Chapter 839 – The Banquet Ends

Mo Lan was drawn in by Traci’s words. She pressed further: “Specifically, how would one go about finding these endangered worlds and zero-rank worlds on their own, without going through the Well of the Sky’s channels?”

Her Mana rank was about to reach Sixth Rank, yet she still didn’t feel capable of moving freely through the boundless universe.

Looking at those worlds in the star river from the small opening of the Well of the Sky, they didn’t seem particularly far away.

But she knew perfectly well that was an illusion.

Actually being out there in person felt completely different.

Crossing such vast distances… how could it possibly be easy?

“To undertake prolonged cosmic travel, the foremost and most critical task is to construct a vessel that can travel steadily through the void, identify directions, and effectively protect you.”

Traci explained at a measured pace:

“In a universe fraught with danger, the most robust protection is the realm membrane that envelops a world.

A realm membrane is a world’s innate barrier of rules, capable of effectively resisting void erosion and various cosmic catastrophes.

The higher a world’s rank, the stronger its realm membrane, and the harder it becomes for external forces to penetrate.

That’s why all good cosmic travel vessels are built from planes or worlds that possess realm membranes.

However, the larger a world is, the greater the power needed to propel it, and the construction difficulty and daily energy consumption become astronomical figures.

Therefore, high-ranked small living spaces or demi-planes with well-developed rules and sturdy realm membranes are the optimal choice for building cosmic travel vessels.

Your mirror space is actually excellent for this.

It originates from the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins, where spatial power runs strong. Even though it’s only a small mirror space, its spatial rules are remarkably well-developed, and the protective strength of its realm membrane is actually a touch more resilient than many ordinary tenth-rank worlds.

The size is just right too — it won’t require an overly massive propulsion system to move, and future energy consumption can be kept within a relatively reasonable range.

Next, you’ll need to prepare the appropriate materials to reinforce its realm membrane, then install a propulsion system, control terminal, and positioning device, and that should about do it.

As for the specific construction blueprints for the vessel and detailed knowledge about cosmic travel… the Otherworld Archives actually has all of it on record. It’s just that they’re stored in the ‘Starvault Hall.’

The Starvault Hall is an archive room where Witch Explorers of Sixth Rank and above store cosmic travel knowledge. Once your rank reaches Sixth Rank, you can join.

Every Witch who joins the Starvault Hall is required, each time they return to the Explorer’s Camp, to compile their cosmic travel experiences and exploration star charts into volumes and deposit them in the Starvault Hall’s archives.

This knowledge is shared among internal members, but must be kept confidential.

Once you reach Sixth Rank, go find Lan Qiqi at the Otherworld Archives. She’ll take you there.”

A note of wistfulness crept into Traci’s voice:

“Witches who can reach Sixth Rank are exceedingly rare, and every one of them needs long years of accumulation.

This knowledge was originally meant to be gradually disclosed by the Witch Council only after Witch Explorers had gained sufficient otherworld exploration experience.

Since the Starault Hall was established, you’re the very first… exception — someone who’s grown so fast that even the standard procedures can’t keep up.”

She looked at Mo Lan, her expression one of gratification tinged with relief: “It’s a good thing I noticed your progress in time. If we’d waited for the Witch Council’s notification through proper channels, I’m afraid it really would have held you back.”

“So there’s actually a place like that…” Mo Lan murmured softly, “No wonder I always felt that following the standard procedures and doing those Well of the Sky missions would never let me accumulate as many Realm-friend invitations as you!”

Back when she’d read through every free resource and every resource purchasable with ordinary Mana crystals in the Otherworld Archives, she’d considered herself quite familiar with the collection, yet she’d never once heard of the Starault Hall or cosmic travel.

She had simply assumed it was because she was new to the Explorer’s Camp, and the Well of the Sky was recommending relatively basic world missions to her!

“I should be able to visit the Starault Hall very soon.”

Her current total Mana was still 12,018 Mana short of Sixth Rank.

That sounded like a lot, but in reality, she only needed 2,003 spellcasters to join the Dawn Society and pay their permanent Mana contribution.

Ever since the Dawn Society had broken down the magical knowledge barriers between races, broadened everyone’s channels for obtaining magical resources, and lowered the cost of acquiring resources, the number of spellcasters in Valen had been rising year after year.

The annual increase in new spellcasters was far more than two thousand.

Not to mention that opening featured card pools, unlocking card purchasing eligibility, increasing Gem Coin storage capacity, and card album storage slots all required permanent Mana payments too!

A little over twelve thousand Mana — perhaps once she finished organizing the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins’ featured cards and put them up for sale, she’d earn that amount in the blink of an eye.

*

As dawn arrived, the banquet came to an end, and the Witches passed through that door, returning to various parts of Valen.

Mo Lan personally saw off every friend, and only after the last guest’s figure disappeared beyond the door did the green moss lawn of the mirror space return to its usual tranquility. Only the pond’s surface reflected the gradually brightening sky.

With a thought, cleaning tools and shadow pets mobilized en masse, moving like well-trained custodians to silently organize, wash, and stow away the dining tables and utensils on the lawn.

Zhizhi, who had been bustling about all night with boundless energy helping her attend to guests, finally couldn’t hold on any longer. She collapsed onto the soft sofa in the Living Room and fell fast asleep, her small chest rising and falling evenly with each breath.

Clack walked over quietly, pulled a soft blanket across, and carefully draped it over Zhizhi’s belly, then stood guard silently beside her.

Sentai swayed its branches gently by the pond’s edge. Through the magical familiar contract, its emotions drifted over — it was still savoring the liveliness of last night!

Mo Lan stood quietly for a moment at the doorstep of her newly peaceful home, her gaze soft as it swept across this world that belonged entirely to her.

Then she turned and gently adjusted the hands of the magical clock beside the door, quietly accelerating the flow of time within her study and its interior to the fastest setting.

Next came a period of closed-door cultivation in the study.

The first priority was to organize all the gains from the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World — designing them into cards, setting reasonable prices, and drafting sales strategies and promotional plans for the new card pool… After all that was done, she still needed to analyze the skill imprints within the mirror beast beast cores and practice Witch Magic.

During those years spent searching for ownerless mirror spaces in the Golden Oasis, Mo Lan had barely had any time to continue her beast core research, and even her Magic training had been somewhat delayed.

Fortunately, even within the world of Valen, the mirror space was independent and unbound by Valen’s world-rank limitations, so she could continue practicing Magic inside the mirror space.

A sense of unprecedented peace and groundedness settled in Mo Lan’s heart.

At last, she could stop worrying about the passage of time, completely shed that pressing urgency of being chased by missions and deadlines, and truly settle her mind — devoting herself fully to the things that had always lingered in her thoughts but which, for various reasons, she’d never been able to study in depth.

Filled with anticipation, she pushed open the door to the study, shutting the outside world’s clamor and the flow of time behind her.