Chapter 995: The Truth and Darkness of the Main World
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 995: The Truth and Darkness of the Main World
In truth, Dean Mei placed an extraordinary amount of importance on the material known as Hexagonal Crystal Amber.
The Main World actually possessed a vast reserve of material preparation techniques, which functioned according to the specific raw materials available within the world. Currently, almost all materials seen or purchased in the Main World fell into this category.
It wasn't just the Witch Academy that possessed such techniques; other transcendent races were the same. Differences in material techniques and outputs had shaped the distinct styles of various transcendent academies.
For instance, the materials of Afuhemi Academy leaned toward biological matter, plant-based outputs, and botanical essences. The Holy Angels favored the sacred, such as holy crystals and materials imbued with Holy Light properties; they even privately sold their own feathers as materials.
The field of Wizard materials was far more chaotic. After all, the world under the Wizard Will essentially accepted anything and everything. To enrich the Wizards' repertoire, their materials had reached an extremely complex level of diversity.
Witches and Wizards... were actually on par with one another.
After all, the Witch Academy had long been an isolated entity, forced to achieve a degree of self-sufficiency. While transcendent trade between other academies was frequent, it was a different story when it came to the Transcendent Witches.
To address this, the Witch Academy had organized many events to facilitate transcendent trade, such as the invitation-only auctions held during the previous holidays. Although other transcendent academies publicly avoided associating with the Witch Academy, they were still incredibly envious of the high-quality goods the Witches possessed.
Returning to the topic of Hexagonal Crystal Amber.
I didn't promise Yi Rui too much. Given the current abilities of Yi Rui and her peers, the Academy naturally valued them. Before this batch of Hexagonal Crystal Amber was exhausted, the Academy would absolutely open a purchasing channel for them if they applied.
And a confirmation like that was exactly what Yi Rui was after.
However, even so, a hurdle remained before them: promoting to Transcendent Witch.
In a few years, they would successively reach the graduation standards. Given their achievements, the Academy would certainly support them in pursuing further studies after graduation, meaning their transcendent powers wouldn't be forcibly reclaimed.
But this support wasn't indefinite.
The Witch Academy had seen too many cases of genius students performing exceptionally well, staying on for further studies after graduation as promised, only to end up having no desire to promote to Transcendent at all.
The reason the Academy didn't blame these students was that they knew it all stemmed from the Main World itself.
A fractured Main World was prone to causing distortions in the Main World Consciousness, eventually forming "Belonging-type World Shackles." Theoretically, Yi Rui and the others would suffer from this as well. The longer they delayed, the more those deformed bonds would fetter their cognition.
This was why the Witch Academy intended to send them to the new campus in the Expansion Realm after the term started, to prevent them from being tainted by strange relationships.
Once Yi Rui received the promise regarding the Hexagonal Crystal Amber channel, she didn't have much else to worry about. The rest of the conversation was mostly small talk.
We discussed new discoveries in the study of self-generated mana, shared anecdotes, and indulged in some gossip. After all, things that were mundane to me were fascinating stories that others had never heard of!
For example, World Fragments and Dungeon Worlds—Wizards enjoyed using World Fragments to raise Elemental Spirits. Among alchemists, there were even Star Alchemists and Luck Alchemists, specializations that never appeared in the Academy's curriculum.
Then there were the happenings within the Game World—ruling a world through a game! It sounded incredibly entertaining.
However, once we delved into the specifics, they realized that what that world presented was nothing more than rot and decay. The people living in the Chaos Areas and the Ground Fissure Settlement Zones were essentially left to fend for themselves.
The misery of survival was far more terrifying than death.
Eventually, Yi Rui steered the conversation back to the Qunluosen Wasteland. According to the images I displayed, the area where the Hexagonal Crystal Amber was scattered already extended beyond the Witch Academy's territory.
"It's fine. What belongs to the Witch Academy belongs to the Witch Academy. No one else gets to take a single cent of what the Academy gave me," I said, my tone exceptionally firm.
"I didn't expect you to be so tough about this, Xiao Han." Yi Rui was surprised by my answer. But on second thought, it made sense. Yi Rui projected herself into the perspective of a colossus like the Witch Academy—what did the surrounding academies even matter?
"It seems you and I think alike, Yi Rui."
"Is that so? If it were me, I’d assume those small surrounding transcendent academies wouldn't dare provoke the Witch Academy. Especially since, according to you, even a top-tier school like the Wizard Academy just took a loss here. They’ll naturally endure whatever they have to."
"Is that how you see it?" I met Yi Rui's gaze with a smile and continued, "What if I told you those small transcendent academies are going to pick a fight with us?"
"Huh? How is that poss—" Yi Rui started to say, but then she caught the shift in my tone and realized immediately. "Hiss... Xiao Han, don't tell me you have other schemes?"
"Oh my, you caught me," I admitted openly.
"Are you planning to make a habit out of extorting people?"
"These are just small transcendent academies. How much can you even get from extorting them?"
"Then you're..."
"Academy War," I uttered the two words.
Hearing that term, Tan Han and Shi Ruizhi, who were standing nearby, reacted instantly!
Earlier, they had been relieved that the conflict hadn't triggered a subsequent Academy War... but they hadn't expected everything to be leading up to this.
However, they were looking at it the wrong way. They had learned about the cruelty of Academy Wars from the Shopkeeper, but that cruelty only applied to small transcendent academies. Their lack of students meant the entire school had to be mobilized for war.
But for a behemoth like the Witch Academy, deploying even a single club—not even a large one like the Jack-of-all-trades Club, but just a medium-sized one bolstered by senior sisters—would be enough to give the students of a small academy a very hard time.
Not only that, the cost of war differed vastly between large and small transcendent academies.
