Chapter 994: Preliminary Cooperation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 994: Preliminary Cooperation
"If that’s the case... Xiao Han, are you saying you have a way to get your hands on these?" Yi Rui asked, her tone composed.
Since the materials belonged to the academy, there would eventually be a channel for them to reach the students, even if the quantity was bound to be limited. In Yi Rui’s eyes, since Xiao Han had brought it up, she naturally had a solution in mind.
"Everyone~ before we worry about channels, why don't we try to guess where these materials actually come from?" I suggested, steering their expectations toward a different level.
"Could they... also be produced in a secret realm? Or perhaps from that Ancient Remnant Ice?" Fu Xinglan and the others were the first to speak up.
Since Hexagonal Crystal Amber was being discussed alongside these other materials, there was a high probability they were related.
"Exactly~ To be precise, Hexagonal Crystal Amber is produced from the Ancient Remnant Ice, just like those other materials. You’ve probably heard the news by now, right? The Ancient Remnant Ice broke out of its secret realm and caused quite a stir over at the Qunluosen Wasteland. It now nominally belongs to the Witch Academy and has established a preliminary cooperative relationship with us."
The members of clubs like the Jack-of-all-trades only knew the broad strokes. The club members they had dispatched had been captured, and after a series of sudden incidents, their current status was unknown. Once the situation stabilized, a search and rescue mission would be necessary.
As for the Ancient Remnant Ice reaching a cooperation agreement with the academy, they had been completely in the dark.
But now they knew. A Teaching Assistant like Xiao Han had no reason to lie to them about something like this.
At that moment, Tan Han and the others looked at me with confusion. They knew that the Ancient Remnant Ice was actually my clone—which meant, by extension, I was the one cooperating with the academy.
Meeting their gaze, I silently pulled up a private chat window visible only to me and gave them a brief explanation.
Before long, that clone wouldn't be my clone anymore. It would be a World Guardian!
However, I didn't mention that part.
As for whether the Ancient Remnant Ice—now a World Guardian returned to a state of new life—would still be willing to produce Hexagonal Crystal Amber for the witches, that wasn't an issue at all!
The witches and the Main World Consciousness shared the same interests.
More importantly... if the witches wanted to play hardball, they could simply have the Witch Academy sign a formal Witch Contract with the Ancient Remnant Ice King.
The Ancient Remnant Ice King was the manifestation of the power of the Great Glacial Throne Technique. Even if the Ancient Remnant Ice was no longer me, but a newborn King, a contract made with the power itself would still be enforceable.
However, such methods felt a bit underhanded.
Unless absolutely necessary, I didn't recommend using such tactics. After all, when it came down to it, I believed the witch race had plenty of ways to keep the Main World in line without resorting to that.
The main goal, after all, was win-win cooperation.
The Main World wanted to develop, and the witches wanted to develop the Main World. I truly couldn't think of any reason for the two sides to have a falling out.
Currently, the greatest threats to the Main World were those three top-tier races, as they could destroy the world at any moment.
Admittedly, once those guys were driven away, the witches might stop "acting like humans," but then again, witches weren't exactly human to begin with.
"Then, if we may ask... what is the production volume of this special Hexagonal Crystal Amber?" Fu Xinglan and the others understood the positioning of this material; it certainly wouldn't flow into the student level in large quantities.
It was more likely to be distributed among the Transcendent Witches. If students wanted any, they’d have to see if there were any scraps left over.
"At this stage, production isn't stable. This special material is a product prepared using the power of a Great Spellbook and specific techniques. It’s foreseeable that for a long time to come, there won't be any public supply channels."
"Then does Teaching Assistant Xiao Han mean... you have a private channel?"
"No~ it’s not that I have a channel, but rather an opportunity I secured from the Academy Dean," I said, wagging my finger. Then, I projected a 3D magical image.
"Guess where this is?" I asked, pointing to the large imaging area in the center of the group.
Everything in sight was snow. One could see structures resembling icebergs, with countless cracks and irregular, collapsed slopes—a display of violent, natural aesthetic.
"It looks like an area inside a secret realm."
"This is the current Qunluosen Wasteland—or perhaps it should be renamed the Qunluosen Snowfield. After the secret realm shattered, everything inside burst out and piled up here."
