Chapter 741 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 8
by spirapiraChapter 741 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 8
Mo Lan had just returned to the sports field, and before she could even find her footing, several sharp-eyed classmates had already crowded around her.
“Mo Lan, what did the Mirror Lord want with you?”
“After the class assignments, I should be able to stay at Deer Cry Middle School too. We’ll be classmates from now on — would it be okay if I came to you for advice on cultivation?”
“There still hasn’t been a second perfect score. Mo Lan, what on earth did you eat growing up? How are you so incredible?”
“Mo Lan, is the rumor about you accidentally eating a Void Perception Spot Fungus and getting poisoned really true? You actually ate a Void Perception Mushroom, didn’t you?”
…
Mo Lan frowned slightly, her expression cold. This time she didn’t even have the interest to answer their questions.
But these people seemed completely oblivious to her reluctance, still pressing closer with overflowing enthusiasm. Someone even linked arms with her directly, as if they were old friends of many years.
She discreetly withdrew her arm and looked past the crowd toward the main testing platform. It seemed she wouldn’t be able to watch the rest of the tests today after all.
“I have something to attend to.” She dropped a single sentence, turned, and walked toward the exit of the sports field.
The tests hadn’t ended yet, so the public teleportation hall outside the school was no longer as congested as it had been that morning.
Mo Lan stepped into the teleportation circle, inserted a mirror coin, and with a flash of light, she appeared in the Teleportation Room at home.
“Phew! Peace and quiet at last!” Mo Lan let out a long breath of relief and sat down on the soft couch in the Living Room.
Although leaving early meant she hadn’t been able to watch the rest of the others’ tests, on second thought, tomorrow’s 《Deer Cry Daily》 would surely publish the test results anyway, so checking then would be just the same.
At exactly nine o’clock in the evening, a faint humming sound came from the Teleportation Room.
It was the sound of mail arriving in the mailbox.
Mo Lan walked into the Teleportation Room and opened the mailbox. A letter lay quietly inside, its envelope stamped with Deer Cry Middle School’s emblem.
“The class assignment admission notice? That fast?”
She had actually been wondering — with testing today and school officially starting tomorrow, how would anyone know where to report?
She hadn’t expected that merely four hours after the tests ended, every student’s class assignment would already be finalized and delivered.
Mo Lan tore open the envelope.
“《Deer Cry Middle School Mirror Explorer Class Admission Notice》
Student Mo Lan:
In today’s aptitude test, you achieved outstanding scores of 100 in innate psychic power and 100 in Mirror Explorer aptitude, and have been admitted to Mirror Explorer Class One at Deer Cry Middle School.
Student ID: 1261101.
Report time: 8:00 AM tomorrow morning
Location: Starlight Building, Classroom 101
Note: This academic year’s textbooks will be delivered within the next ten minutes. Please verify receipt against the book list.”
Mo Lan had just finished reading the last line when the teleportation circle in the mailbox suddenly lit up.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
After three soft thuds, a neatly stacked pile of books appeared in the receiving box beside it.
“Wonderful! New books to read!”
Heaven only knew how she had endured those few hours this afternoon. Days without new books to read were simply unbearable.
Mo Lan checked the books one by one against the book list on the admission notice.
《Introduction to Psychic Power Cultivation》, 《Beginner’s Primer for Professional Mirror Explorers》, 《Eastern China Alliance Mirror Space Illustrated Guide (Deer Cry Edition)》, 《Twelve Fundamental Body-Tempering Decoctions》, 《Skill Systems and Skill Combinations》, 《Common Beast Core Skill Analysis》…
After confirming that the number and content of the books matched the list with nothing missing, Mo Lan carried them all to the Living Room.
She sat cross-legged on the carpet and picked up 《Introduction to Psychic Power Cultivation》 to read.
Pages turned rapidly in her hands. When she finished one book, she stored it in her storage compact mirror and picked up the next.
Mo Lan closed 《Common Beast Core Skill Analysis》 and instinctively reached for the next book, but her fingertips touched only the fuzzy carpet.
“Hm? I’m… already done?”
Mo Lan stared at the empty carpet, only then realizing she had unknowingly absorbed all the textbooks.
She looked up at the clock on the wall.
The moon symbol on the clock had already changed to a sun symbol. The time showed six-thirty.
Yet Mo Lan’s mind was exceptionally alert. Although she had only read a few basic introductory texts, she had gained an entirely new understanding of this world’s cultivation system.
It was truly remarkable. Even though both were spellcasters who cultivated psychic power, the Mirror Explorers of the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World and the mages of the Valen world were vastly different — from their understanding of psychic power, to how they cultivated it, to how they learned and cast magic, and even their methods of combat.
Valen’s mages believed that psychic power was divided into active psychic power and inactive psychic power. Psychic power could only be refined, not increased in total. Spellcasters trained inactive psychic power into usable active psychic power through cultivation, used knowledge to construct spell structures as leverage, and used active psychic power to manipulate the magical energy in the air to cast spells.
But the Mirror Explorers of the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins believed that psychic power could actually be grown through specific methods of training.
To cultivate psychic power, a Mirror Explorer first had to sit in meditation and perceive the existence of their mental sea and psychic power.
Then they would channel their psychic power into something called a mind jade, using this to train and enhance their psychic power, thereby achieving growth.
Once psychic power was cultivated to a level sufficient to bear magical skills, the Mirror Explorer would enter mirror spaces to hunt mirror beasts and harvest their beast cores.
They would then strip the magical abilities from the beast cores and inscribe them into their own mental sea, forming their fixed magical skills.
When casting spells, not only was psychic power needed to guide the process, but beast cores of the same elemental type as the skill were required as “fuel” — for example, casting a fire-type skill required fire-attribute beast cores.
Additionally, the biggest difference from Valen’s mages was that Mirror Explorers also used medicinal compounds to temper their bodies and practiced at least one form of martial arts.
Body tempering and martial arts were not primarily for combat, but for strengthening the body.
Mirror Explorers believed that only a strong body could withstand more powerful psychic power. If the body’s strength couldn’t keep up, it would also hinder psychic power growth.
“Psychic power cultivation can’t do without mind jade, learning and casting magic can’t do without beast cores, and body tempering can’t do without magical plants — spellcasters in the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World are far too dependent on magical materials for their cultivation!”
Mo Lan finally understood now how Wang Jingnan, whose aptitude was so much worse than hers, could have been so confident about having her serve as his assistant.
Without access to higher-star-grade mind jade, psychic power cultivation would stagnate. Without high-star-grade beast cores, magical skills couldn’t keep up. Without high-star-grade magical plants, body tempering would fall behind. No matter how good one’s aptitude was, it would be useless.
The magical knowledge of Valen’s mages and the magical materials of this world’s Mirror Explorers were, in essence, both critical cultivation resources.
If resources couldn’t keep up, one couldn’t leverage the advantage of talent.
Fortunately, Mo Lan was not the original owner of this body. She had the Book of Cards, and as long as her mana reserves were sufficient, resources shouldn’t be a problem.
Moreover, according to 《Introduction to Psychic Power Cultivation》, mind jade wouldn’t be of much use to her — which saved her yet another expense.