Chapter 1026: Ancient Remnant Ice Consciousness Incubation Experiment
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1026: Ancient Remnant Ice Consciousness Incubation Experiment
The moment I made this decision, a large number of Transcendent Witches were immediately shaken.
Since the revival of the Ancient Remnant Ice clan, this massive entity had been under the protection of the Witch Academy.
Currently, the Ancient Remnant Ice had been transferred to the Expansion Realm, specifically within the Expansion Realm branch of the Witch Academy. Many Transcendent Witches accompanied it, assisting in the accumulation of knowledge regarding the Hexagonal Crystal Amber Preparation Technique.
After all, the Ancient Remnant Ice was tied to the preparation of a vital transcendent material: Hexagonal Crystal Amber.
Considerable time had passed, and by now, the Ancient Remnant Ice had mastered a relatively mature version of the Hexagonal Crystal Amber Preparation Technique.
Regrettably, however, this preparation technique still could not function as a conventional skill independent of the power of the Myriad Methods Book.
Nevertheless, many witches felt this was a favorable situation.
In this way, there was no possibility of the Hexagonal Crystal Amber Preparation Technique leaking to outsiders.
But to me, this remained a disappointing result.
The original Hexagonal Crystal Amber originated from an outsider in the game world. This meant there was a world where such a material could be born naturally, without the power of the Myriad Methods Book.
Even if the birth process took so long that Hexagonal Crystal Amber was defined as a non-renewable resource, the process itself did not rely on the Myriad Methods Book.
This so-called "possibility" is perhaps where the true wonder of a world lies.
Now, the Ancient Remnant Ice Special Laboratory in the Expansion Realm had become completely frantic because of my single sentence.
Regarding projects related to the Ancient Remnant Ice race, a large portion of witches only knew that it concerned the preparation of the transcendent material Hexagonal Crystal Amber.
Whether they could use this high-quality transcendent material in bulk at an extremely low price in the future depended entirely on it.
Another significant portion of witches knew that the Ancient Remnant Ice was merely one of Xiao Han’s Life Clones; many simply treated this as gossip for idle chatter.
However, only a very small minority of witches understood that the importance of the Ancient Remnant Ice was already tied to the situation and future direction of the Main World.
And that was... the Main World Trade Plan.
Regarding this trade, Dean Mei Lind had taken over the arduous task from Xiao Han’s hands, formulating the potential terms of negotiation.
Mei Lind had spearheaded many internal meetings regarding this potential future event, using Witch Contracts to ensure strict confidentiality.
Regardless of whether they would ultimately need it, they knew that if the time came and they weren't prepared, there would be no medicine for regret.
It wasn't just the content of these negotiations; many witches involved in the Life Domain and consciousness research had also gathered here.
They couldn't rely on Xiao Han for everything.
Admittedly, years of accumulation and discovery might not match raw talent, but they still wanted to contribute their strength in the fields where they were capable.
However, before the "Ancient Remnant Top-Secret Experiment" could begin, several interludes occurred in the Main World.
First and foremost was the issue of accountability for the "Earth-Sun Tragedy."
When the Three Top Academies began trying to reason with the Witch Academy, it was the moment that made the witches laugh the hardest.
As the final result of the communication, the Witch Academy admitted that a certain teaching assistant from their academy had indeed acted somewhat excessively, causing indelible instability in the Core World.
But setting the facts aside for a moment, were the Three Top Academies entirely without fault?
Ultimately, as a result of both sides taking a step back, the Witch Academy had the teaching assistant, Yang Yuehan, perform a self-reflection within the school and sent said assistant to the Expansion Realm branch for "re-education."
As for the compensation originally demanded by the Afuhemi Academy and the Holy Angel Academy—the costs for resurrecting so many dead students, as well as a series of mental anguish fees—the Witch Academy paid nothing.
The Witch Academy held the moral high ground from start to finish. If they had to pay a single cent in compensation, Mei Lind, as the Dean, would have personally stepped onto the battlefield to see which witch was advocating for reparations.
In the end, the matter was simply dropped.
Yes, the transcendent representatives of the Three Top Academies went back fuming. If they had remained dissatisfied, the matter wouldn't have ended so simply; they would have ended up paying reparations to the Witch Academy instead.
