Chapter 1014
Chapter 1014: Trample the academy gates, burn down the World Tree
The blazing fire and the about-to-set sun formed a strong contrast, as if at this moment, the burning flames had taken over the baton from the sun.
On the desolate land, only the World Tree was quietly burning.
Only the raging fire was seeing off the homecoming of the elves.
The cheers of the Witches echoed under the fireworks, and the ruined academy became a decoration of glory.
They were all leaving unforgettable moments for the scenery of this moment; the burning World Tree was destined to cause a huge stir throughout the entire Core Realm.
The great fire would last a long time, perhaps burning for ten or so days, dozens of days...
The flames might eventually have a time to go out, but in everyone’s heart, that burning World Tree would never go away.
In a sense, this was also a good ending for the Sun Rock Elf Academy.
The small Transcendent academies that had perished in Academy Wars in the past were unknown to anyone.
But now, its destruction at the hands of the Witch Academy was already known to everyone.
They sounded the alarm for all Transcendent academies; this was a lesson paid for with lives.
“Sisters, are the photos, short videos, and commemorative moments all done? The World Tree will only burn for one day. One day later... cut the tree! Bring it back!”
I opened my mouth to say.
It wasn't that I didn't want the fire to send away the faith of the Sun Rock Elves in one go, but rather that ordinary fire simply could not completely burn the World Tree into charcoal.
Not even a branch plant.
What was currently burning were basically all insignificant things; what remained unburned were the good things.
The branches of the World Tree, the main trunk of the World Tree, the root system of the World Tree... their value was inestimable.
To a certain extent, they were even non-renewable.
After all, for Elven World Tree materials, one would have to wipe out an entire elven race to obtain them, right?
Elves saw their Mother Tree as more important than their own lives.
Facing my inquiry, many people finally spoke up in response.
“No! Wait a bit! I want to hold a live broadcast for such a major event!”
“Better be quick! Do you guys not know exactly how valuable something like a World Tree is!”
“I really haven't looked into that.”
“It's fine World Tree materials that have been burned by fire possess even more special ritual characteristics in the field of mysticism; perhaps they can even be sold for a higher price!”
“I wonder if we can get a small share, even a charred branch would do. I want to use it to make a magic wand.”
“That depends on what the academy says; this starts at the level of Regulated materials.”
“But this is the spoils of war that Assistant Xiao Han led us to seize, right? Giving nothing at all would be truly too much!”
“I hope my performance can earn me a higher score. I didn't drag anyone down, although I just followed Assistant Xiao Han the whole time...”
***
“It's over?”
Accompanying the spread of the images of the Sun Rock Elf Academy’s World Tree catching fire, this series of events including the advance, strong assault, fierce battle, and burning of the World Tree... was concluded in less than three days.
People who did not participate in this war but learned the news felt as if it were all a dream.
An entire Transcendent academy, including the Academy Head and a total of 38 Transcendent elves, had all ended their lives.
This also meant that no matter how much time passed, a new “Sun Rock Elf Academy” would never appear on the Main World again.
And more importantly, the Witch Academy’s side had settled everything without even the Transcendent Mentors taking action.
Not only the Witch Academy, but other Transcendent academies were also shocked!
During this period.
Aphrodite Academy issued more than one statement of strong condemnation against the Witch Academy.
In the statements, they bitterly complained about the cruelty and evil deeds of the Witch Academy and strongly demanded that the Witch Academy return the remains of the elven race’s World Tree branch plant to be handled internally by the elven race.
However, the Witch Academy ignored them completely.
After the Sun Rock World Tree was taken away along with its roots, a brand new tree took the place of the World Tree in the Sun Rock territory.
The Myriad Connection Main Network Tree.
The foundation for laying the Power Network and the Root Network.
And some families in the Sun Rock territory also “gladly” threw themselves into the embrace of the Witch Academy.
As for whether it was voluntary... no one knew.
Everyone only knew that if asked, these families would absolutely nod their heads and say: I am absolutely doing this of my own accord.
After all, with the Transcendent academy of the Sun Rock territory fallen, if the families did not accept the “kindness” of the families on the Witches’ side, they would only be devoured by other families, and their end would only be worse!
After all, families were not a monolithic block; families and capital only followed the creed of interests above all.
The game of big fish eating small fish was played out every day.
After the war ended, the main task was the battlefield cleanup.
