Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 271: How to Attain the Saint Realm

As she pondered the relationship between faith and gods, Yvette finally understood why, back in Adelock, the Sunflame Sect and Cloudpeak Sect had reacted so violently to the newborn Silver Witch Church, to the point that the Sun God himself had resorted to a Divine Descent.If something involved the Witch of Finality, how could they not treat it with extreme caution?

So…

What about now?

After delivering a single counterattack, the Sun God’s descent had ended immediately.

Could that actually have been a tactical retreat?

Had He really mistaken her for the Witch of Finality?

If so, then for the Silver Witch Church’s future development, it might not be a bad thing at all…

At that thought, a faint, subtle sense of relief rose in Yvette’s heart.

She’d originally wanted the Silver Witch Church to expand southward all the way, mainly to avoid the True Gods’ churches in the north. She could still put on an act if it was just clashing with Righteous Gods, but if a True God descended, she’d probably only be able to run, and all the church groundwork she’d laid would go straight down the drain, wouldn’t it?

But now, by borrowing the Witch of Finality’s infamy to bluff and intimidate, at the very least it was unlikely there would be another god-war. She could focus on spreading the faith. At worst, it would just be some organizational conflict at the church level.

Of course, that was the optimistic take. On the pessimistic side, there was still the possibility of the True Gods and Righteous Gods joining forces to besiege her, which only made it all the more important to hide herself well.

And when it came to hiding herself, aside from using the Silver Witch Church to divert and split the flow of faith, the importance of a divine realm couldn’t be ignored—and she couldn’t really just freeload in her grand-disciple’s divine realm forever, either.

So she said, “Shuanghua, I need you to help me with something.”

Shuanghua nodded almost without hesitation. “Alright, Grandmaster,” she answered softly.

She had no idea what needed doing, but just the thought that it was her grandmaster asking made her feel vaguely nervous.

Then she watched as the woman before her—who had the same snow-white hair and looked almost like her blood sister—parted her rosy lips and calmly said, “I need you to teach me how to obtain a domain.”

For a moment, it was as if the wind and snow around them had frozen in place.

Shuanghua quietly stared at her grandmaster. Her long white lashes trembled slightly. After a very long silence, she tilted her head a little, a lost expression crossing her face.

She suspected she’d misheard.

But she’d heard very clearly.

How to obtain a domain—that was an Archmage’s headache. The matter was so distant that even her memories of that stage had grown blurry.

Why would her grandmaster need her help with such a basic question?

As the God of Serendipity, Grandmaster had, several hundred years ago, taught the Mortal Realm’s fifth True God, her own teacher, Rosalyn Sien.

Could someone like that really need help on something this fundamental?

“I… don’t understand what you mean,” Shuanghua said.

“I mean exactly what you’re thinking,” Yvette replied.

Seeing that Shuanghua still looked confused, Yvette could only say with some regret, “I don’t have a divine realm. Using the Mortal Realm’s level classifications, I should be an Archmage.”

Of course I’m a bit stronger than your average Archmage—that part she didn’t say. Otherwise it would sound like she was trying to cover for herself.

Not that she felt guilty in the slightest.

Shuanghua’s eyes slowly widened, and her pale lips parted into an adorable little triangle.

This might well have been the most shocking thing she’d heard since becoming the Snow Emperor.

The legendary God of Serendipity, the Silver Witch—her grandmaster, whom she had assumed to be omnipotent—was actually just an Archmage!

“Are you disappointed?” Yvette watched her quietly.

“N-no, not at all!” Shuanghua shook her head so hard her snow-white hair swayed.

Right after that, looking at Yvette’s calm face, Shuanghua managed to collect herself a little. In that very soft, airy voice of hers, she slowly began to recall the process of how she herself had gained a domain.

It had happened four hundred years ago. The details had long since become fuzzy, but the knowledge involved was still there. With that as her base, and with her stiff fingers sketching shapes in the air, she just barely managed to explain the core essence of creating a domain to Yvette, more or less.

In her explanation, a divine realm was an evolved form of a Saint Realm domain, and for an Archmage to obtain a Saint Realm domain, the first prerequisite was to master a wholly new, fully systematized, self-owned “magic school.” After one reached god-tier, this new personal school would become what was called “divine arts.”

That was what the professors at the Academy of Truth were busy with every day. Why did they run around everywhere with their students, all to research their own academic subjects? Was it really for research results, fame, or wealth?

Of course not. That very process of research was how an Archmage explored, comprehended, and created their own exclusive magic school.

Along the way, they would gradually find the direction their school should take. But due to the lack of a developed understanding of rune studies, all the insights they gained were abstract concepts—sometimes nothing more than a “feeling”—and no one but they themselves could use them.

Then, on the day that this cohesive, top-down, self-consistent school was finally completed, all the original rune structures it used would condense into a second core within the body, like the embodiment of knowledge itself—the “Holy Core.”

At that point, the Saint Realm would be born, and with it, a completely new growth point on the path of cultivation.

Once she’d understood Shuanghua’s explanation, Yvette frowned slightly. If it’s about magic schools, she thought, I’ve already created grimoire volumes to represent five entire schools. They might have drawn inspiration from other places, but they’re basically original. So why haven’t they allowed me to condense a Holy Core?

Is it because I skipped the process of discovery and understanding? All my knowledge came pre-packaged from the Origin Civilization’s legacy. I’ve been standing on the shoulders of those who came before. Is that why?

If that’s the case, then this is really unfair. Someone who knows nothing can just stand on tiptoe and pluck some of the easier fruits from the tree of knowledge, while someone who knows everything has to fetch a ladder and climb all the way to the top to get a fruit of her own… In that case, doesn’t knowledge itself become a curse and a burden?

No. Maybe it has nothing to do with that…

“Do you have to reach ten thousand Mana Points?” Yvette asked.

If anyone else had asked such a stupid question here, Shuanghua would definitely have suspected they were a freshly initiated magic apprentice.

But the one asking was her grandmaster.

Which meant the question had to carry deeper meaning.

It was like “What’s one plus one?”—coming from a kindergarten teacher, and coming from a mathematician, it obviously didn’t mean the same thing.

Shuanghua mulled it over for a long time but got nowhere. At last she answered cautiously, “Grandmaster, I’ve never seen a Saint Realm below ten thousand Mana Points. It should be impossible.”

Unless they changed the definition of the standard mana unit.

But that definition had been set by the Legendary Mage, who had learned it from the Silver Witch, so there was no way there was some foundational error in understanding.

“What if your Mana Points are above ten thousand?” Yvette asked again.

Shuanghua stared at her blankly, blinked, and only after a good while understood the subtext behind the question. She still shook her head.

She thought, Grandmaster really isn’t like ordinary people.