Chapter 535: A Shortcut to the Great Spellbook
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 535: A Shortcut to the Great Spellbook
Mei Lind’s office and laboratory.
The layout here had completely changed from a short while ago. In the center of the office’s experimental area stood a massive alchemical creation. Its precise structures interlocked, driving the rotation of runes. A variable alchemical alloy shifted rhythmically between two fixed structural patterns, flickering as they alternated.
This was the instrument designed to assist in Qi Observation, hand-built by several Academic Transcendent Witches under Mei Lind’s leadership, based on the principles of the Qi Observation Art.
One should never underestimate a witch’s ability to build instruments from scratch. After all, back when Teacher Ji Niang and I first came into contact with [Transcendent Knowledge], she had already begun teaching me how to hand-craft the critical components of precision instruments.
In that sense, this method was practically a traditional craft.
Because of this capability, witches were extremely frugal when it came to research expenses—essentially saving wherever possible. None of the witches following me in the study of the Great Spellbook had ever reached out to me for funding. They were truly... too conscientious, to the point where I felt a slight twinge of guilt.
The instrument currently occupying the center of Mei Lind’s office was more than just precise.
At its core sat a crystal-like object containing a Tree of Knowledge sprouted from a Great Knowledge Seed, specifically used to facilitate the operation of the Qi Observation instrument.
The crystal capable of sustaining a Great Knowledge Seed and allowing it to sprout outside the Sea of Consciousness was the very same material previously considered somewhat "useless." I had even given some of these crystals away to other witches before.
It seemed that particular witch had succeeded; she had managed to simulate the environment and medium of the Sea of Consciousness, allowing the Great Knowledge Seed to sprout elsewhere.
I hadn't expected its first practical application to be right here.
"Xiao Han? I didn't expect you to come in person. I heard from the sisters that you were going to descend using a Knowledge Shadow later," a witch I was relatively familiar with said, approaching me with a warm and enthusiastic greeting.
At that moment, Mei Lind was still busy, not daring to divert her attention to my arrival.
"Well... some things came up, so I decided to drop by. It wasn't much trouble anyway," I replied simply, then greeted the other sisters standing nearby.
I found that calling these Transcendent Witches "Sister" had become quite natural for me. There was no harm in being a bit of a sweet-talker; since I wasn't great at socializing, this was the only way I could maintain my image in the eyes of the mentors.
As I scanned the room, my gaze landed on a figure in the corner who seemed out of place.
It wasn't her style of dress, but rather her behavior—it was obvious she shouldn't be here.
It was Natalie, the alchemy master who was customizing my weapon.
I quietly moved closer. She was currently gesturing at the air, but as the owner of the Tree of Great Knowledge, I could naturally see the effects of the Great Knowledge Seed. Several design light screens surrounded her, covered in dense annotations.
Natalie was currently revising a design blueprint. Even though I wasn't intentionally prying, the information on it presented itself to me.
It was the modification plan for the Book in the Box.
"Sister Natalie, I didn't expect to run into you here," I said, striking up a conversation with a pleasant surprise.
"Hmm? Oh, Xiao—Xiao Han, what are you doing here?" Startled by the sudden address, Natalie froze for a moment. She looked up to see me smiling at her and hurriedly swept the design drafts aside, as if afraid I might see them.
"The Dean is currently busy with something related to me, so I came along. Were you just modifying the design for the Book in the Box, Sister Natalie?"
"You saw that?" Natalie blurted out. She clearly remembered that this display was supposed to be visible only to her.
"Yes. After all, the Great Knowledge Seeds originate from me, so I saw it instinctively. It’s not a problem with the Seed itself. My apologies," I explained quickly.
"Oh, I almost forgot. This Seed... I asked Mei Lind for it. Or rather, she gave it to me..."
"You don't need to go out of your way to explain where it came from, Sister Natalie. I’ve distributed them almost for free, so as long as they aren't wasted, I don't mind. But were you really perfecting the design just now?" I asked again. This was the second time I’d brought it up, and I got the feeling Natalie was a bit afraid of me seeing her drafts.
