The White Knight flipped up like a carp leaping from the water, sprang to his feet, and thrust his sword into the smoky waist of the white rat. "Chi!"
Seeing how close he was to the rat, Dany couldn't help but shout out in concern, "Be careful, it seems to be a green seer. Watch out for its soul forcibly invading your mind!"
As she spoke, she activated the second soul in her soulband, preparing to intervene immediately if the White Knight, like the Hardfoot man Larry, got possessed by the rat spirit.
—From the Hardfoot people's bronze book, Dany learned that skinchangers and green seers need to be near their target to possess a human, preferably with physical contact. (Bran is not a typical green seer—he's too broken, able to possess Hodor across thousands of miles and even timelines.)
But then, something unexpected happened.
"Rumble—" Little White had never stopped spewing dragonfire, and Dany, multitasking, maintained the fire in the shape of a great bell, enveloping the rat spirit.
Under the burning of the fire bell, the rat spirit's fur was charred, its flesh and bones melted, and waves of foul black smoke billowed from its body.
But it didn't abandon the body of the white pig-rat—not because it didn't want to.
After being struck twice and pressed by the sacred dragonfire, the white pig-rat's red eyes, as big as copper bells, and its carrot-sized nose were all melted away. It squealed in agony, the high-pitched sound piercingly sharp.
At the same time, a substantial black shadow struggled violently to break free from the white pig-rat's body.
That was its soul—a divine, semi-divine soul.
It was like a ghost possessing a human while the host fought back desperately. The soul would pull half its body out, only to be yanked back in again, merging and tearing apart in turn.
Yet the white pig-rat's body didn't reject the "ghost"; instead, it acted like a lock, firmly sealing the soul within, refusing to let it escape.
As expected, dragonfire was the bane of magical creatures. Just like how Black had been able to burn the Undying's souls even as a few-month-old hatchling, Little White's dragonfire scorched the dark soul of the pig-rat, sending up waves of black smoke and cries of agony.
"Squeak—" The once-blurry black soul gradually became clearer under the dragonfire, revealing its true form.
"The Rat Cook!" Dany and Barristan exclaimed in unison.
It was the soul of a rat-headed, human-bodied being. What was horrifying was that the rat's head bore a human face—ferocious, twisted, full of hatred and venom.
"The Seven Hells! I understand now!" Dany suddenly shouted. "Back then, the Nightfort was the headquarters of the Night's Watch, housing thousands of brothers, and the Andal king must've brought hundreds of elite knights.
How could an ordinary cook silently butcher a prince?
He was a green seer—the Rat Cook was a follower of the Old Gods who had awakened the green seer gift!"
"Squeak—" Failing again to escape its flesh, the Rat Cook's soul shrieked and withdrew, forcing its mangled body to lurch toward the well opening.
"Chi!" The old knight was already on high alert, enduring the scorching heat of dragonfire as he stood nearby. With a slash, he cleaved across the creature's thigh.
"Squeak—Aargh!" howled the Rat Cook, one of its pig-hoof-sized hind legs flying half a meter into the air and plopping to the ground in front of Dany.
"Chi-chi!" The old knight didn't stop. With another sword stroke, he severed the pig-rat's foreleg, then circled to the other side and, like a whirlwind, chopped off both its front and back legs at the joints.
"Squeak squeak!" The Rat Cook could no longer move, and its wails within the dragonfire grew weaker and weaker.
With a wave of her hand, Dany extinguished the flames on the severed "pig trotter" and lowered her head for a closer look.
It was as thick as a pig's hind leg—no, even thicker—completely charred, with blood oozing from the severed end.
Unlike the foul-smelling Rat Cook, the severed trotter, once removed from its body, exuded a strange meaty aroma.
More fragrant than pork, lamb, or beef.
"How odd," Dany muttered, kicking the trotter aside. Watching the soul evaporate in the flames, she speculated in confusion, "Could the stench have come from the soul? But the quality of the soul is very high—higher than the Undying's."
Indeed, Dany would never waste a demigod. Whether to fully eliminate the lingering green seer traits or to harvest divine essence, she had to activate her spirit-infusing gift.
From the beginning, golden and green spiritual matter had poured into her sea of consciousness.
The green essence, belonging to the green seer, was absorbed by her second soul within the soulband. The soulband visibly expanded, with runes forming out of thin air, continuously completing her green seer meditation method.
