Chapter 740 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 7

Chapter 740 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 7

“You young people can chat amongst yourselves. This old man won’t say much more. Mo Lan, don’t feel pressured just because I’m here. The Deer Cry Mirror will belong to you young people in the future!”

After saying this, the Deer Cry Mirror Lord walked over to the balcony a few meters away from them and continued watching the tests.

Mo Lan felt puzzled. Could it be Wang Jingnan who wanted to speak with her?

“Is Student Mo Lan feeling better?” Wang Jingnan asked with concern, pushing the teacup on the table toward her. “This is a beverage made from green moss essence. It’s more effective than green moss gel and tastes better too. Give it a try!”

Although Mo Lan didn’t know what green moss essence was, she could see energy traces in the tea similar to green moss gel but stronger, and guessed it was probably an oral healing medicine superior to green moss gel.

She thanked him and picked up the teacup to drink.

The green moss essence beverage that entered her mouth was quietly collected by the Book of Cards as a new material. Mo Lan only managed to catch a faint taste of it, but it was indeed much better than green moss gel. The color even returned to her pale face, giving her cheeks a rosy hue.

This worked out perfectly. With this as cover, Mo Lan wouldn’t need to keep pretending to be weak over the next few days.

“I feel much better now, thank you.” After thanking him again, Mo Lan fell silent, waiting for Wang Jingnan to get to the point.

He couldn’t have called her here just to have her drink this cup of tea!

Wang Jingnan: “…”

A normal person, even if they weren’t overflowing with gratitude after drinking the tea, would at least show a bit more warmth, right? Why was it that even though she had said “thank you” twice, he still felt her attitude remained distant and guarded, no different from when she’d first walked in?

The key issue was that she showed absolutely no intention of asking about his purpose. Wang Jingnan was too embarrassed to state it directly, so he could only keep searching for topics to demonstrate his friendliness.

“Student Mo Lan, I haven’t congratulated you yet! A double perfect score — the Deer Cry Mirror hasn’t seen that in years. After this, we’ll probably both be assigned to Mirror Explorer Class One, so we’ll be classmates!”

“Mm.” Mo Lan nodded to acknowledge she’d heard, then added stiffly, “Congratulations to you too.”

She was starting to figure it out now. Was Wang Jingnan trying to win her over because of her aptitude test results?

Not sure yet. Better wait and see.

The conversation died again.

As the son of a Mirror Lord, whenever Wang Jingnan spoke with people, he was always flattered and fawned over. No one had ever let his words fall flat like this. It seemed this person really was a bona fide bookworm.

He thought about her aptitude and mustered the patience to continue the conversation.

“Student Mo Lan, talent is certainly important, but turning talent into actual strength requires the support of resources. Have you thought about how you’ll earn resources in the future?”

Mo Lan shook her head.

Her methods for earning resources weren’t exactly something she could tell others about, so she could only pretend she hadn’t thought about it.

Wang Jingnan finally felt the initiative in the conversation had returned to his hands. “If you’re willing to sign a contract with me and assist me until I become the Deer Cry Mirror Lord, the Wang family can provide all the cultivation resources you’ll ever need!”

After reading the contents of the contract that Wang Jingnan produced, Mo Lan finally understood what he was planning.

He wanted to invest in her and have her work for him!

The Eastern China Alliance consisted of eighteen major mirror domains, each directly governed by its respective Mirror Lord.

But the position of Mirror Lord was not hereditary.

Instead, it was contested in a Mirror Lord competition held once every twenty years. Qualifiers in the competition could challenge the current Mirror Lord, and a successful challenge would make the victor the new Mirror Lord.

Wang Qiming had narrowly won in the last Mirror Lord competition, barely retaining his position as Deer Cry Mirror Lord. The rumors about him suffering severe injuries and his strength declining had originated from that time.

It seemed those rumors were true. Wang Qiming was planning to have his son compete in the next Mirror Lord competition so he could pass the position to him.

Setting everything else aside, if she signed this contract, she would forfeit her eligibility to compete for the Deer Cry Mirror Lord position, transforming from a potential competitor into Wang Jingnan’s assistant.

Mo Lan had no designs on the Deer Cry Mirror.

The so-called Mirror Lord position was essentially just a fief granted by the Alliance to particularly powerful Mirror Explorers.

The core of these mirror spaces was controlled by the Eastern China Alliance. Mirror Lords only received partial authority over and output from their mirror spaces.

These large mirror spaces that had already been developed and inhabited by humans were obviously extremely important to the world consciousness of the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World — that much was clear without even thinking about it.

Unless one was prepared to oppose the world consciousness, it was best not to entertain thoughts of taking one.

She could guarantee that if she tried to make a move on a mirror space like this, the world consciousness of the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins would kick her straight out of this world.

It had that capability too. Those who came via a close friend’s invitation would receive extra care from the world consciousness, but if they posed a threat to the world, they would be expelled immediately.

Mo Lan’s targets were the small life-bearing spaces devoid of intelligent creatures.

Ideally, she would feed the mirror space’s core to the Book of Cards as material, use the Book of Cards to create a new one to put back in its place, and then leave with her Book of Cards.

This way, it wouldn’t cause significant harm to the world itself, nor would it violate the Explorer prohibition against large-scale plundering of world resources.

If any Explorer who visited could just take a mirror space with them, the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World could be completely emptied out by Explorers!

Mo Lan had Contract Magic that could circumvent the binding of magical contracts, so it didn’t matter whether she signed the contract or not. Not participating in the Deer Cry Mirror Lord competition was fine too — she had no interest in it. But assisting Wang Jingnan in becoming the Deer Cry Mirror Lord? That, she had no desire to do.

No matter how many resources the Wang family could provide, it wasn’t worth wasting her time being someone else’s subordinate — not even temporarily.

Mo Lan pushed the contract back and spoke the longest sentence she’d uttered since arriving in this world:

“I won’t be participating in the Deer Cry Mirror Lord competition, but I have no interest in assisting anyone either. My goal is to train hard and become a top-tier Mirror Explorer.”

The smile on Wang Jingnan’s face could no longer hold.

“Mo Lan has lofty ambitions. Jingnan, you cannot force these things.”

Wang Qiming turned his head and offered a reminder.

Only then did Wang Jingnan manage to maintain his composure. “Student Mo Lan, then I wish you success in achieving your goals.”

“Thank you for the tea. I’ll take my leave now.”

Having refused their offer, it wouldn’t be appropriate to stay and keep drinking their fine tea. Mo Lan tactfully departed.

After she left, the angry expression finally surfaced on Wang Jingnan’s face. “How dare she!”

“Jingnan, if she truly were the insecure, timid, reclusive, shallow bookworm with no personal charisma described in the file, then even with excellent aptitude test results, she shouldn’t have had the courage to refuse our recruitment, let alone speak those words. Unless… she truly possesses the heart of the strong. It’s a shame we couldn’t recruit someone like that, but we mustn’t make an enemy of her either.” Wang Qiming said, “There are quite a few promising talents this year. Let’s look at the others.”

“The heart of the strong, is it?” Wang Jingnan watched the figure receding across the sports field. “I’d like to see if you can make it to the end on your own.”