Chapter 285: Interpretation of Life

At this moment, Ji Niang stood quietly to the side.

After being spoken to by the Academy Head, she had remained silent.

Although she appeared calm on the surface, her heart was in turmoil.

Was this something an Academy Head should be telling a student?

The Academy Head wasn't her mother.

She could see the Academy Head's care for her, so there could only be one reason: in the grand scheme of the Grand Spellbook, Yang Yuehan played a very important role.

She never regretted tricking Yang Yuehan into coming to the Witch Academy.

Even though Yang Yuehan's initial appearance at the transcendent level of the Witch Academy represented the significance of another major event, the Academy Head's unintentional move at this moment might add even greater value to her.

That is, to make those Transcendent Witches who prided themselves on their True Five Senses realize that even a Floating World-level Spirit Vision was still Floating World-level.

At this time, the Academy Head was also a little surprised by my question.

“Life… I was actually going to talk to you about this topic. Since you've brought it up first, let's talk about this first.”

“First, to answer your question, why are dream creatures not life? The definition of life is defined by life, or more accurately, it is defined by the existences that hold absolute say in the Void. The Dream State and the Void are different. Simply put, the Void does not recognize dream creatures as life, so dream creatures are meaningless in the Void.”

“Can you imagine such a scenario? If dream creatures were life, and the Void acknowledged this, then it would mean that dream creatures have a primal spell sequence. Then, when you fight against others with this primal spell, a scene like this would occur: your opponent would ask you, where is your summoned creature? Or what kind of thing have you transformed into?”

“Forced by the situation, you say that you summoned a dream creature, in your dream. This is simply a joke, at least for now, it is a joke.”

“Dream State and reality, these two existences have an absolute dividing line. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Uh… I probably understand…”

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said.

“Probably… very good, it's fine if you don't fully understand. Since you've chosen to walk this path, you cannot establish an absolute cognitive concept for yourself. You have reason to doubt anything. According to my information, the content I just told you may be rewritten very soon, maybe in the next second, maybe next year, or after thousands or tens of thousands of years. In short, do not underestimate the development speed of the transcendent.”

“Mm.”

I nodded to show that I understood.

The transcendent world is also a developing world, just like the world of technology.

In essence, they should both be about the development and utilization of energy.

Technology constantly explores the development of energy.

The use of energy is technology, represented by warships, technological creations, and so on.

The transcendent is also the same.

The use of energy is technique.

Alchemy, True Editing, and so on are the representative forms I have come into contact with so far.

And what the Academy Head is telling me now is like formulas and theorems in mathematics.

These formulas and theorems can also be overturned at any time.

“Now, let me talk to you about life. In your perception, what is life? I don’t require you to answer correctly at once. I just want to know your initial definition of life, what is the most essential expression of life?”

“Life… is… soul?”

I said hesitantly.

If it were in my previous life, I would only say that life is the existence of a series of technical terms such as metabolism of organic life forms.

But now I have transmigrated, so I believe in the existence of the soul.

Then the final expression of life is the soul, and the body?

“Alright… at least for now, that's the case. But the initial Void didn't think so. The interpretation of life has also been constantly developing. Every innovation in the definition of life has been accompanied by death and rebirth.”

“Let me briefly explain the history of the definition of life in the Void. This should have been told to you by your teacher.”

As the Academy Head spoke, her gaze also turned to Ji Niang, who was listening with great interest on the side.

Ji Niang also felt the Academy Head’s gaze, but still forced herself to remain calm.

At the same time, she was complaining in her heart.

She had clearly already told Little Han too much ahead of time, and the content about the history of life was not something a teacher should be talking about.

Even if the students of other teachers had graduated, a large number of people didn't know this information.

Even Transcendent Witches who didn't like history couldn't recite these periodic histories.

They didn't have this concept.

Only Transcendent Witches who have lived for a long time and have nothing better to do would, on a whim, want to look at history, and only then would they possibly look at this.

