Chapter 621: The Chaotic State of the Main World
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 621: The Chaotic State of the Main World
Witch Academy.
With the opening of the Expansion Realm, a surge of upperclassmen had rushed in, eager to exploit this untouched "blue ocean" to secure a foothold for their future careers.
However, many soon realized that this was no easy frontier. Instead of a land ripe for the taking, they found themselves essentially working as laborers for others. Even those who formed small groups found themselves utterly crushed by the sheer efficiency of certain individuals.
Gradually, the initial fever began to cool.
Most students regained their composure and ceased their aimless wandering. Those with true talent found positions suited to their abilities, while those without simply returned to the Witch Academy.
After all... there was nothing wrong with staying under the tutelage of the mentors at the academy, was there?
The underclassmen felt the same. If a student couldn't even manage to self-study well enough to test out of their current courses, then forcing themselves to learn independently would only do them more harm than good.
Yet, compared to the monotony of the previous semester, the curriculum for this term promised to be far more interesting.
Why?
Because of internal shifts within the Witch Academy itself, the other transcendent academies had finally decided to include them in their circles again.
In the past, the Witch Academy had been the most isolated of them all.
While the academy prided itself on its immense strength, this very superiority meant its students lacked opportunities to interact with other institutions. Without the chance to spar and exchange ideas with outsiders, they couldn't truly appreciate the diversity of different power systems.
Furthermore, the ease of acquiring power through Mana Sources and Spellbooks meant they lacked sufficient combat experience.
The ability to simply overwhelm opponents with raw power had robbed them of the need for tactical thinking. These flaws were subtle and cumulative, invisible at first glance.
When they did interact with other academies, the top-tier students would simply deliver a one-sided crushing, maintaining a facade of "prosperity." Victory had become the Witch Academy’s final shred of dignity.
In terms of transcendent academic research, the Wizard Academy stood supreme. Wizards lacked the bloodlines and innate gifts of the transcendent races; every ounce of power they possessed was clawed back through relentless study and experimentation.
In terms of practical combat techniques, Afuhemi Academy was the strongest. They possessed the Main World’s vastest hunting grounds: the Emerald Forest.
Reflexes, insight, technique, weapon proficiency, and spirit magic—these were memories etched into their very blood, becoming more ingrained in their bodies as their power grew.
Even the students of the Beast Academy only lagged behind Afuhemi due to differences in bloodline and talent; their daily training was far more savage and reckless.
As for the Holy Angel Academy, their greatest strengths were faith and meditation. They were the most unique institution, with cathedrals and followers spread across the Main World. They produced countless ascetic families, possessing an unbreakable spiritual faith.
One could say that students of the Holy Angel Academy were screened long before they ever enrolled. A true ascetic, forged by faith, was a "perfect human" in terms of self-discipline. Even if they were scouted by other academies, most of those disciplined by faith would still consider themselves ascetics.
Faced with these three top academies, the Witches accepted every challenge, but that didn't mean the Witch Academy handled them with ease.
The other three academies emphasized how hard their students worked, knowing that effort and practice were the only paths to progress. But at the Witch Academy, it was the opposite. It felt as though the Witches themselves bore all the pressure, while the students did nothing but enjoy the benefits.
The Witch Meditation Method was the Main World’s most potent technique for tempering mental power, utilizing the Primal Dream to hone the mind. Yet, few students specialized in it. Even though it was the very first lesson upon enrollment, too many lacked the realization that "the foundation is everything."
With Primal Dream Pods and Witch Secret Realms, the academy provided more than enough training grounds.
But nowadays, the Witch Secret Realms had become mere places to farm rewards. Secret Realms without rewards were nearly abandoned, sometimes requiring specialized clubs just to keep them operational.
As for academic research... in the fourth year at the Witch Academy, every student was assigned their own mentor to guide their studies.
The issue wasn't whether the mentors were willing to teach, but whether the students took the opportunity.
The will to learn is an attitude a student must possess.
The claim that "the mentor won't teach" was a lie; those who truly wanted to learn would find a way, even if it meant switching mentors.
