Chapter 1082: Scenery of the Void
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1082: Scenery of the Void
"Within the Divine Kingdom, transactions conducted under the Holy Light aren't worth much discussion. They are perfectly normal trades—at most involving a few petty tricks and a minor cost to one's reputation. Hardly worth mentioning."
"Those filthy underground black markets and the shady dealings done in the dark—that is where the real stories are."
"Back when the Great Market of the Divine Kingdom didn't welcome witches, a few Rebel Witches with wild imaginations got together. One of them was a real mastermind; they decided to package themselves as 'merchandise,' smuggled themselves into the Divine Kingdom’s dark underground black market, and put themselves up for auction."
"And that is how the witches carved out a place for themselves in the Great Market of the Divine Kingdom."
"?"
I stared at the witches, my head full of questions as they chimed in one after another. "And the middle part? Did those Rebel Witches fight a bloody path through the Great Market to force an opening for our race?"
"Oh~ no, no, no. Xiao Han, you’re a bit too bloodthirsty. The Divine Kingdom has its order, and witches have theirs. A witch can make an enemy of any transcendent race, but that Great Market involves the interests of the Myriad Races of the Void. Even witches have to consider the repercussions."
"Huh?" I instinctively glanced at the corpse of the Void beast behind me.
Me? Too bloodthirsty?
"The witch race needs to develop within the Void, after all~ so naturally, we have to follow the rules of trade. However, while the Divine Kingdom has its laws, the dark places have the disorder of the lawless. Inside the Divine Kingdom, it’s a contest between commodities—a clash of interests."
"In the end, those Rebel Witches used their methods to open a possibility for our race, allowing the Divine Kingdom’s market to see the profit and value in witch-made goods."
"Uh... what kind of 'goods' were they exactly?" I scratched my head, still not following.
"Martial power. The most formidable yet cost-effective martial power of the witch race. That was the first 'commodity' from the witches to be accepted by the market—an attribute so undeniable that even the will of those birdmen in the Divine Kingdom couldn't shake it."
"To demonstrate the quality of this commodity and fulfill an employer's dying wish, those original Rebel Witches blew up one percent of the Divine Kingdom’s dark underbelly."
"According to the official statement from the Great Market, the Divine Kingdom does not publicly acknowledge the existence of those dark places. Therefore, the Divine Kingdom’s authorities couldn't hold those Rebel Witches accountable based on that incident. As for the disorder of the dark places, their 'order' is woven from strength and influence. To this day, the dark places still have bounties out for those specific Rebel Witches—a pursuit that eventually expanded to target the entire Rebel Witch community."
"I see... so it was settled with violence in the end?" I deadpanned.
"While it was martial power, it was also the marvelous wisdom of the Rebel Witches. It was a brilliant advertisement. Where there is demand, there is a market. If the Great Market of the Divine Kingdom didn't accept witch commodities, they couldn't use the Divine Kingdom’s order to restrain our actions. The Great Market is a choice piece of meat in the Void; they had to weigh the pros and cons. They needed martial power too. That was the early stage of witches entering the market. It helped that the order of the Great Market wasn't very refined back then, haha~"
The witches quickly shared more anecdotes and observations regarding the Great Market of the Divine Kingdom.
I have to admit, these stories were truly eye-opening!
In particular, the witch sister who had spices bought from the Divine Kingdom described her own experiences.
What was even more amazing... was that she was a Rebel Witch herself!
She had entered the Great Market as a stowaway. Not only that, she hadn't even gone to the dark places. I had to admire her sheer audacity.
However, I heard she was eventually blasted out by the Divine Kingdom. Many of the witches laughed with satisfaction at that—now that was the standard ending.
Although the Divine Kingdom claimed to be a free and open market, they could still designate "unwelcome guests" based on their market order—the so-called blacklist.
And in the Void, Rebel Witches topped that list!
While Rebel Witches weren't necessarily the ones who caused the most financial loss, the "creative stunts" they pulled were definitely the biggest headache for those birdmen.
