Chapter 217: Now is the Time to Flip the Table
Setting off from the sea area and passing through the still-burning region, although I no longer had my guidance, the spread of the fire was much faster than I had anticipated. However, I also saw many cleared zones left by trees after being chopped down, providing a moment of respite for this forest amid the raging flames.
But I was still quite far from that World Tree.
Even from a distance, I could see the beam of light enveloping the entire World Tree, the unique hymn ceremony of Aphhemia.
Singing hymns to praise the greatness and selflessness of the Mother Goddess, expressing the devotion and adoration of the Forest Elves through ceremonial means.
This ceremony required specially treated offerings and pure Forest Elves to conduct it.
The ceremony naturally involved singing the melodious hymn of the Mother Goddess to pray for her response.
Preparatory work before the ceremony also required cumbersome handling, including that the singing Forest Elves needed to wear specific attire and drink the flawless dew from the World Tree’s fruit…
“Stop! No flying here! Get down!”
“Huh?” I looked down at the commotion below me. After causing so much trouble in the exchange competition, hearing such angry shouts indeed caught my attention.
“Do you not know who I am?” I glanced at the World Tree in the distance, then descended.
“I don’t care who you are! If you’re not from the Beast Academy or the Elf Academy, don’t think you can pass through here!”
“Boss… this one looks like a witch; wasn’t it the witch who…”
“How could that be a coincidence? Even if she is a witch, not all of them are that strong.”
“Yeah, I’m from the Witch Academy, and my strength isn’t that great. May I ask if this is the Aphhemia Academy conducting a ceremony? Why are you from the Beast Academy guarding here?”
“You don’t need to know! It’s all your witch academy’s fault! Witches are not welcome here! Get lost! Or my brothers won’t hold back!”
“I see…” So it meant that although the alliance with the Sea Tribe had failed, the Elves and Beast Academy had reached a deal, even helping to guard the ceremony…
“But you don’t need to be so protective of the Aphhemia Academy, do you? What benefit do they provide you for completing the ceremony?”
“Don’t try to pry into my words.”
The other side clearly wasn’t planning to cooperate and lost patience with my questions, grabbing their weapons and coming toward me.
“d*e!” I cast a Fireball Spell, sending this guy away.
“Boss! I told you she’s a witch…”
“You go too, just to have a reason.”
With those two dispatched, I made quite a commotion, but no matter, I hoped to reach the foot of the World Tree after moving a bit further.
This was also my first time seeing the so-called World Tree up close. Even though the rules stated that it was just a fake, a simulated miniature branch of the World Tree, arriving in such a large shaded area still gave me a shock.
“Witch! It’s a witch! The witch is coming!”
“d*mn, is this how the Beast Academy’s alert system works?”
“It’s that Yang Yuelan!”
“I said…”
“Yang Yuelan! Are you here to stop our ceremony?”
“Sort of.”
I quickly scanned the area and didn’t see any named Elves; it seemed they hadn’t arrived yet after reviving?
I wasn’t sure where they had been randomly teleported to.
But the number of Elves gathered here still made me feel what it meant to be in a tricky situation.
With the alert from the Elves, it wasn’t long before I was surrounded and attacked by those from the Beast Academy.
“Yang Yuelan, I’ve heard that you alone as a witch overshadowed three parties during the struggle for the Life Fruit. How will you fare now?”
“Oh? The new leader of the Elves, whose name I haven’t heard…”
“Lin Qinyin, remember this name, witch. You will taste defeat under this name soon!”
“You guys are lowering your demands with each passing moment. Such fierce words are so conservative…?” But before I could finish speaking, their attacks had already arrived.
They weren’t willing to waste more time talking to me, and this batch of ceremonies had the advantage for Aphhemia Academy, with the only one preceding theirs being that of the Sea Tribe.
The Sea Tribe’s ceremony was notoriously difficult; after all, without external aid, it was tough to go to the sea region to stop them from holding a ceremony, even if that ceremony was allowed to take place on the water’s surface.
“Fine, fine, fine, ambushing me before I finish speaking?”
I quickly cast a shield around myself. Forest Elves excel in archery and are quite skilled at it. With their natural powers, their long-range attacks could be terrifying.
If ambushed in a forest, it would be even more terrifying.
So, dealing with Elves couldn’t be done with conventional methods by engaging them on their specialty directly.
Once the opponent lost cover and the boosts provided by the forest, as well as the advantages of agility, they were no more than just shooting arrows at me.
Oh, and those so-called Elf spells, but it was clear they hadn’t learned many, with many simply enhancing their arrows.
Not only from the Elves’ side, but also from the Beast Academy, as everyone had a common enemy.
And the Elves who continued preparing for the ceremony were still at it.
“Do I not exist?!” Upon seeing that they were still preparing for the ceremony even in such a situation, I called upon the protection of the Fire Elemental.
“Mother Goddess, bless us!”
Seeing me use such means again, Lin Qinyin resonated with the World Tree in high spirits using Elven language, a strong natural force swirled around the Elves.
In the next moment, their attacks became fiercer, reaching a level of absolute firepower suppression.
