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Chapter 264 The Troublesome Affairs of Westeros (Happy Dragon Boat Festival)
Having regained its vitality, Astabo not only escaped the damage of the war but flourished even more. Although the nine free city-states had begun discussing sending troops against Daenerys, according to Lu Xuan's intelligence, they hadn't even chosen a venue for their meeting yet...
A key sign of Astapor's return to its former prosperity was the frequent return of merchants from Westeros to conduct business. Lu Xuan was also able to glean updates on Westeros from these merchants.
To this end, Daenerys held a special banquet to entertain the merchants from Westeros.
The overall situation was not much different from what Lu Xuan remembered. Although there were some minor changes, they were negligible because Lu Xuan had never set foot on that continent.
This period coincided with the immediate aftermath of the Red Wedding. In other words, House Stark was temporarily out of the game. Only a few late-game heroes remained, scrambling for resources to develop their strength. House Lannister had achieved a resounding victory, but things were already showing signs of reaching their peak.
If Lu Xuan were in Tywin's position, he would try to de-escalate the situation, share some benefits, and ease tensions. However, Westeros' tradition is that the winner takes all. This isn't necessarily wrong. It's just that the Lannisters' way of winning is rather unsightly.
This sent a dangerous signal to the whole of Westeros. Everyone could stop following the rules. Also, I wonder if playing PUBG lowered my IQ.
Tywin and Cersei teamed up to drive Tyrion to his doom. Honestly, given the Lannisters' influence at the time, creating another scapegoat wouldn't have been a problem. Did they really have to push Tyrion to his death? Lu Xuan later read some discussion threads about this.
Many people say that King's Landing will inevitably be destroyed in the end. But that person is not Daenerys Targaryen, but Tyrion Lannister. His argument is based on his hysterical accusations during his trial.
"I wish I were the monster you all talk about, I wish I had enough poison to kill you all..."
Several details demonstrate Tyrion's extreme hatred for everyone in King's Landing. Although in the TV series, he was transformed into a hypocritical saint by some unknown force (a characteristic of American TV series, where the protagonist becomes increasingly sanctimonious and manipulative as the story progresses...), we can ignore the whimsical interpretation of the incompetent writers.
The Red Wedding is a significant historical turning point in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. The end of this grand event, in a sense, signifies the conclusion of the game of power. The main storyline begins to unfold.
This made Lu Xuan really eager to know what was happening at the Wall. He didn't really care about the mess in Westeros. A bunch of corrupt nobles, their souls consumed by the lust for power. People like Cersei would rather see the whole world destroyed than send a single soldier to fight the White Walkers. And the key was that there were far more than one such idiot.
Little Rose dreams of marrying the king. However, the newly enthroned king lacks the self-awareness of a five-year-old. He's easily brainwashed by the High Sparrow. Sometimes, Lu Xuan even thinks the High Sparrow is the real high-level player—a level above Tywin Lannister. But what good is he?
As the archbishop of the Seven Gods, he should have been perfectly aware that his faith was merely in seven pieces of wood. Since the Seven Gods never performed any miracles in the original story, it can essentially be understood as a symbolic belief. Yet, this guy still managed to rise to power by using the name of the Seven Gods.
After ascending to power, he sold off church decorations to help the poor, earning him immense praise. He also gained the support of the Lannister family by supporting Tommen's rise to power, and reorganized the church's military forces. However, he quickly used this power to suppress the Tyrell family and the Lannister family's prestige in King's Landing, while expanding his own military strength.
This clearly shows that this person is a master strategist who has been plotting for a long time. He rose to power through religion in a chaotic world. Such people always manage to stir up trouble, especially since Tywin Lannister was no longer in power in King's Landing in its later stages. Most of the high-ranking officials were practically brain-dead. Yet, this commoner managed to secure a place for himself.
Landau Tarly, von Kaelanister, and others all commanded large armies. If they could simply storm the cathedral and kill this guy immediately, nothing else would happen. Lu Xuan refused to believe that those so-called believers would rebel and fight the regular army head-on to avenge the archbishop.
The key point is that various details indicate that those in power in Westeros have never cared about the lives of these commoners. But now, they're starting to worry about them...
