Chapter 819 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 86

Before the gold crystal cluster, only Mo Lan remained.

The clamor of complaints had vanished. The mine tunnel was utterly silent, with only water droplets condensing on the rock ceiling above, dripping into puddles in the stone hollows, producing a clear, monotonous “drip—drop—drip—drop—” sound.

In the absolute silence, this sound seemed especially conspicuous. She had been racking her brains before the gold crystal cluster, trying to think of what else she could try, when the persistent dripping suddenly caught her attention.

Every method she had attempted had already been declared a failure, and she was at her wit’s end.

This dripping sound… could it also be some kind of hint?

An absurd yet impossible-to-ignore thought surfaced in her mind.

Some unclaimed mirror spaces had entrance-opening methods that were precisely this bizarre—otherwise, how could it be that everyone knew it was right here, yet no one had ever managed to open it?

Mo Lan decided to follow this sudden flash of “inspiration.” She retrieved an ordinary crystal bottle from her mirror emblem, tilted her head back, and patiently began catching the water droplets falling from the rock ceiling.

The drops fell slowly, and when they landed in the bottle, they produced an irregular dripping sound.

With nothing better to do while waiting, Mo Lan memorized the rhythm of the falling droplets.

After collecting a full bottle, Mo Lan walked over to the gold crystal cluster and, in a simple and direct manner, evenly splashed the water across the surface of the largest crystal face.

Water droplets wound their way down the smooth crystal surface, making it gleam even more brilliantly.

Then, as if guided by some unseen force, she extended her fingertip and began lightly tapping the water-moistened crystal face, following the exact rhythm of the droplets that had fallen into the bottle moments ago.

“Tap… tap… tap… tap…”

Her tapping intertwined with the distant dripping that still echoed through the tunnel, resonating together in the cavernous mine passage.

She had originally been repeating this simple action mechanically, not really holding out much hope.

However, the moment she finished tapping out the complete rhythm of the full bottle of water droplets—perfectly, without a single beat off—a sudden transformation occurred!

The largest crystal face trembled violently. The traces of water on its surface seemed to be instantly activated by some force—not evaporating, but racing along the crystal’s veins like living things.

Immediately after, the entire crystal face began to twist and rotate, and the golden light within erupted with unprecedented brilliance, instantly swallowing everything around it!

When the light faded, a stable, dazzling golden vortex portal had appeared where the crystal face had been.

Mo Lan stood frozen in place, holding the now-empty crystal bottle, still in the pose from when she’d finished tapping.

It… it actually opened?

Even she herself found it hard to believe.

She had merely noticed the most ordinary sound in the environment and performed what seemed like a completely meaningless imitation… and had somehow stumbled her way into solving a puzzle that had likely stumped countless others?

It was hard to say whether this was the effect of the luck spell or not.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one else was around, Mo Lan quickly stepped into the portal.

A peculiar and rich fragrance washed over her.

She found herself standing in the middle of a dense forest. The trees around her had a unique form—their leaves were thick and fleshy, shaped remarkably like soft cat paw pads, and they gave off a strange, distinctive scent.

“Are these… cat-paw trees?” Mo Lan had read about this species before. Supposedly, the fragrance emitted by cat-paw tree leaves held a special allure for feline mirror beasts.

Once she confirmed this was an unclaimed mirror space, Mo Lan cast aside all hesitation. She immediately retrieved her broom, leaped lightly onto it, and urged it straight upward, breaking through the forest canopy and rising high into the sky.

From this aerial vantage point, she could take in nearly the entire outline of the mirror space. Its area was quite considerable—far more expansive than the moss-covered forest—large enough to be classified as a medium-sized mirror space.

Across the land below, beyond the vast stretches of cat-paw tree forest, she could see winding rivers, several small grasslands, and rolling hills in the distance.

As for whether it qualified as a “resource-rich” mirror space, that couldn’t be determined from a preliminary observation alone—further exploration would be needed.

However, for Mo Lan, the space’s size and resource potential were no longer very important. Her primary task right now was to find the space’s core.

She descended back to the ground and began her search.

But the conditions in this space were different from the moss-covered forest.

The most abundant trees here were cat-paw trees—relatively short in stature with underdeveloped root systems, nothing like the Moss-Forest Guardian, which could spread its roots throughout the entire space to form a natural surveillance network. There was no way to locate the space’s core simply by “asking” a tree.

She would have to resort to the most primitive yet most reliable method: a systematic grid search.

With luck, she might find it quite quickly.

She planned her route and began her meticulous exploration, not overlooking any object that exhibited “mirror” characteristics.

She also encountered quite a few mirror beasts living in the space.

They were mostly in the three-star to five-star range and posed no real threat to her.

Moreover, they all seemed to be predominantly feline—varied in form, ranging from small, agile lightning cats to imposing saber-toothed tigers and swift leopards.

Mo Lan had already collected materials from creatures like these, so she felt no particular urge to hunt them. Instead, she would restrain them and cast the Origin-Tracing Spell, sifting through their past memories, trying to find any clues about the space core’s location from these mirror beasts’ perspectives.

As for searching the underground portions, that task was delegated to her magical familiar, Sentai.

Sentai’s roots could extend in all directions and deep underground to search for things buried in the earth—far more adept at this than she was.

Sky, surface, underground—a three-dimensional search network was thus deployed.

With no room for anxiety, Mo Lan maintained a very calm mindset.

She knew well that finding a core was an endeavor that demanded time, effort, luck, and patience. She executed her search plan methodically, step by step.

She didn’t know how much time had passed—how many sunrises and moonsets had come and gone—when she finally caught an exceptionally cunning, blindingly fast lightning cat and cast the Origin-Tracing Spell to read its past memories. That was when she found the clue.

When this lightning cat was still a cub, it had accidentally swallowed a small marble-like ball that gleamed bright as a mirror.

From that point on, its original Lightning Leap ability had undergone an incredible evolution, transforming into a far more powerful short-range teleportation!

To determine whether that marble was what she had been searching for all along, Mo Lan acted decisively. She ended the lightning cat’s life, then carefully cut open its abdomen. Sure enough, nestled right against its beast core, she found a pigeon-egg-sized marble—perfectly round, with a surface as smooth as a mirror.

When Mo Lan’s psychic power cautiously probed into the small sphere, a familiar sensation washed over her. She knew at once—it was the space core, without a doubt!

No wonder she had searched for so long without finding it, and Sentai had never reported anything either. It had been hiding inside a mirror beast’s belly all along.