Chapter 895: Overlapping Concepts—Life Evolution
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 895: Overlapping Concepts—Life Evolution
Several days had passed since Long and the other two witches left the laboratory.
The theoretical information they had obtained wasn't actually difficult; the real challenge lay in integrating that understanding with practical application.
During this time, they contacted me frequently through the Great Knowledge Seed to ask about specific details, and I responded to each inquiry with great care.
I truly have high expectations for them.
After all... I have to admit, in terms of raw talent, they far surpass Sister Bai.
Of the three witches, two possess Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, though it’s a pity their application of it is still quite superficial.
I’ll grant that I can't compete with them in terms of pure Body Cultivation power, but when it comes to the development and expansion of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, they can't hold a candle to me.
As for the other one, the Dragon Witch... the Dragon bloodline is a comprehensive and powerful one. Long might seem a bit slow at times, but that’s just her blunt personality, not a lack of intelligence. Otherwise, how could she have spontaneously awakened her Sixth Sense without having Self-Awakened Body Cultivation?
Therefore, their comprehension skills are definitely up to par.
However... it isn't quite time for them to begin the formal experiments yet.
* * *
Setting those three witches aside, the biggest stir in the academy these past few days has undoubtedly been the matter of the Glacial Throne Secret Realm.
Rumors have recently surfaced on the Academy Network claiming that the Glacial Throne Secret Realm is a scam.
Explorers who entered found that upon leaving, the fragments they carried remained trapped within the secret realm, impossible to bring out.
This immediately triggered a barrage of criticism from other transcendent academies, who viewed this as nothing short of highway robbery!
The Witch Secret Realm Club and the Jack-of-all-trades Club issued a joint response, claiming they were unaware of the issue.
According to their tests, fragments can pass through the secret realm's teleportation channels normally. It is only when someone attempts to forcibly break through the secret realm's space that the realm triggers a resonance of homologous power, causing the fragments to be left behind.
In response, the Witch Secret Realm Club even condemned the explorers who damaged the stability of the secret realm's space, stating that the reckless use of space-tearing abilities would irreversibly degrade the realm's stability...
It was clear this would turn into another one-sided shouting match. After all, the Academy Network is the home field of the Witch Academy.
Despite the constant condemnation on the network, many realized that this characteristic of the Glacial Throne Secret Realm only accelerated the pace of the bloody struggle.
The weak have no right to leave safely with their fragments.
In the end, there will only be one winner in this secret realm.
This was the outcome they all desired; all that mattered was who would be the one laughing last.
Originally, I didn't want to pay much attention to this conflict, but there was something involved that I cared about deeply, forcing me to turn my gaze toward it.
That was... the Great Glacial Throne Technique.
The current state of the Great Glacial Throne Technique isn't actually one of total fragmentation.
A total shattering would have turned it into a piece of [Transcendent Knowledge], much like my Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art, rather than fragments that still possessed formidable power.
It was as if functional components had been disassembled; even as individual fragments, they could still exert their former power.
Of course, none of that was the main point.
The real point was the secret history Dean Mei had shared with me regarding the Main World Consciousness and the Ancient Remnant Ice.
First, the Ancient Remnant Ice had once gone extinct on a void level, but the witches had resurrected the race within the Main World.
This process must have involved one crucial step: the Main World had to recognize the Ancient Remnant Ice as life belonging to the Main World.
Furthermore, the [Transcendent Knowledge] of the Great Glacial Throne Technique originally belonged to the Main World—it was a "native object" and a representative of its power.
Main World life plus Main World power.
The Ancient Remnant Ice clan, by dominating the Great Glacial Throne Technique, became the legitimate "orthodox" race of the Main World.
I was stunned when I first heard Dean Mei explain this!
I had originally thought the witches were merely using the Great Spellbook to locate the World Navel, but I hadn't realized they were attempting to subvert the orthodoxy of the Main World's Destined Race right then and there!
They intended to use the resulting world-vibration to locate the World Navel and weaken the control other transcendent academies held over it.
But clearly, that plan had failed.
Dean Mei didn't go into detail about how it failed.
