Is It Weird for a Guy to Apply to a Witch School?

Chapter 790: The Importance of the Umbilicus Mundi?

“Yes, if this project has your help, Xiao Han, everything will naturally go much faster. However, I will not force you to make a choice. After all, I also know you have your own things to do. Speaking of which, how is the progress of your Self-generating Magic Power experiment?”

“This… indeed, the Self-generating Magic Power experiment has actually made great progress. Tan Han, who has been cooperating with me on the experiment, has already become the second reserve witch to possess Self-generating Magic Power without having advanced to Transcendent yet.”

I naturally did not hide the progress regarding this experiment, as the meaning it represented was simply too important.

“Oh? It has already succeeded?”

After hearing about my progress, countless looks of surprise flashed across Academy Head Mei’s face.

“It is only the first case. Currently, we are still unable to replicate a second case, so it is still far from being considered a success,” I hurriedly corrected her.

“Then it has at least touched the threshold of success. As long as there is a visible path, time is merely the foundation stone for building success.”

Academy Head Mei did not care about the difference between the two at all.

Or rather, for a witch, the progress currently obtained was already completely no different from success.

Time was the thing they needed to care about the least.

For a moment, the topic between the Academy Head and me had completely strayed from the previous intelligence on the Game World to the path of the Destiny Gazing Technique, and then, with a casual mention, shifted to topics related to Self-generating Magic Power.

Academy Head Mei was extremely interested in my current research on Self-generating Magic Power.

After all, the foundation of all this was a miracle she had personally shaped.

Back then in Ninglan New City, Academy Head Mei had utilized Metamorphic Incubation along with my self-awakened body cultivation, and amidst various coincidences, truly constructed Self-generating Magic Power.

It was precisely because of such a coincidence that the current miracle was created!

Academy Head Mei was equally curious about the construction of Self-generating Magic Power.

For a brand-new technique, she did not mind listening to the process of its creation like a student.

This truly left me feeling overwhelmed by the favor.

Especially after hearing that after possessing Self-generating Magic Power, a reserve witch could rely on the physical talent of Self-generating Magic Power to cross the Transcendent threshold more easily, which left Academy Head Mei extremely satisfied.

However, I felt it was just average.

Setting aside whether a witch who needed to take this kind of shortcut would have any outstanding advantages after advancing to Transcendent, for the current situation of the Main World, I felt that the Earth Vein Chains would be an even greater obstacle to advancing to Transcendent.

Nevertheless… regarding this behavior of advancing to Transcendent quickly—boarding the bus first and buying the ticket later—the Academy Head did not care at all.

A witch’s path could be changed, and chosen projects could be retaken, but being able to stand on a higher level in advance was something a non-transcendent could far from compare with.

It was just like a witch born as a Transcendent.

A witch conceived by two Transcendent Witches is a Transcendent from birth.

They stand on a higher level the moment they are born, and their instinctive and cognitive feedback after birth is directly built upon the Transcendent level.

This kind of innate advantage was completely incomparable.

However, Academy Head Mei was not overly hurried.

She naturally hoped the technique for constructing Self-generating Magic Power would be as mature as possible.

After just a brief conversation, Academy Head Mei realized where many of the problems lay.

That was the fact that this process was simply too complex.

Although it appeared systematically summarized as the Witchified Body Cultivation Method, within it were the “Construction Ritual,” the “Architecture Ritual,” and even the “Perfection Ritual” after the architecture was complete.

Furthermore, every ritual required certain prerequisite requirements, such as the Witch-transformation Reconstruction Metamorphic Spell and the upper limit of the Magic Power Source Resonance Method, and so on.

And this was not just a problem of complexity; it was also a problem of learning and application.

Starting from the Construction Ritual, the principle of how this ritual was born was unclear.

Regarding the Architecture Ritual, how the architecture points on the witch racial concept above the life essence were structured was also unclear.

Regarding the subsequent Perfection Ritual, the process of how it gradually perfected was similarly unclear.

Being unable to describe it clearly and being unable to express it understandably—this was currently the greatest problem with the Self-generating Magic Power technique.

And this problem would also become the primary root issue limiting its large-scale promotion.

Of course, being unable to understand would not become the most major problem.

To solve the root of these problems, there were actually many other alternative solutions.

For example… the assistance of alchemical items to complete special ritual requirements, and so on.

What Academy Head Mei favored more was the exclusive technique mastered by witches: “Elixirs.”

After all, an elixir was an excellent ritual-carrying medium.

It was a different system from ordinary potions and could not be simply lumped together with things like medicinal liquids.

However, these ideas were ultimately just ideas.

