Chapter 598: Leaving the City
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 598: Leaving the City
Early the next morning.
I woke up quite early. Perhaps it was because I had turned in early the night before, or perhaps because my need for sleep and rest wasn't particularly high anymore, but I was awake before the sun had even risen.
It didn't matter, though. As I had gradually adapted to my decreasing need for sleep, I had already developed a way to handle these extra hours.
I simply needed to extend my meditation time. Now that I had the Enlightenment Meditation Art at my disposal, performing one cycle every morning left me feeling refreshed, my spirit noticeably more vibrant.
However, the Enlightenment Meditation Art seemed to be continuously providing "nourishment" for my Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art. It was a subtle process, like an ant nibbling away at a pancake the size of a desert—constant, yet showing very little immediate effect.
The only pity was that I didn't yet have a better way to address this issue.
Even with the promotion of the Enlightenment Meditation Art, to use the same metaphor, it was merely like the number of ants increasing from a few to a small swarm. The resulting change remained miniscule.
Once the cycle of the Enlightenment Meditation Art was complete, I opened my eyes and watched the first rays of morning light filter through the window.
I got up, washed, and headed to the hotel’s dining area.
Looking at the dazzling array of dishes laid out, I couldn't resist using the Ley Line Identification Art on them.
After all, the territory where Ninglan New City was located wasn't particularly large. Supplying the logistical needs of an entire city was naturally a massive undertaking. Yet here, the selection was incredibly rich, even featuring out-of-season vegetables that should have been impossible to find in Ninglan New City. I knew something was up.
A brief investigation yielded the answer.
These foodstuffs were indeed part of a supply and transport cooperation agreement established after communicating with the Witch Academy. Given the current situation, Ninglan New City had also stepped up its efforts to stockpile grain.
However, in high-end, luxury establishments, food is merely a standard amenity; its true value and the fluctuations in its supply aren't easily seen there. It’s only in the roadside diners and small eateries that price changes reflect the reality of the situation.
It seemed that to prevent riots among the people accepted into the city and the refugees outside, Ninglan New City’s demand and supply for food had skyrocketed. Even if it was just basic "relief food," the quantity had to be massive and filling.
According to the information shared via the Knowledge Shadows of Mo Le and the other frontline City Defense and City Guard members, they had established contact with the people inside the city immediately after resolving the communication barrier. Most of those inside were the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, or pregnant women.
Others were those willing to cooperate actively, such as the individuals who had assisted the Literary Association with the language translations mentioned earlier.
By piecing together the shared information from the Knowledge Shadows, I began to understand their plan.
They had selected a group of people and, after communicating with them, requested that they leave the city to talk to and soothe the refugees outside.
However, this task was fraught with danger.
Previously, due to the inability to communicate and the mass riots triggered by hunger-induced emotional instability, Ninglan New City had leaned toward using force to suppress the crowds.
If not for the fact that Ninglan New City was distributing relief food, the refugees might have thought the city had abandoned them to their fate. Even so, during the first food distribution, some had refused to take it, even escalating the situation into a disturbance.
Even without a common language, it was clear that the troublemakers likely believed Ninglan New City intended to poison them to solve the problem once and for all.
Inciting hatred and manipulating emotions—those fellows were the most restless of opportunists. Consequently, Ninglan New City had shown no mercy in eliminating them. Only after that did the refugees become "docile" outside the walls under the provision of relief food.
Now, they needed to re-establish communication channels with those refugees. Only through proper communication could they "paint a vision" for the future to keep them settled.
The past night had been peaceful for me, but for the City Defense Force and the refugees, it had been a sleepless one.
The City Defense Force could choose to maintain the status quo, but the task of communication had to be carried out. Letting the refugees sleep on the bare ground outside the city undoubtedly posed many risks.
But if they wanted to give them a home, how would the construction be carried out?
Thus, the problem had to be solved another way: by providing basic disaster-relief tents and supporting equipment like sleeping bags or bedding.
But all of that required money!
So, they needed to soothe the masses with promises to buy time to find a solution.
After all, where would Ninglan New City get so much money to help them for free?
Even if Ninglan New City printed its own currency, it couldn't be used in the Main World Core World. Therefore, trade could only be conducted using items of equal value—bartering.
However, this problem was quickly resolved. Ninglan New City was located in the Expansion Realm, and it held the rights to mine the exposed transcendent resources in the area.