In the wizard towers of the Wizard Academy, apprentices didn't enjoy the healthy teacher-student relationships found at the Witch Academy. Theirs was a relationship of master and slave, where being allowed to transcribe a mentor’s research drafts was considered a divine mercy.
Sometimes, you really shouldn't be too kind to students.
This was a sentiment shared by many Transcendent Witches after comparing their academy to others.
However, as cooperation with other academies deepened, many of these issues began to resolve themselves.
For the underclassmen, for instance, the tedious written monthly exams of the previous semester were gone.
Coupled with educational reforms, it became easier for them to access Mana Sources and Spellbooks.
Under the academy's regulation, however, they were limited to spellbooks with double-digit consumption. Mastering excessive power too early without sufficient tempering was seen as stunting their long-term growth.
But... if a student truly had the ability to acquire high-consumption spellbooks on their own, the academy wouldn't stop them. That was a reward commensurate with their own capability.
The academy only sought to prevent the incompetent from wielding power they couldn't match.
That was the true waste of resources.
Of course, controlling the students' access to high-intensity power was also a way to manage the balance of combat strength.
Since the other academies were now playing along, practical exchanges between students naturally became more frequent.
The monthly exams for underclassmen had been simplified from complex written tests into a combination of comprehensive theory and practical exchange competitions with other schools.
They would go to the hunting forests of Afuhemi Academy to compete in tracking and hone their combat arts.
They would go to the Wizard Academy to brave the monster towers created by wizards, experiencing pure combat.
Or they would go to the Holy Angel Academy to undergo the Holy Light Trials, pitting their mental power and willpower against others.
These plans had already been integrated into the schedule for the new semester.
One could say this batch of freshmen had arrived at the best of times, and simultaneously, the worst of times.
They would watch as the gap between themselves and their predecessors widened during these reforms, but they were also the test subjects, blazed the "correct" path for future generations.
* * *
While the Witch Academy was undergoing internal changes, the world outside was experiencing a massive upheaval.
First and foremost... the number of Players had skyrocketed.
Furthermore, the existence of "Players" had been revealed to the general public.
The transcendent academies had issued a joint public statement officially defining this group as "Invaders from outside the world." This news immediately sparked global shock and panic.
After all, the uninformed masses always added a layer of mystery and dread to anything from beyond their world.
It was initially expected that this exposure would trigger a wave of anti-player sentiment. However, as public opinion fermented, it instead catalyzed a group of "World Traitors."
They hailed the Players as saviors who would bring liberation and new change to their world.
To the ordinary people who had no hope of entering a transcendent academy, the wonders of the world were beyond their reach. The social hierarchy had slammed the door on any hope of advancement.
Because of this, various groups became active online, stirring the stagnant waters of the world.
The most memorable were a group of "Foreign Historians." They collected history, summarized patterns, and raised questions, reasonably suspecting that the transcendent academies themselves were not native to their world.
The historical gaps of the past provided endless room for imagination. These "Foreign Historians," who would have been a laughingstock in the past, found their golden age at this historical juncture.
Their theories spread across the world, gaining widespread recognition and funding from the wealthy.
The transcendent academies were painted as invaders who had conquered the world in the distant past. Critics slammed them for resisting the new "Invaders" out of pure xenophobia, accusing them of dominating the world's natural historical progression and burying the truth of the past...
The leadership of the transcendent academies had not expected things to deviate so far from their predictions. It was as if the unresolved issues of history had finally found a fuse.
When they resolved to investigate who was fanning the flames of this rhetoric, they discovered that the forces behind it were the very corporations, families, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants who controlled the world's capital and operations.
The academies acknowledged that these ordinary people couldn't overturn the absolute status of transcendents, but they were the pillars that kept the external society running stably.
The academies attempted to "kill the chicken to warn the monkey," but this led to unforeseen consequences.
In a region under the jurisdiction of the Beast Academy, a massive riot broke out. Influenced by the academy's culture, the local populace was exceptionally fierce and primal.
