Chapter 138: Dead End, Crazy Plan

Setting aside for the moment whatever it was that Urfin intended, the man had been prattling on like a chatterbox before Wang Yu and Avia. While Wang Yu kept a vigilant watch on Urfin’s movements, he began to communicate with Avia beside him through the medium of Ripple energy.

After a brief assessment of Avia’s situation, Wang Yu confirmed that the inside man behind this incident was undoubtedly her teacher, Weber Lanchi; his own previous Ripple-based investigation had indeed failed to detect anything amiss with the man.

"Have I become too reliant on these abilities after all..." As the Ripple echoed around him, Wang Yu realized that his dependence on the Ripple was perhaps too high. While the primary reason was likely that arrogance of the "transcendent" toward the "non-transcendent" which caused him to overlook everything about Weber other than the Void and magic, the truth was that, in retrospect, Weber Lanchi’s behavior had not been without flaws. He had been overly robust; at his age, without a career as a knight, he shouldn't have been decrepit, but looking back at that encounter, he was simply too "sturdy."

While this could not serve as definitive proof of Weber Lanchi’s guilt, it was something Wang Yu should not have ignored. Yet, the results of the Ripple scan had led him to largely rule out any issues with Weber. If only he had been more cautious...

He stopped dwelling on the "what ifs"—hindsight was always meaningless. After chiding himself, Wang Yu refocused his full attention on the present.

He and Avia now faced two choices: wait for the Night’s Edge technicians outside to breach the crimson barrier and then escape, leaving Urfin to be dealt with by the Night’s Edge forces of the entire royal city; or, have Avia find a way to crack the barrier, open a gap for them to pass through, and evacuate immediately.

In neither scenario did Wang Yu intend to confront the bizarrely strange Urfin. He was well aware of his current strength, which was likely only sixty percent of his full capacity; had he not been a knight by trade, the situation would have been even worse.

As for Urfin, Wang Yu found it impossible to discern what this creature—who stood before them unhurriedly, showing neither a strong desire to attack nor any intention of letting them leave—actually wanted.

He and the technician shared a similar view on the event: using an artifact to destroy the Stevenson Academy of Magic held little significance. So, what exactly was Seovintan trying to achieve?

None of that mattered to Wang Yu right now. His only goal was to escape, then decide on the next step based on the circumstances.

"Prepare to retreat. Let's get away from this guy first," Wang Yu conveyed through the Ripple to Avia.

Nodding, Avia climbed onto Wang Yu’s back with practiced ease, channeling Void energy into her hands to continue shaping her ammunition.

The flame-burning effect was not ideal; this ability to "evolve" countermeasures without relying on transcendent power meant that almost all delayed-effect damage became meaningless. They would have to rely on sheer, overwhelming force to stall the opponent.

"You can use Void energy even within the range of His power? I think I have found the target I was looking for. Should I call this current situation luck?"

As Avia condensed ammunition with Void energy right in front of Urfin, the creature’s gaze shifted toward her. Its tone remained cold and devoid of fluctuation, but the implication of its words made both Wang Yu and Avia’s hearts skip a beat.

"Bang!" The alchemical propellant in the barrel erupted with a violent sound and heat, propelling the specially crafted warhead forward.

The projectile shattered in mid-air. This time, it was not filled with small steel balls, but with dense, finely shredded metal blades. These tiny blades spun in the air, expanding from a point into a wide, sweeping surface that blanketed Urfin’s body.

"Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft!" With a series of soft but incessant sounds, these sharp, high-velocity blades easily pierced Urfin’s not-so-resilient frame.

Unlike the steel balls, which only embedded themselves in flesh and caused limited damage, the spinning blades sliced through Urfin’s skin and muscle, piercing deep into the body and severing fragile blood vessels, causing blood to spray uncontrollably—a proper bloodletting for the creature.

As Avia fired the shot that sent blood spurting from Urfin’s body, Wang Yu, carrying her on his back, kicked off the ground and crashed toward the side window.

The glass shattered, but the barrier covering the girl protected her from the sharp shards. Adjusting his posture, Wang Yu leaped from the third floor, slightly bending his legs to absorb the impact of the fall, then pushed off again, retreating rapidly in the direction guided by the girl, away from Urfin.

Above at the third-floor window, Urfin remained expressionless, watching the two figures flee. It simply muttered to itself.

"Two interesting existences. Completely unaffected by that influence on the soul. Are they beings similar to me?"