They could then... exchange these transcendent resources for conventional supplies: grain, relief materials, medical supplies, tents, and so on.
Despite the vast deposits of transcendent energy crystal mines outside Ninglan New City, ordinary people unfortunately lacked the means to mine them.
As for the groups of teaching assistants and later students who were fortunate enough to participate in the mining, the resources they extracted usually went into their own pockets. Ninglan New City didn't have much right to take a cut; at most, they could sell intelligence on deposit locations or rent out professional equipment, but even that was a drop in the bucket.
Furthermore, these precious mines were not the property of Ninglan New City. The Witch Academy had merely granted them mining rights, but the current Ninglan New City could not effectively translate this advantage into its own profit or resource accumulation.
This was why Ninglan Qiuyue was seeking cooperation everywhere. She was certainly not content with the status quo. Compared to the ordinary workers of Ninglan New City, the students of the Witch Academy were superior in every conceivable way; there was simply no contest.
However... the fact that both Ninglan New City and the arriving teaching assistants and students had such rights also pointed to one thing.
It meant that the Witch Academy didn't care for these resources. They viewed them as "teaching resources," allowing them to circulate freely within the academy's ecosystem.
Because of this approach by the Witch Academy, other transcendent academies also wanted a piece of the pie.
As for the price they had to pay to share in it... only they knew. But overall, they were certainly making a profit; the other transcendent academies weren't fools, after all.
However... over time, even witches have needs. They require vast amounts of materials for various experiments. Rarity increases value; things they once looked down upon might now be viewed differently depending on the circumstances.
Therefore, some witches within the academy weren't entirely without need for the transcendent materials from the Expansion Realm. It was just that these materials would be used in a different way to leverage the inflow of another resource: the spellbooks, mana sources, techniques, and knowledge possessed by Transcendent Witches.
* * *
Breakfast was finished.
I lightly wiped a stray crumb from the corner of my mouth before standing up again.
It was time to go out and see the situation. I hoped nothing had happened to the Omni-Link Main Network Tree near Ninglan New City.
I was taking the official route for this trip. My primary goal was to let those who were secretly watching me know that I was heading out.
I hadn't expected the official process for leaving the city to be so tedious.
After signing the papers, I pushed the exit permit across the desk.
"Honestly, the exit process for your Ninglan New City is quite a hassle," I remarked casually before heading to the city gate.
The staff member I had complained to immediately took it seriously. After seeing me off, they promptly reported the interaction to their superiors.
As a gap was opened in the city gate, I finally set foot on the land outside the city.
The area around the gate was heavily guarded by the City Defense Force, so there was no scene of refugees rushing forward to gawk the moment the gate opened.
However, my appearance still alerted the guards. After a brief announcement, a familiar face appeared before me.
"Scholar Xiao Han, I didn't expect you to be heading out so early."
"Mhm. I'm just leaving the city; there's no need for the highest-ranking officer of the City Defense Force to come out and greet me, is there?" I looked at Mo Le, who seemed a bit haggard. Even without the Ley Line Identification Art, I could tell he hadn't slept all night.
"Scholar Xiao Han is certainly worth it. Yesterday, you..."
"No need for that. If you have time, you should go back and catch up on some sleep." Having said that, I remembered something.
I had stockpiled many things in my storage equipment, including potions I had gathered in the past.
For instance... Refreshing Potions and the like. I rarely used them now, though I used to frequently. As my strength grew rapidly and my lifestyle became healthier, many of these items no longer had a purpose.
"Right, here's a potion for you. It's for refreshing the mind. Though I still suggest you sleep, if there's a critical moment where you absolutely must stay awake, take a sip." I rummaged around, found an exquisite vial, and handed it over.
"This! Thank you."
"Alright, alright, don't mind me. I'm off." I cut him off and pulled out my flying broom. I couldn't help but feel like I was giving them a little something just to shoo them away.
As I sat sideways on the broom and took to the sky, disappearing from their sight, the group finally snapped out of it.
"Well, we've been shooed... let's go." Mo Le shook the vial in his hand, his eyes filled with curiosity. He decisively opened the bottle and took a tiny sip.
Instantly, a cool sensation rushed to his head. This crispness was different from the sharp sting of mint; it was a more pleasant, almost indescribable coolness that made the sleep-deprived Mo Le feel energized again.
