Chapter 826: Revisiting the Expansion Realm
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 826: Revisiting the Expansion Realm
Dean Mei’s words left me in deep thought for a long time. The Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art was indeed an excellent breakthrough point, but currently, I was mostly using it as a tool for deriving spells and techniques.
"Then... Sister Mei, can I ask one more question?" I spoke up again after a long silence.
"Of course, go ahead."
"What kind of existence is actually considered a life recognized by the Void? Is it soul quality? A soul? Consciousness? Or perhaps a race concept and species bloodline with a perfect, self-contained system? But those lower organisms lack mature wisdom, sound Five Senses, and don't even have emotional expression or memory retention. Yet, such creatures are still considered life... Why?"
I spoke a long string of questions in one breath, then turned my gaze toward Dean Mei, hoping she could provide the answer I sought.
However, after hearing my question, Dean Mei’s expression stiffened.
"I’m sorry, Xiao Han. I can’t give you a definitive answer to that question. While a large part of it is because I haven't delved into that specific field of knowledge, from what I know, no one has been able to truly define life yet."
"It’s not that life is an overly complex thing; rather, life is sometimes so simple it’s unbelievable. Even Life Interpretation only summarizes the essence and commonalities of life. Of course, this also involves the conflicts of interest, faith, and ideology between the various transcendent races within the Void."
"..."
I fell silent for a long time. Dean Mei’s answer only served to make me realize once again—creating a brand-new life was a completely open-ended question!
It wasn't about right or wrong, only about whether the answer was logically self-consistent.
Seeing me lost in thought, Mei Lind felt a bit embarrassed. I had asked several questions in a row, and she either didn't know or wasn't clear... it was truly a bit beneath her status as the Academy Dean.
The questions this little witch—who hadn't even ascended to the transcendent level yet—was exploring were already beyond her ability to answer. Although part of it was due to a difference in specialization, she was truly witnessing this young girl gradually walking a path that she herself could no longer fully comprehend.
"However, I can tell you another piece of information."
"What information?" I looked up abruptly, asking with some surprise.
"Do you know why I brought the Fool's Dream to the Main World in the first place?" Mei Lind asked.
"Uh... because Sister Mei wanted to be the Academy Dean in the Main World?"
Hearing my words, Mei Lind couldn't help but chuckle. This kind of off-the-wall answer occasionally hit a funny bone in an unexpected way.
"That was indeed one reason, but certainly not the one I was hoping you'd give." After her laugh, Mei Lind began to explain, "Actually, the primary reason is... the uniqueness of the Main World. It makes it easier for existences like the Fool's Dream to become true life, or rather, easier to gain the recognition of the Void."
"Easier to gain the recognition of the Void?"
"Yes. Have you looked into the situation of the Abyssal Great World? This was shared on the Tree of Great Knowledge, so I’ll assume you know."
"The reason those Abyssal Demons want to move into the Main World is to expand the Abyssal Great World's Cradle of Life Grand Market here. They want to use the Main World's characteristic of being more conducive to the birth of new life to alleviate the predicament of the Abyssal Great World, where no more Primal Progenitor races are being born. After all, the interests represented by a brand-new race are immense."
"So... why does the Main World have this characteristic?" I asked, curious.
As for the Abyss's maneuvers, that explanation only rationalized why they coveted the Main World so much; I wanted to know the underlying why.
"The Main World is a world situated upon the Void Ley Line Main Trunk. A world is a cradle for the birth of life. In other words, the connection between the Main World and the Void itself is extremely tight, so life nurtured by the Main World is more easily recognized by the Void."
"Then... is this life recognized by the Void, or by the world?" I was still a bit confused on that point.
"Is there a difference? It seems you still don't understand the meaning of the phrase 'a world is the cradle in which the Void nurtures life.' Is a world not a part of the Void itself?"
"So that's how it is?"
"Yes. Many things don't need to be overthought. Of course, this is just my understanding. As I said, I haven't researched this area much. If you find any loopholes in this theory, Xiao Han, feel free to correct me at any time."
"Mm, I will."
I nodded. Since Dean Mei was speaking to me like this, it meant she had high expectations for me.