"The 'Key' must be her. To be able to usurp Void energy from the current Void—such a degree of Void affinity can only belong to those the Seovintans call the 'Keys.' Collect thirteen keys, is it... Humans are truly interesting. To think they would make so many irrational choices just for the secrets of the Void that can be obtained once they are gathered."

"Those who have discarded the very essence of life... how truly arrogant." Urfin’s form gradually vanished from the windowsill, its physical structure disintegrating into amoeba-like entities that burrowed into the drainage gutters of the hallway and disappeared.

……

"Wait for rescue or force a breakthrough?" Wang Yu sought Avia’s opinion. He was clueless about such magitech arrays and barriers; all decisions had to rely on Avia, the professional.

"Wait a moment..." Avia grew quiet, spreading her mental energy to perceive the surrounding Void, searching for the source of the anomalies in the space.

Red raindrops poured frantically within the space of her mental realm, only to be completely blocked by the protective layer Wang Yu had placed over her mental palace, allowing the girl to observe and study what these things actually were at close range.

"They look like red raindrops, but in reality, they are Void energy of higher purity. No impurities representing the material world—it is almost entirely pure Void energy."

These droplets were conceptually similar to the liquid mana contained within ultra-pure magic crystals. They belonged to an extremely high and pure tier of Void energy, devoid of any material-world impurities. This gave these red, rain-like Void energies a potent infectivity that ordinary Void energy lacked.

Avia was unsure of Wang Yu’s condition; she hadn't discovered anything that could directly interfere with his mind, nor indirectly. But the reason she hadn't fallen unconscious was entirely due to the mental barrier Wang Yu had provided, which isolated these red "rains."

When this pure Void energy touched non-Void matter, its extreme purity would pull those objects away from the material world, shifting them toward the Void.

As the bridge between the Void and the material, mental energy was naturally the most susceptible to these red "rains." Anyone whose mental space—or soul—was directly touched by this red "rain" would have their spirit dragged toward the Void, leaving their body in the material world unable to be controlled by a soul that had been pulled away.

"This is the essence of their unconsciousness. Then the first option—waiting—is absolutely off the table. This infusion of pure Void energy is currently only affecting souls that are already closer to the Void, but as time passes, the material parts of this academy will also shift toward the Void. That is their goal..."

The conclusion reached after a brief thought made Avia take a deep breath. To let an entire academy fall into the Void—what kind of mastermind could orchestrate such a massive layout? What could the Stevenson Academy of Magic possibly possess that was worth such an immense effort from Seovintan?

"Wang Yu, please take me to the edge of this barrier. Waiting won't work. The purpose of this barrier is to stall for time while the entire academy is dragged into the Void. We don't have time to wait for the Night’s Edge members outside to crack it."

The girl spoke with rapid urgency, relaying her conclusions to Wang Yu. Without hesitation, he carried her toward the edge of the barrier.

In fact, Wang Yu had some understanding of the Void environment within the academy; his Ripple gave him a unique advantage in observing such environments.

The high-purity Void energy, which stood out so starkly against the normal levels of the surrounding environment, gave him a hypothesis. He had seen similar high-concentration Void energy before; when the Lady of the Night channeled divine arts through him as a conduit, she exhibited power of far greater purity than ordinary Void energy...

In other words, it was highly probable that the space was filled with the Void energy of an entity even more powerful than the Lady of the Night. Who it was, Wang Yu did not know, but this meant that Urfin, a being similar to the Lady of the Night, would also find it difficult to use Void power in this space.

"Neither magic nor sorcery—this is truly the power of the purest kind of creature..." Summarizing the situation in his mind, Wang Yu quickly brought Avia to the boundary of the barrier.

At the same time, around the small paths of the academy that Wang Yu and Avia traversed, tiny tentacles emerged from various places, their minute sensory organs twitching gently.

Inconspicuous little flying insects turned their compound eyes toward the direction where Wang Yu and Avia had run.

Cracks appeared on the roots and leaves of the landscaping trees and flowers. Inside, simple observation organs—unlike eyes that required long periods of gestation—fed everything they collected back to their core.

The academy’s research direction never stopped at spells and arrays; a vast amount of research into magical creatures and peculiar substances was included in the curriculum. Weber Lanchi was one of the professors who studied such creatures.

And Weber Lanchi alone produced a massive amount of biological waste with every experiment—dead test subjects, body parts of various magical creatures, and byproducts from within them. Added to the waste produced by other professors and students, the total number was staggering.

Usually, this waste was incinerated, but for some time, Weber Lanchi had been regularly taking a portion of this biological waste—not an insignificant amount—and burying it beneath the underground of the experimental site he rented in the hills behind the school.

