Chapter 650: A Branch of the Witch Great Project—Rebel Witches?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 650: A Branch of the Witch Great Project—Rebel Witches?
The Expansion Realm.
Calamity Shelter.
Inside the Omni-Link Main Network Tree laboratory, a group of witches remained busy. Witches might appear leisurely, but they possessed many means to work hard on their behalf, and clones were one of the most important methods.
Consequently, the witch clones here rarely had any rest. As for whether the main bodies—who hadn't come in person—were resting, only the main bodies themselves knew.
At this moment, the imaging projected by the Omni-Link Main Network Tree in the lab had almost completely displayed the entire Expansion Realm. This signified that the full map acquisition of the Expansion Realm was complete. It was a dynamic image updated in real-time via the Plant Network, even including population density distribution maps and other data.
This meant that the plan to plant Omni-Link Main Network Trees across the entire world had reached its preliminary completion.
There were still a few gaps where the Main Network Trees had grown later, and their root networks had not yet successfully interfaced with the interconnected root network.
However, it wouldn't be long before this place was completely "reclaimed" into a single whole.
This was a massive world!
Achieving unification without employing special means would be incredibly difficult. Currently, only the Omni-Link Main Network Tree had achieved a total interconnection of the Expansion Realm through the Plant Network, but that didn't mean the inhabitants were truly willing to submit to a single civilized consciousness.
After all, this small world once contained over a hundred nations. Though many were small, the linguistic systems were the true barriers. Even after experiencing a disaster, it didn't mean they could truly move toward unification.
According to the information sent back by my clones, the population had plummeted by half due to this mass transmigration—and that was just an incomplete statistic.
Furthermore, before they could fully settle down, the birth rate would drop below the floor, and the death toll would continue to rise, potentially leaving the population at less than a third of its original size.
These were just cold numbers; the reality was far more brutal. Even my clones were sometimes unable to turn the tide for a group of people.
Success and failure had already become the dual experiences accompanying most of my clones.
However, the lives and deaths of these people were not the focus of the Transcendent Witches. They didn't care about the survival of individuals; they only prioritized the inheritance of civilization.
From the perspective of their lifespans, as long as they saw the sparks of civilization, the traces of these people would spread across the world again before long. It was as if the Transcendent Witches believed in the vitality of these human sparks far more than the humans did themselves.
Compared to this, the witches were more concerned with the potential of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree.
What potential?
Efficiency, naturally.
There was no method more convenient or faster than plant growth. It could help a civilization that had never touched modern technology complete modernized construction in the shortest possible time. This included laying infrastructure without wasting human or material resources; production only required ensuring the plants grew.
One could say that what the Expansion Realm was currently experiencing was a rehearsal for what the Core World was about to undergo.
What the witches needed was a way to rebuild with maximum efficiency after the subversion of an external civilization.
During this period, besides monitoring the efficiency of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree's coverage and the issues with the Plant Network interconnection, they were also attempting to develop the tree for many other fields, the most important project being the interface with the Academy Network.
The Academy Network was the foundational network of the Witch Academy; it could not be completely replaced. Its technique for wielding Ley Line energy alone was something the Omni-Link Main Network Tree could not replicate. As the most widely used "incorporeal carrier" in experiments, Ley Line energy would never be replaced.
Moreover, as the Great Knowledge Seeds were promoted among the mentors and Ley Line Identification Art became widely used, entirely new applications for the Ley Line bearing techniques within the Academy Network were being developed.
The Omni-Link Main Network Tree was a product of the Tree of Great Knowledge system. Even the Tree of Great Knowledge could not wield Ley Line energy—it could only directly access Ley Line information. The Omni-Link Main Network Tree was even less capable; it could only convert Ley Line energy into Ley Energy for use.
As of now, the performance of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree had not disappointed the witches, especially regarding the self-healing capabilities of the root network.
Even if an area suffered a devastating blow, turning even the underground into scorched earth and destroying the entire root network there, it only took a few spells to modify the soil. Before long, the root network would spread through the area once again.
As for why we were so sure... naturally, we had tested it on a specific region. We had conducted many such large-scale experiments; it was just that many remained unknown to the public.
While busy in this laboratory, we occasionally paid attention to the movements of the outside world.
For instance, the first to be established was the Third Sanctuary, also known as the Aphra Sanctuary. Currently, Afuhemi Academy had set up a stable teleportation channel there, and many Elf-type Transcendent Academies had reached cooperation agreements with Afuhemi Academy, opening a series of channels.
The Fourth Sanctuary belonged to the Wizard Academy. When the Fourth Sanctuary was completed, it was right as the Dream Overlap was about to envelop them. So, immediately after building the sanctuary, they hurriedly invited a Wizard Tower Master—a Transcendent Wizard.