With the assistance of logistics, this task was completed very quickly.
Although it was called cleaning the battlefield, it was essentially looting the “legacy” of the Sun Rock Elf Academy.
Regarding this trip, the greatest legacy was none other than that massive World Tree branch plant!
Just one whole tree was enough to establish a small Transcendent academy upon it; it was clear how terrifying its size was!
From the most valuable tree heart to the xylem which occupied the largest volume, then to the most special root system, and finally the bark, branches, and so on, and lastly the World Tree leaves that ordinary fire could not even ignite.
Because it was simply too massive, even storing it in storage equipment required multiple segmentations.
The harvest of this operation belonged to the Witch United Club to a certain extent, and then was distributed within the club according to contributions.
However, there was one item among them that did not belong to the club, and that was... the World Tree branch plant.
This was not excessive.
Even if someone felt that since the club relied on its own strength, the ownership should belong to the club, such a thought was not strange.
But it was still too naive.
Why was Aphrodite Academy’s earlier call for all Transcendent academies to condemn the Witch Academy and demand the return of the World Tree to the elves called a joke?
Because this World Tree branch plant belonged to the Witch Academy!
If any single person in the Witch United Club were muddled and clamored to the academy that this was something belonging to the club, Aphrodite Academy would be the first to clap and cheer.
Because those clamoring to the Witch Academy for the return of the World Tree branch plant were not the academy, but the Transcendent Elves!
Even up to the level of the Academy Head!
This was a game between the academy and the Transcendent level.
In the final analysis, it was the Witch Academy that withstood all the pressure from the Aphrodite Forest Elves!
Once this thing belonged to the United Club, Aphrodite Academy would dare to come to the door and forcibly seize the World Tree branch plant.
As for the Transcendent Witches... at most, after the Transcendent Elves acted to snatch it, they would snatch it back from the elves’ hands.
In that way, it would completely become the academy’s property, having absolutely nothing to do with the club.
Precisely because they could distinguish this most basic relationship clearly, they would absolutely not let the relationship between the club and the academy develop into such a state.
To possess a jade is a crime; it was roughly like this.
However, after the World Tree branch plant was transported back to the Witch Academy, through discussions on the academy side, the academy ultimately only listed the World Tree tree heart as a Prohibited-grade Transcendent material, while the rest were only listed as Regulated materials and non-renewable precious tradable materials.
Just when the United Club thought that they would only be able to get some scraps of the World Tree, another statement from the academy made them overjoyed!
The World Tree, listed as a Regulated material, was authorized by the Witch Academy to belong to the Witch United Club.
The Witch Academy clubs had the obligation to cooperate with the academy in supervising the distribution of Regulated materials and were required to record the destination, purpose, and loss of the materials, as well as their final recovery and destruction.
Moreover, strict exchange thresholds and individual exchange limits, among a series of other requirements, were established.
No matter how harsh these restrictive conditions were, the people of the club only saw one thing...
And that was that the World Tree belonged to the United Club!
Regardless of those exchange thresholds and limits, those were merely an alternative way of saying that buying and selling were not allowed.
But at this level, how could they use Regulated materials to make money?
A vulgar thing like money simply could not be mentioned in the same breath as such things!
It had to be said that although they were not qualified to touch the tree heart, they were very willing to treat it as having paid a “protection fee.”
Such a massive amount of resource materials from an entire World Tree greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the Witch United Club!
Interests are the most moving things.
These clubs had never witnessed such a highly profitable investment.
And they also had to re-examine... war.
Should this behavior be strongly promoted?
They seemed to have opened a Pandora's box, witnessing something even more profitable than family monopolies.
When these major matters gradually settled down, the wartime report and post-war summary meeting for this occasion also commenced.
Although I didn't much like such occasions, as the absolute leader of the first campaign, I had the obligation to conduct a post-war summary for everyone, or rather... a post-war debriefing as the leader of Special Task Force Zero?
Even if I didn't much like reporting in front of many people, I could distinguish between primary and secondary matters.
Some problems encountered during this trip had to be reported.
As I stood on the stage, an air of dignity and authority without anger, along with a powerful sense of pressure, instantly silenced the entire conference hall.
Regarding this campaign, although the issue of lost Root Network information data occurred later, under the link of the Seed of Knowledge using the Great Knowledge Sharing Technique, they had watched the entire live broadcast of the scene throughout.
