"Your size is impressive. You may not be a demigod, but you're definitely a top-tier legendary creature."
Dany looked the black chimp over with ill-hidden intent and assessed, "With you here, maybe you can replace those skeletons inside the cave."
"Hiss-gah—" Big Black's eyes instantly glinted with ferocity as he glared at Kong with predatory hostility.
"Wooo—" The gorilla shrank back and let out two bowl-sized tears in grievance.
Seeing such a massive creature make such a pitiful face, Dany's heart softened. She spoke gently: "We Targaryens also cremate our dead.
"And as you've seen, the whole valley is nearly filled with bones. It really needs cleaning up.
"Besides, bones turn into ashes after burning.
"Go dig a pit in the cave. Later you can bury your ancestors, all eighteen generations of them, and let your whole lineage reunite. Isn't that wonderful?"
Kong blinked his misty, dazed eyes and stopped crying.
Fifteen minutes later, thick gray-black smoke billowed out of the enormous cavern. Kong crouched on the ground with his back to the cave entrance, staring blankly at the charred valley spread out before him, dazed and foolish, lost in unknown thoughts.
Inside the stone cave, Dany's condition was… peculiar.
After her previous fire-tempering cultivation, dragonfire could no longer harm her. So now she switched to three kinds of divine dragonfire: the Archon's Sacred Flame, the Smith's Forge Flame, and the Mother's Holy Flame.
Big Black currently possessed three divine authorities—his original Lightbringer Archon, plus Smith and Mother.
Each authority corresponded to a different divine power, and each divine power fueled a different divine dragonfire.
Gold, glaze-red, and milky-white—three colors of divine dragonfire merged into a tricolored lotus platform on which the Dragon Queen sat cross-legged, unclothed.
Yes, in essence, it was still the Fire-Ladder Technique.
Big Black exhaled dragonfire, and a forest-dense mass of corpses burned in the blood-red flames, forming a vast sea of fire.
The tricolored lotus platform floated atop that fiery sea.
Dany split her thoughts, multitasking: using fire manipulation to maintain the lotus platform; using the Fire-Ladder Technique to keep herself suspended upon it; controlling Big Black's dragonfire to prevent heat loss; extracting spirit-essence from the flames; dividing that essence into two parts—binding the beta-type active essence with the Mother's divinity to form Holy Healing, and channeling the rest into the foundation of her meditation.
The ferocious black dragon lay prone on the ground, occasionally sweeping dragonfire left and right; fire heaps rose like dense forests, white bones as thick as tree trunks crackling like beans roasting, burning into pale ashes bit by bit. Above the sea of fire, the vast tricolored lotus drifted with the flames. Upon it, the Dragon Queen meditated with eyes closed, serene, pure as carved jade, unstained by ash, her silver hair floating like seaweed in the fire. Holy and majestic, she resembled a goddess of flame.
"Rumble—"
Within the fiery forest, the white "trees" burned away, and the skeletal structures collapsed, revealing a massive pale-golden skeleton.
The giant ape exceeded fifty meters, its ribs like sky-holding pillars. Unlike the gray-white (too long deceased) or jade-white bones of others, its bones were faintly golden.
In the firelight, the pale-gold bones radiated a subtle pressure.
Ordinary dragonfire could not burn them.
Dany opened her eyes, stunned as she examined the golden bones.
"The Ape King? Great Ape King? It must have been a demigod in life!"
Delighted, she ordered Big Black: "Use the Smith's divine fire!"
"Hiss-gah—" A flicker of excitement passed through Big Black's blood-red eyes.
"I'm tired," he said wearily.
"Oh right, I almost forgot—the bat spirit's divinity hasn't been given to you yet." Dany smiled oddly, opened the Pool of Faith, and poured all the divinity into Big Black.
She hadn't actually forgotten; Dany had guessed that this batch of divinity wouldn't be enough for Big Black to unlock a new authority. She had planned to take it home and distribute it among Little Green, Little White, Little Gold, and Little Red—but Big Black sensed that his mother no longer intended to play favorites.
