Chapter 1000: Why Can't the Holy Relic Be a Fool's Dream?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1000: Why Can't the Holy Relic Be a Fool's Dream?
After completing the collaboration in the Qunluosen Wasteland with the two large clubs, I returned once more to the Primitive Dream Laboratory in the Experimental Zone.
My primary objective was the Fool's Dream.
Of the three plans I had for detonating the so-called Glacial Throne Secret Realm, two were for the sake of the Fool's Dream. This alone was enough to demonstrate the importance I placed on them.
Whether it was my understanding of the Life Sequence or [Transcendent Knowledge], it all served the same purpose. Even Infinite Mana had to be pushed slightly to the back burner. These matters were far too critical for me to allow multiple clones to drain my personal focus and energy.
Inside the life incubation room...
As time passed, the periods during which the Fool's Dream remained awake grew shorter and shorter. Their dream consciousness and the foundation that shaped their lives—their dream-state souls—were currently in a special stage of gestation.
The Soul Drawing and Life Evolution techniques I had mastered had essentially completed the inscription of the initial bloodline information for the Fool's Dream. Furthermore, within the Life Sequence of the Ancient Remnant Ice, I had already identified two "Authorities" gestating within the sequence itself.
There was the Transformation Authority, based on bloodline information.
And there was the Summoning Authority, using the racial concept as a blueprint.
This happened to align perfectly with what Dean Mei had told me regarding the Primal Transformation Spell and the Primal Summoning Spell. It seemed that the spells formed by these two Authorities, or the spellbooks crafted from them, were indeed vital—at least to a race... they were of utmost importance.
Though I wasn't yet clear on exactly how important they were, even if they only held commemorative value, I couldn't help but think of my investment agreement with Dean Mei. I was supposed to gift her a spell sequence for both a Primal Summoning Spell and a Primal Transformation Spell.
In the past, I hadn't understood their true value. But now, as my bond with the Fool's Dream grew tighter, I was honestly starting to hesitate. However, this "trial" from Dean Mei was witnessed by a Witch Contract.
The only saving grace was that Dean Mei hadn't specified that she wanted the two primal spells of the Fool's Dream. That was the only loophole I could exploit.
As for asking Dean Mei to peacefully dissolve the contract? I never even considered it. That initial investment was the most significant help I had received; I couldn't bring myself to commit such an act of ingratitude.
Regardless, now that I understood and had personally experienced the concept of a Life Sequence, the worst-case scenario was that I would simply create an entirely new race in the future and gift Dean Mei that primal race along with its primal spells.
Once I had settled that thought, I turned all my focus toward the "Holy Relic."
I had already paved the way for everything regarding the Fool's Dream. The final stretch was to lay the path leading to the Life Sequence! And I would use the power of the Holy Relic to achieve it!
The concept of the Holy Relic is the creation of life. A Holy Relic can point toward any form of life, yet the Fool's Dream can only lead back to the Holy Relic.
I realized that the concept represented by [Transcendent Knowledge] is the highest-level concept; its essence is the power of the Holy Relic. Subsequently, it derived the first concept within my cognition: the Dream Scroll.
The Dream Scroll was the fundamental reason why the original Fool's Dream was what it was. Now, after being transcribed by the Tree of Great Knowledge, the Dream Scroll had transformed into the Tree of Fool's Dream within my soul's dreamscape. Finally, the Fool's Dream used this as a core to build the new Fool's Village.
Later, Dean Mei used the Holy Relic to create the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art, imbuing it with a new concept: Wisdom Enlightenment. Dean Mei interpreted the creation of life from another angle—the enlightenment of wisdom. Wisdom is the flickering spark of spirit in life, as well as the characteristic of deep-level evolution. After all, the Dean had already bypassed the process of creating life and focused more on the enlightenment of wisdom. One could say she was a pragmatist to the core.
Under the framework of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art, I had derived Wisdom Granting, Mimicry Soul, Soul Drawing, and even my current Life Evolution. These were essentially derivative techniques. Because these were derivative techniques rather than derivative spells, even after I dismantled the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art and returned it to the essence of the Holy Relic, these techniques could still be performed by borrowing the Holy Relic's power.
In a sense, these techniques of mine were themselves using various concepts to provide an interpretation for the Holy Relic.
[Transcendent Knowledge] seemed to be a specific branch of the transcendent concept itself. Before this branch, the way an individual understood it determined how it responded to them. Compared to the transcendent concept itself, it was merely like adding a framework. Or perhaps, because it was a ready-made "zero to one," the transcendence itself was easier to utilize. That was why it was given the suffix of "Knowledge."
