Chapter 972: The Fuse of the Academy War
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 972: The Fuse of the Academy War
The encounter in the Qunluosen Wasteland was far from pleasant. Several conflicts broke out midway through, and in the end, the parties parted on a sour note.
Of course, "parting on a sour note" only meant that no agreement was reached this time. According to the unspoken rules of engagement, they would need to meet multiple times; after all, the witches present there didn't have the authority to decide a matter of such magnitude.
Word of the incident quickly reached the Witch Secret Realm Club and the Jack-of-all-trades Club.
The Glacial Throne Secret Realm directly involved these two major clubs, while other clubs were barely granted the right to be kept informed.
In the Witch Academy, the large clubs represented the interests of the top-tier families within the witch faction, while the smaller clubs represented second-tier families. To put it simply, the familial relationships in the outside world directly dictated the relationships between the clubs within the academy.
This time, the provocation was aimed at the family forces of the entire witch faction. Whether they were anti-witch, pro-witch, or neutral, everyone was caught in the crossfire of this indiscriminate attack.
Even though the Jack-of-all-trades Club, influenced by the pro-witch faction led by Ming Xueming, had no intention of getting involved in the Glacial Throne Secret Realm affair, they couldn't wash their hands of it after such a commotion.
The secret realm was merely a pretext; the root cause was the power network released by the witch faction. Since the families had accepted the witches' favor, they naturally had to bear the resulting pressure.
The clubs of the Witch Academy understood that the other transcendent academies wanted the secret realm for those fragments. However, the secret realm wasn't something these clubs could just hand over on a whim.
Regardless, the clubs needed to send representatives to communicate with the academy. Just in case... just in case the witches relented, right?
Though the probability of that was infinitesimally small—practically impossible.
Naturally, the people from the other transcendent academies didn't have just one demand. They also demanded that the witch faction hand over the culprits responsible for everything, seeking "justice" for those who had died within the secret realm!
As for who the culprits were... who else could they be?
Tan Han, Shi Ruizhi, Lucianne, and Xiao You.
The academy would certainly never throw its own students to the wolves; the other transcendent academies didn't have nearly enough face for that. More importantly, these individuals were all closely associated with Yang Yuehan.
Even if the academy did the unthinkable and told the students to settle their grievances themselves, the opposition didn't have the confidence to deal with that teaching assistant!
If she were that easy to deal with, would they still be hesitating to take action, merely seeking symbolic compensation?
She simply ignored them, and any move she made could be considered an overwhelming dimensional strike.
However, there were other voices within the clubs.
At the core of it... they had learned that Yang Yuehan's main body had already left the Witch Academy and headed to the players' world.
Setting aside how she could possibly achieve such a feat, the mere fact that her main body was absent seemed like something they could exploit.
Of course, there was no shortage of people with brains in the clubs.
If Yang Yuehan had the means to leave this world, she either had that power herself or she had gone with the assistance of a Transcendent Witch. Either way, she was someone they couldn't afford to provoke.
Even if Teaching Assistant Xiao Han had only left a clone behind, that clone could leverage her relationship with her mentor to knock them back to square one in a heartbeat.
One could say the massive rift between these two groups was primarily due to the lack of information. The "fearlessness of the ignorant" clashed violently with the "foresight of the pessimists."
As the saying goes, where you stand depends on where you sit. Those who favored targeting Teaching Assistant Xiao Han might just be looking for an excuse to eliminate their rivals, while those who opposed it might have private interests they couldn't afford to expose.
After several rounds of heated arguments, they finally reached a compromise that was barely acceptable to everyone.
They would test the waters.
They knew too little about Teaching Assistant Xiao Han; they had spent the entire time being intimidated into inaction. But, comforting themselves with the fact that her main body was away, they decided to reach out and see what happened.
Furthermore, they were only testing Tan Han and the others. Based on the clubs' understanding of these girls and professional profiling, they didn't seem like the type to go tattle the moment they encountered a problem.
If possible, the clubs hoped to shift the conflict so it was between those girls and the other transcendent academies, allowing the clubs themselves to stay out of it.
