Chapter 887: The Opening of the Ice Snow Throne Secret Realm
Time flies swiftly.
Students from various Extraordinary Academies gradually arrived at the Witch Academy.
Although this wasn’t an official event organized by the academy, there was still plenty of spectacle. However, the overall nature and process were semi-public.
Students without a certain level of strength didn’t even qualify to see where the entrance to the Witch Secret Realm was located.
After all, this dream exploration wasn’t some so-called live performance, nor did it need to provide an explanation to the viewers involved.
The important focus from beginning to end was the battle for the “Extraordinary Fragments.”
This was an unsolvable conspiracy, and it was right here. If you didn’t bring other fragments along, you wouldn’t be able to obtain it, but if you weren’t strong enough… you might not even be able to keep your own life!
The Ice Snow Throne Secret Realm was organized and opened jointly by the All-purpose Workshop of the Witch Academy and the Witch Secret Realm Association, with very strict registration for entry and exit.
However, they welcomed anyone holding fragments without conditions as a ticket to enter the secret realm.
Moreover, signing a Witch Contract indicated that they wouldn’t forcibly take the fragments from them outside the secret realm.
Students without a “ticket” who wanted to enter had to come to the Witch Academy in advance for qualification checks. After all, the dangers of the secret realm were well known, and as the initiators of this expedition, they needed to be responsible for these people’s safety.
Of course, all these statements were purely polite rhetoric, mere formalities that essentially served as a disguised selection process.
After all, this was the witches’ home ground; many matters were decided by them.
As the Ice Snow Throne Secret Realm “officially” opened, other academies’ exploration teams also arrived at the Witch Academy in succession.
They were all understanding people and had gathered quite a bit of information regarding that secret realm.
Naturally, they didn’t care about who got in first or anything like that.
This secret realm belonged to the Witch Academy, and who knows how long they had already been inside exploring before the others arrived? There was no need to fight over a day or two.
With the arrival of students from other academies, some familiar faces also appeared here.
For instance, Achir from the Holy Angel Academy, Aen Galande, a wizard apprentice from the Wizard Academy, Yao Leia from Aphhemia Academy, and Mengna, among others.
Including Kailin from the Blood Clan Academy… Yvette from the Sea Tribe… Aiko from the Dwarfs…
If someone were to take the time to look into it, they would find that there was quite a portion of lower-grade students among these teams, most of whom had been exposed on the exchange arena.
At this moment, they were gathering together again here, crossing the differences of their grades to come before this dangerous secret realm.
These Children of Fortune were people who held onto fragments and were unwilling to give them up, or they had fortuitously obtained the qualifications to come here. Their arrival felt more like a coincidence, and the main force competing for these fragments was never these lower-grade students.
“We have already registered you. I wish you can obtain what you want in the secret realm. Also… this is a signal generator provided by the association for you; it can be used to call for help if you get lost in the wind and snow.”
The staff from the association politely greeted the group of elves from Aphhemia Academy and handed them the routine supplies.
As for whether they were willing to take this item, that was another matter.
Although this thing was supposed to be used to send a signal for help after getting lost, they didn’t think so; they preferred to believe it was a tool for the witches to locate their positions, making it easier to snatch their fragments.
“No thanks, it’s just some wind and snow. If these environments can stop our progress, do you look down on our strength?” The elves directly refused the item with their pride.
“Let’s go, Beiya, we’re about to enter.” A tall male elf protected Yao Beiya, leaving here under the watchful eyes of a few other elves with somewhat strange gazes.
Next, another guide led them toward the teleportation passage of the Ice Snow Throne Secret Realm.
The teleportation method for the Ice Snow Throne Secret Realm was targeted teleportation; initially, it was random, but after many exploration teams had explored, the teleportation passage had locked in about 13 relatively safe edge starting points.
To alleviate concerns, teleportation for different teams would not land in the same place, so naturally, there wouldn’t be a situation where one would be ambushed immediately upon entering the secret realm.
The staff member who was refused the signal generator didn’t feel embarrassed since they had long anticipated such conditions; most of the students who were willing to take it were those free explorers without fragments.
