Chapter 1075: Combat, Learning, and Reflection
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1075: Combat, Learning, and Reflection
When a Transcendent cannot kill a Little Witch—who isn't even a Transcendent herself—within a short period, the nature of the situation changes completely.
This was no longer a simple battle. It wasn't just the Vampire Transcendent and the witches who were watching; every Transcendent academy with the means to do so was focused on this fight.
Initially, they were merely shocked by this sudden, lightning-fast strike. But once that Witch Contract—the one where a non-Transcendent challenged a Transcendent—was thrown out, the attention on the Vampire Affiliated Academy surged by several orders of magnitude!
Even though the final outcome was still undecided, many had already witnessed far too much.
First, there was her near-Transcendent reaction speed.
According to the analysis of gathered intelligence, that was the Seventh Sense of Body Cultivation: Time Sense.
What did Time Sense actually imply?
Not many knew for sure. The only demonstration they had was... that Transcendent Witch named Bai Yu, who had carried out a massacre within the Wyrm Blood Academy and walked away unscathed. No one could stop her. That was the result.
Then, there was her status as a Critical Being approaching the Transcendent realm.
Her own life level had begun to touch Real Time, giving her the means to truly wound a Transcendent.
At this level, as long as one deciphered the secrets of Transcendence and accumulated enough life essence, breaking through would be effortless. Moreover, she had mastered a Prototype Domain; once she broke through, she would achieve a state of Transcendent Sanctity!
She would leap across realms, standing among the top powerhouses of the Void.
Furthermore, there was her terrifying ability to learn and comprehend.
Whether it was combat techniques or the application of spells, they could see her progress from clunky to proficient. The process seemed to have an internal accelerator; she was rapidly achieving what took others years, decades, or even centuries of practice and accumulation.
And then, there was Spell Derivation... a capability that tested talent and savvy above all else.
The concept of derivation didn't just exist within spell sequences. Any Transcendent method could be continuously derived as long as it had a corresponding sequence; the only difference lay in the difficulty. This was the "talent threshold" that blocked countless experts in the Void.
In the Void, energy can be accumulated mindlessly, but breakthroughs in technique require a brain.
Now, they really wanted to "thank" that witch named Ji Niang. Who on earth told her that a genius from outside the world could do such things?
If you're going to lie, couldn't you at least make it sound realistic?
If you don't know how to teach students, then don't teach. Why scam people?
But condemnation aside, such a "monster" had already been born before their eyes, and they had to face it.
Though they desperately hoped this Vampire Grand Duke could kill the Little Witch, the ongoing battle didn't offer much hope.
One side was exhausting every method to kill the opponent, while the other was constantly teaching herself things they couldn't even understand mid-combat, improving at a visible rate. With one side waning and the other waxing, the winner was already obvious.
Without realizing it, they found that among the series of feats this Little Witch had achieved, even "slaying a Transcendent as a non-Transcendent" was starting to rank lower on the list of shocks.
An event that was almost impossible in the Void was being subconsciously overlooked.
This was a testament to just how profound the shock of this battle truly was.
"Agh! You...!"
After his attack was thwarted again, the Vampire Grand Duke looked at a flickering Void Rift in disbelief.
His right arm had been caught by the rift. The wound, annihilated by the Void, wouldn't even heal quickly despite his Immortality.
"How can your soul not be erased by a Void Rift?"
"Take a guess," I chuckled, offering no explanation.
It seemed this Vampire was a bit out of the loop. Didn't he know about my Infinite Mana?
However, the one who had completed the Infinite Mana talent was my Life Clone. My main body hadn't had the chance to finish it yet, so I intended to use this opportunity to do so.
From the start, I hadn't planned on using "cheating" methods like Void Rifts to win. I had already experimented with that kind of combat back when the Ancient Remnant Ice King was my Life Clone; repeated attempts held no meaning for me.
So, I was merely using this fight to complete the construction of the Infinite Mana talent for my main body. Furthermore... having absorbed the construction experience of my Life Clone, I might need to optimize the Infinite Mana talent further.
After all, completion is one thing; perfection is another.
I didn't care how the outside world viewed my methods, but I wouldn't allow myself to get lost in my own accolades.
