Chapter 77: Spirit Vision and the Innate Spirit Visionary
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 77: Spirit Vision and the Innate Spirit Visionary
In the end, I could only watch as Sister Bai hurried away.
Only the identity card in my hand served as proof that she had even been here.
She left so fast... what could possibly be so urgent?
I looked down at the card, deciding I might as well give it a try. Even though I didn't know the first thing about the procedures, everything in life required a bit of courage to attempt.
* * *
Meanwhile, Bai Yu, who had departed in such a rush, wore an expression of mingled worry and irritation.
Just yesterday, she had been contacted out of the blue by a teacher named Xi Lan. Bai Yu had never had any dealings with her before, but the woman had reached out specifically to talk.
Teachers within the academy were all at the level of Transcendent Witches, so Bai Yu naturally took the invitation very seriously.
However, after speaking with her for a while, Bai Yu realized that Teacher Xi Lan was far more interested in the girl she had brought along—Xiao Han—than in Bai Yu herself.
The teacher candidly admitted that she had spent the last few days calling students the academy was keeping a close eye on. Combined with what Xiao Han had said about being specially recruited by the Admissions Office, it was clear that this teacher was the one who had brought Xiao Han into the academy.
Naturally, Bai Yu wanted to know why Xiao Han was being watched so closely—so closely that the academy had even bypassed the College Entrance Exam scores to recruit her.
She didn't deny that the olive branch extended by the Witch Academy was the best possible path for Xiao Han’s future development, but at the time, she hadn't known if Xiao Han would be resistant to the idea of becoming a witch.
She had assumed the teacher wouldn't divulge the details, so she hadn't pressed too hard.
But Teacher Xi Lan had been remarkably blunt about the reason.
It was because Xiao Han was on the priority recruitment list of the Lesser Demon Academy. Upon investigation, they discovered and confirmed that Xiao Han was an "Innate Spirit Visionary."
Bai Yu had never understood why a mere Lesser Demon Academy would be taken so seriously by the Witch Academy—to the point of going through the trouble of investigating their recruitment list. It was just a school that had cropped up recently; it wasn't fit to lace the Witch Academy's boots.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that she had never imagined Xiao Han was an Innate Spirit Visionary.
She had heard the term before, but her knowledge was limited to a few famous research papers.
For instance... research and countless practical cases had proven that being an Innate Spirit Visionary wasn't some powerful talent. It was an incurable, terminal condition.
No one could explain to a newborn—a life with "zero cognition of the world"—what the "normal" world was versus the "inner world" seen through Spirit Vision.
From the moment they were born, they lived in a different world than everyone else.
They were born psychiatric patients, pitiable souls incapable of adapting to the current world.
But Bai Yu knew Xiao Han was different!
Xiao Han had indeed shown symptoms similar to Innate Spirit Vision in the past; she had even been committed to a mental hospital as a child. But Xiao Han had recovered.
Now, she was no different from a normal person. She was a bit withdrawn and had no friends, but that was just a lingering side effect of her past life.
She had truly changed a lot lately. Witchification seemed to have provided Xiao Han with a fresh start, making her willing to try being more outgoing.
Bai Yu had explained all of this to the teacher. Although she hadn't seen Xiao Han during her "episodes," she had heard Xiao Han talk about them, and she wanted to refute the teacher's perspective.
After all... there had never been a case of an Innate Spirit Visionary recovering later in life. They didn't even have the possibility of stepping onto the Transcendent path on their own, so how could they use Transcendent power to correct their perception?
Even the cognitive correction provided by Witchification required a baseline of cognition to work with. A madman was, in the end, a madman.
But no matter how much Bai Yu argued, she knew she was just trying to convince herself. There was one piece of evidence she could never get past: she had seen the level of Xiao Han’s Spirit Vision data with her own eyes.
That was not a level of Spirit Vision an ordinary person who had never touched Transcendent power should possess. It seemed the only explanation was Innate Spirit Vision.
At the current stage, Spirit Vision was divided into six levels: Foresight, Imaging, Unknowable, Threshold of Madness, Floating World, and Real World.
When an ordinary person awakened Spirit Vision, it was usually at the initial "Foresight" level. Their gaze would occasionally pierce the boundary between the surface and inner worlds, seeing things invisible to the normal world. These sights were often just incomplete phantoms, and unless they made a conscious effort to remember, the memory would fade quickly, much like a dream.
