Chapter 578: The Matter Concludes
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 578: The Matter Concludes
"Calamity Witch... How? How could you possibly appear here! The Dungeon clearly locked down all spatial power... You shouldn't be here!"
"Heal! Remold! How is this happening? Why won't it remold?"
"How? This is impossible! How can you possess this kind of power!"
After a single strike.
Faced with this undeniable reality, the Players felt as though fate had played a massive joke on them.
A person who shouldn't have been there, wielding power she shouldn't have mastered, had severed all their schemes at the most critical moment!
In that instant, the threads of Luck seemed to be cut clean through. The rising trend of harvested game qualifications... came to a screeching halt.
Everyone watched this massive reversal, rendered speechless.
The black-and-red filter over their eyes was shattered by that single slash. Now, their vision held only the massive silhouette of a tree—a symbol of hope.
The hope for survival suppressed any thoughts about the "irrationality" of the power she wielded. No one questioned anything; if anything, they hoped her strength could be even greater, even more irrational.
Anything... to lead them out of this wretched reality.
"The first thing a fool does is question another's ability, trying to elevate themselves by belittling others. I’ve simply repaid you in kind, using your own methods against you. Why so agitated?" I asked with a light chuckle.
I sheathed the blade in my hand, and the entire weapon dissolved into points of light before me.
Then, I grabbed the Book in the Box floating by my side and took a step forward. As my toes touched the ground, the Heart State Sea rippling beneath me began to reshape the order of my surroundings at high speed.
At this moment, everyone felt as if the Dungeon space was about to collapse. The trajectory of that single slash was the first crack tearing the Dungeon apart!
"Calamity Witch! Why... why do you ruin my plans every single time!"
The Players' voices were filled with rage, resentment, and even hysteria. They questioned me desperately, as if I were the villain in this story.
But the current me wouldn't be deceived by Players anymore. They were sharp as tacks; they were the last people to lack a clear understanding of reality. When the end was already decided and nothing could be done to change it, all their "madness" and "loss of sanity" was just an act.
Their current frenzy was either an attempt to test my upper limits or part of some other scheme.
Besides... did they really lose out?
Not really. They had already harvested a significant amount of Luck!
A massive loss of Luck...
I hadn't expected the Players to harvest it through such a method. I subconsciously glanced at the crowd. Should I blame them for failing to protect the Main World's Luck?
I couldn't. Some of them simply didn't have the capability. Thus... this active confrontation initiated by the Players could only be considered a draw, at least for now.
Of course, that was only if I was factored in.
Without me... honestly, these people belonged to so many different Transcendent Academies that it would have been impossible for them to unite without reservation.
If they could have truly united, then from the perspective of strength and planning, they never would have reached this stage. Being crushed now was simply the result of poor preparation in the early phases.
They had walked step by step into the trap the Players set. The Players had exploited this very weakness: for the students to maintain their fragile alliance, they had to constantly compromise for the sake of the majority's interests.
And now, these Players began to act out their hysterical madness exactly as I had anticipated.
To resist the reshaping of my order, they were forced to mobilize the full power of the Dungeon, merging all the extra Dungeon Essence together. There were no more fancy tricks, only the purest confrontation.
This was also my first time clashing with someone else's Domain. My control over the Domain's power was still somewhat clumsy, but using it as a blunt instrument to pierce the opponent's Domain proved easy enough.
The Players had to maintain their Domain. If they didn't, all their previous efforts would go to waste.
Countless pixels rained down indiscriminately on everyone. Anyone with a shred of sense subconsciously moved toward me.
They could see that only the area I occupied was a safe zone capable of resisting the Players' methods.
If the order of the Players' Dungeon shaped the external manifestation of Transcendent Pixels, then I had gained a spark of realization: the external manifestation of the order of my Mindscape was... the Power of Knowledge!
Perhaps the Power of Knowledge was merely a prototype manifestation; it could derive even more methods.
At that moment, countless strands of the Power of Knowledge flew out from the blank pages of the Book in the Box, accurately neutralizing the incoming pixels.
While resisting, the Power of Knowledge also carried the order of my Mindscape, constantly eroding the Dungeon. It was as if the battle had turned into the most primal game of erosion and counter-erosion.
No matter how the Players raged or who they tried to attack, I wouldn't let them succeed.
As the Domain continued to expand, the majesty unique to the Tree of Great Knowledge gradually revealed itself.
The massive trunk supported a vast canopy. This phenomenon immediately triggered the memories of certain people on the Witch Academy's side.
"This... this is that!"
