Chapter 748: The Prototype of the Mana Source Body Cultivation Method
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 748: The Prototype of the Mana Source Body Cultivation Method
Currently, based on the information gathered by my Player clone, these Players generally have specific missions when they invade a world.
Take that small world, Planet of Sin, for example. Their Main Quest was to find a specific piece of [Transcendent Knowledge], which they referred to as a "Tech Core." The Main Quest is always the top priority; actions like "conquering the world" or "instigating world wars" are merely Side Quests.
In the Main World, they are currently in a state without a Main Quest. This means they have no long-term objectives, only short-term ones—such as integrating into families to gather data.
What they truly want is to uncover the truth behind the Transcendent Academies. The reason they didn't harvest Luck during the recent College Entrance Examination was primarily due to a lack of a leader to coordinate the effort. Consequently, they shifted their strategy to replacing new students and infiltrating the Transcendent Academies instead.
I don't know the situation in other Transcendent Academies, but at the Witch Academy, the enrollment process is almost entirely overseen by my clones. I have already covertly dealt with several batches of freshmen who were actually Players.
And those were just the students who were "scouted" early. Furthermore, those Players have no way of confirming exactly who is eligible for early recruitment into the academy. As a result, a higher concentration of Players ended up among the students who proactively applied for early admission.
Naturally, I reported this to Mentor Barnier immediately. I thought she might have a grand plan—perhaps suggesting I hold off on the secret purges to lure them into a larger trap.
However, Mentor Barnier’s instructions were simple: deal with them directly and leave no traces. I have reason to suspect that she intentionally left my clone here specifically to guard the academy gates.
This also signifies that the Witch Academy has no interest in playing cat-and-mouse with these infiltrators. It is a policy of immediate execution as a warning.
While to the other students it appears I am simply processing paperwork, within the Players' information channels, this "kill on sight" policy serves as a clear warning—killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. Otherwise, once the official school year begins and the tide of new students arrives, it would be far too troublesome to root out the Players mixed into the crowd.
One could say my actions have been very effective at deterring Players from infiltrating the Witch Academy. At the very least, the intel my Player clone picked up was full of warnings advising others to stay away from the place. Consequently, during the latter half of the break, the once-rampant Players almost entirely vanished from the academy's vicinity.
However, there was another matter I couldn't ignore.
That was the attitude of other Transcendent Academies toward the Players. While I didn't know the specifics, they certainly weren't being as strict. My Player clone hadn't even received any warnings against entering those institutions.
If ordinary, non-transcendent students couldn't identify Players, that would be reasonable. But for mentors to fail to recognize them? That was absurd. Therefore, to some extent, it was practically a given that the other Transcendent Academies shared some sort of connection with that Game World.
Strangely, my Player clone was never able to ascertain the exact nature of that relationship. Combining this with the information Dean Mei had shared, it was highly likely a collaborative agreement. However, it seemed that Players without sufficient status were kept in the dark about such alliances.
After all, once those transcendents made contact with the Game World, the most efficient route would be to deal directly with that world's upper echelons. Information regarding such high-level cooperation would certainly not be released to the bottom-tier Players, as it could disrupt social order.
This highlighted the awkward position of my clone. The intelligence she gathered, aside from satisfying a bit of curiosity, offered little of substance.
* * *
"Xiao Han~ We’re here!"
The partially open door of the Body Cultivation hall was pushed wide. A figure stepped in tentatively, followed by several other girls.
"You're finally here. Over here." Hearing that familiar voice, I stood up immediately, pushing aside my thoughts regarding the clone's intel.
Perhaps because there were several mentors present, Yi Rui and the others seemed a bit unnatural after entering. They were even somewhat stiff when greeting the mentors, despite being quite relaxed around people like Mentor Belica. I suppose they weren't very familiar with these Body Cultivation Witches.
Personally, I found these mentors quite easy to talk to once you got to know them; they possessed a certain purity unique to practitioners of Body Cultivation.
"Oh? Are these the companions you mentioned, Xiao Han? They don't seem to have much of a foundation in Body Cultivation," one of the mentors remarked.
Yi Rui and the others had only just begun their Basic Body Cultivation, so naturally, there weren't many obvious physical changes yet.
