Free Web NovelChapter 785: Intelligence on the [Transcendent Knowledge] Fragments
“Seeing you return alive, I am very disappointed. What meaning is there in your return this time? You have brought trouble to the family, a very big trouble. I cannot understand what kind of mood you returned here, and how you can face me.”
The man’s voice carried suppressed fury amidst its majesty, yet was perfectly concealed by a low tone.
The girl—no, the woman—standing before the man lowered her head, not daring to return a single word.
“What we needed you to do was to completely kill Tan Han. The Unrestricted Duel was the best opportunity to let the opponent die. You did not do it. You also did not deliver the item meant for Wan Shi Wu according to the plan. You have made us very passive now. You should not have lost that thing.”
The woman desperately wanted to defend herself, but as she opened her mouth, she didn't know what to say.
“Do you want to give your own explanation for these matters? An explanation after the fact is most pale and powerless. What has made you so indecisive? Or is it that staying at the Witch Academy for ten years has made you think you are a witch who can act willfully? You should understand what the education the family gave you since childhood made you follow. Speak!”
“What we follow is the great… Wizard Will!”
Along with the woman’s voice, the frame of the Earth Vein image gradually froze at this point.
“It really is interesting. April’s true goal was actually to kill Tan Han? I didn't see it at all at the time.”
My voice sounded in this study.
Then, the image of the person sitting on the chair gradually became blurry.
Currently, we were in a study inside the Hawthorne Family’s castle.
Don't ask how we got in; under transcendent-level means, any defense was actually futile.
“I also didn't think the family’s current situation had become so rampant that they dared to carry out student assassinations within a Transcendent Academy.”
Big Sis Bai also sighed from the side.
Furthermore, the Witch Academy’s regulations stated that even if there was mutual killing, as long as it wasn't under a signed contract like in the arena, there would be punishment.
At the very least, all transcendent means would be confiscated, and student status would be revoked.
And listening to that man’s tone, they intended to completely eradicate her, killing Tan Han by way of obliterating her soul-substance.
Neither I nor Big Sis Bai could understand their behavior.
Did they truly think the family would be safe just because they were within the Wizard Academy’s sphere of influence?
Or rather… the Wizard Academy had given the Hawthorne Family a promise to protect them…
After all, that thing they spoke of might be the [Transcendent Knowledge] fragment, Frozen World.
That should be something held by a Transcendent Academy, shouldn't it?
However, they were going to give this to Wan Shi Wu… this was also something I hadn't expected.
“But ultimately it wasn't done, perhaps because of my interference, which finally let April see the witch Chris on the stands… I could feel she had an instinctive fear of Chris.”
“In that case, you could be considered to have indirectly saved Tan Han’s life?”
Big Sis Bai said with a smile.
“That’s not certain. Tan Han is a Child of Destiny. Even without me, it would have been very difficult for the opponent to succeed in an assassination.”
I said very casually.
At this time, there was actually no need to dwell on the question of whether I saved Tan Han’s life.
Clearly, more secrets were buried here.
“True.”
Big Sis Bai didn't dwell on this problem too much either.
“But Xiao Han, aren't you going to continue watching?”
“It was just a recreation of the scene. The following plot doesn't have much content; it's boring.”
I casually flipped through the information presented by the Earth Vein Appraisal Spell.
These were all “textual information” extracted from the Earth Vein data.
Scanning down briefly, I indeed couldn't see any other interesting developments.
“I’m still very curious. Exactly what kind of childhood must one experience to make a person feel that at the final moment in the academy, ending with one’s own life is an acceptable thing… Is this truly raising a child?”
Big Sis Bai finally voiced such an inquiry.
“Big Sis Bai… there are more than just me in this world who had a miserable childhood. Looking at it this way, my past experiences seem trivial now.”
“Don't say that, Xiao Han… just because many people's childhoods were similarly miserable doesn't mean your own past isn't worth mentioning. How could the trauma you suffered in the past be brushed aside just because of a comparison?”
“Big Sis Bai, don't be so eager to educate me. I won't listen.”
“Alright.”
Big Sis Bai paused her tone, knowing she had said a bit too much.
Moreover, since this matter had already passed for Xiao Han, she shouldn't have brought up this topic.
Subsequently, we used this incident as a thread for the Earth Vein information to constantly search through past events.
During this process, we found many other unexpected gains, but I wasn't very concerned about those.
After all, I wasn't collecting this information to trip up this family.
At most, I would treat the dirty things they did as entertainment.
I was still more curious about where they got the Frozen World fragment, and… why they wanted to give it to Wan Shi Wu.
Surely Wan Shi Wu couldn't be in collusion with the Wizard Academy?
