Chapter 522: Body Cultivation Sixth Sense, Domain Prototype
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 522: Body Cultivation Sixth Sense, Domain Prototype
"Is it here?"
Just as Dinah was growing anxious, a voice suddenly drifted over. It was Mei Lind, who had rushed to the scene after sensing the terrifying aura of the void rifts spreading through the academy.
"Dean, what’s going on?" Dinah let out a sigh of relief upon seeing her, knowing the situation was now out of her hands.
"Leave for now, and evacuate everyone from the infirmary while you're at it," Mei Lind replied, not answering the question directly.
Her gaze was fixed intently on the void rifts manifesting around Xiao Han, her expression a complex mix of emotions.
Dinah didn't dare delay. She immediately took Fool's Dream and left, while the other witches in the infirmary scrambled to evacuate the rest of the people.
Fortunately, it was currently the holidays, so the infirmary was mostly empty. Within moments, the only thing remaining in the building was the terrifying fluctuation of the void rifts.
The ripples caused by the tearing of the void immediately caught the attention of every witch in the academy. Most of them knew that such strange, natural void phenomena didn't just happen for no reason. If they appeared, it signified one thing: the formation of a Great Spellbook!
Every witch felt a sense of inexplicable shock at the sudden success of another Great Spellbook. This was already the second time in recent memory!
Why had there been no warning at all?
The first time was Dean Mei, so it was normal for information not to leak. But surely it wasn't her again? They were all Transcendent Witches; didn't they ever discuss their research progress with one another?
Even in the laboratory dedicated to studying [Transcendent Knowledge] within the Independent Domain research base, the ripples in space were felt. Many witches who were free at the moment hurried out to investigate.
In an instant, a large crowd of Transcendent Witches gathered around the perimeter of the infirmary.
"Which big shot is it this time?"
"Not a single word leaked beforehand. They really kept it under wraps."
"Wait, isn't that the infirmary? Why is it happening there?"
"Maybe they got a sudden burst of inspiration while in the infirmary? Or received some kind of revelation?"
"Look! A few figures are coming out! Let's go ask."
"Isn't that Dinah? Why is she at the infirmary in the middle of the night? And she's carrying a cat-girl."
At that moment, Dinah, having just escaped the infirmary, was surrounded by a swarm of witches peppering her with questions.
"Give me a break, I can't even get a moment's peace at night..." Dinah looked at the crowd while clutching Fool's Dream, feeling a massive headache coming on.
She didn't dare reveal anything. This involved the Academy Dean; if she let something slip, she might end up in serious trouble.
Besides, if she told them that the Great Spellbook and the void rifts were Xiao Han's doing, would they even believe her?
"I don't know... I only know Dean Mei is inside. I don't know anything else!" Under the pressure of the gossiping witches, she could only reveal that much. Since the Dean had taken over, it was best to just shift all the focus onto her!
"Dean Mei again? How is that possible?"
The commotion naturally drew a large number of witches, and Bai Yu was no exception.
She had seen this scene before, and witnessing it again, she understood that this was the moment a Great Spellbook was successfully created.
Suddenly, Bai Yu instinctively tried to contact Xiao Han to tell her to be careful, but the call wouldn't go through—there was no signal.
Since that failed, Bai Yu directly summoned her Knowledge Shadow. Her Knowledge Shadow was unique, having been specially marked by Xiao Han.
"Xiao Han, what's going on with your main body? She's not answering her phone. I hope nothing's wrong."
"Sister Bai, I'm not entirely sure~ I only know I'm in the middle of doing something big. I'm quite busy right now."
"Still busy at this hour? Alright then..." Bai Yu checked the time, a flicker of worry crossing her heart. She felt an urge to give a lecture, but ultimately held her tongue. Xiao Han had her own arrangements; wasn't that a form of planning in itself?
Not long ago, Xiao Han had been conversing as an equal with the Academy Dean. Bai Yu felt she had no right to step in and criticize.
Bai Yu realized she was still trapped by her old perceptions, yet those perceptions contradicted her current reality. She really needed to change her mindset.
* * *
Inside the infirmary.
Mei Lind looked at the sleeping Xiao Han with a trace of helplessness. She glanced at the void rifts nearby—two in total, with signs of a third one faintly beginning to tear. But as long as Xiao Han didn't wake up, there was nothing she could do about them.
"What's the situation... Xiao Han?"