"They only recently started, but that doesn't matter. Don't underestimate them; they are the founders of the Mana Source Body Cultivation method," I quickly explained. Yi Rui and the others had put a tremendous amount of effort into this project.
And today, I was going to attempt a much more complex iteration.
After the initial greetings and pleasantries, I didn't waste any more time. Everyone here preferred a direct approach. The explosive initiative and execution characteristic of Body Cultivation practitioners wasn't just talk.
"Then let's get straight to it. We'll begin with the basic framework of our Mana Source Body Cultivation method," I said, looking at the group. "We'll start from the fundamentals. You should all be able to sense the location of your Mana Sources by now, right?"
"Of course. They're inside our bodies. What do you need us to do?"
"Good." I nodded without offering too much correction. The primary location of a Mana Source is essentially atop the Ley Line Shackles. While the Ley Line Shackles are an abstract concept, they are very much real.
Back then, I used my spellbook and Mana Source to trace my own Ley Lines, exploring the River of Ley Lines and identifying Ley Line Data, which allowed me to perceive the data of the Ley Line Shackles within my own frame.
Thus, I knew clearly that the Ley Line Shackles are a concept that permeates every minute detail of the physical body. It only creates the illusion that the Mana Source is carried upon the flesh. But it is precisely because the relationship between the Ley Line Shackles and the body is so intimate that the Mana Source can establish a connection with the physical form under the effects of the Mana-Reconstruction Rebirth Spell.
"Now, feel the Mana Sources within you. They should be resonating, right?"
"Oh? So that's the method? If they can't bear the Mana Sources themselves, learning the Mana Source Body Cultivation method will be extremely difficult," a mentor watching from the side commented. One could tell just from her words that she had identified the crux of the problem.
"It can't be helped; they are only Prospective Witches. But they have relied on their own wisdom and practice to overcome that hurdle," I replied.
Although I had told the Body Cultivation Witch sisters that my method was suitable for Prospective Witch students, these sisters were Transcendent Witches themselves. They could bear Mana Sources naturally, so they couldn't truly empathize with the sheer amount of effort and the number of obstacles these students had to overcome to learn this way.
"I know, you mentioned that to us, Xiao Han. I remember you saying you want to obtain the Self-Generated Mana talent ahead of time, right? But I don't believe practicing a Body Cultivation method can grant a fundamental Witch ability like that," another mentor remarked, basing her judgment on experience.
"That's why we're still experimenting~"
I didn't argue with her. She wasn't an expert in this specific field, didn't know the process, and didn't understand the principles. Arguing was pointless. Instead, I just went along with her words to avoid unnecessary conflict.
"True enough~ Well, I wish you success." The mentor shook her head, and though she didn't fully understand, she still offered her blessing.
In their eyes, a Witch's experiments usually involved a lot of commotion. To achieve the impossible—like allowing a Prospective Witch to gain the Self-Generated Mana talent, which defied common sense—the initial "noise" of the experiment should be as loud as possible. They didn't think one could succeed simply by quietly practicing a Body Cultivation method.
Ending the small talk with the mentors, I turned my attention back to Yi Rui and the others. I then used the Tree of Great Knowledge to share a Mana Source Positioning Framework with them—essentially a ritual diagram arranged with Mana Sources as nodes.
"Can you follow this? Basically, you need to use your Resonance method to form this 3D ritual framework."
"This... is a bit complex," Yi Rui admitted.
Using their Resonance method to form such a complex ritual structure without a single error, all while using their own bodies as the carrier... it was incredibly difficult.
"But it can be done, right?"
"Yes, definitely," Yi Rui nodded firmly, though she clearly had questions. "However, I have a few things I'd like to ask."
"Go ahead," I said. It was only natural for them to have questions. If they didn't, I would actually be worried about something going wrong.
"These nodes... they clearly exceed the number of Mana Sources we currently have in resonance..."
"Oh, this is just a rough prototype of the ritual diagram. The number of Mana Sources you have is definitely not enough. But I've added extra notes; I've assigned a 'weight' to each ritual node. You should prioritize them according to those weights based on your individual situations. It's fine if you don't have enough; just take it slow. We can't possibly complete such a massive ritual structure in one go."
"So it's just a starting prototype?" Yi Rui confirmed.
