Chapter 958: The Main World is a Calm Powder Keg!
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 958: The Main World is a Calm Powder Keg!
Within the Witch Academy, following Ming Xueming’s departure, several major dramas began to unfold in quick succession.
The report filed by the Witch Secret Realm Club against the academy had yet to yield any results, a fact that left them both bewildered and increasingly apprehensive.
While the Glacial Throne Secret Realm still existed, the powerful Ancient Remnant Ice King within was stubbornly guarding its depths. The Witch Mentors refused to intervene proactively, and if transcendents from other academies tried to step in, they were met with stern warnings from the Witch Academy itself.
Ultimately, the Glacial Throne Secret Realm remained in a state of deadlock, causing the club members immense frustration.
More importantly, the attempt to hold Tan Han accountable—an effort coordinated with Nicola, the current President of the Jack-of-all-trades Club—had somehow fizzled out into nothing...
How could the Witch Secret Realm Club not be incensed?
To make matters worse, the Jack-of-all-trades Club had immediately turned around and established a partnership with that Yang Yuehan!
And who was Yang Yuehan?
She was the very enemy they were currently targeting!
Initially, they believed they could easily suppress someone who was merely a pro-Witch affiliate. They never expected her to counter by bringing Ming Xueming into the Expansion Realm.
The pro-Witch factions had utilized Ming Xueming—a discarded pawn who had been pushed off the board—to establish a bond of interest so significant that even the Jack-of-all-trades Club had to consider it carefully.
While they could logically understand this series of maneuvers, the fact remained that they were the ones being isolated!
This was unacceptable to them.
Just as embarrassed as the Witch Secret Realm Club was Nicola, the newly appointed President.
Due to procedural formalities, she was still in her "probationary period," but the decisions she had made since taking office and the performance she had delivered were proving to be a constant disappointment.
Furthermore, the lucrative ties to the Expansion Realm had nothing to do with her. She stood there like an incompetent figurehead, forced to endure the judgmental gazes of those around her.
Consequently, the Jack-of-all-trades Club eventually lost interest in "risking their lives" for the Glacial Throne Secret Realm, which didn't even belong to them in the first place.
Retracting their joint statement with the Witch Secret Realm Club regarding the pursuit of the "saboteur" was a clear signal.
The trade-offs of interest were just that simple and unadorned.
* * *
While these people were still fighting tooth and nail over these interests, my clone within the Glacial Throne Secret Realm was also frowning over the concept of "profit."
A massive throne sculpted from ice and snow stood deep within the snowy plains, and a gargantuan figure sat regally upon it.
This figure was none other than my Ancient Remnant Ice King clone!
At this moment, I was holding a strangely shaped ice crystal, scrutinizing it closely. After a short while, I crushed it in my hand.
The Glacial Throne Secret Realm was technically a secret realm, but the transcendent materials it produced were few and far between. After all, it wasn't a resource-rich realm designed for harvesting.
Even so, the permanent spell effects of the Great Glacial Throne Technique had, under extremely harsh conditions, given birth to some ice-elemental crystalline materials.
As for their value... that was hard to say.
Based on my current alchemy level—having not yet passed any certification exams—the value of these unique ice crystals was mediocre. At best, they were comparable to basic, universal substitute materials. Their only advantage was their affinity for the ice and snow element, which could be used in alchemy to fine-tune and neutralize volatile elemental conflicts.
With the power I currently possessed, I could already replicate the generation of this material.
But this wasn't what I wanted.
The reason I had this clone experiment with such things was partly because it truly had nothing better to do, and partly... because of an idea sparked by my spoils of war.
After I gave the loot from the game world to Millian, I told her that I had already taken what was useful, and that these resources were non-renewable.
Among those spoils, I had found a very special material.
Hexagonal Crystal Amber.
To use an analogy, its standard effect was the lossless conduction of specific transcendent energies—essentially, a super-powered superconducting material.
Regardless of any limitations, the value of such a material was bound to be high. Even if the academy already possessed mana-superconducting materials, having one more variety wouldn't hurt; it might even broaden the boundaries of application.
