Chapter 720: The Questions Millian Seeks
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 720: The Questions Millian Seeks
As the holidays arrived, students began leaving the academy one after another, returning to society to enjoy the privileges that being Transcendent brought.
Outside the academy, students were restricted in their use of Transcendent abilities. However, if they took on missions to recruit—or rather, "abduct"—new students, they were permitted to use them.
Because of this, the ranks of those heading out to snatch up new recruits during the break grew indirectly larger.
But while the majority of the students were preparing for their travels, another group was experiencing a different kind of... "massive upheaval."
That group was the Xiao Han Fan Club.
Now that Xiao Han was "dead," was there really any point in the fan club’s continued existence?
Was that Xiao Han truly worth following even after her death? What precious spiritual legacy and guiding ideology had she left for the club?
This was a question that had to be faced, yet one that many instinctively avoided.
The reason this loose organization hadn't collapsed yet was primarily because the interests and profits within the Expansion Realm had not yet been fully distributed.
Once the holiday ended and the final transfer of time and power was complete, they would be forced to confront the issue. Even if they didn't bring it up themselves, someone would eventually lose their patience and ask.
Currently, the representatives of the fan club's various interests had already held several meetings over the past few days to discuss this very problem.
The prevailing sentiment was a desire to keep this massive collective from falling apart.
A large organization to lean on—even a loose one—served everyone's interests. As long as there was a central pillar, things generally wouldn't descend into chaos.
Therefore, from a purely self-interested perspective, no one wanted the fan club to collapse.
But now they faced a severe problem: the core figure of the organization, "Xiao Han," was dead.
Was there really a point in championing a dead person?
If they huddled together now under that name, it would lack legitimacy.
Consequently, many different voices were rising within the fan club.
Some argued that the "Era of the Xiao Han Fan Club" had passed. They hoped to break free from the constraints of that framework, give the organization a brand-new name, and start a new era—perhaps even establishing a massive formal club.
Others believed it was impossible for Xiao Han to have died just like that. they were searching everywhere for proof and cursed those who wanted to change the name.
Then there were the representatives of pure interest groups. They believed their current scale was enough to secure a foothold in the Witch Academy. Given the current turmoil—where many other large factions, clubs, and groups were unstable due to the Teaching Assistant Hunt cleanup—they felt they needed to move quickly to seize the opportunity.
The Xiao Han Fan Club had Teaching Assistants too!
Even if those Teaching Assistants wouldn't necessarily listen to them.
Within the fan club, a specific group proposed a unique suggestion.
Rumor had it that Teaching Assistant Xiao Han had a brother, Yang Yunhan!
Why couldn't they "abduct" him to the Witch Academy and make him the spiritual symbol of the fan club?
Even if he turned out to be useless, what did it matter?
They simply needed a reason for the Xiao Han Fan Club not to disband on the spot. A younger brother—no, a younger sister—inheriting the elder sister's title to serve as a temporary spiritual pillar would be enough.
She wouldn't need to be capable or even a genius. She would become a symbol. Whenever people saw her, they would be reminded of the glory achieved by the former Teaching Assistant Xiao Han.
To build up this spiritual icon, many began spontaneously digging up her past deeds, intending to compile them bit by bit. Every achievement, every task completed, every word spoken, every paper published...
When they seriously sat down to review her record, they suddenly realized that the person they supported had accomplished so much in just a single year!
Combined with the title of "Little Witch" personally acknowledged by Dean Mei and the extraordinary level of importance the academy placed on her...
It seemed that only by "dying" could a person satisfy everyone, prompting them to reminisce about her former beauty, her value, and her significance.
Everything about her would be mythologized. It was as if only a dead genius was a genius everyone could love.
She was meant to exist in propaganda and picture books, not by their side.
While all of this was quietly unfolding, Millian was facing a major low point in her life.
The great turning point of her life had been choosing to follow Teaching Assistant Yang Yuehan, setting up the Xiao Han Fan Club and various interest groups in the Expansion Realm.
Even though her most direct backer had completely collapsed, she did not regret her choice, even if her status within the fan club had plummeted.
