Chapter 1001: Conflict and Death
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1001: Conflict and Death
"What’s going on?"
The club member in charge of the team at the Qunluosen Wasteland stepped forward, her brow furrowed.
She truly hadn't expected the other side to have the nerve to come looking for trouble. Did they really think the Witch Academy was a soft target?
"Those guys from Sun Rock Elf Academy are at it again!" someone nearby shouted, scowling at the several figures with distinct elven features.
Hearing this, the other side immediately shouted back, "Your Witch Academy started it! You bullied our people first! You're the ones in the wrong!"
"Weakness is the original sin! Where do you get the nerve to try and push us around?" Faced with repeated provocations, the witches had no desire to waste their breath. An anonymous rage flared in their hearts.
One of them stepped forward and threw a punch.
They had quotas to meet for their club missions. Time was tight and the workload was heavy; anyone obstructing them had to be cleared out as quickly as possible. Why would they show any courtesy to people wasting their time?
Besides, this wasn't the first time the other side had come to harass them.
The club's instructions were clear: don't waste words, don't give them an opening—just drive them away. Ideally, once and for all.
These people were looking for trouble the moment they arrived. Just looking at their faces was enough to make the witches' blood boil.
As the punch sent one of the elves sprawling, the Sun Rock Elf Academy group froze for a moment. They clearly hadn't expected such a decisive strike.
"You started it!" The leader of the Sun Rock elf protection team pointed a finger at the witch who had punched his comrade, his face twisted in anger.
"Get them! Dammit, do they really think being from the Witch Academy makes them better than everyone else?"
"They're just a bunch of barren, menopausal old hags! Beat them up!"
"Fuck! I never hit women, but I'm making an exception today!"
With their leader taking the charge, the Sun Rock half-elves behind him dropped all pretense of elven elegance, revealing a blatant, thuggish streak.
After all, Sun Rock Elf Academy was just a minor school with zero presence. Those who weren't qualified for the large-scale Transcendent academies but just barely met the threshold for the smaller ones were naturally desperate to fight for a chance at power. In their pursuit of Transcendent strength, developing a bit of a rough, bandit-like temperament was quite common.
In an instant, the two groups were locked in a chaotic brawl.
As for the insults the Sun Rock elves had hurled... I recorded every single word.
The chaos continued until a Fireball Spell exploded in the center of the crowd. The searing heat and the force of the blast immediately sent several people flying, injured.
The brawling crowd fell silent instantly.
"Fine! You witches actually dared to use Transcendent means! Do you really think we're easy prey?"
The fireball hadn't stopped the conflict; it was like pouring oil on a fire. A clash that had been tacitly kept to ordinary physical means suddenly escalated into a competition of Beyonder powers.
At that moment, the Sun Rock elves cast aside all restraint, unleashing their full Beyonder abilities.
Their leader was a member of the protection team unique to the elf academy—a rank equivalent to a teaching assistant at the Witch Academy. Even if the overall levels of the two academies were incomparable, a teaching assistant from a small Transcendent academy held an absolute advantage in raw combat power.
Watching the battle escalate, my Life Clone remained in the Qunluosen Wasteland, watching silently with no intention of intervening.
I toyed with the recorded video footage, clipping several short, intense segments—specifically the parts where the Sun Rock elves launched their broad-spectrum insults against all witches.
I made sure to preserve those carefully.
Finally, I sent these short videos to a girl named Cleveland.
Though I call her a girl, she was actually a bit older than me. Cleveland was one of the most capable people under Millian’s command.
With the rise of the Baking House and the growing rumors surrounding me, more and more people were choosing to join me or take my side. Technically, Millian should have called Cleveland "Senior Sister," even though Cleveland was only one year ahead of her.
Millian was currently busy with matters in the Expansion Realm and couldn't spare the attention for things on my end, so she had sent Cleveland to interface with me directly.
