Chapter 132: Disassembling and Modding the Spellbook
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 132: Disassembling and Modding the Spellbook
"Heh, listen to yourself. Casting spells isn't nearly as simple for ordinary people as it is for you. For instance, Floating World level Spirit Vision doesn't just provide convenience for no reason. Why don't you try casting it again without relying on your Spirit Vision and see how easy it is then?" Ji Niang said, sounding a bit exasperated.
They truly weren't from the same world; even their cognitive levels were on entirely different planes.
"Uh... try it now?" I followed Teacher Ji Niang's suggestion, asking tentatively. I didn't think I had been intentionally using Spirit Vision just now, had I?
I looked at the fireball currently suspended within that spell. It was still flamboyantly twisting with waves of heat, churning the air and trailing a long plume of flame. Every tiny increment of forward motion seemed to take an eternity.
Every single moment of its existence was laid bare before me, stripped of all secrets.
"You can try. I'll be watching. Even if you fail, there won't be any life-threatening danger," Ji Niang said, not dismissing my casual request but instead sounding quite intrigued.
"Al—alright, I'll try." I took a deep breath, centering myself. Casting that Fireball Spell earlier had drained one of my Mana Sources and consumed a significant amount of my Mental Power.
Casting another wouldn't be a problem, but I really needed to reflect on things. I hadn't placed much importance on meditating to increase my Mental Power before, so it hadn't improved much. Now it seemed that the sheer quantity of Mental Power was indeed crucial.
Even with so many Mana Sources, those were ultimately external objects. Mental Power was one's own true strength. This made me think of Tan Han—she had so many Mana Sources, but could her Mental Power actually withstand the strain?
Just as I was preparing to use my Mental Power to trigger the spellbook within my body like I did last time...
"Wait, stop for a second."
"Eh?" I opened my eyes and looked at Ji Niang in confusion, wondering what was wrong now.
"How exactly does your Mental Power precisely perceive the location of the spellbook inside you to cast the spell?"
"Huh?" I looked at her, baffled. This question was like asking me how I used my hand to accurately pat my own thigh. How was I supposed to explain that?
"Uh... I just extend Mental Power threads, feel around for the spellbook's position, and cast the spell?" I replied, looking at her with a puzzled expression while instinctively pointing toward my chest.
"It seems you don't understand. I told you to cast it again while discarding the effects of Spirit Vision. You think you can control whether Spirit Vision is turned on or off, don't you?" Ji Niang pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed before asking.
"Um... pretty much." If I couldn't control the opening and closing of Spirit Vision, I wouldn't be able to distinguish between the normal world and that eerie, terrifying Spirit Vision world.
"In truth, Spirit Vision doesn't have such a convenient boundary as 'on' or 'off.'"
"You are an Innate Spirit Vision user. I probably can't even imagine what kind of sights you experienced when you were born, but you must have unintentionally done something to force the intensity of your Spirit Vision to drop."
"Perhaps you think you've 'closed' it, but that might just be the world you see after shielding the majority of the Spirit Vision data. Therefore, the world you've seen from the very beginning might be different from what the rest of us see."
"Uh..."
I fell silent. I had never actually considered that possibility. I was a transmigrator; I had seen what a normal world looked like. How could I possibly... wait.
Actually, it was entirely possible. When I cast spells, the perspective I saw when my Mental Power triggered the spellbook—I had always assumed it was just Mental Power perception... or was that a cognitive error? Was it actually a method of applying Spirit Vision?
"You seem to have realized something. It's alright. I'm not saying this to correct you. If you can construct a self-consistent worldview, then that is surely a valid way of perceiving the world. I'm just offering a possibility, a perspective you might not have imagined," Ji Niang quickly added, trying to comfort me.
However, a flicker of nervousness crossed her face. From her perspective, Yang Yuehan was a child who had just reached adulthood and had even been sent to a mental hospital as a kid. For her to live a normal life until now, she must have her own established perceptions. If those perceptions were shattered by a few casual remarks, it might usually be fine, but...
The girl was a Floating World level Spirit Vision user. This could trigger a series of cognitive disorders. A lifeform that hadn't reached the Transcendent level couldn't possibly grasp all the possibilities of the Transcendent realm all at once.
She might have truly caused serious consequences with her careless words.
Her goal was to get Yang Yuehan to liberate her Spirit Vision techniques to the greatest extent possible, not to fully unleash them all at once. That would turn her into a lunatic, just like other Innate Spirit Vision users.
It looks like I need to speed up her progress toward becoming a Transcendent. Even if it's just raising her life level first, Ji Niang thought silently.
Then, she softly checked on me as I stood there dazed.
"Are you okay? Yang Yuehan? Xiao Han?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. I just thought of some possibilities. It's nothing." I looked at Ji Niang's fleeting panic and responded with a bright smile.
Did Ji Niang think I was going to have a cognitive breakdown?
Is she that worried about me?
Her tone just now was so cautious; I'm almost not used to it.
Cognitively, I'm already an adult. If I encounter something I can't understand, I'll just "lie flat" and ignore it. Cognitive disorder? Even if someone told me this world was fake and my existence was meaningless, I'd just ignore them and keep enjoying myself. Being able to enjoy life is the greatest meaning of all!
