Chapter 154: This Strike Destroys the Current Batch of Matches
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 154: This Strike Destroys the Current Batch of Matches
"Ancient Remnant Ice?"
I subconsciously repeated the name. Clearly, I knew nothing about this spell.
However, my body understood its nature much faster than my brain did.
The moment Tan Han discarded the alchemical energy storage canister in her hand, a terrifying sense of pressure erupted from her.
A wave of frigid air centered on Tan Han blasted outward like a shockwave, sending me flying. Even though my energy shield absorbed most of the impact, the chill seeped through the barrier, clinging to my bones like a terminal frost.
That aching, numbing cold seemed to settle deep within my marrow, making me feel as if I had suddenly stepped into a desolate tundra.
In an instant, the situation had completely reversed. The only thing I could see through my Spirit Vision was that blindingly bright spellbook.
I knew there were vast differences between spellbooks, but I had never seen one like this. Was I truly that ignorant?
This was the spellbook with a four-digit mana consumption. Even just looking at it, I could feel the... ancient pressure radiating from within.
I didn't exactly know what "ancient pressure" was, but the weight of it created a visual hallucination. It felt as if I were standing in the heart of an ice field, facing a towering, unknown monster, while I myself was as insignificant as a single snowflake.
Is it already starting to exert mental pressure?
I quickly steadied my witch hat. Whether it was its function of stabilizing my mental power or its wide brim shielding me from the biting wind, it provided me with a final shred of security.
Now I understood why Tan Han said she wasn't afraid of being interrupted even if the spell hadn't been released yet...
How the hell was I supposed to interrupt this?
At that moment, the temperature in the entire open-air arena plummeted. Even the temporary solidification spells at the edge of Arena No. 1 couldn't stop the phenomenon from enveloping the entire venue.
Previously, the lava domain generated by the Flame Lord had stayed obediently within the bounds of the arena. Now, even the temporary solidification spells had lost their containment effect.
"I say, Lina, aren't there restrictions on spellbook intensity for the confrontation matches? Doesn't this count as a foul?"
At the faculty seating, several witches spoke up as they witnessed the scene.
After all, such a terrifying blizzard had swept through the entire arena in such a short time that it was likely affecting the areas outside as well. Snowflakes were even beginning to drift down onto the witches' heads.
"There is indeed such a restriction, but as the academy develops, certain regulations must evolve with the times," Lina replied nonchalantly, picking up her milk tea.
"No, Lina, you're a Transcendent Witch. You can't tell me you're being influenced by the Script, can you? You're giving Tan Han this much leeway? The limit for spellbooks used to be under four digits!"
"I couldn't help it. The Academy Dean has quite a few guests over. Here, I suppose there's no harm in showing you." Lina pulled out several letters and laid them on the table.
"What are these?"
"New Student Exchange Competition... Huh? What is this?"
Several witches crowded around to see the commotion. Upon reading the contents, many looked confused, though several others quickly caught on.
"We snatched Tan Han for our Witch Academy, and they couldn't do anything about it. Those old fogies want to push the plot forward quickly, so they deliberately pushed their own academy's freshmen into the fray. They want a piece of the Luck pie too."
"Sending them here as cannon fodder? They're that willing?"
"Exactly. Do they really think they can claim Luck just like that? Tan Han's 'First Blood' won't be taken so easily."
"So that's why you're letting Tan Han use this spell? Wait, you were the one who fought for her to have this spell, weren't you? This is against the rules."
"But she's using it right now, isn't she?"
"Tan Han's character hasn't been tempered yet. Setbacks are a necessity," Lina said, shaking her head with a hint of helplessness.
"This little one, Yang Yuehan, is quite interesting. She can pull so many tricks with a simple Fireball Spell. Haven't you seen the experimental records she made a few days ago? They're quite fascinating."
"Oh? Where can we see them?"
"The library. You can access them with high-level permissions."
"I'll take a look."
Soon, the conversation among the witches shifted toward the experimental records.
However, some witches still couldn't let the matter of Tan Han go and continued to talk to Lina. As Tan Han's counselor, Lina's decisions would have a massive impact on the girl.
"Lina, what are you thinking? Are you training Tan Han to be a weapon of war? A magic turret?"
"Tan Han has great potential. At this stage, she should be like Yang Yuehan—contacting Transcendent laws and learning Transcendent knowledge—rather than just slaughtering everyone on the field with a pile of spellbooks and mana sources."
"But you can't deny that Tan Han only has second-stage Spirit Vision at the Imaging level. If she follows the Script, builds her strength, and gathers the Luck of this world to reach the top and advance, it won't be too late for her to engage with that knowledge once she's a Transcendent Witch."