"From now on... the intensity of this battle is escalating!" As I spoke, my form shifted into a pitch-black rift, a miniature silhouette of the Void itself.
This transformation caused many onlookers to freeze.
Until finally, someone recognized it and screamed, "Dammit! It's that move! Run!"
That roar made everyone—from the Vampire students to the witch students who were just watching the show—realize something was wrong. They turned and fled instantly.
Last time, this move had leveled an entire mountain range and turned the area into a basin saturated with mana radiation!
The Vampire Affiliated Academy didn't cover as much ground as that mountain range, which meant they had to flee the academy entirely and get even further away just to survive.
Compared to those fleeing blindly, I understood perfectly... Infinite Mana itself was just a talent, not an offensive technique. The reason it caused such terrifying impact was entirely because Infinite Mana "naturally bloomed" its power in an instant, causing a collateral disaster.
It was an uncontrollable manifestation, much like a Dreamscape Calamity—a collateral disaster triggered in reality after disturbing the Primitive Dream Realm.
What the Infinite Mana talent disturbed, however, was the concept of infinity within the Void itself.
The Infinite Mana talent and the Great Spellbook had allowed me to understand the inherent characteristics of "Infinity" and "Self-Cycle" from the Void Rifts. But the Void itself consisted of more than just those two concepts.
It was just that I couldn't discover more yet.
The Infinite Mana constructed by my Life Clone relied more on the Infinite trait, using the Prototype Self-Generated Mana talent as a template to turn the infinite energy of the Void into Infinite Mana. The Self-Cycle was mostly used to maintain the stability of the talent's activation.
The Great Spellbook was the opposite of my talent; it primarily utilized the Self-Cycle concept to maintain the permanent nature of the spellbook's effects, with the Infinite trait acting only as a supplement.
Otherwise, if the Infinite concept dominated the Great Spellbook, the effect would become: the more time passed, the stronger the spell effect would grow, until eventually, the effect could no longer contain the massive energy and would self-destruct.
That was pointless. For the powerful, an uncontrollable spell effect held little value.
The greater significance of the Great Spellbook lay in the permanent existence of the spell effect; the auxiliary role of Infinity was simply to ensure there was "enough."
This was why my Domain's consumption had previously borrowed the Infinity of the Great Spellbook, but my other methods couldn't tap into its energy.
Now... Infinite Mana made up for that.
As my body transformed into a miniature Void silhouette, the "Earth-Sun Tragedy" that everyone "expected" did not occur.
With the previous attempts in the Life Forbidden Zone and the successful experiment with my Life Clone, I was gradually learning to master this uncontrollable talent.
Though this learning wasn't instantaneous, the collateral disaster was, to some extent, controllable.
However, that didn't mean those people fleeing the academy had done so for nothing. Their departure cleared a larger battlefield for us.
The clash between the Vampire's bloodline power and my spells gradually began to affect the entire Transcendent academy!
This wasn't an exaggeration. During the battle with that Transcendent Wizard in the Qunluosen Wasteland, the ice and snow had affected the entire wasteland.
This time, it was just standard procedure.
It is said that Transcendents possess the power to destroy an entire world, but world-destruction is a method, not a Transcendent's exclusive right. The broader the range of a killing method, the less effective it is against a specific individual.
Clearly, this Vampire Grand Duke was at his wit's end.
His promotion to Transcendent had granted him a leap in his Vampire bloodline, but it didn't represent an improvement in his techniques.
Transcendent powerhouses who rely solely on empiricism are limited by their own perceptions.
Since the start of the fight, he hadn't shown a shred of learning awareness, only the accumulation of experience from his setbacks. I was starting to lose... interest.
Yes... in a fight against a Transcendent, I, a non-Transcendent Little Witch, was the first to find the battle boring.
I felt as if I were in a colosseum, teasing a beast of great brute strength. Even though the opponent was technically stronger than me, he was being played like a fiddle in the palm of my hand.
"Something is wrong with this Vampire Grand Duke's state."
Things had progressed to this point; if the observing Transcendents still couldn't see the problem, they might as well donate their eyes.
The Vampire Grand Duke's state resembled a beast that had lost its mind, possessing nothing but brute force and blood energy, being toyed with by a mere Little Witch.
It was far too abnormal.