However, this was unlikely to happen. Tan Han and the others weren't about to let themselves be used as pawns.
* * *
Not long after the clubs reached this conclusion, Fu Xinglan and Tracy visited the Baking House together.
As newly appointed teaching assistants at the Witch Academy, Fu Xinglan and Tracy would be the primary teaching assistants and nominal representatives promoted by the two major clubs. Their arrival carried significant weight.
Moreover, their acquaintance with Yang Yuehan during the teaching assistant written exam, combined with their further cooperation in the Expansion Realm, had solidified their pro-witch stance. They had become the faces of the pro-witch faction.
They had even sought a contract badge, and as it turned out, the value and prestige of that badge were only continuing to rise.
This time, the two hadn't come to redeem that promise. Unless they were fools, they would never use up such a valuable favor. They were here to seek further cooperation.
With the Witch Academy's announcement regarding the construction of the witch branch academies, they quickly realized that the academy wasn't joking.
The branch academy being built in the Expansion Realm didn't plan to recruit local students immediately, for reasons that weren't explicitly stated. It likely had something to do with the Spirit Vision talent that everyone in the main world could potentially awaken.
Therefore, after the branch was established, the first batch of students would be moved from the main campus. The primary group would consist of lower-year students and some upper-year students. The list of upper-year students would be determined by which mentors they chose to follow.
After all, the branch academy needed mentors too.
However, because the branch in the Expansion Realm was still under construction, it would be under a state of "controlled management," meaning students couldn't leave the academy grounds to enter the rest of the Expansion Realm.
But the academy would open a teleportation channel between the main campus and the branch, ensuring the students moving to the new campus wouldn't have too much trouble adjusting.
The clubs that had been excited by the news fell back into silence after only a few seconds of joy. They had thought that after one more holiday, they would be able to enter the Expansion Realm.
No one expected the "academy control." They would technically be in the Expansion Realm, but it would be no different from not being there at all. Furthermore, those entering the branch were only a minority of students and the lower-year classes.
While the lower years included many new-generation family members, one needed seniority and means to make a name for oneself in the Expansion Realm. More importantly, they would have no chance to access the Expansion Realm's markets.
Fu Xinglan and Tracy had come to test the waters. Perhaps a piece of information inadvertently revealed by the teaching assistant would allow them to stay one step ahead.
And, of course, they were there to gauge her attitude regarding the Glacial Throne Secret Realm.
They believed that the reason the Glacial Throne Secret Realm had ended up in such an awkward state must have been due to this teaching assistant's push. They just couldn't figure out what she was actually trying to achieve.
Was it really just for fun? Or was it to prevent those fragments from falling into someone's hands? These questions could only be cleared up by talking to her.
Fu Xinglan and Tracy didn't arrive with great fanfare. In fact, they had proactively reached out with greetings before coming with sincere intentions.
They stayed in the Baking House for nearly two hours before finally leaving. No one knew what had been discussed during that time.
Shortly after they returned, they urgently recalled their club members stationed in the Qunluosen Wasteland.
Suddenly, the core of the Glacial Throne Secret Realm truly became an unguarded treasure in the middle of the wilderness—and it was sitting right on the edge of the witch territory.
This move completely baffled the other transcendent academies. They had indeed demanded that the secret realm be transferred to them as compensation, but they never imagined the other side would just hand it over on a silver platter.
Anyone with eyes could see this was a witch's trap. The witches hadn't even explicitly stated that the secret realm was being transferred.
But with such bait dangled in front of them, they were salivating! Almost all the transcendent fragments were inside that secret realm!
As for that incredibly powerful Ancient Remnant Ice King? He wouldn't be able to cause much trouble in the hands of a Transcendent Wizard.
As for what would be triggered if they took the bait, no one cared. The families had the backing of the transcendent academies, and they only knew that the wizards desperately wanted the fragments inside.
With such a rare opportunity, the Transcendent Wizards might even take action personally.
While this violated the unspoken rule of transcendent non-interference, wizards had no bottom line if the profit was large enough.
* * *
At that moment, in the Baking House.