Subsequently, that Tower Master joined forces with several others to build a temporary Wizard Tower within the Fourth Sanctuary, modeled after the Witch Academy's Omni-Link Main Network Tree laboratory.
Then, the Witch Academy sent people over for a "friendly" exchange. They didn't allow the wizards' true bodies to arrive; instead, like the Witch Academy, the wizards had to send clones with no inherent power. It seemed the joint contract from back then had truly come back to bite them.
However, the clones of the Wizard Academy... truly opened my eyes.
For example, those from the mechanical faction sent mechanical clones. The clones from the flesh-crafting faction looked more normal, but that was only on the surface; internally, they lacked any normal human structure. Some were simply voodoo insect clones, not even bothering to maintain a human shape, merely something vaguely humanoid.
Then there were the "plant-people"—clones woven entirely from plants. One look at that Transcendent Wizard and you knew he was an expert in plant research.
His arrival was mainly to help solve problems in the development of plant technology. Of course, he was personally very interested in plant technology as well, especially the Omni-Link Main Network Tree.
I felt like looking at these clones too much would cause a sanity check failure... Looking back at the Witch Academy's mentor clones, it was clear that witches still placed a high value on appearance.
Nevertheless, the arrival of those Transcendent Wizards did solve some troubles for the students. They guided them in refining a special wizard tool that, while unable to disperse the dream, could effectively repel dream creatures.
However... since this was a tool refined under guidance, similar to Mentor Elena teaching Dream Magic, the other academies couldn't say much. Moreover, their own sanctuaries needed such things to repel dream creatures. As for asking that Teaching Assistant Xiao Han to help them disperse the dreams once and for all?
Sorry, they couldn't even find a trace of that teaching assistant!
So, they could only settle for this alternative method.
The Fifth Sanctuary represented the Holy Angel Academy.
After they finished building... no, while they were still building, they had already planned the location of a Holy Light Church within the sanctuary. The entire construction of the sanctuary looked like a massive pilgrimage city!
And as expected, once it was completed, they began high-intensity proselytizing... I have to say, it was truly no surprise at all.
Disaster, sanctuary, and preaching—these Holy Angel fellows were really sticking to the old traditions.
However, it had to be said that in the Core World, the Holy Light Churches scattered across the globe were currently busy purging the Descent Sects everywhere. Yet, they clearly didn't want to give up on the massive piece of meat that was the Expansion Realm.
Furthermore, the Fifth Sanctuary advertised that for other Transcendent Academies that believed in the Holy Light, the Holy Angel Academy would help them set up teleportation channels, claiming that faith transcended academy boundaries and such...
But clearly, not many small Transcendent Academies were fooled. The first few academies to take the lead were all those that were already pro-Holy Angel.
The Holy Angel Academy made such an offer because they realized that of the current three major sanctuaries, only theirs was open to other academies. The Wizard Academy preferred to monopolize everything, Afuhemi Academy only played with fellow Elf academies, and there was still a very large category of academies in the Main World that lacked this capability.
Those were the Beast Academies.
There were far too many Beast Academies. While none were considered top-tier, the Transcendent Academies categorized as Beast Academies weren't weak either. Even the seemingly delicate Cat-people Academy had its own strength, at least significantly stronger than those small Transcendent Academies.
But the Holy Angels' little schemes were quickly shattered by the Second Shelter.
The administrators of the Second Shelter were willing to temporarily open teleportation channels to help them complete the construction of the Sixth Beast Academy Shelter...
This wasn't free, of course.
But compared to being under someone else's thumb, paying a price was acceptable. Compared to those costs, the Holy Angel crowd would have stripped them of a layer of skin.
The Beast Academies were indeed full of guys whose muscles had grown into their brains, but that didn't mean they were all fools. They could naturally distinguish the weight of such matters.
* * *
Inside the Omni-Link Main Network Tree laboratory.
"By the way, just out of curiosity—a while ago, Dean Mei suddenly contacted my main body through the Great Knowledge Sharing Spell and told me to be careful. Sister Agnes, do you know what's going on?" During a break in the busy work, I happened to run into Sister Agnes, who was about to take a rest.
So, I took the opportunity to ask.
"Dean Mei contacted you?" Agnes was also a bit surprised. "Why are you asking me all of a sudden? It was probably a private matter, wasn't it? How could I know?"
"Uh... I don't think it was exactly private? Sister Mei told me to be careful for a while, saying some formidable characters had arrived in the Main World. Then she hung up before I could even ask."
"Formidable characters?" Agnes raised an eyebrow, looking interested. "You didn't have time to ask?"
