Chapter 863: Shi Ruizhi’s Post-Discharge Daily Life
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 863: Shi Ruizhi’s Post-Discharge Daily Life
“The physical exam reports are all out. Looking at the data, there haven't been any major changes, so you’re cleared for discharge. I’ve already handled the registration for you,” Moon said, handing over a report.
“We just register and then we can leave?” Shi Ruizhi took the report instinctively, surprised by the convenience.
“This is the Witch Academy’s infirmary, after all~ If your injuries weren't so unique, Senior Sister, even someone heavily wounded would just need a standard healing spell package before walking out on their own. They can even hit you with a Resurrection Spell if you die. What kind of troublesome paperwork could an infirmary possibly have?”
“The infirmary… I almost forgot this was an infirmary…” Images flickered in Shi Ruizhi’s mind.
They seemed to be memories of her past school days. Before entering a Transcendent Academy, the infirmaries in those schools were mostly just for show. If you actually got sick, you’d contact your parents to take you to a hospital. What sane person would get seriously injured at school and stay hospitalized in the infirmary?
However, the unique nature of the Witch Academy had indeed created such a distinctive environment.
Shi Ruizhi left the infirmary and stood at the entrance, suddenly feeling a bit lost.
“What… should I do next?”
“How about going home first? Which is to say, your dorm—or rather, the student villa. Maybe your roommates are still there!” Moon suggested.
“Then… where is my dorm?”
“Hmm… you can check your personal information through your phone or your Knowledge Seed.”
“Where is my phone? And… what is a Knowledge Seed?” Shi Ruizhi asked. She felt like she should know, but she really couldn't recall.
“Your phone is probably in your storage equipment; you can look through your personal belongings for it. As for the Knowledge Seed… it’s that tree in your head. It’s already sprouted from a seed into a tree. Let me teach you how to operate it.”
After a session of tutoring from Moon, Shi Ruizhi quickly got the hang of it. It felt like a skill she had grown rusty with but could perform through muscle memory once she started.
As she continued to interact with familiar things, she felt her memories gradually "reviving." This filled her with hope for her unknown life ahead.
This was a form of self-expansion through anchored memory.
Even people without amnesia occasionally feel this—the sensation of doing something for the first time, yet having a strange illusion in their mind that they’ve done it before.
Memory… truly is a miraculous thing.
After Moon taught her how to use the Knowledge Seed and her storage equipment, Shi Ruizhi found many items in her storage gear, including but not limited to a phone, a flying license, and a broom…
Shi Ruizhi was shocked to learn that the broom was a flight tool, but she quickly accepted the concept. After all, a witch with a broom was a standard stereotype in the Main World. Moreover, the moment she gripped the broom, her body instinctively settled into a flying posture.
With just a bit of trial and error, Shi Ruizhi regained her flying skills. It had to be said that the gold standard of this flying license was truly high; even with amnesia, she hadn't "returned" the knowledge to her coach.
“Next, you can use the Knowledge Seed for navigation. Open the navigation vision, and it’ll be like playing a game—various prompts will appear in your field of view. Even if you’ve forgotten all the theoretical knowledge for your flying license, it will remind you what to do in any situation.”
“Ah? Oh…” Shi Ruizhi found all of this very novel, like a child who had just mastered flight.
However, her behavior was a mix of eagerness and instinctive restraint.
After all, she had already stepped into her identity as a ninth-year Senior Sister. She was nearly thirty, so she couldn't bring herself to make any reckless attempts.
Thus, she could only fly back at a steady, law-abiding speed.
On the way back, however, Shi Ruizhi still had many questions that needed answering.
“Moon, I wanted to ask, what exactly was that experiment that put me in a coma?”
“It was a small-scale promotion test for Self-Generated Mana.”
“What is Self-Generated Mana?”
“It’s a very special physical talent…”
Moon gave Shi Ruizhi a detailed explanation, reinforcing concepts like spellbooks and mana sources along the way before finally introducing Self-Generated Mana.
“So, Senior Sister, you are now a powerful quasi-witch with Self-Generated Mana~”
“I have it too? Wait, didn't I fail the experiment?” Shi Ruizhi asked, confused.
