Chapter 659: The Homeless Void Wandering Merchant Group
“Yes, they come from beyond our world, a group that calls themselves Void Wandering Merchants.”
“Did you believe them?”
“At first, we didn’t believe it, but… you know about the Earth Vein Shackles.”
“Oh, they’re not Extraordinary Beings? Did you ask the instructors? Otherwise, I don’t think you would be trading with them so easily.” I quickly responded.
“No, the club chooses to trade with anyone for profit, but Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, you guessed right; they indeed are not Extraordinary Beings. This is confirmed with Instructor Elena. However… those merchants are considered important rare resource traders in the Expanding Realm of Ninglan New City and are currently temporary partners.” Fu Xinglan carefully explained.
“Well… but I don’t recall seeing them at the welcome ceremony?”
“They made an appearance and expressed interest in you; you just didn’t notice. Would you like us to set up a conversation for you?”
“Um… how long will they be here? If they’re not in a hurry to leave, I won’t go out of my way to meet them.” I asked curiously, completely ignoring the embarrassing fact that I missed them at the welcome ceremony.
“Not sure, perhaps until they sell out all their stock? But as merchants crossing the void, it’s hard to probe how much cargo they have in their storage equipment.”
“Aren’t you curious why they crossed the void just to sell coffee beans? Will that even cover their costs?” Ultimately, I asked the question.
“Curious, but… they’ve sold what they sell; that’s the truth. And don’t forget, they’re not Extraordinary Beings; their strength isn’t significant, barely able to protect themselves against average senior students from the Witch Academy.” After saying this, Fu Xinglan closed her mouth, preparing to change the topic. “Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, isn’t discussing these topics a bit off-topic? For this meeting, we’ve prepared a Witch Contract in advance.”
“Um… alright.” I keenly decided not to press further, considering they said they were providing supplementary information. Pressing on would feel like digging too deep. With the previous favor still unestablished, if I extracted information without any commitments, they’d probably be upset.
So, I naturally accepted the contract, a hefty stack, which included a badge.
However, the content was quite simple, just like they said. It was a personal favor, within reasonable limits.
The thick stack was all supplementary information, listing names, influences, and families. Anyone recorded on it could come to redeem this favor, as long as they held that “token”—the badge provided.
Normally, after signing a Witch Contract, the contract’s power would enter the signatories’ bodies after it burns. The signatories were me, Fu Xinglan, and Tracy, and the contract’s power would be divided into three parts.
But this badge served as the token for redeeming the contract, meaning the contract’s power would be divided into four parts. Only this token holder and the defined redeemed person could approach me to fulfill the favor on the contract.
This wasn’t complicated; rather, it was a standard contract template for favor redemption. There were many clauses regarding the contract, such as the redeemer must not use failure to redeem as an excuse to k*ll the counterpart.
Due to many intricate details, I used the Earth Vein Identification Technique to check for a while and confirmed there were no issues before signing it.
As the Witch Contract ignited without fire, turning to ash, I felt the surge of contract power entering my body, marking the end of the contract signing.
“Alright, can we now conveniently continue discussing that merchant?” I seized the moment while they were pleased to propose a “small request.”
“Of course.” At this moment, Fu Xinglan and Tracy showed a clear attitude of having accomplished the main task.
Even sharing this information with me was done without hesitation; perhaps they wanted to gain some favor in return.
After all, with a bit of effort, I could directly approach that merchant to gather information myself.
So, merely conveying some prior known information in exchange for their favor was a good deal.
“I wonder what else you’d like to know?”
“Since you’ve interacted with that merchant and established a trade relationship, you must have traded information as well, right?” I inquired.
“Naturally. Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, are you looking to gather information from beyond the void?”
“Um, did you manage to acquire any?” I asked, “Since they are merchants, this kind of information should also be a commodity, and I’d think you’d be curious about it, right?”
“Certainly.”
“But… they are not Extraordinary Beings, so they probably don’t know much information. How about this… Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, ask the questions you’re curious about, and we will answer them specifically. We won’t hide any information regarding this.”
“Okay.” I nodded and then posed a heavyweight question: “So, do you know how they severed the Earth Vein Shackles?”
“This is something we were curious about as well. If you ask this question wanting to replicate it… I don’t think we can reference it; their original world was destroyed, so there are no Earth Vein Shackles, and they became Void Wandering Merchants afterwards.”
“Well… that’s really ridiculous.” After learning this answer, I was indeed surprised, but… it seemed quite reasonable.
Of course, it was also a bit of a wasted world.
“Next question: Who do they serve?”
I asked this because I wanted to understand that outside the void, there was nothing, not even the basic material space. There was no possibility of ascending to Extraordinary status, and one couldn’t even survive in the void, which was more deadly than a weightless vacuum of the universe.
So when those merchants said that their world was destroyed, someone must have saved them, or perhaps enslaved them; in short, they definitely had an entity they relied upon.
“They claim to be merchants of the Void Wandering Merchant Group, which often takes in people after the destruction of worlds and trains them to become merchants wandering in the various externally open worlds of the void. Although they call themselves merchants, they’re merely workers, at least that’s what they say.”
“Then this merchant group must have many Extraordinary Beings, right?”
“Definitely, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to reach our world.”
“Aside from these merchants, has anyone else reached our world?” I continued asking.
“This… we are not sure. So far, I have only interacted with these merchants, and their arrival was permitted by the Extraordinary Academy, so I estimate that even if there are others in the Main World, they wouldn’t be many.”
“And it’s highly probable that no Extraordinary level beings will descend because, as you know, the number of Extraordinary Beings in our world maintains a steady value.”
“Thank you for this information.”
After learning some non-critical information from them, the meeting concluded.
However, I was quite concerned about the arrival of beings from beyond the world to the Main World.