"As expected, everything in a witch's hands is a treasure... Come on, we still have important work to do. This trip wasn't in vain."
After all, with this potion, it was as good as having caught up on sleep. With his spirit renewed, he could pour more energy into the crisis Ninglan New City was facing.
* * *
Leaving Ninglan New City behind, I briefly oriented myself and headed in the direction they had mentioned.
Once I reached a high altitude, I was stunned by two sights.
The first to catch my eye was the lush vegetation in the distance, like a vast ocean of greenery—primordial and eerie.
The second was the crowd of people gathered beneath the outer walls of Ninglan New City. Their numbers far exceeded my imagination. So many people, crowded yet sparse in the open space; everyone seemed to want to be closer to the walls, yet the groups of strangers maintained a certain distance from one another to avoid unnecessary trouble.
This scene reminded me of the post-disaster reconstruction after the players had attacked Tan Han and destroyed a large section of the city. The scale of the refugees here was far more terrifying than it had been then.
These people had received no rescue, and it was even less likely they would be allowed into Ninglan New City to start a new life.
I eventually looked away from them. I had to admit that their disaster had nothing to do with me, yet their suffering moved me. I understood that this was an uncontrollable emotional shift brought about by empathy. I wouldn't completely discard my ability to empathize because of it, but I would learn to master it, rather than letting it master me.
And before I had the power to harness it... I thought of the Self-Consciousness Sealing Spell. Some of the consciousness sealing techniques I had learned from Natalie might be excellent tools to help me control my emotions.
Leaving the crowds behind, I reached the ocean of plants.
As I drew closer, I instinctively used the Ley Line Identification Art to gather information on the flora.
In that world where plant technology flourished, many plants coexisted with civilization in ways they themselves couldn't have imagined. In fact, many buildings, foundations, and infrastructures were essentially plants.
In the hands of that civilization, plants had been turned into "materials" that no longer grew according to their own will, becoming the cornerstones of civilizational development.
Now that the world had changed and undergone a "reshaping," the plants had abandoned their original "posts" and lost their man-made constraints. Coupled with the "precipitation" of the World Three Source Elements, transcendent energy had uncontrollably taken over the growth and mutation of these plants.
Even in the short time that had passed, the plants had broken through the shackles imposed by humans, sprouting new branches and leaves. Even if their roots were suspended in the air, they would determinedly burrow into the surrounding soil or even buildings to suck up nutrients for their unrestrained growth.
It was foreseeable that in areas rich in transcendent energy, these plants would become truly horrific under the influence of energy-induced mutations.
And let's not forget that there were countless variant beasts on the ruins of the original Expansion Realm; perhaps they, too, roamed this newborn world.
I hadn't seen many variant beasts near Ninglan New City, but after entering the world of plants, I quickly found traces of them.
"So many plants... I wonder if the people of that world took this chance to research any food that could feed people on a large scale."
I murmured softly, trying to recall which plants were high-yield types: corn, rice, wheat, and so on, even potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Perhaps within this world of plants, there were precious legacies left behind by that civilization.
However... my understanding of botany wasn't very deep. At most, I had self-studied a bit when school started.
But speaking of plants, the person I knew with the most expertise in the field was Sofiri.
She was currently the largest supplier of raw materials for the Otaku Witch Cat Cafe's Fool's Dream Drink. I heard she was also working on improving the traits and yields of certain plants. As the recipe for the Fool's Dream Drink changed, she had followed suit with more diverse raw material cultivation and induction. Even Dongli Yiren seemed to be studying under her.
Come to think of it... Dongli Yiren seemed to have been exempted from exams. Should I invite her to Ninglan New City to see the world?
It would be best to bring Sofiri along, too; she would likely love the plants here.
Though these were mostly ordinary plants, under the "saturation" of transcendent energy, many wonderful mutations might occur.
I imagined the student who researched planting and botany would be very interested.
But for now, these were just thoughts. If they could seize such an opportunity, that would be for the best; if not, I wouldn't force it.
Besides, it was just an idea.
"I see it... it really is a massive tree..." From high above, I finally spotted a colossal silhouette in the distance.
The silhouette was truly gargantuan. Perhaps, having lost human constraints, the Omni-Link Main Network Tree had begun to grow wildly and freely under the influence of transcendent energy.