The first to recognize it was Ming Xueming, the president of the Jack-of-all-trades Club.
She clearly remembered that night when the illusory silhouette of a tree had bloomed over the Witch Academy. Although the tree hadn't been as massive then as it was now, its height had already touched the top of the Academy's curtain wall!
That night's phenomenon had attracted countless Transcendent Mentors. At the time, she had been pulling an all-nighter in the lab with her mentor. She had personally witnessed her usually unflappable mentor suddenly curse, drop everything, and sprint out of the lab.
The scene of hundreds and thousands of Transcendent Witches gathering was etched into her memory, especially the appearance of that tree...
It seemed that after that night... the name of the Teaching Assistant, Yang Yuehan, began to appear in her field of vision constantly...
Before this, she might have felt that everything was an exaggeration. But witnessing it now with her own eyes... she felt it wasn't enough!
If a student had achieved such a feat, she shouldn't be so obscure among the student body!
She should be the new spiritual leader of the student generation in the Witch Academy—a living legend, leading everyone to create miracles that even Ming Xueming couldn't imagine!
Thinking of this, Ming Xueming didn't even dare to follow that train of thought further.
However, her subconscious exclamation caused the people under my protection to look at her, their eyes asking if she knew something.
But at this moment, she had no desire to explain anything to them.
What right did she have to critique such a person?
* * *
Meanwhile, in the Magic City.
Every Witch Academy student currently on campus had come out to lend a hand in the disaster facing the city.
With the help of Transcendent students, a large number of ordinary people were rescued within the golden hour.
However, death remained unavoidable.
Furthermore, an even greater disaster was waiting for everyone in the Magic City.
Centered on that massive hotel.
The surrounding buildings were now shrouded in a force that prevented anyone from seeing what was happening inside. Within the barrier formed by that power, only massive pixel blocks could be seen pulsating periodically.
By now, the surrounding area was crowded with Witch Academy students. They were busy evacuating nearby residents while watching the area be eroded by that unknown force.
From the ground, it looked like a giant hemisphere. Even staring at it for a while created an unsettling feeling, as if one's very vision was being violated.
And right then, the boundary locked by the Dungeon cracked open.
An order entirely different from that power launched its first counterattack!
This anomaly immediately drew everyone's attention. They didn't know what it represented, but the Transcendent Mentors from various academies watching the battle knew exactly what it was.
It was a force on par with the Players' descended Dungeon.
It was also a Domain Prototype!
The attention of every Transcendent Mentor was pulled toward it. Feeling that unfamiliar order... it sent a shiver down their spines.
It wasn't that the power was too overwhelming, but that the significance of this power was too terrifying!
Only students were trapped inside the Dungeon. Only Players mastered Domains. This new order meant that a student had mastered a Domain Prototype!
It couldn't possibly be that those Players mastered a second type of Domain Prototype, could it?
That was unthinkable.
To touch the level of a Domain while still a student, and not even at the Transcendent level yet—just what kind of natural talent was required to achieve this?
"It's... that little one!"
Among the mentors who could see through the Domain, someone spoke. His perception pierced through the Dungeon and landed on that figure. In a clash of Domains, both sides were so conspicuous that he couldn't possibly be mistaken.
"Who! Who exactly mastered a Domain Prototype? Which academy do they belong to?"
Many mentors stepped forward excitedly to ask. Even if they knew the probability of this happening in their own academy was low, they had to ask because they were simply too curious!
Which academy was teaching how to master a Domain as if it were nothing?
They were ready to throw away their status as mentors just to go be a student and learn!
If the power of a Domain could be taught, they truly wished they could just enroll as students.
"Sigh... it's... the Witch Academy..."
Following a sigh, the speaker paused before blurting out the answer they least wanted to hear.
In an instant, the curiosity of all the Transcendents died down.
The Witch Academy... well, that explained it.
They wouldn't dare go there to learn, fearing that once they finished, they wouldn't be able to come back.
The assimilation ability of the Witch race was far too terrifying. Even for Transcendents, they had specialized assimilation methods prepared.
Though... under normal circumstances, Witches wouldn't waste such precious methods to turn others into Transcendent Witches. Only true geniuses would be targeted. Otherwise... wasn't it cheaper to just cast a wide net among non-Transcendents?
The crowd snapped out of it and turned their gaze back toward the Dungeon. Many looked toward the Witch Academy's side, their eyes flashing with envy, jealousy, and resentment.
At this moment, a group of Witches was huddled together, watching something with great excitement.
"Yes, slash! Slash them to death!"
