Chapter 884: Shi Ruizhi: I can be a Lesser Witch too?
Chapter 884: Shi Ruizhi: I can be a Lesser Witch too?
My words once again made Shi Ruizhi fall silent, not that my words had such great magic as to make Shi Ruizhi wake up all at once.
A person cannot rely on so-called "chicken soup" and the principles from others' mouths to grow.
The me of the past understood a lot, but still could not change many things.
Those so-called chicken soup words that seemed very resonant were, in the end, only words used to comfort oneself.
These were speech techniques used to calm one's own emotions, rather than philosophies that guided people to think.
“Alright the time for chicken soup is over. Whether you've figured it out or not, you've already arrived here, haven't you?”
I clapped my palms together, the crisp sound breaking the quiet atmosphere.
“Now even if you wanted to regret it, it's actually too late. Oh you even brought your roommate along.”
I looked at the two of them, Shi Ruizhi and Fang Zhi, with a hint of toughness and playfulness in my tone.
“Eh? Me? Do I count too?”
Fang Zhi froze for a second, pointing a finger at herself.
“Naturally. Shi Ruizhi has already stepped onto the thief's boat; do you think you can escape too? It's just that you only count as an attachment. The focus... naturally still falls on Shi Ruizhi.”
“Me?”
Shi Ruizhi pointed to herself in confusion.
“Yes. Weren't you very curious before about why I pay so much attention to you? I'm not too clear about others—perhaps they simply value those abilities of yours, like Self-generating Magic Power—but I don't. To be precise, it's more than just that,” I spoke, and I also intended to have a showdown with her here.
Just like the principle of "not using a suspicious person, and not doubting the person you use," she had already made this decision, so there was actually no turning back.
This was a kind of acknowledgment originating from the heart, with no looking back.
Otherwise, why is it that in this world, even if some people know they are wrong, they still insist on making mistake after mistake?
Perhaps this is the meaning of choice to a person.
“Then you are……”
Shi Ruizhi inquired with curiosity.
She had asked this question before, but at that time she didn't get a very clear answer.
She hadn't expected the other party would proactively mention this matter to her at this time.
“Naturally because of another reason.”
I changed my sitting posture and met Shi Ruizhi’s gaze.
This time, she didn't dodge.
“Are you curious about exactly what happened during that accident in the experiment? You should only know that the injury touched the life essence, but you might not necessarily know how it was injured, and to what degree the life was damaged.”
“I am indeed very curious. Much of what was spread on the academy network... was censored, but even so, I still feel it was very bloody...”
Shi Ruizhi spoke.
Regarding her own injury, she had naturally searched for it.
After all, this was a major matter concerning herself; how could she not have cared?
“It was indeed very bloody. Because of that accident, your life essence was completely deconstructed. That is to say, from the soul-substance level, you were no longer yourself, but a mass of soul-substance that couldn't be distinguished. Your consciousness was struck by the mixed cognitions and powers of the soul-substance, collapsing into an indescribable posture. And this in turn induced the loss of control over your high-intensity physical undying nature, which resulted in those bloody scenes and the non-human form you saw.”
Listening to this description of mine, Shi Ruizhi instinctively shuddered.
That kind of fear originating from the deep depths of her soul made her instinctively not want to visualize it in detail any further.
“The principle of undying nature relies on the life tier of the soul-substance. You are in human form; as long as your cognition, information, self, and so on still believe that you are yourself, then no matter how heavy an injury you receive, you can utilize the undying nature to complete the repair of your own body. Once you are no longer yourself, your physical flesh will lose control. In fact, at that time, you could be considered as... completely dead.”
“Your only end would roughly be waiting—waiting until the soul-substance entered the earth vein cycle and became the material for a newborn life.”
“But I'm still alive... it was the Academy Head, right? The Academy Head took action?”
Shi Ruizhi asked.
No matter how terrifying I made it sound, the fact was... she was still alive.
“Um... it's up to you to think that way. I was also on the scene at the time, and I witnessed the entire process from the pronouncement of death to your coming back to life again,” I spoke and slowly explained to her.
As for the things she said incorrectly, I didn't correct them either.
After all, I was indeed on the scene and did witness the entire process.
“It can be said that your resurrection counts as an unverified miracle, and fortunately, this miracle succeeded. Do any of you know about the Great Project of the Soul?”
“The Great Project of the Soul? I know that one!”
Fang Zhi, hearing this, rare as it was, chimed in.
