Chapter 792: Ley Line Shackles are but Shackles of the Heart
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 792: Ley Line Shackles are but Shackles of the Heart
In the days following the conclusion of that meeting, the Hawthorne family’s fortunes took a sharp turn for the worse.
It was as if a curse were slowly coming to fruition.
April’s situation within the family was equally dire. Her only support came from her immediate branch. A "family" is such a vast concept that its sheer scale often dilutes the bonds of kinship. Her father was her sole pillar; as for the others... there was no such thing as "family affection" within the clan, save for the bond between parents and their direct offspring.
But even that final connection now seemed to be teetering on the brink of collapse.
Her father doubted her. He questioned whether she had been brainwashed by the Witch Academy and demanded to know if she had hidden the Ice Sealed World. In the end, she was subjected to interrogation after interrogation, forced to recount exactly what had happened over and over again.
The truth, however, was that she had absolutely no idea.
"Mom... I don't know... I don't know what's wrong with Dad... I really don't... I don't know how the Ice Sealed World just vanished..."
April was weeping bitterly. She knelt, burying her head in her mother’s lap. Her mother crouched down, gently stroking her hair; April still remembered how, when she was little, her mother loved nothing more than tidying her hair for her.
"There, there, little April... don't cry. This is definitely Father's fault. I'll go help you..." the woman said softly, reaching out to wipe away April’s tears.
Accompanied by these gentle hallucinations whispering in her ear, April remained kneeling by the bed. Her arms were actually wrapped around nothing but the quilt. Her falling tears were soaked up by the fabric, and a corner of the blanket rested lightly atop her head, as tender as a mother’s touch.
As the soft sobbing was gradually replaced by steady breathing, two figures standing in the corner of the quiet bedroom finally broke their silence.
"She’s a child severely starved for affection."
"Indeed. This world’s conditioning of girls is quite severe... even at this stage, she lacks even the thought of rebelling." I glanced at Sister Bai and offered my assessment.
Still... one cannot force such things upon others. I was gradually learning not to use myself as a yardstick for everyone else.
I, too, was someone who lacked love; the void within always demanded something else to fill it.
The "urge to rebel" born from a lack of love is merely a self-preservation mechanism. If one does not establish such a defense, they will eventually be consumed by their environment until the last shred of their self is squeezed dry.
Perhaps this reactive urge to rebel isn't inherently "good," but it allows one to maintain a final spark of identity within a toxic family.
I looked at April, who was now curled up by the bedside. This was the first time I had observed Ley Line Shackles so formally and intently.
When I first observed my own Ley Line Shackles, I had relied on my Floating World level Spirit Vision to trace them directly back to the source of the River of Ley Lines. Only after perceiving the connection between the "River of Ley Lines" and myself as an individual did I truly "see" the form of the Ley Line Shackles.
Before achieving that, I couldn't even comprehend what the shackles actually were.
But after observing the River of Ley Lines, I understood. They are everything that constitutes a person within this world—the things that govern matter and Soul Essence, the very mechanisms that keep everything running!
If being "alive" means being a product of the rules operating within a world, then one is powerless to survive once removed from that world’s cradle.
Transcendence, then, is a metamorphosis—a departure from that cradle. it is a state where a lifeform reaches a level of Real Time and takes personal command over its own vital functions.
Only then can a Transcendent lifeform truly claim to be an independent individual with autonomous cognition.
Back when I was severing my own Ley Line Shackles, Dean Mei told me that an individual's shackles can only be perceived by themselves. That was why she had been so shocked when I confessed to seeing the River of Ley Lines.
Now that my Floating World level Spirit Vision was familiar with the data of the River of Ley Lines and Ley Line Shackles, I could cross the boundary between self and other to observe the traces of shackles on someone else.
As I observed April’s Ley Line Shackles, a certain truth began to dawn on me.
"Ley Line Shackles" is, in the end, just a term. They don't seem to be shackles meant to imprison a person.