Soon, intelligence circulated, and a fresh concept reached their ears.
Emotion Body Cultivation.
I hadn't intentionally hidden this concept, but I hadn't broadcasted it either. For other Transcendents to obtain this intelligence, they must have paid a significant price.
"Emotion Body Cultivation... another unrefined system of power created by this Little Witch herself."
"How can a Transcendent be guided by emotions into a beast-like state, losing all judgment and reason?"
"Impossible. If such a method truly existed, wouldn't she be invincible? There's an entire Transcendent realm between them! Their mental powers aren't even on the same level. How could she influence him?"
"This is Body Cultivation! The most primitive and ancient system! She likely possesses not only a powerful savvy and talent for derivation in spells but in Body Cultivation as well!"
"Don't forget... she's also a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator! Do you know what kind of freakish thing a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator is?" another Transcendent added.
A silence fell over the group.
They couldn't discuss their way to a conclusion, but the facts were right in front of them.
The duel had ended up like this. Even if it wasn't the guidance of Emotion Body Cultivation, it meant the Little Witch possessed other methods. They would rather believe it was the effect of Emotion Body Cultivation.
At this moment, even many Transcendents felt a chill down their spines when facing this Little Witch.
Because they didn't know how they would defend against such a method themselves.
The Vampire Grand Duke had turned into this state right before their eyes, and they couldn't even tell when it had started.
But during the fight, the things the Little Witch said were indeed nasty. Her mouth was so toxic that she had the Vampire Grand Duke's emotions in a total upheaval.
Even listening from the sidelines, they found it hard to bear.
Especially when she called him trash; they truly couldn't refute it. Compared to a genius, those who couldn't match her were essentially no different from trash.
She was truly firing a map-wide cannon; many Transcendent Witches couldn't escape being caught in the blast.
Many Transcendents were silently making notes: if they ever faced this Little Witch in the future, they would probably need to keep soundproofing up the entire time to prevent their emotions from being disturbed.
But they would never know that what had truly turned the Vampire Grand Duke into this was a method that even Samuel hadn't been qualified to make me use—the reverse application of Wisdom Granting: Wisdom Withering.
Quite a few Transcendents had died to this move. Back when I first triggered the Dreamscape Calamity in the Expansion Realm, those Transcendents swept into the Primitive Dream Realm had provided me with a wealth of precious experimental data.
And that experimental data was finally being applied to the Vampire Grand Duke before me.
However, I didn't end the battle at this stage.
Because this fight had made me reflect more deeply on exactly what kind of assistance my Tree of Great Knowledge could provide.
Although I had never thought about letting the Tree of Great Knowledge derive offensive methods to boost my combat power, its auxiliary role in my battles had always been indispensable.
Information acquisition, data analysis, tactical planning, learning assistance... these were the functions the Tree of Great Knowledge provided.
But it wasn't enough!
The Tree of Great Knowledge should have more possibilities.
Of course, the reason I had so many thoughts was actually due to one thing.
I had become a bit lazy.
It had been too long since I had refined or derived anything for the Tree of Great Knowledge. I had accumulated many ideas and inspirations, but they weren't systematized, and I hadn't acted on them.
But that was no excuse.
Was there anything else the Tree of Great Knowledge could amplify?
Yes, and plenty. For example, its derived techniques and Domain Order had shaped the Omni-Link Main Network Tree, as well as the Root Network and the Power Network.
But those were essentially not directly related to the Tree of Great Knowledge; they were just new effects and functions sparked by a unique existence like the Omni-Link Main Network Tree borrowing the techniques derived from the Tree of Great Knowledge.
So... could the Tree of Great Knowledge complete a special sequence derivation to achieve an effect similar to the Power Network?
The answer was yes!
But I hadn't done it yet.
Because I didn't want to copy the framework of the Power Network with its "professions" and "skills." That was too cluttered.
It would be better to switch to a purer effect.
For instance... passive skills?
There was no such thing as a "passive skill" in spells. Even effects like power amplification or agility enhancement were the results of active spellcasting.
If I had to name a passive effect, I felt that the "Witchification" dominated by a Mana Source fit the concept perfectly.
So, passive skills were a dead end. Let's try a different term, like: a Halo Effect independent of spells?