Chapter 602: The Ambition of Perfecting the Great Knowledge Tree System
Faced with the sudden crisis, many people could not sit still.
Even Ninglan Qiuyue took action immediately after hearing the news, preventing it from spreading too quickly in Ninglan New City.
Because no one in Ninglan New City wanted to revisit the nightmares of the past, simply because sleeping could mean never waking up again.
Especially those two teaching assistants who had experienced the incident.
If they had thought it was inconsequential last semester, they no longer felt that way, as the flames of this event had burned close to them, and there was no way to avoid it.
So they sought out their instructor, Elena Roy, who had revived them.
Instructor Elena was stationed in Ninglan New City, and under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t take action unless a significant event occurred in the Expanding Realm; otherwise, she would only revive deceased students within the city.
Previously, after bringing back those two girls who had fallen into slumber, they had briefly explained to Instructor Elena about their situation.
This time, they sought her out again to mention the matter, attracting quite a few other teaching assistants to seek details.
After all, matters concerning life spread rapidly within the teaching assistant circle, and they had all been keeping an eye on the situation.
“I know what you are encountering right now. As you suspected, this is indeed the overlap between dream and reality.” With so many people suddenly gathered, Elena began to explain directly, “To be precise, this is a very normal phenomenon, but it also indicates something else—that after the dreams are reestablished and repaired, the Expanding Realm will become mutually dependent with them. The dream space once overshadowed Ninglan New City, and there are others who have experienced it too, right?”
At this point, Elena glanced at Ninglan Qiuyue among the crowd. As an instructor from the Witch Academy, she was willing to explain the situation, and Ninglan New City naturally wanted to know more, but only she among the students had the qualification to inquire.
“Once the dream is reestablished, it means that it becomes completely interdependent with the Expanding Realm, thus creating a more complete world.” Of course, later on, the witches would also strengthen the boundary between dreams and reality, which is also a part of world restoration. After all, let’s not forget, that within dreams, there are also earth veins, and the relationship between dreams and the world is closely related.
“Instructor Elena, can’t this be prevented? It seems from your words that you consider this a normal phenomenon?”
“That is natural. Eventually, we at the Witch Academy will reinforce the boundary between dreams and reality, and then we won’t encounter such things again.” Elena carefully responded to their questions.
“Then… can we reinforce Ninglan New City now?”
“To give an analogy, can I start interior decoration on an apartment just after pouring concrete into the load-bearing columns?”
“This… cannot be…” Hearing this analogy, everyone understood the current situation.
“Hearing Instructor Elena say this means it is indeed possible, but there is no need right now, and it would be a thankless task, right? So what if we are attacked by that nightmare?”
“Exactly, the Expanding Realm is so vast… we can’t always be lucky enough to be rescued from that area, and the number of ordinary students will only increase in the future,” someone raised their concerns again.
“I can clarify that what attacked you earlier was not a nightmare, but a dream creature from the Primordial Dream World. If you were caught by a nightmare, even if you escaped from that overlapping space, committing s*icide wouldn’t give you a glimmer of chance to break free from the dream.”
At this moment, Elena corrected their misunderstanding, as the dream creatures were currently “beneficial insects” for the Expanding Realm, helping accelerate the reestablishment of dreams.
However, dream creatures are difficult to control and almost impossible to communicate with; dragging people into dreams is mostly just for fun. It’s possible that once pulled into a dream, encountering another dream creature may kick you back to reality.
Compared to the soul material that individuals possess, the current Expanding Realm has more delectable soul crystals as food, and it is precisely because of these large quantities of soul crystals that they continuously attract those dream creatures wandering in the dreams to gather in the Expanding Realm.
“So what should we do? By the way, didn’t you say this has happened before? How was this resolved back then? The rumors…”
“The rumors you heard were about Yang Yuelan waking from a dream and combining the powers of dreams and reality to overcome those troubles, and in the end, the instructor stepped in to save the day.”
The crowd exchanged glances; they all knew that Yang Yuelan was not among them.
“How did she do it?”