It was lucky those transcendents fled quickly, or Mei Lind would have personally extorted a sum from them before letting them go.
As for the school-wide self-reflection and the "re-education" in the Expansion Realm, those were merely excuses.
I was already planning to go to the Expansion Realm to participate in the "Ancient Remnant Ice Top-Secret Experiment." As for "re-education," once the experiment started, it was anyone's guess who would be educating whom.
This round of academy-level negotiations yielded no results, which was the worst possible news for the students of the various transcendent academies.
This meant their academies couldn't even seek justice for them; they had essentially died for nothing. As for the psychological trauma following their deaths?
They would just have to endure it themselves.
Consequently, not long after the academy negotiations, the outcry against the Witch Academy on the Core World's internet exploded instantly!
Since they couldn't get the compensation they deserved after suffering such a disaster, this was the only way they could vent the resentment in their hearts.
One had to admit these keyboard warriors were truly pathetic.
Beaten in reality, they could only resort to impotent rage online when they couldn't win.
In the end, they were met only with the ruthless mockery of the Witch Academy.
The only "good news" they could see was that the little witch teaching assistant who caused it all was being sent to the Expansion Realm for re-education.
This meant the opponent could no longer use the same methods to cause them secondary harm.
But even so, the students within the top academies now harbored an intense fear of the Witch Academy.
Like startled birds, they no longer dared to travel in large groups or blatantly expose their travel routes.
Some even developed an inevitable stress response upon hearing the designation of the No. 0 Special Combat Sequence.
Faced with the Witch Academy's egregious behavior, the opposition ultimately remained limited to verbal abuse and moral condemnation.
Talk of the Three Top Academies launching a joint military sanction was no longer mentioned.
But all of this was now completely irrelevant to me.
Although I was nominally "banned" from the joint clubs, no one dared to look down on the Baking House club.
The explosion of the Earth-Sun Tragedy had completely opened up the situation for the Witch Academy's joint clubs. The Fierce Slave Academy had been thoroughly dragged into the quagmire of the Academy War.
Following that, the affiliated academies and the Lord Vampire Academy were all targets for future liquidation.
The Three Top Academies had also officially entered the fray because of this incident.
Admittedly, they were scared witless by that explosion, but they absolutely could not sit by and watch the Witch Academy develop so recklessly.
It could be said that for a long time to come, it would be the era for the joint clubs to show their prowess!
As for me, I had already arrived in the Expansion Realm.
At this moment, the Expansion Realm was still in a semi-open state for the Witch Academy.
The only path from the Witch Academy to the Expansion Realm was the entrance/exit leading to the Expansion Realm branch.
Furthermore, one could not enter the outer areas of the Expansion Realm from the branch.
One could say I was in the Expansion Realm, but not fully in the Expansion Realm.
The Expansion Realm was currently still under construction. The only students inside were lower-year students still attending fixed-program courses and some upper-year students who had followed their mentors.
In the Expansion Realm's witch branch, there were plans to establish more extraordinary laboratory planning zones.
The Witch Academy intended to overhaul its previous teaching model, gradually abolishing fixed lectures for lower years and the model of choosing a mentor to follow.
They were vigorously promoting practical teaching led by independent interest, lowering the threshold for extraordinary experiments. The academy would focus more on guidance rather than fixed instruction.
Doing this would undoubtedly require many regulations to be changed. This teaching model also required gradual exploration and the accumulation of experience.
Continuing this way might lower the learning quality of the students and bury a large number of talents.
But the Witch Academy didn't care. True geniuses wouldn't let themselves be buried, and the academy would rather not have those who only learned when prodded by others.
In any case, there were no hard graduation targets in the Witch Academy. Under the general trend of the Main World's shackle-type world sense of belonging, the academy didn't care about how many graduated.
Witches knew how to prioritize and had enough time to wait. The stage where the Main World Witch Academy would truly exert its power would be the takeoff phase after the witch race completely mastered the Main World!
So, now was the perfect time to make changes!
After arriving in the Expansion Realm, I didn't head straight for the special laboratory where the Ancient Remnant Ice was located.
Instead, I went to the Nightmare Workshop.
The Nightmare Workshop was already operational. No major problems had occurred; everything was running as perfectly as simulated by my Tree of Great Knowledge. Although some minor issues had cropped up, they were resolved by the witch sisters maintaining the operations before I even had to step in.