One had to admit, Millian had a lot of guts. If Cleveland demonstrated ability on par with hers, Millian’s own leading position in my eyes would undoubtedly be shaken. But if she didn't delegate, she simply couldn't handle everything alone.
Currently, Cleveland was in charge of the Baking House's various affairs within the Core World.
The reason I sent these conflict clips back was, naturally, to build a consensus within the academy. I wanted everyone to understand that these "jumping clowns" needed to be hit with a heavy fist to stop them from acting up.
After all, if people don't have a common enemy or a reason to hate others, how am I supposed to declare war?
The only ones suffering were the students getting beaten up.
Given the Witch Academy's historical attitude, they didn't have many contingency plans for this kind of thing. Most of the people sent here were specialists in operating professional equipment; many were even just holiday part-timers hired by the clubs.
When it came to actual fighting, they were amateurs. They truly hadn't expected this.
In years past, it was usually the witches who went looking for trouble with other academies. How would a tiny local Transcendent academy ever dare to pick a fight with them?
I watched as the protection team elves led a crushing assault, leaving many witches heavily injured.
In the end, I suppressed the urge to help.
If someone dies... will this become even more serious? I mused.
Death, after all, changed the nature of the event.
As for the hundred or so people who had died in the Qunluosen Wasteland previously, they had been in the wrong, and they were killed while trying to use superior numbers to bully a few.
The nature of the event? If you try to talk about the "nature" of an event to people who see it as a joke, you're just making a fool of yourself.
"Phew... don't blame me... once we're back, I'll personally resurrect you, free of charge."
I muttered to myself before vanishing from the spot.
* * *
Not long after, a group of people hurried back to the Witch Academy.
They were numerous, but almost all of them were injured, leaning on others for support as they walked. Judging by the wounds, most of these students lacked the Undying trait.
The Undying trait was a hallmark of the top-tier senior sisters in the upper years. To some extent, it also represented combat experience; frequent, severe physical trauma tended to accelerate the development of Undying characteristics in the body.
Even though the academy was in the latter half of the holidays, many students remained on campus.
Members of small news clubs and gossip paparazzi arrived on the scene instantly, like sharks scenting blood.
"Whoa... is... is that a dead body?"
"No way! What happened to them? Was there a massive brawl in the Arena?"
"I just saw them come in from outside. They must have been bullied off-campus."
The students, never ones to pass up a spectacle, gossiped incessantly.
Even a death was a minor matter to the more experienced senior sisters. They just needed to ask a mentor to help with a resurrection. Although the cost of resurrection was often more than a poorer student could afford, compared to one's life, it was always worth it.
In certain special circumstances, the academy wouldn't even charge for the resurrection—for instance, if someone died in battle defending the Witch Academy. Though... such an event hadn't happened in a very long time.
Those with minor injuries went straight to the infirmary, planning to bill the Jack-of-all-trades Club for the treatment costs later. Most of their wounds were cuts and stabs from sharp weapons. Some were more dramatic—one girl even had an arrow still lodged in her shoulder.
Those who had died were carried back by others. There was no point in taking them to the infirmary.
Of course, they weren't taken to a crematorium either. They were taken straight to the club.
After all, they were technically working for the Witch Secret Realm Club and the Jack-of-all-trades Club.
There was a saying in the Witch Academy: If you have an urgent problem and don't know who to turn to, go to the Jack-of-all-trades Club. If there was trouble, the club really would help. Of course, the fees weren't low.
Death and resurrection spells—things that seemed "commonplace"—were experiences most students in the academy had never actually gone through. Many didn't even know where to find a mentor to prepare a resurrection ritual. They were more used to the infirmary for treating wounds.
Thus, the people carrying the deceased went straight to the Jack-of-all-trades Club.
Naturally, they had their own selfish motives; the bigger the scene they made, the more likely someone would step up to back them. They might not even have to pay for the resurrection, and if they were lucky, they might even get compensation for mental distress.
And their logic held up.
"Hmm? What exactly happened here?"