Finally, someone couldn’t help but ask, as everyone was curious about how it was accomplished.
How to achieve ‘waking alone’.
“She gathered the scholars of extraordinary research in Ninglan New City and created a spell called the Dream Demon Spell, which is said to have been developed through research on dream demons. Let’s just call it that for now, after all, that’s the name Xiao Han chose.” Elena began to speak as she remembered something.
“This spell can forcibly awaken those dragged into dreams and can also forcibly pull dream demons from the dream into reality for attack. However, dream demons are special beings and cannot be dragged out; after all, they do not have the same grounding in reality as dream creatures do. However, this spell can help you escape those little tricks created by dream creatures.”
“Creating… spells? How did she do that?” Hearing Elena’s account, the teaching assistants present still felt it was surreal; a new student… how could she manage that?
“I don’t know, perhaps she’s just a genius? I heard that at that time, Xiao Han had nearly mastered most of the basic runes in rune literature and had some understanding of expansion and composite runes, which is the basis for weaving spells by hand. So it’s not mere fabrication; the spells Xiao Han created even had extraordinary witches voluntarily and freely help bind them into a spellbook.”
Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent. Rune literature… Many had only heard of it.
Some teaching assistants who had studied potions, alchemy, and pharmacy had also learned parts of rune literature.
However… to deliberately study rune literature, was it to quicken the loss of their hair?
How could a new student have the patience to learn such things?
Was alchemy not fascinating enough, or was pharmacy not profitable enough?
Most of those who could become teaching assistants were geniuses who planned their extraordinary lives in the academy from the moment they enrolled. They had considered studying alchemy, pharmacy, ritual arrays, etc., but none had thought about rune literature.
The primary reason for being eliminated early was simply… this thing doesn’t make money, or rather, is a poor investment, and won’t increase strength. Coupled with some instructors’ life experiences leading to misconceptions, even those who realize the importance of rune literature choose to become extraordinary witches before studying it.
However, now with a comparison, the disparity seemed to become apparent.
Those with weaker willpower and a penchant for comparison had begun to plan their time for learning rune literature, while those with strong willpower who dislike comparisons continued at their own pace, as they knew that the lifespan of an extraordinary witch is long and not determined by momentary gains or losses.
“Instructor Elena, do you know if the spellbook for this spell can still be obtained? Or is there a similar spellbook available? We at least need such means to avoid being trapped in dreams,” one of them inquired at this moment.
“This spellbook was originally only circulated among our instructors, and to recreate this spellbook will take a long time; it’s too late now,” Elena shook her head and said.
Upon hearing this, everyone sighed.
“But this is the Expanding Realm; why are you sighing? Do you think you’re using a spellbook stupidly now? Haven’t you noticed the change in the power of your spells? Here, with the basis of weaving spells by hand, I can also teach you how to weave the Dream Demon Spell by hand.”
Seeing the expressions of the crowd, Elena immediately became a bit firmer in her tone, raising her voice which made everyone snap back to attention.
“Really? We can weave spells by hand?”
Hearing this reminder, many realized that several teaching assistants had heard about the tales of the Great Weakening Spell.
Many teaching assistants had also tried weaving spells by hand as soon as they arrived in Ninglan New City, and they succeeded, although the power was somewhat lacking compared to the corresponding spellbook.
“I can teach you how to use the Dream Demon Spell by hand starting now, but I have a condition, or rather a long-term task. The task involves going to rescue large numbers of students entering Ninglan New City later or when exploring the Dream Overlap Area who are pulled into the dream by dream creatures. You must go for timely rescue and regularly patrol the dream overlap area to prevent accidents, and the reward for the task is the teaching of the Dream Demon Spell. As long as you are willing to learn, I will teach you until you master it.”
……
At this moment, at the Wanlian Main Network Tree.
After my continuous improvements, the Wanlian Main Network Tree finally… withered away in my hands.
The dry branches, fallen withered leaves, made this area resemble an autumn ground filled with fallen leaves.
However, just as it broke through the shroud concealing its form, at this moment, new seeds within its original branches radiated new life.