Though "Hexagonal Crystal Amber" sounded like a crystal or ore, it was actually a type of unmelting ice. It was a low-temperature crystalline body that maintained a constant internal temperature cycle even under broad-range ambient temperatures.
I had scavenged this material from a very peculiar race in the game world.
The discovery of Hexagonal Crystal Amber made me realize that perhaps the value of certain things was no lower than that of a World Heritage.
According to the data found on that race, their world had been in a state of eternal low temperature. It didn't snow constantly, however; that world lacked the conditions for enough water vapor to rise into the sky and fall back down as flakes.
Even in such a world, Hexagonal Crystal Amber was an extremely scarce transcendent material, especially since it was only a small world. There was no existing technique for artificially manufacturing it.
In reality, most transcendent materials were man-made composites. A natural material capable of achieving lossless, unobstructed energy superconductivity for specific energies possessed terrifying value.
Furthermore, its greater value lay in the potential for creating new composite materials with entirely original effects using it as a raw ingredient.
Of course, that depended on luck.
It had to be said that Material Science in the transcendent field was much like gambling—it was right up there with Mysticism.
Now, having mastered the power of all the fragments of the Great Glacial Throne Technique, I wanted to try and replicate this material.
However, I found that this level of power was still somewhat insufficient. I estimated that I would need the power of a complete Great Spellbook to even have a chance at reaching the threshold of this craft.
So, ultimately, it all came back to breaking the blockade of the secret realm.
But simply breaking out into the Main World and leaving this secret realm to those clubs wasn't my style. Yet, directly triggering a void rift to tear the secret realm apart didn't seem right either.
No matter how I looked at it, it felt like a loss.
If only the Witch Secret Realm Club and the Jack-of-all-trades Club had been a bit more aggressive earlier, I could have made them pay dearly.
The Jack-of-all-trades Club had really gone downhill since changing presidents. The Witch Secret Realm Club was the same.
But it didn't matter. As more people died within the secret realm, someone would eventually lose their patience.
After all, the current situation in the Glacial Throne Secret Realm was nominally a "joint counter-offensive." The casualties among transcendents from outside the Witch Academy were not small.
And I was specifically targeting them, precisely to stir up conflict between the academies.
Aren't you other transcendent academies isolating the Witch Academy?
Then I'll kill enough of you to force you to attack us, and we'll just call it a counter-attack in self-defense.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the family level, cracks were beginning to appear in their cooperation.
According to Dean Mei’s plan, the optimal solution for the transformation of the Main World was to dismantle those family powers. It would be best if the common people suffered as few casualties as possible. After all, population is the cornerstone of a world's development.
The second step was to popularize controllable extraordinary power among the commoners, making it accessible to them.
Once extraordinary power was no longer a rarity, the threshold for the paths to transcendence taught in the academies would become even lower. This would be a campaign to raise the lower limit of human power in the Main World to promote the elevation of the upper limit.
It was... an open stratagem?
Regardless, promoting the Omni-Link Main Network Tree in the Magic City was a trial run.
When it came to controllable extraordinary power, nothing surpassed the unique form of a power network. Moreover, this perfectly complemented the advancement model for Apprentice Witches. A Witch only needed a single Mana Source to reach the threshold of transcendence. Once they advanced, they could transition out of the power network mode and seamlessly integrate a large number of Mana Sources and spellbooks.
It was simply perfect!
Furthermore, this would suppress the spread of transcendent systems from other races. After all, the transformation, power systems, cultivation methods, and transcendent means of other races generally followed the same patterns; they would inevitably clash under the coverage of the power network model.
Therefore, the other academies were bound to crack down on the expansion of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree and the coverage of the power network in the Core World.
They had already lost all hope in the Expansion Realm; the Core World was the only place they could still put up a fight.
The reason the pro-Witch families within the Witch Academy had become active recently was likely due to the Witches proactively reaching out to them.
The Witches promised to spread transcendent techniques outside the transcendent academies, using the power network as the primary power system.
One could master extraordinary power without having to enroll and be bound by academy regulations!
Who could resist such a temptation?