The merchants of Westeros, trembling with fear, enjoyed Daenerys's hospitality. In return, they merely recounted some well-known facts about Westeros. This deeply moved the merchants, given Daenerys's current high reputation.
Her effortless defeat of the combined forces of Yunkai and Meereen earned her the recognition of merchants outside the nine city-states. Crucially, she reduced commercial taxes, providing these merchants with tangible benefits. And at this banquet, she even publicly displayed her dragon.
Drogon, with his enormous body like a bull, descended from the sky and landed in the middle of the open-air banquet. The merchants scattered in terror, thinking the Dragon Queen was going to feed them all to the dragons. But they soon realized that the dragons did not attack them.
A few daring merchants tentatively returned to the table, only to find that the maids had changed their tableware, and the banquet proceeded as usual.
This was an unprecedented experience. Dragons, extinct for over three hundred years, had reappeared before the Westeros people. They were even dining with a dragon.
Several centaur guards carried a skinned ox into the banquet and placed it before Drogon. Drogon sniffed it, quite satisfied with the fresh beef. Although it had already hunted once in the wild that day, it didn't mind eating another ox.
Blazing flames erupted, charring the cow before him. Then, Zhuogeng devoured it with terrifying bite force, tearing the cow apart and swallowing it as easily as a human eating tofu. In less than two minutes, he had devoured the entire cow.
The bloody scene initially terrified the guests. But they were soon captivated by the dragon's wildness. This ferocious creature, upon closer inspection, sometimes possessed a wild beauty.
Daenerys looked at the scene before her and a slight smile appeared on her lips.
"Don't be afraid, I am the Mother of Dragons, and she obeys our commands. Would any of you like to come up and touch her?"
Those who travel thousands of miles to Essos to do business are all ruthless characters with an adventurous spirit at their core. Soon, a middle-aged man stood up and walked tremblingly to Drogon.
"Don't be afraid, it won't hurt you."
The man slowly and gently stroked Zhuo Geng's back.
"By the Seven Gods, I am touching history."
“No, this is not history, this is the future,” Daenerys said firmly.
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Chapter 265 The First Generation of Imperial Guards
On the training field, Daenerys manipulated a ball of flame in her hand, making it dance back and forth. A longsword of fine steel melted into molten iron in seconds within the flames. Dragonfire was indeed different from real fire; its destructive power even made Lu Xuan take notice.
After his true energy recovered, he could basically use all the Five Elements spells he had developed before. However, his fire element spells were far inferior to his current dragon flames in terms of physical destruction. But they did have the effect of burning the soul, so it can only be said that each had its own advantages and disadvantages.
Lu Xuan's magical abilities mostly originated from Taoism. In ancient Chinese Taoist legends, fire-based magic is incredibly diverse. Among them, the Taiyin and Taiyang True Fires, the Six Ding Divine Fire, the Samadhi True Fire, and the Nanming Li Fire are all top-tier fire-based techniques. However, Lu Xuan currently cannot access those levels of magic.
The flames in her hands transformed once more, and at Daenerys's will, they became a fire dragon. Though still somewhat crude, the maids in the distance were so astonished that they knelt on the ground, proclaiming, "Dragon God, behold!"
Daenerys adhered to Lu Xuan's training principles, not blindly enhancing her flames, but instead attempting to develop them towards precision. Lu Xuan had examined her body. Her physical body and her progress at the spiritual level were somewhat mismatched, making her inherently unable to withstand excessively powerful flames.
Once overloaded, the dizziness that had occurred before would reappear. Lu Xuan felt that this was because, with his prompting, her progress in mental cultivation had been too rapid.
The lifelike fire dragon vanished, and Daenerys stopped, her face covered in sweat. Seeing her pleading expression, Lu Xuan smiled and said...
“Very good. You have an unparalleled talent in the manipulation of fire magic.”
To be precise, the fire Daenerys uses is no longer simply fire magic. It's essentially a simple law of fire—a law of fire born from the simulation of dragon fire, a law suited to her own nature.
She reached the Law level right from the start. This is enough to demonstrate how extraordinary Daenerys's bloodline talent is. However, this talent also brings her some limitations. For example, her comprehension of other Laws is much weaker. Well, for most people, this isn't really a problem.