As she expected, Big Black still failed to unlock a third Seven-God authority—about a twenty-percent gap remained.
The bat spirit may indeed have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, but its divine power was truly weak.
Even adding the tens of thousands of vampire bats, it still couldn't match the divinity of a single Crab King.
Well, she was being too harsh.
The Crab King belonged to the "state-enterprise executive" category.
The Rhoyne River God system was at least on the level of a "railway bureau"-tier central enterprise.
But the bat spirit was a mere street vendor, running a tiny personal business.
The two couldn't be compared.
Once empowered by the missing divinity, Big Black's exhaustion vanished. With renewed vigor, he raised his neck proudly and unleashed the Smith's glaze-red dragonfire.
Dany simultaneously used fire manipulation to reshape the flames into a golden-bell-shaped furnace, enveloping the golden skeleton and burning it.
"Oh, Seven bless us… hahaha!"
As expected, in the next moment, the bones cracked and ignited in the Smith's divine fire.
And then Dany nearly went mad with joy.
Just as she had hoped, a strange type of divinity drifted into her mind-sea in scattered threads.
She called it strange because this divinity could actually be absorbed by her.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Dany never wasted divinity when slaying gods—her dragon soul was unique, devouring all divine power like food.
Normally, divinity could only be absorbed under two circumstances: the absorber was a demigod whose attributes didn't severely conflict with the divinity's nature (good vs. evil, holy vs. corrupt, etc.); or the absorber wasn't a demigod but possessed perfect affinity with that specific divinity.
For example, during the Meereen dragon war, Dany absorbed the ram-egg divinity taken from Banni.
Or beyond the Wall, Jon—despite not being a demigod—could perfectly absorb the "Azor Ahai Destiny" divinity Dany received, his soul even being completed and elevated into a Holy Spirit.
Similarly, the ram-egg could absorb Dany, and Azor Ahai could absorb Jon.
Thus the ram-egg plotted against Dany, and Azor Ahai had been laying out Jon's fate since six thousand years ago.
Dany believed the divinity she was receiving now was special because anyone could absorb it, ignoring all attribute conflicts.
"Why is it like this?" she wondered.
She tentatively absorbed a thread of divinity.
Her total magic power did not increase, its level did not rise, and it gained no trace of Law-Song attributes.
The ram-egg's divinity had altered her fire-sorcerer power—its energy level rose, and it carried a faint breath of the Song of Fire.
Then Dany absorbed another strand. And another. And another…
Finally, a change appeared.
Dany gasped repeatedly: "A treasure… this is a true divine treasure!"
There was no change in her magic. The change came from her body.Previously, the increase had been so small that Dany didn't feel anything, but once her physical strength increased by one-tenth, any warrior would be able to sense the transformation in their body.
"What kind of divinity is this?" Dany greedily absorbed every strand of divinity extracted from the bones while pondering.
First, she could be certain that the owner of this corpse had at least been a demigod, and might even have grasped part of the Song of Law. Otherwise, the divinity would not have remained in the bones for so long.
With this premise, she could further deduce that this peculiar divinity came from the Song of Law comprehended by the Great Ape King.
"It's very possible that King Kong's ancestor condensed part of the Song of Strength or the Song of the Body." Dany began to understand.
"Huh? Why did it stop?"
She had been squinting, savoring the rapid surge of strength. Suddenly, she realized she could no longer absorb the divine power of strength.
"Did I reach the limit of strength already? But this amount is so small…"
Dany squeezed her fist in confusion. Her small, jade-white fist seemed only a bit more than twice as strong as before. Forget shattering the void with one punch—she couldn't even kill a cow.
She looked down at her body. Her arms were rounded and firm, well-proportioned; her chest hadn't grown and remained its perfect teardrop shape instead of turning into blocky slabs of iron; her abdomen was still flexible and toned, with soft lines.
Good. She hadn't turned into one of those bodybuilding "King Kong Barbies."
Divinity was truly fantastical.
