Chapter 459: The Dilemma of the Tree of Knowledge, Sister Bai Arrives
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 459: The Dilemma of the Tree of Knowledge, Sister Bai Arrives
While the tasks the Dean laid out seemed straightforward, execution was another matter entirely.
It was especially troublesome since it involved things like Scripts and [Transcendent Knowledge]. Moreover, I wasn't the Dean's only option; it was just that, after considering Qiu Ruxin’s thoughts, I currently held the highest priority. There was another reason, too... I was relatively controllable and flexible when reacting to unknown risks.
It was a pragmatic outlook, but a factual one.
I didn't have the slightest objection to it.
What a joke—if there was a chance to get my hands on [Transcendent Knowledge], why wouldn't I take the gamble?
That said, I had been coming into contact with [Transcendent Knowledge] quite frequently lately. I couldn't possibly have some kind of "Transcendent Knowledge Magnet" constitution, could I?
Shaking off those unrealistic thoughts, I began my preparations. Severing Qiu Ruxin’s status as a Child of Destiny couldn't be achieved simply by sending her to the Main World. After all, I had encountered the Luck threads of this small world even back in the Main World. Qiu Ruxin wouldn't lose her status just by leaving her home world; other means were required to assist the process.
Of course, Qiu Ruxin could have simply kept her status as she traveled to the Main World and waited for her world to merge into it. While this would cause a temporary conflict with the Main World’s own Child of Destiny—an unavoidable clash at the Script level—it wasn't an unacceptable outcome.
However, Qiu Ruxin was extremely resistant to being a Child of Destiny. She had already made her stance very clear.
There was also one more important thing the Dean had told me in private: once this small world’s Script lost its Child of Destiny, they would step in to suppress the birth of a replacement. Once the Script was thoroughly destroyed, the world's essence would be severely damaged. With the World Will’s resistance weakened, the rate of integration into the Main World would accelerate.
Most importantly, once the [Transcendent Knowledge] was wrested from the World Will’s control, the World Will would no longer have the capital to choose a successor.
Whether it was the Child of Destiny, the Script, or Luck itself—everything existed to serve the [Transcendent Knowledge].
If the core was gone, what was the point of playing the game?
"By the way, Dean, I wanted to ask... roughly how many days will this take?" I approached the Dean again to ask this question.
This was crucial for me. The matter of the interview hadn't been finalized yet. All the teachers involved had to be free at the same time to conduct the interviews. While most of them were new mentors with nothing much to do, I couldn't forget that there were other mentors involved as well!
Those mentors were busy. If they weren't, why would they be looking for a teaching assistant? Just for fun?
They weren't that bored. Aside from witches with very niche tastes, most ordinary witches were only interested in their fellow witches.
"Mhm, no rush. At most, it'll take a day or two of your time. We’re currently researching how to destroy Qiu Ruxin’s Luck Seed without harming her. We feel it could be a fun little project. It would be even better if we could peel it off intact."
"Uh... is there no precedent for this?" I asked, scratching my head.
"There are precedents, of course, but opportunities like this are rare. When you encounter a fascinating problem, is your first thought really to look up the answer?"
"Fair enough..." I didn't try to argue further. In truth, I rarely felt "fond" of difficult problems; I usually just wanted to reach the answer as quickly as possible.
Perhaps that was a habit carried over from my past life?
"Xiao Han, are you asking because you have urgent business at the Academy? When Qiu Ruxin summoned you earlier, you didn't respond the first time."
"Ah... well, I do have something to do. In two days—maybe even tomorrow or the day after—I have to attend the teaching assistant interview."
"Oh, the teaching assistant... it is time for the new batch of witches to rotate... wait!" As she spoke, Dean Bev realized that the timing was indeed correct, but...
"Wait, no. Xiao Han, you’re taking the teaching assistant test? Didn't you just enroll?"
"Um... yeah. Is there a problem?"
"Is there a problem?" Bev stood up abruptly. "There is no precedent in the Witch Academy for a student in their first three years to take the teaching assistant test! Did that Old Mei Po egg you on?"