“Well, technically you did fail at first. But immediately after the failure, a mentor sent you to the infirmary. The Academy Dean and Teaching Assistant Xiao Han also arrived right away.”
“After stabilizing your condition, Sister Xiao Han helped complete the subsequent experimental procedures, structuring your Self-Generated Mana for you. If you want to continue, I can help you complete the perfecting ritual so you can fully master the Self-Generated Mana physical talent.”
“That way, you’ll have a much faster mana recovery rate than other students! If you master the mana source condensation technique later, you could even have a limit of over ten thousand mana sources!”
“So… in a way, I’ve gained a blessing in disguise? Even though I lost my memory for it… Sigh…” Shi Ruizhi said with a touch of lament.
“Don’t sigh, Senior Sister. While these things are hard to avoid, this means you have a better foundation than anyone else!”
“I guess that’s one way to comfort myself…” Shi Ruizhi wasn't particularly happy hearing that, but then something occurred to her. “Wait, something seems a bit off!”
“Did you think of something else, Senior Sister?” Moon asked.
“What exactly happened to me during the experiment? Earlier at the infirmary entrance, you said a healing spell fixes heavy injuries and resurrection brings back the dead… So what happened to me? It can’t be that… my situation was worse than death? How is that possible?”
“It is possible~ Your situation was complicated. Your Life Essence was damaged. Injuries to the Life Essence cannot be repaired even by a Resurrection Spell, because that’s damage at the soul essence level, not the physical level.”
“Is… is that so?”
“Yes, that’s a rough way to put it. It’s precisely because your Life Essence was damaged that you lost your memory.”
“Then that experiment is way too dangerous! One mistake and it damages your Life Essence? If the Life Essence is extinguished, does that mean even a Resurrection Spell can’t bring you back?” Thinking of this, Shi Ruizhi instinctively shuddered.
“Yes.”
“Hiss… How terrifying. Were there others in that experiment who… oh no, I remember… I was the only casualty?” Shi Ruizhi recalled the conversation at the infirmary, which immediately made her feel like her luck was truly abysmal!
“Yes, I’m truly sorry. We will definitely find out the cause. Although I’m not very clear on the current progress, I heard the failure might have been caused by external factors… After all, the Academy Dean said it herself, so there might be concrete evidence. Senior Sister, could it be some enemy of yours trying to sabotage you?”
“Huh? My enemy? Sabotaging me?” Shi Ruizhi’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Ah, no, no… that’s just my guess! Please don’t take it to heart! Anyway… regardless, since the accident happened at the experimental site, Sister Xiao Han will definitely take full responsibility!”
“Phew… you scared me. I thought that was actually the case,” Shi Ruizhi said with a bit of hyperbole, but her exaggerated tone hid her true emotions.
She had lost her memory, not her mind. Her brain was working quite fast; from the moment she woke up and started gathering information, it was obvious there was something fishy about this.
Could it be… she really had a rival at the academy who wanted her dead?
Whether it was being the only one out of a hundred participants to have an issue, or this so-called damage to her essence—it all felt like a dream.
But she still knew too little.
If this really was a conspiracy she knew nothing about, could she truly return to a peaceful daily life?
Using the Knowledge Seed Moon had taught her, she connected to the Academy Network. She flew slowly, partly for safety and partly because she was distracted, browsing posts online.
After all, if she was involved in an experimental accident, there should be reports on the internet, right?
As soon as she opened the forum, she saw that the trending topics on the front page were still dominated by discussions regarding Self-Generated Mana.
And she was the sole victim of this experiment.
“Taboo Methods… Illegal Experiment…”
Looking at those clickbait titles, Shi Ruizhi realized the situation was even more complicated than she had imagined.
The comments below were a battlefield of two opposing sides, to the point where she didn't know who to believe.
It was a joke… as the only victim, she didn't even know who was telling the truth.
Time passed quickly. Between flying and browsing, Shi Ruizhi drifted through the sky and finally arrived at her destination under the guidance of the navigation vision.
“This is it, right?” Shi Ruizhi asked, somewhat uncertain.
“Personal registration info usually doesn't go wrong. Try your room card, Senior Sister; if it opens, you’ll know for sure~” Moon said.
