Chapter 876: Unwillingness to be ordinary is not what an Anti-Witch is
Chapter 876: Unwillingness to be ordinary is not what an Anti-Witch is
“I also find it very suspicious; a club has no qualification to meddle with things of this level, unless… it is the meaning of the academy side…”
“The meaning of the academy side…”
That was indeed a possibility, but I couldn't think of why.
Taking this secret realm out and handing it over to a club to handle.
“Mhm. Currently, the Witch's Secret Realm Club has already joined forces with Wan Shi Wu to co-sponsor the secret realm exploration plan. Furthermore, this plan has released news to the outside: anyone holding [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments can use them as a ticket to enter this secret realm.”
Just as I was thinking, Tan Han dropped another such piece of news.
“Ah? For real?”
My eyes widened in great surprise.
I hadn't even obtained relevant information about this through the Great Tree of Knowledge!
“It's true. This time they had a showdown with me for the purpose of seeking cooperation, and the goal is also very clear. They want to borrow the research data of this Grand Spellbook to forcibly gather all the holders of [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments together.”
“Wait… why do they think that simply relying on this single portion of data can attract all holders to follow their arrangements?”
I asked with a frown.
“Is this research data not precious enough? If one can thoroughly master this data and gather all the fragments together, perhaps this Grand Spellbook can be reshaped. Even if it cannot be reshaped, this data provides a research direction, saving a vast amount of time. Moreover, this data doesn't necessarily attract those students, but rather the mentors behind those students! Only mentors have the qualification to touch the power of the Grand Spellbook field.”
“No… wait, let me sort this out first,” I reached out my hand and spoke hurriedly.
This matter, coming from Tan Han's mouth, was filled with strangeness and contradictions.
I did not deny that this might be a deviation in Tan Han's own understanding.
The most important point was that I knew very well those Transcendents of other academies avoided this [Transcendent Knowledge] like the plague!
Let alone the knowledge and data for shaping this Grand Spellbook.
Anything connected to Destiny—they didn't want to touch it at all.
Furthermore, this was a bait proactively extended by the Witch Academy.
It was hard not to make them recall the witches' scheme of wanting to use this to locate the Umbilicus Mundi.
“What's wrong?”
Tan Han didn't quite understand the situation, only feeling that I seemingly hadn't understood something clearly somewhere.
“This secret realm exploration—is it in the name of the academy, or the name of the student body?”
“It is organized jointly by the two major clubs of the Witch Academy; naturally it has nothing to do with the academy.”
“Then… the location? The location is in the Witch Academy, right?”
I asked.
If this was merely a student operation, then this incident was actually no different from the manager's previous operation.
No matter how large the incident was, it was within the Witch Academy and didn't touch upon other Transcendent academies; naturally, there was no possibility of leaking the correlation between the Umbilicus Mundi and Destiny.
If those students gathered all the fragments, they could even trade directly with the Game World, incidentally resolving this hidden danger.
Even if the Witch Academy wanted to interfere, at most it would just be a few students stumbling in the Witch Academy.
From the perspective of those Transcendents, they themselves would have no impact.
Incidentally, they could even label the Witch Academy as being unable to afford to lose.
“Naturally it is in the Witch Academy. A Witch's Secret Realm is certainly maintained within the Witch Academy. Moving this secret realm would be completely thankless.”
“So you intend to go in?”
“Mhm, I naturally have to go in. In a few more days, those clubs will build up momentum. With my current status, if I don't go, I don't know what kind of rumors will be made up about me.”
“True enough. Then good luck to you. Speaking of which… are there any restrictions for entering this Witch's Secret Realm?”
“No. Because of that, I feel my advantage is quite large. At least in terms of individual strength, I am in the topmost batch.”
Tan Han was still very confident about this; after all, she had established such confidence with countless battles and victories in the arena.
Subsequently, her tone shifted, “However, I am also clear that I need to guard against their malicious targeting. Although they approached me saying it's cooperation, I feel it's more about ill intentions.”
“Indeed. Right, I also want to ask: have you inquired about the general conditions within that Witch's Secret Realm? Also, whether one can enter and leave freely and so on.”