Of course, "plummeting" only meant she could no longer be the absolute leader of the club. The resources, connections, and relationships she held were still enough to give her a footing and a certain degree of influence.
However, she was not participating in the current carnival of profit distribution.
She knew what was truly important. She had to confirm one thing: Was Xiao Han... really dead?
Perhaps others saw her actions as looking for trouble where none existed. To them, the matter was settled!
That was the word from all the other academies!
So many people had witnessed Teaching Assistant Xiao Han's death. Even when a Transcendent Holy Angel or a Transcendent Witch tried to resurrect her, there wasn't the slightest response.
Wasn't all that evidence enough?
For Millian... it certainly wasn't.
Lately, she had been running everywhere to verify the news. She first went to the mentors from the lower-year academy joint organization who had arranged the League Hunting Exam, specifically seeking out Teacher Lina, who had a connection to Xiao Han.
But she only received an ambiguous answer.
Xiao Han's death was indeed a factual event that had occurred.
When she asked if there were any other possibilities for resurrecting Xiao Han, Teacher Lina did not give a direct response.
While everyone else was celebrating Xiao Han's death, only Millian, her companions, and the members of the intelligence group were looking for other possibilities.
Although a large portion of the fan club was grieving over Xiao Han's "departure," many of them also didn't want an insurmountable peak looming over them anymore.
They liked the present. They had already moved past the stage of needing a spiritual leader to bring them together. Now, they felt Xiao Han had died at "just the right time."
It was just that it had happened so suddenly that they were having trouble adjusting.
Millian didn't care about any of that. She sought out many people: Xiao Han's former roommates, her former class, her former counselor, her former clubs... Some she could meet, some she couldn't. Some meetings were worthless, while others left her mentally convinced that Xiao Han wouldn't die so easily.
As Millian made her rounds, she suddenly realized that Xiao Han's social circle wasn't actually that large.
It was as if she didn't need anyone to support her. She had no like-minded friends, no friends bound by mutual interest, and no fixed social circle. It seemed she didn't even have someone to talk to on a regular basis.
Now, Millian didn't have many options left. The only people she could still look for were Yi Rui and her group.
That group was a club formed by several Teaching Assistants, and they were among the few who had a good relationship with Xiao Han—a group Millian considered "friends."
Actually, she had a few other choices. One was to find the mentor Teaching Assistant Xiao Han followed, a woman named Bai Yu. That mentor had that kind of relationship with Xiao Han and had even killed several Transcendents for her sake!
Another was to find the Dean... but she clearly lacked the status for that.
After weighing her options, Millian decided to go to Yi Rui first.
However, once she contacted Yi Rui, she discovered that she didn't even have the clearance to enter the place where Yi Rui's group was currently staying!
Furthermore, they seemed to be pointedly avoiding the topic of Xiao Han.
While this sounded like a bad development, Millian was shrewd. She could read between the lines of Yi Rui's avoidance.
First, she ruled out the "wrong answer" that Yi Rui's relationship with Xiao Han wasn't as good as it seemed.
So... why were Yi Rui and the others avoiding questions about Xiao Han?
Teacher Lina had avoided the question too, even though she explicitly stated that Xiao Han was indeed dead.
Yes, it was a fact, but death was not an absolute in the Transcendent realm!
She still had many questions. For instance, where was Xiao Han's body now?
The Dean valued Xiao Han so much; was she perhaps trying another method to resurrect her?
Without concrete evidence, she couldn't prove this hypothesis.
Yet an inexplicable intuition told her she was onto something. Her subconscious pieced together an answer where Xiao Han wasn't dead, but the objective reality was... she had no proof.
Aside from looking for people, Millian still had the Great Knowledge Seed and her Ley Line Identification Art. However, she couldn't use them to search for much information regarding Xiao Han.
"We seem to have forgotten something... or rather, overlooked many things. There must be some evidence proving that Xiao Han is definitely still alive," Millian said with certainty.
For example, the Great Knowledge Seed she possessed originated from Xiao Han. If Xiao Han were truly dead, why could the Great Knowledge Seed still be used?