The golden, divine essence all flowed into Black's soul space.
Not because Dany played favorites, but because the "super-god state" had severely damaged the dragon. At this moment, Black lay motionless on the ground, bleeding steaming dragon's blood from his nostrils, mouth, and eyes.
"Squeak—" Suddenly, the Rat Cook, now melted into a puddle of sludge, let out a soul-wrenching scream. A formless wave rushed straight toward Barristan and Aemon, who had been hiding at the edge.
This wasn't possession—it was the same kind of soul attack it had used against Little White and Black earlier.
—As a side note, this soul attack had limited effect on Black.
Little White's soul had been bitten bloody by the mountain-sized white pig-rat—true.
But Black was different. He had absorbed divine essence from the Undying; his soul was inherently much stronger than Little White's. That's why he could endure the Dragon Horn back then, and now withstand the pig-rat's soul attack.
The reason Black was lying on the ground playing dead, and his soul inside the consciousness realm acting weak, was just to lure the rat spirit out of the well shaft.
The Dragon Queen was here to purge evil and uphold justice!!!
…Okay, fine, she also had her eyes on the demigod's divine essence.
"Zha!" Dany launched her soul attack almost simultaneously with the Rat Cook.
The reason she hadn't ended her super-god link with Black was precisely to wait for the rat spirit's final counterattack.
She had misjudged earlier—the Rat Cook could no longer possess people or animals; its soul was locked in the rat body and couldn't escape.
But its spiritual attack was still very real—Little White and Black had both been hit before.
That's why Dany had been guarding against this move. The super-god state wasn't just to boost her fire control—it was mainly to counter the green seer's soul possession.
In this state, she could even take on the Three-Eyed Crow. Okay, just a projection of him—but the Rat Cook wasn't a fully awakened green seer either. It only retained some of the green seer traits from its human days.
"Boom!" The invisible soul shockwaves collided, producing a ripple of visible air distortion and a thunderclap-like explosion in front of Dany.
An explosion on the soul level couldn't be heard by human ears, but could definitely be felt.
Like a bomb going off nearby—the shrapnel and fire don't hit you, but the shockwave alone could throw you several meters and rupture your organs.
"Ugh!" Even just the residual wave made the White Knight and Aemon clutch their heads and groan.
No one noticed that, a dozen meters behind Aemon, a blood-colored ghostly figure was silently creeping closer—an axe raised in its hands.
Before it could even react, it silently shattered within the soul shockwave, vanishing without a trace—as if it had never existed.
"Screeech—" the rat chef let out a final wail before being engulfed by dragonfire, reduced to a large lump of charcoal. Meanwhile, within Dany's sea of soul, the downpour of spirit essence suddenly turned into a spirit essence waterfall.
The green and golden spirit essences were in a 70:30 ratio. With such an enormous amount of spirit energy, even before it was fully consumed, Dany's second soul within the soul-ring was already complete.
An almost perfect version of the Green Seer Meditation Technique.
The soul-ring gradually extended from the edge of the soul sea toward the nine-colored vortex, reaching a balance with its repelling force, forming a stable structure similar to Saturn's rings.
The transformation in Big Black was even more dramatic. His soul space, which had once resembled a lake of lava, was now dyed a faint golden hue, exuding a subtle divine aura.
Dany had an instinctive feeling that she wouldn't need to devour one or two more demigods. With just a few more years of cultivating the Grand Sorcerer Meditation Technique to stabilize her realm and solidify her power, Big Black might undergo a qualitative change—ascending to demigodhood!
A demigod dragon?
He's only two years old!
In fact, Big Black had already changed. He shook his massive head and rose from the ground. His vertical pupils, like pools of blood, were now filled with human-like emotion and intelligence.
"Da—ny—" he roared.
"What?" Dany jumped up, exclaiming in disbelief, "Big Black, you can speak human language?"
"Da—ny—" Big Black nudged his nose against Dany's face, rubbing affectionately.
"Oh my god! You really can talk!" Dany was ecstatic, nearly hysterical. She turned and shouted to Barristan, "Did you hear that? Big Black can speak!"
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"Uh…" The White Knight's expression was odd. "Your Grace, are you feeling alright?"
"What could be wrong with me? Big Black can speak—I'm just too excited," Dany grinned, hugging Big Black's head.
