Chapter 1002: Public Opinion and Mass Indignation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1002: Public Opinion and Mass Indignation
The Academy maintained rather strict control over things like Resurrection.
Or rather, the requirements for Resurrection differed between Transcendent and non-Transcendent life forms.
Back then, my own Resurrection spell had been personally gifted to me by Dean Mei. Later… later, I think I tore it apart.
Looking at it that way, I really do seem to enjoy dismantling things.
However, after dismantling it, I gained an understanding of the concept of Life during that incident—a harvest that could hardly be called small.
As a result, basic Resurrection spellbooks were almost never seen within the Witch Academy; even Transcendent Witches didn't possess them.
It wasn't that they were impossible to obtain, but rather that after ascending to become a Transcendent Witch, ordinary Resurrection spells couldn't revive a Transcendent. Even if they did, the target would lose their Transcendent status. It was a classic case of being "tasteless to eat, yet a pity to discard"—hardly worth the effort.
Thus, Mentor Elena was using a basic ritual combined with casting materials to complete a Resurrection Ritual, rather than a Resurrection spell.
But the end result was the same. Reviving three people at once was still a bit of a hassle when using a temporary Resurrection Ritual and materials.
However, with me by her side helping process the materials and structure the ritual, things moved significantly faster.
During the resurrection process, Mentor Elena, the surrounding students looking for entertainment, and I gradually began to understand exactly what was going on.
The person who came to explain was a staff member in charge of this branch of the Jack-of-all-trades Club. I didn't recognize her, so I didn't say much.
But upon hearing that these people—including the wounded who had already been sent to the infirmary—were all victims of the Sun Rock Elf Academy, which bordered the Witch Academy's territory, many people became furious on the spot!
Sun Rock Elf Academy?
An academy they had never even heard of? An academy like that dared to kill three people from the Witch Academy?
But after the initial anger, some questioned why people from the Witch Academy would lose to students from such a place.
After an explanation, everyone understood: the ones who had appeared were members of the Elf Academy's special guard, a group similar to the Witch Academy's Teaching Assistants.
No wonder one of them could take on so many. Still, many couldn't fathom how the other side had the audacity to actually kill.
"Xiao Han~ I'm done with things on this end. If I host a tea party next time, would you like to come?"
"Sure~ if I have the chance." I nodded, not refusing.
After finishing her "overtime" resurrection work, Elena left in a hurry.
Meanwhile, someone I knew had already been waiting for me at the Jack-of-all-trades Club.
Vice President Xing Anlei.
After all, a death had occurred at the Jack-of-all-trades Club, and it had been reported that Teaching Assistant Xiao Han just happened to stumble upon it. Upon hearing the news, Xing Anlei had rushed over immediately.
This incident directly affected the partnership between their club and this Teaching Assistant!
They hadn't expected the Sun Rock Elf Academy to have the guts to clash with them so repeatedly and aggressively.
But since something had happened this time, the Jack-of-all-trades Club understood it wasn't a coincidence. It was highly likely related to the Teaching Assistant's affairs.
The other side had killed so many of their people; for the sake of pride and logic, they couldn't just let it go. Behind the Sun Rock Elf Academy, there were at least shadows of the top academies.
And in all likelihood, it was Afuhemi Academy.
After all, Elf academies were basically just dogs following behind Afuhemi Academy.
Regardless of whether Teaching Assistant Xiao Han had witnessed it or not, they had to proactively inform her of the situation.
Their club was confident they could settle the matter, but they had to make sure Xiao Han knew exactly how much effort they were putting in.
After all, it was a matter of showing sincerity in their cooperation~
"Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, I didn't expect us to meet again so soon." Xing Anlei received me in the guest area with a face full of smiles.
I didn't waste words.
Pretending I didn't know much yet, I continued to ask for the details of the incident.
"This time, it was our club's oversight. We didn't expect the Sun Rock Elf Academy to target our Witch Academy so specifically. Moreover, this isn't the first time."
"It's not the first time?"