She had asked Teacher Lina this question, but the answer she got was... the spell effects of a Great Spellbook are permanent.
While this gave her new knowledge, it wasn't the answer she wanted.
"Any luck on your end?"
Millian wasn't acting alone. She had the intelligence group—or rather, the faction of the intelligence group within the fan club that favored her. Moreover, the intelligence group included personnel dedicated specifically to Xiao Han.
"We haven't found any word on where Sister Xiao Han's body is. The Ley Line Identification Art can't trace it either. As for the matter of Sister Xiao Han's inheritance... there's currently no intelligence proving who inherited her Great Spellbook."
"No inheritor is the best answer." Millian felt a slight sense of relief. Now, she needed to find Mentor Bai Yu.
She had many questions for this mentor. If anyone knew the most about this matter, then at the level Millian could reach, Mentor Bai Yu was her limit.
Besides... if the Great Spellbook were to be inherited, then this Transcendent girlfriend of Xiao Han's was the witch most qualified to receive it.
Before leaving, Millian glanced at the figure beside her that only she could see.
This was a Knowledge Shadow born from the Great Knowledge Seed, a projection of her own subconscious. It maintained the image of the original Xiao Han, serving as a mental image to constantly spur her forward.
"What do you think we missed? Why did you conclude that Xiao Han isn't dead?"
"Think for yourself. This whole affair reeks of haste and strangeness; it's full of loopholes and acting."
"Stop speaking in riddles, okay? You're not the real Xiao Han!"
"The cause of Xiao Han's death was a Dream Demon draining her soul essence, leading to total death. Could the mentors really not have noticed or stopped that? The standoff between the schools happened after Xiao Han died, but the Witch Academy has the power to unilaterally suppress all those other academies. How could they possibly allow a Dream Demon to feed on Xiao Han's soul essence?"
"But the fact remains that Xiao Han cannot be resurrected."
"So that gives you another question: Could Xiao Han have made it so she refused to be resurrected? If she could... why would she be unwilling?"
"Assuming that's possible... to set a trap for the other academies?"
"Who knows?" The Knowledge Shadow did not directly answer the speculation.
So now Millian had yet another question, and all she lacked was a person—or a witch—willing to answer them.
"Perhaps you should pay more attention to those intelligence personnel."
"Hmm? What do you mean? Did they find something and not tell me?" Millian asked.
"Remember the contracts they signed? To serve Xiao Han."
"I remember."
"But Sister Xiao Han is dead... According to the contract, who are they serving now?"
"..."
"Maybe that's just a property of the contract?" After a moment of silence, Millian found a justification for herself.
"If you're unsure, just find a person or a witch and ask, right?" the Knowledge Shadow guided Millian patiently.
"Alright, that's enough. You have many questions now; go find the answers. Whether the answers are a 'yes,' a 'no,' silence, or even... a lie. I think as long as the other party takes a stance, you'll have your answer in your heart. No lie is foolproof. You only need to do one thing: persist until you've asked all your questions."
"Thanks. This... was a huge help."
Millian waved her hand, dispersing the Knowledge Shadow, and then began looking for a way to find Mentor Bai Yu.
First, an address? Or contact information.
As an old hand at navigating the Witch Academy, she had plenty of tricks for finding mentors.
She knew how to use the existing academy system to find contact info for on-campus mentors.
Or she could look up the mentor's previous courses and check the supplementary materials.
Even the most primitive method—asking a mentor she knew for information on another—was an option.
Thus, she quickly found the mentor's office. However, it was obvious that during the holidays, the other party wasn't there.
So, after a bit more effort, she found the mentor's residence.
Showing up uninvited like this was impolite, but... she had to face this reality.
At this point, only this person was likely to answer her questions.
As she stood before the villa's entrance, hesitating over whether to knock, the front door suddenly swung open.
"I've seen you standing at my door for quite a while. Come in. I have some impression of you—Millian, was it? The one handling affairs for Xiao Han in the Expansion Realm."
As the door opened, a figure appeared before Millian, accompanied by a flat, emotionless voice.
"Yes... yes, that's me..."