"Have you...perhaps been injured?" Barristan looked concerned and cautiously asked, "Your Grace, you may be too exhausted and experiencing auditory hallucinations. Big Black was only roaring, not actually speaking."
"What? You didn't understand? He was calling my name!" Dany said in disbelief.
"No, I only heard roaring—though it sounded a bit different from usual," the White Knight shook his head.
Dany, uncertain, patted Big Black's snout and said, "Say a few more words so Ser Barristan can hear you."
"Da—ny—" Big Black growled softly.
"Say something different," Dany urged.
"Da—ny—"
"Why don't you just say 'Hodor' while you're at it?" Dany said with a deadpan expression.
"His vocal cords have definitely changed," Barristan said, both surprised and doubtful. "The roar is more complex than before... Could it be Dragon Tongue? Perhaps it's incomprehensible to ordinary people?"
Dany's heart stirred. She exited her dragon-soul state and said, "Big Black, try saying something else."
"Hiss—Gah—" Big Black cried out.
Dany's eyes widened as she scanned the sulking dragon. His voice was indeed a roar, not a deep, neutral human tone, but as Barristan had noted, the intonation had changed.
"What's going on? Could it be that he hasn't fully evolved yet?"
"Is the rat chef dead?" Dany was still puzzled when Aemon shook his head and walked over from outside.
Seeing the now-empty Dragonflame Bell, his expression was extremely complex—as though his worldview had been shattered and reassembled.
Dany absentmindedly said, "This time, it's really dead for good."
As she spoke, she sank into her sea of consciousness to examine the changes within herself and Big Black.
She still couldn't be sure what had changed in Big Black, but within her own sea of consciousness...
For some reason, even after completing the Green Seer Meditation Technique, she still didn't have the Three-Eyed Crow's ability to project soul thoughts or possess people or animals. Without entering dragon-human unity and launching a soul strike, her soul still couldn't leave the spiritual sea on its own.
Yet, she sensed some kind of qualitative transformation—her divine soul was now clear and pure. She could hear the "voice" of the wind.
This sensation was familiar. When she had grasped the gate god's "Song of the Wind," she could hear vast information carried by the wind and even command it to move according to her will.
"So this is the Song of the Wind—the same one the first Green Seer heard while sleeping on the gate god's body? The gate god wasn't lying. He really did sing the Song of the Wind to me. It's just that I only now understand it."
Dany seemed to forget about Big Black's speech altogether. She unconsciously extended her right hand, feeling the cold wind rushing past, intoxicated by the experience.
For the first time, the cold northern wind felt alive and warm. It was like a mischievous little sprite dancing in her palm, playing around her, singing to her, and telling stories from distant lands.
"Ah—Your Grace, your forehead!" Barristan's sudden exclamation pulled Dany out of her trance.
The north wind howled, now cold and stiff, void of any life.
Dany, for reasons unknown, became irritated and shouted, "What are you doing?!"
"Uh…" The old knight froze, stunned by the outburst. After a moment, he stammered, "Your Grace, just now... even though you were right beside me, it felt like your figure was slowly disappearing. I became worried—very anxious. Then I saw a green pentagram glowing on your brow and thought something had happened to you, so I—"
Coming back to herself, Dany's irritation and anger vanished in an instant. She gave Barristan an awkward smile and said, "Sorry, I think I just entered a state of unity between man and nature. Being suddenly interrupted threw my emotions out of balance—I didn't mean to lash out at you."
Barristan's expression softened. He waved it off, saying, "It's fine, it's fine."
Then, looking puzzled, he asked, "What is unity between man and nature?"
"It's when a person becomes one with nature..." Dany rambled on, combining theories she'd read in novels with her recent personal experience to explain it in detail.
Seeing the two foreigners still look confused, she sighed and said, "Just think of it like I was asleep in that state, and getting woken up made me a little cranky!"
"But why were you sleeping standing up? The fight had just ended, and we didn't even see you fall asleep!" Aemon asked, puzzled.
Dany was speechless.
"You said there was a pentagram on my forehead?" she quickly decided to change the topic.
"Yes, when you were in the—"
"Unity between man and nature."
Old Aemon nodded and continued, "When you were in that state, there was a faint green pentagram glowing on your brow. Once you woke up, it disappeared. What was that?"
"Maybe… it was the Song of the Wind."
(End of Chapter)
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