The Witch Hunter System

520 Breaking Sky Barrier's Requirement

Empyrean Scarletsea was pleasantly surprised by Vaan's straightforward answer. It seemed her sincerity had reached him.

Nevertheless, she had to admit that among men she had seen within Pangea through the eyes of her disciple, Vaan's handsomeness could be ranked at the top. He had both the looks and talents - a truly gifted son of heaven.

His charming smile could melt the hearts of innocent young maidens.

"Kukuku, if I were sixty billion years younger, my heart would have skipped a beat for you," Empyrean Scarletsea cracked a joke due to her pleasant mood.

However, Vaan didn't find it funny. Rather, the joke caused his smile to vanish.

Sixty billion years...!

Fuck, even his earliest ancestor wasn't a sperm cell when Empyrean Scarlet was still in the prime of her youth.

Behind the pretty young appearance of Henrietta hid a truly ancient granny of primordial times.

The corners of Vaan's eyes slightly twitched.

"It fell flat, huh?" Empyrean Scarletsea muttered to herself, having noticed her joke didn't produce the intended result. "Back in my era, this joke was quite well received among my people, especially after I delivered the punchline."

"... What was the punchline?" Vaan couldn't help but ask, even when he knew it was unlikely any punchline could save such a dry joke.

"Why aren't you laughing?" Empyrean Scarletsea simply answered with a straight face.

Vaan was struck speechless.

Could that even be considered a joke? It was more like a threat. The whole joke in and of itself didn't have to be a joke. People would still laugh because they fear for their life.

Evidently, Empyrean Scarletsea didn't have a sense of humor.

However, Empyrean Scarletsea didn't need any talent to be a comedian. In fact, anyone could become a comedian as long as they had absolute strength.

"This must be the highest realm a comedian could achieve... to make people laugh without saying anything funny, Vaan thought humorously with satire.

Nevertheless, Empyrean Scarletsea shortly put an end to the topic as she was running out of time.

"Alright, enough of that. My disciple will explain the True Divinity-rank energy cultivation method to you after the exchange," Empyrean Scarletsea stated.

"Then, let us meet in the void beyond the sky of Pangea," Vaan suggested.

Shortly after Empyrean Scarletsea agreed, she returned control of the body back to her disciple. Henrietta regained consciousness the moment her body control was returned.

However, she felt no strength in her legs and started to drop to the ground- only to be caught by Vaan. The close proximity immediately made Henrietta's face flush bright red as her heartbeat raced like beating drums.

Her mind immediately spun with confusion. She had yet to process the whole situation and was expecting her master to fill her in on the details of their talk.

At the same time, Henrietta subconsciously shoved Vaan away with both hands. As a result, she fell flat on her rear with a soft thud.

Although Vaan offered a hand to help her up, Henrietta rejected it with a shake of her head. She quickly told him to head to the rendezvous location first.

"Alright," Vaan calmly agreed.

Shortly after he left, Henrietta remained seated on the ground with an absent look.

She had not been mentally prepared for such close contact with Vaan. And yet, for some reason, the moment lingered in her mind. The thought of Vaan couldn't be cleared out of her head.

Henrietta glanced at her two hands, which still had the feeling of touching Vaan's well-defined chest. There was even a unique, pleasant scent on them.

Subconsciously, she couldn't help but bring her two hands closer for a better sniff.

"What are you doing?"

Astoria's distant voice suddenly entered Henrietta's ears. Henrietta's blood pressure spiked through the roof in that instant. She jumped with fright like a frightened kitten that had just been caught doing something bad.

She almost had a heart attack.

"N-Nothing!" Henrietta stuttered while trying to hide her embarrassment.

After quickly cooling her head, she really wanted to smack her own head. What was she even thinking? Why did she want to sniff a man's scent?

Since when did she become so perverted?

"Aren't you leaving yet, Henrietta?"

"I-I'm leaving now, Astoria!"

Shortly after hearing Astoria's urging question, Henrietta quickly fixed her embarrassed expression and scurried off.

Before long, Astoria watched Henrietta from the balcony of the great hall floor as the latter ascended through the sky with a blazing trail of fire behind her.

'Transcendent...' Astoria glanced at Henrietta's departing figure with some

envy.

She didn't envy Henrietta as a person; she only envied her capability to leave the world.

If she were a Transcendent Witch, she could also break past the sky barrier and enter the sea of stars...

No, that's not right.

Even a normal Transcendent Witch wouldn't be able to break past the sky barrier and enter the sea of stars due to the sheer amount of magic power required for the attempt.

As Astoria observed Henrietta's flight, she realized why not just anyone could break past the sky barrier.

Being able to fly was far from enough.

To break past the sky barrier, a person must have enough explosive speed and magic power to achieve escape velocity and maintain it until orbit.

Otherwise, Pangea's gravity would just pull them back and stop them from leaving.

That's why Henrietta was discharging her magic power at full throttle in order to break past the sky barrier in the shortest time possible. If she did not do so, the amount of mana she had to burn would increase exponentially.

Even normal Transcendent Witches could not discharge their magic power at full throttle for long extended periods, no matter how great their mana reserve was.

The mana expenditure of channeling spells was not the same as single-instant spells.

"The only reason Henrietta can enter the sea of stars like Vaan is because she has comprehended the Fire Law...' Astoria understood.

The expenditure of soul power using the Fire Law was far more efficient than mana consumption for fire spells of the same effect.

In that case, what Astoria needed to do was comprehend a law of her own.

Given her talents in mana cultivation, she had no hope of perceiving the universal laws before the Transcendent Rank.

But what about her Golden Dragon Bloodline?

Could she do something with it?