Chapter 125: Do You Even Realize the Prestige of a Paper Indexed by the Witch World?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 125: Do You Even Realize the Prestige of a Paper Indexed by the Witch World?
Time passes quickly within a dream.
Even though I was merely using Spirit Vision to observe a spellbook conjured by the dreamscape, I had never experienced the convenience of Spirit Vision so effortlessly.
The mysteries of the spellbook were like an open book, laid bare for me to manipulate at will!
Moreover, since this was a dream, if there was anything I couldn't see clearly, I could simply enlarge the spellbook as much as I wanted.
This allowed for much greater clarity.
Ji Niang stood by to ensure nothing went wrong. When I reached out and enlarged the dream-spellbook until it was as large as a bedroom, a flash of confusion and shock crossed her eyes.
Wasn't the control authority for this dream... in her hands?
Ji Niang stared blankly at the permissions on her own interface. What was going on? Had Xiao Han independently seized control of the dream?
But she hadn't taught the girl how to manipulate dreams yet. Xiao Han was a Transcendent Witch who hadn't even registered a formal identity in the dreamscape; she didn't even have a dream information panel...
However, Ji Niang quickly brushed the thought aside. Dreams were the handiwork of the Primal Witches. Aside from them, no witch would dare claim they truly understood how dreams worked.
Perhaps Xiao Han had figured it out on her own. A genius who could rapidly master a Witch Meditation Method was bound to have certain privileges; it wasn't something she could be jealous of.
"Alright, that's enough. Your physical condition is reaching a critical state. Withdraw from Spirit Vision immediately!"
Ji Niang checked my real-world vitals and hurriedly interrupted my excited research.
"Huh?"
I looked up at Ji Niang, slightly dazed. I felt like I was in great shape... No! This was a dream!
As for my physical body... At that thought, my seemingly tireless spirit began to flag.
"Don't 'huh' me. If I weren't here, you'd eventually play yourself to death. You don't have a way to return on your own yet. Next time you want to enter a dream by yourself, you'll need to set a timer for a forced return."
Ji Niang wrapped an arm around my waist. Before I could react, my mind turned to mush, and my vision of the dreamscape shattered.
When I regained my senses, I realized I was lying inside a dream sleep pod.
"Ugh... I... this is..." I struggled to lift my eyelids. My entire body felt as if it had been run over by a heavy truck.
"Welcome back to reality. So? How was your first dream experience?" Ji Niang’s figure appeared in my line of sight.
Her words successfully triggered the memories of what had just happened.
I seemed to have completely deconstructed the spellbook in the dream?
But... I also seemed to have forgotten a lot of it... I instinctively pressed a hand to my forehead, trying to recall those memories.
"What? Is it a struggle? It should be. You used Spirit Vision so aggressively in the dream—did you think your body wouldn't have to pay a price just because you were dreaming?"
"Sorry... I didn't notice..."
"Don't apologize to me. While it's still fresh, record your insights on that spellbook. How much do you remember?"
"Uh... to be honest... I've already forgotten more than half of it..." I felt quite ashamed saying that. After all that effort, I only remembered this much.
"So you still remember nearly half? Not bad, keep it up." Ji Niang gave me a rare word of encouragement. Soon after, she pushed a light screen from the Ley Line System in front of me. "Write it down while the memory is still vivid."
"Okay..." I nodded weakly. My body was exhausted and needed rest. Lying in the dream pod wasn't so bad; the soft gel chair was perfect for relaxing.
I took control of the light screen and continued from where I had left off in the morning, beginning my next performance.
I still remembered many things from the dream. Those novel insights were expanding my pitifully small pool of knowledge. Looking back at what I had written this morning, it was clear that my previous expressions were lacking far too much.
But I didn't have time to go back and edit. I could only quickly write down the content I still remembered.
I spent several hours on this task alone. Constant thinking was an incredibly draining endeavor.
Even though I was sitting and resting, I wasn't resting well at all; drowsiness fought me every step of the way.
Ji Niang stayed by my side instead of leaving, which was unusual. She kindly explained that fatigue was a very common side effect of entering the dream world.
