Chapter 745: A New Category of Body Arts—Spell-Manifestation Body Arts
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 745: A New Category of Body Arts—Spell-Manifestation Body Arts
For a moment, the Body Cultivation room became quite boisterous. Many of the witches who had just entered realized that the young girl before them was none other than the "Xiao Han" Yang Yuehan, the little witch who had caused quite a stir recently.
Once the connection was made, many witches began to recall bits and pieces—some remembered the incident with the Totem in the Expansion Realm, while others thought of her awakening through Body Cultivation.
Most of the witches here were Body Cultivators. They spent the vast majority of their time training, so they didn't typically consume much news or concern themselves with outside affairs.
Through Sister Bai’s introduction, I learned that all these witches she had brought along were fellow Body Cultivators.
Looking at them, their style of dress was markedly different from that of ordinary witches. Based on the physical strength radiating from my perception, these witches were the type who could truly crush an incoming spell with a single bare-handed punch.
However, none of these Body Cultivation witches had exaggeratedly bulky muscles. It seemed that even the pursuit of pure power couldn't break the innate love for beauty inherent in their race.
Actually... there was a reason for that.
Body Cultivation was a power system within the Transcendent domain. While it focused on the physical form, its essence remained Transcendent. It wasn't about building up massive muscles; the strength gained from mere muscle mass was incomparable to the power granted by advancing through a Transcendent system.
These Body Cultivation witches were friends Sister Bai had gathered because they shared similar goals.
Many of them had formed a bond with Bai Yu back when she caused a massive commotion while breaking through to master Time Sense.
Sister Bai proceeded to explain the concept of the Mana Source Body Cultivation method to them.
While the idea wasn't immediately embraced by all the Body Cultivation witches, many were willing to invest time into researching it with Sister Bai, out of curiosity and respect for something new.
A while back, I had indeed discussed my thoughts and ideas regarding Mana Source Body Arts with Sister Bai. She had told me she would handle it, reasoning that she had far broader channels and advantages for creating such a technique than I did.
I hadn't expected Sister Bai to go about it this way!
But thinking about it, this was indeed an excellent approach—gathering a group of like-minded experts to work toward a single goal.
It was certainly the most efficient method.
After she briefly explained the situation to me, I hurried to offer my thanks. I hadn't expected so many senior witches to be inconvenienced just for this.
They, however, didn't seem to mind at all.
Perhaps it was due to their path of Body Cultivation, but many of these witches had very straightforward and blunt personalities.
It made sense... in the witch race, only those with such temperaments would choose Body Cultivation over traditional spells.
"Sister Bai, what did you mean earlier when you said you had a lead? Does that mean there’s been a breakthrough with the Body Arts?" I asked.
"Yes, in a manner of speaking. We’ve managed to successfully develop a type of Body Art that uses a Mana Source as its offensive core. I’m not sure if this approach will give you any inspiration," Sister Bai explained.
"Hehe~ I’m the one who finished it!" a witch standing next to Sister Bai said with a smile, her tone carrying a hint of wanting to be praised. "Would you like me to give you a demonstration?"
"Is that really okay? Then I’ll have to trouble you, Sister."
"Hah~ It’s no trouble at all."
The witch waved it off, clearly unbothered. She viewed these attempts as a form of exchange between Body Cultivators, so she skipped the polite formalities.
As soon as she finished speaking, she settled into a starting stance.
Based on my theoretical knowledge of Body Arts, it wasn't a particularly unique stance. It seemed this newly created technique was still quite unrefined.
Of course, it was also possible that, like the Body Cultivation Secret Classic, it was an "unfixed" style of Body Art.
Then she began. Although her movements seemed somewhat redundant, for Body Arts, these were like the ritualistic framework of a spell chant.
Once the technique was fully mastered, these redundant movements could naturally be omitted, much like silent spellcasting.
But since her primary goal was to demonstrate the technique, she naturally performed the full set of forms.
I watched intently, constantly analyzing the core framework of the technique. It wasn't until a Mana Source became involved in the execution that I truly felt the brilliance of the concept.
This was clearly a "Strong Attack" type of Body Art, not one of those branches focused on dominating Transcendent energy.
It differed slightly from my own path, but that wasn't surprising.