"It's not quite right, though. Is Xiao Han's control over the Domain a bit lacking? Let me share some common sense about Domains to give Xiao Han a boost."
"Wait... is this how you guys play? I'm already a Transcendent Witch and I don't have a Domain yet. What do I do?"
"Suck it up. Or maybe you can try taking Xiao Han as your teacher."
"I'm tipping some practical experience with Domains!"
"Oh~ 'tipping,' what an appropriate description! Then I'll tip some other knowledge..."
The Witches chatted away, watching the low-resolution livestream with intense excitement.
Each of them looked like they wanted to jump in and personally direct Xiao Han to beat up those Players.
As time passed, the crack in the Dungeon space continued to widen.
When the Dungeon failed to repair it immediately, it was destined to never get a second chance.
To the outside world, the Dungeon now looked like an egg about to hatch, with a branch poking out from the cracks.
Everyone witnessed the arrival of this miracle.
The new order was constantly replacing the old. Pixels collapsed in a chain reaction like falling dominoes until the silhouette of the Tree of Great Knowledge took complete dominance. Countless strands of the Power of Knowledge dissipated autonomously, constructing a new order just like the Transcendent Pixels had.
People nearby subconsciously reached out to catch a strand of the Power of Knowledge. It had no concrete form, seemingly shifting constantly for the sake of knowledge deduction. This was all so novel to the students—a desire to explore the unknown rising within them.
"Is this the Power of Knowledge that Xiao Han mastered?"
The Witches involved in the research related to the Tree of Great Knowledge also found this fascinating.
They had already reported this matter. They believed they wouldn't have to wait long—likely right after the school year started, they would be making another big move.
Thus, there were quite a few Transcendent Witches who knew about the Power of Knowledge and the plan to perfect the Tree of Great Knowledge, and they were all very interested in this new power and order.
With the Dungeon's order shattered, the original hotel had been completely erased by the Dungeon's erosion.
The rescued people looked at everything in a daze, as if they couldn't believe they had been saved just like that.
And it wasn't just the students who were revealed.
"Damned Calamity Witch... we'll take the loss this time. You won... but you won't win forever!"
"Don't make it sound so ugly. Did you really lose? Not necessarily, right?"
"Who knows? But if I want to leave, you can't stop me!" At this point, the Players who had lost everything didn't choose to log off. Instead, they chose to use their last bit of strength to flee!
"Is that so?"
I negated their thoughts and plans in the most direct way possible.
Within my Heart State Domain, Players without the boost of a Dungeon were nothing more than ordinary people.
And soon, I understood why they were so desperate to escape rather than logging off gracefully.
Because of... the Heart of the Cold Wave.
One of the fragments of [Transcendent Knowledge].
With that, the Players in the Magic City were purged.
They had gathered here to collectively create such a Dungeon and harvest a significant amount of Luck. Even if there were still Players in the Magic City, they were likely scrambling to leave this den of trouble.
Of course, I knew this because I was using the Qi Observation Art.
However, after the Qi Observation Art began its deduction, I noticed something slightly off. The motive for those Players to leave so urgently... didn't seem to be to take the Heart of the Cold Wave with them.
But that wasn't my concern anymore. I toyed with the Heart of the Cold Wave; the power it emitted in its normal state could no longer affect me much.
My attention shifted back to the people affected by the incident.
My gaze pierced through space, seeing the Transcendent Mentors hidden within—they were from every academy. Now, they all revealed themselves to take their precious pupils away.
However, the way all the Transcendent Mentors looked at me seemed a bit... off.
I understood why, of course, but I wasn't afraid. This was the Witch Academy's home turf; even if they were so jealous they wanted to kill me, they couldn't.
I smiled and waved to the Witch sisters who were still watching the show. Among the crowd of Witches, I even spotted Sister Bai. After indicating that everything was fine, my gaze finally turned toward the victims.
The ordinary people who had been trapped by the Dungeon's order were now rescued. They cheered for their survival, weeping with joy. Some were still in a state of extreme panic, while others had fallen into comas from severe injuries.
I focused on these ordinary people, not because I felt indebted to them for being caught in the crossfire.
But because... at this moment, every single one of these ordinary people, without exception, was entangled with a thread of Luck, just like the Players.
Even if they were just ordinary people, in the secular world, they were all wealthy tycoons or aristocrats.
Their influence on the world... Heh.
I looked away from them and toward the Witch Mentors. It seemed they were also letting this matter continue to ferment...
But... if that was the case, the Main World was indeed about to become restless. The conflict between the Transcendent and the ordinary... was likely about to be ignited by these Players.