The entire first-person footage made their scalps tingle; it was a combat style completely different from the one person and one blade at the Qunluosen Wasteland back then.
The only thing in common was... not utilizing the power of that mysterious domain.
That natural-disaster-like spell coverage, multi-threaded spell overlap, seamlessly connected spell continuity, plus those spell methods that almost never repeated.
Along with the continuous magic power endowed by Self-generating Magic Power...
It allowed them to see a completely different Assistant Xiao Han from another angle once again.
Therefore, everyone who saw me walk onto the stage subconsciously gave me the highest respect.
“Next, I will conduct the summary report following the end of this campaign. I will try to be as concise as possible regarding the various problems encountered in this campaign. As for the detailed problems, professional people will need to retrieve all combat records for individual analysis. The members of Special Task Force Zero will also actively cooperate with the subsequent work.”
“Moving to the main topic... this campaign has exposed our United Club’s lack of experience regarding Academy Wars. First is the issue of discipline and command of the combat sequence; we do not have a systematic means of combat command and dispatch to efficiently complete combat missions, nor can we display the maximum combat power envisioned for the combat sequence.”
“Next is the issue of student discipline within the combat sequence. I originally did not want to emphasize this point, but this time, the combat sequence I led, when facing 38 Transcendent elves, showed fear, hesitation, and terror without any concealment simply because of the opponent’s threatening words, putting the overall situation into a passive state.”
“This is a very stupid behavior. Do not let joy or anger show on your face. Even when facing a Transcendent Mentor, as long as it is clear that the opponent is our enemy, one should not show any trace of cowardice...”
As my words continued, the people below also engaged in a flurry of discussion.
Facing 38 Transcendents... it was quite something for this Assistant Xiao Han to be able to say that!
This was already no longer a matter of combat sequence discipline, right?
But regardless of what they thought in their hearts, my words continued.
“Next is the issue concerning the marching of the combat sequence. Regarding this point, our initial conception was still too juvenile. Going to other Transcendent academies to launch an Academy War while riding brooms—saying such words can make people laugh.”
“Our United Club needs a more formal, massive carrying vessel that symbolizes the expedition and deterrence.”
“Regarding this problem, I also discussed it with many people on the way. The Holy Angels have their floating islands, the Elves have their never-landing floating trees of life, and the Wizards have their anti-gravity floating airships.”
“It is also necessary for our Witch Academy to have achievements in this area to adapt to subsequent campaigns. Flying brooms are more inclined toward second-stage mobility, but they cannot be everything.”
“We need such a large aerial platform to serve as a long-distance replacement for individual vehicles like flying brooms. We cannot allow the combat sequence to waste their energy and magic power on meaningless travel before even arriving at the battle site...”
With the proposal of concepts like large transport vehicles and aerial combat platforms, many people immediately attached importance to ideas in this regard.
As I spoke more profoundly and described broad development prospects, it made many people realize the importance of this proposal.
Especially the Transcendent Academic Department; they were extremely interested in the ultra-large destruction weapons paired with a large aerial combat platform.
It wasn't that no one had conceived of large destruction weapons, but utilizing them was simply too troublesome.
Individual use basically couldn't break out of the framework of individual soldier floating following weapons.
But an ultra-large combat platform... wasn't that a brand new line of thinking?
It could be said that after the conception of the Witch Warship was proposed, the Transcendent Academic Department strongly supported this proposal.
After all, they had also joined the United Club.
If the Academic Department had nothing to do, it was equivalent to having no contribution.
Without contribution, how could they participate in the carnival of distributing the Witch United Club’s resources?
The incident with the World Tree this time allowed everyone to understand the war potential of the United Club hereafter, as well as the potential for resource acquisition.
No one was willing to just watch from the sidelines.
“Regarding the conceptual proposal of the Witch Warship, do you all pass it? If more than two-thirds of the club representatives pass it and none of the Eight Core Clubs vetoes it, this proposal will be discussed separately after the post-war summary meeting ends.”
After my words finished, the Eight Core Guardian Clubs, acting as representatives, all passed it.
Among them, Wan Shi Wu, the Spell Research Society, and the Alchemy and Potion-making Society were the most active.
The subsequent hundreds of Guardian Clubs also passed it in unison.
After all, to go against everyone at this time would lead to retribution after the meeting ended.