Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 217 - 204: Strengthening the Manipulation of Flesh

"The Blood Nest Great Tree, as your classroom, seeks only one thing from you, and that is creativity, new knowledge."

"Among you, the best of the best, like the Plague Doctor, if your work is deemed excellent by Nola, she will recognize you as part of the Hive. That means, in your future research, you will carry a library of Spirit Summoning Studies with you. Knowledge is power, and power brings privileges. Once you have passed all of Nola’s tests, your knowledge will be acknowledged as worth remembering and stored in the central Memory Stone."

"The Blood Nest Great Tree keeps this knowledge not just for transmission but also as a means of attack."

"If necessary, the twelve hundred hives of the Blood Nest Great Tree will work round the clock to produce. Using the accumulated knowledge of Spirit Summoning Studies, it can become an inexhaustible arms factory, and the production of the simplest three locks creation takes about two hours."

"If I’m not mistaken, gentlemen, aside from Mr. Plague Doctor’s abilities, you all have just reached Second Lock and cannot even defeat the mass-produced soldiers that consume two hours of production."

Setting aside Mr. Crimson’s penchant for primitive nature, he could essentially be considered a competent teacher. He explained every point of knowledge in detail, and to the dullest student, he would patiently repeat or try another way of thinking to aid understanding. This was not difficult for Mr. Crimson, as Nola fully demonstrated her capabilities. Her modes of thinking were diverse and direct, pinpointing the essence of every problem. If Mr. Crimson happened to meet a true fool, he would not be angered, but instead smile at that classmate’s clean, white bones.

However, no one would like him, even if his lectures were good.

Even the only survivor, Lyle, was unnerved because he was now surrounded by a group of clean, white skeletal students.

All stripped bare.

Manipulation and Adaptation now looked alike, covered in scales. Adaptation looked at his brother, "Do you still resent Mr. Crimson’s fate?" With the return of the former Flesh Sect master Arnold, the position and resources of the chief professor of the Flesh Sect were handed back to Arnold, even though Crimson had done well enough before.

Manipulation was playing with the muscle fibers in his hand, the scales on his face rattling as he shook his head.

"Although Mr. Crimson’s character is questionable, his teaching achievements should not pay for his personality. I maintain my view that although Mr. Crimson is a terrible person, his work attitude is not."

Adaptation stroked the scales on the back of his hand, the smooth texture being even more pleasant than he had imagined, "Do you think Mr. Crimson and Mr. Arnold will become estranged over this? I’ve never seen what a duel between masters of Spirit Summoning Studies looks like..."

"Then you won’t see it, Mr. Adaptation," Mr. Crimson suddenly appeared behind the two, "Although Mr. Arnold and I have some differences in teaching philosophy and have argued, please believe that every professor of Spirit Summoning Studies is mature and rational. A difference in philosophy does not affect my relationship with Mr. Arnold, although we have hardly touched base, to me, Mr. Arnold is just a more solitary person."

Mr. Crimson corrected a mistake in the way Manipulation was connecting muscle, then continued, "In fact, I recommend anyone who wants to specialize in Flesh Summoning Study also take both my classes and Mr. Arnold’s. While I claim that the Blood Nest Great Tree is the Flesh Sect’s work of unity, in reality, it does not include Mr. Arnold’s knowledge, his knowledge...is strange. It’s an ineffable feeling. I’m surprised, Mr. Arnold has shown me parts I have never seen."

"That’s why I recommend Mr. Arnold. We are like gardeners of the same garden. I plant lavender, and he tulips. That is the work of a teacher, we do our utmost to display the vibrant and magical world of knowledge before our students as fully as possible, with no bias and no deception."

"So my advice to you is, you can try anything."

"Free yourselves from disguise, even embracing purity is worth a try. You might just find you like it."

Manipulation and Adaptation covered their faces, the friction of their scales masking their sighs.

"You know, Mr. Crimson, if you hadn’t said that last part, I might have been won over by your spirit as a mentor."

Mr. Crimson let out a loud laugh.

"Then, as your mentor, let me tell you something else. Don’t submit to others—your will should only submit to yourself."

"Acting cool is useless now, teacher."

"Hahahaha!"

Lyle, still mentally submerged in his own Hive’s gel cluster, listened to the laughter coming from behind the tentacle wall. His body did not make contact with it, but new knowledge indeed emerged in his mind.

A warm feeling arose in his heart, and he felt like a tiny speck of light, traveling along the flesh tissues into the web, eventually merging with the glow of the Memory Stone at the center of the Blood Nest.

Lyle had received his reward for passing the test.

The subjective agency of magic spreading throughout the flesh.

As a piece of knowledge preserved within the Memory Stone, it clearly had its unique aspects. The author was an idealist master of the Flesh Sect. In his research, he discovered that many regularities could not be explained or understood with the existing knowledge, causing great trouble for his studies.

So, he ceased to understand.

Utilizing the powerful mystical element of magic, he unearthed and awakened the subjective agency of magic manipulating flesh. Specifically, it meant that through forceful intervention by consciousness and magic, one could apply those incomprehensible regularities without understanding their principles.

Just like the medium-less propagation of magic through flesh.

Before, magic was affected by Lyle’s subconscious influence, acting only within permitted bounds; these bounds included Lyle’s touch and the infection by the plague.

Now, this boundary had been broken.

This meant that without interference from other magic, Lyle could manipulate all the flesh within his sensory range, regardless of whether they had been infected by the plague or had any abnormalities. Whether it was decaying flesh on the ground or flesh growing on someone else’s face.

Lyle could make them change according to his own ideas.

The Second Lock talent Flesh Riot had also changed a bit under the wash of this knowledge.

Flesh Riot—within the range of Lyle’s perception, all flesh with a lower magic content than Lyle’s would obey his commands, which include but are not limited to all creature transformations he learned in the Flesh Sect. Even high-level magic users, in a state of magic exhaustion, would be twisted by this ability.

Wherever my gaze falls, all shall decay.