Even if the students within the academies knew some of the inside story—that the power network was entirely controlled by the will of the Witches—it still tempted many commoners within the families.
So what if we become the academy's dogs!
Aren't the families under the other transcendent academies already doing that?
The pro-Witch families wanted to do it but never had the chance!
Now, the Witch Academy had unprecedentedly offered the collar. If you didn't wear it, plenty of others would!
Thus, under the various pressures of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree and the mounting deaths of students in the peripheral Glacial Throne Secret Realm, the Core World of the Main World was currently a massive powder keg.
The reason it appeared calm now was only because it was waiting for the final moment to be ignited!
* * *
The Magic City.
As one of the most developed cities in the Main World, it was also the seat of the core families of the pro-Witch faction.
In the Magic City, owning an apartment wasn't something money alone could buy.
This time, the Witch Academy’s proactive gesture of "goodwill" toward the families had attracted the attention of the vast majority of them.
The experimental Omni-Link Main Network Trees released by the Witches were also being cultivated by the families. The Witches only provided technical guidance.
Of course, this didn't mean the families owned the trees; they merely possessed the qualification to access extraordinary power.
The families of the Magic City held two distinct attitudes toward this sudden move by the Witch Academy.
One side was fully supportive, their yearning for extraordinary power unconcealed.
The other side was resolutely opposed.
They worried that once they held extraordinary power, how would the families of other academy factions view them? The other academies strictly forbade commoners like them from mastering extraordinary power. If this continued, conflict would break out sooner or later.
They were essentially being used as pawns by the Witch Academy!
The Witch Academy was the transcendent power that looked down on families the most. This might very well be a plot to "drive the tiger to swallow the wolf," followed by "pulling up the weeds by the roots."
The Witches wouldn't even have to get their hands dirty to let the family powers of the entire world be drowned in the long river of history. Even if the families had descendants left, the power network belonged to the Witches. Once they found an excuse to take it back, the families would be nothing.
It was precisely because of this concern that the pro-Witch faction had not become the sole dominant force.
Nevertheless, the Omni-Link Main Network Trees that had already been received were now planted. And before long, the accompanying quotas of Knowledge Seeds would be distributed.
* * *
Expansion Realm.
Watching over a hundred clones identical to myself manually assembling various pieces of equipment in a factory, even Sister Bai found the scene absurd.
These clones were created using my special techniques, but with one key difference... they were all temporary.
After all, I didn't have enough biological materials here to create a large number of permanent clones. The Expansion Realm didn't yet have biological materials that met my requirements.
Therefore, these clones were essentially mimetic bodies formed by the effects of summoning spells, augmented by the creation of reincarnation spells, ultimately becoming "biodegradable" temporary clones.
Otherwise, creating a massive number of clones only to have to destroy them later would be a hassle. And if I didn't destroy them, they would likely be "whisked away" to be used elsewhere.
The clones I brought back from the Expansion Realm last time were still acting as ladder gatekeepers in the arena. I would occasionally check in on those clones, who had nearly severed their connection with me; they had already reduced countless contestants to tears.
As a result, this Ladder Ranking Tournament had become the most prestigious event in the Witch Academy.
With the power network ensuring equality of power, and the Xiao Han clones ensuring the threshold and range of that power, there was no room for slackers to survive. Only absolute strength reigned supreme!
"Xiao Han, didn't you say your Incubation Purification Method hadn't reached the stage of large-scale production yet? Why are you so eager to build this factory?" Sister Bai asked, walking up to me.
"Well... because I've pretty much figured it out~" I said confidently.
There were two ways to bring the Incubation Purification Method to large-scale production.
One was to make the entire large-scale production process meet laboratory standards.
The other was to optimize the Incubation Purification Method technique until the difficulty of preparation was lowered to a mass-production level.
I couldn't achieve either on its own, but... I could choose a middle ground!
I could optimize the technique to lower the threshold, even if it didn't reach the level of a standard factory. Simultaneously, I could upgrade the factory conditions, even if they didn't reach laboratory standards.
As long as I could strike a balance between the two and barely make it work, it would be enough. Even if the defect rate was high, that was something that could be optimized over time.