After sending off this team from Aphhemia Academy, the place fell into a brief tranquility.
Nearby, there was a book recording the detailed information of the fragment registration; however, this book was merely a formality.
Before the secret realm officially opened, the higher-ups of the association had already prepared a registration book.
This book would record the holders of those fragments; after all, many of those fragments were not originally held by students, but for this event, transferring ownership of the fragments was just a matter of words.
For ordinary spectators, they merely saw this as an unknown game; no one knew who would hold the fragments and participate in the exploration next.
But for the ones orchestrating everything, they already knew who would come, who held which fragments, the general power distributions of various academies, and so on; all of this was “open information.”
It could be said that this event was actively spearheaded by the Witch Academy, producing very ideal effects.
Because it almost gathered 90% of the holders of “Extraordinary Knowledge” fragments!
Except for the original incident, there had never been an occasion where these “Extraordinary Knowledge” fragments were so complete.
And the last missing 10%… well, this was somewhat unavoidable.
In total, there were 12 “Hearts of Cold Wave,” and the one missing, plus the rumored “Frozen World” in the hands of that Teaching Assistant Yang Yuelan…
The last appearance of the Frozen World was in the hands of Aenori, and Aenori was related to that Teaching Assistant Yang Yuelan, so it was reasonable to speculate that it might just be in the hands of that assistant.
For this assistant they knew very little about, they had no way to handle it.
They hoped she would come to find them voluntarily, just like when they previously traded the Heart of Cold Wave for the Soul Crystal, continuing to trade for the Frozen World, but they were also afraid that she would come and cause them trouble, adding uncontrollable risks.
But the final result was that… they didn’t get anything.
Instead, they had imposed a hard condition to restrict the assistant from participating in this exploration so that they could have the legal upper hand, but the other party completely ignored them.
Instead, they learned from Tan Tan that the little assistant Xiaohan was actually not interested in this event and did not intend to participate.
As for its credibility… that was another story.
They lacked the confidence to stop her from interfering in this exploration at that critical moment when she suddenly made a move.
Not long after, several familiar figures arrived again.
“I’m glad you came as promised, my sister.”
“Since I agreed to your invitation, I naturally won’t go back on my word.” Tan Jun faced Ming Ming with no trace of weakness in her tone.
Ming Xueming, as the current president of the All-purpose Workshop Association, took the initiative to greet her, indeed giving her enough face.
But soon after, she shifted her gaze to another person beside Tan Jun.
There were two people beside Tan Jun; one was Xiao You, whom they knew well, the “fortunate one” who inherited Tan Jun’s extraordinary spellbook, and was currently Tan Jun’s most trusted aide. Although this young girl lacked in ability, when it came to trust in Tan Jun, she was definitely someone who could accompany Tan Jun to the end.
As for the other one… Ming Xueming quickly recognized her.
Shi Ruizhi.
The center figure who had made that Xiao Han assistant fall into the incident of experimental accidents, and it was said that some clever guy had exposed her as being an accomplice in that incident. But it seemed now… she had already leaned toward that Xiao Han assistant.
“This one is Senior Shi Ruizhi, right?”
“Correct, it seems the president Ming Xueming is familiar with her?” Tan Heng interjected.
“Of course, but Tan Mei, I must ask, why did you bring her along when this was clearly a prearranged matter?” Ming Xueming looked at Shi Ruizhi and appeared somewhat helpless.
Even though this one had lost her memory and had forgotten many things, which would have an impact on her combat power, still… Self-Generated Magic Power plus the spellbook, this mindless magic artillery style firepower suppression truly didn’t require much brains, did it?
“Just joking, bringing her along is naturally because she is also a participant in this exploration of the secret realm.”
“Is that so? To be honest… you should have informed me in advance.” Ming Xueming’s expression became somewhat pained.
The reason why so many people participated and collaborated in this secret realm exploration was that a consensus had been reached at the family level to achieve a balance of power among participants.
In their eyes, this was a reasonable and fair insider operation, having undergone various negotiations to complete the balance of strength.