"No. We've driven them off several times already. Those elves are truly insatiable; they really haven't learned their lesson. Even after you killed so many of them single-handedly at that site, Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, it still wasn't enough to suppress their greed. They're still fixated on your Hexagonal Crystal Amber."
"So, other academies already know about the existence of the Hexagonal Crystal Amber?"
"The spread of such information is impossible to stop. Even if we try our best to prevent it, we can't stop them from seizing samples of materials that are deep within the Sun Rock Elf territory. But we guarantee! We will absolutely not—"
"I don't need to hear guarantees. I understand all of this. Some of the areas where the Hexagonal Crystal Amber is distributed do indeed fall outside the Witch territory."
"Thank you so much for your understanding," Xing Anlei said hurriedly.
She was truly afraid that the person in front of her would get angry over this. But looking at her now, her attitude seemed rather indifferent.
Then again, she didn't seem to truly care about the Hexagonal Crystal Amber itself. The lion's share of the resources eventually allocated to Teaching Assistant Xiao Han had been immediately gifted by her to the team where Teaching Assistant Yi Rui worked.
That was true extravagance.
Materials that their club treated with the utmost importance as controlled substances were given away by her just like that. As expected of a Teaching Assistant valued by Transcendent Witches and even the Dean—her level was simply different.
"However, a unique resource like Hexagonal Crystal Amber still has an owner. Even if some of it falls into the territory of other academies, that doesn't mean it becomes theirs. My request isn't excessive: however much they dare to take, they must be made to spit back out," I said bluntly to Xing Anlei.
I continued, "If those people still dare to interfere in this matter, then you are to hold them accountable without limit. No matter how much of a commotion you cause, I will be your backup. Even if I have to cut down a few hundred more of them, nothing will happen."
"This..." Hearing this promise, Xing Anlei immediately swallowed the words she had prepared about "asking for a favor."
Was this... was Teaching Assistant Xiao Han looking to stir up more trouble?
She didn't care about the Hexagonal Crystal Amber, yet she was still obsessed with this cooperation. Xing Anlei wasn't a fool.
Without limit...
Cut down a few hundred more...
Hearing such words would really make people's thoughts wander. Could it be that Teaching Assistant Xiao Han was addicted to killing?
Or was it that after realizing no one in the Witch Academy dared to touch her, she had set her sights on other academies?
But that was merely Xing Anlei's own speculation. Moreover, she was just a small Vice President.
"Is there some difficulty?" I asked, noticing her hesitation.
I had no intention of hiding my desire to provoke a conflict. Declaring war wasn't something I could do entirely on my own.
The atmosphere within the Witch Academy clearly showed a long-standing resentment toward other Transcendent academies.
Even though the Academy had been making big moves over the past two years, they had basically been on very unpleasant terms with other institutions.
"Oh, it's like this," Xing Anlei reacted immediately. "Regarding what you said about holding them accountable without limit... this conflict isn't as simple as it looks on the surface. It happened so suddenly that even though our members investigating the site haven't sent back a conclusion yet, we can already see the shadows of other large—or even top-tier—Transcendent academies behind that so-called Sun Rock Elf Academy."
"Are you afraid of direct conflict with those top academies?" I asked directly.
"If they want to keep harping on this and making a scene, it will indeed be difficult to wrap up. Actually, we were hoping to end this in a way that both sides could accept."
"Is that so? Hmm... alright."
"Does that mean you support this approach as well?"
"That's for your club to decide. There's no need for me to forcefully interfere; I was merely making a suggestion." I said this, then suddenly seemed to remember something. "Even though this incident only happened a short while ago, the impact it's having might be quite large. If the Jack-of-all-trades Club plans to give this the cold treatment... it might be a bit troublesome."
As I spoke, I used the Tree of Great Knowledge to open the Academy Network and shared my field of vision.
"What happened in the Qunluosen Wasteland seems to have caused quite a stir on the Academy Network. Some of the people involved seem to have filmed and recorded footage of the conflict."
"Oh~ it's only been a moment and it's already trending on the Academy Network. I searched for it just now while I was learning about the situation, and someone had only just posted it then."