"Huh?"
I feigned confusion, but I was shocked internally. Old Mei Po? That couldn't be Dean Mei’s nickname, could it... The thought almost made me laugh out loud, but I caught Dean Bev’s gaze and held it in.
"Fine, fine, it was her, wasn't it? She really does whatever she wants! Doesn't she know that you... you..." Bev Alanna looked at me. She had initially intended to bring up the screening process, but as an Academy Dean, she knew a bit about Xiao Han’s situation. Even if Xiao Han did nothing else, the prestige of being the champion of the multi-academy Dream Exchange Competition was a massive bonus. Combined with Xiao Han’s other strange achievements, she would pass the screening even without anything else.
"Doesn't she know you've only been enrolled for half a year? The written exam covers a vast amount of knowledge, not to mention the advanced questions at the end."
"The written exam scores are already out. I was one point short of a perfect score," I said. The Dean had walked right into that one; I was speaking from a position of strength!
"One point short of... tsk..." Dean Bev was choked up by my response. Clearly, her next question wasn't a challenge, but a sign of her refusal to back down. "Will any mentor even take a freshman like you?"
"I know a senior sister. She’s already graduated and returned as part of this new batch of mentors. She’s willing to take me."
"Pfft... Hahaha! Haha~ mmph..."
Just as I finished speaking, leaving the Dean speechless once again, laughter erupted from around the corner before she could say another word.
"Fine! You lot are eavesdropping on me? And you actually laughed out loud? Is this that funny?" Dean Bev, finally finding an outlet for her frustration, turned and marched toward the corner.
I stayed where I was. With the Dean’s powerful perception, how could she not have known there were witches eavesdropping?
She simply hadn't cared until they laughed at her moment of embarrassment. Now? Well, sorry for them—they were in for a rough time.
A series of screams followed, seemingly intended for my ears. Finally, the Dean walked back out, dusting off her hands with a beaming smile.
"Xiao Han, where were we?"
"Uh... the teaching assistant thing?"
"Oh, right. Since you have your own arrangements, that’s fine. I like students who are proactive and have a plan. Focus on the business here for now. If it runs late, I’ll put in a word for you. Xiao Han, is there anything else?"
"No... nothing else. Dean, I’ll head back now..."
"Mhm, go on. I’ll notify you once we’re ready."
Dean Bev waved me off, not dwelling on the topic. It was just a teaching assistant position, after all; she wasn't going to get too worked up over it.
However, as she watched me walk away, she couldn't help but wonder: the girl had only been enrolled for half a year, so where did she meet a senior sister? Had they known each other before she enrolled?
Realizing there was no point in dwelling on it, she returned to her own work.
After leaving the Dean, I went to find Qiu Ruxin. The palace was massive, and I wandered around for quite a while before finally using the Tree of Knowledge to connect to the world's Ley Line data. That was how I eventually located her.
At that moment, Qiu Ruxin was cooperating with several mentors on an experiment—likely the attempt to strip or destroy the Luck Seed that the Dean had mentioned.
They welcomed my arrival warmly, ushering me inside.
"Sister Xiao Han, I didn't expect you to find this place..."
"Well, I didn't have much to do, so I happened to wander over." I gave a simple reply before turning my gaze to the two mentors. "Mentors, if I may ask, how is the progress on severing the connection to Qiu Ruxin’s Luck Seed?"
"Almost there, almost there. Xiao Han, we might even finish today," one of the mentors said.
"That fast?"
"Of course. It’s only because we haven't researched Luck very much; otherwise, it would be even faster. But it’s good to broaden our horizons; this is a rare opportunity, after all."
"I see..." I hadn't expected that the people doing this weren't specialists. But seeing how confident these two mentors were, it seemed that "Luck" was no longer a profound mystery to those at the Transcendent level.
During the breaks, Qiu Ruxin told me about what had happened after my hurried departure.
It was mostly a "power fantasy" story of the Dean and the mentors using absolute strength to suppress the world.
I listened with great interest, mainly to learn how the Dean and the others conquered a world in such a short time. Who knew if I might need that knowledge in the future?