"Crack, crack." As she twisted her joints, crisp popping sounds rang out. It felt as if her body were rusted, or like newly assembled machinery that still needed to be broken in.
One had to understand that Dany's swordsmanship had reached the peak of "lifting heavy as though it were light," and she was on the verge of entering the third realm, "lifting light as though it were heavy." Now, she was like a beginner who had just learned the sword, unable to achieve even the first realm of seamless control.
"It looks like I'll need a few days of hard practice when I get back. If I don't restore my swordsmanship, I won't dare step onto a battlefield no matter how strong I am!"
Dany had indeed reached the limit of human strength.
This world was extraordinary and fantastical, but the overall level was too low. Without mixed bloodlines from other races—such as giants, centaurs, or King Kong—an ordinary person's strength limit was 2.5. The reference point was a sturdy adult male, a well-trained knight from a noble household set as 1.0. (Common folk starved in winter, underdeveloped, and were not suitable as a baseline.)
Dany had been around 1.4 before. After absorbing the divinity of the Song of Strength, she reached the ordinary human limit.
Yes, the Mountain before he was demonized was roughly at this level.
Hodor, due to his giant bloodline, had about 4.0 strength. Fighting ordinary people was like an adult fighting children.
"Boom!"
The golden skeleton burned into ashes, and the piled bones collapsed like blocks.
Dany had used about one-quarter of the divinity; three-quarters remained.
"Screee—" Big Black's bowl-sized eyes looked over pitifully.
"It's useless to you, all right? First finish burning the bones. We need to see if there are any more golden skulls." Dany said helplessly.
Dragons were special. No matter what type of divinity they absorbed, it would all be converted into pure draconic might—enhancing the dragon's soul quality (and improving the number of soul-awakened traits).
Draconic might also had the side effect of enhancing dragonfire and the physical body.
Giving Big Black a fragment of the Song of Strength was no different from giving him any other divinity.
A total waste.
"Roar roar!" King Kong howled.
Its spiritual sense was extremely sharp; it seemed to have sensed some unusual change or treasure within the cave.
Hiding behind a bend in the stone tunnel for cover, it poked out its head. Its furry arm shielded its forehead as it endured the heat strong enough to melt gold and iron.
Its millstone-sized eyes looked at Dany pitifully.
"You little creature… you really are cunning like a monkey. Are you sure you're not an ape but actually just a big monkey?"
For some reason, even across dozens of meters, Dany understood what it was thinking just by its expression.
"Screee—" When Dany understood, Big Black understood as well and roared angrily at King Kong.
A thought flashed through Dany's mind. She recalled something she had read in a book describing Sothoros and asked, "King Kong, you're the local tyrant here. Do you know where any other demigods are?"
It was said that this wild continent was filled with dark evil gods.
King Kong's ancestors and the bat spirit proved this.
Flames roared, bones crackled, and King Kong couldn't hear Dany clearly. It stared at her with blank confusion.
"Big Black!" Dany called out, using the dragon as a living loudspeaker.
Big Black paused its fire-breathing and shouted Dany's meaning twenty times—complete with gestures.
Uh… King Kong didn't understand the first time.
"Roar roar!" King Kong nodded repeatedly.
"When you find one, I'll give you a share of the reward." Dany promised.
Dany's Physical Attributes
Strength: 2.5Speed: 1.7 (1.5 when wearing Valyrian-steel armor and wielding a greatsword)
Very weak (below 0.5, women) → Weak (0.5–1.0, commoners) → Normal (1.0, average noble knight) → Strong (1.0–1.5) → Very strong (1.5–2.0) → Monster (2.0–2.5) → Giant (5–10)
Strength has no lower limit but does have an upper limit.The strength limit for ordinary humans is 2.5.Giants have a limit of 10.Dragons, sea monsters, and other non-human species are not included.
Skill: Lifting heavy as though it were light (Peak)
Beginner → Minor skill → Skilled with blades → Seamless control → Lifting heavy as light → Lifting light as heavy → Transcendent (each stage has four levels: initial, intermediate, advanced, and peak)
(End of Chapter)
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