"How spectacular..." Tan Han marveled.
Having personally experienced the secret realm, they could imagine the scene of it shattering into reality. But seeing it presented before their eyes, it was even more terrifying than they had imagined.
"The current Qunluosen Snowfield is more than just spectacular. Here, the Ancient Remnant Ice fought a battle with a Transcendent from the Wizard Academy. Or rather, a Transcendent Mentor from the Wizard Academy violated regulations by attacking a non-transcendent, causing a snowfield phenomenon that affected a vast area."
"What? A Wizard Academy Mentor attacked the Ancient Remnant Ice?!"
"Yes. In short, the wizards suffered a crushing defeat. They probably haven't finished negotiating the reparations yet, but that’s not the point..."
"The point is that the Qunluosen Snowfield is now littered with debris left over from the Ancient Remnant Ice's battle. Materials similar to these special ones are piled in the snow. The small ones are about the size of sand or dust, while the large ones are massive crystal blocks several people tall. I imagine you’d be quite interested?"
"This... if it’s just battle debris, the value shouldn't be that high, right?" Tracy asked, her voice uncertain.
"Then you might not understand just how large the area affected by a Transcendent battle can be."
I reached out and shrunk the imaging before me, replacing it with the Ley Line Data imaging of the Qunluosen Wasteland—an actual scene recorded by the Ley Lines.
"See this? The entire Qunluosen Wasteland is merely the core area of the battle ruins. You could say that the battle between the Ancient Remnant Ice and you all inside the secret realm was just child's play. Now that the Ancient Remnant Ice wields a complete Great Spellbook, simply summoning the Ancient Remnant Ice race would be enough to steamroll the entire wasteland. The surrounding areas were also heavily affected."
I watched them; they knew very little about this intelligence. Although they weren't deeply interested in the politics, they forced themselves to listen intently, even recording everything with their Knowledge Seeds.
"I’m only saying all this as a preamble to tell you the severity and scope of that battle. It’s to give you a realistic sense of just how much Hexagonal Crystal Amber you can get your hands on."
As I spoke, I zoomed in on the map until it reached a 1:1 scale for a specific section.
Finally, I set up a temporary interactive function, reached into the projection, brushed aside the snow, and found a crystal fragment much smaller than a pinky nail.
I pinched the projected crystal between two fingers, showing it clearly to them.
"As you can see, this is Ley Line Data imaging—a recording of the real world through the Earth Memory carried by the Ley Lines. This piece I dug out... is Hexagonal Crystal Amber. This material is scattered across the entire Qunluosen Wasteland and its surrounding areas."
I paused there, but I didn't explain why these things were there.
If anyone asked... it was just the Ancient Remnant Ice's combat method. It had absolutely nothing to do with me, Yang Yuehan.
When I finished, Fu Xinglan and Tracy’s eyes suddenly lit up!
Wasn't this exactly what they wanted?
Compared to the materials mentioned earlier, even if the quantity was decent, they were just a bonus compared to this.
"I’ve applied to the Academy Dean, and these materials in the Qunluosen Wasteland have been handed over to me to handle as I see fit—including the Hexagonal Crystal Amber within."
"After all, the academy already controls the source for preparing these materials, so they don't care about these scraps. They gave them to me as a form of consolation from the academy's side. After all, I was present at the time, and that Transcendent Wizard was actually targeting me initially."
Hearing this, they all gasped.
A Transcendent Wizard attacked Teaching Assistant Xiao Han!
And the academy's "consolation"... giving away so many materials in one go!
Judging by the density, even at an average estimate, the Qunluosen Wasteland was so vast that this had to be measured in tons. Not to mention the other materials; in such bulk, the total value would be staggering.
However, if they were asked to experience being suppressed by a Transcendent in exchange for such a "resource site," they wouldn't dare.
What a joke... if a Transcendent made a move, they’d be flattened on the spot, the kind of flattened you couldn't even scrape back together.
"So... Teaching Assistant Xiao Han wants to cooperate with us to harvest the resources in this area, right?" After the shock passed, Fu Xinglan and the others reacted quickly and asked.
"Yes. Because the area is too large, and for some other reasons, I find it a hassle. I plan to leave it to you. I trust you’re willing to cooperate?"
