"Daenerys, there will be no more. Tonight is your death night. I regret it. You really shouldn't have come back. I have no problem with you being queen of Slaver's Bay. But you shouldn't have come back, shouldn't have coveted my Iron Throne. I am the true heir to the Seven Kingdoms. You are just an exiled little girl. A little girl who was lucky enough to hatch a dragon. You are not worthy of the Iron Throne."
"Heh, unworthy of the Iron Throne. Unworthy of the Iron Throne..." Daenerys repeated the phrase several times, her face displaying extreme mockery.
“You know what? I have never coveted the so-called Iron Throne. But not because I am unworthy of the Iron Throne, but because... the Iron Throne is unworthy of me.”
“Shut up.” Perhaps it was Daenerys’s sarcastic tone that stung Stannis. He roared in fury.
“I will not allow you to insult the supreme Iron Throne. Tonight, all your arrogance will vanish. Your dragons will belong to me, for I am the true Chosen One. I will end winter and usher in a new era.”
“Stannis…you’re hopeless.” Daenerys stopped arguing and even launched an attack. She hadn’t seen Lu Xuan and vaguely guessed that her teacher might be in even greater trouble. So, without wasting any more time, she drew her sword and charged.
Stannis, with his calculated strategy, caught Daenerys off guard. The last two thousand knights, deployed in full force, subdued the Night's Watch and wildling representatives before they could react. The remaining few hundred then went to surround and kill Daenerys. Some Night's Watch members fought back, but were mercilessly slaughtered by the Knights of the Flame. Dozens of wildling warriors were killed by crossbow bolts, and ultimately they were forced to cower in a corner, watching Daenerys fight hundreds of knights alone.
Daenerys felt the rage within her almost materialize into flames. In her entire life, perhaps only the time she was betrayed by the witch, causing the deaths of Khal Drogo and her own children, could compare.
The combat techniques Lu Xuan had taught her, the techniques refined in her battles against the Others, poured forth like a flood at this moment. Killing became as simple as breathing.
Ten, twenty, fifty—she lost count of how many had died by her sword. By the time even the fearless Knights of the Flaming Hearts began to feel fear, the corpses beneath her feet had littered the entire open space of Black Castle.
In order to maintain the intensity of the siege against her, the surrounding knights had to constantly withdraw men to reinforce the ranks. This back-and-forth created gaps in the Night's Watch's and the wildling representatives' perimeter.
I don't know who first shouted, "For the Dragon Queen!"
The next second, the entire Black Castle was plunged into complete chaos.
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Chapter 299 Far Away (Third Update)
Beneath the weirwood tree, Melisandre lay pale and drenched in sweat. However, Lu Xuan's protective aura remained unbroken.
The red gem in her hand had completely turned to ashes. Seeing that she still couldn't kill Lu Xuan, Melisandre gritted her teeth and directly removed the ruby necklace from her neck.
She gazed at the necklace in her hand with a complex expression. Then, without hesitation, she grasped it. The next second, the flames surrounding Lu Xuan's body intensified once more.
At the same time, Lu Xuan's spiritual body also felt a scorching heat.
"It seems my protective aura won't last much longer. We need to resolve this issue as soon as possible."
"Your mind and body have a special synchronicity. This allows you to exert sufficient power even in a mental state. Concentrate your power and try to break through the illusion around you."
Lu Xuan thought for a moment, then concentrated his strength and swung his sword. Sure enough, as the longsword slid down, the surrounding environment changed in a ripple-like pattern.
"It's working. Increase the force, and perhaps you can forcibly break through the surrounding limitations."
Lu Xuan's expression shifted for a moment, then he swung his sword again. Then another. After six consecutive strikes, Lu Xuan stopped.
At this moment, his surroundings were riddled with holes. Before him lay a frozen wasteland. But taking a step forward revealed the ruins of a city, to his left a desolate forest, and behind him, half a river. The entire world resembled a poorly made painting, a chaotic and illogical mixture of various elements.