"Well... Sister Mei didn't respond to me then, but after a while, she sent me a message saying she had already handled the matter and told me to act as if nothing happened... She won't say what it was, but she's piqued my curiosity. How can I act like nothing happened?"
"Since she said it's handled, then there's a high probability you don't need to worry about it... But Mei's behavior is indeed..."
"What are you two chatting about?"
"Oh, it's Sister Naiden. We were talking about how Dean Mei suddenly contacted me a while ago, telling me to be careful and such. Sister Naiden, do you know if anything big has happened in the Main World recently? Regarding some big shot who arrived?"
"Be careful... big shot? That sounds a bit like that matter... Wait, did that big-mouthed Mei Lind actually mention this to you?" Sister Naiden thought for a moment, then spoke helplessly.
"Did something really happen?" I was also a bit shocked. After all, I had only asked this on a whim.
"It seems she didn't explain it to you?" Naiden saw my completely clueless expression and realized the situation.
"No... Sister Mei didn't tell me. She just said she had 'disposed' of the other party and things like that. Sister Naiden~ could you please tell me? Pretty please~?" I said in a pleading tone.
"It's fine. I have a rough idea of what it is too. There's no harm in letting Xiao Han know in advance," Agnes added from the side. From her tone, it seemed she had realized what was going on.
"I'll tell you then..." Naiden nodded helplessly. "But... Xiao Han, you aren't a Transcendent Witch yet. You don't actually need to know about beings of that level. Under normal circumstances, they only target Transcendent Witches."
"Really? I heard Sister Mei say something about them knowing of my deeds and such..."
"Well... this time it might actually be related to Xiao Han..." After hearing me, Agnes sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"So what is it exactly?" I looked at the two "riddle-mongering witches," feeling the agony of people not getting to the point...
"Xiao Han, do you know what project you must undertake to promote to a Transcendent Witch?"
"Uh... the Witch Great Project?" I knew a bit about this.
"Correct. The Witch Great Project is the key to promoting to a Transcendent Witch. If you ask a member of an ordinary race how they distinguish if a being is of their kind, they might say they check if they are the same race or have the same sequence bloodline."
"But if you ask a witch, a witch will add the Witch Great Project on top of that foundation. In fact, the Witch Great Project contains many branches, such as sub-projects for race, bloodline, constitution, mana, and so on. This is the absolute manifestation of the sense of belonging among the witch race."
"So..." I prompted.
Although I didn't know why Sister Naiden was telling me about the Witch Great Project, I guessed it was to make it easier for me to understand the explanation that followed.
"So, what I want to tell you is that within the Witch Great Project, there is a very rebellious branch called the Rebel Witch Project. It represents the rebellious individuals within the race's inclusivity. However, the Primal Witch still recognized this branch project, believing it to be an indispensable factor for the witch race to remain active."
"Huh?" Hearing this concept, my eyes widened slightly. Was the Primal Witch really that inclusive?
"Don't be surprised. There is even a Truth Witch within the Rebel Witch Project, and she has a solid group of followers."
"What? There's even a Truth Witch?!"
"Of course. A Truth Witch doesn't necessarily represent raw power, but rather what she has done and whether it is widely recognized... But let's set that aside for now. We are talking about a different situation." Naiden patiently began to explain.
"Originally, Rebel Witches were a widely accepted group. Although they did bring quite a bit of trouble to the witch race, they also stimulated the race's vitality. That was until witches who deviated from the project appeared among them. Their interpretation of the project became distorted, leading them down a path of no return."
"The Rebel Witch group originally had their own pursuits and bottom lines. They targeted the witch race but did not cross the witches' ultimate line—which is the malicious killing of fellow witches. However, those who distorted the project and strayed from the path crossed that line, becoming betrayers of the witch race. The Primal Witch subsequently struck those betrayers from the records."
"Just struck from the records?" I found it a bit hard to believe.
"Yes. The Primal Witch has the power to crush them like ants, but she didn't do so. Instead, she left them to the other witches. The purpose was to make the witches, who had been comfortable for too long, feel a sense of crisis. This aligns with the original intent of the Rebel Witch Project. It's just that those individuals went astray. The Primal Witch doesn't mind using their lives to illustrate the importance of the Rebel Witch Project's path."
"So... I've been targeted by a Rebel Witch?" I asked.
"Yes. According to the information I have, it's a Betrayer Rebel Witch... Because you are a Little Witch now, you could promote to a Transcendent Witch at any time. Moreover, you alone possess two Great Spellbooks, have a domain prototype before even promoting, and have even mastered the technique of void communication. With your talent, who knows what heights you'll reach in the future... So... you understand, right?"
"Wow... from the perspective of a Rebel Witch... I feel like I really deserve to die..."