There is a significant difference between these two types of Body Arts. Based on their intended purpose, Attack-type Body Arts focus on direct strikes and offensive forms, while Energy-type Body Arts focus on dominating Transcendent energy to indirectly achieve other effects.
And those effects aren't necessarily offensive; they could be for obstruction, defense, interference, and so on.
What this witch was demonstrating was clearly a series of aggressive postures centered around that single Mana Source.
If I had to describe it, it felt as if the witch herself had become a spell, and her body was the vessel carrying that spell into the attack.
To use a vivid analogy... if this technique were based on a "Fireball Spell," an ordinary witch would fire a fireball. She, however, was different. She turned her body into the fireball to engage the target in close-quarters combat. Every one of her strikes was like a derivative transformation of the spell. The sheer terror of such a thing was easy to imagine.
As she executed her moves, the attack form of the Mana Source manifested like a fire snake. The temperature in the Body Cultivation room rose noticeably.
It even triggered the Constant Temperature Runes in the room to begin rapid cooling.
"Phew~ Well? Xiao Han, did you see anything interesting?" Having finished her demonstration, the witch stepped toward me and asked with a smile.
"Yes... it was staggering!" I exclaimed, speaking from the heart.
"Staggering? Actually, I was just showing off the forms. The actual power is quite average. But... I have to say, the model of using a Mana Source as an offensive core has quite a bit of potential," she said modestly.
However, when someone resorts to saying the "potential is good," the subtext is usually that the future is promising but the present is lacking—the power is insufficient, the model is mediocre, and the attack patterns are fairly generic.
One could only look forward to its future performance.
I had expected this. Although Body Arts hadn't developed as gloriously as spells, that didn't mean there weren't powerful techniques representing the field.
While Sister Bai was teaching me the Body Cultivation Secret Classic, she had also transmitted a great deal of foundational knowledge regarding Body Arts through the Great Knowledge Seed.
So, I was very clear on what the various models of Body Arts were.
Something like this flaming technique was essentially a Body Art biased toward channeling Fire Element Transcendent energy. The energy it stirred was, in some ways, no less than that of an ordinary spell.
It just lacked the "special effects" of a spell.
"By the way, Sister, was the inspiration for this technique something like the Fire Snake spell?"
"Oh? You caught that? You could tell after seeing it just once?" The witch was slightly surprised, her tone confirming my keen eye. "After all, this is a Body Art that utilizes a Mana Source. In my mind, Mana Sources are for casting spells, so I instinctively thought of spellbooks. To be honest, I’m not proficient in many spellbooks, but Fire Snake is one of them."
"So, you created this technique with the idea of 'becoming the spell'?" I followed up.
"Becoming the spell? That’s an excellent way to summarize it!" the witch said with a laugh. "Actually, now that you mention it, I feel like Mana Source Body Arts could even become its own separate category! 'Spell-Manifestation Body Arts'—it almost breaks the boundary between Body Arts and spells! This is quite significant!"
Clearly, this witch was also a very active thinker. I had only made a casual comment, yet she had extrapolated so much from it.
She had even come up with a new category classification? And nearly broke the boundary between Body Arts and spells?
Listening to her, I thought it sounded a bit far-fetched... but at first glance, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the logic.
Unfortunately... this didn't seem to be the kind of Body Art I was looking for. It didn't provide much of a boost to the Mana Source Body Cultivation method.
But I had to admit, it was indeed a very good line of thought.
According to her, this technique wasn't yet complete.
A complete Body Art had to be something that could be continuously refined and advanced until it reached the level of resonating with Body Cultivation Runes. Otherwise, it was just a collection of flashy combat tricks.
Even though the technique she created didn't quite fit my needs, I still took the time to learn it. The skill of manipulating a Mana Source in such a way was still a technique I needed.
Afterward, I exchanged some insights on Body Cultivation with these senior witches. However, compared to their accumulated experience, my ideas seemed rather naive.
They were far more interested in my Body Cultivation Totem.
Even for witches, they possessed immense curiosity toward things they couldn't master.
Even though they knew a Totem couldn't be taught or learned, they were willing to use their help in developing the Mana Source Body Arts field as leverage to observe my Totem.
In truth, this was just a roundabout way of helping me. I was deeply grateful to them for assisting me in this manner.
