Chapter 804: A New Approach to Deriving Infinite Mana
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 804: A New Approach to Deriving Infinite Mana
Once the experiment for the Perfecting Ritual began, I viewed the self-generated mana within Tan Han’s body from a higher cognitive perspective. From this vantage point, it seemed incredibly crude.
Back when Tan Han first developed her self-generated mana, I couldn't even observe its existence directly; I had to rely on other means just to confirm that the talent had manifested. Now, its existence was no longer a secret to me.
As the new Perfecting Ritual was completed upon Tan Han’s life level, the self-generated mana within her began to refine itself at a rate that was almost "visible to the naked eye."
I wasn't particularly surprised by this. After all, I knew that using rituals to interfere with self-generated mana could push the upper limits of the refinement speed quite high. When I saw April nurture her self-generated mana from nothing to absolute completion in just a few short hours, I realized that if the technique for shaping self-generated mana matured, it could bridge that gap as quickly as a Transcendent advancement.
However, while the current stage of the Perfecting Ritual was a massive improvement over previous versions, it still didn't meet the expectations I had just envisioned. If Tan Han were to continue at this rate, it would take her at least a year or two to reach completion!
To anyone else, that wouldn't seem long. After all, a student’s tenure at the Witch Academy lasts ten years. Furthermore, this Perfecting Ritual didn't require much daily effort; for a fast learner, completing their self-generated mana in about a year would be considered a massive breakthrough.
But for me, a year or two was far too long. This efficiency couldn't even match my own! I didn't need a Perfecting Ritual; by using my Self-Awakened Body Cultivation as a structural foundation, the refinement happened naturally. The entire process didn't even take me a year.
If I was using external means to interfere and the efficiency still couldn't beat my own passive growth, it would be an embarrassment.
"I can feel the mana in my body... Is it increasing? Is it really this fast?" Tan Han reported her sensations in real-time.
"Mm, it means we've found the right method. Tan Han, your Luck is truly useful~" I said casually.
In truth, her Luck hadn't contributed anything here; the success was entirely due to my own understanding. However, offering her a bit of encouragement to make her feel like she was contributing gave her a sense of participation.
"Is that so?" Tan Han felt a bit surreal. Had her Luck truly reached such heaven-defying heights? First, the Structuring Ritual succeeded on the very first try, and now this was following the same pattern.
"Yes. Don't overthink it, though things going this smoothly is indeed a bit beyond my expectations. Tan Han, according to the plan, I should continue to refine the Perfecting Ritual to maximize its efficiency in completing your self-generated mana. But that would be a bit too boring. Do you want to join me in a brand-new experiment? I can't give you many guarantees, but if you die, I can resurrect you. Even in cases where a standard Resurrection Spell would fail, I am confident I can bring you back."
After all, the effects of the Transmigration Rebirth Spellbook were no joke. Combined with my Soul Depiction technique—though it wasn't yet perfect—I could achieve things ordinary people couldn't. For instance, if her soul quality dissipated, I could re-aggregate it shortly after death. I could even attempt to piece it back together if it shattered and merged into the Ley Line soul quality cycle.
Of course, my experiment wouldn't push Tan Han to such a lethal extreme. What I had said was merely the foundation of my confidence for these self-indulgent trials.
"A brand-new experiment..." Tan Han repeated my words. It seemed the "results of her Luck" had given her a great deal of confidence, as she quickly agreed. "Since you're the one suggesting it, Xiao Han, I trust you aren't joking with my life. I accept."
"Excellent~ A wise choice!" I said with a smile.
As for what I wanted Tan Han to cooperate with... it was naturally to help me explore the secrets of self-generated mana!
While Tan Han’s self-generated mana was still incomplete, I needed to collect the characteristics of the mana as it reached various stages of completion. This would help me verify if my concept of "Prototype Self-Generated Mana" was correct.
I hadn't forgotten my previous thoughts regarding the possibilities of "Prototype Self-Generated Mana" and its derivations; I simply hadn't had the opportunity. Now that Tan Han was willing to cooperate, I wasn't about to waste such a perfect chance.