No one paid attention to this waste; who would care about things that had been completely drained of their utility? As it accumulated, the amount of this "academy waste" buried beneath Weber’s rented land reached a terrifying level...

For Urfin, this was an extension of its own body. With enough organic matter, enough controllable cells and nutrients, it could recklessly modify and utilize this "useless waste." It needed no battle aura, no magic, not even the Void.

Though it did not know the concept of DNA, nor did it understand genetics or mutation, the instinct of the "source of life" was enough for Urfin to transform this lifeless waste into the creatures it desired.

These lives, devoid of any transcendent power, had long since spread throughout the academy with Weber Lanchi’s assistance.

Within the branches of trees, between the cracks of the soil, these lifeless entities existed. Except for places difficult for biological organisms to enter, its vision already covered the entire academy. No matter what Wang Yu and Avia did, they could hardly escape its observation.

……

"This is an internal annihilation array. No wonder the Night’s Edge outside didn't choose to break it by force. Once the balance of this barrier is shattered, the entire academy will suffer a devastating blow because of it. And the scale of this barrier is too large; I have no way to undo it in a short time."

Avia attached her mental energy to the crimson barrier, carefully reading the magitech circuits within. The gravity in her tone was evident; even with Avia’s talent, facing such a massive magitech circuit, she felt a lack of confidence.

"If this magic-suppression zone didn't exist, the situation shouldn't be this dire. The presence of this zone means that once the internal annihilation barrier collapses, the academy has no means of self-preservation. This is a pure dead end. When this barrier was formed, everything was essentially already decided."

Wang Yu gritted his teeth. When this barrier was formed, Seovintan’s goal was essentially achieved.

There was almost no possibility for Alastair to break this near-certain trap. The Stevenson Academy of Magic suffering a devastating blow was almost a foregone conclusion.

It couldn't be said that Seovintan hadn't paid a price; the artifact capable of deploying such a massive magic-suppression zone was a sufficient cost.

Its value might even exceed that of the Stevenson Academy of Magic, but that was irrelevant to Wang Yu and Avia. The situation they faced was dire.

Either wait for time to pass, and the entire academy would fall into the Void before the annihilation barrier broke.

Or attempt to forcibly break the annihilation barrier, and either the power would be insufficient, leading back to the first result, or they would succeed in breaking it and be blown to the sky along with the entire academy...

"Damn it! Fuck!" Wang Yu punched the ground in frustration.

This sense of powerlessness appeared in him from time to time—last time it was facing the threat of Hela infiltrating his home, and now it was the helplessness of the Stevenson Academy trap.

Weak. Still too weak. His strength was insufficient, and the special qualities he possessed seemed meaningless at this moment.

"Hoo..." Exhaling, he used willpower to cast aside these meaningless emotions and looked at Avia. The word "give up" would not appear in either of their vocabularies, whether it was Wang Yu or Avia.

"Is there any other way?" Wang Yu looked into Avia’s eyes. There was no retreat; why not give it one last shot? He had no way to break the situation for now, but perhaps Avia did.

If I were alone, I would truly be at a loss, but your arrival, Wang Yu, has changed the equation; though reckless, I believe it is a viable path, and in any case, we have run out of retreats, have we not?

Avia offered a sudden, faint smile. She did indeed have a plan, one impossible to execute in solitude, but with Wang Yu by her side, there was nothing left to fear.

Without hesitation, Avia swiftly laid out her scheme—a plan that bore a touch of Wang Yu’s own signature madness and disregard for convention.

I have sensed that the origin of this void-corruption lies at the very heart of the academy; it acts as a core, dragging the entire institution into the abyss, and the internal annihilation barrier, once it begins to collapse, will also start from that center. You possess the power to carve a rift in the void, Wang Yu, which could forcibly accelerate the academy’s descent, and if we trigger the collapse of the barrier at that precise moment...

Then it might force the power of the internal annihilation to collide with the void itself? Wang Yu grinned; it was a truly insane plan.

It lacked any precedent or reference, a complete gamble, yet it sounded strangely sound—and, at this moment, it was the only solution left.

As for the collapse of the internal annihilation barrier, provided they could evade its destructive wake, even if the academy’s descent into the void accelerated, the reality-stabilizing spears in the sky were not merely for show.

Then, let’s do it!

The plan was set, and what remained were the finer details of execution. Wang Yu did not forget the ever-present, looming threat of the Source of Life, Elfin; that monstrosity would hardly stand by and let them act as they pleased.