“The Soul Witch Great Project refers to the life essence metamorphosing and sublimating from soul-substance into a Soul after advancing to a Transcendent Witch!”
“Putting it that way... isn't wrong,” I said while nodding reluctantly.
It was just like how the Great Witch Project was for the sake of advancing to a Transcendent Witch, and the Great Project of the Soul was for the sake of sublimating the soul.
For a utilitarian way of putting it, there was no problem with that, because the lowest requirement and goal of the Witch Academy were precisely that.
But that was only the most basic pursuit of becoming a witch; I had long since overlooked it.
“The miracle on Shi Ruizhi is actually also related to the Great Project of the Soul. In order to reclaim her life...”
Speaking to this point, I looked sideways at Shi Ruizhi.
“Without the prerequisite of advancing to a Transcendent Witch, you forcibly transformed your own soul-substance and sublimated into a soul essence. Therefore... the current you can already be counted as a soul life.”
“What?”
Hearing these words, Shi Ruizhi was stunned, because even she had never thought that she would confusedly become a... soul life?
“Do you know what this represents?”
“What does it represent?”
At this moment, the thoughts of the several people present had already been guided by the words I spoke, and all were waiting for me to reveal the answer.
“To give a simple example, Transcendent Witches are a group of Transcendent lives who have mastered Self-generating Magic Power and are moreover soul essence. So... do you understand now why you are being valued by me?”
When I said this, Tan Han and the others also reacted at the first moment!
Self-generating Magic Power!
Soul essence!
Then wasn't Shi Ruizhi only a single threshold named Transcendent away from a true Transcendent Witch?!
Instantly, even Fang Zhi beside Shi Ruizhi sucked in a breath of cold air!
“Coincidentally... I am also a soul life who has mastered Self-generating Magic Power. So... many witch sisters like to address me as a Lesser Witch, because I haven't advanced to Transcendent yet.”
“Then aren't I also a Lesser Witch? Wait... no! You are soul essence too? You've died too?!”
Shi Ruizhi still wanted to ask something, but suddenly reacted and blurted it out!
“In principle... I am an Honorary Lesser Witch acknowledged by the witch race, having signed a Lesser Witch Contract. However, your kind of posture... can barely be called a Lesser Witch as well, I suppose? But I don't suggest you address yourself that way, because other Transcendent Witches might not necessarily acknowledge you.”
“As for the question of whether I've died... hmph naturally I've died, and haven't I died many times?”
“Oh... I remember now... that time spread on the academy network!”
Ying Shiqian, from the side, immediately thought of that final term hunting.
“Mm-hmm.”
I didn't deny it, only responding with a smile.
As for the truth, it actually wasn't important.
“This is not the key point. The key point from start to finish is Shi Ruizhi. The Witch Academy has once again seen a student with a configuration similar to mine; it will scare them to death.”
“But... I'm already in the 9th year...”
Shi Ruizhi spoke weakly.
“What does 9th year count for? Is there not still over a year and a half before graduation? Even if you graduate, that is similarly not the end. Don't forget, from the time I enrolled to now, it has only been this much time.”
“This, this isn't the same, surely……”
“Naturally it isn't the same. I could say this is the upper limit of a person's growth efficiency, but you must believe in yourself. At least this will ensure you won't be too far apart from me.”
“Then... then I'll work hard……”
Shi Ruizhi said with some sweat on her face, her tone full of reluctance.
She had learned a lot of things over these past few days.
Although she hadn't made much progress in her studies, she had made up for many recent current events.
Naturally, this included the rise of the Teaching Assistant before her.
Currently, for many discerning people, the evaluation of this Teaching Assistant was no longer something that could be described by the ambiguous word "genius."
Rather, it was "cannot understand, no evaluation given."
Because they had never seen Little Han's posture when she acted with her full strength.
One had to know that the defeated opponent under this Teaching Assistant, Tan Han, was already able to crush most people in the Witch Academy right now; then how could she herself be weak?
Next was the clones this Teaching Assistant left in the arena.
Yes, it was her first time knowing that the girl before her actually had so many clones!
And those clones, merely in an "idling state," were sufficient to act as the gatekeepers for the rank divisions of the arena ladder... this was not a manifestation of combat power, but a display of combat awareness!
Without rushing to the topmost ranking in the power network competition, one was not qualified to face this Teaching Assistant directly.
Otherwise, a single sentence from the other party—that you can't even beat my clone, so what are you—could make a large crowd of people break through their guards from the abuse.