During the data collection period, I was also organizing the intelligence I had acquired so far.
First, the player avatar learned that those players were still secretly collecting [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments.
Then, the players were very close to the Transcendent Academies.
Plus, my player avatar could even get in touch with people from families, showing that family forces were currently accepting the existence of players.
Even if the players had once “possessed” and killed the family's high-level officials, they didn't seem to care.
Wan Shi Wu was also currently collecting fragments of [Transcendent Knowledge], ostensibly for Lucianne, the Child of Destiny, for the Struggle for Destiny.
Mhm…… surely it couldn't be that the Hawthorne Family was supporting Lucianne across academies?
I also shared this information with Big Sis Bai.
I wasn't very good at analyzing these things, or rather, I lacked confidence in deductive thinking.
I couldn't figure out Wan Shi Wu's current situation either.
If one were to say they had rebellious intentions, both Fu Xinglan and Tracy, whom I had contact with, had shown me goodwill, and even obtained a promise from me by way of intelligence—and that was with a Witch's Contract as a guarantee, it couldn't be fake.
But to say they were well-intentioned… among the teaching assistants who plotted to kill me back then, there were TAs from both Wan Shi Wu and the Witch's Secret Realm Club who “fell from grace.”
“How about we make a bold assumption? Suppose Wan Shi Wu is in a state of vacillation. They want to use the Frozen World fragment to win over those with opposing philosophies. After all, you’re clear about the current Main World situation, Xiao Han. It’s the Witch Academy against the other Transcendent Academies, and the Witch Academy’s actions have made many families uneasy.”
“Is that possible?”
I instinctively retorted and asked.
Just now, I had acquired another piece of news: the [Transcendent Knowledge] fragment Frozen World was held by the family, not the Wizard Academy.
Furthermore, the Grand Sorcery of the False World Space was indeed a sorcery created using this fragment as a prototype.
Because it originated from [Transcendent Knowledge], they had overconfidently added a “Grand” to it, calling it a “Grand Sorcery.”
This was meant to rival a witch’s Grand Spellbook.
And this Frozen World fragment was held by the family from start to finish.
Even the Wizard Academy only used the name of research, inviting the Wizard Tower Lord mentor to help with research in the capacity of a Wizard Tower Keeper.
“It really is strange… this [Transcendent Knowledge] fragment. The family is collecting it, the players are collecting it, and it can even be seen that the Wizard Academy has been having students collect it recently. Yet the Wizard Academy has never actually taken this thing.”
“Xiao Han, do you think there's something fishy about this?”
Big Sis Bai also spoke up at the right time to ask.
“It’s very strange. Why? [Transcendent Knowledge] should be very precious, right?”
“It is indeed very precious. I didn't have much of a concept of it before, but after advancing to Transcendent, I can recognize its preciousness. Especially [Transcendent Knowledge] that can be utilized is even more precious.”
“Wait, those that can be utilized? And there are those that can't?”
I asked curiously.
According to my understanding of [Transcendent Knowledge], even rootless [Transcendent Knowledge] could be studied slowly over centuries to figure out its characteristics and then be utilized, couldn't it?
“You didn't know, Xiao Han? Not every piece of [Transcendent Knowledge] can be utilized. Oh, I see.”
Big Sis Bai seemed to think of something all of a sudden and explained to me from my perspective.
“Xiao Han, you think as long as time is spent, it can be fully understood, right? But that is only a theoretical state. The actual situation is that during the initial stage of studying a piece of [Transcendent Knowledge], one can roughly tell whether it can be utilized.”
“But even if it cannot be utilized to create a Grand Spellbook, it still has research value. After all, it can derive many spells second only to a Grand Spellbook.”
“Mhm……”
I let out a soft sound.
This was the first time I had heard this…
Perhaps I hadn't understood it clearly before……
I thought those witch sisters who studied for hundreds of years without results were just doing preliminary legwork… it turned out the real situation was that they knew from the beginning this was an experiment that could not succeed……
“So… Big Sis Bai thinks this is a piece of [Transcendent Knowledge] that cannot be utilized?”
I asked.
“I cannot give a professional answer. After all, I’ve only chatted with a few sisters about this kind of knowledge and have a general understanding of some matters, but I don't know much about this aspect.”
Big Sis Bai shook her head with some regret.
“Is that so……”
“However, I know that this [Transcendent Knowledge] was once made into a Grand Spellbook.”
Big Sis Bai suddenly spoke with a sharp turn.
“Eh? What?”
I, who originally held no hope and was ready to look at other information, suddenly looked toward Big Sis Bai.