However, in the end, the production efficiency of Dream State Soul Essence at the Nightmare Workshop wasn't as high as I had estimated.
But compared to the laboratory-level preparation method of the Incubation Purification Method, the Nightmare Workshop's efficiency was immediately highlighted.
With the Nightmare Workshop officially going into production, extraordinary hunting teams specializing in capturing dream creatures had appeared in the Expansion Realm.
Even the pre-processing of nightmare separation from dream creatures had become a popular "profession."
And the threshold for these professions was Transcendent!
It was nothing short of staggering.
The reason so many witches were scrambling to do this—aside from those who were bored out of their minds—was mostly because they wanted Dream State Soul Essence!
With the proposal and verification of the Dream State Soul Essence concept, a massive craze for venturing into the Primitive Dream Realm had emerged within the Witch Academy.
If it weren't for the capacity limit of the Main World's transcendents, many witches in fields related to the Primitive Dream Realm would be queuing up and still unable to enter the Main World.
Most research related to the Primitive Dream Realm could not be separated from the concept of Dream State Soul Essence.
When the Nightmare Workshop was the only source of Dream State Soul Essence, every possible channel to obtain it would be overcrowded.
Some eccentric witches were even asking if the Nightmare Workshop needed janitors.
After I arrived at the Nightmare Workshop, I experienced what it felt like to be swarmed by witches.
That level of enthusiasm was truly a bit much for me, so after learning about the specific situation, I fled the scene as quickly as possible.
I had indeed underestimated my influence on the witches.
The large amount of Dream State Soul Essence prepared in the Nightmare Workshop would be the foundation I prepared for the Fool's Dream race in the future.
Only a small remaining portion would be used for various rewards. For instance, the witch sisters who helped capture dream creatures were very eager to be paid in Dream State Soul Essence.
Many sisters hoped I would open up some purchasing channels; even if they might not be able to snag any, it would at least give them something to hope for.
To this, I could only say I would consider it.
As for the final outcome, it would likely be dropped.
Because I knew very well that with the current production of Dream State Soul Essence, even if I didn't take any for myself, there wouldn't be enough to go around. At most, I would set aside an additional portion as material support for special research projects on Dream State Soul Essence.
As for selling it for a fee?
I had never considered it.
I hadn't even thought about a price for Dream State Soul Essence, but if I wanted to, I believed it could make me filthy rich almost instantly.
But was that what I wanted?
No.
The trip to the Nightmare Workshop was ultimately just an interlude.
Its construction was even just a result of a casual suggestion from the Transcendent Witch named Heidi.
The main event this time was only one thing.
The consciousness experiment of the Ancient Remnant Ice.
Returning life to the Ancient Remnant Ice and allowing it to give birth to a true consciousness unique to the Ancient Remnant Ice clan was the only way to truly make it the Ancient Remnant Ice.
When the Ancient Remnant Ice King served as my Life Clone, although their race had revived, their racial concept had not truly returned. This was because the entire race was essentially a plaything in my hands, with not a shred of freedom to speak of.
Their so-called return was entirely built upon my respect for their race.
I was "playing the role" of their racial king, leading them to reclaim their former glory.
But now, I would no longer play a role; I would truly return this race to themselves.
In this process, it wasn't just the incubation of a single consciousness, but the return of the racial concept of the Ancient Remnant Ice clan!
And this! This was what I cared about most: the cognition of consciousness and racial concepts.
Only by having a deeper understanding of the concept of consciousness would I have enough foundation to deeply construct the racial concept of the Fool's Dream.
Upon arriving here, I also received a warm welcome from many witch sisters.
Even though they were all Academic Witches in the fields of Life Domain and consciousness research, they gave me plenty of respect.
After all, I could communicate and trade with the Main World, while they could not. That point alone was enough.
After arriving, I didn't immediately take over and start the Ancient Remnant Ice consciousness incubation experiment.
Instead, before that, I communicated with the many witch sisters, accumulating a vast amount of research regarding life and consciousness.
After all... I am not the only genius in this world. Which of the witch sisters standing here hadn't once been called a genius by others?
Asking questions with an open mind and learning humbly is the foundation for continuous progress.