"I was... I came here to discuss materials, but I didn't expect May to be busy. She won't let another witch touch her private collection of materials for fear I'll snatch them all. Honestly, where is the trust between witches?" Natalie complained to me with a slightly aggrieved tone.
I was a bit speechless. I hadn't realized Natalie’s credit was so low in Dean Mei’s eyes.
Still, I offered her some brief comfort before we chatted about the design of the Book in the Box.
I eventually understood why she had been avoiding letting me see the drafts. It was a professional habit she had developed; she disliked others seeing her work before the final design was finished. She hated being nitpicked by "unprofessionals" midway through the process. She would rather quietly work through several versions of a design alone than have someone interrupt her train of thought.
She had clearly been traumatized by past experiences.
I also learned from Natalie how the progress on my weapon was going. Although only a few days had passed, she had already prepared at least three versions of the design based on the materials she expected to "scrounge." Such efficiency left me truly stunned.
Since my hard requirements for the weapon weren't particularly high, I had given Natalie a great deal of freedom during our initial discussions. Weapon design is heavily dependent on materials, and due to objective constraints, the final product could never perfectly match every single one of my ideas.
While Natalie was explaining her design philosophy to me, several witches suddenly emerged from a rift in space. Their arrival immediately drew the attention of everyone in the room.
Even Natalie’s focus shifted, because these were the witches who had gone to the field to collect data. Their arrival meant the data collection for this incident was complete, and the further updates to the Qi Observation Art could proceed.
Natalie stopped talking. Although she truly enjoyed having a quiet and casual listener like Xiao Han, she wanted this to end quickly so she could get her materials and go back to finish her creative construction!
Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to look over the technical details of the Qi Observation Art that the Dean had shared.
As I looked at the content, which was filled with specialized terminology, I felt the crushing blow of the Dean’s terrifyingly superior cognition.
While I couldn't clearly grasp the full extent to which the Dean had applied the Qi Observation Art in such a short time, I roughly understood what the instrument in front of me was for.
If my Qi Observation Art was used to record and understand events that had already happened, then with the deductions of this precision instrument, Dean Mei could predict the flow of Luck for events that had not yet occurred!
Furthermore, short-term predictions could be made with almost zero chance of error!
The most critical function of this Qi Observation instrument was the prediction of future Luck trends. That was the core. Precise short-term predictions of a future Script weren't actually that useful; the real value lay in the deduction of possible futures. As long as one could deduce a staged ending they liked, they could precisely intervene in the Script’s direction to achieve their intended result.
This was the most important point. Mastering this technology meant one’s control over the Script would reach an entirely new level!
Compared to their previous method of observing Luck flows and considering various possibilities to set a layout, this was a leap straight into the modern era!
These were the annotations Mei Lind had intentionally made. There was no doubt—they were written specifically for me to see.
At that moment, as the data was input, the instrument was activated. The Great Knowledge Seed within it gave off a disturbance I couldn't ignore.
As time ticked by, I could feel a massive exchange of information between that Tree of Knowledge and my own Tree of Great Knowledge. I didn't know exactly what the Dean and the others were doing, but such a terrifying integration of information likely meant they were reviewing the details of this specific Script.
Through the instrument's processing, a series of distorted, constantly self-correcting images were produced. These images were somewhat similar to the outputs of the Ley Line Identification Art, but I was certain they were not the same.
This was a Script scene reconstruction completed based on the Qi Observation Art and the Tree of Great Knowledge!
Although such scenes could be obtained by directly calling up Ley Line information, the source of these images was fundamentally different, and the meaning they represented was equally distinct.
When the scene deduction constructed by the Qi Observation Art matched the captured data footage, the room erupted in a round of applause. It seemed the current test had met their expectations.
I joined in the applause. Even though it seemed I hadn't participated in the process, the Tree of Knowledge had contributed significantly.
After all, the Qi Observation Art was built upon the Tree of Knowledge, and the collection of surface-level information from the "Floating World" layer of Luck required my involvement.
Following the test, the witches hurried to organize the subsequent data. Such trivialities, of course, didn't require Dean Mei Lind’s personal attention.
