyes to view the world, his ears to listen, his sixth sense for danger, his electromagnetic field sense for direction…
"What is the point of giving a dragon the space-time talent? You are a Sacred Spirit, naturally closer to the laws. Outstanding talent plus a Sacred Spirit's comprehension is like wings on a tiger. But dragons are dull and cannot comprehend the laws at all. You are simply wasting it," Goat Egg accused angrily, as though the talent were his own.
Dany pondered and asked, "After you became a demigod, did you rely much on the Red Dragon Balerion's power?"
The question came suddenly. Goat Egg froze for a moment, thinking.Indeed, when he was weaker, the Red Dragon was his greatest support. After he became a demigod…
In fact, he did not even need to reach demigod. Once he used the dragon's natural absorption of cosmic force and dragonfire breathing to optimize the basic form of the 'Great Sorcerer Meditation', he shed the title of brightest youth of his generation and became one of the most powerful fire wizards in the world.
"You mean you want to grow together with your dragon? Fine. Stop cultivating and wait slowly," Goat Egg mocked.
"So that is all the wisdom you have. You think only of stopping cultivation and crawling upward slowly together, never thinking of pulling him up so both of you could soar together," Dany replied coolly.
"I want that too, but how could—"
Halfway through, Goat Egg's expression stiffened and his words stopped abruptly.
"Heh." Dany smiled. "Look. That is the problem. You think it impossible, yet you assume all benefits must be yours alone."
"You understand nothing!" Goat Egg shook his head softly. "Do you think the Dragon-Spirit bond is immune to accidents? Why do you think the Dragonslayer Horn was created?"
Dany frowned. "Do you mean Valyria had dragons that betrayed their Dragon-Spirit Knights?"
Goat Egg stared at her with a strange look, his voice low and cold. "Dragon-Spirit talent was rare in certain ages, but over Valyria's six thousand years, there were hundreds of Dragon-Spirit Knights.
You are not even the first to reverse overclock. At least thirty great sorcerers tried the same thing. Do you know what happened to them?Of the thirty, twenty-five died outright as their essence and spirit withered, because their dragon partners refused to return their meditation foundation."
"Impossible!" Dany's expression changed as she immediately shouted her denial.
It was as if Yang Dan had insulted her children.
The corner of Yang Dan's mouth curled into a mocking smile. "The other five begged and wailed just the same before their dragons finally woke from the frenzy of their surging power and, unwillingly, disengaged the overclocked state."
Dany fell silent.
"You have tried overclocking yourself. When knight and dragon stack their souls and magic, there is a sense of exhilaration, as if nothing is impossible and heaven and earth rest in your palm.
Did you ever hesitate, wondering whether to maintain that state forever?" Yang Dan laughed loudly.
Dany's expression remained calm, unmoved.
"No matter how deep the bond, there is always a price that can make it vanish into smoke, and power is the most seductive treasure in this world!Even rational wizards can be tempted by it, let alone dragons with dull minds?"
"So you were tempted by power and forced your red dragon to its death?" Dany said flatly.
"The relationship between us is beyond your imagination!" Yang Dan roared in fury, as if grievously humiliated.
"What is there that can't be imagined?" Dany sneered. "She was always the one giving, giving everything, while you accepted it all as a matter of course."
"I can't be bothered to talk to you. You don't know anything at all." Yang Dan closed His eyes.
"You think I want to waste words with you?" Dany was somewhat angered. "A prisoner dares to put on airs before me!One last question. Surrender and pay the ransom, or vanish into nothingness!"
"What do you want? If I give it to you, will you let me go?" Yang Dan opened His eyes. There was no hope in them, only endless mockery.
"I want your sorcery, and the techniques for forging Valyrian steel and Immortal Stone. Hand them over and I'll let you go." Dany showed not the slightest embarrassment. Her expression was exceedingly serious, as though she would truly release Him once the ransom was paid.
"I'd believe an ice demon before I'd believe you!" Yang Dan laughed loudly. "Do you take me for a three-year-old, or is your wisdom on the level of a three-year-old?"
"Two choices. Do you want to live, or do you want to die?" Dany said calmly.
"You will never get any of my sorcer—ah!"
Before He could finish, Yang Dan let out a miserable scream. Milky-white chains surged with platinum flames, igniting His entire divine soul. Vast quantities of spiritual essence and divinity poured into Dany's sea of consciousness.
The withered, shattered nine-colored vortex rapidly repaired itself, regaining full vitality.Unexpectedly, after absorbing only one third of Yang Dan's divine soul, Dany not only recovered completely, but, from absorbing a great deal of His Fire Song divinity, she seemed to have seized some of His traits, unrelated to spirit bestowal.
Just as Yang Dan coveted Dany's bloodline and talents, Yang Dan's own talents and soul traits were also an enormous tonic for Dany.
Simply put, the two of them could complete and perfect each other. Whoever devoured the other would become the final and most perfect representative of Valyrian dragons and magical civilization.
Yang Dan had always wanted to devour Dany. Now, Dany had devoured Him.
Suddenly, Jorah and the others, who had been following behind Drogon and watching the Dragon Queen's back with concern, felt their vision blur. The air around the Dragon Queen twisted, like the distortion seen ahead when standing on a highway at noon in summer.
It was no illusion. Even from dozens of meters away, they could feel the heat waves radiating from her.
Invisible, formless "flames" distorted the air around her.
"Your Grace? Your Grace, what's happening?" the Great Bear shouted anxiously.
"Be quiet. Dany is cultivating!" Drogon rumbled in a low roar.
The Great Bear, Garth, and the others immediately fell silent, eyes wide as they stared at her.
About two hours later, as they passed Nan'an Town near the Isle of the Free Maidens, they saw the distorted air around the Dragon Queen gradually fade. The scorching heat and the indescribable pressure she radiated vanished as well.
"Buzz." The rapidly spinning nine-colored vortex finally broke through its limits, releasing strands of pale golden holy radiance.
Dany had ascended to a fire demigod!
"Yang Dan, you're incredibly nourishing!" Dany awoke from meditation, licking her lips with lingering satisfaction.
She badly wanted to immediately devour the remaining two thirds of Yang Dan's divine soul, but considering Drogon's unreliable space-time gate, she needed to keep a reverse overclock as a backup.
"This remnant soul of Yang Dan is only one fifth of His true body. One third of that, one fifteenth in total, let me easily break through to demigodhood. My fire divinity has even surpassed my wind divinity all at once. This…"
Light flickered in Dany's eyes. If she devoured Yang Dan whole, she would at least touch the threshold of a true god.
If she prepared more thoroughly and fully sang the Fire Song, she might very well reach the realm Yang Dan had always yearned for, the Fire God.
Shaking her head to cast aside those thoughts, Dany immediately split off a projection of her divine soul and sent it to Old Barristan's side in Meereen, warning him, "Ser, a great catastrophe has erupted in Oros. Do not let the wyvern legions fly the route to the Land of Endless Summer anymore."
After that, she sent messages to Nan'an Town and New York Town on the Isle of the Free Maidens, ordering them not to put out to sea, to come ashore immediately, move to higher ground, and beware of a tsunami coming from the Sea of Smoke.
(End of chapter)
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