As I spoke, I played some short video clips.
The messy, chaotic audio and shaky footage recorded the conflict from a first-person perspective.
"...You really think being from the Witch Academy makes you superior? You're all just menopausal old hags who can't even drop a litter! Beat them..."
The video started right off with a explosive, wide-range insult.
Even Xing Anlei, despite smiling at me, couldn't help but furrow her brows when she heard it.
For students of the Witch Academy, being unable to give birth was an absolute taboo that must never be mentioned!
Terms like "menopausal" or "old hag" had to take a backseat to that.
Seeing the spread of this video, Xing Anlei immediately realized that the impact of this incident might be even more severe than she had anticipated!
"This... how could this footage have leaked out?"
"Maybe those with minor injuries in the infirmary felt wronged and wanted to post it for some sympathy," I said casually.
But at this point, tracing who posted it was meaningless.
Since such a major event had occurred, it was impossible to keep it hidden. However, no one expected that the details of the incident would directly ignite the mass indignation of the Witch Academy.
Now, this was no longer just a conflict between a club and an academy.
If the Jack-of-all-trades Club's handling of this matter failed to satisfy the students—who loved watching drama and didn't mind things getting bigger—the club's reputation would absolutely plummet.
"This... Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, I didn't expect your cooperation to unintentionally trigger such a sequel..."
"That's why I brought you my promise, isn't it? No one can predict how things will develop, but rather than lamenting, it's better to focus your energy on how to solve it. After all, it has already happened." I smiled at Xing Anlei.
For a moment, even Xing Anlei didn't know what I meant this time.
"Teaching Assistant Xiao Han truly sees through things clearly. My apologies, so many unexpected things happened at once." Xing Anlei stood up, her tone apologetic. "However, I'm afraid I must excuse myself. I have to report this to the club. I will bring back the message you conveyed to me today."
"Mm, then I won't delay you. Oh... one last thing. If they bring you too much trouble over this, then make them pay for your losses. Just like that short video said, small Transcendent academies have no human rights. After all... weakness is the original sin."
"Thank you for the reminder, Teaching Assistant Xiao Han. I will convey your meaning to the club word for word," Xing Anlei said hurriedly.
Even so, she personally escorted me out of the Jack-of-all-trades Club branch.
After parting with Xing Anlei, I opened my chat interface.
Whether it was Millian or Cleveland, they were the ones who knew the most and supported me the most in doing this.
The reason these videos appeared on the Academy Network and gained heat so quickly was, of course, because an invisible hand was pushing things along.
Within the Witch Academy, the Academy Network was the official network; every account was real-name authenticated and bound to personal student records and information.
However, the Plant Network, which was closely related to the Knowledge Seeds, did not require real-name authentication.
The news about the Qunluosen Wasteland had first gained traction on the Plant Network before being moved over to the Academy Network.
And this time, I intended to use my long-dormant Academy Network account to start some trouble.
After all, I was considered a witness to the deaths in this conflict under the eyes of many.
So, using this perspective as an entry point, I posted a personal status update.
The content I posted was very simple:
"It seems I haven't killed enough people from certain academies to make them truly afraid."
Attached was a first-person photo of the three corpses lying in the Jack-of-all-trades Club hall while I was processing the materials for Mentor Elena's Resurrection Ritual.
There was nothing else.
I didn't know if anyone still remembered me after I had vanished from the Academy Network and the Academy for so long.
However, the battle record I had displayed a few days ago had indeed allowed me to re-enter everyone's sight in a bloody fashion.
I vaguely remembered that back then, Millian seemed to have told me to take my account seriously and focus on "account operations."
Well... it shouldn't be too late to start now, right?
After posting it, to my surprise, many replies followed almost immediately.
It seemed that even during the holidays, many students were still paying close attention to the movements on the Academy Network...
I looked at the replies. Aside from people "claiming the sofa," expressing shock, or commenting on my "resurrection" from inactivity, most were asking what exactly had happened.
However... I didn't reply to them. I left the curiosity for them to satisfy themselves.
After all, finding out on your own is what makes a lasting impression.