“The initial definition of life in the Void was life energy, a kind of fundamental energy that constitutes oneself. This was the first life. At that time, this statement denied that life was a series of claims such as the metabolic activities of purely organic life forms, and the existence of energy life further proved this point, and denied that life behavior was purely metabolic activity.”

“This is the first interpretation of life. But the promotion of this statement soon encountered problems. Many cases were constantly proving that this seemed to be wrong, and they tried to overthrow this statement. Life energy is not enough to define life.”

“And what dealt a fatal blow to this statement was the behavior of a certain madman. The other party created a vast void cleansing called the Mechanical Scourge. You should be able to tell from the name, right? To put it simply, they were robots, but not just robots. That madman used life energy as a power source, endowing inorganic matter, metal, stones, and matter with the life they defined, and invaded the void territories.”

“But this behavior was considered a blasphemy against life. No one was willing to be placed together with these man-made creations of metal and stone as fellow life forms. But the ridiculous thing is that this blasphemous act against the old interpretation of life did have a positive stimulating effect on the entire void, and it became a ritual, a new term for a new interpretation of life to overthrow the old one, the Life Blasphemy Ritual.”

“Drawing on the warning from the first Life Blasphemy, the second interpretation of life appeared: memory.”

“The essence of life is memory. As long as the memory is not destroyed, life will not be extinguished. This was the slogan shouted when the new interpretation appeared at that time.”

“But if you think about it carefully, you will find that this interpretation is actually a further step on the interpretation of life energy. The statement that memory is life also includes life energy as a part of life. The definition of memory is to permanently exclude the programs, databases, and information of mechanical life from memory.”

“The first and second interpretations of life were essentially a perfection of the definition of life. As long as the memory exists, the life energy doesn't matter, as long as it exists, then it can be life.”

“Speaking of which, you should have thought of what the interpretation of life, the meaning of this behavior, is most important to, right? That’s right, it’s the resurrection spell. The interpretation of life directly guides the development and prosperity of the resurrection spell. No one is not afraid of death, even the long-lived races are the same, except for those who have lived long enough.”

The Academy Head added a little digression here, which was also a kind of popularization for me.

“Back to the main topic, the third interpretation of life overthrew the definitions of the first two. If the second proved that life energy is not a rigid need for life, then the third also proved that memory is not a rigid need for life either.”

“Before the third interpretation of life, there was also a landmark Life Blasphemy Ritual. It can be said that the madmen in the Void are always the natural enemies of those arrogant people. The Zerg Scourge, an existence that perfectly fits their definition of life.”

“The birth of those bugs was ugly and ignorant, but it was indeed life energy, and they had their own memories, even if the memories of the bugs might be somewhat different from the memories in their wishful thinking.”

“At that time, some people tried to use the definition of memory to deny the act of creating life by the other party, but they were quickly slapped in the face, which is why I call those people arrogant. The line between a madman and a genius is very thin. Their struggle only further attacked their interpretation of life.”

“They split into many factions. Some people firmly believed in the correctness of this interpretation, while others wanted to deny that those bugs were life. It can be said that that period of time was the darkest moment in the Void. Can you imagine that the resurrection spell you rely on is not a real resurrection spell, would you still dare to use it? That was also the period of time when the number of lives in the entire Void declined the fastest.”

“The disuse of the resurrection spell, and the crazy devouring army of bugs, this was an existence more terrifying than the Mechanical Scourge. They devoured everything that could be called a resource, leaving behind a void ruin that was tasteless to eat and a pity to discard.”

“I won’t go into the details, let’s start directly with the third interpretation of life: soul-substance.”

“The emergence of this theory used many aspects of argumentation, including but not limited to the Earth Veins, world consciousness, and analysis of the way the world operates.”

“In order to find the true interpretation of life as soon as possible, the emergence of this theory led to a large number of worlds in the Void becoming victims of analysis. But in that dark period of the Void, it was not uncommon. Finally, a deeper essence of life was discovered: soul-substance.”

