Chapter 746: Prospects for a Pseudo-Infinite Mana Physique Talent
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 746: Prospects for a Pseudo-Infinite Mana Physique Talent
...
I glanced at the date; the break was already more than half over.
In a few more days, the orientation ceremony for the new students would begin. Time felt like it was slipping by a bit too fast—or perhaps the subjects I was researching were simply too time-consuming.
By the midpoint of the vacation, the Body Cultivation Witch sisters, led by Sister Bai, had joined me in researching body arts related to Mana Sources. By now, a new type of body art had begun to circulate within the academy.
Although this "body-to-spell" form of body art wasn't exactly what I needed, it didn't hinder my continued research into the architecture of Self-Generated Mana.
Furthermore, those witch sisters had mentioned they would help me achieve what I was looking for. Even though many of them were still groping in the dark following the body-to-spell model, a significant number were truly willing to assist me.
"Xiao Han, are you certain this is the form of body art you're after?" one of the witch sisters asked, still sounding a bit hesitant.
"Yes. The primary goal of the body art I'm envisioning isn't offensiveness or any other utility; I need it to accomplish something on an entirely different level," I replied with a nod and a smile.
Body arts are the means and methods of Body Cultivation. This differs from Spell Cultivation, where the method of practice is almost entirely centered on meditating on mental strength—essentially, using Meditation Methods to cultivate.
In Body Cultivation, one practices body arts directly to achieve self-improvement.
However, whether it's Spell Cultivation or Body Cultivation, they share a commonality: both can be further subdivided.
For instance, in Spell Cultivation, practicing different Meditation Methods results in different forms of mental strength. Practicing different spells leads to different branches, such as Psychics, Evocation Mages, Summoning Mages, Occultists, and so on.
The same applies to Body Cultivation. Different philosophies and different Body Cultivation Methods lead down different paths.
Take, for example, the Rangers' training methods used by the elves, the Qi and Blood combat methods of the orcs, or the Voodoo Symbiotic Immunity methods used by wizards—which even grant a degree of immunity to toxins.
Even witches have the Passive Witchification Body Cultivation Method. Their effects emphasize different areas to varying degrees, but all these Body Cultivation paths exist to achieve a specific purpose.
And the means used to achieve those purposes are incredibly diverse.
This confirmed my theory. The practice of the Ritual War Dance body art back then had been an inspiration; body arts are essentially the most cost-effective method, but they are not the only method.
The elven training method is, in essence, a form of training body art.
The orcs' Qi and Blood method also requires the coordination of body arts and constant instinctive combat, along with a strict requirement for "blood food"—which is essentially a primitive form of potions or supplements, often consisting of raw flesh and blood.
The wizards' methods are even more extreme; body arts are relegated to a mere auxiliary role. The concoction and symbiosis of voodoo are the primary means of forcibly influencing the physical body and interfering with the essence of life. The wizards' method of using wisdom to leverage the transcendent is equally reflected in the field of Body Cultivation.
As for witches... witches have changed the very model of Body Cultivation. They have completely abandoned body arts in favor of using Mana Sources to fundamentally alter the essence of life. It is a subtle, gradual process with zero extra consumption. Although the price is a mediocre body-tempering effect, anything with zero cost is a net gain.
Because I understood the witches' approach to Body Cultivation, I knew that without the interference of a body art model or other means, the Mana Source Body Cultivation Method would just be another way of walking the old path of "Witchification Body Cultivation." It would be impossible to lower the threshold for achieving Self-Generated Mana to a level below the Transcendent.
Unless I wrote the architecture of Self-Generated Mana into the Mana Source Body Cultivation Method and expressed it through body art training.
And did I succeed?
I managed it, barely.
I have now mastered nine branches of the Body Cultivation Secret Classic and completed Rune Resonance. This pace was a bit faster than I had anticipated.
Of course, this was inseparable from the guidance of the Body Cultivation Witch sisters around me.
The Body Cultivation Secret Classic is a very famous set of body arts. At least, almost all the Body Cultivation Witches present had practiced it. I wouldn't say they had mastered every single part, but they would at least choose the branches they were talented in for study and reference.
Under their tutelage and my own exploration, I progressed rapidly. With them as witnesses, I completed the resonance of nine types of Body Cultivation Runes.
This truly opened the eyes of many witch sisters. After all, Body Cultivation Runes aren't something you can form just because you want to.
I can only say that I mastered the method of learning body arts—plus, I had a "cheat."
The Body Cultivation Runes from the nine branch systems, plus the Ritual War Dance rune, have given me a preliminary, deeper understanding of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation.
