Chapter 591: Now! Prove You Are Worthy of Standing Before Me!
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 591: Now! Prove You Are Worthy of Standing Before Me!
So... I was faced with two choices: let the matter drop for the sake of peace, or simply admit that she was right.
Ultimately, it was just a question of how much trouble I wanted to deal with. Once we entered the Expansion Realm, if I bruised their egos now, they would likely try to trip me up later. One should never underestimate a woman’s capacity for spite—especially since many of those present were fast approaching thirty. Why bother picking a fight with a bunch of old aunties?
I had to admit, Liliana had summoned quite a bit of courage to come over and cause trouble. She was probably just waiting for me to say those words.
If I actually said, "That’s exactly right," she would probably burst out laughing on the spot.
Since she had already gone this far, why should I bother being polite?
Even if that wasn't her original intent, it was what she had done. If I kept making excuses for her, I’d start feeling pathetic myself.
While everyone waited for my answer, the Box in the Box settled firmly into my hand.
Perhaps it had been too long since I’d appeared before everyone in such a grounded manner; did they all think I was some pushover?
"You! What are you doing?!"
Liliana’s eyelid twitched instinctively at the sight of the book suddenly appearing in my hand. Even the mere memory of it brought a phantom ache to her face.
"What am I doing? I’m giving you your answer, Liliana."
The moment the words left my lips, I appeared abruptly in front of her. Before her pupils could even contract, one side of the Box in the Box slammed into her cheek. "I said you weren't worthy, and I meant it!"
As I finished speaking, she was sent spiraling through the air by the sheer force of the blow. In that instant, the sickening crunch of bone echoed through the clearing.
The sound made several onlookers break out in goosebumps. There hadn't been a single ripple of mana; to achieve that level of power through physical strength alone was enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.
Some of the spectators immediately made a mental note: if they ever had to fight her, they would never, under any circumstances, let her get into close quarters.
However, Liliana wasn't a complete amateur. Even as she was sent flying, she used a spell to regain her balance mid-air. Her cheek throbbed with agonizing pain. She’d had zero reaction time; she hadn't even perceived when I moved. She had taken the hit without knowing what hit her.
But before she could stick the landing and steady herself, I was already there, grabbing her by the collar with one hand.
"You... you dare start a fight here!" Her voice was muffled. Despite her fractured facial bones, her articulation remained surprisingly clear. I had to give it to her—her tenacity was impressive.
"If you want to hide behind the school rules meant to protect students, be my guest. But I didn't use a single spell. How much of a lecture do you think the mentors will actually give me?" I held her by the collar with one hand and gripped the Box in the Box with the other. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
My words were a psychological dagger. She was a Teaching Assistant now; did she really want to invoke the student safety codes to save herself?
If she nodded or backed down, she would never be able to hold her head up in the Teaching Assistant circles again. Even if she tried to hold her ground, she didn't even have the strength to snap back at me. She only had one path left.
Violent resistance using magic.
And the moment she used a spell, she would be the one in the wrong.
But being in the wrong was better than continuing to lose face like this!
In the next heartbeat, a burst of lightning erupted from her body. Accompanied by a scream of rage, a terrifying power exploded outward.
I recognized what she was using immediately.
A Transformation Spell.
A wise choice. When facing a physical disadvantage, a Transformation Spell was the best way to bridge the gap in raw stats.
But she was facing me.
Back when I had just enrolled, I could use a single Fireball spellbook to force her into a magical backlash from an Over-consumption Transformation Spell. Did she really think I hadn't grown stronger since then?
As her Transformation Spell reached its peak, her reaching hand shifted into a monstrous form, wreathed in ghastly lightning as she tried to swat away the hand gripping her collar.
I didn't give her the chance. A corner of the Box in the Box slammed down, violently shattering the ritual framework of her Transformation Spell.
The lightning that had been scattering and forcing the onlookers back suddenly died out. Liliana’s momentum collapsed instantly. The violent disruption of her spell triggered a magical backlash, dealing her significant internal damage.