During my first pass of recording keywords, Ji Niang didn't interrupt or disturb me.
Once I started adding descriptive details in the second pass, Ji Niang stepped in to discuss it with me.
Though it was called a "discussion," it was mostly Ji Niang listening to my ideas and occasionally correcting my terminology.
After all, even if Ji Niang's Spirit Vision level wasn't as high as mine, she was already a Transcendent Witch. Her Spirit Vision was no longer... In short, her understanding of spellbooks was not something a freshman who had just touched one could compare to.
Even if she couldn't personally research every secret of a spellbook, she stood on the shoulders of giants. The vast research output of the Witch World covered almost every aspect of spellbooks; she could even find the step-by-step derivations of how spellbooks were first created from nothing.
This was the cognitive horizon of a Transcendent Witch. The Witch World was her sturdiest shield.
Moreover, this was just a spellbook composed of a very simple Fireball Spell.
By now, I had a brand-new understanding of spellbooks. Although I could no longer reach that state of "limited omniscience" I had in the dream, having seen it once made all the difference. Understanding the principles of a spellbook was only the first step; the second was figuring out the application of those internal principles.
Practical application was the ultimate goal, after all. Theoretical principles were the foundation that supported practical use—the key that pointed the way for development.
Otherwise, fumbling around blindly... I had to admit that was a fast way to derive new things, but one had to bear the unknown risks.
"Perfect. I have to say, if we ignore the non-standard formatting and the grammatical errors, the research content you've expressed is already on par with a paper written by an average Transcendent Witch after a normal study of a spellbook."
Ji Niang couldn't help but applaud after I finished refining the content. What she didn't say was that some parts of this log were researched more thoroughly than many "fluff" papers.
Was this the power of Floating World level Spirit Vision?
Just by simply observing with Spirit Vision, she had reached conclusions that took Transcendent Witches a significant amount of time to research.
"Thank you for the praise, Teacher. If you hadn't been here..."
"Don't give me that nonsense. If it's your achievement, you should own it." She cut me off, correcting my attitude.
"I originally thought analyzing a spellbook would take you a long time." Ji Niang shook her head, a trace of a smile on her lips. She checked the time; it was almost evening.
She walked to the lab bench and grabbed the Fireball spellbook, but she didn't rush to put it back into her own body.
Instead, she walked toward me with a smile.
"I am very satisfied with your performance today." Ji Niang explained, though she was actually more satisfied with my Spirit Vision. "Consider this spellbook a reward for your hard day's work."
With that, she tucked the spellbook into my body before I could even react.
"Huh?"
The process wasn't painful—in fact, I barely felt anything—but I was still shocked. Giving away a spell just like that? Wasn't that a bit too extravagant?
Even if it was just a Fireball Spell, offensive spells were still very expensive!
"If I give it to you, just take it. Now that you have a Fireball Spell and a protection spell in your body, you at least have some basic means of offense and defense." Ji Niang smiled with satisfaction. "Right, it's getting late. Today's temporary research project is more or less complete. Organize this analysis report and bring it to my office in a bit."
"Um, okay."
I watched Ji Niang leave. But I quickly realized—wait, how am I supposed to bring this log from the Ley Line System to your office?
But Ji Niang had already made a clean exit... Nothing for it but to finish organizing the report first.
After spending some time on it, I checked the clock. It was already night!
Before I knew it, I was starving. I had to hurry; I was going to have a great meal tonight and then get a good night's sleep!
I left Room 8401 with the light screen and headed straight for Ji Niang's office. Seeing the light screen following me steadily, I couldn't help but marvel at how impressive this thing was. I was already quite far from the research bench, yet it hadn't disconnected?
But that wasn't my concern. I just needed to find Teacher Ji Niang in her office.
I arrived at Room 8405. Next to the door was a display frame showing a mature, sophisticated woman who looked about eighty percent like Ji Niang.
The name column didn't simply say "Ji Niang," but rather "Ji Niang (Xi Lan)."
