Chapter 649: What Kind of Life Does Fool's Dream Want to Become?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 649: What Kind of Life Does Fool's Dream Want to Become?
"Good... yes, just like that. I grant you wisdom so that you may better survive in the Expansion Realm, and in return, you shall repay this world by ascending to higher levels..."
After completing the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art on the last mutant beast of the pack, I released them.
Faced with a powerful existence like me—one far beyond their comprehension—their only emotion at this moment was fear. Through my Heart Sense, this perception was particularly vivid.
Moreover, after being granted wisdom, their expression of fear became somewhat more "concrete."
I looked at the few sick and disabled individuals they had abandoned. Following the instinct for racial survival, these creatures had stayed behind as decoys to buy time for the pack. I did not use the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art on them, but... I did see them through to their final journey.
Not long after, their flesh and bone converged into a brand-new, healthy mutant beast. It didn't cause a stir; instead, a clarity unlike that of a wild beast flashed in its eyes before it chased after the direction the pack had fled.
As I used the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art on those mutant beasts during this period, I was also deep in thought.
Life is not composed of elements like wisdom, memory, emotion, cognition, or the soul; rather, these traits manifest because life exists.
The essence of life is an irreversible miracle. It is precisely because of life's beauty and complexity that these attributes can be categorized and expressed.
Life is the foundation; only then can those subsequent concepts unfold with life as their origin.
The mutant beasts made me realize that life does not require all traits to be present at once. For instance, many of the mutant beasts I encountered lacked much wisdom, yet they could possess it.
Some mutant beasts had no memory, yet they could have memory.
Some had no perception, yet they could have perception...
There are traits I can help them acquire, and others I cannot, but I know there must be a way to achieve it.
Thus, I often re-examine the Great Spellbook I hold—the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art.
I once doubted whether the name of this spellbook was correct. Dean Mei thought my line of thinking was quite good.
But that doesn't mean the name is wrong; the act of "doubting" itself is a precious form of "correctness."
While re-evaluating this Great Spellbook, I would pause my studies of Runology to look through the materials the Dean had given me.
Though only a few months had passed, compared to the Dean's centuries of accumulation, trying to master everything in such a short time was indeed a drop in the bucket.
However, I defined these materials as "reference." Only when I truly understand and internalize something does it belong to me.
Furthermore, I have mastered Time Sense, so I do not lack time. I have clones, so I do not lack the energy to think.
Thus, I confirmed once again: the name "Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art" is not wrong.
This Great Spell is not purely about helping me create life out of nothing. It is strongly linked to "the dream creature known as Fool's Dream" and "Fool's Dream's intense desire to become life."
After gaining a deeper understanding of this spell, I developed a hypothesis.
"Intelligent Life."
This is a concept strongly correlated with this Great Spell.
It doesn't help shape a true life form; it merely shapes intelligent life, granting the enlightenment of wisdom to a living being.
That is why the Great Spellbook formed from this [Transcendent Knowledge] fragment is called the "Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art."
Meanwhile, "Mimicry Soul" and the yet-to-be-perfected "Soul Depiction" do not belong to the sequence derivations of this Great Spell. They aren't even spells, but rather "shaping" techniques.
In the past, I was too obsessed with the "perfection" of life, but the mutant beasts gave me a new revelation.
Life is equally imperfect. Even among humans, there is no such thing as a perfect person.
So how could there be a perfect life form?
I thought about the concept of intelligent life. Could a life form possessing wisdom be a revelation in itself? Could it be interpreted as... a life born for the sake of wisdom?
What kind of person seeks the meaning of wisdom?
Perhaps it is the lost or the seekers who call themselves fools. In that case, could the Fool's Dream be considered a group of fools wandering the Primitive Dream Realm in search of life?
They carry the key to becoming life without even knowing it...
So, who gave them the name Fool's Dream?
Was it the Dean?
But that seems meaningless now, because I have gleaned a subtle revelation from the name itself—though this revelation is actually a question.
And that is... "What kind of life does Fool's Dream want to become?"
Through my contact with so many mutant beasts, I have also gathered a vast amount of information regarding their races and bloodlines.
From this information, I can discern the inclinations, strengths, and abilities of these races. It is precisely because of this that I know a truly perfect life form does not exist.