"I see, you guessed right. This place is indeed not just a projection of the River of Time, but also mixed with some kind of illusion. But now, you've broken most of the illusion. If you put in a little more effort, you might be able to get out of this illusion."
"It can't be that simple. Right now, the opponent has an absolute advantage. It can keep adjusting itself as I destroy it. As long as I can't find the core of the illusion, I won't be able to truly escape."
As soon as Lu Xuan finished speaking, the surrounding environment changed again. This time, the surrounding snow-covered landscape, rivers, and cities all disappeared. Looking around, Lu Xuan found himself in a vast forest.
"It seems I was right again. The problem has never been with the so-called environment, nor with the projection of the so-called river of time. The root of the problem lies with the Green Prophet. He is the key to everything, and as long as I don't find him, this will never end."
"But this is its home turf. We're under a weirwood tree that's thousands of years old, and that thing is an avatar of the Green Prophet. The entire North is the territory of the Old Gods. Here, it can unleash two hundred percent of its power. It could be hiding anywhere in the river of time. You can't move freely in the river of time, so how are we supposed to find it?"
“It is indeed very difficult. But I just remembered something. Why do you think the Green Prophet and Rahlo are so eager to kill me here?”
"...They probably glimpsed fragments of the future through the river of time. Almost all divine beings possess similar abilities. They can foresee certain dangers in the future and take precautions in advance. This is one of the reasons they have endured for so long. You must understand that as long as one cannot become a true god, there is always the possibility of their demise."
"So you mean they saw that I would be a threat to both of them in the future, so they acted preemptively to eliminate me as a threat?"
"That should be the case."
“That’s interesting. Because isn’t this kind of behavior another form of interference with the timeline? But based on your analysis, the Green Prophet should just be walking around and observing the timeline, but not directly interfering.”
Old Dragon Soul fell silent.
"I'm sorry, I'm not entirely sure either. After all, the Green Prophet has been gone for far too long. So long that only one Green Prophet remains in the world. Legend has it that the Green Prophet's power can be passed down continuously. This last Green Prophet has inherited the power of countless predecessors. Perhaps it has long since transcended the scope of the Green Prophet and reached a higher level."
Lu Xuan nodded slightly. However, he still had some questions in his mind that he didn't voice. For example, did the Green Prophet foresee that Lu Xuan would kill it in the future, and therefore prepare to kill Lu Xuan preemptively?
This leads to two possible outcomes: either it successfully kills Lu Xuan, or it kills him. However, this creates a time paradox. Since it killed Lu Xuan within this specific timeframe, the future scenario of Lu Xuan killing it no longer exists. How then could it have foreseen this future?
Another possibility is that it failed to kill Lu Xuan. Lu Xuan, therefore, hated it and killed it in the future. This is a fatalistic outcome. Whether it saw the result or not, it didn't change anything. Therefore, everything it did was meaningless.
At the same time, regardless of the outcome, the Green Prophet's actions are undeniably interference with the timeline. And now, the Green Prophet is not only interfering with the timeline himself, but also pulling Lu Xuan's spiritual body into the projection of the river of time.
When Lu Xuan's mind reached this point, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him. He froze, then tried to grasp that spark of inspiration.
At this moment, the old dragon soul spoke again.
“Your time is running out; I can already feel the heat. You need to break through the surroundings immediately and find the core of the illusion. The Green Prophet should be hiding inside.”
But this time, Lu Xuan didn't swing his sword. Instead, he spoke in a strange tone.
"I just noticed a problem. In this state, although my spiritual body projects the power of my physical body almost perfectly, it cannot recover as quickly as my physical body once it is depleted. Moreover, my physical body is still under attack. Therefore, this makes my spiritual body recover even more slowly."
The attack just now consumed nearly thirty percent of my power. But it didn't cause the slightest damage to the surrounding illusion. If this happens three times, I'll be completely defenseless. This is extremely dangerous for me.
"But there's no other way now. You can't hold out here any longer until your mental and physical timelines overlap. That woman outside will burn you alive very soon."