Chapter 1137: The Terrifying Usage Threshold of the Great Ordinary Spell
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1137: The Terrifying Usage Threshold of the Great Ordinary Spell
"Sigh... the curiosity of modern witches is truly getting out of hand."
Dean Mei sighed as she entered the experimental base. She nodded to Bai Yu, who had already arrived, and then made her way to my side.
"How are you feeling? The effects of the Great Ordinary Spell seem even more bizarre than I anticipated. Can you handle it?"
"It’s just a spellbook. How could I not handle it?" I said confidently.
"Don't be careless. A spellbook is power in its own right. It’s not just difficult to control when you're casting; simply possessing one can lead to a backlash, especially when it’s a Great Spellbook."
"I understand~" I had experienced the "usage thresholds" of spellbooks before.
The most basic threshold was simply the risk of a casting failure leading to a backlash. Some spellbooks, like the Memory Bookshelf I acquired back then, even had specific requirements just to be used.
Dean Mei was right. Even though I was merely holding the Great Ordinary Spell, I was already being influenced by its power.
"Do you need help with the testing? The Great Ordinary Spell doesn't look like an offensive spell, so we might need to prepare a different kind of test."
"The effect... the effect has already taken hold of me. As for the test, I am the test subject."
"Tell me about the effects. Do you simply become an ordinary person?"
"Based on the current results... it seems so. I’ve become an ordinary person—so ordinary it’s almost absurd. Right now, even my mental power is only at the level of a commoner. I can barely even trigger a spellbook." I spoke after taking a moment to sense my condition.
"Barely trigger a spell... then what about the Great Ordinary Spell itself? Can you control its power so it no longer affects you?"
"Hmm... it seems I can't." I thought for a moment and tried a few things, finding that conventional methods were indeed useless.
"Pfft... Haha! Xiao Han, is the effect of this Great Spellbook you created really that ridiculous?"
The witch sisters standing nearby couldn't hold back their laughter. It wasn't out of mockery; they genuinely found it hilarious.
"That just proves you haven't found the method to master it yet." Dean Mei didn't join in the laughter. She simply pointed out the reality of the situation.
"Exactly. That’s why we need to test it. This power feels different from any spellbook I’ve encountered before. It reminds me of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art," I said.
"Why that?" Dean Mei was surprised. She couldn't see the connection between the two.
"I feel like if you put these two together, they could compete for the title of 'Most Useless Great Spellbook of the Year.'"
"..."
She certainly hadn't looked at it from that angle.
This comment made the other witch sisters laugh even harder. Dean Mei stepped forward and gave the leader, Enid, a light rap on the head to snap her out of it.
"Laughed enough? Ordinary spellbooks might vary in strength or utility, but a Great Spellbook is the condensation of power itself. Its value lies in the fact that it is power, allowing for a depth of power excavation that far exceeds practical application."
If a regular spellbook was a platform for researching spell frameworks—allowing for constant cultivation, derivation, or simple modification—then a Great Spellbook was a platform for the continuous excavation of [Transcendent Knowledge]!
You could argue that some knowledge is useful and some is not, but [Transcendent Knowledge] is always useful!
After being "educated" by Dean Mei, the witch sisters began to cooperate with me for various experiments and trials.
Enid swore this was the most bizarre test she had ever conducted!
It was as if they had pulled a random person off the street and told them they were performing a magic test.
What spell?
The Great Ordinary Spell.
What does it do?
It makes people ordinary.
Can you be more specific?
Exactly like a normal person!
"This... this is impossible to test, isn't it?" Enid lamented.
She looked at the data gathered by the Great Knowledge Seed; the numbers were virtually indistinguishable from those of a commoner!
"No, there is a difference."
I shook my head and reached out. With effortless ease, I pulled the Great Spellbook of the Great Ordinary Spell right out of thin air!
Theoretically, as an "ordinary person," I shouldn't have been able to interact with a spellbook stored within my body, yet I had retrieved it.
"Wait! How did you do that?"