Flaws shape their race.
Strengths are woven into their bloodlines.
Therefore, what kind of life Fool's Dream wants to become depends on what traits she chooses to abandon.
At this moment, I was traversing the space maze at the foot of the mountain rather than simply flying over the ridge to reach the spatial rift in the sky.
I was doing this to experience it, searching for the tiniest hint of a revelation regarding Space Sense.
"Give it up. Don't waste your time here. After you failed to seize the opportunity to touch Space Sense last time, the threshold you need to reach has risen again. If you could achieve it just by looking at a physical space maze generated by space-attribute transcendent materials, then powerful Body Cultivators would have made Space Sense a common ability long ago," the Knowledge Shadow accompanying me remarked, snarking without hesitation.
What she said was indeed the truth. I knew the probability was extremely slim—not just for the physical space here, but also for the spatial rift above that connected the Core World and the Expansion Realm.
"But... the result isn't important. What matters is the process, the experience. You're my subconscious; how is your enlightenment lagging behind my subjective consciousness?" I chuckled.
"Who knows? Maybe it's just your nature? A person spends their whole life haunted by the things they couldn't have in their youth. The regrets of your past life and your underage years in this life are things you'll spend the rest of your days trying to make up for. Even if the influence fades over time, it can never be erased."
"True. Regret. To avoid more regret, I've missed out on too many things. I was afraid to make choices, afraid to face the crossroads of life, afraid of everything that exceeded the boundaries of my cognition... but haven't I clearly recognized all of this and tried to break through it during this journey in the Expansion Realm?"
"Did you really break through?" the Knowledge Shadow asked disdainfully.
"...Well, at least I've made a crack in it."
Having said that, I stopped wasting time on the topic.
Instead, I continued my trek. If I encountered a pack of mutant beasts, I would grant them the blessing of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art.
I pressed on, advancing and climbing until I reached the highest peak of the ridge, the point closest to the sky!
Standing here, I could feel a pressure emanating from the spatial rift. Even though the other side of the rift was the Horaso Marsh in the Core World—a very ordinary place I hadn't visited much—the rift itself possessed an invisible majesty.
This was a completely different feeling from the Void Rifts I created when perfecting my Great Spellbook. A Void Rift is a tear through the void, a danger that even a Transcendent Witch cannot ignore.
But this rift through space was on an entirely different level. It felt like any Transcendent Witch could hop back and forth through it with ease.
What surprised me, however, was that this opening hadn't been smoothed over. For someone at the Dean's level, a spatial rift like this should be something she could seal with her bare hands, right?
Pushing aside these meaningless questions, I took out my alchemical broom and flew toward the spatial rift.
Actually, I have quite a few spells for direct flight, hovering, and acceleration, but right now I am a Little Witch, so I chose the most fitting method of flight.
The closer I got, the more I felt a strange throb.
"Don't even think about it. That throb isn't a perception of Space Sense," the Knowledge Shadow spoke up to remind me.
"Oh." I didn't give much of a response as I focused on sensing the massive spatial rift.
This was a rare opportunity. Previously, when I heard news of a spatial rift opening over the Horaso Marsh, it was just a piece of information to me. But standing here in person to experience and feel it was far beyond what a casual thought or imagination could provide.
With a wave of my hand, my domain covered a portion of the spatial rift. Although I could have encompassed the entire thing, there was no need. I only wanted to use higher-level power to perceive the rift itself.
There was no better method of observation than a Heart State Domain integrated with the order of the Five Senses.
As for the Ley Line Identification Art... that could work too, but it would feel disconnected when dealing with cross-realm information on a global scale. Unless the spatial breach spanned a ley line, it wouldn't yield much useful information. Thus, the Ley Line Identification Art still had many limitations.
After a brief contact, I quickly discovered that the rift was healing on a spatial level at an extremely slow rate. However, I couldn't yet tell what force was driving this healing.
But I did know what was preventing it from healing: World Origin Soil.
To my surprise, the method of spatial healing wasn't to push the World Origin Soil aside, but to "convert" it into other transcendent substances and then rely on the compressive force of space to slowly heal.
This was why transcendent materials would occasionally fall from the sky through this spatial rift.
Having understood the form of the spatial rift's healing, I had a general idea of what the healing power was related to.