The final result, however, was that the Ancient Remnant Ice clan became permanent mascots within that secret realm, and the same happened to the Great Glacial Throne Technique.
The birth of that Great Spellbook happened much earlier than I had anticipated.
After a long period of maneuvering and compromise, the Great Glacial Throne Technique was stripped from the Ancient Remnant Ice clan, and eventually, the Great Spellbook shattered.
That process dragged on for a very long time.
And now, the Great Spellbook is about to be reassembled.
At this moment, I finally understood that the Witch Academy isn't indifferent to the Glacial Throne Secret Realm incident. On the contrary... they care very much!
But the more they care, the less they can interfere personally.
This is a gamble. Restarting this secret realm is a major move, signifying that the witches want to use this opportunity to pull off their old trick once more.
Meanwhile, the other transcendent races want to use this chance to cast the Great Spellbook out of the Main World entirely, destroying the plan once and for all.
In the process, they might even be able to trade it for the most important thing in the game world: the Terminal of Myriad Worlds.
In the worst-case scenario—the destruction of the Main World—they could take this [Transcendent Knowledge] back to their own races and avoid a total loss.
After all, the Main World has been developed to the point where its only remaining value is its population resource of people with Spirit Vision and other incidental resources.
No matter how important the secondary significance of the Main World is, it must ultimately translate into benefits for their respective races.
Now that the witches have mastered World Repair Technique, if the other races cannot maintain a foothold and share the profits in the Main World, destroying it would be a long-term strategic victory for them.
Therefore... this struggle for the secret realm concerns the future direction of the Main World!
No one had realized this, myself included.
If the Witch Academy's side manages to secure all the fragments this time, the other races will be in an awkward position.
They will have to make a choice.
But they only have two options.
The first is to immediately use the World Navel they control to destroy the Main World. However, making such a decision requires immense resolve. Dean Mei even asserted that none of those transcendent academies have the courage or boldness to make that choice.
Don't forget, the Core World still has the Great Weakening Spell!
The World Navel isn't as convenient as a self-destruct button for the Main World, and they wouldn't have a chance to save themselves.
With the Great Weakening Spell in play, if they chose to destroy the Main World, all the transcendents here would be buried with it.
It would be a "burn the bridge" scenario where no one wins.
But in that process, what would those dead transcendents have gained?
They would have slowed down the future development of the Witch World for their races, and that’s it.
Most importantly, they would all be dead!
They aren't stupid; they know they have no real choice.
The second option is to wait and see, watching the Witch Academy's moves. If they can counter them, they can maintain the status quo for who knows how long. If they can't, they'll be forced back to option one for deterrence and confrontation.
And if someone from outside the Witch Academy wins the struggle for the secret realm...
Then they simply have one more path of retreat.
The current situation could still be maintained, and the witches' annoying tactics would be thoroughly stifled.
This is the game being played between the academy races as I understand it from my perspective.
Dean Mei told me before that the Main World script doesn't belong to anyone; anyone with the ability to interfere can turn it into whatever they like.
I see two interpretations of that statement.
The first is that for this situation, a variable like me needs to be introduced into the game. However, the fact that Dean Mei gave no specific instructions means I am free to act as I see fit.
This also shows the Witch Academy's casual attitude toward this particular gambit. After all, it's hard for the same trick to succeed twice, especially when it didn't even work the first time.
The Witch Academy knows the probability of success is slim, but they need to make things difficult for the opposition. After all... what if it actually works?
The second interpretation is... the Dean is hinting that I can use this grand momentum to complete some of my own concepts.
The driving force of a world's Luck is powerful and irrational. Within a world, the Main World is the logic!
And I... indeed have some concepts that require irrational means to complete.
For example... making the Main World recognize Fool's Dream as life!
Even if that fails, I must at least improve Yu Yun's condition of constantly falling into a slumber.
Regardless, contacting the Main World Consciousness is the fundamental step. If the first two goals can't be achieved, gaining a stable means of communicating with the world consciousness would still be a win, even if the channel is unstable... it would be better than nothing.
In short, I'll just keep my expectations low for now.
* * *
Inside the Primitive Dream Laboratory.