"Hmm? What are you doing here? Coming to cause trouble?" Mei Lind looked at the suddenly appearing Bev Alanna with a sigh.
"I am an Academy Dean too, you know. Is Xiao Han creating another Great Spellbook? I've seen this show before."
"If you don't know what you're talking about, you don't have to speak. This is the perfection of a Great Spellbook—the one you all came up with, the Tree of Great Knowledge."
"This... then hurry up and plug the void rifts... Uh, okay, okay, I won't interfere." Seeing Mei Lind's murderous glare, Bev quickly shut her mouth. She knew nothing about Great Spellbooks; she had clearly stumbled into a blind spot in her knowledge.
After a brief moment of silence, the third void rift, which had been faintly tearing, finally showed movement.
And just as this third rift tore open, I slowly opened my eyes.
Seeing this, Mei Lind let out a sigh of relief.
I was still in a daze. Upon opening my eyes, I realized I was no longer at home.
And the person standing before me was the Academy Dean!
I felt like I had experienced this before. Last time it was Dean Bev; this time it was Dean Mei.
My gaze instinctively drifted to the side, and sure enough, Dean Bev was there. But what caught my attention more were the void rifts surrounding me.
The moment I saw them, I realized exactly what had happened.
"Sorry... Dean, I've caused trouble for you again." I gave a slight, bitter smile. I truly hadn't expected that what I had been doing lately would cause such a massive impact, even drawing two Deans at once!
"If this is what you call trouble, I wouldn't mind if you caused a bit more," Dean Mei said with a light chuckle, not finding it troublesome at all. "Do you know what to do next?"
"Yes, I need to accept these void rifts," I nodded.
But this time, I felt I didn't need to crudely stuff them into my body like I did before. Because I had moved a step closer to perfecting the Tree of Great Knowledge, its power was gradually reaching a terrifying level within my understanding.
What I had accomplished during this period was something that couldn't be summarized in just a few words.
"Then let's begin. You're in control; I'll assist you," Mei Lind said.
She didn't know much about this brand-new Great Spellbook, so she couldn't take the lead. She could only trust that Xiao Han could do it.
However, she wasn't too worried. The tearing of the void rifts represented the recognition of the Void itself, and it also showed that Xiao Han was ready to dominate this power. It was just that her current physical conditions required some outside help—after all, void rifts were no laughing matter.
"Thank you, Dean. Then... I'll have to trouble you." I nodded and slowly closed my eyes.
I began to test the brand-new power I had mastered. This power was strange; it seemed related to the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art, the Tree of Great Knowledge, and even had a connection to Self-Awakened Body Cultivation. I didn't even know how to define this ability anymore.
But this ability allowed me to better dominate the Tree of Great Knowledge.
The moment I closed my eyes, it felt as if all things returned to nothingness. An invisible power rippled outward, and everything around me seemed to lose its original properties. The infirmary, the walls, the floor... they lost their material forms. Even space seemed to be transforming, and physical laws were being rewritten. A new order was restructuring itself, and nothingness replaced everything.
With me as the center, the phantom of a massive tree rose from the ground. The trunk condensed upward, the branches and leaves spread out, and the roots extended downward, piercing through the ley lines...
The original floor became a mirror-like surface, like the face of a lake, with ripples radiating outward from me.
Mei Lind and Bev Alanna now stood upon this mirror made of void energy. Their surroundings no longer looked as they had before. Ripples rose beneath their feet as well, and the power of rewritten order made their hearts tighten. Even Bev Alanna took on a rare expression of seriousness.
In this moment, distance seemed to lose its meaning. They were pushed back by the restructured order in an instant. That colossal tree stood tall above the Witch Academy, forming a magnificent spectacle.
"Is this... a Mindscape?!" Bev Alanna asked in disbelief.
"Body Cultivation Sixth Sense, Heart Sense... Mindscape Manifestation," Mei Lind said, seemingly confirming the other's suspicion.
"How is that possible? This is Body Cultivation, and she's only..."
"She is a Self-Awakened Body Cultivation practitioner," Mei Lind interrupted, answering Bev's question and clearing her confusion at the same time.
Such was the uniqueness of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation. The naturally formed Five Senses Perception, if cultivated step-by-step, could lead to the birth of the Sixth Sense. However, Xiao Han's version was clearly not following the standard path.
If a Body Cultivation expert saw this, they would probably start cursing. It turned out that what crushed a Body Cultivation practitioner wasn't necessarily a peer, but could very well be a Magic Cultivation practitioner.