"Um... do we still need to try casting the spell?" I asked, pointing at the fireball still trapped in that spatial spell.
Since it had been pointed out that my attempt was likely meaningless because I couldn't truly "close" my Spirit Vision, there was no need to waste my mana. After all, I only had three Mana Sources.
At full capacity, that was only enough for three Fireball Spells.
"No. Normal spellcasting holds no threshold for you anymore. Let's try an advanced way to use spellbooks." At this point, a hint of an excited smile curled the corners of Ji Niang's mouth.
This was enough to show that even though she spoke lightly, what they were about to do was a meaningful experiment even for a Transcendent Witch like her.
"Okay. So, what do I do?" I nodded obediently. I was about to try this so-called "advanced usage"—what kind of effect would it have?
"Just listen to me." Ji Niang was very satisfied with my cooperation. With a wave of her hand, the fireball slowly drifting in the spatial spell suddenly extinguished as if its energy had been spent.
Then, Ji Niang walked over to a nearby workbench, opened the Ley Line Operating System, and pulled up a massive screen with a casual swipe.
"You still remember the things I explained to you before, right?" Ji Niang manipulated the screen, bringing up an analytical diagram.
"Um... I remember some of it."
"Then what about this? You remember me telling you what this structure is, right?" Ji Niang placed the screen in front of me and asked.
"Yes... I remember." I studied it for a moment and recalled what Teacher Ji Niang had told me. This was part of the ritual structure inside the Fireball Spellbook.
It was the absolute core of the spellbook.
Generally, spellbooks used a ritual as their core. The various structures built using Transcendent theory were all there to serve the internal ritual. One could say that the ritual of a spell determined the effect it produced.
Of course, some spellbooks didn't have rituals inside. They were simply spellbooks constructed purely from Transcendent theoretical frameworks. These ritual-less spellbooks were also called "Small Spells," used to distinguish them from spells with rituals.
Furthermore, the power or effects of Small Spells were basically at the bottom tier of spells at the same level, but they were also the easiest to use and consumed very little.
"This is part of the Formation Ritual structure inside the Fireball Spell." Rituals were divided into many types. For example, the ritual inside this Fireball Spell was similar to a magic array—specifically, the magic array that condensed in front of my hand when I cast it.
This was abbreviated as a Formation Ritual. There were also categories like Chant Rituals, Behavioral Rituals, and so on. If one were to truly categorize them in detail, the explanation would never end.
"Correct. Now, I'm going to teach you how to use Mental Power threads to disassemble a spellbook!"
"Huh? Disassemble? A spellbook?" I asked in shock. Why would anyone want to disassemble a perfectly good spellbook?
"Only by disassembling and prying open the outer protective layer of the spellbook can your Mental Power threads enter the interior to modify the ritual. This is what we call 'Magic Modification' of a spellbook." Ji Niang saw my confusion and kindly explained.
"Don't think it's as easy as it sounds. Because you possess a talent that others can't even hope to reach, you can cross a threshold with your talent alone that others couldn't reach in a lifetime."
This was the umpteenth time Ji Niang had expressed such envy. Perhaps realizing she was being a bit repetitive, she quickly stopped mentioning it and changed the subject.
"Come, let's try disassembling it. Use the Fireball Spell I gave you. If you accidentally make it collapse, I'll just give you another one. Don't let the fear of failure stop you from being bold." Ji Niang pulled the screen closer and began explaining the steps using diagrams.
Using Mental Power as the external force and Spirit Vision as the feedback, I unsurprisingly learned how to disassemble the spellbook's Energy Shell very quickly.
A spellbook only remained intact without a physical carrier because of this Energy Shell. You could call it fragile, as it could collapse on its own without a carrier, yet it could also produce terrifying, lethal magic.
That was why performing Magic Modification on one was so difficult.
"Right, take it slow. Just like that. I'll prepare the experimental records. 'Fine Disassembly of a Fireball Spellbook Energy Shell, Experiment One.'"
Ji Niang spoke softly, and the Ley Line Operating System began recording the scene. Whether this succeeded or failed, it would be a video of great commemorative value.
A non-Transcendent Witch, disassembling a spellbook by hand without any tools!
If this video were uploaded to the Witch World's video sites, it would get frantic likes from witches, who would then start belittling others and tagging certain witches to mock them.
But Ji Niang couldn't be bothered with such boring things.
Spellbooks were things that could only be created at the Transcendent level.
That said, not every Transcendent lifeform could do it.
It was like how all university students can write a thesis, but not every student can pass the plagiarism check. Some people's content is highly professional, while others' papers are pure fluff.
It was much the same for Transcendent Witches creating spellbooks.
Furthermore, because of the influx of outside races—that is, witches converted from other species—they had become the main population of the Witch race. This had also lowered many of the thresholds for Transcendent Witches.
Therefore, not all Transcendent Witches knew how to make spellbooks.
For example... Ji Niang. She could make spellbooks, but they were all Small Spells without a ritual core. If she absolutely had to make a spellbook with a ritual, she would probably need to find a massive amount of professional data and specific experimental cases to follow meticulously.
There was no helping it; even among Transcendent Witches, there were gaps in ability.
However, many simple-minded Transcendent Witches couldn't even make a spellbook while following a case study. Thus, Ji Niang considered herself one of the geniuses. At least she could make them, couldn't she?