This understanding was also attached to my Totem, acting almost like a symbiosis. It allowed the architecture of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation and Self-Generated Mana to be displayed clearly in my observations for the first time.
However, this understanding of Self-Generated Mana originated from the Totem, meaning it was a form of comprehension that couldn't be directly articulated.
I needed another way to transcribe this cognition. Whether through runes or ritual architectures, these were clearly concrete cognitions and knowledge, yet expressing them relied heavily on the "metaphysical."
Fortunately, I had long ago prepared a vessel to carry this inexpressible knowledge.
The Mana Source Body Cultivation Method.
It is a cultivation method inherently linked to "Self-Generated Mana." With the Mana Source acting as a bearing node, it can be transformed into a ritual. Furthermore, because the Mana Source is connected to the physical body, it can act directly on the physique and indirectly influence the essence of life.
As long as I used the Mana Source as the ritual architecture to complete the prototype of Self-Generated Mana, then practicing the Mana Source Body Cultivation Method would "subtly and gradually" architect Self-Generated Mana into one's own life essence.
Yes... logically speaking, this would be the perfect result.
I had recognized the prototype architecture of Self-Generated Mana and utilized it. The Mana Source Body Cultivation Method had, as I predicted, become the medium for remodeling the essence of life.
Now, all that remained was to conduct clinical trials to see if theoretical success could be replicated in reality.
But... this wasn't quite what I had envisioned. If it went this way... those who eventually obtained the Self-Generated Mana physique talent by practicing the Mana Source Body Cultivation Method would still be ignorant of the underlying principles. They would only know that doing this would result in that constitution.
But that was a minor issue.
At least... as the one who created it, I knew exactly why it worked.
But this wasn't enough—far from enough. Did I seek to understand Self-Generated Mana just to know how to bring it into existence?
Knowledge must be converted into practical benefits to be considered mastered and utilized.
Simply "understanding" it was useless.
That was why I had asked Sister Bai to find me research projects on Mana and Mana Sources.
I needed to figure out many questions now. For instance... where does mana come from?
There seems to be almost no naturally occurring mana in the natural environment. There is a trace of mana in the atmosphere of the Witch Academy, but that is just the involuntary dissipation from the many witches within the school. Outside the academy, including in the Expansion Realms, "natural mana" has never existed.
Even in the various transcendent crystal mines formed by the energy collapse of Transcendent Origin Crystals in the Expansion Realms, not a single one is a naturally formed "Mana Crystal."
Another question: Mana is the highest energy level of transcendent energy known to be masterable by life, and it is an energy exclusive to the witch race.
As for why... I don't know.
But I do know why mana is a power that only witches can master: because the unique nature of mana brings about a specific "Witchification."
Therefore, any life form affected by Witchification will eventually become a witch.
But... why would a simple energy bring about such a complex racial transformation?
This made me think of the Variant Beasts in the Expansion Realms.
The starting point for a witch is the Transcendent level. Before reaching that level, any life form harmed by mana will be "Witchified." Can this transformation be viewed as a type of mutation?
And Witchification is a consistently stable "mutation"—or rather, there is a specific guidance within it, namely the guidance of the "Witchification Body Cultivation system."
So... could it be that mana isn't a standard transcendent energy found in the natural environment, but rather a power born from practicing a specific transcendent path?
Much like the Qi and Blood of an orc's Body Cultivation.
But... if mana is a Body Cultivation power, why can it be used to cast spells?
And how did it develop into the witch race's magnificent system of magic?
Must I explain it away with the saying "nothing is impossible in the Transcendent"?
At least with my current shallow understanding, that's the only conclusion I can draw.
But I still have the research materials Sister Bai gave me.
Mana, Mana Sources... these were similar to what I had heard from Dean Mei.
The earliest members of the witch race had not yet mastered Mana Sources, so their bodies were the storage vessels for mana. This resulted in witches tainting everywhere they went with mana, bringing about disasters. It was during that era that witches became associated with calamities and misfortune.
Back then, when mana came into contact with other life forms, it also seemed to trigger "Witchification." However, it was much more primitive then. Rather than calling it Witchification, it was more like a mutation. From this, it seems "Witchification" is a conceptual definition created by those who came later.
Those life forms tainted and mutated by mana who lacked the potential to ascend to the Transcendent level were destined to become monsters rather than witches. Thus, these mutated monsters were given names like "Magic Beasts" or "Demonic Creatures."
The primary purpose of the earliest Mana Research Projects was to teach witches how to master and utilize mana.