"An ordinary person naturally cannot do things that require extraordinary power. That creates a deadlock. However, theoretically, it isn't the power itself preventing me from dominating it; rather, the effect of the power has severed my channels for dominating that power."
"Huh?" Enid and several other witches frowned, clearly confused. "Isn't that the same thing?"
"Of course not. I just tried to use Body Cultivation power, but it failed to activate once it exceeded the 'ordinary' limit. However, that doesn't mean an ordinary person is incapable of dominating power. The key lies in the boundary between 'Ordinary' and 'Transcendent.' Only after seeing through this can one reach the threshold of dominating it." I briefly summarized my line of thinking.
But that alone didn't explain everything.
Under the effect of the Great Ordinary Spell, the things I could do represented the absolute peak of what was possible below the transcendent level!
In other words, I possessed only the most fundamental basics. Even Body Cultivation, which stems from the essence of life, was reduced to its base form.
So... what exactly is the boundary of the "ordinary"?
Upon my first contact with the spell, even my ability to dominate my entire body through Self-Awakened Body Cultivation was affected.
But because of that, I realized something very important.
I still hadn't developed the foundation of the "Self-Awakened Body Cultivation" talent to its limit!
My talent for "Absolute Domination" over my own body was an "additional effect" gained through the cultivation of the Self-Awakened Body Cultivation talent.
It was not the absolute prototype power.
The same applied to mental power cultivation, body cultivation, and perception cultivation...
The first step on any transcendent path involves using special means to "cultivate" and compensate for the deficiencies one has before reaching the transcendent state!
It isn't that the person's own foundation has reached the boundary of the ordinary.
This realization taught me one thing: without any cultivation, reaching "Basic Perfection" is the boundary between the ordinary and the transcendent!
To others, this "realization" might seem useless. After all, if cultivation can leap over that boundary, why care about the hurdle you've already cleared?
To use a metaphor:
Imagine a muddy road. On the other side is the transcendent domain. Your foundation consists of the stepping stones laid over the mud to let you cross safely. You don't necessarily need to lay every single stone.
The transcendent boundary is right in front of you. You only need three or four more stones (foundation), but you've learned how to jump (cultivation). So, you decide not to lay the stones and just leap across. Since you have the ability to jump, why bother with the foundation?
That is how most people think.
But is the foundation unimportant? It is vital. The transcendent path is a road of "continuous leaps built upon a foundation." Some walk it as if on level ground, while others struggle with every step. It is only the power of their cultivation that makes their movements appear composed.
However, the mental effort required is immense, and the footholds on the mud are so few. The further one goes, the more they are constrained by that weak foundation.
So, back to the point.
How did I pull out the Great Ordinary Spell while under its effects?
Naturally... by repairing a certain foundation to perfection!
My foundation closest to perfection wasn't mental power, nor was it Self-Awakened Body Cultivation. It was one of the five senses that had been tormented by "Floating World Level Spirit Vision" until now: "Visual Sense."
It was a truly wondrous feeling. Could a mere channel for "seeing" actually achieve such a thing?
Of course it could!
Visual Sense is a form of perception. For ordinary people, it stops at the level of "vision"—an instinctive awareness of the outside world, not a subjective perception, and certainly not something that reaches the level of interaction.
Even though my transcendent powers were suppressed by the Great Ordinary Spell, the moment my visual foundation reached perfection, I finally understood what it meant to "naturally achieve the transcendent"!
At that moment, I had a flash of insight. This process made me realize... this was the "Perfect Human Visual Sense"!
My previous Perfect Human Five Senses Body Cultivation method was wrong... no, not wrong, but rather "I hadn't fully perfected it."
If I, the "teacher," hadn't even defined the Perfect Human Five Senses properly, how could I truly teach others?
Was I relying on others to have better comprehension than me?
Perhaps that was a possibility, but right now... the chances of such a genius appearing were slim.
Now that I’ve found the method, all that remains is constant practice.
A single "Perfect Human Visual Sense" might not be enough to truly dominate the Great Ordinary Spell. The usage threshold for this Great Spellbook is even higher than I imagined!