“It was made into a Grand Spellbook named the Great Snow Throne Spell, but as you can see, it shattered into these fragments.”
“Great Snow Throne Spell… good grief… so it really was a Grand Spellbook!”
I exclaimed in wonder.
“Oh? Listening to your tone, Xiao Han, did you have conjectures in this regard before?”
“Sort of.”
I nodded, without sounding very proud.
“Since this was made into a Grand Spellbook, then it must be the Witch Academy’s handiwork. Why would it end up like this? With the value of a Grand Spellbook, many witches should have been fighting for it…… why waste such a precious thing?”
“Perhaps… it was for something even more precious or important than a Grand Spellbook……”
Big Sis Bai also said with some emotion.
“But clearly it failed, right? In the end, it was shattered…… making an attempt with a Grand Spellbook is truly a massive stroke.”
This was already the second "broken" Grand Spellbook I had heard of.
Though… this Grand Spellbook called the Great Snow Throne Spell didn't seem to have been "played to death."
However, Academy Head Mei's Great Weakening Spell was something she personally admitted to playing to death.
Before the Great Weakening Spell was broken, it had left a permanent Grand Spell effect in the Core Realm that suppressed everyone.
What about the Great Snow Throne Spell?
It seemed… it hadn't left any traces.
After such exclamations, we continued to look for new intelligence.
Currently, my means of acquiring intelligence were a complete dimensionality reduction strike for families.
Before the Earth Vein Appraisal Spell, there were nearly no secrets to speak of.
But unfortunately, they were ultimately just a family and hadn't reached the level of a Transcendent Academy yet.
Therefore, much of the intelligence wasn't high in value.
What’s more, they couldn't possibly say everything out loud; true secrets were always hidden in the heart.
This resulted in me being busy organizing data for a long time without much gain.
However… once there was a gain, the value of that intelligence would be very high.
For example… right now I found information regarding these [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments.
It recorded the general intelligence on the [Transcendent Knowledge] fragments.
First was the Crown of Absolute Zero, currently in the hands of the Witch Academy’s Child of Destiny Tan Han, made into the Wand of Absolute Cold.
Then there were the 12 Hearts of Cold Tide.
Currently, two are confirmed to be in the Witch Academy.
Of these two in the Witch Academy, one is in the hands of the Wan Shi Wu Child of Destiny Lucianne, and another is in the hands of “Yang Yuehan.”
The other 9 have confirmed specific locations and information; they are all in the hands of various Transcendent Academies or families… one more had appeared but was stolen, and the specific situation is unknown…
These records were very detailed.
It looked like many families were paying attention to the movement of the fragments.
Just as I thought before, they might not hold these fragments in their own hands, but they must know the intelligence regarding their existence.
But what they didn't know was that I had two Hearts of Cold Tide in my hand… meaning that the number of Hearts of Cold Tide has actually been fully gathered currently.
Frozen World… this fragment was lost by April.
To my surprise, the explanation April gave was "lost," rather than being taken by that Anti-Witch.
It looked like… I already had two items of “stolen goods” on me.
And the next piece of intelligence was a type I was also learning about for the first time.
“Protection of the Ice and Snow Spirit.”
Held in the hands of the Aphrodite Academy’s Child of Destiny Yao Beijuan as her life-saving trump card, it can be triggered in dangerous situations to protect herself and her companions.
The source of information was that time during the auction last year when the players raided the hotel……
I truly hadn't paid attention to this.
After all, I had only slashed out once that time and hadn't really noticed what means others used.
Next was… “Ancient Glacial Ice Transformation Spell Spellbook.”
The current holder is an ordinary student of the Witch Academy, Xiao You, who is closely related to the Child of Destiny Tan Han.
Moreover… Ancient Glacial Ice was a series.
In addition to the Ancient Glacial Ice Transformation Spell Spellbook, there was also the “Ancient Glacial Ice Transformation Grand Sorcery” and the “Frost Angel God-Descent Art.”
Seeing this, I instantly gasped!
This was the current status of those fragments after that [Transcendent Knowledge] shattered and was dispersed until now.
Some were treasured, still in their original form as the Crown of Absolute Zero, but ultimately couldn't escape being made into a magic wand.
Some were dispersed everywhere; no one has collected all 12 beads until now.
Some were made into spellbooks, Grand Sorceries, or Divine Arts, no longer in their original forms.
So…… now, the Heart of Cold Tide and Frozen World in my hand had completely become the fuse for this matter.
Once the news was revealed and all fragment information was complete, this would be another storm.
And the one who caused this situation was entirely that Anti-Witch… sure enough, that Anti-Witch was actually plotting against me.