The vital force of life was gradually squeezing the dead main trunk from the inside, and the sharp creaking sounds occasionally echoed, the eruption of life was unstoppable, until it completely shattered its original shell.
With the collapse of the branches, only the remnants of its previous existence remained.
The crumbling dried wood fell outward, crushing countless plants.
At this moment, this colossal entity finally fell. However, its deceased, collapsing shell was enough to crush the surrounding plants.
And at this moment, a new green leaf stretched atop that old stump, twisting its branches to release itself from the oppression of its former shell.
At this moment, it attained true freedom!
It would flourish, with no one imposing structures of plant networks, nor anyone making its growth serve as a path.
Because at this moment, it truly was “the natural plant network”!
Merging the system of the Great Knowledge Tree into the newly born Wanlian Main Network Tree, inheriting the past names and structures, becoming its new mission and freedom.
It was as if its birth was inherently for this purpose, growing and thriving, instead of being forced to abandon growth solely for this purpose.
This was… complete taming.
To give an imperfect analogy, it was akin to the distinction between a domesticated pet and a wild one.
But the gap in the newly born Wanlian Main Network Tree was far more exaggerated than this analogy.
And at the moment of my success, several witches in the unseen realm immediately departed.
The success of craft is such that once you break through the threshold of success, no one can undermine that result.
So those witches who remained were genuinely interested.
While some extraordinary beings from other academies left with little interest, realizing there was no chance for them anymore; remaining held no meaning to them. Those left were mostly reluctant, wanting to witness for themselves what this truly was.
In the spotlight, in the venue where I was.
I naturally knew what I had created; simply put, it was a “seed of the Wanlian Main Network Tree,” a spell technique generated by combining techniques related to cultivating the Wanlian Main Network Tree.
The function of this derived technique was singular: to cultivate a brand new Wanlian Main Network Tree.
That’s how simple this technique was.
But the essence of the technique was… its nature is actually a “carrier.”
Just like the Great Knowledge Seed, it serves as a carrier for helping others use the Great Spellbook “Great Knowledge Tree.”
As for how to use it, that depends on whether the owner knows how to.
Those who do not know can only use it as a memory shelf, while those who do can utilize many functions on this system—Knowledge Shadow, Earth Vein Identification Technique, Observation Technique, etc.
And what of the Wanlian Main Network Tree?
It carried the “new plant network.”
The plant network is my conception, a vital part that replaces the “academy network” function within the Great Knowledge Tree.
After all, the academy network is, by all means, something outside my Great Knowledge Tree system. Although it has a relatively mature interface technology, it is merely interface technology.
What I want is to completely perfect the Great Knowledge Tree, hence it must possess such a “network”!
Perhaps this network cannot unfold in the Witch Academy or even in the Main World Core Realm, but within this brand new Expanding Realm, it becomes the perfect testing ground!
This plant network is an experimental product of my plan to connect the Great Knowledge Seeds through a mutual communication network, and this network can also serve as a medium for my “Great Knowledge Sharing Technique.”
Therefore, the newly born Wanlian Main Network Tree is a means of application within my plans, in conjunction with the Great Knowledge Seed.
Its nature also possesses many usages, for instance, it can produce results itself, but these fruits and seeds cannot grow into an independent and complete Wanlian Main Network Tree, but rather become something else.
However, until this seed is born, I cannot rashly make claims about its utility…
Gradually, I withdrew my domain, and the phantom of the Great Knowledge Tree gradually disappeared, leaving only the visibly growing Wanlian Main Network Tree before me.
Just as the ambition embedded in its name, the Wanlian Main Network Tree will inevitably connect the entire Expanding Realm.
Even… connect the worlds between the Void?
But this goal seems a bit unrealistic. As the creator of all these techniques, I have yet to walk out of the world to reach the Void outside.
Thus… this is merely a beautiful illusion that showcases my ambition, best kept in my heart to inspire myself.
As for getting things done… taking steady steps is the way to progress; reaching too high will only lead to a severe fall.