"Yes. I can't even guarantee it will succeed yet. I need constant experimentation to make finer adjustments. Are you disappointed?"
"How could we be disappointed?" Yi Rui shook her head. "We know exactly what we're doing. If you had told me from the start that this was the finished success, I would have suspected you were lying to me."
"I'm glad you understand. Then, let's work hard together." I smiled at them, looking expectant.
In truth, I had already tested this Mana Source Body Cultivation method on myself. I couldn't guarantee much else, but I knew it wasn't particularly dangerous—at least, it was safer than when I was researching the incubation rebirth spells.
Unfortunately, I already possessed Self-Generated Mana. The Mana Source ritual framework only produced a strong resonance with my innate talent; it couldn't prove that it could actually create that ability in someone who lacked it.
Constructing a precise ritual within one's own body, using Mana Sources to form runes and arranging them into ritual patterns, was a tedious process. Since they couldn't bear the Mana Sources directly, they had to rely on their Resonance method to make constant adjustments.
It took them a long time just to arrange their hundred Mana Sources into the framework.
But time was the one thing I had in abundance.
Being able to settle down and patiently work on something brought a great sense of accomplishment. In the past, my successes came quickly and efficiently, but now I found that the joy and fulfillment derived from a success that took a long time to achieve was incomparable to anything I had experienced before.
"How does it feel?" I asked Yi Rui, who was the first to finish.
I then glanced at the others, who were slightly slower. "The rest of you, don't rush. Take your time. If you hurry too much, I might not be able to guide you all individually if you run into trouble. It's better to spend that extra time polishing the details of the ritual framework now than to rush and have to fix it later."
After advising them to ease the pressure on themselves, I returned my focus to Yi Rui. Her speed hadn't exceeded my expectations; she wasn't just the representative and leader of this group—she had the talent and ability to back it up.
Once she finished, she had many questions for me. Even if she hadn't asked, I would have explained. Since they were willing to join this "grand plan" of mine so selflessly, I had no intention of hiding anything from them, even if some of the concepts might be beyond their current understanding.
I needed to collect data from this experiment, using Yi Rui and the others' feedback to make continuous adjustments. As I gathered this data, Yi Rui asked other questions that revealed her underlying concerns.
"Xiao Han, like you said, there's a corresponding set of Body Arts exercises later. I assume those are meant to facilitate the operation of the ritual while using the body as a carrier?"
"Close enough. You can think of it that way, but it's not the whole story," I replied.
"I suppose. At this stage, the gap between us has truly widened. I've realized I'm starting to lose track of what you're trying to do. Even though I've heard you say many times that this is about building a framework for Self-Generated Mana... I know that's just a general concept, not the specific method."
"So... what's wrong? Feeling a sense of frustration?"
"No. Admitting the gap between oneself and others is also a form of courage. What I actually wanted to ask is... how many Mana Sources are required to form a complete Self-Generated Mana framework?"
"The fact that you're asking that shows you have a deep understanding of the concept," I said with a smile. "But unfortunately, I can't give you a definitive answer."
"Meaning you can't confirm if the nodes in this framework exceed ten thousand?"
"Correct."
"Then... do you have a solution?"
"I do."
"No wonder you're so calm. You've even thought that far ahead? You truly deserve your reputation as a genius, Xiao Han."
"Alright, let's move past the praise. We need to enter the phase of iterative adjustments now." I shook my head, feeling almost indifferent to Yi Rui's compliments.
To be honest, once praise satisfies a certain level of vanity, the rest just becomes noise. I don't particularly enjoy being complimented. Viewed rationally, it is either a form of approval from a superior to an inferior, or flattery from an inferior to a superior—but at its core, it is a form of emotional domination.
I never liked it much in the past, though I wasn't sure why. Now that I have my Sixth Sense: Heart Sense, that feeling has only intensified, and I instinctively recoil from it.
Even though I knew her praise was heartfelt, unreserved, and devoid of malice, objectively, it still influenced me. This was an instinct left over from my past way of perceiving the world—a conditioned reflex that told me whenever someone praised me, they were about to ask for a favor.
As they say, the shadows of the past require a lifetime to heal. That isn't a joke; it's a curse that manifests in every aspect of life.
And now, I am slowly smoothing over those wounds in my own way.