Of course, the stories these sisters told about witches entering the Divine Kingdom were just things to listen to for fun. Accomplishing something like that required far more than just a bit of cleverness. Countless witches had contributed efforts that went unrecorded, but the outcome was certainly what all witches had hoped for.
After finishing the topic of the Great Market, I brought up the Abyss.
I knew a bit about it and had some history there—from being forced to apply to the Lesser Demon Academy during enrollment, to Dean Mei mentioning that a kind-hearted Demon Lord had sent a heart to help me sever my Main World Ley Line Shackles.
Even the cultivation of the Seeds of Wisdom currently being promoted in the witch academy used experimental subjects obtained from the Abyss.
That place was another major "market" in the Void.
The Abyss wasn't as chaotic and disordered as its name suggested... well, okay, it was chaotic, disordered, powerful, and greedy.
But that was only from the perspective of weak worlds.
To a small world, the Abyss Will was like a bottomless, all-consuming demon. But that was merely the Abyss's method of expanding its massive world community; "Abyssal Assimilation" was just a means to an end.
For powerful transcendent races, however, the civilization of the Void Abyss was a vast, hospitable cradle of life.
What their market produced was... life itself!
All kinds of races, all kinds of lifeforms—they even offered custom-made life, life experiments, and research into life-form chimeras.
If you were wealthy enough, you could even pay the Abyss to create an entirely new race, derive a life sequence, and gestate a Primal Progenitor!
Of course, that was a project where you might as well be throwing money into a black hole. Even the Abyss couldn't guarantee how long it would take to gestate a Primal Progenitor. They couldn't even confirm what kind of race would be created; they could only interfere to a certain extent.
The Abyss Great World was also a place witches frequently visited. Many witches enjoyed experiencing the "succubus customs" there. If one's methods were heaven-defying enough, they could even abduct a succubus and raise her into a Succubus Witch.
Naturally, such things couldn't be discussed openly. Most witches went to the Abyss for its massive output of life, which they used to build their own servant legions.
Many witches who pioneered the frontiers of the Void loved using demon legions as the "servants of their servants." They were used as cannon fodder to clear paths, wipe out the biological remnants of a world, and secure entire worlds.
I have to say, this simple conversation had completely opened the doors to a new world for me!
This was the first time I had heard of the scenery beyond the Void, and it filled me with longing.
But the "strength" the witch sisters constantly mentioned also made me realize that all this "excitement" was built upon the foundation of power!
Without strength, one cannot stand high enough, and naturally, one cannot appreciate the view from the top.
This brought me back to a question I had once asked: in the Void, is strength more important, or is knowledge?
Now, these sisters were using the wonders of the outside world to tell me that strength was important.
But I wasn't a miserable lifeform born in the Void; I lived in a peaceful place like the Main World.
That was what had shaped me into a little witch interested in knowledge.
Using knowledge as a foundation to shape powerful and unknowable methods—only now did I have the answer to that question.
Both are vital. Favoring one over the other is a mistake; they complement each other perfectly!
The environment shapes the witch. To obsess over which is more important is already a wrong turn. One must simply walk forward with determination; whatever choice fits the present moment is the right path.
...
The incident in the Void didn't cause much of a stir.
It happened so suddenly and ended just as quickly.
Aside from knowing it was likely the work of those three transcendent races from the Main World, there were no other clues.
However, this experience had certainly broadened my horizons.
Whether it was the Great Market of the Divine Kingdom, the cradle of life in the Abyss, the Wizard Alliance formed by the Void humans, or the Elven Ancestral Land built around the World Tree—these were all places one could learn about with just a bit of inquiry in the Void.
But the Void consisted mostly of "strange lands" without clear racial ownership.
These weren't world communities centered around a world core, but bizarre places existing directly within the Void. Their existence wasn't limited to planetary forms; some were vast, sprawling continents.
Some places were located in special parts of the Void where the flow of time was warped.
Others were zones where transcendent power was suppressed—entirely ordinary lands.
Some had distorted space, where countless layers overlapped and physical space was constantly intertwining.
And there was one thing that existed in massive quantities in the Void... planets.