After I utilized the power of the Holy Relic, I also provided a new interpretation for the creation of life: Soul Essence and Soul. I leaned more toward the Soul, which led to the subsequent techniques like Mimicry Soul and Soul Drawing. Later, I even subdivided them into reality souls and dream-state souls.
And through my deal with the World Consciousness, I realized yet another concept of life.
Consciousness.
I should have realized the concept of consciousness long ago. After all, the original Fool's Dream was initially a dream-state consciousness. I was certain that in my subsequent plans, after returning the Ancient Remnant Ice King to the Main World Consciousness, I would be able to grope my way toward the mysteries of consciousness.
Based on my current understanding, I could guess that consciousness is "derived" from the foundation of life—Soul Essence or the Soul—and that consciousness can, to a certain extent, exist independently of the soul. At the very least, the original Fool's Dream was pure dream-state consciousness.
When the Fool's Dream, in the form of a dream-state soul, carries a dream-state consciousness across the boundary between dream and reality—that will be the proof of the Fool's Dream truly entering reality! Previously, it was mostly achieved by manipulating physical bodies in reality through special means, which could only be considered a form of trickery.
After undergoing so many interpretations and definitions, the Holy Relic was finally about to face its ultimate interpretation.
True, I had said the concept of the Holy Relic was the creation of life, but even that definition was one I had bestowed upon it. What did that mean? It meant that the Holy Relic's original definition and concept of "creating life" was also inaccurate and one-sided.
Remember the Ancient Remnant Ice? They transformed their race into power.
But my ambition was even greater... I would turn power into the Fool's Dream!
So... why can't the interpretation of the Holy Relic be the Fool's Dream itself?
Why can't it be the Fool's Dream?
Asking myself "why" repeatedly was meaningless. Practice is the only path to testing the truth!
Since I had accepted this concept—that the Holy Relic is the Fool's Dream itself, and the Holy Relic is the only means to open a Life Sequence for the Fool's Dream—then what is the Fool's Dream that opens the Life Sequence?
The Primal Fool's Dream!
This idea was absolutely insane, but theoretically, it was feasible. However, following my experimental style thus far, theory was merely a form of psychological comfort; only successful practice counted as true success!
If any other Transcendent Witch heard this idea, they would surely think I had gone mad or was indulging in flights of fancy. But if you don't try, how will you know? It was just like how the concept of the Dream Domain was considered a delusion before it appeared.
Now, I was qualified to say to others: those who have not practiced have no right to mock me!
Perhaps on the first day I encountered transcendent power, if I had said the things in dreams were real and others called me a fool, I would have been timid and submissive. But now, I would simply beat those who mocked me, letting them see for themselves whether the things in dreams can kill them or not!
And now, looking at what lay before me...
To make the Holy Relic become the Fool's Dream, I still needed basic methodological guidance. It wouldn't become the Fool's Dream just because I said so. I wouldn't indulge in baseless thoughts. Just as I would never say the Holy Relic was a Fireball Spell—there was no connection between the two.
But ultimately, my claim that the Holy Relic could be the Fool's Dream was, to some extent, a reference to the foundation of "creating life." The "Fool's Dream concept" was a supplement to the "creating life concept."
From this point on, the relationship between the Holy Relic and the Fool's Dream was no longer one of creator and derivative, but a direct lineage.
As for how I planned to do it...
I intended to start with the two Authorities of a race's Life Sequence. Transformation and Summoning. Or rather... bloodline information and racial concept. Using two Authorities as the power to open a Life Sequence was something that made sense no matter how one looked at it.
As for how to achieve it, that would depend on my own methods.
In the end, I decided to start from the perspective of the Fool's Dream Transformation Spell. After all, the bloodline information of the Fool's Dream was gradually being perfected through the continuous extension of Soul Drawing and Life Evolution.
I looked at the Holy Relic before me. Attempting to complete the evolution of the Fool's Dream Transformation Spell upon it was undoubtedly as difficult as creating a Great Spellbook from scratch.
Thinking of this, I suddenly realized a question. What would the resulting Great Spellbook be called, given that it was a Primal Authority intervened by [Transcendent Knowledge]?
Would it be called... the Primal Great Fool's Dream Transformation Spell?
* * *
The Qunluosen Wasteland.