Through Spirit Vision, I observed the terrifying energy flowing within the World Tree. Although the World Tree was fake to me, it was real in the Dream World, just in a ** version.
As expected… the World Tree is so powerful, directly strengthening these Elves within its realm; the power of their arrows had even reached the level of my magically altered energy spells.
However, it was clear that the opponent was also adapting to the surge in power. If the arrows could not hit, and the Elf spells could not land, then they were essentially useless.
I couldn’t afford to spare any of the body enhancement and perception enhancement spells at this moment.
The Knowing and Doing Unity spell could also further enhance the various qualities I lacked in battle through suggestion.
For example, concentrating attention, dodging attacks, precise spellcasting, etc., many things that would be instinctively overlooked in combat could be reminded through this suggestion.
Indeed, once the opponent took things seriously and worked together, all my combat “tricks” seemed to be rendered ineffective.
The crush of necessary thinking established earlier short-circuited at this moment.
Because the understanding I had then was that if the extraordinary had a very high upper limit of power and a very low lower limit, it was rare to encounter evenly matched battles.
Thus, crushing was the most common way for the extraordinary to collide. As long as one was higher in terms of power level than the opponent, the so-called combat skills and enemy-thinking were secondary to the crushing strength.
My confidence stemmed naturally from the terrifying Spirit Vision level and the magical alterations to the spellbook because I believed this was a shortcut that only I could walk.
This was something I learned from the new student competition process, and even Tan Han did not shake my conviction.
If everyone’s strength was developing forward, only at different speeds, then in battle, evenly matched encounters were ultimately just a fleeting moment.
At this moment, I even had the thought of replenishing my magic power to try out the power of my one and only Excessive Consumption Spellbook.
However, doing so would still be somewhat wasteful, after all, I was mainly here to delay their ceremonial progress, not to engage in an all-out gunfight with them.
Now that they were enhanced by the World Tree, a fire fight might leave us both worse off, and I was still unsure just how much power their World Tree could exert.
“Witch, you only deserve to fly around like a fly up there! How dare you act wild near our World Tree!”
“It’s fine, I have plenty of time to waste with you.” My attention was focused not only on the Elf ceremony but also on observing the ceremonies from other places, but I did not see the ceremonies from the other two top academies appear.
Did they foresee that the Elf Academy was bent on securing its ceremony and thus withdrew?
After all, a hard confrontation would only lead to mutual destruction and waste their own time. Now, with the Elves being forced into a corner by the great fire, they probably wouldn’t seize the opportunity to strike while they were at a disadvantage.
I admitted their firepower was fierce, even allowing the ceremony to proceed uninterrupted under such defense; my interference appeared almost inconsequential to them.
I could see their clear division of labor and cooperation. After suffering losses, they were working hard not to suffer a second time.
“I admit that under the enhancement of the World Tree, you are indeed powerful.” At this moment, I quickly distanced myself from them; without flipping the table, using my Excessive Consumption Spellbook, my current means still found it difficult to shake their position.
“But if I let you all complete the ceremony while I set fire around you, how would you respond? True, you’ve gained some points for your academy, but what have you lost? Do you dare to come out and confront me?”
Since they wouldn’t come out, I would create opportunities for them to do so.
I admit that the World Tree’s enhancement was like a stronghold that was easy to defend but difficult to attack.
But if they wouldn’t come out, I could burn everything near their home; as for threats, it depended on how they chose.
“Then go ahead and burn! The World Tree will protect us from harm; ordinary flames cannot touch the World Tree. If you don’t believe it, try.”
“Wait! The World Tree can protect you; what about us from the Beast Academy?”
“It seems your allies are abandoning you? The Aphhemia World Tree is only the tree of your academy; do other Elves also require the World Tree’s protection?”
“Don’t fall for the enemy’s provocation! If our ceremony succeeds, we will use the power of the World Tree to extinguish the forest fire!”
“Hahaha! Where does your confidence come from? You think the World Tree will extinguish the mountain fire? Show me one you extinguish right now!”
“Stop using words to provoke us! After the ceremony succeeds, it will trigger hidden rules, right? You are from the Witch Academy; you know this best, do you dare say hidden rules won’t activate after the ceremony?”
“Alright, alright, so you all know, huh? Indeed, I admit it will trigger hidden rules.”
I nodded with a smile. Their certainty surely indicated that they knew something in advance.
Just like with the Sea Tribe, it made me feel like a clown.
Is this the consideration of other academies?
Since everyone knew this, and the exchange competition was still ongoing, it meant they were all compliant with this, having countless excuses to blame on guesses or other things, after all, our Witch Academy had confirmed it.
“But instead of expecting Aphhemia Academy to help you extinguish fires after its ceremony finishes, you might as well pray the Sea Tribe can help you. Why hang yourself on one tree? Clearly, the Aphhemia Academy is using you as guns!”
“Stop talking nonsense! The Sea Tribe has no reason to help us, just take care of this guy, and everything will be fine!”
“Hehe, then do as you wish.”