“I naturally asked them, but unfortunately, the situation of that secret realm is very special. It seems the entire territory is covered in ice and snow, with very terrifying blizzards as well as ice and snow monsters. The specific internal situation cannot be probed in advance. However, the issue of entry and exit has been confirmed; it's fixed-point entry and exit.”
“Fixed-point entry and exit, huh… meaning one cannot break away. Then can space-type spells teleport one out?”
“It seems so. After all, this is merely a secret realm made from carved-out space,” Tan Han pondered for a bit and spoke.
“Little Han, you are asking in such detail… could it be that you are also interested in this? I have Absolute Zero and Frozen World here. If it's just to serve as a ticket, I can return Frozen World to you…”
“No need. I'm not interested in this either,” I spoke to refuse.
Actually, even if I were interested, I had no time or energy to engage with such a thing.
Big Sis Bai's Dream Domain was not yet completely perfected, the Fool's Dreams had not yet become true lives, the Nightmares did not yet have a perfected technique to transform into dream-state soul-substance, and the soul-substance conversion between the reality-state and dream-state still didn't have many leads.
So many problems were waiting for me to solve; where would I get the energy to care about a shattered Grand Spellbook?
I could even directly deconstruct a Grand Spellbook for the sake of the Fool's Dreams!
Their minor squabbles were naturally something I didn't want to get involved in.
“I only hope you pay attention to safety. Use your trump cards when they should be used. When it truly reaches the final moment, you can even use my name card to call me for assistance. My person may not be able to go over, but an attack can.”
“The name card…”
“What's wrong?”
I looked at Tan Han's somewhat hesitant look and asked.
“That name card you gave me… I lost it.”
“Lost it?”
I gave a light laugh.
“Being forgetful doesn't seem like your style, Tan Han.”
As I spoke, I took out another name card.
Anyway, it was just an alchemical gadget that could be refined at will.
The only important thing was the guiding rune for the Reverse Summoning Spell on it.
“It was… a long time ago. Back during the holiday auction. Players invaded the auction house's hotel; it was lost at that time.”
“That time?”
I recalled back then.
At that time, it was Tan Han who summoned me over to resolve everything.
The confrontation between my domain and the players' customized dungeon domain at that time truly exceeded their cognition.
The confrontation between domains was similarly not something they could bear.
After Tan Han summoned me over in such an extreme situation, her heart relaxed, and she forgot about the subsequent matters.
If it was lost then… I could understand.
I wonder which lucky soul picked it up.
***
“You're leaving too?”
Dainiel looked at the figure about to leave, her tone filled with loneliness.
“This Main World is so boring. It's time for me to go back and visit my two mothers. I hope they haven't added a few new sisters for me.”
“Then… contact through the Primal Dream State.”
“Mhm. Actually… you should leave too. This Main World is even more uninteresting in your eyes. Why stay here and take abuse?”
“I am just unwilling. Are you willing to be mediocre?”
“Then you should go out and venture even more, instead of looking for… hehe never mind.”
“You go ahead.”
“I'm off. It seems we aren't witches on the same path either. Regarding the Primal Dream State, then we'll see each other if fate permits.”
Listening to this sentence, Dainiel did not respond to the other party again.
And with this departure, they might never meet again afterward.
She didn't quite understand.
She was a Transcendent Witch as well; why were the witches beside her leaving her one by one?
“Heh… it's just the loneliness of one person. The path of an Anti-Witch is destined to be muddy. Those witches willing to be ordinary truly aren't worthy of being my companions.”
Dainiel comforted herself in this way.
“As a witch, exactly what makes you feel that witches willing to be ordinary aren't worthy of being your companions? Is it the Anti-Witch Project?”
“Who? It's you…”
Dainiel was startled.
Subsequently, she saw that figure.
And this figure instantly brought her immense pressure, to the point that she instinctively took a half-step back.
“That's why I said you are truly naive. Being unconventional, placing yourself on the opposite side in everyone's vision—is that your understanding of the Anti-Witch Project?”
“What do you know!”
Dainiel instinctively felt disgust toward the witch before her.
It was the kind of feeling where, facing everything she pursued, the witch before her seemingly possessed it with ease and showed it off nonchalantly before her.
This sense of gap constantly stimulated her emotions.
“Oh it's not? Then… is unwillingness to be ordinary what you consider an Anti-Witch? Then once you become an Anti-Witch and are still unwilling to be mediocre, are you going to walk the path of a Traitor Anti-Witch?”