"Come in. Do you like looking at my personal info that much?" Teacher Ji Niang's voice came from inside the office, making me jump.
I hurriedly pushed open the office door.
"Um, Teacher..."
"It's nothing. I saw you standing outside without coming in and wondered what was wrong. What? Were you looking at my bio?" Ji Niang asked with a teasing curl of her lips.
"Uh... yes..." I lowered my head and admitted it. I swore I only glanced at it. She was my counselor and would be leading me for many years; I had to learn a little about her.
"That information is from a long time ago. So long ago that I wasn't even a Transcendent Witch yet, so it doesn't have much reference value. See the 'Xi Lan' behind my name? Guess which one is my former name: Ji Niang or Xi Lan?"
"Uh... Xi Lan?" I asked tentatively, since it was in parentheses.
"It's Ji Niang. When I became a Transcendent Witch and left this world, 'Xi Lan' was the formal name I registered in the Witch World. But for certain reasons, I returned to my original world—this one. The records here still have me as Ji Niang, so I kept using it. I carved that 'Xi Lan' in the parentheses myself in private, haha," Ji Niang joked.
Then, she directly took control of the light screen in front of me.
"I'll help you organize this analysis report into a paper and publish it on the Witch Academy Official Paper Network. It might even be indexed by some institutions in the Witch World, though the chances of that aren't high." With a swipe of her finger, the log transferred to the light screen on her desk. The move was incredibly slick.
"Huh? This... can be published as a paper?"
"Of course. An academy publication is no problem. Don't be so humble; strictly speaking, you are the person with the highest Spirit Vision level I've ever seen, so your potential is limitless. As for the papers indexed by the academy, they'll eventually be uploaded to the Witch World. As long as the plagiarism check doesn't hit 100%, it will be indexed."
"Ah?" Now it was my turn to be shocked. It gets indexed as long as it's not 100%? What kind of miracle was that?
"What? Are you surprised? That's because you haven't seen the sheer volume of papers indexed by the Witch World, or the massive population of the witch race. If you just write a random paper and run a check, most of them will be 100%."
"Oh, right. This plagiarism check refers to the research results, not the wording. So do you understand the weight of this check now? Any paper that isn't a 100% match represents a field that previous witches haven't fully explored. They all have value for indexing."
"So that's how it is..." I nodded. I really was ignorant. I thought it was a text-based check, which would have been terrifying.
But with this method, if a paper was too "watered down," would it even have a result? If the whole thing had no actual useful research findings, wouldn't it count as having nothing to check?
"I'll list my name as the guiding teacher, and your name will follow mine. Do you have any objections? If you do, I can put your name first. After all, we completed this paper together, and you played the decisive role."
"No, no, this is fine." I hurriedly declined. From the start, this research report relied on materials provided by Ji Niang, including the spellbook. She had even guided me through the dream to learn and corrected my content afterward.
If I were really the first author of this paper, I don't think I could handle the pressure. Since it was my first time, it was better to let the teacher take the lead.
Besides, my initial expectation wasn't even to have this published as a paper. And the teacher still had to help me fix the formatting; she was working so hard.
"Xiao Han is so sensible. It's getting late, so you should head back. Time always seems to slip away for you girls," Ji Niang said with a smile. "By the way, there's a class assembly tomorrow morning. The academy system will force-push the announcement. Check when you get back to see if any students haven't received it and give them a reminder in the group chat."
"Okay, I will," I promised. "Um, Teacher, if there's nothing else, I'll head back now."
"Wait, there are a few more things I want to give you." Ji Niang stopped me again.
"Hmm? Is there something else?"
"Take these." Ji Niang handed over a stack of neatly printed papers from the side. "These are papers I've compiled regarding spellbooks. They'll be very useful references for you. Five of them are about the Fireball Spell, and the other five are analyses of different spells. They'll help you understand spellbooks better."
"This! Thank you, Teacher!"
I solemnly accepted the heavy stack of papers. This was incredibly important.
I knew I couldn't work in isolation. Even though I had a terrifying Spirit Vision, I still needed to see how others understood things and what spellbooks were like in their eyes.