Chapter 346: A Brand New Realm
Ninglan New City, on the ground.
“Aen, there’s movement over there!”
The student responsible for monitoring the passage to the Underground City immediately alerted the group stationed on the ground from the Wizard Academy.
“What’s going on?” Aen Galande stood up and approached the observation area, where he saw Ninglan Qiuyu coming up from the passage, accompanied by his anxious attendants.
“Why are there only so few people coming up?”
“Not sure, maybe something happened in the Underground City that forced them to return. After all, he is the newly appointed City Lord of Ninglan New City, and it’s normal not to want to take risks.”
“That’s true, it’s already quite commendable that he’s willing to take the risk and personally go down to provide support.”
The group of wizards nodded, coming to that conclusion, but soon after, they noticed that all the City Guards stationed at the passage had been withdrawn, leaving only Ninglan Qiuyu standing there alone.
“Are they heading out of the city…?”
“Fool, it’s definitely because something happened at the frontline outside the city; they went to provide support. Don’t forget the Beast Tide.”
“Wait, don’t focus on those City Guards; Ninglan Qiuyu is leaving.”
“Where to?”
“I’ll go take a look. You all stay put for now, and if I need support, I’ll contact you through the witch weapon.” Aen Galande picked up the mask-shaped witch weapon and put it on his face, making his figure disappear.
He wanted to see what this new City Lord was up to at this particular moment.
Of course, the main concern was protection. After all, he had sent everyone away, and now he was alone. What if he was ambushed by a Dream Demon?
At this moment.
Underground City.
“Hmph… haha, haha!”
“Can you still laugh?” I looked at the Dream Demon, unsure of what she was thinking. Did she have any trump cards?
Thinking this, I instinctively tensed up, carefully recalling every oversight I might have missed.
“Is this… your flesh and bl**d body…?” One of the Dream Demon’s hands rested on my wrist, which I had gripped firmly.
“Come and experience… the sacrifice ceremony powered by Earth Veins, become nourishment!”
“Oh…” At her reminder, I instantly understood what she meant.
If I removed the Magic Source and the Spellbook, I was essentially just an ordinary person with considerable mental power. So… I really didn’t have any ability to resist this bl**d and flesh harvesting sacrifice ceremony…
Once the Dream Demon finished speaking, the sacrifice ceremony radiated a crimson light, and a strange force seemed to want to dominate my body.
Feeling closely, I seemed to perceive every muscle in my body writhing.
It was as if they no longer belonged to me and wanted to detach from me and integrate into that huge bl**d sphere.
“Ha ha… just as I thought… a weak shell that can’t even stop a sacrifice ceremony. With such a level of strength, I wasted my concern on you. You! Are just a bug!”
“Always calling me a bug, aren’t you the one who’s a bug in your world…”
At this moment, I remained exceptionally calm, skillfully applying magic spells, initiating the harmony of knowledge and action, and maintaining absolute calm while constantly thinking of countermeasures.
However, time wouldn’t give me a moment’s opportunity. My arm transformed into strands of bl**d and flesh that detached from my body, the intense pain resembling putting my hand in a shredder continuously disturbing my sanity.
“Flesh Healing…” I whispered.
Then, the Flesh Healing Spellbook activated; as the flesh scattered, it began to heal, maintaining a dynamic balance.
“You have some means, but how long can you sustain this level of consumption?”
“And how long do you need to maintain it? You sacrificed so many people, just to open the teleportation portal to summon your sisters over, right?” Though I didn’t want to admit it, the Flesh Healing Spellbook was a high-consumption spellbook; I indeed couldn’t sustain it for long.
“But enough to slice you up! I want to use your flesh and soul material as a basis to summon them to slaughter all of you…”
“Xiao Han! Be careful! Get away from there! Don’t confront that ritual head-on!”
“Sister Xiao Han, don’t just stand there! Run!”
At this moment, those people in the distance anxiously shouted at me.
Meanwhile, the sacrifice ceremony that covered such a large area concurrently drew to a close, and the entire crimson radiance enveloped the area where I was located. I could feel the rate of erosion from the ritual increasing rapidly.
“Haha… what are you going to do facing this situation! If you flee, I’ll immediately open the summoning passage; prepare to be devoured by us Dream Demons! If you want to clash with me here, you will d*e sooner or later!”
“Your mind is quite sharp.” I casually commented.
However, I realized that this sacrifice ritual was simply draining my flesh and bl**d, or rather, the ritual was converting pure bl**d and flesh into a kind of crimson energy aggregation; that massive bl**d sphere above my head was also not flesh, but an energy conglomerate.
Yet my soul was… completely fine.
So… this was the backup the Academy Head provided me… the opponent was draining soul material… but what does that have to do with my soul?
“So that’s how it is… this place is actually a… good place to explore the connection and limits between soul and body… though the consumption is a bit overwhelming for me.”