"So impatient. Is this the academy's decision? Are they afraid of others taking a share?"
"Who knows? This Main World can be opened up, but as for Transcendent races, four are enough. Our Witch Academy will just be the last one."
* * *
"Incredible! The magical phenomenon from Arena No. 1 has spilled outside! This means the solidification spells of Arena No. 1 have been... cough! A blizzard has kicked up inside the arena, and visibility is dropping. We... we're going in closer... let me put on a heat-retention spell first..."
The commentator was extremely excited! Snowflakes were even flying into her mouth.
Rumor had it that Tan Han possessed a spell with a mana consumption of over a thousand. Judging by this phenomenon, it was definitely a spell of that caliber. One had to realize that even senior sisters in the upper years didn't necessarily possess such a spell.
No one could believe a freshman possessed such means. Of course, the commentator was internally complaining about the garbage safety measures for this Freshman Competition, but she didn't dare say it out loud.
So, what was there to do?
Just guide the audience to think Tan Han was amazing.
"We've moved closer and can see a massive figure within the snow. Let's check the Ley Line information to see what spell Tan Han is using... Ancient Remnant Ice Transformation."
The commentator didn't even refer to her as "No. 1" anymore, calling her Tan Han directly. She was likely too excited to notice.
"Just from the name alone, we can tell the intensity of this spell..."
"Hey! Student, evacuate immediately! Are you trying to get killed by walking forward? Go back! Non-contestants are not allowed in the arena!"
"Huh? Aren't you the referee for Arena No. 3? You're..."
"Evacuating students. This batch of matches is temporarily suspended. The academy will cover any personal losses incurred."
"Wait! What about Arena No. 1!" She was the commentator for Arena No. 1, and she was still live!
Would she lose resource points for this?
"This incident was caused by Arena No. 1. You're the No. 1 commentator? Perfect, go back. I'll transfer the commentary permissions to the No. 1 referee."
"But..."
"You can't handle commentating a scene like this. I'm cutting your feed. Get back now." With that, the referee from Arena No. 3 cut her permissions.
Meanwhile, standing in the eye of the blizzard, I was enduring a bone-chilling cold.
Tan Han was right.
I really had never seen a scene like this before.
I could only keep rubbing fireballs together to maintain some warmth. I felt like the "Little Fireball Girl," about to see my grandmother...
Fine, I didn't even know what my grandmother looked like. It was just a metaphor.
"Feel the crushing weight of absolute strength!"
A booming voice descended from above, carrying ice and echoes that blew away the snow between us.
Only then could I see her appearance with my naked eyes.
Tan Han was now a towering giant, clad in raiment of ice-blue frost.
Even so, her humanoid form was still visible. Her body was like a deep layer of ice, shimmering with a profound blue light.
Clad in ice and holding a scepter, spikes of remnant ice acted as her loyal guards, while ice shards hanging in the sky became her wings. Every movement brought down a hail of ice upon the ground.
This was a transformation spell shaped by over a thousand mana.
After the initial shock, I subconsciously began to guess the mana conversion ratio of this spell. This four-digit consumption was far more sophisticated than the three-digit consumption from before. This wasn't something that could be achieved by simply stacking mana; the spellbook's efficiency in converting mana must be significantly higher.
In my research on the Fireball Spell, even though it only consumed one point of mana, its conversion rate was incredibly low—less than 1%.
Perhaps that was why the spellbook couldn't handle a higher conversion ratio; the spell itself was too low-end, with outdated internal structures and rituals that limited the efficiency.
While I couldn't imagine how terrifying a Fireball Spell with a 100% conversion rate would be, Tan Han's transformation spell gave me a glimpse into the power of high-efficiency magic.
After all, even if I consumed a thousand mana to fire a thousand fireballs, I wouldn't reach this level of power!
At this moment, I truly felt a pang of envy—envy that Tan Han could so easily obtain such a terrifying spellbook.
But there was nothing to be done. She had proven her value and earned the academy's favor.
If Teacher Ji Niang hadn't given me a chance, I'd probably still be struggling at the bottom.
Only now did I realize how foolish I was to have rejected Teacher Ji Niang's spellbooks before. Though, in truth, accepting those spells might not have helped much; at least at this stage, even with those spells, I wouldn't be able to break this deadlock.
Ultimately, the level of resources I had access to was too low.
But if we were talking about value, didn't I have value? Didn't I deserve this kind of resource allocation?
Of course I did!
Even if I didn't know much about myself, what Teacher Ji Niang told me made it clear that my value was not inferior to Tan Han's—it likely exceeded hers. Yet, I hadn't enjoyed the same treatment.