“True.” Shi Ruizhi nodded, pulled the room card from her storage equipment, and gave it a light swipe. The door to the dorm villa clicked open.
“It’s open…” Shi Ruizhi felt a sense of familiarity. She held the card between two fingers and pushed the door open with one hand.
Upon entering, she saw a slightly messy pile of shoes in the entryway. The air was filled with a scent unique to girls—a mix of cosmetics and perfume.
The smell was a bit overwhelming for the newly returned Shi Ruizhi; even the infirmary didn't smell this strong.
However… her body seemed to adapt to the scent faster than her mind did. When she reached the living room…
“Hmm… why are you back so soon? You… uh… AHHHHHH!”
A girl had been lying lazily on the sofa, scrolling through the Academy Network with her Knowledge Seed. She had been browsing various posts, occasionally clicking on some “interesting” links, and then—flushed, satisfied, and acting as if nothing happened—scrolling to the next one.
But upon seeing Shi Ruizhi, the girl froze for a second before letting out a terrified scream!
“Shi… Shi Ruizhi! You! You, you, you! Why are you back?!”
“Why can’t I be back?” Shi Ruizhi spoke hesitantly.
The girl before her looked familiar. In all likelihood, she was her roommate.
But at this moment, she felt like the other girl was a bit unhinged.
* * *
After temporarily settling the matter of Shi Ruizhi waking up, I returned to my laboratory.
This lab was a special one granted to me by Dean Mei. It was also in the Experimental Zone, but in a very specific location.
While the equipment here wasn't top-of-the-line, its resistance to experimental accidents was the highest, and it even featured a "one-key restart" function for the worst-case scenarios.
Regarding this… no witch felt I was unworthy of such a lab.
After all, just thinking about the Dreamscape Calamity that had engulfed more than half of the worlds in the Expansion Realm—and knowing I was the trigger for it—was enough to show just how high my capacity for causing trouble was!
Currently, the news that I was the primary cause of the Dreamscape Calamity hadn't spread yet—or rather, it was being suppressed. Most Transcendent Witches only knew I was the "fuse" for this disaster.
Actually, saying that wasn't wrong. It was just that I wasn't just the fuse; I was the powder keg itself… they just hadn't told the whole story.
As for the original lab researching Self-Generated Mana, it had been shut down along with the experiments at the training grounds.
The Dean had the witches take over the lab completely. Even now, there was no sign of the experimental progress resuming.
However… just because Yi Rui and her team couldn't continue the research didn't mean there weren't other ways.
The accident in the Self-Generated Mana experiment couldn't stop the Dean’s determination to promote it.
Naturally, backup plans were needed to ensure that Self-Generated Mana could be accepted in another form.
Since this technique was intended for quasi-witches, the witches had to take the students' perceptions into account for once.
So, the final decision was for Transcendent Mentors to take over the project. They would claim to have further perfected the technique based on the existing foundation.
They would guarantee that no more problems would occur and then continue the promotion.
This backup plan was a method to be used if the fallout from the accident couldn't be calmed down.
In essence, it wasn't a big deal.
But… if they actually promoted it this way, it would be equivalent to completely erasing all the hard work of Yi Rui and her team, handing all the glory to those mentors.
In the end, the girls would have to take the fall.
This was an outcome no one wanted to see. From a macro perspective, the Main World, as the "birthplace" of this technique, would command the glory associated with it. Even if the Witch race’s records wouldn't be distorted by such things, the surface-level glory and benefits wouldn't go to the true creators at all.
However, Dean Mei also stated that if it really came to that… she would represent the Academy and the Truth, providing us with corresponding benefits as compensation.
I didn't care much for glory, but I felt Yi Rui and the others really needed it.
As the Self-Generated Mana experiment was taken over by mentors, Yi Rui and her team became the "guides" for the technique, helping the witches quickly familiarize themselves with it.
After all, their experience of participating in the entire experimental process and their massive amount of practical data were the most precious things.
And so, Yi Rui and the others experienced the joy of "subverting the natural order"—the joy of teaching assistants and students instructing Transcendent Mentors in a technique.