After chatting with the Dean about a few more topics, I bid her farewell.
After all, this was just a formal report—a simple description of what I intended to do, what the potential consequences might be, as well as my remedial measures and emergency protocols for unexpected accidents.
The decision to conduct a life experiment involving Soul Depiction had happened somewhat suddenly.
I didn't head straight to the Expansion Realm immediately after leaving the office.
I planned to wait until the Dean had notified Ninglan Qiuyue and the others so they would be mentally prepared before I went over.
Before that, I also had to report to Sister Bai, otherwise she wouldn't even know where I’d gone.
Even Sister Bai was a bit surprised by this sudden experiment.
After all, I had been doing just fine with those life experiments in the dungeon worlds lately. To suddenly want to go to the Expansion Realm for an experiment—and one at a level that required reporting to the Dean—was indeed unexpected.
But... inspiration isn't something that comes around every day, and neither is the drive to act on it.
Once I developed an interest in something again, the driving force generated by that interest was terrifyingly powerful!
I was also gradually figuring myself out. If a matter was already settled—like the current Self-Generated Mana project—I would completely lose interest. A life experiment like Soul Depiction could perfectly stimulate my curiosity, but an overly desperate situation would also kill my motivation.
It was just like not long ago, when I realized I had oversimplified everything and the path was blocked; that sense of falling and the unexpected despair... it was truly miserable.
So, what could truly pique my interest were things I could do, things where I had a general idea but couldn't see the end result at a single glance.
It was like the concept of Infinite Mana. I knew it was possible; although I couldn't achieve it now, I was confident I could do it in the future.
This continuous stream of interest was my greatest driving force.
After saying goodbye to Sister Bai, I prepared to check on the Self-Generated Mana experiments before leaving the Witch Academy.
It was a project I had started myself, so naturally, I cared about it deeply.
However, I didn't go to them directly. Instead, I observed from the shadows, not wanting to disturb them.
Seeing that everything was going smoothly without any accidents—and even seeing more people complete the architecture for Self-Generated Mana—I felt very gratified and finally departed.
It looked like it wouldn't be long before the process for Self-Generated Mana was fully perfected.
That’s how techniques meant for widespread promotion were. Overcoming the key hurdles was the most exhausting part, but once it was boiled down to the specific techniques and methods each individual needed to complete, it would feel very simple.
It gave people the illusion of "I could do that too."
This wasn't a technique falling from grace; rather, this was exactly where its value lay.
"Yulan~ Yu Yun~ Yu Guo~ It’s time to go."
I gave a short call, and a spatial rift tore open in front of me.
Naturally, I wasn't going to take the official teleportation channel to the Expansion Realm; that was too much trouble.
Moreover, going through there would inevitably alert others to my arrival. Not to mention, that path was currently closed; opening it for a single trip would basically be telling everyone that I was using my privileges to go to the Expansion Realm.
That would be a bad look.
Therefore, my method of going to the Expansion Realm was to tear open a spatial channel myself using spells.
I had left plenty of teleportation spell markers in the Expansion Realm.
Just like unlocking teleportation anchors on a game map, I had left spatial markers in important main cities, shelters, sanctuaries, and significant landmark areas.
The area I arrived in now was one of the least populated regions.
It was the site of the largest spatial rift in the Expansion Realm, which corresponded to the Horaso Swamp in the Core World.
The rift had been constantly coated by World Origin Soil, one of the World Three Source Elements, which prevented it from healing.
And to this day, no one had bothered to deal with it.
Because it was far too dangerous, no one built cities or lived in this area.
Even the shelters I had established were built far away from here.
I also remembered there were variant beasts here that I had used Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art and Wisdom Granting on.
As soon as I appeared, I saw a pack of them.
However... they were scared off in the next instant.
After all, with a fireball dozens of meters wide gradually forming above my head, if they still dared to pounce, I would have to cull these brainless things.
Otherwise, I’d be embarrassed to say I’d ever granted them wisdom. If they couldn't even manage the simplest instinct of seeking benefit and avoiding harm, what use were they?
Once the massive fireball dissipated, it created a region enriched with fire elements. Fortunately, this entire area consisted of mountains made of World Origin Soil and abnormal spaces formed from various spatial materials, so it wouldn't trigger a forest fire or anything of the sort.
