"Who is resurrecting Sir Richard?" Old Quincy asked curiously.
"It should be Daenerys. In all of Westeros, only she can use resurrection magic now," the High Sparrow sighed.
"This is outrageous. One moment she's issuing indulgences to send people to Heaven, the next she's resurrecting them without even a word of warning.
She treats Heaven as if it were her own castle, doing whatever she pleases."
Old Quincy habitually began criticizing Saint Dany in front of the Holy Sparrow.
Speaking ill of one deputy minister in front of another deputy minister from the same department is sure to win favor with the latter.
This was the valuable experience Old Quincy had gained over decades as a minor noble.
Well, the Seven Gods are the true minister.
But before he could finish speaking, another familiar chill rose from his back, leaving his whole body cold.
This time, however, it was different from before. A circle of milky-white light surrounded him.
At a glance, it looked somewhat similar to the scene when Richard had left earlier.
"Ah, Your Grace, what's happening?" Old Quincy cried out in alarm.
"You're being removed from Heaven?!" The High Sparrow's expression changed drastically.
"Oh no, who is resurrecting me? Your Holiness, I'm about to be revived. Could you grant me a set of Saint Knight armor?
I swear I will be a battle god in the mortal world, spreading the glory of the Seven!
I will strive to slay the Others, protect the people of the Seven Kingdoms, and assist the Holy Son of the Seven, Daenerys, in ending the Long Night!" Old Quincy looked at the High Sparrow with eager anticipation and shouted excitedly.
Yet as he cried out loudly, the white halo around him slowly faded.
"Huh? I'm not leaving Heaven?" Old Quincy was utterly confused and deeply disappointed.
Heaven was wonderful, but also a little dull. If he could return to the mortal world as a war god, die gloriously in battle, and then come back, wouldn't that be even better?
Turning his head, the old knight saw the High Sparrow staring wide-eyed, as if he had just seen an Other.
"What's wrong?" he asked in confusion. "Why did my resurrection fail?"
"No," the High Sparrow said with a complicated look, picking up his dropped jaw from the ground. "You weren't resurrected. Your piety level dropped, and you were on the verge of being expelled from Heaven."
"What? Expelled from Heaven? Why? I haven't done anything to blaspheme the Seven!" Old Quincy was nearly frightened out of his wits.
"Perhaps you should recite the Seven-Pointed Star a few more times, and then carefully reflect on your daily actions, words, and thoughts," the High Sparrow said sternly.
In truth, he did not know what had caused Old Quincy's faith level to suddenly plummet. Everything he had said before seemed perfectly normal.
Well, the High Sparrow also felt that the Dragon Queen treated Heaven too much like her own home.
He had even asked the Mother about it, and she had replied with a single question: Compared to ruling a magnificent Heavenly Island on your own, what does it matter if Daenerys places a few people on your island?
Indeed, the Heavenly Island was under his administration. The Dragon Queen was merely borrowing a small piece of land to house a few idle souls.
Now she had become the sole Holy Son of the Seven and must end the Long Night and save the world.
In the end, it was still his fault for dying too early.
If he were still alive, it would probably be he, the High Sparrow, manifesting miracles before the masses, issuing indulgences one moment and resurrecting people the next.
By the way, could those indulgences actually be sold for money?
Giving them away for free, wasn't that too generous?
The High Sparrow let his thoughts wander.
"Why wasn't he expelled?" King Aegon asked curiously.
"Just now, his piety level suddenly became acceptable again. Very strange," the High Sparrow replied, equally puzzled.
"So that means I was hovering right on the threshold for ascending to Heaven?" Old Quincy asked in horror.
He felt as though one foot had already stepped beyond a ten-thousand-foot cliff, with a freezing wind blowing up from below. It was terrifying.
"More or less," the High Sparrow nodded.
"Your Holiness, you must save me! I don't want to leave Heaven." Old Quincy burst into tears.
"In the future, stop idling around with those Night's Watch men. Learn from Aegon. Whenever you have time, recite the Seven-Pointed Star. He can now recite the entire scripture from memory," the High Sparrow sighed.
That morning, when Drogon left Winterfell and flew toward Karhold, a group of villagers from Long Lake Village fled along the White Knife River in sleds, all the way to the gates of Winterfell.
Long Lake stretches three hundred kilometers in length, shaped like a willow leaf, and serves as the source of the thousand-kilometer-long White Knife River. It lies five hundred kilometers north of Winterfell, at the edge of the lands directly ruled by House Stark.
There were many small villages around Long Lake. In previous years, even when winter arrived, the villagers had never left their homeland. Long Lake was rich in resources. By drilling holes through the frozen surface, they could easily catch enough freshwater fish to feed their families.
Now, wights had begun harassing their villages, and the villagers had no choice but to leave.
There were no other territories between Long Lake and Winterfell, only open ground. The army of the Others was very close to Winterfell.
That same morning, the Dragon Queen's wyvern legion brought a second group of volunteer knights to Winterfell.
It was also a military observation group.
Dany did not want to commit too much of her strength to Winterfell, but she understood one principle: experience can only be gained through accumulation.
The Long Night had to be ended. The wights, the Others, and the Other King all had to be eliminated. This was something she could not avoid.
So she treated Winterfell as a training ground, allowing her subordinates to come and gain experience fighting the army of the Others.