Just as I was about to step forward, Natalie beat me to it. Dean Mei felt an immediate headache upon seeing which witch was approaching her.
"You've been lurking here this whole time?"
"Of course. Didn't you tell me to wait? Look, even Xiao Han is here. The client is right here; you can't back out now, can you?"
"Wait, did you trick Xiao Han? Refining a single weapon shouldn't require you to be so desperate to fleece my entire inventory. Are you skimming off the top?"
"Um... Sister Mei, is the material consumption really that high?" I asked weakly, having been pushed forward as a bargaining chip by Natalie. I really didn't know much about these things. Natalie hadn't actually stripped the Dean bare, had she?
"It's fine. I'm just preventing a certain someone from fleecing me and putting the debt on your tab. Although I did say..."
"If you don't trust me, just say so! I can sign a Witch Contract to prove I won't hide a single scrap!" Natalie argued from the side.
"I know exactly what you're like. Just don't be too greedy. The contribution Xiao Han has made is worth what I'm putting in, but I don't necessarily have to let you profit from it, understand?"
"Tsk..."
"Don't give me that face. We'll talk about the materials after I'm done being busy. You've waited this long; a little longer won't kill you, right?"
After saying that, Mei Lind left her standing there, giving her nothing but her back as she led me away. She began chatting with me as we walked, not feeling the slightest bit bad about leaving the other woman hanging.
After a few words, the Dean asked curiously why I had made a point of coming in person, especially since she had heard earlier that I wouldn't be coming.
"Oh, mainly because there's something I wanted to ask the Dean for help with in person."
"Oh? Help from me? Have you run into another problem?" Mei Lind asked, her interest piqued. The last time I had said something like that, it was to ask about Fool's Dreams and dream creatures.
"Yes... I'd like the research materials regarding the Great Spellbook, the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art..." I said.
This was my true purpose for coming. I now had a reason to thoroughly and deeply understand the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art. To save time, I chose to "ask for the strategy guide."
After all, the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art was the Dean's own achievement. Her understanding of it was bound to be profound.
"Oh? You're starting to want to research this Great Spellbook? You're not going to figure it out on your own?" Mei Lind smiled slightly at my request. It wasn't an unreasonable ask; in fact, she had promised this before, but I hadn't taken it seriously until now.
"Yes..." I nodded. Figuring it out slowly by myself was just too slow. I had almost forgotten there was a shortcut I could take.
I felt that I was now qualified to touch upon the systematic research of Great Spellbooks and [Transcendent Knowledge].
Of course, the main reason was that I wanted to further understand the essence of Great Spellbooks to see if my so-called "derivation" was just a pipe dream.
"Very well. The research materials related to the Great Spellbook are quite extensive. I'll organize them and send them over. It will take some time to compile, but you should be mentally prepared—there really is a lot of it."
"That's fine. I don't mind," I said casually. It was natural for there to be a lot; after all, it was the accumulation of a century. The data and research materials were bound to be vast.
"Good. But I should warn you beforehand: how should I put this? Because of your help, this Great Spellbook was perfected ahead of schedule. Therefore, the materials I send you will be missing a certain part compared to other 'complete' Great Spellbooks. Of course, even so, it should be enough to keep you studying for a long time, but I wanted to tell you in advance."
"Is that so? Thank you for the warning, Sister Mei. I don't really mind."
"Then, if I may ask, to what extent have you developed your application of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art?"
"Um... I'm just starting. I've just barely moved past the stage of only knowing how to cast it..." I said modestly. "By the way, I have one more question."
"Go ahead."
"It's also about this Great Spellbook... Although its name is the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art, that... shouldn't be the most accurate name to describe it, right?" I asked tentatively. This question was essentially challenging the authority of the name the Dean had given the spell, so I phrased it delicately.
"Oh? You've already understood the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art to this extent? Since you've asked, I'll be blunt. Objectively speaking, I do realize the name isn't sufficient to describe the spell. However, based on my cognition of it, this name is indeed the most suitable—and the catchiest."
"Thank you..."
"It's nothing."