“You truly know how to label people… Do you think you are so great! You merely have several hundred or a thousand years more accumulation than me. In the final analysis, you are just a madwoman who only knows how to show off power. Because of a coincidence, you killed a Traitor and thus obtained the title of Anti-Witch.”
“Pfft… Hahaha, haha…”
Hearing these words from Dainiel, Cheryl laughed out loud without any regard for her image.
Because she discovered she had still overestimated the other party's cognition.
When she said the gap between herself and her was merely her good luck in killing a Traitor Anti-Witch, all debate became meaningless.
Hunting a Traitor Anti-Witch was merely a ritual for achieving the status of an Anti-Witch, not a means for a witch to become an Anti-Witch!
When a witch made the resolution to become an Anti-Witch, everything she did was practicing the philosophy of the Anti-Witch Project.
The so-called title was merely a negligible piece of recognition on the path of practicing this philosophy.
But… does an Anti-Witch need recognition?
Admittedly, within the group of Anti-Witches there similarly existed those who first killed a Traitor Anti-Witch and only then stepped onto the path of an Anti-Witch.
But killing a Traitor Anti-Witch was not a matter of glory, but a reflection upon the witch race concepts and racial identity.
Exactly what made a witch walk the path of a Traitor?
Was it an error in the witch race's philosophy?
Or was that witch herself a pathetic error?
Regardless, it required them, the Anti-Witches, to correct it!
If it was an error in the witch race's philosophy, they corrected the whole race.
If it was an error in an individual witch herself… then they corrected that specific case.
There were no exceptions.
And Cheryl simultaneously saw two errors in Dainiel.
One originated from her own stupidity, while the other… originated from the ease of the Main World.
It was very hard for a truly critical-eyed Anti-Witch to be born within ease.
Cheryl didn't dare speak too absolutely, but the witch before her clearly was not among the exceptions.
When Dainiel chose not to leave the Main World, along with her Anti-Witch Project, she should have set it aside as well.
In Cheryl's view, between Dainiel and a Traitor Anti-Witch, there was only a single stupid decision.
Of course, Cheryl's coming here this time was naturally not for "entrapment."
A Dainiel who wasn't even at the Saint Stage was not yet worth her targeting like this.
Cheryl just pushed forward the matters that were about to happen, and then… handled the hidden danger at the minimum cost.
“What are you laughing at!”
“Haha… I'm laughing at your stupidity, laughing at your foolishness. I am laughing at myself; I am laughing at why I wasted time pointlessly on you.”
This was the truest expression of Cheryl's heart at this moment, but clearly Dainiel didn't feel that way.
“You……”
“Can you only do impotent rage!”
Cheryl shifted her tone.
Merely with the order pressure of a Saint Stage domain, she directly intimidated Dainiel, making her clearly understand the gap between herself and the other party.
This feeling of being forced to be calm was truly not good.
“Perhaps you should know one thing by now? Just a short while ago, the announcement released by the academy regarding the breakthrough in the field of the Primal Dream State was informed to every witch.”
“But what you don't know is… exactly how terrifying this technical breakthrough is. The Dream Calamity of the Expansion Realm, remember it? This technical breakthrough reached the degree sufficient to control that terrifying Dream Calamity.”
“This… this is impossible!”
Dainiel's pupils constricted.
Even though she hadn't witnessed such a means with her own eyes, she had heard of its track record.
“Is this impossible already? Then… What if I tell you the witch who mastered this technique is named Bai Yu? Would you not be even more unable to believe it?”
“Bai… Yu?”
“Yes, that Bai Yu you know, that little witch's little lover, that Bai Yu who shaped an invincible posture with Time Sense Body Cultivation.”
Cheryl delivered another finishing blow to Dainiel.
“Come let me see. Comparing with such a witch, what kind of answer will someone as ordinary as you give?”
Cheryl harped on the word “ordinary,” constantly touching Dainiel's most fragile inner heart.
That witch named Bai Yu walked on the Ordinary Project she looked down upon the most, yet ultimately surpassed the “reserve Anti-Witch” she prided herself as being far from ordinary.
How dramatic.
Under the constant conflict of cognition, until… before she calmed down, she would fall into endless self-doubt, until she calmed down, and then everything would have an answer.