The area was still blanketed in ice and snow. The ice crystals and snowflakes scattered the moment the secret realm disintegrated had fallen for a long time; the ice dust and water mist had persisted in the skies above the wasteland for several days.
However, the Main World Core World did not possess the conditions to sustain such an environment. Under the rays of the daytime sun, the ice and snow were gradually melting. Even so, the sudden change in temperature caused by the melting ice affected the surrounding regions.
The Qunluosen Wasteland and its vicinity had already been placed under a transcendent lockdown, strictly forbidding ordinary people from entering. Despite this, many who refused to accept their fate still came here. These were mostly the people who had narrowly missed out on the Transcendent Academies; they would never be qualified to touch anything related to the transcendent for the rest of their lives.
In truth, driving away these ordinary people was an easy task for the club members who had come here. What truly annoyed them were the people from other Transcendent Academies on the border who came to cause trouble.
The Qunluosen Wasteland was a buffer zone between the Witch Academy and the Sun Rock Elf Transcendent Academy. In the beginning, the witches didn't care about these boundaries, and no conflicts arose. After all, when the witches' borders were first drawn, no one dared to make trouble for them, so the definitions here had always been vague.
Mainly, there had been no conflict of interest.
But as the Jack-of-all-trades Club estimated the reserves of Hexagonal Crystal Amber in this area, the harassment from that side became very obvious.
That was a controlled material! Even if someone offered several times—or to be hyperbolic, a dozen times—the equivalent value in ordinary materials, no idiot would trade it away. Since there was profit to be made, the nature of greed naturally urged them to take action. Even if they didn't make a move, simply causing trouble for the people of the Witch Academy made them happy.
After all, at least a hundred people from various academies combined had fallen in the Qunluosen Wasteland. This loss of face absolutely had to be reclaimed!
One had to understand that the corpses left there weren't simply dragged back. These "corpses" were treated as prisoners of war by the Witch Academy and had to be ransomed back as spoils. These ransoms were factored into the reparations paid by the various academies to the Witch Academy. It was clear that even if these people returned, they would be saddled with massive debts to their academies, not to mention the costs of resurrection.
Take the Necromancy Academy as an example; those wizard apprentices would likely become frequent guests in wizard towers, acting as experimental subjects for transcendent wizards.
The members of the Witch Academy clubs could certainly see that the Sun Rock Elves—a small, insignificant Transcendent Academy that wasn't even qualified to enter the Witch Academy during the multi-academy exchange—definitely didn't have the guts to provoke the Witch Academy on their own.
Yet now, they were doing it so brazenly. Such an arrogant attitude... without someone backing them, they would never dare to bark like this.
If the other party was merely provoking them, that would be one thing; the clubs could just find a few eloquent members to curse them out all day without any issue. But the other party was directly using large-scale equipment to snatch their Hexagonal Crystal Amber right in front of them...
Who could tolerate such a thing!
Even if the place they were mining was indeed the Sun Rock Elves' own territory. Even if they indeed hadn't crossed the border. Even if they had never actively attacked the members of the Witch Academy clubs.
But could the Witch Academy not cross their border, beat their people, and dismantle their equipment? Whose logic was that? If someone is acting like a brat at your doorstep, can you not teach them a lesson? Otherwise, wouldn't the Witch Academy be called the Witch Academy for nothing?
And most... most importantly, these Hexagonal Crystal Ambers and their associated materials nominally belonged to that Teaching Assistant Xiao Han. Who gave them permission to scavenge them? This was an infringement on someone else's property!
So, the witches struck decisively, and they struck hard from the very beginning. They beat those people until their faces were bruised and swollen, sending them limping away.
After all, the power and methods of the Sun Rock Elves were truly no match for the people of the Witch Academy. Even though the clubs hadn't sent many experts—with only one senior student present to hold the fort—she hadn't even needed to act before the other students settled the matter.
However, neither the Jack-of-all-trades Club nor the Witch Secret Realm Club expected that this incident would spark another round of confrontation.
This time, the arrivals weren't just from Sun Rock; there were also people from other neighboring elf academies. They held weapons and looked aggressive, putting on a posture of seeking revenge.
"I am from the Sun Rock Elf Academy Protection Team! We have come only for an explanation! Does your Witch Academy think it can do whatever it wants and bully our people at will?"
As the leading Sun Rock Elf shouted his furious interrogation at the Witch Academy students, he failed to notice a figure standing not far from him, watching him with a face full of smiles.