Chapter 788: Go Find Dean Mei to Understand the Situation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 788: Go Find Dean Mei to Understand the Situation
"This time... is it another gathering?"
Looking at the invitation, even I was a bit surprised.
April’s father didn't hold a low position within the Hawthorne family; he was even one of the lineage leaders. In the family meetings where major decisions were made, he was a man who held a representative seat.
However, following the recent string of muddle-headed decisions made by many within the family, dissenting voices had begun to emerge. April’s father was one of the more controversial figures among them.
Yet, hindered by his past methods, many still didn't dare to act rashly against him.
Internal discord is often a sign that a family is falling into turmoil. The patriarch of the Hawthorne family was also suffering from a massive headache because of this, but he didn't have many solutions.
He could feel himself becoming duller, and for that reason, his private doctor monitored his physical condition constantly. However, everything appeared normal; aside from a few minor ailments, nothing was wrong with him.
The transcendent items he carried showed no reaction either, so he wasn't under a curse.
As a family that followed Wizards, they were quite familiar with a Wizard's methods—toxins, curses, and all sorts of bizarre tricks were common, but Wizards favored curses above all else.
This particular gathering was organized by a Wizard Tower Lord from the Wizard Academy, acting on the will of a Great Wizard to bring people together to discuss matters.
Furthermore, the invitees weren't just the families following the Wizards; other families were coming along as well!
The primary purpose of this gathering was to begin the preliminary assembly of the [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments.
Any family holding a fragment was required to attend and express their family's will.
The Hawthorne family had originally held the Ice Sealed World, but... it was gone now.
The Hawthorne family had always viewed the Ice Sealed World fragment as a hot potato. Since the last gathering's proposal to win over some families from the Witch Academy, they had taken the initiative to involve themselves in the matter.
Coupled with the fact that they had a scion who had entered the Witch Academy, they had hastily executed the plan to kill Tan Han—both to set their pieces on the board and to squeeze the last bit of value out of that child within the Transcendent Academy.
Once Tan Han was killed, the largest [Transcendent Knowledge] fragment she held would become ownerless.
At that point, the Staff of Absolute Cold and the Ice Sealed World held by April would change hands.
No matter whose hands they fell into, it would be better than them staying with Tan Han. After all, they had targeted Tan Han so relentlessly that they had clearly exhausted all other options before resorting to such underhanded means. This was, after all, a plan involving human lives.
If a reckoning eventually came, a whole group of people would be implicated.
After all, just one break ago, they had used similar methods against that teaching assistant named Yang Yuehan, which ended up dragging far too many people down with them.
Fortunately, in the end, the Transcendent Academy had been forced to bear the brunt of the Witch Academy's fury. Their family had escaped by the skin of their teeth, though they ultimately lost a large number of teaching assistants they had supported within the school.
It was precisely because of the Witch Academy's actions that the families representing other Transcendent Academies took the opportunity to win over the families surrounding the Witch Academy.
Subsequently, plan after plan was born.
After a break's worth of respite, many people had begun to forget the pain and were preparing to strike again.
But no one expected that April, the core of the plan, would actually fail! Not only did the assassination fail, she hadn't even been able to beat her opponent in a fight!
For a moment, this nearly turned the Hawthorne family into a laughingstock.
The only saving grace was that April hadn't revealed her intent to assassinate Tan Han, preventing the situation from escalating further.
Back then, when April was accidentally "abducted" into the Witch Academy, the family had supported her development there, intending for her to be a nail driven into the Witch Academy by the Hawthorne family. But no one expected that at this final, critical juncture, April would drop the ball so spectacularly!
This was also one of the reasons the family looked upon April with such disfavor; she had brought shame upon them.
The Hawthorne family had to attend this gathering to take responsibility for the matter—after all, they had also lost the Ice Sealed World.
Although they suspected the Ice Sealed World was still within the Witch Academy, no one would admit to taking it.
This gathering also signaled that their plan was entering its next phase.