Like right now, where I was being chased by ice spikes.
The ground of the arena had frozen solid. The stage that was recently molten lava was now completely encased in ice. Ice spikes rained down continuously; if I were a step too slow, I could be crushed on the spot.
Furthermore, I had to keep track of the arena's boundaries. If I stepped out of bounds, I'd lose. The temporary solidification spells at the edges seemed to be malfunctioning.
The referee at the edge looked ready to rush in and terminate the match at any moment, but I glanced at her and signaled that it wasn't necessary yet.
Vaguely, I could hear the referee speaking.
"As No. 1 completes her transformation, No. 14 has fallen into a completely passive state. The sky full of ice spikes will end the match if she misses a single step."
"No. 14 just signaled me to continue the match. In the spirit of competition, we will continue the commentary. I am the referee for Arena No. 1. Due to force majeure, I will be handling the commentary from here on..."
"Surrender, Xiao Han! Futile struggling will only make your loss more unsightly."
Tan Han, now the Ancient Remnant Ice, swept her scepter toward me.
"After fighting this long, I've basically figured out your tricks. Before this, I was actually looking forward to fighting you, but I didn't expect everything to happen so fast. Forcing me to this point is proof enough of your strength, but it's not enough!"
"I heard you were exempted from courses just like me. While there were no classes, I was practicing spells. I spent all that time applying magic. In my spare time, I was constantly challenging opponents in the dream devices. Xiao Han, what about you?"
Tan Han's voice drifted down, sounding like a monologue before a final battle, or perhaps a boast of her hard work. Her tone was filled with arrogance—perhaps the transformation spell had altered her manner of speaking.
"Are you trying to prove something to me? Your hard work?" I didn't answer her directly but asked a question in return. Tan Han was a young lady from a wealthy family; I understood her arrogant personality, but I didn't agree with it.
More importantly, I was stalling for time. I needed to break this situation. If I didn't, I was just waiting to die. She could grind me down to nothing.
My only reliance was my Spirit Vision. In the past, it had been a burden, but now, it was my most effective tool!
"That look again. Xiao Han, your eyes are truly special. Is it your talent? But this time, I won't give you the chance to pry!"
Tan Han seemed to sense my Spirit Vision's gaze. She was familiar with this feeling; it was just like during that meditation session.
Just like then, she would trigger her talent to sweep away this prying gaze!
It was only after that incident that she discovered what the talent she awakened upon enrollment actually was.
Initially, she didn't know what her talent was. The information on the Ley Line terminal was just garbled code. She had asked her counselor and the academy, but no one gave her an answer.
It wasn't until her talent was triggered passively that she gradually began to feel what it was. It was a seed shaped like a vertical pupil, wrapped in an unknown power.
And finally, its name appeared in the Ley Line information: "Spirit Eye."
The power surrounding the Spirit Eye was miraculous, even more terrifying than mana, but she couldn't invoke it actively.
But now, as if by fate, she was in this situation. Especially after meeting Xiao Han's gaze, her Spirit Eye was stimulated. The restless power seemed ready to break free from her body to expel that gaze.
So, Tan Han followed that sensation and placed it inside the Ancient Remnant Ice Transformation spellbook.
Meanwhile, my Spirit Vision quickly saw through the transformation. Every energy node derived from the spell spread across the massive body like a web.
I even saw Tan Han's main body, which was the root of the spellbook.
It was called a transformation spell, but abstractly, the essence of the spell was more like wearing a shell.
Hit the core, wake the main body, disrupt the energy nodes, and trigger an explosion to destroy the transformation ritual.
The method was simple, but knowing it didn't mean I could do it. My means were limited—unless I sacrificed my Fireball Spellbook to create a more powerful strike.
I had almost completely mastered the Fireball Spellbook, including the section on mana-to-fire-element conversion efficiency.
It wasn't that I didn't want to use a more powerful fireball before, but such a fireball was my trump card, meant for a finishing blow. Who shows their trump card right at the start?
Furthermore, the higher the conversion rate, the longer the spellbook's cooldown. Spellbooks were highly integrated products of magic; using them naturally incurred a cooldown. Otherwise, continuous high-intensity use would damage the spellbook itself or lead to spell failure.
If a spell failed, the best-case scenario was that nothing happened. Internal damage to the spellbook was normal. The worst-case scenario was the total destruction of the spellbook and a mental power backlash.
I had already broken one before, which Teacher Ji Niang had turned into a specimen of a spellbook's expanded structure.
But just as I prepared to sacrifice this spellbook, another anomaly occurred.
I didn't know what Tan Han had done, but through my Spirit Vision, I saw a massive golden vertical pupil appear above the Ancient Remnant Ice she had become!