"Sister Xiao Han, where are we? The Expansion Realm?"
"Mm, this is a certain spot in the Expansion Realm. After all, the experiment we’re about to conduct isn't suitable for crowded places." I comforted the Fool's Dream who had come with me.
Though the move was a bit rushed, it was nothing to me.
It would be simple to establish a permanent base here to assist with my experiments.
As for a place to sleep?
That would be inside the dungeon world, of course~ I could never mistreat myself when it came to sleeping arrangements.
As for the experimental site, a harsher environment would serve to remind me that I was conducting a transcendent experiment.
So, after some simple preparations, we modified a giant boulder, cutting a smooth, flat surface to serve as our experimental platform.
The first thing we had to do was... verify the possibility of a dream-state soul.
Currently, the place where I stood was shrouded in a dream, but the dream's invasion of reality wasn't deep enough. So, I planned to unfold my domain to deepen the dream's encroachment on reality.
Because everything in the Primitive Dream Realm was void, only by anchoring it to reality and perfectly mapping the architecture of reality into the dream could my spells and techniques have any meaning within it.
Since I wanted to use the Soul Depiction technique within the dream to verify the possibility of dream creatures and the dream-state soul hypothesis, establishing a logically self-consistent system within the dream was vital.
And what system was completely devoid of loopholes and perfectly stable?
The framework of reality, of course!
As my domain gradually expanded, the surrounding dream began to deepen its "plundering" of information from the real world. This was the root of dream rewriting spells.
However, I didn't need that method for now. Everything rewritten by a dream rewriting spell was meaningless; it was more like a projection of reality within a dream, which could be perfectly regular or completely chaotic.
The more a method could break order and rules, the more meaningless it became.
Establishing order within the dream was where meaning began.
With the help of dream magic, my consciousness entered the dream. Thanks to my practiced skill, my current state was one where my main body and the dream were in a state of consciousness synchronization.
If my soul entered the dream directly, my main body wouldn't be able to maintain the domain, so I had to adopt this method.
"Sister Xiao Han, do we need to enter the dream too?" Yulan pulled at the corner of my skirt and asked curiously.
"You girls... if you want to stay with me, you can come along. Mm... wait a moment." I took a blanket out of my storage equipment and spread it on the ground. "Lie down on this, otherwise the ground is too dirty."
Once I finished, the three Fool's Dream entered the dream. Their physical bodies in reality fell into something like an eternal slumber, retaining only the most primitive and basic bodily functions.
The Fool's Dream were long accustomed to this state; they could even use this method for dream delivery over long distances.
After all, the Primitive Dream Realm didn't care about the "concept of distance" like reality did.
Now, I was only missing one thing: a dream creature.
As long as I had a test subject, the experiment could begin.
As for how to attract a dream creature? In this Expansion Realm, there wasn't a single dream creature that couldn't be lured by a Soul Crystal!
With that thought, I took a sealed Soul Crystal out of the Book in the Box. Since the crystalline state of a Soul Crystal was unstable, only the seals of the Book in the Box could preserve it properly.
As soon as the Soul Crystal appeared, I quickly sensed an "abnormality" within the dream.
Knowing the Fool's Dream's ability for long-distance delivery within the dream, I knew exactly what this abnormality was.
It was the omen of dream creatures about to appear—they were delivering themselves to the location of this Soul Crystal.
"Looks like I’ll need to create a dream labyrinth specifically for capturing dream creatures..." I muttered to myself.
I couldn't afford to waste time manually hunting them.
Dream creatures were much slower at dream delivery than the Fool's Dream, so I was already brainstorming how to design a dead-end dream labyrinth to trap them.
Furthermore, this labyrinth needed to protect the bait Soul Crystal so they couldn't actually eat it, yet it had to keep it just within reach. If they couldn't sense a way to get it at all, the dream creatures could simply use delivery to escape the labyrinth's confinement.
If that happened, the dream labyrinth would be pointless.
While I was still designing, the figure of the first dream creature appeared!
"Hehe~ the first little glutton has arrived... Be a good girl and become my experimental material!"