The fragments of [Transcendent Knowledge] were basically all accounted for; currently, only one Heart of the Cold Wave was missing. However, the missing Heart of the Cold Wave had been "stolen," which meant someone was definitely holding onto it, waiting for the final moment to hold out for a higher price.
In the end, it was just a matter of profit.
What they needed to do was piece together the complete [Transcendent Knowledge].
They weren't doing this because they thought it was fun, nor because they believed they could master transcendent power through [Transcendent Knowledge]; they were simply following the will of the academies behind them.
They were being made to collect these [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments.
The relationship between families and academies wasn't always as distant as it was with the Witch Academy.
The Witch Academy didn't give a damn about those families, but other Transcendent Academies would, to a certain extent, respond to the families' voices and even provide protection—as long as they were willing to risk their lives for the academy.
As for what these collected fragments were actually for, many within the families were actually quite unclear.
"It seems the family members know precious little... they don't even know why they're collecting these fragments," I said, discussing the issue with Sister Bai.
"Mhm. And according to them, it seems Players are also among those invited this time. Do you think... this [Transcendent Knowledge] might eventually be given to those Players?" Sister Bai offered her own hypothesis.
"Ha~ how could that be pos—wait!" I was about to reflexively disagree when a possibility suddenly struck me.
The Transcendent Academies might have established a connection with the Players. I had learned from Dean Mei that the minor issues currently appearing in the Game World were basically confirmed to be the work of these Transcendent Academies, with the Wizard Academy likely being the mastermind.
If the Players knew the truth but still desired this [Transcendent Knowledge], it meant those Transcendent Academies were supporting the Players in obtaining it.
Plus, the intelligence my Player clone had gathered...
"It seems... it's not impossible! By the way, Sister Bai, do you know the current situation in the Game World?" I asked curiously.
"The situation in the Game World?" Sister Bai was a bit taken aback by my question. "Although I haven't been involved in that matter, I've chatted about it during gossip sessions with the other sisters. I only know the general gist—that the Game World's void coordinates were leaked, a group from outside the Main World has invaded that world, and... they've even obscured the world's real-time coordinates."
"Eh?! Sister Bai, you can learn that much just from your usual gossip?" I was shocked. That short summary was almost identical to what Dean Mei had told me!
"That's just how it is between witches~ we talk about everything. Once you pool the information, you get a pretty complete picture," Sister Bai said casually. "But does that have anything to do with the question we just mentioned?"
"Of course it does! Those people who established communication with the Game World must be related to the Transcendent Academies above the Main World! Maybe they want to use this [Transcendent Knowledge] from the Main World to trade with that world for something they want~"
"Trade for something they want? Then why don't they just snatch—oh, I see. The Game World is nominally already under the Witch Academy, so they don't dare to snatch it openly. But they can use another method to make the other party give it up voluntarily."
"Something like that... but this is all just our speculation. How about... we just go find Dean Mei and ask? I don't want to keep guessing like this..."
"Go bother the Dean now? But these people here..."
"The place they're going is obscured by that False World Space Great Witchcraft. If we enter through anything other than the normal channels, we'll definitely be discovered. So, I plan to send my Player clone over to see if she can sneak in. After all, they're welcoming Player representatives." I briefly explained my reasoning.
The family members were extremely cautious. For such a large-scale secret meeting, they had even used the False World Space Great Witchcraft to prevent information leaks at the level of Ley Line Data. As expected, the Wizard Academy must be the mastermind behind all of this!
"Is that so? Alright then. Since you're going to see the Dean, I'll go with you."
"Hehe~ I knew Sister Bai was the best... I just hope Dean Mei won't get angry because I'm coming to her with such trivial matters..."
In the past, I would just guess about many things, right or wrong, because I felt that someone at my level wasn't qualified to know the truth. So, I would passively wait for the Dean to explain the reasons to me.
But I'm different now. The change in my status has also changed my perception, letting me know that if I want to know the truth, Dean Mei won't refuse to tell me.
Actually... looking at it from my current perspective, if the old me had been bold enough to ask... I think Dean Mei might have been honest with me then, too.
There wasn't much of a reason for it; it was just intuition.
