Chapter 742 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 9

Mo Lan’s total psychic power had already surpassed the sixth order.

According to 《Introduction to Psychic Power Cultivation》, mind jade was divided into nine stars—the higher the star rating, the stronger its tempering and enhancement effect on psychic power.

But even the highest-grade nine-star mind jade probably couldn’t produce any substantial improvement to her psychic power.

As for higher-grade mind jade, given the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins’ world level, it likely couldn’t produce any.

There was nothing to be gained from psychic power cultivation. Mo Lan only needed to pretend to cultivate while quietly revealing her existing psychic power, creating the appearance of growth in others’ eyes.

What she really needed to figure out was the beast core magic skill extraction and body-tempering medicinal baths—she had to find materials and give those a try.

According to the original host’s memories, this world had a very comprehensive knowledge education system, but schools didn’t provide cultivation resources for Mirror Explorers.

For those without money or connections but decent talent, finding a patron to sponsor them was quite common.

If you didn’t want a patron’s sponsorship, you’d have to venture into mirror spaces yourself to obtain cultivation resources, which greatly increased the danger.

As for mirror spaces—any that had already been developed and had comprehensive data either required an entry fee or weren’t open to the public at all.

Only undeveloped mirror spaces within the Mirror Ruins could be freely entered, but the danger level was completely unpredictable.

《Eastern China Alliance Mirror Space Atlas (Deer Cry Volume)》 documented quite a few mirror spaces, and the school would also organize off-campus exploration expeditions.

These expeditions had teachers providing escort and protection, making them far safer than independent exploration.

Deer Cry Middle School’s mirror space expeditions had always been the earliest among all mirror middle schools.

That was the advantage of attending a good school.

The original host’s parents had also saved up some cultivation resources for her, all stored in the storage mirror in the home cultivation room. The original host’s parents’ storage mirrors surely contained some as well.

Combined with the Book of Cards’ card-crafting ability, it should be enough for her to research for a while. There was no need to risk venturing into mirror spaces just yet.

She could wait until she’d gone on one school-organized mirror space expedition, gained some experience, and then go on her own.

It was getting late. Mo Lan took a shower and changed into comfortable athletic clothes suited for movement.

She opened the mailbox and found that today’s 《Deer Cry Daily》 had arrived. Holding the newspaper, she stepped into the teleportation circle leading to the residential complex’s cafeteria.

“Did you see today’s paper? Yesterday a dual-talent perfect-score genius appeared at Deer Cry Middle School!”

“I know! I went to watch yesterday. I know that girl—she’s from our complex!”

“Who? She’s actually from our complex!”

“The girl on the top floor of Building 2, both her parents were martyred heroes from the Pioneering Corps…”

“Shh, keep it down!”

……

The moment Mo Lan stepped into the cafeteria, she noticed it grew noticeably quieter, with several gazes landing on her.

She pretended not to notice, bought her breakfast, carried the tray to an empty corner, and ate while reading the newspaper.

Her dual-talent perfect score had made today’s front-page headline.

They hadn’t published a clear photo of her face, but the article did mention that she was the descendant of martyred heroes and had declined a Mirror Lord’s sponsorship.

She skimmed past it and turned to the statistical tables of test results from the various testing sites.

While she was reading, a woman with a high ponytail suddenly sat down across from her and smilingly handed over a business card: “You’re Mo Lan, right? I’m a gold-tier investor from Deer Cry Real Estate’s investment division. Interested in discussing sponsorship?”

Mo Lan looked up at her and said flatly, “Not interested.” Investments always came with expected returns. She had her own things to do and didn’t want to be tied down.

The woman’s smile stiffened slightly, but she wasn’t ready to give up. “As soon as you sign a sponsorship contract, our company can immediately provide you with one mind jade of each star rating, from one to five!”

“No, thank you.” Mo Lan refused again.

After that, she kept her head down and continued reading the 《Deer Cry Daily》, completely unmoved no matter how silver-tongued the ponytailed woman became.

“Deer Cry Real Estate’s sponsorship terms are absolutely the most generous available!” The woman still wouldn’t give up, lowering her voice. “Besides mind jade, we can also provide custom body-tempering medicinal baths, and even help you secure a spot in the Sweet Spring mirror space exploration…”

Mo Lan leisurely folded her newspaper, finally looked up, and said coolly, “I said, not interested.”

The woman opened her mouth, but ultimately put away her business card with an awkward smile and left in disappointment.

After finishing breakfast, Mo Lan headed straight for the cafeteria’s payment window.

“Hello, I’d like to reactivate the meal delivery teleportation circle for Building 2, Floor 17.” She handed over her room card and mirror coins.

Although the newspaper hadn’t published a clear frontal photo of her—only a distant shot of her back—quite a few people had been watching the test that day. Sure enough, someone in the complex had recognized her.

From now on, she’d just use this to order meals and pick them up at home, saving herself from being hounded by various investors.

After school, she’d go reactivate the trash teleportation circle too, so she wouldn’t have to waste time going downstairs just to throw out garbage.

“All done! Here’s the cafeteria’s comprehensive menu. Order from this. Write what you want on a slip of paper and send it through the teleportation circle along with the meal fee—it’ll be delivered within half an hour.”

Mo Lan left the residential cafeteria, teleported to the complex entrance, walked into the public teleportation hall, entered “Deer Cry Middle School,” and dropped in a mirror coin.

In an instant, she arrived at the teleportation hall outside the school. She straightened her collar and strode toward Starlight Building.

Deer Cry Middle School had two buildings exclusively for the Mirror Explorer Class—Starlight Building for fourth-years and Bright Moon Building for fifth-years.

The original host had attended Deer Cry Middle School for three years and had heard things about both buildings.

Supposedly, these two buildings contained not only regular classrooms but also quiet rooms for cultivating psychic power, medicinal pools for body tempering, indoor arenas for learning martial techniques, magic training rooms for live combat practice, and more.

Students with outstanding grades could even have their own dedicated rest rooms here.

Every supporting facility was countless times better than what the lower grades had.

Mo Lan’s destination was Classroom 101 of Starlight Building.

She stood before the bulletin board outside Starlight Building, her gaze sweeping over the three-dimensional map that clearly displayed the layout of the entire building.

Classroom 101 was at the far left of the first floor.

Standing at the classroom entrance, looking at the comfortable sofa chairs and spacious solid-wood desks, Mo Lan once again marveled that the rumors were indeed true.

She would have believed it if someone told her this was the banquet hall of some exclusive club.

The classroom was completely empty—she was the first to arrive.

However, there were only twelve sets of desks and chairs in the classroom. Had Class One only admitted twelve students?

After Mo Lan walked in, she noticed that each desk corner had a name and student number label—seats had already been assigned.

Her gaze swept across the name on each desk corner, and then she sat down in the center seat of the front row.

Were the classroom seats arranged by talent test scores?

The names of the remaining eleven students—Mo Lan had seen every one of them in today’s newspaper. They were the second through twelfth place finishers from yesterday’s talent test.

Her seat was the one with the best view and the most convenient position for listening to lectures—the very center. Everyone else’s seats were arranged around hers.