The most fundamental gap was at the level of the Resurrection Spell. Some small academies wouldn't even use their resurrection methods on their students.
And the Witch Academy?
While Resurrection Spellbooks weren't circulated among the general student body, their resurrection methods were top-notch. Even the arenas were equipped with them as standard procedure; they were necessary for accidental kills or life-and-death duels.
That was the absolute disparity.
The gap between transcendent races wouldn't vanish just because they resided in the same Main World or served the same dominant race. The strong remained strong, while the weak were ruthlessly exploited.
Those smaller races thought that following the transcendent races into the Main World was an opportunity. And yes, it could be, but more often than not, it was simply for the convenience of exploitation.
The Beast Academy felt this most deeply. They had no primary transcendent race to rely on and had to band together. Yet even within their alliance, there was racial discrimination and class division; they were even more vicious when turning on their own.
"Xiao Han, you're going to start an Academy War?!"
"Yes. The Dean agreed, and they support me in doing this. This is a war without transcendent interference. As long as there's a legitimate reason, a war between students can be launched. Once a Transcendent interferes, the Wizard Academy in the Qunluosen Wasteland is the example of what happens."
The information revealed in my words felt like a bomb going off in the minds of everyone present. Tan Han and the others had been somewhat prepared, but Yi Rui was absolutely stunned into silence!
The Dean... agreed!
"They"... supported it!
This meant it wasn't just one Dean supporting the move. Or rather, it wasn't just support—it was expectation!
This was a move in a high-level game between academies, and the Xiao Han standing before them was the hand pushing the detonator!
"Don't be so shocked. Aren't there many cases every year of Witch Academy students harassing other transcendent academies? What I'm doing is the same behavior. The only reason their actions aren't called Academy Wars is because they're missing one step: a declaration of war."
"Tell me, once I start this and guarantee a degree of safety with Resurrection Spells, how many people in the Academy will answer my call and follow me to trample a transcendent academy?"
My words immediately pulled them into that mental image.
How many of those in the Academy clamoring to see blood flow were serious, and how many were just talking big? Even they didn't know.
But what terrified them was that as I spoke, they felt their own hearts racing with excitement!
It was as if the bellicose genes buried within the Witch bloodline had been activated at that moment. Their inner kindness and innocence were giving way to the nobility of their race.
From the very beginning, the Witch race was an entity with an invasive nature even more extreme than the Wizards. They spread calamity and witchification solely to increase the number of their sisters.
It was only with the maturation of witchification and the emergence of the breeding project that Witches developed their current "civilization." However, the aggression buried within the race was difficult to change.
Tan Han, Shi Ruizhi, and Yi Rui were unaware of these concepts. Their conscience, kindness, and understanding of war were in violent conflict with the influence of their Witch bloodline.
"It seems you haven't quite steeled your resolve yet. But I don't blame you. An Academy War isn't a disaster that will sweep through our entire Witch Academy. You don't need to place yourselves on a moral high ground to look down or judge."
After saying this, I made a major decision. I pulled up the records within the Tree of Great Knowledge.
The room had fallen into a heavy silence. Some topics were so weightly they left people powerless to respond. Some wars were simply things people wanted to avoid.
They lacked a reason why they had to do this. So, I would give them that reason.
And I didn't even need to lie... the truth would suffice.
I recalled the things Dean Mei had told me—the truths about the Main World and the history of the transcendent races. I only mentioned the facts that couldn't be skipped.
The environment the students of the Witch Academy lived in was simply too peaceful.
Even without getting into the truths and grudges between races, if one traced the origins of the Academy Wars that had occurred in the Core World, they would find only three sources.
The Three Top Academies.
If I told them that the Three Top Academies controlled the means to destroy the world, they might think I was just making things up without evidence. But if I said that nearly all wars in the Main World were nothing more than a game of profit distribution and exploitation by the Three Top Academies...
I could gather endless evidence for that.
"Sorry... I'm not very good at small talk. Whenever I bring up serious topics, the mood always dies."
"That has nothing to do with you, Sister Xiao Han," Tan Han said, trying to smooth things over.
"Exactly. It's just the topic. We can't exactly talk about war with a smile on our faces," Shi Ruizhi added.
"Yes, I agree with Miss Shi Ruizhi. And the fact that you're willing to talk to us about this proves we are true friends. But as your friends, the fact that we can't immediately stand on your side is our problem." Shi Ruizhi's gaze swept over Tan Han and the others before returning to me.
"It's fine. The problem isn't with you. I know it's still too early to tell you these things, and I didn't provide enough context... There is a massive cognitive gap between us."
As I spoke, several runes for the Great Knowledge Sharing Spell condensed in my hand.
"So, I plan to share some of what I know with you. However, the content is quite heavy. If you aren't mentally prepared... it's better not to watch."
"Eh?" Shi Ruizhi was the first to speak. She hadn't expected things to take this turn.
"Do you dare take it? This includes many secrets the Dean personally told me. The Main World has only ever been harmonious on the surface; the truth is always buried deep underground."
"Ah... is it really okay to spread this kind of information?" Tan Han asked.
"In principle, it's not allowed. Just like how, in the beginning, the transcendent academies wouldn't tell you about concepts like Luck or Scripts."
"Then why are you telling us?"
"It's fine. If it's me talking, even the Dean won't do anything to me. Just don't go spreading it on the Academy Network or the Plant Network to cause a panic," I told them half-jokingly.
"Alright... my curiosity has conquered my fear of the unknown," Tan Han said, reaching out to take a sharing rune.
"I'm also curious about what kind of truth would make you make this choice, Xiao Han." Yi Rui took one as well.
"Everyone's taking one? Then... I might as well." Shi Ruizhi reached out and took the last one.
"Alright, since you've all taken them... I'll apologize in advance for using this opportunity to drag you into a much darker world."