A special portion of soul essence was gradually being transformed into a pure soul through the technique of Soul Depiction.
But if that were all, it wouldn't be enough. Once it entered my body, my own soul essence couldn't actively absorb or accept this soul.
I needed another method to assist my self-acceptance of this soul to strengthen my own life level.
Over the past two days, I had carefully studied techniques for soul essence absorption, but those methods were built upon the characteristic of "like dissolves like" in soul essence.
This meant that the most primitive soul essence lifeforms would naturally find a way.
But a soul cannot do that. After all, a soul is a sublimation of soul essence, a metamorphosis of its nature. It defines a brand-new concept for life and provides a powerful foundation. Naturally, it cannot strengthen itself through those primitive methods.
It’s like a ball of clay; you can increase its size by adding more clay. But you can't increase a smartphone's performance by smashing another smartphone into it. What would that even be?
A tri-fold phone?
That’s just an analogy, but it describes how there are almost no shortcuts for a soul to strengthen itself; it can only be done slowly.
But... I don't believe that.
At the very least, Soul Depiction gave me the confidence to believe otherwise.
It gave me the possibility of a leap in my soul level.
Perhaps my thinking was wrong from the start. My focus shouldn't be on the fusion of two souls, but on the self-improvement of a single soul, forcing it to rapidly absorb nutrients to strengthen itself.
And this... happened to overlap with another one of my concepts.
Namely... Life Evolution.
This was originally a technique I intended to use to help Fool's Dream define its racial concept and carve out its bloodline information.
But looking at it from another angle, this is actually a means of actively interfering with and strengthening the essence of a soul!
Life... Evolution!
When I set my current self as the starting point and defined "Transcendent" as the template for evolution, the basic theory was already sound.
As for how to actually raise my life level in practice, I could borrow the "Witchification" template from the Mana Source.
After all, Witchification itself is a "technique" that imperceptibly strengthens one's life level.
The more I know, the more I marvel at things like the Mana Source and other Witch Truth Dedications, because they contain so many techniques worth learning.
Even I didn't expect that the "Life Evolution" technique, which hadn't made much progress with Yu Yun, would have a new breakthrough right now, on my own body!
At this moment, I could feel my life level boiling, constantly and hungrily devouring the nutrients brought by the soul.
The level of my soul essence began to rise at a visible rate...
But this was only the beginning!
As this technique gradually matures, the conversion rate of soul stones by my soul essence will also continue to increase.
I can already foresee what the scene will look like then!
While everyone else is counting me out, I will have already used this method to strengthen myself and reach Transcendent status directly!
At that time, how will those people look at me?
I'm sure it will be quite a sight.
However... this technique is still limited by many factors.
Such as the utilization and conversion rates of soul stones, and my own carrying and acceptance capacity.
More importantly, of course, is the adaptability and acceptance of my consciousness and cognition!
Ultimately, these problems can all be categorized as my own personal issues.
And I will overcome them one by one!
"Xiao Han, what's wrong with you?" A familiar voice suddenly sounded behind me.
"Sister Bai, why are you here?" I was startled. The lingering sensation from the soul level hadn't dissipated yet, making my body sway slightly.
"I came to see you after finishing my work, of course~ What just happened?" Regardless of what I said, Sister Bai stepped forward and pulled me into her arms.
"Ugh... I was trying out a technique to rapidly raise my soul level below the Transcendent stage," I told her honestly. There was no need to hide most things from her.
"Are you experimenting on yourself again?"
"Oh, it's fine~" I said quickly, not wanting her to worry. "See? I'm perfectly okay~"
"I'll be the judge of whether you're okay or not!" Sister Bai said, and then her hands suddenly became quite restless.
"Mmm, ah~ hey... stop! This was a soul-level experiment, yet you're always rubbing and touching me. You're just taking liberties, aren't you?"
"Well~ it looks like you're fine, Xiao Han." Seeing how energetic I was, Bai Yu withdrew her hands with a look of lingering desire. She knew, after all, that this was the laboratory.
But ever since Xiao Han had been staying in the lab, they hadn't had any intimate interaction for a long time.