As a result, now Tan Heng suddenly introduced a senior sister with considerable strength!
This would upset the balance of power from their side of the Witch Academy family, even causing the plans for fragment gathering to be disrupted.
It could be said that Ming Xueming was quite annoyed by Tan Jun’s action.
“This matter is not a joke; if Senior Shi Ruizhi wants to participate in this exploration…” Before Ming Xueming could finish her rejection, she found her words stuck in her throat.
Because… she saw that Shi Ruizhi was currently holding a cold ice crystal radiating chill.
The Frozen World!
Upon recognizing this item, her pupils suddenly constricted!
“If you don’t welcome me here, I can naturally leave.” Shi Ruizhi casually said at that moment, even showing the inclination to turn around and leave after finishing her sentence.
“Wait! Senior Shi Ruizhi! Misunderstanding!” Ming Xueming quickly called out, as she realized her mistake. “For that misunderstanding, I apologize for my earlier rudeness. If you hold a fragment, we will certainly welcome you!”
At this moment, Ming Xueming dared not to not welcome her, after all, what she held was the currently missing Frozen World!
If the other party returned and handed it back to that Teaching Assistant Xiao Lian, they would surely be in big trouble!
After all, in their view, Shi Ruizhi leaning toward Yang Yuelan made it entirely reasonable for the other party to hand this to her.
Relative to having an incredibly powerful senior sister here now, everything else was no longer an issue!
After all, an imbalance in strength… could simply be compensated by numbers; this Ice Snow Throne secret realm couldn’t be fully explored in just a few days.
If they were still to face that assistant in the end, it wouldn’t be merely a matter of an imbalance in strength.
After stabilizing the situation with the other party, at that moment, the quick-thinking Ming Xueming began contemplating other matters.
Since that little assistant Xiaohan had given this item to Shi Ruizhi, it also meant that the latter had her support, so… obtaining the Frozen World from her hands couldn’t be done by someone from the Witch Academy.
Of course, she could choose to incite other academies’ families, after all… even though everyone was on the same family front, those families had been somewhat blatant in their positioning against the Witch Academy during this stage.
Who knows if this seemingly harmless senior sister at the moment would hold some kind of deadly move, catching everyone off guard in a crisis?
After all, during that auction, she was present, witnessing Tan Ru summon that little assistant Xiaohan and cleave open that so-called instance herself.
That shock… was something impossible to comprehend without having been there.
Shi Ruizhi also didn’t have any difficulty with her.
Finding trouble for the other party now wasn’t a wise choice, at least for the moment they were still part of the same “front line.”
After the misunderstanding was cleared up, Ming Xueming arranged for Tan Jun and her two companions in the reception room; after all, it didn’t matter whether they entered the secret realm earlier or later.
As one of the first clubs to interact with the secret realm, they were well aware of the issues they were facing.
After arranging for Tan Jun and her group, Ming Xueming let Vice President Aiko temporarily take over; she needed to inform the association and other families about this matter.
This wasn’t a time for someone to pull a cunning move, after all, everyone had agreed on openness, and if one were to act, they would be attacked collectively. She needed to treat this as an unexpected incident, analyze the pros and cons so that everyone would accept it, though it wasn’t assured they would accept it; still, it was already a fact, and they had done their duty.
Only after that did she think about how to use this to create a favorable situation for them.
After Ming Xueming left first, Tan Jun and her companions soon encountered another familiar face in the reception room.
Luxien.
At this moment, Luxien appeared somewhat gloomy. As a Child of Fortune holding a Heart of Cold Wave, it was only natural for her to participate in this exploration as well.
But not long ago, she had encountered a team from the Wizard Academy. This wasn’t particularly noteworthy; she had already given up on her college, feeling a lack of belonging.
However… amidst that team, she had seen… Aen Galande!
That wizard apprentice from beneath the Bobapop Islands… she had made a mistake letting that guy experience the feeling of being a witch!
“I didn’t expect to see you here, it’s been a while, Luxien.” Tan Jun took the initiative to speak upon seeing her.