With the help of these witches, a brand-new category of Body Arts began to spread through the Transcendent Body Cultivation circles of the Witch Academy.
Spell-Manifestation Body Arts.
And with the first successful case established, the floodgates for imitation and new ideas were opened.
I had to admit, having more witches around certainly made things easier. When everyone gathered and someone had an idea, there were plenty of capable witches to bring it to life.
This category of Body Arts quickly became quite rich. Some witches were even considering whether to offer this skill as a separate elective course for students next semester.
Meanwhile, I continued to immerse myself in the research of Self-Generated Mana.
I hadn't forgotten why I chose to study Self-Generated Mana in the first place. It was... to understand it better!
Whether I wanted to promote it or popularize it, the ultimate goal was to understand it from its very foundation. Being able to create it was merely a byproduct of that understanding.
"Xiao Han, I’ve organized the materials you wanted regarding the Mana Project and the Mana Source Project." At that moment, Sister Bai handed me a Shared Rune. This was a privilege she held as a Transcendent Witch Mentor—the authority to access data from Witch Projects for teaching purposes, guiding students in their research to lay the foundation for their advancement to Transcendent.
"Thank you, Sister Bai~"
I took the rune; the information density inside was enormous.
Such a high volume of data was difficult to transmit through the synchronization of the Great Knowledge Seed, so I had to ask Sister Bai to identify it as information stored within the Seed and then "package" it to me via the Great Knowledge Sharing Spell.
"Why are you suddenly so interested in these projects, Xiao Han? Are you preparing to advance to Transcendent?" Sister Bai asked with a smile.
"The projects researched for advancing to Transcendent are usually Great Witch Projects, right? Besides, my life level isn't high enough to advance yet. No rush, no rush~" I said with a laugh.
As for advancing to Transcendent... I had my own ambitions. How could the path I chose be a mere sub-project like Mana or Mana Sources under the Great Witch Projects?
Dean Mei had been right; I was best suited for the Great Soul Subject. After all, my essence was a soul. Furthermore, I wanted to understand the nature of the soul after advancing through the Great Soul Subject, so I could perfect the "Soul Depiction" technique and turn Fool's Dream into a true life form.
Although I hadn't settled on a specific project yet—Soul, Knowledge, Wisdom, Life... any of these concepts could form a project. I didn't know how to define it, and it felt a bit messy and greedy.
But I knew one thing hadn't changed: my core focus was always centered on the Tree of Great Knowledge.
That was the goal I had set from the beginning; I couldn't just change it on a whim.
"Is that so?" Hearing that I had no immediate plans to advance, a flicker of disappointment instinctively crossed Sister Bai's face.
"Sister Bai, are you thinking about something strange again? Why do you look disappointed that I’m not advancing?" I caught her fleeting emotion immediately.
"Am I? I just hope you can become my peer sooner. Even though I don't mind, you are a little witch, after all. Every time we get intimate... I feel like... I can't quite bring myself to go all the way."
"Eh? You were thinking about something strange!" I said crossly. Isn't the current situation fine? No need to worry about producing witch eggs...
"Sorry~ I was just being impatient."
"Oh, you... you should cherish this more. This is the 'Little Witch Special Edition.' Once I actually advance to Transcendent, you won't get to experience this again."
"Yes, yes~ I’ll cherish it." Sister Bai hugged me from behind dotingly. After holding me tightly for a good while, as if recharging her "Xiao Han energy," she spoke again. "So, what do you plan to do with all this project data?"
"To try and understand the essence of mana through the Mana Project, of course," I said as if it were obvious. "The Self-Generated Mana physique is a constitution that constantly births mana. Don't forget, I decided to study it to gain a more detailed understanding of what Self-Generated Mana actually is."
"So, you aren't planning to promote the technique for non-Transcendent Self-Generated Mana physiques anymore?" Bai Yu naturally remembered what I had said back then, but...
"Of course I am. But who’s to say my understanding of Self-Generated Mana hasn't progressed further?" I looked at Sister Bai with confidence.
Precisely because my understanding of Self-Generated Mana had deepened, I needed more cross-disciplinary and related knowledge to continuously elevate my cognition of it.
Because I had discovered that the potential of this talent... was far greater than I had imagined!