Assuming the "Prototype" concept was true, this exploration might even spark inspiration for its derivation. It was just like the Fireball Spellbook back then; once I learned how to deconstruct it, the urge to modify it arose naturally.
It felt like returning to the past, when I first touched and deconstructed the Fireball Spellbook with Teacher Ji Niang’s help. Just reminiscing about that feeling made my interest soar!
However, the excited expression on my face looked very different to Tan Han. She suddenly felt a twinge of regret for agreeing so readily. My expression was exactly like that of a predator eyeing its prey!
Unfortunately, there is no medicine for regret in this world. I immediately began my preparations. Since I was recording stage-based characteristics, I had to adjust the information reception channels within the Tree of Great Knowledge.
* * *
At the Witch Academy.
After two days of fermentation, an event that had been overshadowed by the Arena Power Network Ladder Match and the Freshman Competition was being brought up again by many.
It was the confrontation match in the Arena between Tan Han and the Teaching Assistant named April.
Most people thought the matter was settled and that there would be no further developments, but things did not follow the established script. Soon, several explosive pieces of news began to circulate.
April, who had been stripped of her Teaching Assistant status by Mentor Chris, had actually ascended to Transcendent and returned to the Witch Academy. The Academy had even held a private graduation ceremony for her.
Since students didn't graduate at the same time, graduation ceremonies at the Witch Academy were held individually. Occasionally, if dates overlapped, they would be held jointly, but only the completion ceremony was a unified event. At the end of the last semester, before the new batch of students arrived, the Academy had sent off a group of seniors, but even their completion ceremony hadn't generated much buzz—it was treated like a mere formality.
Now, the rumors circulating on the Academy Network about April were the talk of the town.
While ascending to Transcendent wasn't exactly rare—someone at the Witch Academy reached that level every so often—April... or rather, the Witch April, was an incredibly hot topic!
First, April’s name had appeared on the Academy Network not long ago. Then, she had clashed with members of the Hawthorne family. Initially, the events in Monopeng City hadn't gained much traction at the Witch Academy since it wasn't within the Witch Territory. But once combined with April’s story, it instinctively triggered everyone’s passion for gossip.
Coupled with the intentional guidance of Millian and her Fan Club, the story spread like wildfire across the Academy Network. Consequently, many "insiders" and "eyewitnesses" appeared on the forums, gradually piecing together the "process and truth" of the entire affair.
First came the conspiracy theorists. They imagined that a Wizard family wanted to assassinate the Witch Academy’s genius student, Tan Han, to stifle the Academy’s Child of Destiny. They were actually half-right—though the Wizards were after the Staff of Absolute Cold in Tan Han’s hands, not her status as a Child of Destiny.
Then, Teaching Assistant Xiao Han stepped in to settle the matter and brought Mentor Chris along to expel Teaching Assistant April from the Academy.
Finally, Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, unable to stomach the Hawthorne family’s actions, personally went to Monopeng City and raised a storm of blood and fire there in just a few days. During this time, Xiao Han saw the humiliation April suffered within her family, turned her into a defector, guided her to ascend to Transcendent, and only returned to the Witch Academy after causing a massive scene in Monopeng City.
This was currently the most "normal" version on the Academy Network. There were many other "unofficial histories" that were purely meant to stir up trouble.
In just these two days, rumors of a scandal between the Witch April and the Witch Chris had even surfaced. Some students claimed they saw April confessing her love to Mentor Chris...
Other students, claiming to be April’s friends or besties, gave vivid descriptions of the gossip regarding April’s secret affection for her mentor during her student days...
These topics were enough to make the people involved explode with rage just by reading them. By the time the rumors reached their peak, almost everyone was talking about the gossip, while very few discussed the actual events. On the internet, almost everyone only wants to believe what they hope to see, rather than the truth.
Regardless, this surge of popularity gave the newly enrolled freshmen a bit of a "Witch Shock." It let them know that girls and girls could also...
Fortunately, April was set to leave the Main World in a couple of days to head for the vastness of the Void, so she wouldn't have to stay and be angered by the idiotic topics on the Academy Network.