"No, Xiao Han... are you really planning to use that clone to go head-to-head with Transcendent Wizards?" Shi Ruizhi asked with concern.
Although she was asking about my clone, my clone represented my will.
"First, let me clarify one thing: those Transcendent Wizards won't descend so easily. If they give the witches an opening, there are plenty of witches waiting to chop off their reaching hands. They also worry this is a witch's trap. So, in the worst-case scenario... if a Transcendent Wizard does act, they'll only dare to test the waters."
"But after all that effort, what's the point? I don't get it..."
"The moment the secret realm explodes in the hands of a Transcendent Wizard—that is its point," I said.
"A frame-up? Do witches need a reason like that to act against wizards?" Tan Han asked, puzzled.
"It's not exactly a rigorous frame-up. It's just a fuse."
"A fuse... is the explosion of one secret realm enough?" Tan Han continued.
"What if you add a resurgent ancient race and a Great Spellbook that's about to take form? If that's still not enough, what if a wizard is accidentally killed by a void rift when the Great Spellbook forms? And if that's still not enough, what if the Ancient Remnant Ice race can use the Great Spellbook to create a transcendent material that is extremely cheap to produce but has immense value as an energy superconductor?"
"This... uh..."
Hearing my words, Tan Han, Shi Ruizhi, and even the Shopkeeper fell silent.
They were completely stunned by this series of questions. Was this still just a "fuse"? It felt like this conflict alone could start a Transcendent War.
"Do you think this is enough to start a Transcendent War directly?" I asked with a smile.
"You still underestimate the foundation of the witch race. Even with all that, they still won't dare to start a Transcendent War," I said.
I knew very well that once they took the initiative to start it, it would be a total loss for them. They would die, and the witches wouldn't get the main world either. The key lay in the World Navel.
But those details were in the category of things I couldn't tell Tan Han and the others.
"So this is the beginning of the Academy War?" Tan Han asked tentatively.
"Is there really going to be an Academy War?" the Shopkeeper asked.
It wasn't just the Shopkeeper who found it hard to believe; the others felt the same. After all, an Academy War... they still instinctively felt it was something far away from them.
Even though I had revealed the concept and the possibility to them last time, they still felt it was distant. But when they realized the fuse of this war was so close to them, it naturally felt surreal.
The level of absurdity was comparable to going to school, participating in a study competition, and then realizing you'd caused a world war.
Especially for Tan Han and the others—they had personally helped bring this about!
"What do you think is the root cause of this war?" I didn't answer the Shopkeeper's question directly, but instead asked about the deeper reasons.
"This... this is just a meaningless war plotted by the academy... Our current world doesn't have the foundation for a war to break out, nor have we reached a crisis where social order must be baptized by death. Xiao Han... there's really no need for this, is there?" Shopkeeper Xia Li was still in disbelief.
Even though the atmosphere in the Witch Academy was mostly filled with people shouting that they wanted to see blood flow, when it actually came to it... they hesitated.
And the reason Shopkeeper Xia Li looked at me so earnestly was that she felt I had orchestrated this fuse. If I changed my mind, perhaps this meaningless war could be avoided.
"Shopkeeper... is that what you think?" I looked up at her, my sharp gaze meeting hers until she looked away, not daring to maintain eye contact.
"While I understand your intentions are good, Shopkeeper... perhaps you've stayed in the academy for too long and forgotten the suffering of the outside world. All resources outside the academy are monopolized by families. The extreme imbalance of social resources makes life incredibly difficult for ordinary families."
"This world has become deformed. Everyone has become a walking corpse just to keep society running. The transcendent academies, which can change a person's fate, are no longer an opportunity that families at the bottom can even dream of. They aren't stupid; it's just that their families, education, and resources have caused them to lose at the starting line."
"The world we are in, the main world... needs a revolution. A total change..." I paused.
The "change" I was talking about had completely exceeded the scope of their understanding. It was the former glory of the main world.
But now, there were three transcendent parasites obstructing the development of the main world. To swat the bugs on one's own body, a period of sharp pain is inevitable.
"Mercy... is only possible because those sufferings haven't fallen upon you."