This Mindscape... was clearly the manifestation of what Xiao Han called the Tree of Great Knowledge.
A Great Spellbook... could actually be used like this?
This truly hit Mei Lind's blind spot. Although she dabbled in Body Cultivation, her knowledge wasn't deep. She wasn't a Self-Awakened Body Cultivation practitioner either, and she wouldn't go out of her way to cultivate a Sixth Sense for no reason. Thus, she lacked the experimental foundation to study this power.
Mei Lind looked at Xiao Han with a complex gaze. In her mind, she silently shared the information regarding the Body Cultivation Sixth Sense with Xiao Han. From the look of it, Xiao Han clearly didn't have enough understanding of this power.
But even without that understanding, Mei Lind suddenly realized that Xiao Han didn't even need her help to deal with the void rifts. She could rely on the power of her Mindscape to integrate the rifts into the Great Spellbook.
Standing in the center of the Heart State Sea, I felt the knowledge suddenly shared with me, which made me realize exactly what kind of power I now possessed.
"Body Cultivation Sixth Sense... I was wondering how studying a Great Spellbook ended up involving Body Cultivation..." I muttered to myself.
But I quickly sorted out the situation. The perfection of the Tree of Great Knowledge and my understanding of the Sea of Consciousness and the Dream Sea were merely the catalysts for my Self-Awakened Body Cultivation. It was a complete coincidence, but because of this coincidence, the Body Cultivation power—which should have had nothing to do with this Great Spellbook—had been linked in.
Now, I stood beneath the Tree of Great Knowledge. The phantom of the giant tree gradually solidified, and reflected beneath my feet was the Tree of Great Wisdom Enlightenment.
My Knowledge Shadow stood opposite me.
One could say that only now was this "Dual Tree Structure" truly dominated by me, rather than me just utilizing local methods from one part of the Tree of Great Knowledge.
For a moment, I couldn't even tell if this completely unified Dual Tree Structure was a derivation of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art or the Tree of Great Knowledge.
But there was no doubt that, by using the concept of Soul Essence, I had completed the unification of my Sea of Consciousness and Dream Sea. With the help of the Body Cultivation Mindscape power, they were unified into the Heart State Sea.
It was because of the Sixth Sense, Heart Sense, that I had completed the unified perception of two completely different and opposing concepts.
What mattered wasn't the completion itself—I was far from finished—but that I had taken this first step and opened up a brand-new vision!
I looked at the void rifts before me. Dean Mei had stopped moving, but I felt that even without her doing it for me, I could achieve the same result!
These void rifts no longer seemed like dangers, but rather the Void's reward for my efforts.
I reached out and made a grasping motion. The void rifts within the Mindscape were instantly accepted by the Tree of Great Knowledge, and I sensed the tree undergoing a leap in level.
As I felt the transformation begin to level off, I stopped maintaining the state. I had only just mastered this Mindscape power, and the current situation clearly wasn't suitable for keeping it up.
Furthermore, within my Mindscape, I could sense the staggering number of powerful witches gathering nearby. This made me realize that I had indeed caused too much of a stir.
As I withdrew my Mindscape perception, everything around me felt like a dream. The Tree of Great Knowledge, which had reached all the way to the curtain wall, vanished. I was left standing on the bed in the infirmary.
Dean Mei Lind and Dean Bev Alanna also emerged from the Mindscape. They glanced at each other, exchanging their thoughts on the experience.
The experience just now had truly been an eye-opener. They rarely clashed with Body Cultivation experts, but for Deans as powerful as these two, such a Mindscape wasn't enough to trap them. They had simply chosen not to cause any unnecessary interference for Xiao Han.
While they couldn't master a Mindscape, as witches, they had other means at their disposal.
The Body Cultivation Sixth Sense, Heart Sense, was also known as... a Domain Prototype.
For Transcendent Witches, there was also a distant, legendary milestone for dominating a spellbook: Spellbook Domainization.
This wasn't some so-called domain-type derived spell. The concept of a Domain was a milestone across many power systems; it was just that the "thick accumulation followed by sudden eruption" power of Body Cultivation was simply too unreasonable.
"Sorry, Dean, for suddenly causing such a big commotion..." Having adapted to the power, I opened my eyes and spoke to the Dean standing not far away.
"It's fine. I'll settle things for you."