To use an analogy: everyone within the world is a movable puppet. This "movement" broadly refers to consciousness, cognition, behavior, communication, and all other actions of a living being.
The Ley Line Shackles are the strings that respond to the puppet and make it move, granting it the concept of "life."
The act of ascending to Transcendence is the process of gradually discarding the external force of those strings, gaining the power to move oneself by one's own will.
Once one becomes Transcendent, they no longer need to be swayed by the strings. It is a gradual transformation, but one cannot blame the strings that once gave them the ability to act as being "evil."
That is the reality of how the world works. Ley Line Shackles simply provide non-Transcendent life with the ability to survive.
However, that is only the ideal state.
In most cases, those strings become intertwined, tangled, and knotted around every joint of the puppet as a result of its various actions.
This is the true face of the Ley Line Shackles—a web that binds the puppet so tightly it cannot move, forcing it to repeat a few predetermined motions over and over. That is the essence of the "shackle."
Before ascending to Transcendence, these strings must be carefully straightened, untied, and peeled away to return to the original self. Only then can one calmly bid the strings farewell.
The manifestations of these strings are "filial piety," "romance," "family," and "friends." For some, they are internal "fear," "desire," "greed," or "inferiority."
If any concept that drives a person to act can be seen as a string, then how many strings does a single person carry?
They are beyond counting. Even the slightest movement can cause a string to wrap around the body.
Thus... there is a reason why pure, simple-minded people often live more happily.
But ultimately, the cause of all this is the world itself. This Main World is sick, and for now, at least, no one can cure her...
I observed the Ley Line Shackles on April, using the Tree of Great Knowledge to access her life history. By cross-referencing the two, I could generate a version of the shackles that I could understand.
Right now, April was incredibly fragile, like a puppet whose strings were snapping one by one.
If all her strings snapped before she ascended to Transcendence, she would become a discarded marionette—meaning she would subconsciously choose to enter the Soul Essence Cycle.
Upon these Ley Line Shackles, I saw many traces of the witch Chris.
April had been at the Witch Academy for ten years. In her fourth year, she chose Chris as her mentor. By her eighth year, she was capable of independent research and breaking through to Transcendence to study witch subjects, yet she chose to become Chris’s teaching assistant.
Their relationship had lasted for seven long years.
And that pure relationship had begun to lose its original direction around the fourth or fifth year—specifically, toward the end of April’s eighth grade.
At that time, Chris had deliberately tried to guide April into making a choice.
She could either follow the Academy’s arrangement to conduct her own witch research and ascend to a Transcendent Witch, or she could choose to remain by Chris’s side as a teaching assistant.
Under her family’s influence, April insisted on becoming a teaching assistant. After all, with that title, she would be among the elite tier of the Witch Academy!
The status she gained would further prove her value to her family.
If one were to remove the family’s influence, April’s personal ability was beyond reproach.
I was beginning to understand what Chris had told me back then. If I were Chris, I too would have been troubled by April’s request to be my assistant.
It was a conflict of wanting and not wanting.
April’s skills were perfect, and Chris was happy to have her as an assistant. But the thought that April only wanted the position because of her family’s "instructions" made it feel wrong.
So, Chris decided to take her on, hoping to use her own influence to guide and enlighten her. She had explained the concept of Ley Line Shackles without reservation, hoping to lead April to break free from them on her own.
It was precisely because of this that April—a girl poisoned by her family—had her inner fragility and "doubt" toward her family triggered by me in just a few short days.
Even after the competition ended and Chris took April back, Chris didn't immediately cast her out.
Instead, after April chose her family, Chris gave her one final chance.
Chris had hoped that April would wake up after that experience. April had woken up to an extent, but... in the end, she chose to give up her status as a teaching assistant.
Her inner inferiority and pain made her afraid to face her former mentor... or rather, she believed she was unworthy of being saved.
"Another case of... sigh..."
