Chapter 1043: Soul Essence Repair Proceeding Smoothly
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1043: Soul Essence Repair Proceeding Smoothly
Facing the excited members of the United Club, I dismissed them with a few brief words.
Only Cleveland remained.
"Sister Xiao Han, these are the resources pooled by the United Club. I’ve already separated the Soul Crystals from the other materials," Cleveland said, pulling out several storage cards and handing them over.
I accepted them without hesitation. Soul Crystals were undoubtedly vital materials for the upcoming Soul Essence repair, and they would also serve as important resources for raising my Life Level later on.
As for the other materials, most were precious items with nourishing and restorative effects on the essence of life—the best materials these clubs could offer on the surface.
Even so, they weren't enough to repair the life essence of so many people. That was why those clubs had looked so troubled before I offered to "help."
"I recall that I’ve nearly plucked the Jack-of-all-trades Club's Soul Crystal reserves clean, haven't I? How much did they contribute?" I asked casually, holding the storage card containing the Soul Crystals.
Most of the Jack-of-all-trades Club's Soul Crystals were already in my possession. They were a major reason why my Life Level had risen so quickly. So many Soul Crystals had been traded away for a single Heart of the Cold Wave, and in the end, the club had gained nothing. In my mind, they had become the ultimate suckers, but I didn't regret fleecing them one bit.
"As far as I know, the Jack-of-all-trades Club still has a small reserve left, but it's far less than what the Witch Secret Realm has. Most of the other precious resources here were provided by them as equal-value substitutes. This incident is the responsibility of the entire United Club, so the resources consumed for the resurrections and Soul Essence repairs are being distributed based on weighted shares..."
"And how much did the Baking House contribute?" I asked randomly.
"Sister Xiao Han, you must be joking. Just the fact that you can resolve and pacify this incident is enough to make the other clubs owe you a massive favor. If you don't want them to owe you, we can have them settle it with resources instead. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to pay their debts that way."
"Let them keep owing me, then," I said with a wave of my hand. "Next, I’ll be performing the Soul Essence repairs with Mentor Belica. You or Lin Xian should stand guard to ensure no one disturbs us. I expect this to last five days at most. If anything unexpected happens, I’ll contact you through the Tree of Great Knowledge."
"Understood," Cleveland nodded quickly. She had already planned to have Lin Xian help, as she herself was quite busy.
The problems facing the United Club were immense. Losing two regular Combat Sequences in a row was a staggering blow, and the other academies weren't just going to sit idly by while the Witch Academy was weakened.
Lest we forget, there was also the Hundred Academy Alliance. This alliance had forcibly incorporated the Blood Slave Academy in name and was currently harassing the Witch Academy in various ways.
Now that the Blood Slave Academy was effectively destroyed, the Witch Academy had suddenly become the target of public criticism.
Originally, this was exactly the situation the Witch Academy wanted to see, but with the Blood Sacrifice massacre, the United Club had no time to worry about the overall war effort.
However, looking at the current situation, the tide should turn in a few more days.
* * *
After seeing Cleveland off, Mentor Belica and I entered the wartime infirmary, which utilized the standard infrastructure of the Witch Academy's infirmaries.
Upon entering, we were met by temporary nurses—professional academy students arranged by the clubs.
As soon as they saw me and Mentor Belica, they hurried forward to greet us. They had been instructed beforehand to cooperate fully with this Teaching Assistant Xiao Han and the mentor who had come to assist.
"Greetings, Mentor! Greetings, Assistant Xiao Han! If you need anything, please call for me immediately. My name is Lumian!" A young girl stepped forward; she was clearly the temporary supervisor here.
"Mhm. Prepare a treatment room large enough for us. Remove all the usual equipment, leaving only the operating table and its accessories. Also, all patients requiring Soul Essence repair should be kept in a state of deep sleep using Sleep Spells or similar magic before being brought in," I commanded.
"Understood! I’ll see to it immediately. Are there any other instructions?"
"That’s all for now. This is the first time we're doing large-scale Soul Essence repair. If I need anything else, I expect your timely cooperation."