"Yes! We are absolutely willing!" Fu Xinglan was the first to speak. For this kind of cooperation, they would do it even at a loss. Establishing an effective partnership was far too critical!
Of course... part of the reason was also that one-versus-many battle in the Qunluosen Wasteland, which had wiped out the high-end combat power of a multi-academy alliance!
That was nearly a hundred people!
Although the footage from the club members on the front lines had been blurry, they knew the result... total annihilation.
And it had been done with a single blade and a newly emerged Body-Manifestation Spell; that unique domain power hadn't even been used.
Such combat power terrified them.
More importantly, this Teaching Assistant Xiao Han actually killed people!
Setting aside whether they would be resurrected later, those people had truly been slain. That kind of blood-splattered, realistic slaughter had left a powerful visual impact on them, showing them just how terrifying Xiao Han could be when she got ruthless.
* * *
After finishing the discussion on the cooperation details, we saw Fu Xinglan and Tracy off.
This was merely the preliminary cooperation, the fuse that would ignite the Academy War.
I wasn't worried about them not clashing with other academies. With my Life Clone, combined with my mastery of the Ordinary Subject and Emotion Body Cultivation, I could guarantee their conflicts would erupt with perfect naturalness.
Once those two were gone, I looked back at Yi Rui.
"Sorry about that~ I ignored you a bit just now."
"It’s fine~ Do we really need to apologize to each other for things like that?"
"True. I was being oversensitive."
"Don't worry about it. Let's not mention it. But I didn't expect you to have such a trick up your sleeve regarding the Hexagonal Crystal Amber... Speaking of which, Xiao Han, with your relationship with the Dean... can't you get a direct channel for the amber?"
As soon as Yi Rui asked this, Tan Han and Shi Ruizhi, who had known the truth all along, couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Um, Sister Xiao Han... can we tell her?" Shi Ruizhi looked at me, asking excitedly.
"Go ahead. Yi Rui is one of us. It’s fine if she knows, just don't spread it around."
"Great! Let me explain it to Teaching Assistant Yi Rui!" Shi Ruizhi was only a year away from graduating, and Yi Rui was close as well, so they didn't bother with "Senior" or "Junior" titles.
"The Ancient Remnant Ice was actually Xiao Han's clone from the very beginning! Why would she ever need a 'channel'?" Shi Ruizhi had been holding this secret in while the others were there, and it had been agonizing.
"What!" Yi Rui’s eyes widened. This was the first time she had heard the truth.
She turned her gaze toward me, as if trying to process the fact.
"Yes, it was just a temporary clone," I explained. "I made a... deal. Before long, the Ancient Remnant Ice won't be my clone anymore. It will become a true, independent life form—a racial King carrying the destiny of its people. But until then, whether it’s the Great Spellbook completed by the Ancient Remnant Ice or the techniques derived from it to prepare Hexagonal Crystal Amber, it all came from my hand."
I gave Yi Rui a detailed explanation of the reasons behind it and the future arrangements.
"That’s still incredible... no, it’s a transcendent feat!" They had all touched upon the field of spell derivation and understood that something like a Great Spellbook was a level of existence they couldn't even hope to reach.
"It’s just a minor matter. Regarding this cooperation, I don't actually care about that Hexagonal Crystal Amber. If your team needs it, I’ll have the clubs deliver the shares they collect directly to you."
"This... how could we accept that? The value of those materials..."
"I’ve already moved past the stage of worrying about money," I said, cutting off Yi Rui’s polite refusal. "What I’m pursuing now are things on a higher level. Talking about 'value' when I’m giving a gift is unnecessary."
"I assume that in your future plans, your entire team won't still be busy with experiments related to the Self-Generated Mana project, right?"
"Starting some other projects can enrich your skill sets. I remember many of the sisters in your group are alchemy geniuses, and some have touched upon Transcendent Material Science. Hexagonal Crystal Amber is a brand-new, high-value natural material with great potential for composite material research."
"Material science relies a lot on luck. If you’re lucky enough to develop a new type of material for the academy, it’s very easy to get noticed by a Mentor~ Don't you want to bring that possibility of honor back to the sisters?"
"Alright... it seems I have no reason to refuse anymore..."
Faced with my persuasion, Yi Rui happily accepted my gift.