I was going to say it was another communication issue. If April could understand that her mentor, Chris, had been encouraging her all along, how could she fail to realize that there was someone in this world who actually cared for her?
But that was just my perspective as an onlooker. I understood the principle that the bystander sees clearly while the participant is blinded.
"Xiao Han, what do you plan to do next?"
"I’m going to have April break ties with the Hawthorne family." I pulled out a crystal that looked like a shard of ice, with strange patterns flowing within.
This was the [Transcendent Knowledge] fragment of the Ice Sealed World.
I walked over to April and silently tucked the fragment into her right hand. The chill emanating from it made her whole body shiver slightly.
But she soon sank back into her carefree dream, a faint smile appearing on her lips as she yearned for that illusory beauty.
"I wish you a pleasant dream."
This was perhaps my first sincere blessing for April.
Having said that, I returned to Sister Bai’s side.
"Are we leaving?"
"Yeah, let's go. It’s not right to disturb a girl’s sleep. Let her enjoy the last of her remaining beauty for a little while longer."
After I spoke to Sister Bai, our figures vanished. However, we didn't go far after leaving the bedroom.
* * *
"There now... Mommy has already given Daddy a good scolding for you. Next time something makes you unhappy, remember to tell Mommy, okay?"
"I will. Thank you, Mom..." April’s small hand gripped the larger hand of the person beside her, holding on tight as if she never wanted to let go.
"Why are you squeezing Mommy’s hand so hard? Little April is all grown up now; surely you aren't still trying to skip school?"
"School...?" April repeated the word.
"You can learn so many things at the Academy. Your mentor will teach you so much wisdom. Once you’ve learned it all and grown up, you’ll become a useful witch."
"A witch... oh... I will..."
April subconsciously ignored the word "witch," hearing it as if it were just a normal "grow up to be a useful person."
"We’re at the Academy now. Mommy can only take you this far. Little April, didn't you say you had a promise with Mentor Chris? Go on, now."
"Okay... Goodbye, Mom. You have to come pick me up after school... I don't want to wait at the gate for a long time..."
"I definitely will, little April. You’re the only important person in my life. How could I forget?"
"It’s a promise!" April reluctantly let go of her mother’s hand and turned to look at Mentor Chris, who was waiting for her at the school gate.
"Mommy’s going home now. After all, Mommy can't stay away from home for too long."
April walked toward Mentor Chris and instinctively looked back. She saw her mother walking down the road toward home. There stood a row of neat villas; from a distance, the houses looked like perfectly aligned tombstones.
Then, April’s attention was drawn away by Mentor Chris’s voice.
The mother, whom no one was watching, now stood peacefully before a vertical stone monument. She watched April, yet she was terrified that the girl might look back at that moment.
Dreams are absurd and illogical, yet they reflect the truths one wishes to see and those one refuses to face.
"Little April~ did you carry out the assignment I gave you yesterday?"
"I did!" April nodded happily.
"Really? Then tell me, how did you do it?"
"First, I went with Daddy to his workplace. Even though I didn't really like it there, I went anyway. Daddy was in a bad mood, so I comforted him... um..."
"And then?"
"Then I don't remember very well... something unpleasant must have happened, but Mommy scolded Daddy, and then Mommy took me somewhere fun to play... I ate lots of delicious things..."
"So, little April... do you like this kind of ordinary life?"
"I do!" April answered without a second thought. Though she didn't know why she liked it, she answered based on instinct.
Clearly, such a mundane life lacked excitement; she couldn't even summarize what she had actually done in her memories. Yet, the thought of such a life brought a sense of peace to her heart, as if her weary soul had found a moment of solace.
"Then, little April, would you use everything you have to defend such a life?"
"I... would... I think..."
April became uncertain, her tone wavering. She was still a child in school; she shouldn't have to understand such a heavy concept.
Defending one's life and all that...
"Little April... repeat after me. Answer this question with a firm voice: I will!"
"I will?"
"Louder! I will!"
"I will!" April shouted along, even though she didn't understand why she had to.