But when she truly saw Old Barristan, Clinton, and the others she knew so well, she began to worry again, afraid they might die at Winterfell.
She told Bronn and the Old Crab to watch more, learn more, and do less. They immediately understood and carried it out perfectly, ensuring they would live to see the end.
Even if Dany were to tell old Barristan directly not to risk his life for Winterfell, would he listen?
If he truly listened, he would no longer be "the Bold" Barristan.
Of course, she had prepared "tickets to heaven" for all of them, but a soul going to heaven did not mean she suffered no loss.
If old Barristan died, she would lose a wise mentor and trusted friend, and a true Queen's Hand in all but name.
If the Great Bear died, she would lose a guardian knight worthy of entrusting her life to.
Even if Gars, the Darkstar, Quentyn, and the others fell in battle, she would lose loyal and capable followers.
Therefore, when Barristan, Jon Connington, Gerold Dayne, Quentyn Martell, and the other knights clad in silver-blue armor dismounted from the wyvern's back amid the cheers of the northern lords, and when the Great Black saw the mutilated corpse hanging from the flagpole of Karhold, Dany decided to test both the resurrection spell and the Descending Deity spell.
Her followers could die, but they had to accompany her through the Long Night, through this arduous yet glorious final journey.
And if she could not even achieve resurrection, what kind of Stranger would she be?
The Stranger was the god of death.
As for the Descending Deity—
The Descending Deity based on the "Song of Vajra Power" rune had actually already been developed through her experiments on the dwarf.
Originally, if the dwarf had not exploded after activation, and if he had truly survived and been able to invoke the Descending Deity before the Long Night arrived, this sorcery would have been widely implemented among her followers.
But the dwarf had lost contact.
Because he lived day and night with Jenny, he did not dare reactivate the Paladin's Mark, and the power of faith in the Seven Gods was the energy source required to initiate the Descending Deity.
Thus, although the Descending Deity had been developed months ago, Dany still did not know whether it would succeed or what flaws it might have.
And so the unfortunate Ser Richard became the second experimental subject to have the Descending Deity inscribed upon him after the dwarf.
A dual experiment, testing both resurrection and the Descending Deity.
To be honest, at first Dany had only intended to study resurrection.
If both soul and body were well preserved, Mother Dany could also perform resurrection.
Depending on whether negative spiritual essence remained in the body after revival, the Mother's resurrection was divided into two types: perfect and imperfect.
A living person normally contains only positive spiritual essence. After death, part of that positive essence transforms into negative spiritual essence.
After a period of time, the yin and yang essences reach equilibrium. Then, as the corpse decays, both types of essence gradually dissipate into heaven and earth.
Whether it was the Others or the corpse monsters created by Yi Ti necromancers, such as the Mountain, all had their positive essence extracted or transformed. From flesh to remnant soul, they were composed entirely of negative spiritual essence.
R'hllor's resurrection would extract the most precious traits from the dead person's soul, then forcibly stuff the soul back into the broken body.
This caused the resurrected to become inhuman in both soul and flesh.
Because the negative spiritual essence within both body and soul was neither removed nor transformed, their bodies were no different from those of the dead.
Thus, whether it was Catelyn or the early Lord of Lightning, after being resurrected they no longer needed to eat or sleep, did not fear cold or heat, did not excrete, and their wounds could not heal. Many physiological functions of the living were gone.
Because the dead have no such functions.
This kind of resurrection was technically simple and low in cost.
As long as there was a soul and a remnant body, Stranger Dany could accomplish it.
But Dany did not want to resurrect a monster.
If not for the divine power of the Song of Water accidentally "refining" the negative spiritual essence, the High Sparrow would have died back then.
Now that she no longer possessed the Song of Water, if Richard were revived, there was a high probability he would become like Catelyn.
Of course, Stranger Dany was not R'hllor. She had no intention of charging a "resurrection fee" and would not extract traits from his soul.
After resurrection, Richard's memories would remain unchanged, and his personality would temporarily remain the same. Only his physical body would become ghost-like.
One could imagine that without firm faith, his personality would eventually turn ghost-like as well.
Fortunately, besides the High Sparrow, there was another example of perfect resurrection: the Savior, Jon.
Dany had personally participated in Jon's resurrection. At that time, R'hllor had not used the Song of Water.
So what method had R'hllor used?
A person is composed of soul and body. After death, both become mixed with yin and yang spiritual essences.
The negative essence within the body was difficult to remove, but the soul was also not easy.
R'hllor did not possess the Song of Water either and could not "bleach" Jon's soul within it, as had been done with the High Sparrow.
The method was crude: a portion of divine soul and destiny was split from R'hllor's own essence and merged into Jon's soul.
The spiritual essence within a true god's divine soul must be supremely firm and extremely positive, like a blazing fire, immediately diluting and transforming the negative spiritual essence within Jon's soul.
After Jon's soul entered his body, the Holy Spirit soul bearing the high-energy traits of a true god "infected" the low-energy mortal body.
Unlike the magical radiation factors of Valyria, this infection was benign.
Therefore, Dany also planned to imitate R'hllor by elevating Richard's soul level so that it could infect the low-energy mortal body.
How could she elevate the level of a soul?
By wearing a Saint Seiya's armor.
(End of chapter)
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