The moment the three set foot on Westeros, far away in the wastelands of Everwinter, beneath a massive weirwood tree, a gaunt face, its entire body entangled with the tree's roots, slowly opened its eyes.
His skin was pale, except for red spots on his neck and cheeks. He also had long, thin, pale hair that reached to the ground. He was missing one eye, and the other was red. Weirwood roots coiled around his body, including his legs and the empty eye socket.
For a fleeting moment, one could even see a hint of confusion in that deep gaze. Because it could see nothing now. As the last Green Prophet, he possessed an Ultimate Green Vision unmatched by any other shapeshifter. He could see the past and accurately predict certain periods of the future.
But now, nothing is left. The future has become a blur; nothing can be seen.
It twisted its neck with difficulty, and a tree root that had pierced through its hollow eye made a grating creak as it twisted.
A nearby Forest Child was startled. He stared in astonishment at the Green Prophet's unusual action, his face filled with confusion.
The Green Prophet did not respond to his servant. Instead, he turned and gazed into the distance, his gaze seemingly piercing through the cave walls and tree roots, revealing scenes thousands of miles away. As he did so, hundreds of crows that had been perched on the weirwood took flight, heading south...
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Chapter 283 The Real World
The Citadel's guards are not entirely composed of knights from House Hightower. They also have their own trained squires. Some children adopted by the Citadel but not qualified to become maesters are trained to become guards.
Don't deny the Citadel's power to brainwash people. As the center of knowledge in this world, the scholars here are, in terms of rank, far superior to the incompetent lords of Westeros. It's basically like comparing a Silver Saint to a King. Therefore, the guards here are exceptionally loyal.
The City of Schools, as its name suggests, is a true city. It even has a small dock called the Weeping Dock.
They passed the scribe's desk, the weeping docks, and the steward's quarters. Lu Xuan and Daenerys entered the deepest part of the Citadel.
Here, a huge, ancient weirwood tree almost completely covered the courtyard. Countless crows perched on it. The arrival of the two seemed to startle some of the crows, but instead of scattering like normal crows, they quietly turned their heads and looked at the two people under the tree.
Lu Xuan instinctively sensed that some kind of gaze was watching him. He turned around and looked around, only to see the jagged shadows of the weirwood trees in the moonlight.
'Weirwood!' Lu Xuan mused. He looked up and saw hundreds of crows perched quietly in the moonlight. At first glance, there was nothing particularly special about them.
Lu Xuan smiled slightly, gently drew his long sword from his waist, and slashed at the trunk of the weirwood tree.
"What's wrong?" Daenerys was clearly unaware of the problem.
"It's nothing, just saying hello to a peeping tom," Lu Xuan said, his longsword suddenly blurring slightly. The next second, a huge gash appeared silently on the trunk of the weirwood tree. Two or three more strikes and the ancient weirwood tree would be severed in two.
Even though his true energy is now much stronger, Lu Xuan hasn't abandoned many of his techniques. On the contrary, he's still practicing and even refining the parrying technique derived from Miyamoto Musashi. Combined with the effects of his true energy, he can unleash devastating moves with every gesture.
As expected, when the sword struck, about a dozen out of the hundreds of crows suddenly opened their eyes, took flight, and flew into the distance. The feeling of being watched vanished.
"Alright, let's continue."
The City's library looks very old, but its overall structure is actually very sturdy. All the sealing measures are also very thorough, as is typical of a library.
Inside the library is a huge and complex lighting system. It uses various mirrors to reflect sunlight, sending light to every corner of the library to prevent dim lighting from hindering reading. This system is equally effective with moonlight.
Lu Xuan glanced at it a few times and quickly figured out the entire system. Then, he turned the mechanism to let moonlight into the hall, and began searching for books with Daenerys.
They came in with several objectives: research on the destruction of Valyria, the history of House Targaryen, the Citadel's research on dragons, and also magic, the White Walkers, and other such things, all documented within the Citadel.
Of course, Lu Xuan wasn't particularly interested in these things. He came in this time to verify a hypothesis he had. However, he felt that those things might not be kept in the publicly accessible library.
Daenerys seemed to have made some progress. Lu Xuan went over to take a look and saw that Daenerys had found a record about the Targaryen Civil War, also known as the Dance of the Dragons.
"I've heard that story before, but it's nowhere near as detailed as this account. It's like..."
"As if these so-called academics had personally experienced it?"
“That’s right. That’s the feeling. Look at these records. They even know some details that outsiders should absolutely not know.”
“That’s very interesting. Try to gather as much information as possible. I’m going to take a look ahead.”
"OK."
Lu Xuan passed through the public library and arrived at an office area. These were the offices or laboratories of some highly educated scholars. They conducted research here in fields such as history, heraldry, medicine, and agriculture.
Theoretically, that should be the case. However, upon entering the first laboratory, Lu Xuan discovered an unexpected delight: a massive mechanical crossbow was under construction. Lu Xuan easily found its name in the accompanying documents: the Dragon Hunter Crossbow!
"So it's starting already?" Lu Xuan chuckled, casually changing a few data points. Then he walked into the next laboratory.
This room was completely different from the spacious, enormous laboratory before. It wasn't large, but it was filled with various sophisticated instruments. It looked like a medical research lab. However, after reviewing the data inside, Lu Xuan discovered that they were researching poisons... poisons specifically for dragons!!
"This is really... not surprising at all," Lu Xuan muttered, casually changing a few data points before continuing deeper into the area.
Footsteps approached; it was two apprentices on night patrol. Lu Xuan didn't care and easily avoided them. Actually, whether he avoided them or not didn't matter. Given Lu Xuan and Daenerys's combined strength, even if they alerted the Citadel, they could easily break out. However, Lu Xuan wanted to stay there a little longer, so he avoided them.
The later laboratories weren't as focused. Lu Xuan noticed that these scholars were also researching methods for casting Valyrian steel—not recasting, but manufacturing it from scratch. However, progress didn't seem to be going very smoothly.
There was also research on new armor, weapons, and various battle formations. The research on battle formations further indicated how to deal with enemies possessing dragons. These old guys weren't entirely theoretical; many of the scenarios they described were quite insightful. Lu Xuan jotted down these things, preparing to make some targeted arrangements.
Deeper down the corridor were some small offices, or rather, some materials for regional theoretical research. Lu Xuan actually wanted to complain about the illogical layout. These theoretical research materials should, in principle, be closer to the main library.
However, once inside, he realized his mistake. Each of these offices was a small library, containing at least a hundred books that couldn't be found elsewhere.
Lu Xuan flipped through the books; most were secret records about the various families of Westeros. Lu Xuan estimated that even the families themselves might not have such detailed records. Lu Xuan wasn't particularly interested in these things. However, one book in particular caught his attention.
Lu Xuan reached out and picked up the book, the title of which was clearly printed as "The Real World".
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Chapter 284 Moonlight...Like Blood
"We analyzed the sources of all the turmoil in this world... and finally discovered that dragons and magic are the root of all chaos. Those filthy, evil forces give those mediocre humans undue ambition... Therefore, we will destroy magic, destroy dragons, and destroy these sources of turmoil. We will build a world without magic, without dragons, without glass candles, our own... true world."