Of course, those merchants weren’t the main focus, but knowing that even non-Extraordinary Beings could traverse the void was not without gain.
What I cared more about were the Betrayer Witches or other Extraordinary Beings like them.
The level of being Extraordinary was truly terrifying, as it meant the advancement of the life level to the Extraordinary, touching on Real Time, and my understanding of the Extraordinary was still rather rough, with my impression being that they were nearly immortal.
After all, just thinking about those senior students who haven’t even advanced to Extraordinary status yet, they already exhibit such terrifying undying qualities; isn’t it impossible to truly k*ll them using any conventional means?
However… if you were to ask me whether I would be afraid if I really faced such an enemy, I’d still grit my teeth and go for it.
What gives me confidence is the power of the field. Even many witches who advance to Extraordinary don’t master the field, so my field would be my greatest ace.
Though… my field seems merely a prototype, but that does not detract from the essence of the field.
As for the Great Spellbook… although I have two, neither seems to have direct attacking capabilities; the only usable skills appear to be derivative techniques, like the reverse application endowed by wisdom.
But I have never used such techniques on the Extraordinary and don’t know if they will work.
My main concern still lies with the soul.
The soul, compared to Soul Material, is merely an essence upgrade and transformation. Ultimately, the life level is the transition of life intensity.
Thinking about it this way, encountering the Extraordinary indeed poses great danger.
This brings me a strong sense of anxiety, but if I forcibly interrupted my rhythm now to research how to deal with the Extraordinary, I feel that would be putting the cart before the horse.
But not studying also brings an unsettling feeling of not having fate in my own hands.
This contradictory feeling is similar to a juvenile seeing a minor criminal and contemplating whether to learn self-defense strategies.
The answer is quite clear: there’s no need to learn.
What should be learned is to accept reality and to prepare in advance.
Moreover, Sister Mei also told me not to worry; she had already dealt with those crises, so she should have indeed resolved them.
After all, with so many witches in the Main World, I doubt a whole bunch of Betrayer Witches can force their way in.
And… there is also a major weakening spell in the Core Realm of the Main World!
The original intent of this powerful spell is to prevent Extraordinary Beings from destroying the core realm of the Main World.
In this case, my simple request to ensure the soul survives is very simple.
Since there’s a guarantee for survival, what is there to fear?
After sorting out my emotions, I left the Expanding Realm and returned to the Academy.
I must say, recent events in the Main World have significantly affected my emotions, especially when they genuinely threatened my life.
So managing my emotional state really needs to be controlled well; perhaps I should find something to distract myself.
For example… should I study Totem Studies?
However, I’ve nearly finished reading the materials on Totem Studies; the library only mentions a few names without teaching books, so if I want to learn quickly, I’d have to gather some research materials or notes myself.
If all goes well, I could also use this time to k*ll some time.
Or… should I ask Sister Mei?
I just don’t know what kind of cost I would have to pay to exchange for these materials.
Putting that aside, after returning to the Witch Academy, I followed the suggestion and immediately found Teacher Lina.
At this moment, Lina, as the grade director, was quite busy. After all, the last monthly exam of this semester had passed, and the final exam was coming up next.
Although it was stated it would occur in the Expanding Realm, considerations for multi-school joint examinations required juggling many matters.
So she was currently gathered with several other grade directors, discussing arrangements for the final exam for the lower-grade academy.
“Um? Isn’t that Xiao Han? What brings you here?” Upon sensing a somewhat familiar but not common presence, Lina looked up and saw me.
Her greeting also caught the attention of the other witches, as they were all quite familiar with the name Xiao Han.
“Hello, Sister Lina, and greetings to the other sisters. I’m here mainly to ask for a favor from Sister Lina.” I pushed open the office door and sweetly addressed them as sisters, indicating my purpose for coming.
“A favor? Xiao Han, aren’t you busy in the Expanding Realm these days… I heard your Wanlian Main Network Tree plan has already established a whole laboratory. You can’t be thinking of dragging me along, right?” she joked, putting down her work.
“How could that be! Sister Lina, you’re so busy; how could I bear to trouble you with a clone? This matter doesn’t require you to worry. I came mainly to ask for help regarding the upcoming external graduation examination.”
“Graduation examination? Xiao Han is interested in this?”
“Yes, I’m looking to take on a monitoring task for the high school entrance examination, specifically… I was wondering if Sister Lina could help me out. I would like to monitor at a specific test point.”
“Is that all? A minor issue. Although I’m not responsible for this, I can certainly go and put in a good word for you. Where do you want to go?”
“Uh…” Hearing Sister Lina agree so quickly took me by surprise. “Don’t you want to ask what I’m going to do? Aren’t you afraid I might do something bad?”
“Then what are you going to do?” Lina asked, seemingly realizing something, “As for doing bad things… do you treat this Witch Contract signed for the task as a mere formality?”
“That’s true…” I quickly replied, as witches clearly take the Witch Contracts seriously and wouldn’t doubt them.
“I have a younger brother who’s taking this year’s entrance examination, and I plan to go check it out.”
“You have a brother?” Lina stopped her previously busy hands, “Do you have plans to get him into the Witch Academy?”
“Ah?”
“If he can have such a wonderful sister like you, I’m sure he can’t be too bad, right?” Lina said with a smile.
“Well… it depends on the situation; he might not be as outstanding as you imagine, Sister Lina…”
“You were once like that too, weren’t you? But that Xi Lan girl… I have to say, she really knows how to see potential. An unrefined rough stone sometimes may shine, and if he’s average… it’s okay; there are plenty of average students in the Witch Academy.”
“So, Sister Lina, you’re determined to have me recruit him, right?”
“Just kidding; such matters… are entirely up to your discretion.”