She was forced to vent the excess mana to prevent a secondary backlash from internal mana flooding.
The volatile mana hissed and crackled as it dissipated through her spellbooks, sounding like a string of firecrackers.
This move left the surrounding crowd in awe. Without even using a counter-spell, I had physically broken her Transformation Spell!
Such a technique was terrifying, yet it didn't seem to have a purely deterrent effect.
Instead, several people seemed to remember something and let out involuntary chuckles.
After all, this girl had risen to prominence so quickly. Her first public battle had been against a Transformation Spell—an Over-consumption one at that. Liliana had been blinded by her own habits... that first blow must have rattled her brain more than she realized.
Just then, a voice drifted from the back of the crowd.
"What is going on here?"
Hearing the voice, the crowd instinctively parted, revealing the two protagonists in the center.
"Teacher Lina, I am currently restraining a Teaching Assistant who was dangerously misusing a Transformation Spell. That shouldn't be a problem, right?" As the crowd dispersed, I saw Teacher Lina, who had been drawn by the commotion. She was accompanied by several other teachers, all of whom were watching the scene with great interest.
"I see. Indeed, using a dangerous Transformation Spell in the teaching area should be stopped. You are both Teaching Assistants now; don't let your emotions get the better of you." Teacher Lina gave a brief lecture, though she didn't direct it specifically at me.
Once she finished, she and the other mentors turned and left.
Hearing Teacher Lina’s words, everyone understood: this was a tacit endorsement. Everyone present was a Teaching Assistant; who didn't know how powerful a Transcendent Mentor was?
Lina certainly knew the truth of the matter, how it had started, and who had struck first. Yet, she didn't stop it.
This wasn't neutrality; it was the indulgence of the strong.
"Yang Yuehan!" Seeing Teacher Lina leave, Liliana finally snapped. She screamed my name with a fury that suggested she wanted to grind the very syllables to dust.
"Teacher Lina is gone. You should be feeling afraid, not emboldened," I retorted coldly.
Without another word, I pointed the Box in the Box at Liliana.
My Heart State Domain expanded!
The reshaped Order of the domain swept over Liliana and everyone who had chosen to stay and watch.
Some sensed the shift immediately, while others hadn't yet realized what had happened.
"I will give you ten seconds to prove yourself—to prove you are even worthy of raising a hand against me." My voice, carried by the Order of the domain, pierced directly into everyone’s ears.
I watched Liliana over the edge of my book. That strike against her ritual framework earlier had revealed something to me, sparking an idea.
The reason I was so eager to release my domain now... was to verify my theory immediately. If it worked... then no one in the Witch Academy would ever dare bully me again.
In fact... they would go out of their way to avoid me.
"Ten..."
"You! What did you do!" As the sole target of my focus within the domain, Liliana was the only one who felt it.
To her, it felt as if the very air was conspiring against her. A psychological sense of suffocation filled her with unease.
The seeds of her past fear had already sprouted in her heart, and her current helplessness served as the perfect fertilizer.
As my countdown vibrated through her soul, she realized just how serious I was.
She let out a frustrated groan and tried to compose herself. Her most proficient spells poured from her hands.
Yet, every spell she cast was inexplicably intercepted by an unknown force manifesting mid-air. Not a single spark of stray energy reached me.
"Nine... eight..."
The countdown hammered against her heart, magnifying her terror. The power of the spells she unleashed continued to climb—from ten points of damage to a hundred...
And yet, no matter the spell, she couldn't so much as touch a hair on my head.
The sense of futility was agonizing even for the onlookers. However, the collateral damage from her frantic bombardment began to lash out at them.
They were forced to put up their own protective spells, yet not a single bolt of lightning touched my figure.
Those with keen eyes could see the attacks being detonated mid-flight by forces resembling runes, yet I showed no sign of actually casting anything.
That was the truly terrifying part!
They couldn't understand how it was being done. They even tried to put themselves in Liliana’s shoes, attempting to run a rational combat simulation.