Some said this phenomenon was a self-defense mechanism—a slow process to allow humans to adapt to Spirit Vision.
But Xiao Han’s Spirit Vision level was "Floating World"!
What did that even mean?
The teacher sitting across from her had personally admitted that her own Spirit Vision was only at the "Unknowable" level. Even as a Transcendent Witch, she spoke of the "Threshold of Madness" with visible dread.
The Threshold of Madness wasn't a gradual process like the other five levels; it was a literal hurdle. If you cleared it, you reached the next level, "Floating World." If you didn't, you became exactly what the name implied: "Mad."
And this wasn't madness in the sense of common insanity or mental illness. There was no cure for it. Just like Innate Spirit Visionaries, there had never been a single recorded case of recovery.
It was a massive risk. Many students in the academy stopped actively pursuing higher Spirit Vision levels once they became Transcendent Witches. No one wanted to work hard to graduate only to lose their mind because they chased a higher level of vision.
Bai Yu knew this well. The data recorded by Xiao Han’s Ley Line wouldn't be wrong. Because of this, the teacher had even reported the matter to the high-level Deans of the academy, and the final verdict was that the data was accurate.
Xiao Han was, without a doubt, an Innate Spirit Visionary. She was likely the only case of a recovered Innate Spirit Visionary ever discovered.
The potential she held was even more terrifying than the top student of this year’s freshman class—but that was only in terms of potential.
As for what the academy would do to Xiao Han, Bai Yu was still worried, but Teacher Xi Lan had given her a guarantee.
If anyone dared to lay a finger on Xiao Han over this, they would likely be swarmed by every teacher in the academy. This was the first case ever recorded in history; her significance was extraordinary. She was the proof of "something from nothing." A living Xiao Han was far more valuable for research than a cold experimental subject.
So, for the time being, Xiao Han’s situation was relatively safe. That wasn't what was making Bai Yu angry.
The root of her frustration was the conflict sparked by the Lesser Demon Academy losing such a unique Innate Spirit Visionary.
The teacher hadn't explained the high-level power plays to Bai Yu, only mentioning them in passing. The current result was that because Bai Yu had "intercepted" the recruitment, she had ended up at odds with the Lesser Demon Academy. Consequently, the matter was being categorized as a conflict between students.
Even if Bai Yu hadn't intercepted her, the academy would have responded eventually. After all, Xiao Han was a student who had been officially issued an admission letter by the Witch Academy.
This matter would inevitably lead to a "result"—a clash between the Witch Academy and the Lesser Demon Academy.
At first, Bai Yu hadn't processed it. Such a conflict seemed ridiculous, like a third-rate diploma mill trying to pick a fight with a world-class university. Yet, after the high-level negotiations and power plays, the academy had declared this a conflict between student groups that should not be escalated to the institutional level.
But through the teacher’s eyes and the hints in her tone, Bai Yu thought of a possibility. It was only after the teacher mentioned it that she recalled the circumstances of that time.
That was something that had happened a while ago.
Back then, she had stumbled upon a confusing truth. She hadn't even understood what it meant at the time and hadn't taken it seriously.
But afterward, the academy had tracked her down and forced her to sign a confidentiality contract.
It was only then that she realized this world was far from simple, and that certain information was forbidden from being spread.
Back then, she had only seen a few terms she didn't understand.
Thinking back now, it was chilling. "World Script Theory," "Child of Destiny"...
Bai Yu swallowed hard as these thoughts surfaced. She still remembered the final words the teacher had said to her.
"Actually, there’s a reason I sought you out. It’s not just because you’re involved in this incident, but also because of the truth you accidentally touched back then. I don't know what you think of it, but I hope you can cooperate. If you do, I will explain the contents of that truth to you—provided you sign another confidentiality contract."
"Consider it... for the sake of that Xiao Han you mentioned. I can see you care about her. Think of this as a reassurance. She is merely a peripheral figure in this event. Once she lights the fuse, she should exit the stage. You just need to play your role well."
It was a blatant hint. The teacher knew that Bai Yu knew, but Bai Yu couldn't speak of it. Even if the person in front of her was a teacher, the rules remained the same.