If the academy used violent suppression, it would cause their enrollment numbers to plummet the following year. If their foundation was destroyed, the Beast Academy's development would grind to a halt.
In truth, it wasn't just this one academy. Protests were happening globally, and riots were simply the next stage of escalation.
In this environment, many small transcendent academies suffered collateral damage. Quite a few were unable to sustain themselves and were forced to merge.
Regions that lost the governance of transcendent academies even saw independence movements. Although these ultimately failed due to a lack of experience, a brand-new sect was born during the chaos.
The Adventist Cult.
They referred to the Players as "Adventists," a term that fit the way their consciousness descended to occupy the bodies of ordinary people.
They believed that to overthrow the current society dominated by the transcendent academies, ordinary strength was not enough. They had to borrow power from outside the world, gaining the help of the Adventists to reshape a new world!
The birth of the Adventist Cult most provoked the Holy Angel Academy.
To them, the Holy Light Sect was the only true faith in the Main World!
The moment the Adventist Cult announced its existence, it faced the full weight of the Holy Light Sect’s wrath.
They were immediately branded a heretical cult.
Holy Light churches worldwide did their utmost to judge them and guide the "strayed" back to the righteous path.
However, this crackdown failed to produce the desired results. Instead, the Adventist Cult grew even stronger.
Now, the situation had fallen into a stalemate.
With the opening of the Expansion Realm leading to a massive drain of high-end combat power among students, the situation in the Main World was becoming increasingly precarious.
Despite this, the mentors of the various transcendent academies maintained a surprisingly unified stance: they left the matter entirely to the students to handle.
Amidst all this, another topic sparked heated discussion: a type of gemstone called the "Heart of the Cold Wave" had become highly sought after.
This trend was started by the Adventist Cult, who were scouring the world for these items.
No one knew why, except for the informed students within the transcendent academies.
They knew that those Players were also collecting [Transcendent Knowledge].
* * *
Expansion Realm.
Seed Vault Space Maze.
"We need to speed up."
"What do you mean? Why the sudden rush?"
The group had been searching the space maze for a long time. Due to various accidents, they had already lost several members. However, thanks to the mana thread network, they at least wouldn't get lost in the labyrinth.
But they still hadn't found their ultimate goal.
They weren't stupid. The transcendent materials in the Seed Vault were important, and the rare seeds were highly valuable, but could anything be more valuable than the unknown object that had shaped this entire space maze?
"That Yang Yuehan... she has already found the core of this space maze."
"What?! How is that possible!"
"Who told you that?"
Upon hearing this, the group still huddled together exploded. They had put in so much effort; were they really going to let someone else reap the rewards?
No one could accept that!
Besides, how long had Yang Yuehan even been inside?
From the moment they learned of her arrival to their decision to enter the maze themselves, it had only been half a day—less than a full day. How could it have come to this?
"The news just came in. That girl... she started a live stream through a Great Knowledge Seed. Even Mentor Elena is paying close attention... I'm afraid we're just going to be background characters."
"What kind of monster did your Witch Academy produce?" Hearing that even the mentor from Ninglan New City who oversaw the resurrections was watching, the group's hearts sank completely.
Even if that mentor didn't interfere in student disputes, being watched by a Transcendent Mentor... it put far too much pressure on them.
"How should I know? I got the news late. We have no idea what Yang Yuehan is doing right now... Hey! What's happening?!"
As they were lamenting, a sudden tremor in the space made everyone's hearts skip a beat!
A tremor this obvious shouldn't happen within the space maze. Something major must have occurred.
Before they could react, a massive root burst through a nearby wall. Following a brief moment of weightlessness, they were hit by a violent shockwave!
Then, they noticed the spatial planes around them were disappearing, turning transparent. The intersections between spaces were drifting apart, and the boundaries of the space were reflecting the scenery of the outside world...
Recovering, the group propped themselves up and looked up in a daze at the refracted images of the world outside the space.
They saw a tree.
A tree... so massive that a single spatial plane couldn't even capture its full silhouette!