I sighed lightly but quickly realized… I almost restricted my own thoughts.
I had assumed that the Magic Source was the entirety of my usable energy, but… who said that?
When I cast spells bare-handed, my mental power couldn’t interfere with magic, so I had always been using the extraordinary energy from the environment.
Looking at the surrounding environment… am I really lacking in energy?
Not really; what I lacked was simply how to compete with that big bl**d sphere for energy.
Once the limitation of the energy problem was resolved, my thoughts instantly opened up.
Why limit myself to the Flesh Healing Spell?
Didn’t I have other better means? For example… the Resurrection Spell.
I had violently dissected the Resurrection Spell in the Dream World; I had also studied the runic structure within the Resurrection Spell, so I could easily conjure a Resurrection Spell by hand.
Even though my understanding of the Resurrection Spell wasn’t deep enough, I could dismantle the Resurrection Spell once again on-site, of course, in the Dream World.
“You! You actually don’t plan to leave?!”
Now it was her turn to be astonished. In fact, she just wanted to use this method to force the opponent to leave, allowing her to utilize this energy to summon helpers. A Dream Demon fighting alone felt utterly insecure. Even in the worst-case scenario, if she had to d*e… she wanted to take her sisters with her…
“Of course, why would I leave?” I smiled at the Dream Demon in response.
Every part of my body was emanating bl**d and flesh energy while being repaired by the Flesh Healing Spell; such a state made everyone watching feel their scalps tingle.
This is a lunatic!
That was the response given by the Dream Demon.
Of course, it was also the thought in the minds of the extraordinary academy students who had gathered around.
It was simply a suicidal act.
But they had to admit, as long as I stood here, that Dream Demon didn’t even dare to advance a step. Her confidence entirely relied on the sacrifice ceremony she had painstakingly arranged throughout the Underground City.
Now it was just a matter of a slight push, yet so many unexpected events occurred, she was on the brink of collapse.
“When people encounter something joyful, they always want to share it. Just like me at this moment, guess what I’m going to do next?”
At this moment, I raised my right hand, revealing a glowing orb in my palm, but those from the Witch Academy knew very well what it was: it was a Spellbook!
Many others from different academies had encountered it as well, and after pondering for a moment, they realized it. But that didn’t mean they could comprehend what I was intending to do.
At this moment, my gaze swept across everyone present, and there was one who was not human.
Dream Demon… Tan Han… Achir… Luxien… Minian… even Sister Bai?
I looked at the figure standing in the corner and smiled back, signaling her to be at ease.
Then, I grasped the Spellbook; my mental power began to deconstruct it. In the next moment, its shell shattered, appearing to them as if I had crushed the Spellbook.
Everyone looked at the shattered Spellbook in my hand with increased confusion; many expressed regret. After all, that was a Spellbook!
Don’t you give it to them?
But I wouldn’t respond to their thoughts; instead, I continued with my experiment. With a wave of my hand, the Spellbook fragmented, and the spell ritual runes inside manifested. After discarding the redundant structures of the Spellbook, only the purest runic ritual remained. This wasn’t my first time doing this. Although it was only the second time, I was quite familiar with it.
And in reality, I constructed those runes according to these runes, conjured those rune combinations by hand. In an instant, the runes flowed, surrounding me.
This was precisely how the Resurrection Spell manifested outside the framework of the Spellbook.
Although this Resurrection Spell lost the developmental framework of the Spellbook, it didn’t matter to me as long as it was usable. If it weren’t for the Magic Source’s reluctance to be used up, would I choose this?
Moreover, primarily this allowed me to observe the operation of the spell more clearly, especially under the Spirit Vision, where the energy movements were unhidden.
At this moment, I ceased using the Flesh Healing Spellbook.
Instantly, my body no longer healed; large quantities of bl**d and flesh converted into bl**d and flesh energy began to dissipate from my body.
From the outside, I seemed to give up struggling, self-dissolving, indistinguishable from those ordinary people who had their lives drained away and disappeared.
“Hahaha! I thought you had some means! Turns out you were just bluffing! Hahaha! Good riddance!”
Seeing such a scene, the Dream Demon was now laughing so hard her stomach hurt. She had thought she was going to be finished, but her opponent had committed s*icide, which made her indescribably happy.
“Xiao Han!”
“Sister Xiao Han!”
At this moment, some from the Extraordinary Academy were stunned by the current situation. After all, the contrast was just too great. Earlier, I had appeared so confident, and after crushing a Spellbook, I had seemingly vanished. Who could predict such a turnaround?
But in this situation, a figure rushed over like mad, the speed overwhelming everyone’s understanding—it was Bai Yu.
“Xiao Han!”
“Don’t worry…”
That single utterance of Xiao Han was the last thing I heard. Yet I still used my remaining awareness to speak the words “Don’t worry” to Sister Bai.
I admit this was risky, but I had at least two and a half safeguards in place.