My Life Clone had returned to the Witch Academy and "just happened" to be passing by the Jack-of-all-trades Club branch.
I squeezed through the crowd to the very front.
The conflict had resulted in one student dying on the spot and two others falling into comas from heavy injuries, only to be confirmed dead upon arrival at the academy.
In other words... three people were dead.
"Tsk... those Sun Rock elves play dirty..." I sighed softly, making sure no one heard me.
"Everyone, clear out! Don't crowd the entrance to the Jack-of-all-trades hall!"
"Make way! Move back! Stop loitering!"
The reception staff at the Jack-of-all-trades Club were somewhat used to sudden incidents. They began expertly clearing away the gawking students.
While a death wasn't a massive deal in the Witch Academy, the optics were still bad.
"Student, please move—wait... you... you're Teaching Assistant Xiao Han?!" The club member clearing the crowd froze as she saw a figure stepping forward. Her eyes widened as she took in the iconic silver-white hair.
Ever since Teaching Assistant Xiao Han had started a trend for white hair, seeing people with dyed white hair wasn't rare in the academy.
But the girl in front of her... her hair didn't look like it had been treated with some cheap dye. And those crimson eyes—meeting them made the club member shiver instinctively. Those were definitely not colored contacts!
She immediately made the connection to the person ranked number one on the club's internal "People You Absolutely Must Not Provoke" list!
"Yes. I don't think anyone in the academy would dare to impersonate me." I nodded slightly, then looked down at the corpses on the ground.
"Whoa! A teaching assistant is already here?" the students watching the drama whispered in surprise.
"Wait, Teaching Assistant Xiao Han... did she just admit she's Xiao Han?"
"You know her?"
"How do you not know her? She's the one they call the Legendary Little Witch!"
"Oh! I remember now! The one who took on a hundred people by herself a few days ago and crushed all the other Transcendent academies!" someone exclaimed.
With that reminder, everyone suddenly realized who I was.
This was the most explosive topic they had seen all holiday!
One against a hundred!
Rumor had it the opponents were all teaching assistant-level experts, yet she had slaughtered them all. Her silver hair had been stained blood-red as she stood atop a mountain of corpses, forcing a Transcendent wizard from the Wizard Academy to personally intervene!
Calling such a figure a "living legend" was no exaggeration!
As they spoke, the rumors became increasingly absurd, to the point where I chose to ignore their gossip entirely. I turned back to the Jack-of-all-trades staff member.
"Would you mind telling me what happened? I was just passing by and I'm curious."
"I... I'm sorry... I don't know the details yet. I just received word that some club members were attacked outside the academy." The girl stammered out the few bits of information she had.
"An attack outside the academy? That's no small matter." My expression turned solemn. "These students died in that attack, right? I'll..."
I was about to say that I knew the Resurrection Spell and could handle it for them without bothering a mentor, but then I saw a group of people hurrying toward us, following a witch mentor.
It looked like they were prepared; they must have contacted the club before they even got back.
However, the mentor who arrived was a very familiar face.
Elena.
The mentor who had been stationed at Ninglan New City during the Great Expansion of the Expansion Realm. She had been in charge of student resurrections back then—and at that time, her work had included students from academies other than the Witch Academy.
"Mentor Elena, I didn't expect to see you here." I spoke first.
She looked surprised to hear my voice.
"Xiao Han? What are you doing here?" Elena’s cold "forced to work overtime" expression vanished, replaced by a smile the moment she saw me.
"My clones like to wander around the academy. I just happened to see something going on and came over. I didn't expect to run into you, Sister Elena."
"Clones?" Elena tilted her head, looking me up and down as if to say, Don't lie to me.
After all, she hadn't been to the Qunluosen Wasteland to witness it herself, and she didn't understand what a Life Clone was.
"Yes, Sister Elena. You know my understanding of the Resurrection Spell. How about... I act as your assistant and help you set up the ritual?"