However, this also made me realize that the line between spells and body cultivation isn't as clear-cut as it seems—at least not where the Great Ordinary Spell is concerned.
A Great Spellbook should essentially be a spell, and the key to dominating it should be "mental power," yet I had barely touched the threshold by relying on a foundational branch of body cultivation.
That alone speaks to its terrifying nature.
Furthermore, the Perfect Human Visual Sense only helped me escape the paradox of the Great Ordinary Spell's effect targeting myself. Otherwise, I would have had to ask Dean Mei or Sister Bai to help me remove the spellbook.
And there was another major problem: any witch who tried to help me remove it would have her own power drawn into the Great Spellbook, turning her into an ordinary person as well.
It was a vicious cycle!
If one couldn't see through the key to this, then from the moment of its birth, this Great Spellbook was destined to require an Unlucky Guy to carry it at the cost of losing all their power!
Just thinking about it was frightening...
I couldn't be the only little witch haunted by this realization. If I didn't speak up and give everyone a good scare, they might never realize exactly what kind of monster we had created.
So, I shared my test results and observations, combined with my theories.
"That... is truly dangerous."
After hearing my brief description, Dean Mei sighed in amazement.
"Actually, it's fine~ As long as you understand the key, just like I do now, breaking the cycle is quite simple."
"Currently, you're probably the only one who can do it, Xiao Han," Enid said from the side.
As a Transcendent Witch who had participated in the "creation" of the Great Spellbook from start to finish, she naturally understood the "Unit One Foundation Theory."
To make a foundation "perfect" and naturally birth a realm above Unit One without the aid of cultivation was simply unimaginable!
"Theoretically, anyone can do it if they persist," I said.
Of course, that was assuming they found the right method.
"In that case, what do you plan to do next, Xiao Han? It doesn't look like any of us can help you with the effects of the Great Ordinary Spell... well, maybe not. You could try seeking out the First Generation Elder."
"Eh? Wait... are we useless now?"
Suddenly faced with Dean Mei's pronouncement, Enid and the other witches were stunned. Though they didn't want to admit it, given the current situation, they really might not be able to help.
"What else do you want to do here? Or do you want to turn into powerless Transcendent Witches to help with the experiments?"
"Don't you need help with small favors or chores?"
"Xiao Han can handle those small things with a simple summoning spell, can't she? If you're all so bored, I can arrange something for you. How about it? I'll pull some strings and guarantee you'll have work by tomorrow."
"No, no, no! We're good... we have things to do... Um, Xiao Han~ if we have the chance to collaborate again, remember to call me!"
"I will." I nodded without trying to make them stay. After all, my upcoming tests really didn't require anyone else's cooperation; I had other plans.
I had a deep impression of Sister Enid. At the very least, working with her had been very comfortable!
If I ever needed to pull together an academic team on short notice, she would probably be the first person I’d think of. Even if she lacked expertise in certain specialized fields, her ability to organize matters and coordinate tasks far exceeded my expectations.
"You sounded so decisive just now, I thought you might try to keep them here. It seems you already have a plan?" Dean Mei didn't leave with the other witches, instead turning back to chat with me.
"Yes. I plan to wait for my Main Body to return and have it experiment with the Great Ordinary Spell. Its effects are perfect for cultivation." Especially for the advantages it offers in Perfect Human Body Cultivation, I added mentally.
Furthermore, it fit perfectly with the ongoing Self-Awakened Body Cultivation experiments. After all... isn't Self-Awakened Body Cultivation a talent born from a state of perfected body cultivation foundations?
"So, your definition of the Great Ordinary Spell is that of a cultivation-assisting spell?" Dean Mei asked.
"Were you hoping for an effect-type spell, Sister Mei? I understand~ after all, spells that can be applied in combat are the ones with the broadest prospects."
"...No. It belongs to you now. You are the one who decides its ultimate purpose."
"Alright~ no need to explain, Sister Mei. I get it. The most important thing about the Great Ordinary Spell is still its effect. In my eyes, it’s beneficial for cultivation, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for battle."