The records also describe how the earliest Witch Meditation Methods were born around that time. However, the Witch Meditation Methods of that era were just ordinary meditation techniques. The Primal Witches had not yet possessed the power to sever and anchor the Primitive Dream Realm to refine it into the Primitive Dream Realm.
Regrettably, the data in the Mana Research Project didn't seem to provide more explicit details. How mana is actually born—Self-Generated Mana—seemed to be a "racial talent" of witches. In that distant era, it hadn't yet broken through the subconscious perception to enter the witches' field of vision.
It seems that subsequent research into Self-Generated Mana only began after this talent was consciously recognized.
The development of Self-Generated Mana directly influenced the process of Witchification.
After all, the "Witchification" of the past resulted in "Magic Beasts" and "Demonic Creatures" that could not ascend to the Transcendent level.
Only after the Self-Generated Mana physique talent was studied did Witchification truly see the emergence of subjectively controlled "Converted Witches," rather than relying on the primitive methods of the past that were left to chance.
In the past, a witch might Witchify an entire race, turning them into monsters, just for the slim possibility of a single sister being born from such a massive base. And that was only a possibility; more often than not, they gained nothing.
That was the method early witches used to increase their numbers. After all, witches are all girls... there was no other way.
It wasn't until the birth of the Witch Breeding Project that the Witchification wars, fought to create more sisters, were finally halted.
And the birth of the Witch Breeding Project... rumor has it that it was related to the Abyssal Demons—specifically, the Abyssal Succubi.
Back then, the term for transcendent energy, the concept of "Mana," actually belonged to the Demon Race.
Later, "Mana" was officially updated to be the exclusive term for the power mastered by witches.
As for the reason... just guess where the "Succubus Witches" in the witch race came from, and you'll probably have your answer.
The Witch Breeding Project is also rumored to be related to the birth of the Succubus Witches.
I have to say, the research materials Sister Bai compiled for me are truly extensive. It feels like she practically moved the entire library of pre-historic witch literature over to me.
No wonder the data for a single project required the Great Knowledge Sharing Spell to compress and package...
But it must be said that within the witch race, every single research project has its own history of development—the winding paths the witches have walked.
Whether it's the Mana Project or the Mana Source Project, they all fall under the Great Witch Project. They are the foundation of the witch race, unshakeable and immovable.
The emergence of Mana Sources changed the way witches dominate, use, and constrain mana. Logically, the Mana Source Project should be a sub-project of the Mana sub-project under the Great Witch Project.
After all, it represents a further innovation and utilization of mana.
But strangely, the Mana Source Project and the Mana Project are both sub-projects of the same level under the Great Witch Project.
Thus, the importance of the Mana Source is no less than that of the pure Mana Project itself.
According to my understanding, aside from the fact that Mana Sources have essentially replaced the form in which mana exists, the primary reason is the nature of the Mana Source itself. It also perfected the model of Witchification and... gave that form of transformation another definition.
Namely, using Witchification to complete Body Cultivation—the Witchification Body Cultivation Method. This method is inextricably linked to the Mana Source.
Furthermore, the Witchification Body Cultivation Method further perfected the birth of the Self-Generated Mana constitution, allowing non-witch life forms that have been Witchified to become Transcendent Witches upon their advancement.
Otherwise, they would be unable to mold Self-Generated Mana, thus failing to ascend to the Transcendent level and turning into "Demonic Creatures" below that threshold.
Perhaps... in the eyes of a Transcendent Witch, a so-called "Provisional Witch" is just a "Demonic Creature" that still maintains a witch's aesthetic.
Because I obtained Self-Generated Mana ahead of time, it was equivalent to getting my pass to become a Transcendent Witch early. That's why I was granted the title of Honorary Little Witch.
So... this means that even if a Transcendent Witch falls from grace and becomes a Little Witch, their Self-Generated Mana physique talent doesn't disappear. The only difference in their ultimate outcome is whether they "can ascend to Transcendent again" or "cannot ascend again."
The Self-Generated Mana physique talent is related to the essence of life, but it doesn't have a huge correlation with the level of life.
I continued to sift through the project-related content, learning about the history and development of witches along the way.
At least for now, I hadn't seen the content I truly hoped for.
That is, the concept that the Self-Generated Mana physique talent is related to the rate of mana production.
If the efficiency of mana recovery is far higher than the level of explosive consumption, should the talent still be called "Self-Generated Mana"?
Perhaps it should be called the "Pseudo-Infinite Mana" physique talent.
Is this not the potential that the Self-Generated Mana physique talent can look forward to?