"Yes! Right away!" The girl named Lumian turned around and immediately shifted her demeanor, executing my requests with methodical efficiency.
After giving her orders, she returned to lead Mentor Belica and me to a room that met my requirements.
"Treatment room" was a broad term; the academy infirmary was divided into many specialized areas. After Lumian showed us a few, I selected the largest Magic Treatment Room.
This area was primarily used for receiving large numbers of casualties. In a normal infirmary, this was where students without Immortality would come after being injured in practical combat classes or the Arena.
Essentially, after paying a fee, one could get Flesh Healing, bone repair, and vascular reattachment, and then walk out perfectly fine. They also treated special cases like detoxification and curse dispelling here.
Because of the high volume of patients it handled, the space was quite vast.
Once I selected the spot, I pointed out several bulky pieces of equipment that needed to be moved. Lumian obediently used storage equipment to temporarily clear them all out.
"Um... Assistant Xiao Han, are you sure you don't need any other facilities?"
"These facilities have nothing to do with Soul Essence repair, so why keep them? Just leave these diagnostic chairs," I said, pointing to the multi-functional chairs. These chairs could be adjusted into various positions or laid flat like beds. With a simple Ley Line Identification Art, I already knew roughly how to operate them.
"O-okay!" Lumian nodded, looking at the rows of medical beds but ultimately saying nothing more.
After a period of busy preparation and using Cleaning Spells to make the place physically spotless, we were finally ready.
"For the first batch, bring in five patients. If everything goes smoothly, we’ll rotate the next group in," I instructed. Once finished, I walked to the side of a bed.
With the physical lockdown complete, I cast several more spells: Vision Obscuring, Sound Isolation, Anti-Mental Probing, and Anti-Mana Probing. Not only that, I even employed Space Reinforcement and Space Sealing methods.
I even used the Annotation Technique of the Power of Knowledge to reinforce and isolate the surrounding walls.
"Xiao Han, are you trying to turn this place into a fortress?" Mentor Belica asked with a smile as she watched me. Among these isolation methods, she was surprised to find spells she didn't even know!
Upon closer inspection, she realized they were Derived Spells; she could even sense the aura of Domain Order.
What kind of technique required such heavy-duty protection?
"I’m being paid to do a job," I said bluntly, now that there was no one else around. "It’s for the patients' sake, after all. If we're going to do it, we might as well go all out."
"True enough. In a moment, I’ll get to watch you per—ahem..." Belica had originally intended to say she was just there to watch the show.
After all, she hadn't cleared four or five days of her schedule just to play around with Xiao Han; she was here to learn this technique!
Even though Belica knew this technique was related to the Great Spellbook, the principles of the technique remained the same. Moreover, she could collect a set of data on Soul Essence repair.
This comprehensive data collection would serve as a valuable reference for many future life studies.
The reason she had cut herself off was because Lumian and the others had entered, bringing in five Soul Essence-damaged patients who were "peacefully asleep."
"Mhm. Put them down and then leave. No one enters unless I open the door from the inside."
"Understood!" Lumian nodded quickly.
Even so, she looked with surprise at the transformed treatment room. As expected of a professional mentor—those specialized machines couldn't even compare to spells!
As the door closed, I took out a storage card filled with Soul Crystals—the resources Cleveland had handed over.
I retrieved several Soul Crystals and walked to the side of a diagnostic chair.
The girl before me was submerged in a deep slumber under the effects of a Sleep Spell, lying there quietly.
Through the Ley Line Identification Art, I could glean some basic information. Setting aside data like name, height, weight, and measurements, I could see that after being brought back by a Resurrection Spell, she suffered from large-scale memory loss, mild cognitive impairment, and slowed reaction times.
Fortunately, this level of life essence loss hadn't damaged her physical Bloodline Information. If that had been lost, even a Resurrection Spell might have resulted in severe issues like missing limbs.
"By the way, Xiao Han, I was so focused on agreeing to come that I forgot to ask—what is this Soul Essence repair technique called? Is it convenient to say? If not, you don't have to." Mentor Belica suddenly remembered and asked.