This was exactly what I had seen when I accompanied Tan Han during meditation!
Recalling that scene, I subconsciously shuddered. It felt like a crushing weight from a higher level of existence, making it impossible to resist.
This thing felt like it was born to counter me, using absolute suppression to leave me helpless...
Cheating! This has to be cheating! If she uses this kind of power, won't I just be erased?
My Floating World level Spirit Vision met that eye. Through it, I looked into the deep starry sky behind it, stretching into nothingness...
Such a scene was naturally not visible to ordinary people. The students in the audience couldn't see this terrifying sight.
The golden eye carried the Ancient Remnant Ice, connecting heaven and earth, dominating Tan Han's current body.
At the faculty seating, many witches suddenly stood up.
"The Luck Seed has been triggered? How is that possible?"
"A bug appeared in the Script's trajectory. It judged that Tan Han would lose in the upcoming collision?"
The most shocked among them was Lina. As Tan Han's counselor, she knew the girl inside and out. But this Yang Yuehan only had four spellbooks in her body—how was she supposed to turn the tables?
The fact that the Luck Seed could be triggered meant a pivotal plot point had encountered a structural loophole and required "correction." The power of Script correction was no joke.
It was like a "Script Kill" in a game—it might look like a reasonable performance, but the target was guaranteed to die. The irrationality lay in the fact that the trajectory of the plot was locked; there was no possibility of the opponent's victory...
"Tan Han's 'First Blood' is being given away just like that?" several teachers asked in disbelief.
Of course, the "First Blood" the witches spoke of wasn't that kind of first blood. It referred to Tan Han, as a protagonist of the Script, having her Luck stripped and corrected for the first time due to a loophole.
A "Script Kill" was one of the Script's methods of self-correction.
However, for the person being "Script Killed," it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Even a protagonist of the Script was a living person, an individual living under the world's laws. This was a process of "Equivalent Exchange."
The Luck consumed by the Luck Seed wouldn't disappear; it would simply be transferred to the opponent in another form. This was the so-called "taking a share."
If one's vision and cognition weren't high enough to see this level, calling the person who was Script Killed a "failed cannon fodder" wouldn't be entirely wrong.
"By the way, where is Xi Lan? Her precious student is fighting. Does she know what's going on?"
"Haven't seen her. But I'm still curious—if there were no Script interference, how would No. 14 turn this around?"
"Don't you know? The mana conversion rate of that Fireball Spellbook. This Yang Yuehan already broke one spellbook during an experiment. For her, sacrificing another spellbook wouldn't be hard. She wouldn't even need a high rate—just a 10% conversion rate would be enough to break that transformation."
"Aren't you overestimating her? Thinking she can solve it in one hit?"
"Yang Yuehan is the first case of an Innate Spirit Vision user with Floating World level vision. It's terrifying just thinking about it. Didn't that Flame Lord just vanish in one hit earlier?"
"I suppose so."
"Wait, Lina, what are you doing?"
The witches saw Lina suddenly stand up and head toward the arena as if she had realized something.
"What you said just now reminded me. Yang Yuehan's Spirit Vision is at the Floating World level. In this clash with the Luck Seed, I'm afraid she might touch upon information regarding World Script theory. I'm going to prepare a confidentiality contract. That kind of information cannot be spread in the Main World."
"True. I almost forgot that possibility."
* * *
At that moment.
I looked at Tan Han across from me. She felt so strange now, not even saying a word to me.
That massive golden eye seemed to have locked onto me, and I was powerless.
"You're using hacks, aren't you... Tan Han? Fine, then I'll have to put my life on the line!"
But Tan Han didn't respond.
Since that was the case, I pressed my hand against my chest, and a ball of light emerged. Since I was going to sacrifice this spellbook, I would let it expand outside my body.
With a mental disassembly, the protective layer of the spellbook became useless. Once the outer protection was removed, the internal structure would be revealed without reservation.
This was a method of using a spellbook that could only be done once in a lifetime. I was using it now; I had never been this reckless even in the laboratory.
Just as I was about to perform a "micro-modification" on the expanded spellbook, I felt myself abruptly lose consciousness.
Everything felt like a smooth scene transition, and then my consciousness cleared again.
My surroundings had become silent. There was no blizzard, no stage, and no audience.
There was only a void, and... a golden light in the distance.
"Tan Han...?"
I tentatively looked toward the figure within that golden light.
"Um... Xiao Han... where... where is this?"
"Huh? Didn't you do all this? You're asking me?"
"Me?" Tan Han looked utterly bewildered.
She only remembered following her instincts to place that talent seed into the spellbook, and then everything went blank. When she woke up again, she was here.