One safeguard was the Academy Head who backed me up. She invested a Great Spellbook in me, and only complete d*ath would result in a return to the Grand Library of the Witch World. Well, if I hadn’t completely perished… then I’d owe someone a favor… consider it a lesson from my reckless actions.
The other safeguard was…
At this moment, as my body dissipated, an invisible golden fortune still remained steadfast, not dissipating. This was my second layer of insurance, the fortune protecting all of Ninglan New City—it chose me, not to make me a City Lord, but to enable me to choose a City Lord.
As for the remaining half, it was simply my confidence in myself.
After all, if I didn’t even have certainty about what I was doing and was relying on insurance, then my actions would merely be foolishness.
And at this final moment, I released the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell, of course… directed at myself.
I wondered what kind of spark would emerge when combined with the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell, applying knowledge flexibly and harmonizing action and knowledge.
The answer to all of this would be revealed at the moment the Resurrection Spell resurrected me.
In that instant, the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell was completed without any unusual phenomena; not even anyone noticed I had cast this spell.
But all my Magic Sources were completely drained, not even enough to siphon energy from the surrounding environment.
“What… what is this?”
At this moment, both the students discussing and the Dream Demon were momentarily stunned. The energy drained by the Great Spellbook exceeded my expectations, instantly forming a vacuum zone of energy around, but next, it was filled.
The momentary sense of energy suffocation left everyone in a stupor, while the Resurrection Spell runic ritual surrounding me burst forth with bright radiance.
At this moment, even Bai Yu halted her steps; she seemed to realize she had been too anxious. If her impulsiveness ruined Xiao Han’s setup, she would feel guilty to d*ath!
But… she could guard Xiao Han during this interval…
At this moment, I felt like I lost all perception, as if I were in a void. I was not unconscious; I had my thoughts and could even prove that I could still think and confirm my existence. It was as if I had completely shed the shackles of the material plane and ascended to a higher level, where every thought seemed to receive instant answers, even the reasoning for why I became like this, I found that answer. It felt like attaining enlightenment… this was the effect of the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell…
Before long, I seemed to “see” it… this was the Spirit Vision talent.
I sensed the Magic Source… that was the Magic Source under my Spirit Vision’s perspective.
Its internal magic was depleted. This was the first time I had observed the Magic Source in this manner. It resembled a singularity, and its recovery did not seem to draw magic from the external environment but rather “transformed” magic from unknown places.
I saw the Spellbooks, arranged in neat rows on bookshelves… the bookshelves were the Spellbook Rack Spellbook’s generated spell effect.
And the Spellbook Rack Spellbook was… supported by what?
My body.
This was the answer I had believed before, but now I felt the need to correct that thought.
The Spellbooks didn’t seem to be borne by my body.
Yet the Spellbooks were undeniably within me.
At this moment, I recalled what Teacher Ji had once said: there was a non-physical medium that could carry the Spellbooks… in addition to the concept of spell slots…
Earth Vein Energy.
That was the answer I reached.
But I had checked my body earlier and found no surge of Earth Vein Energy. The Earth Vein Energy bound to the student card was insufficient to carry the Spellbooks.
Therefore, there could only be one answer… the abstract concept of Earth Vein Energy that everyone possesses… the Earth Vein Shackles!
The Academy Head had told me not to be misled by the phrase “shackles” and overlook its downsides. Did it not have any benefits?
Yes, it had many.
And at that moment, I felt the first discordant sensation registered within me.
That was… sound?
When the concept of sound was confirmed, the concept of hearing surged into my consciousness, and I heard a cacophony of noises.
The next moment, the pungent smell of bl**d hit my nostrils as my sense of smell began to return.
Followed by touch, where pain and itching started to stimulate my consciousness…
The Resurrection Spell seemed to be proceeding according to my predetermined process; my flesh was reconstituting, my body was bearing my soul.
In that instant, there wasn’t a moment I wished to linger longer because I felt I was approaching the truth of the Earth Vein Shackles. This was a rare miracle, even the next time I didn’t know if I could replicate such a situation; a series of complex procedures inadvertently created this perception…
I could only be forced to feel the return of my senses bit by bit… but as time progressed, I discovered this also turned out to be a wondrous experience.
Under Spirit Vision, I saw my body recompiling.
Under the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment, I understood the operation of life in the Resurrection Spell and the rewriting of d*ath.
Under the harmony of knowledge and action, I perfectly controlled every part of my body.
Through applying knowledge flexibly, every attempt transformed into experience, integrating into my bodily memory, driving me to master my new body as quickly as possible.
This incremental return, this incremental control, this incremental mastery… it felt like feeding a baby, slowly and steadily; it was a gradual journey of self-learning.
I… was learning to completely control my own life, governing every cell of my body, directing every part of me, and expanding the limits of my senses… I felt as though something within my life had been broken through, and my understanding of the form and essence of life had reached a brand new realm!