"There’s nothing I can’t say, really. I’ll be using it right in front of you for the next few days, Sister Belica. It’s just a name. The technique for repairing Soul Essence is called Soul Depiction. Actually, this technique is targeted at the soul, but I’m planning to derive a 'Soul Essence Depiction' technique from it over the next few days. I don't think it will be difficult."
"Uh... not difficult?"
The expectant look Belica had been giving me gradually turned into one of disbelief. What did I mean by "not difficult"?
Anything associated with "derivation" was never easy!
"It really isn't difficult. I just need to organize it a bit. Originally, Soul Depiction was aimed at the metamorphosis process where Soul Essence ascends into a soul. By removing the metamorphosis part, I can create a pure technique that only targets Soul Essence."
"Uh... oh... so you could do it from the start, but you skipped over it, and now that you need it, you say it's simple?"
Hearing my explanation, Belica finally straightened out the logic. Put that way, she could almost accept it...
Though accepting it that way only brought a strange sense of even greater frustration.
"That’s more or less it~"
I nodded, then focused my attention on the girl in front of me.
For Soul Essence repair, the most important thing was, naturally, the Soul Essence. With the help of the Incubation Rebirth spell, I could easily perceive her Soul Essence and her physical body.
The deficiency in her Soul Essence was obvious to my perception, though her physical repair was perfect. Her brain simply had certain inherent defects, likely constrained by the loss of her Soul Essence's nature.
"This is the Incubation Rebirth spell, isn't it?" Belica recognized the spell from the side.
Previously, she had asked me for my insights and concepts regarding this spell, as she had studied it herself.
"Correct. The Incubation Rebirth spell doesn't even need to be derived; its individual effects can accomplish many things on their own. Once I promote to Transcendent and learn Real Editing Technology, I’ll turn this spell into a complete Spellbook," I said.
"Then can I pre-order a copy? I’ll give you whatever you want when the time comes. Or, how about I give you my entire library right now as a deposit? Last time, you suggested exchanging knowledge on Runes and Totems, but I have many other research fields! I can give you all of them!"
Hearing my plan to create an Incubation Rebirth Spellbook, Belica’s eyes instantly lit up!
A spellbook with resurrection effects—especially an extremely rare high-tier resurrection derivative—was something even the Witch World Great Library didn't have in stock!
It was the kind of thing you couldn't buy even if you had a Mana Source.
"Is it really that exaggerated?" I had seen just how much research material was in this witch’s library, and that was just the deposit?
"It’s not an exaggeration, not at all~ Once you promote to a Transcendent Witch, you’ll understand that I’m the one getting the better end of the deal," Belica said hurriedly.
"We can discuss that later, then." I didn't pursue the topic further.
In terms of accumulated knowledge, I doubted anyone in the Main World had a larger reserve than the First Generation Elder!
However, I couldn't just port over all of the Elder's knowledge, so Mentor Belica’s knowledge was still very attractive to me. I might not necessarily learn it all right now, but recording it into the Tree of Great Knowledge to serve as my own foundation was a good choice.
The Tree of Great Knowledge itself was constantly helping me understand and learn.
I could feel that this "trait" was related to a Holy Relic. Previously, it was the "Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art," but now it was the Holy Relic—Land of Fool's Dream.
The Fools within Land of Fool's Dream were constantly learning that knowledge, as if I were learning right along with them.
Even though the knowledge the Fools were learning was still quite shallow, it served to reinforce my own foundations.
Perhaps my vision of using the Fool's Dream Clan as one of the cornerstones of my Domain Order would truly forge an incredible miracle. When that time came, the relationship between the Fools and me might reach a level that no one could comprehend.
Shared knowledge?
Shared domain?
Shared order?
Or perhaps, like the Ancient Remnant Ice King's clan, I would intervene in the Fool's Dream race as the Sage of Fool's Dream, becoming an "indispensable" part of them.
When that time came, perhaps even the concept of "race" would no longer be enough to define me.