“Um... I have a question I want to ask...”
“Mhm go ahead and ask. Is there another question?”
I asked with a smile.
“If... I mean if, I hadn't chosen to find you, then would you have not told me about this matter?”
“That is natural since you didn't intend to take this path, the more you know, the less happy you would be, and it would even cause trouble for your daily routine. It's a simple principle, isn't it?”
“True...”
“Actually, even if that were the case and you returned to a normal life, if you displayed an aptitude that was different from others, you wouldn't be buried in the end anyway. Perhaps you would also experience the suppression I've faced from enrollment until now, who knows.”
“Fine... I'd rather not then...”
Shi Ruizhi gave a bitter laugh.
In any case, she didn't hope for a legendary rise like that of the Teaching Assistant before her.
Sometimes, inferiority is from the heart; even if one achieves something, one will instinctively avoid it.
In this regard, Shi Ruizhi was actually the same as the me of the past.
Even the current me has not changed this bad habit, and now this habit has even turned into another way of putting it, called "modesty."
After finishing the conversation about the soul, this heavy topic was considered past.
Subsequently, we chatted about other matters, and the atmosphere instead became more harmonious.
Midway through, the manager also brought several new club members to the front of the Bakery Club.
And these few club members were precisely those few from the Support Group.
They discovered Millian, the big sister in their hearts, at the first moment.
Then, after introductions, they recognized this clone of mine.
I had to say, I'm not very good at dealing with people who have this kind of fanatical faith, but one thing worthy of praise was... they were truly willing to listen to my words.
No matter how excited they were, they could still listen.
So this meeting suddenly became a meet-and-greet for the Support Group... after there were more people, the scene suddenly got a bit out of control.
However, with the passage of time, they gradually became less crazy than at the beginning.
And our topic also shifted to that secret realm Tan Han was about to enter.
Tan Han had currently already agreed to the cooperation request from Wan Shi Wu and the Witch's Secret Realm Club, achieving a preliminary joint effort of the Witch Academy alliance.
So she naturally also obtained a portion of first-hand data regarding this secret realm.
As for whether the clubs had kept anything back... that was impossible to know.
But judging from some things mentioned in this intelligence, this secret realm was not comparable to those academy secret realms that one could enter at will by paying money.
The situation of this secret realm was extremely dangerous, even... having rescue missions!
Yes, that's right, rescue missions!
The vanguard exploration squad had lost contact and become lost within the blizzards of this secret realm.
If no one rescued them, they couldn't even be resurrected!
They had also applied to the academy mentors for rescue, but only received a heartless rejection to go rescue them themselves.
After all... this was dying within a secret realm, and it was the result of their own recklessness.
Once rescued they could be resurrected, so there was no "danger," and it was naturally left to the students to handle themselves.
And what Tan Han chatted with me about this time was another matter.
Specifically, for this secret realm, the Witch's Secret Realm Club and Wan Shi Wu seemingly intended to abandon the previous fragment ticket system.
Which was to say, the clubs intended to lower the entry threshold and let more people in, though these people still needed to undergo vetting.
“So why do you think they're doing this?”
I asked curiously.
“Cannon fodder... they need a large number of people to rapidly spread out the early exploration map, and they're also buying back useful information found by those people at a high price, and updated the exploration equipment positioning. If someone is lost in the blizzard, they can provide rescue services, but not for free.”
“Not bad is this buyback still mandatory, with a Witch's Contract signed, and the rescue fees aren't low?”
“Mhm, I thought so too. Spreading the risk out, letting more people participate and work for them. With bad luck, even the rescue fees could offset the buyback costs.”
“The calculation is quite good, so what are you entering this secret realm for?”
I asked curiously.
“Naturally for the other fragments. That place is a closed coliseum. As long as the secret realm isn't destroyed, then a corpse hidden beneath the blizzard can never be found, no matter how one searches.”
Unexpectedly, Tan Han suddenly said such words.
Because she had actually seen through the risks she was to face this time.
Leave aside resurrection, or students being unable to kill each other.
In a place where mentors explicitly said they would not interfere, even if people die, the mentors won't interfere.
I'm afraid…… this is yet another script guided by the academy, using the Destiny involved with the [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments to guide them to gather...
I didn't think further on the more in-depth parts.
Since this might be a node of the Script, then I'm right to not get involved.
I clearly remember the intelligence data I saw back then; many of those fragments were in the hands of those Children of Destiny.