* * *
Back in the laboratory.
After the initial collection of data and information, I used it as a basis to adjust the Perfecting Ritual once more.
I wasn't in a hurry to fix the ritual itself. Instead, I was using it as a tool to constantly probe the various characteristics of self-generated mana. All of this was to verify whether the concept of "Prototype Self-Generated Mana" was correct.
The answer was unexpectedly simple.
It was indeed a Prototype. It followed the same logic as Self-Awakened Body Cultivation.
Self-Awakened Body Cultivation was also a type of power prototype. It had given birth to so many things: Body Mastery, the Body Cultivation system, Five Senses Body Cultivation, and so on. If the root of the Self-Awakened Body Cultivation prototype was Body Mastery, then the external manifestation of self-generated mana was the birth of mana.
The derivation of Body Mastery, when applied to the physical form, became the strength-based Body Cultivation of body reinforcement. When applied to sensory channels, it became Five Senses Body Cultivation.
So, what could the characteristic of "birthing mana" derive?
It could derive the condensation technique for a special creation—the Mana Source condensation technique.
Transcendent Witches had used the Mana Source as a characteristic to develop the magic cultivation system unique to witches. Furthermore, they used the characteristics of the Mana Source to utilize Witchification, embarking on a dual-path of Body Cultivation. And I, by embodying the concept of spells, had used the Mana Source to fill the gaps in the field of Body Cultivation once again.
It was all a circle, eventually looping back to the start.
So, did the most fundamental self-generated mana of a witch... have no other derivative paths?
There certainly were. With the wisdom of a Truth Witch, it was definitely possible. The fact that such techniques hadn't spread meant they weren't suitable for mass dissemination. Or perhaps, they simply didn't want to share them. After all, who doesn't want to keep a trump card for themselves?
I understood this perfectly. I, too, wanted to keep a trump card.
The self-generated mana derivation of a Transcendent Witch was linked to the concept of the Witch race. The Mana Source born from this had a strong guiding effect on Witchification, making it far more efficient than simple mana-guided Witchification.
Up to this point, I hadn't seen any other use for self-generated mana at the Transcendent Witch level. Perhaps I just hadn't discovered it yet, but I hadn't observed any more data from the self-generated mana born within April; it was a concept that served only the Witch race.
But now, I had an inspiration regarding self-generated mana that had occurred to me before.
Infinite Mana.
If my thinking had previously been limited to constantly increasing mana recovery efficiency, that would ultimately only be a "pseudo-infinite mana." But from a derivative perspective, everything became clear.
Once self-generated mana approached completion, the recovery speed hit a ceiling. Therefore, my previous line of thought was entirely wrong; the recovery efficiency of Prototype Self-Generated Mana had its limits. Unless I found another way.
So... what things possessed truly infinite energy?
I could only think of one.
Void Rifts.
While theoretically, the energy of a Void Rift might not be infinite, compared to me as an individual, the great power of such a Void phenomenon was effectively infinite.
Since Transcendent Witches believed that linking self-generated mana to the Witch Race Concept could achieve their desired results, I could similarly believe that self-generated mana could be linked to Totems!
Although a Void Rift wasn't the power of the Totem itself, but rather a secondary characteristic of the Totem, that didn't mean it couldn't be utilized. Moreover, I knew of something else that utilized Void Rifts—the Great Spellbook.
Coincidentally, I possessed every single key node in this series of deductions!
Let’s organize this.
My Great Spellbook has a symbiotic relationship with the Body Cultivation domain. The Body Cultivation domain has an inseparable link with Self-Awakened Body Cultivation. And Totems are born from Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, self-generated mana, and the Witch Race Concept. Everything was connected.
All that remained was to see how I would operate and utilize it.
I had gathered all the derivative inspirations and crossed the threshold to realize them. How was this any different from having everything ready?
As for Tan Han... she had no idea what I had actually done, but I knew exactly what I had gained in the process. These were benefits beyond anyone’s imagination!
But for Tan Han... she only bore the risks.
Maybe I should find a time to compensate her, I thought to myself.