That’s right. Planets, which usually exist within a world, were everywhere in the Void!
Theoretically, a physical aggregate like a planet shouldn't be able to persist in the Void. Once matter leaves the spatial rules of a world, it should be decomposed by the Void itself into basic units of matter and energy, absorbed by the Void Ley Lines, and used as nourishment for newborn worlds.
Therefore, the planets existing in the Void were composed of... World Origin Soil.
Yes, one of the three source elements of a world: World Origin Soil.
The stable substance I had researched to no avail—the substance that could evolve into world-matter but could only be converted by a world itself.
The planets in the Void were celestial bodies made of World Origin Soil. They usually originated from "dead worlds" that had perished before gestating a World Will. The World Origin Soil formed the basic planet, but there was no consciousness to carry out the world's evolution and creation.
Thus, every planet in the Void was the "remains" left behind by a dead world.
Transcendent experts put these Void planets to secondary use. Since only a world can utilize World Origin Soil, it was both a disadvantage and an advantage—at the very least, planets made of World Origin Soil were incredibly stable!
Consequently, these planets formed "Sentinel Stars" on the front lines of the Void, far beyond the world communities.
They could serve as resting points in open Void domains, or even as transit anchoring coordinates for short-distance Void teleportation between world communities.
Their uses were many and significant.
The Void region where the Main World was located had no worlds being born, so naturally, there were no such planets made of World Origin Soil.
While this was a bit of a pity, it also made the Main World very safe within the Void.
Long-distance spatial teleportation is impossible in the Void. The instability of the Void is absolute, and Void teleportation spells cannot achieve stable positioning. Thus, the threshold for reaching the Main World was very high.
Such a vast "Void Hole" without any transit planets to act as anchors blocked out too many lifeforms.
This was why there were so few Void-drifting lifeforms in this area. The attack from the Emerald Forest was clearly a deliberately guided "accident."
However, it was obvious that certain transcendent races could reach this place easily—such as witches, birdmen, elves, and wizards.
The experiences and stories heard by my life clone came to a temporary close. The witch sisters intended to rest for a while in the small world of the Emerald Forest.
They had asked if I needed to borrow their strength to accelerate the collision between this world and the Main World, but I ultimately declined.
After all, once accelerated, many developments would have to change accordingly.
In the Main World, there weren't many days left before the end of the semester. The outside world was busy with matters related to the College Entrance Exam.
This was truly important, as it concerned the student intake for every year.
Furthermore, since the witch academy had wiped out Sun Rock Elf Academy and the Blood Slave Academy, those territories required assistance from the witch academy to maintain the fairness of the exams.
The ordinary people of this world already lived in dire straits. If even the chance to change their lives was lost because of such events, it would be too tragic.
Therefore, after the United Club finished the defeat contract ritual for the Vampire Affiliated Academy, they began to reorganize and ceased large-scale war mobilizations.
Whether it was the development of the Sun Rock territory or the land cessions from the Blood Slave Peninsula and the Vampire Affiliated Academy, these were all untapped "blue oceans."
These were enough for the United Club members to handle in their subsequent planning.
As for me, I continued with my own affairs. Regarding the opening of the second battlefield, I left the planning entirely to Cleveland; I trusted her abilities.
As for the Emerald Forest—the "Second Battlefield Plan"—I intended for Cleveland to announce it after the College Entrance Exam, just as the holidays began. After all, for something this important, I would be overwhelmed trying to do it alone without the full cooperation of the United Club.
As for whether this news would leak?
It didn't matter at all. This was an "open scheme" for which there was no countermeasure.
It was an entire world!
The last time an entire world collided with the Main World, it created the Expansion Realm. This time, without the support of World Repair Techniques, it would merge into the Main World Core World in the most direct manner possible.
With such massive interests at stake, and setting aside the interference of transcendent mentors, the students would absolutely be unable to resist such pure temptation.
When that time came, any change would exceed the original plan. Thus, the United Club could only use the situation to muddy the waters of the Main World even further, allowing them to fish in troubled waters.