Since they believed in all this, there was nothing more to say; whether they were really foolish or had reached an irretrievable point, unable to convince themselves, their choices would not change, and I did not need to worry for them.
I checked my recovery potions. Although I had used quite a few, there were still some left. After slightly analyzing, I thought that after this incident, I probably wouldn’t consume so much as now, so I could act without reservation.
There were many factors for making this decision. The most direct was impeding the ceremonial progress of other academies according to the contract, and then there was the other side’s World Tree power being overpowered; these were objective reasons.
Although I wanted to complain that even if they were using overpowered abilities, it was only at the same level as me.
Additionally, I was subjectively aware of the inherent unfairness of this exchange competition. Powerful strength belonged to us, so if other academies wanted a fair exchange platform, they should provide it; yet, it was all so contrived that it grew tiresome.
Compromising with the script, I knew this was a stage prepared for those Child of Fortune, and precisely because I knew this, I subconsciously acted in ways I hadn’t even thought of.
Perhaps it stemmed from an inner rebellion, resisting that this wasn’t my stage, but I could use my strength to turn this place into my stage.
This was a process of self-validation; after all, when facing predetermined matters, one would always instinctively rebel, wouldn’t they?
I even wondered if my behavior was part of the script because I found myself gradually becoming the villain that everyone resisted here.
The final outcome could not be them uniting to attack me, right? Perhaps it would involve me dragging the entire Witch Academy down while targeting Tan Han?
Such an ending seemed too clichéd.
Sometimes, I lived feeling this way, powerless, the root of my powerlessness being the ability to guess what might happen but being unable to change anything.
I was merely hypnotizing myself into recognizing such occurrences. If everything happened according to my guesses, I would feel everything was as I expected, and my level of thinking was higher, I was indeed extraordinary.
If it didn’t happen as I anticipated, I would convince myself that it was an unexpected surprise, not my shallow, fixed, already predicted cliché ending—what a wonderful world.
But the fact was that nothing had changed; only my self-deceiving methods had transformed.
Whenever I pondered life, I would often end it with a deep breath, for I knew that would yield no conclusion, casting all those matters away.
Now I had to do something significant.
Even Tan Han had not done this, or at least I hadn’t seen her use her ancient relic ice transformation in the exchange competition.
Instead, I had used it in advance.
Fire Rain Domain Spell.
Although Fire Rain sounded unimpressive, its suffix was Domain, instantly elevating its status, plus its identity as an Excessive Consumption Spellbook.
I was excited for its power.
At this moment, I quickly downed several recovery potions, reaching a peak state.
“Now is the time to flip the table.”
As I whispered, the spellbook I had yet to use was activated at that moment. I could feel the magic power within me being crazily extracted. After all, my upper limit was just over a thousand, just reaching the threshold to use this spell.
Then, I hastily downed a few more recovery potions. If only I had that alchemical item to store magic power like Tan Han’s. However, I doubted there would be such a thing in the entire exchange competition.
“Not good! Hurry and stop her! She’s charging up a terrifying spell!”
At that moment, it felt as if everything had reversed; Lin Qinyin, as the leader, was struck with an indescribable annoyance and panic.
The surrounding air became intensely heated at that moment.
And I felt the terrifying sense of power when Tan Han had used this kind of spell, and even the mere released might of such a spell was enough to leave the enemy without a chance to resist.
But this wasn’t a transformation spell; that might wasn’t emitted from a single entity.
This was a domain, a Fire Rain Domain.
At that moment, the sky seemed to catch fire, flames replacing the clouds, obscuring the sky, creating a phenomenon.
This phenomenon even exceeded the ceremonial light beam, revealing a real fire cloud visible from any open area in the exchange competition.
The scorching light and heat became the most eye-catching spectacle on the exchange map.
It was a domain formed by high temperatures and flames, with fire condensing into “raindrops” falling from the sky.
Each drop of rain raised a wave of heat upon hitting the ground, flames covering the entire land and trees. The fire rain splashing upon the flames caused them to swirl like rain falling on a water surface creating ripples.
The World Tree extended its branches and leaves to provide shelter for these Elves; every leaf that came into contact with the fire rain would turn a bit yellow, while ordinary trees directly ignited in flames, losing all greenery.
This was far more efficient than just igniting a massive fire.
At that moment, it was also the first time I witnessed the horror of the World Tree, even under the effect of the domain spell from the Excessive Consumption Spellbook, could it also provide these Elves with a safe haven from the wind and rain?
Those from the Beast Academy were fleeing in panic after the fire rain fell, with some directly burned to d*ath by the high temperature. Unfortunately, the range of the domain wasn’t very large, but even those who escaped the domain were severely burned by the flames.
“Now, as you wished.” At this moment, I was protected by the Fire Elemental. Because this domain indiscriminately attacked everyone, including me, but walking amid the fire rain indeed brought me back to calm.
After all, consuming so much at once wouldn’t do; I had to regain my composure.
“Just watch calmly; until no other academy holds a ceremony, you all… just accompany me while quietly awaiting the completion of the Sea Tribe’s ceremony.”