“The concept of the soul is a new interpretation of life. The substance represents the form of life and also represents the meaning of essence. Soul-substance as an interpretation of life is the longest-lasting explanation that has been finally recognized. It has even made the Void gradually begin to forget the exploration of the interpretation of life, as well as the act of blasphemy rituals. These concepts have completely become history.”

“And during this period, there was another ridiculous thing, which was the re-leap of the Zerg life, endowing them with the essence of soul-substance. This is the persistence of a madman. The Zerg were also forced to be recognized as life. It can be said that the second interpretation of life was completely the self-destruction of those arrogant people. The existence of the Zerg only created a strong external pressure for the third interpretation of life, forcing the birth of the soul-substance theory.”

“Soul-substance…”

I chewed on this term in my mouth.

This seems to be the widely recognized form of life in the world I am currently in.

“Then… the fourth interpretation of life is the soul?”

“That’s right, the fourth interpretation of life is the soul. It can be said that this time, the fourth interpretation of life has a lot to do with our witch race, or rather, it was promoted and spread mainly by the witch race. And the name of the great person who explained this point of view was erased, and that person has already been promoted to become the pillar of the witch race, the Truth Witch, codename: Soul.”

“There are unofficial records that the name of that great person was… Lian… but it doesn’t have much meaning. The meaning of the codename of a Truth Witch is more important than the name. But unfortunately, the current Truth Witch is rumored to be a shut-in witch. She randomly chose a witch academy at the border of the Void and began her eternal attempt at the soul project. The interpretation of the concept of soul life is currently being promoted entirely by the Primal Witch, and the first to benefit are all the Transcendent Witches.”

“Soul? Project?”

Hearing these keywords, I immediately thought of what Big Sis Bai had said to me. Wasn’t Big Sis Bai’s project about the soul?

“Yes, the concept of the soul has now become a popular choice among the projects, and it is now gradually becoming a threshold for promotion to Transcendent Witch.”

Speaking of which, the Academy Head gave me a meaningful look that I didn’t notice, and then returned to normal.

“So far, we are in the midst of a transformation in the Void. Generally speaking, the resurrection spell can be used normally, because even the Primal Witch feels that this fourth interpretation of life is like the second interpretation of life in history, it is a perfection of the previous one. But Little Han, I hope you’d better not use the resurrection spell. Can you do that?”

“Mm! I’ll do my best.”

I nodded, and had some thoughts in my mind.

After all, I had also promised Big Sis Bai this matter.

I would not joke with my own life, and since the Academy Head had said so, there must be a problem.

After all, who knows if I am a soul, and the Witch Academy is still using the soul-substance version of the resurrection spell?

“So far, the definition of life has been more or in a lesser way explained. The life recognized by our witch race is the soul, so if you want to turn those Fool's Dream into real life, research on the soul project is necessary. As for the so-called wisdom, aura, cognition, and memory, they have also been perfected little by little in the long development of the interpretation of life.”

“This is equivalent to you becoming a Transcendent Witch, with the essence of life being the soul. You also have to lead those Fool's Dreams to become life and obtain a soul.”

“It should be noted here that the Fool's Dream must be promoted to the soul. Creating life is no longer very difficult for me, but the difficulty lies in creating a life that has never existed before. Otherwise, if you create a life that already exists, even if it is extinct, it won’t work. You cannot deduce a primal spell sequence from these lives. This involves the deeper workings of the Void.”

“Mm…”

I nodded, looking like a serious and studious student, but I still had some doubts.

“Um… Academy Head, weren't the Fool’s Dream originally dream creatures… can they really become a new life recognized by the Void? Academy Head, didn’t you say that the Dream State and reality are completely separate existences?”

“Good question. Asking this question shows that you are thinking.”

The Academy Head nodded in satisfaction upon hearing my question, and quickly answered it for me.

“This brings us back to what I said earlier, nothing is absolute. Are the Dream State and reality really completely separate? This brings us to the answer given by the Truth Witch codenamed Soul: no!”