"Don't worry~ how could Dean Mei be angry with you over something like this, Xiao Han?" Sister Bai comforted me from the side. "You probably still don't realize your own value and worth, do you? Dean Mei would practically like to put you on a pedestal right now, you know?"
"It's not that exaggerated, is it?"
"Oh, it really is~ otherwise, why would the Dean have made such a huge fuss that time you were attacked?"
"Eh? Wasn't that because she wanted to set a trap for those Transcendent Academies?"
"Really? But in the end, the Dean even gave you that most precious world fragment and even helped refine it into a Dungeon World."
"Um... I guess that's true..."
"So feel free to ask. I'm here with you. If the Dean thinks it's something suitable for you to know, she won't hesitate to tell you." After all, she had witnessed firsthand that Dean Mei was quite the blabbermouth, though Bai Yu didn't say that part out loud.
It didn't take long. After leaving several teleportation marks around Monopeng City, we returned directly to the Witch Academy.
After a brief contact with the Dean to say we had something to discuss, we arrived at her office.
However, upon entering, I found that many witches had gathered there.
And they were all busy with one thing: the Qi Observation Art alchemy instrument that had long been established there.
From the look of it, they seemed to be performing a large-scale modification and reconstruction!
"Oh my~ look who's here~ the person who can solve the problem arrives just when we hit a snag~"
The witch sisters busy with the Qi Observation instrument immediately beamed with smiles when they saw me.
"That's enough, you lot! Honestly, Xiao Han is here to see me about something. What are you all getting so excited for?" Dean Mei walked over and spoke to them.
"Well~ they say this Qi Observation Art was Xiao Han's handiwork. If Xiao Han joins in, maybe our progress could be even faster~"
"Uh... Sister Mei... what's going on here?" I looked at Dean Mei as she approached, still a bit unclear about what was happening.
It couldn't be that the Qi Observation instrument was broken, could it?
"Oh~ we're doing an iterative upgrade on the Qi Observation instrument. We've run into some minor trouble. If they can't get it right soon, I'm going to kick them out. I'm constantly being interrupted while I'm trying to work in my office." Dean Mei quickly explained.
"An iterative upgrade?"
Although the Qi Observation Art was something I had created on a whim, my understanding of it was very thorough. I had even participated in the initial calibration of the instrument, though it had gradually faded from my focus afterward.
But the Dean and the others often found new ways to play with it—for instance, when they used the instrument as a world-positioning observation tool for World Repair Techniques.
"Have you discovered some new use for it again?"
"I suppose you could say that, but it's a bit complicated to explain." Dean Mei nodded in admission. "Let's talk about your business first. You contacted me saying you had some questions. What could it be that made Xiao Han come all this way to ask me in person?"
"Um... it's not really a huge problem, actually... it's just... about the Game World."
"The Game World..." Hearing this topic, Dean Mei's brow furrowed. "Xiao Han, you really are still very curious about this... alright then..."
Dean Mei then glanced at Bai Yu. She didn't say anything more, but her meaning was clear: she could tell the truth, but Bai Yu had to make sure nothing happened to Xiao Han. "Since Xiao Han wants to know, then ask. If I know the answer, I'll tell you."
"Mhm. Then I'll ask." Seeing that Dean Mei had agreed so easily, I went ahead and asked boldly, "Sister Mei, you said before that the Game World's void coordinates were hidden. Have they been found yet?"
"Not yet," Dean Mei responded bluntly.
"Then the mastermind behind this should be the Wizard Academy, right? Or have all the other Transcendent Academies joined in?"
"They're all involved, with the Wizard Academy leading the way." Dean Mei was quite certain about this point.
"Then I have one more question. That Great Spellbook originally called the Great Glacial Throne Technique was shattered into [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments. Are they currently using those fragments to conduct some kind of trade with the people from the Game World?"
As soon as I finished my question, the Dean's office suddenly fell silent.
"Xiao Han, where did you learn that the predecessor of that [Transcendent Knowledge] was the Great Glacial Throne Technique?" Dean Mei's voice rang out again, but this time, her response wasn't an answer, but another question.