Anything that can convert World Origin Soil is almost certainly related to the world itself.
I began observing the techniques the world used to convert the World Origin Soil, seeing if I could learn them. But I quickly realized... I couldn't understand it at all.
It was like an ordinary person who had never touched transcendent power watching an Alchemy Master perform a transmutation.
It wasn't just a matter of not understanding; it was the kind of incomprehension where my cognition, way of thinking, principles, and power were all insufficient.
If I looked closely, I could only see the extremely stable World Origin Soil abruptly transform into other materials. I couldn't see the process, the power involved, or the techniques used. Information, visuals, perception, and even the data from Spirit Vision couldn't help me understand how it was done.
After several hours of serious observation, I finally chose to give up.
If there had been even a shred of a lead, I wouldn't have wanted to quit. Even though I knew that those at the Transcendent level couldn't do anything to World Origin Soil, I had still plunged in and tried for hours without hesitation.
Therefore, I felt there was nothing wrong with giving up like this.
Recognizing one's own level is also an important skill.
Although I couldn't understand how the World Origin Soil was converted, the rift itself had many other areas worth studying.
It even provided great inspiration for the Space Teleportation Spell I had mastered. This spell was equally important and had become one of my indispensable tools.
Just as I was preparing to continue my research, I suddenly received a message.
It was a message from the Tree of Great Knowledge, sent via the Great Knowledge Sharing Spell. Since there was no Academy Network around me, this was the only way to reach me.
It seemed they had researched my Great Knowledge Sharing Spell quite deeply. They had shared all their research into my Tree of Great Knowledge. I was aware of the development progress, but I hadn't had the energy to delve into it yet.
"Is that you, Sister Mei? Did something happen? You don't usually seek me out on your own." After confirming who was contacting me, I connected the communication.
"Xiao Han, are you wandering around the Expansion Realm right now?" Dean Mei asked.
"Yes. Is there a problem? Surely Sister Mei doesn't think I've gotten lost?"
"It's nothing. It's just that for a while after I contact you, you might need to be careful. The Main World... how should I put this? Some formidable characters have arrived. You understand that as the Expansion Realm is repaired, the capacity of the Main World to accommodate those at the Transcendent level has definitely increased. Because of that, all sorts of people are showing up. And of course, word of your deeds has spread."
"Huh? What?" I listened intently, but when she suddenly brought me into it, I was left dazed. "What does that have to do with me? Sister Mei, can you be more specific? What 'deeds' of mine have spread?"
Following my questions, there was a burst of noise from Dean Mei's end. I heard something about discovering someone, and then the connection was cut.
I was left standing there, completely bewildered.
But not long after, I received a reply from Dean Mei.
"It's fine. I've taken care of the hidden threat for you. Forget what I said earlier; I was just being over-talkative."
I slowly sent back a "?", but Dean Mei didn't reply again.
"It should be fine... right?"
* * *
Core World.
Witch Academy.
As the end of class was announced, the students, looking somewhat disheveled from the grueling Body Cultivation training, began to head back.
Bai Yu packed her things, and then another figure approached from the side.
"There~ everything's packed. We can go now~"
"You really didn't need to go to this trouble, Xiao Han," Sister Bai said with a sigh.
"This is just a clone. Why are you being so protective, Sister Bai? It's the clone doing the work, so I'm not tired..."
"Hehe~" Bai Yu chuckled softly. "I'm still not quite used to you talking this way. It feels very disjointed."
"Is it because you don't know how to interact with this clone? Don't worry, this is my clone. Whatever you do to her, you're doing to me. I made this clone specifically so she could be with you at any time, and also to fulfill my duties as a teaching assistant. It's great, isn't it?"
"It is great... but..."
"No 'buts.' Let's go. Class ended quite early today. From what I know, Sister Bai, you've already mastered the essentials of Real Editing Technology. You don't need to follow the lectures anymore; self-study should be enough, right?"
"Yes."
"Then use your free time to walk around outside the school. Go out into society more, just like my main body is doing in the Expansion Realm. And while you're at it... experience a bit of ordinary cultivation."
"But... I shouldn't always be thinking about cultivation..."
"Then how about experiencing a bit of ordinary love?"
"Okay," Sister Bai immediately changed her tune.