They realized they couldn't have done any better than Liliana. Even though she was driven by emotion, her combat instincts were still at the top tier of the Teaching Assistant circle. Furthermore, many of these assistants weren't even known for their combat prowess.
Time ticked away. I was using myself as a test subject, and the final result was more than satisfactory. The Order of the domain could even incorporate the Void Rifts of a Great Spellbook.
So why couldn't it handle things that didn't even belong to a person?
"Three... two..."
"Yang Yuehan! You forced my hand! You’re the one who attacked first! Why?!"
Liliana roared in desperation. She drew her ultimate trump card: the Heavenly Thunder Punishment Art. It was an Over-consumption Spellbook powerful enough to establish her reputation within the academy, and it had won her countless battles.
But she was subjectively ignoring the one thing she didn't want to face.
The last time she had used this move, she had been ruthlessly crushed head-on!
Seeing the familiar, overwhelming aura, the surrounding prospective witches looked alarmed. They knew exactly how terrifying an Over-consumption Spellbook was. They didn't have any Over-consumption-level defensive spellbooks, and they were standing far too close.
Over-consumption defensive spellbooks were incredibly rare in the academy, and unfortunately, no one who owned one was present.
"One."
With the final, crisp count, I stopped giving her chances. In that moment, time seemed to slow down. Only my voice continued to echo in everyone’s ears.
"Shortly after I enrolled, my counselor told me something. She said that before one ascends to become a Transcendent Witch..."
I walked forward, straight into the blooming arcs of her lightning. Realizing she couldn't win in physical strength, she instinctively tried to keep her distance.
But now, Liliana could only watch helplessly as I closed the gap.
That book-like weapon—the one that had already given her a stress response—struck her chest once more. The Over-consumption Spellbook she had already activated seemed unable to withstand the pressure and was forcibly interrupted.
This is an Over-consumption Spellbook! Even a Myriad Methods Book should...
That was her only thought.
But no one was going to explain why.
People who choose to live within the constructs of their own limited perception are always the most helpless when that perception is ruthlessly shattered.
"Before you become a Transcendent Witch, a spellbook never truly belongs to you."
As I finished the sentence, a question they had never dared to face was heartlessly exposed.
Liliana, receiving my "special attention," felt a surge of intense dread.
But regardless of their unease, a torrent of Power of Knowledge erupted from the Box in the Box. The bursting information began to rapidly calculate and deduce in the air.
The Teaching Assistants who recognized the data only had time to identify the techniques and knowledge; their minds couldn't keep up with the speed of the formulas. Before they could even marvel at the feat, the Power of Knowledge transformed into Annotations within the Box in the Box, imbuing it with an even more mysterious effect.
Liliana was sent flying backward again. She realized she had lost control of her body, but that was the least of her concerns. A heavy blow struck her back, and the figure in front of her vanished.
Countless ribbons of Power of Knowledge erupted from her chest.
Each strand of power carried a spellbook with it, tearing through her body and out of her Ley Line Shackles.
She watched in horror as the spellbooks she had mastered were ripped from her control. Her body tumbled to the ground in front of the crowd, her spellbooks scattering across the floor at their feet.
But no one dared to pick them up.
"Don't touch them! Those are my spellbooks! Mine!"
Liliana finally lost all control of her emotions, her voice cracking as she shrieked, even though not a single person had moved toward them.
She scrambled pathetically off the ground, trying to shove the spellbooks back into her body one by one.
She identified each one like a precious treasure... but none of them seemed to be the one she was looking for.
"Looking for this?"
My voice came from behind her, so sudden it made everyone’s breath hitch as they realized it wasn't over.
Liliana turned her head and saw me standing a short distance away.
I held out my right hand, gripping the Box in the Box. Resting on its cover was a single spellbook, surrounded by countless swirling sealing runes.
In front of everyone, I tilted the Box in the Box, tossing the spellbook onto the ground like a piece of trash.
"Now! Prove you are worthy of standing before me! Otherwise... watch as the spellbook you are so proud of fades into nothingness."