Before they truly produced results in practice, they were all empty talk.

After ending the topic regarding Self-generating Magic Power, we gradually returned to the topic regarding the Game World.

After all, this was the question I wanted to ask at the beginning.

For example, right now, the issue of the Witch Academy’s degree of dominance over the Game World.

Although that world had obscured its own world coordinates through shielding methods, it still belonged to the prey in the witches’ mouths.

Then there were some detailed problems regarding that world being subjected to tricks by other transcendent races.

For example… how did the Game World welcome those people?

This had to involve the Void fleet of the Void Wandering Merchants.

This was a merchant group that crossed between the Void and the worlds.

It was a massive team mainly led by several Transcendent powerhouses crossing the Void, along with bulk manpower to maintain the goods within world fragments.

Such existences existed within every transcendent race, and the Witch Academy was no exception.

Academy Head Mei even described to me that within the witch race, there were even mobile Witch Academies with the goal of training Void merchant groups.

This meant that this Witch Academy was built upon a creation that could shuttle through the Void at will, because the Witch Academy model similarly fit the mode of a few Transcendent powerhouses leading many non-transcendents to cross the Void.

Because of transport costs, these merchants generally traded in specialty renewable resources within world fragments, rather than mainly reselling goods for a price difference.

Even if the profit from such resources wasn't high, the volume was massive!

This reminded me of the time in the Expansion Realm when Fu Xinglan and the others treated me; that cup of coffee I drank seemed to be a product of the Void Wandering Merchants.

At that time, I was still wondering why a group of wandering merchants who connected Void worlds across the Void would sell such low-end goods.

It turned out… these people had world fragments and were filthy rich!

After all, although world fragments were extremely valuable, they were common for certain people—those who developed brand-new worlds on the edge of the Void all year round.

That stage was also the moment when the cost of acquiring world fragments was lowest.

But because most world fragments were small worlds or worlds that hadn't even developed into small worlds, this led to many world fragments being unable to even nurture transcendent crops, and they could only plant other types of crops.

After they decided not to do Void development anymore, becoming a Void merchant was a very good way to retire.

The Witch Academy had such a group of merchant witches, and other Transcendent Academies similarly had such a group of merchant transcendents.

Furthermore, wanting to become a Void Wandering Merchant required many hard conditions.

For example, one’s strength had to be sufficient to run rampant in the Void, and one’s assets had to be solid enough to manufacture a carrier that could traverse the Void.

Just as one must have a ship to sail the sea, floating in the Void similarly required a ship.

And with these prerequisites, a Void Wandering Merchant group would be sufficient to do more things, such as long-distance passenger transport.

Worlds within the Void could not be traveled back and forth simply by relying on transcendent teleportation methods.

The Void was a very special place, so special that only the Transcendent level could face the terrifying environment of the Void directly.

Even communication information could not achieve contact between worlds.

In such a harsh environment, how could the stability of teleportation be guaranteed?

Therefore, this was also the primary reason why it was hard for the Witch Academy to locate the Game World without real-time coordinates.

Because the Void did not even have a concept of stable material space.

Using ordinary spatial teleportation spells in the Void had no foundation, just like a person breathing in a vacuum.

So only some special means, such as the Reverse Summoning Spell originating from [Transcendent Knowledge], could achieve another level of “teleportation” to a certain extent.

However, it was clear that the price of using these means would be very high, either because the consumption was too large or the usage threshold was too high with too many restrictions, and so on.

For example, a Reverse Summoning Spell could not reach the destination without a person at the target end to perform the summoning.

Furthermore, this kind of summoning could only summon one person individually.

As for the spatial teleportation formation, Academy Head Mei wanted to invite the Anti-Witch Cheryl to leave back then… well, that belonged to a special teleportation formation plus “brute force.”

Therefore, the price of using it was high, but for the sake of sending away that Anti-Witch, Academy Head Mei was willing to spend the money once.

Unfortunately, that Anti-Witch did not appreciate the kindness.

In short, because crossing the Void was highly difficult, Void Wandering Merchant groups also played the role of “buses” in the Void.

Some merchant groups on fixed Void routes would transport guests while exporting goods.

However, for this guest transport… the “fare” was also very expensive.

It was just that compared to the consumption of brute-forced mandatory teleportation, it appeared very cheap.

The only flaw was that the journey was long and the waiting time was very extended.

Therefore, when one was not in a hurry, the cost-effectiveness of Void merchant groups was very high.

And this time, a Wizard race wandering merchant group was carrying out a passenger transport mission for the rotation of the academy’s Transcendent Wizards.

It was just like how new mentors rotate in the Witch Academy every once in a while.