“The greatest contribution of the Soul Truth Witch to the witch race and the Void is not the interpretation of life, but her exploration of the soul. That person found the authority of the Dream State in the Dream State. Relying on the authority of the Dream State, she blurred the boundary between the Dream State and reality. You have used a dream device, right? It can be used and promoted so conveniently, that Soul Truth Witch has put in a lot of effort.”

“What is the Dream State? It is an absurd and disordered illusory world comparable to the entire endless Void. In a broad sense, people also classify the dream world as a part of the Void, but most of the time, the term Void refers to the real Void.”

“There is no chance for you to create new life in the Void. You can only take another path, following the path opened up by that Soul Truth Witch, blurring the boundary between reality and the Dream State, so that dream creatures have the possibility of becoming real life.”

“This…”

Hearing this, I finally understood how hellish the difficulty of this trial mission given to me by the Academy Head was!

It seems like a new path has been opened, but in fact, it all depends on my own exploration, with no path ahead!

This is simply a huge pit!

“What? Do you regret it?”

“No… no…”

I had to brace myself and say.

Anyway, the Academy Head didn't set a deadline for me.

I can just take it slow.

Aren't witches' lifespans very long?

Take it slow.

Suppose, just suppose, I really succeed, with this experience, my accumulation and experience in dream creatures can create more new lives, and obtain more primal spell sequences.

Anyway, I won’t lose out, right?

After talking about life, the Academy Head also told me about some other trivial matters.

At this moment, I also understood that it seemed that it was not so easy for the Fool's Dream to escape the category of dream creatures.

This required a step-by-step layout.

I originally thought that I could pet the cute little cat girl Fool's Dream after this trip, but now I realize it’s still early…

“That’s about it. If there are any other arrangements, I will contact you directly. You can go back now. I’ve taken up a lot of your time.”

“Mm, goodbye, Academy Head.”

Mei Linde watched as Ji Niang led me away, until our figures disappeared.

She could see that Little Han’s essence was different from the people of this world.

It was a soul.

Although this was very surprising, it was also very common for abnormalities to occur.

But the combination of a soul and innate Spirit Vision became the first case in the Main World of someone who hadn't gone mad.

And the other party had also proved that the value of high-level Spirit Vision was terrifying, so Mei Linde couldn’t just watch the other party be consumed and wasted in the script.

That would be too much of a waste.

Initially, the Witch Academy didn’t pay much attention to such existences, but Yang Yuehan’s appearance proved a possibility, that is, the combination of the soul and the blessing of the Main World, Spirit Vision, seemed to have new possibilities.

The soul seemed to be able to withstand the impact of this blessing of Spirit Vision.

And this further increased the value of the Main World’s script.

The gaze of the Transcendent Witches of the Witch Academy would be set further in the future.

The Child of Destiny created by the script would complete the script, carry the destiny, and sublimate and be promoted to become the Child of Heaven’s Mandate, becoming the favorite of the Main World’s consciousness.

With the help of the Child of Heaven’s Mandate, the essence of life in the Main World would be rewritten as the soul.

Then those innate Spirit Visionaries in this world would no longer be a terminal illness, but true geniuses!

Just think about the current Yang Yuehan.

Just thinking about it, Mei Linde felt that if this matter were to be completed, how huge the value of this Main World would be!

Now the academy had a trade-off, that is, for Yang Yuehan or for the script?

Even if Yang Yuehan had shown great value, it was all to increase the stakes for this script.

They could still distinguish between one genius and an endless stream of geniuses.

Since the academy had already prepared to fully protect the script, then at this stage, the choice that maximized the benefits was to remove Yang Yuehan, who had shown a strong ability to interfere with the script, from the script.

And protecting Yang Yuehan and investing in her was Mei Linde’s selfish intention, because she didn’t know if the future innate Spirit Visionaries would all be as unreasonably terrifying as Yang Yuehan.