Chapter 98: The Wicked Woman Tea Treasure’s Endless Schemes

Jiang Cha was, without a doubt, very unlucky.

Because with the combat performance of that necro-mecha so far, she actually had a real shot at passing the “trial” and earning that luxury-tier reward.

That single blast from the mana cannon alone—most instructors wouldn’t even be able to block it fully.

But unfortunately for her and Violet, the two people standing opposite them were Karol and Vladimir—two of the Academy’s strongest instructors.

Their power… well, let’s put it this way:

Motelle was known as the greatest witch beneath the Sages, famed for her vast knowledge and mastery of nearly every auxiliary craft and magical discipline. But she was a scholar first and foremost—a pure academic witch, with some deficiencies when it came to battle.

Karol and Vladimir, on the other hand?
If you ranked all battle arch-witches in the witch world by combat strength, both would be easily within the top fifty, and Vladimir was even a contender for the top spot.

And according to Academy rules, this “trial” only counted as a pass if the challengers withstood a joint test from both instructors.

So yeah… unlucky didn’t even begin to cover it.
At least they didn’t draw Lady Shui Jun, the Academy’s Sage-level guest instructor.
But the difficulty of their trial was still far beyond anything previous students had faced.

“Got any more tricks left?”

Karol’s voice was calm as ever. She wielded her ten-meter flaming greatsword effortlessly, her movements as graceful as they were lethal. The flame-lit witch, with her rich brown skin gleaming in the light, danced through the sky with elegance, slipping past every blast of bone spikes hurled her way.

And yet—she was steadily closing the distance.

“Of course.”

The girl, who should have been emotionless in full-power mode, suddenly curved her lips into a mischievous little smile.

“Violet, I’m leaving it to you.”

“Oh! Leave it to me! You go rest, Jiang Cha!”

The little one nodded happily, smiling as innocently as a child.
But the death mana swirling around her was anything but cute.

It was terrifying—the primal, instinctive terror life feels toward death itself.

For that was what a necromancer witch truly was:
the bane of all living beings,
the mistress of death,
the goddess of the undead.

Violet was still young—too young to raise the density of her death mana too high, or she risked her mind being consumed by the concept of death itself.

But once that mana left her body, that influence weakened drastically.

A fourfold strike.

That [Bone Inferno] from earlier? Its main role wasn’t offense at all.
It was tactical misdirection.

Hidden within it was another spell entirely:

Cognition-type Magic – [Information Mimicry].

Yes—Jiang Cha hadn’t actually drained the mecha’s core mana dry.

She had only exhausted the necrotic mana, leaving untouched the higher-grade death mana stored within.

Then, using [Information Mimicry], she falsified the emitted mana signature—making it appear as though the death mana was already spent and mixed into the necrotic flow.

But in truth…

At that very moment, the black-haired, black-eyed Violet smiled knowingly.

Jiang Cha had put everything into this one gambit.

She knew from the start that conventional tactics couldn’t beat someone like Karol. So in full-power mode, Jiang Cha had gone all in—
a perfect do-or-die strategy built from:

• Magical deception,

• Mana signature manipulation,

• Hidden abilities,

• Psychological baiting,

• Violet’s terrifying spellcasting,

• and Karol’s own pride and confidence.

A flawless trap.

Step 1: Use the mana cannon—her “ultimate weapon”—to trick Karol into believing that was their strongest attack, provoking her excitement and irritation. An angry Karol was a reckless Karol.

Step 2: Deploy a seemingly brilliant multi-purpose [Bone Inferno], hiding her true intentions behind apparent tactical finesse.

Step 3: Use [Information Mimicry] to conceal mana traces, while outfitting the mecha with a bone greatsword to feign intent for close combat—luring Karol into the perfect range for a finishing strike.

Step 4: Keep firing bone spikes to maintain the illusion and gradually drain necrotic mana, thereby concentrating the remaining death mana to its highest possible quality.

Step 5: Hand over control to Violet—the only one capable of perfectly manipulating death mana—for the final blow.

When fully rational, Tea-bao never thought about flashiness or morality.
She calculated only the highest probability of success—
and executed it flawlessly.

Looking cool? Getting glory?
She didn’t need any of that.

In a witch’s duel, there was only one thing that mattered:

Victory.

From the moment she entered full-power mode, Jiang Cha had already set this strategy in motion.

The entire fight—every clash, every reversal, every exchange—had been a prelude to this trap.

The seeds of ambition and the sweat of effort now bore fruit—
the fruit called success.

“Final strike!”

The little necromancer shouted with excitement, mimicking the heroes from her favorite cartoons, her voice trembling with passion—

“Death Finger!”

“Finger” was just the name, but the truth was far more terrifying.

The mana concentration behind that single attack—
it wasn’t just immense.
It was transcendent.

At minimum, it reached Sage-tier potency.

Violet was indeed a prodigy—capable of channeling the quality of a Sage-level spell despite being just a young witch.

For a brief instant, the black light engulfed the heavens—
and the sun itself was extinguished.

The world fell into darkness.

Not the darkness of night—
but the eternal night of the Underworld,
where life could not tread,
and only the dead rejoiced.

Pure, absolute death.

The false sun that Karol had conjured—the [Solar Flare]—was snuffed out in an instant.

“What a little brat.”

Karol’s tone was calm, even amused. She smiled softly, almost kindly, as she cursed.

“Pulling a stunt like this on your own teacher? Hey, Vladimir—are all the kids these days this heartless?”

“At least Jiang Cha definitely is,”

Vladimir replied, tilting her head with a wry grin.

This was the first time she’d ever seen such a devious tactical mind in a student.
For someone used to straightforward power duels, this was almost refreshing.

But she understood the problem—
Karol couldn’t block this one cleanly.

Not without blowing apart half the Academy.

After all, this was a Sage-tier lethal spell—
the high-death-effect magic, [Death Finger].

If Karol took it head-on, she wouldn’t die,
but half the spectators probably would.

That’s when Vladimir moved.

Without a word, she appeared beside Karol.

As Karol’s flames roared to life once more,
Vladimir raised her blade—

And together, the two unleashed:

Joint Cast — [Solar Flare] + [Dimensional Slash]

The heavens—

lit up once more.