You can never be too sure about these things.
As I listened to Qiu Ruxin, I found myself agreeing with the Dean’s philosophy: don't waste time bickering with the locals. If you lower yourself even slightly to negotiate, they will try to haggle and look for any sliver of opportunity.
Only absolute power and the terror of the unknown can plunge an opponent into total despair. After all, who isn't afraid of an enemy that is both unknown and overwhelmingly powerful?
Time passed quickly. Aside from listening to Qiu Ruxin, I spent my time refining the Tree of Knowledge.
Since I had tried connecting to the Ley Lines earlier, and these were two different worlds, I wanted to collect data to see if there were any discrepancies. This would be very helpful for quickly accessing Ley Line data if I ever traveled to other worlds.
Naturally, I also tapped into the Plant Network to see if there were any new theories regarding Ley Energy conversion that I could use to iterate and update my own results.
Unfortunately, the Ley Energy conversion technology of this world hadn't seen a breakthrough in a long time. It looked like there were no shortcuts to be found.
Even without a shortcut in that area, being near Qiu Ruxin allowed me to sense the information constantly radiating from her Tears of the Mad Plant. My Tree of Knowledge was built upon the foundation of the Memory Bookshelf, the revelations I had gained, and the framework of the Plant Network. Therefore, the Tree of Knowledge was essentially "kin" to "Plant Technology."
Though a significant amount of time passed without a major breakthrough, many small issues were being optimized within the range of this Transcendent item. I felt as though the derivations of the Tree of Knowledge were moving as smoothly as if I had a tailwind. If I were given a few months—or even just one month—I could take it a step further.
What a shame. If I had realized this sooner, I wouldn't have wasted so much time.
But even if I could do it over, I wouldn't regret it. I would still have made the same choices and embarked on that journey. The feelings, changes, and insights that journey gave me were entirely unique.
Currently, I was working on breaking through the storage limit of the knowledge within the Tree of Knowledge. As I used the spell more frequently and the amount of material I needed to learn grew, the knowledge and memories within the tree were skyrocketing.
The speed was terrifying. Even with my subconscious Knowledge Clone organizing the data and pruning useless information, the accumulation was still too fast. The increase in the storage limit was only happening in small increments, completely failing to keep pace with the growth.
Finally, after stopping my work, I realized something: there was a fundamental flaw in the framework of the Tree of Knowledge. The spell looked perfect on the surface, but it was filled with a naive sense of "wishful thinking."
It was a hybrid spell cobbled together from many different functions, ideas, and frameworks, rather than a truly cohesive system.
It was as if I had gone to a car scrapyard, picked out parts that looked decent, and somehow assembled a bicycle. It worked well enough at first, but now that I had encountered a problem and scrutinized it, I realized its construction was absurd.
Ultimately, it came down to my lack of foundation. My understanding of spells wasn't deep enough, and my grasp of spellbooks was lacking. At its core, the Tree of Knowledge was a massive modification of the Memory Bookshelf spellbook. Its essence was still the Memory Bookshelf, but the Tree of Knowledge was a sequence derivation of that spell.
"It’s getting late, so I’ll head back. By the way, is there a place to sleep here?"
"Of course. This is the most luxurious palace in the country; how could there be nowhere to sleep? Just ask around and have a waiter take you to an empty guest room," one of the mentors said.
"Is that so? Alright then." I nodded. I didn't actually plan on asking anyone; I could just communicate with the Ley Lines to get a layout of the palace.
However, just as I turned to leave, the doors were pushed open. I thought it was another mentor coming to check on the situation, but when I saw the person who entered, I froze in my tracks.
"Are you here? I finally found you."
"Sister Bai? You actually came!" My eyes widened in disbelief. I had only mentioned it to her in passing.
At that moment, I wasn't the only one surprised. The mentors were curious, and so was... Qiu Ruxin.
She had never heard Sister Xiao Han use such a delighted tone to address anyone. It was as if the arrival of this figure signaled that someone even more qualified to protect Xiao Han had appeared...