The Wizard Academy also had such a tradition, though the frequency of their rotations was far less free and frequent than that of the Witch Academy.

And this time, the Void Wandering Merchant group encountered an accident when arriving at the boundary of the Main World’s Void range.

The surrounding escort Wizard vessels encountered a rare Void disaster and were currently missing.

The lives of dozens of wizards on board were unknown.

However… fortunately, no Transcendent Wizards were missing.

This rhetoric was actually already very obvious.

However, the last sentence about no Transcendent Wizards being missing was because the Wizard Academy did not want to provoke the witches’ nerves too much.

After all, the rules still needed to be followed, and non-interference by Transcendents was the bottom line.

Furthermore, they used the excuse of the accident in a grand manner.

When the time comes, if they “survive” in the Game World, the Wizard Academy would presumably jump out and apologize.

This was roughly the general situation of the Game World currently.

Academy Head Mei did not care about the movements of those families, nor did she care about the actions of those players.

Therefore, the intelligence I truly wanted to understand was actually not something the Academy Head knew a lot about.

But after learning of the higher-level gambling, some small movements truly did not need to be understood too deeply.

I also asked Academy Head Mei about her attitude toward that piece of [Transcendent Knowledge].

Academy Head Mei’s answer was also very simple: do not force it.

If possible, she naturally did not hope for this [Transcendent Knowledge] to be given to the Game World by the Wizard Academy.

As for how to send it over, that was similarly a problem.

The Game World was shielded.

This shielding was indiscriminate, and the Wizard Academy could not send this [Transcendent Knowledge] over even through the brute force mode.

So if they wanted to send it over, there was only one way: turn off the shielding.

And once they did that, the Witch Academy could very quickly dominate the Game World once again and would not give anyone a second chance to act.

But even if the Witch Academy reacted very quickly, it still required reaction time.

So if the Wizard Academy planned to take advantage of this timing to complete all resource exchanges, it was not impossible to achieve.

And the most precious Myriad World Terminal among them had likely already been swindled away.

Regarding this, Academy Head Mei could only say sorry to me.

After all, she was the one who promised to let me harvest the Game World back then, which naturally included that piece of [Transcendent Knowledge].

But now, having been nauseated by the Wizard Academy once, anyone would feel uncomfortable.

Even after compensating Xiao Han with a Dungeon World, Academy Head Mei still felt it was somewhat insufficient.

As for the suggestion to have me go and fight for this Myriad World Terminal [Transcendent Knowledge], the Academy Head was ten thousand percent unwilling to let me do so.

Who knows how those Transcendent Academies would try to kill Xiao Han at all costs if she showed her head again.

After all, the previous assassination had resulted in the deaths of several Transcendents!

The hatred had been established, and Xiao Han’s value was also gradually rising.

Academy Head Mei absolutely did not want me to take risks.

After giving this advice, Academy Head Mei also chatted with me about some other topics.

But the time for chatting was always short.

After knowing the answers we expected, we also bid farewell to the Academy Head and the others and left the office.

“Mei, you’re just letting Xiao Han leave like that? You didn't even try to urge her to stay at the last moment?”

Among the witches maintaining the Destiny Gazing instrument, one of them stopped her movements and spoke to ask.

“Xiao Han has her own things to do,” Mei Linde gave a simple reason.

“This… even if the matter is important, could it be as important as the Umbilicus Mundi? If we find the Umbilicus Mundi, even if the Main World’s current situation is bad, we will have the confidence to flip the table on those elves, bird-men, and that group of rotten people! Xiao Han can have a peaceful environment for whatever she wants to do.”

Another witch spoke very excitedly, as if she had a very persistent obsession with flipping the table.

The reason the current witches were willing to communicate with those transcendent races “calmly” at the same table was primarily because the other party held the initiative.

The Umbilicus Mundi was the lifeline of the Main World; even the Great Weakening Spell could not protect the Main World.

It was only a means to restrain the Three Great Top-tier Academies.

If they truly wanted to destroy the Umbilicus Mundi, then they had to break the all-around blockade of the Great Weakening Spell.

Once they attacked the Great Weakening Spell’s effects, it meant they wanted to have the fish die and the net break.

The Witch Academy had the ability to make it so they could not retreat unscathed.

What did this mean?

It meant that if the three transcendent races wanted the fish to die and the net to break, then none of them should think about leaving alive.

So if they wanted to use the Umbilicus Mundi as a bargaining chip to flip the table or threaten the Witch Academy, the price they would have to pay was their entire lives, and no one could save them.

The four transcendent parties thus fell completely into a “mutual deterrence” phase of peace.