Chapter 861 – The End of the Pillar of Light

The Starsea Ark set off once more, and this leg of the journey lasted three full years.

Along the way, they passed by an ever-increasing number of worlds, each presenting scenes more unsettling than the last.

These worlds varied in form, but without exception, every one of their boundary membranes had been pierced by a cold, dark-gold energy pillar—as if connected by invisible IV tubes, their world essences being slowly and continuously siphoned away.

The humanoid figure that had been glimpsed fleetingly within the energy torrent was spotted several more times during the ensuing journey. Judging by the silhouettes, they did not appear to be the same person.

As for the original dark-gold pillar of light they had first discovered—after several hundred jumps, its far end turned out to be connected to an Eighth Rank world.

But this world was not the source either. Its consciousness had nearly dissipated, and on the other side of its boundary membrane, yet another dark-gold pillar of light extended outward, pointing deeper into the cosmos.

Several more years passed. After an unknown number of jumps, the vista ahead finally underwent a dramatic transformation.

Countless scattered dark-gold energy pillars, spreading outward like a spider’s web, converged here like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea—all pointing toward a single terminus: an incomparably massive planar world.

The essences of other worlds were being continuously channeled through these pillars into the interior of this gargantuan plane.

The strength of this world’s world consciousness and the solidity of its boundary membrane were the most powerful Mo Lan had ever encountered—bar none.

“A Thirteenth Rank world?” Mo Lan murmured instinctively, then immediately rejected the idea. “No… it’s probably even higher than that.”

The upper limit of spellcaster ranks in a Thirteenth Rank world was Eighth Rank—the highest grade that Valen Explorers had ever discovered and recorded.

Such worlds possessed highly advanced magical civilizations with extremely powerful spellcasters. Internal problems could typically be resolved on their own, and they rarely posted missions at the Well of the Sky. The extinction of intelligent races or the endangerment of world consciousness was virtually impossible in such places.

For this reason, almost no Valen Explorers had ever truly entered a Thirteenth Rank world, and Starault Hall’s intelligence on this class of world was nearly a complete blank.

The world before her was clearly ranked even higher than Thirteenth Rank. Even observing it solely through the light screen, one could feel the tremendous energy fluctuations contained within its boundary membrane. Its world consciousness was incomparably powerful and complete—there was absolutely no possibility of forcing entry.

The Starsea Ark was likewise unable to penetrate the boundary membrane to observe what lay within.

Mo Lan desperately wanted to understand why this plane’s boundary membrane could manifest such a bizarre form—stretching out like tentacles across the endless void, precisely capturing distant worlds and forcibly extracting their essences. But faced with a world whose consciousness was this powerful and whose boundary membrane was this strong, she had absolutely no way in. She could only redirect her attention toward the worlds currently being drained of their essences.

These worlds varied in rank. Though their boundary membranes remained intact, most of their world consciousnesses had gone completely silent. Some that still lingered were so feeble as to be indistinguishable from endangered worlds. Entering them posed no difficulty whatsoever.

“Change course,” Mo Lan told Clack. “Return to the world we passed not long ago.”

After two precise short-range jumps, the Starsea Ark once again hovered in the void, drifting silently outside an Eighth Rank world.

The dark-gold energy pillar on its boundary membrane was unmistakably conspicuous.

Clack turned its head, soul fire flickering quietly, awaiting the next command.

Mo Lan stared at the control light screen. This Eighth Rank world’s world consciousness showed no fluctuation at all, like a dead plane. The only activity came from the dark-gold pillar connected to it, which radiated the world consciousness fluctuations of that gargantuan plane.

For reasons she couldn’t explain, the moment the thought of entering this world to investigate arose in her mind, looking at that dark-gold pillar of light, Mo Lan felt a sudden, inexplicable pang of dread and unease.

Her Divination Magic had reached the Sixth Rank. Even without actively casting, the power of fate often provided her with vague guidance, and intuition was its most direct form of warning. She did not dismiss this thread of unease and immediately cast the Fortune-Telling Spell to divine the outcome.

“Extreme peril!”

The instant the result materialized, Mo Lan’s heart lurched violently.

The Fortune-Telling Spell had not given such a dire reading in a very long time. Extreme peril meant that entering this world would very likely put her life in danger.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she immediately ordered Clack to pilot the Starsea Ark away. Nothing was more important than her life!

But leaving this star region entirely—that, Mo Lan was unwilling to accept.

She took a deep breath, focused her mind, and cast the far more powerful Sixth Rank Clairvoyance Spell, attempting to divine the safest point of entry for investigating the dark-gold pillars of light.

The instant the Magic took effect, a vivid image flashed through her mind—a plane with an intact boundary membrane, close to Third Rank, similarly pierced by a dark-gold pillar of light, its world consciousness utterly silent.

Mo Lan recognized it almost at a glance: “That’s… the first plane we encountered?”

The clear guidance provided by the Clairvoyance Spell allowed her to make an immediate decision.

“Change heading—destination: the plane where we first discovered the dark-gold pillar of light.”

Clack faithfully executed the command, its soul fire burning steadily as it steered the Starsea Ark into another long-range jump.

Sentai’s roots recorded the new course change in the travel log, while Zhizhi settled down quietly.

Having carefully mapped safe jump routes on the way here, the return trip was far more convenient.

In less than a tenth of the time it had taken to arrive, the Starsea Ark reached the Eighth Rank world that shared the same dark-gold pillar of light as the original plane they had first discovered.

Passing by this world again, Mo Lan compared the segment of dark-gold pillar between the gargantuan plane and this world with the segment between this world and the original plane. To her surprise, she discovered that although the world consciousness on both segments originated from the gargantuan plane, their intensities were completely different.

The world consciousness fluctuations from the gargantuan plane were considerably weaker on the segment between this world and the original plane.

“Is it because there’s an intervening world?” Mo Lan was somewhat puzzled. She immediately had the Starsea Ark pause, fixed her gaze on the Eighth Rank world displayed on the light screen, and once again cast the Fortune-Telling Spell to gauge the danger of entering this world.

“Minor peril?”

Seeing this result, a flash of understanding sparked in Mo Lan’s eyes. “Could it be… that the level of danger in entering these worlds is directly correlated with the strength of the gargantuan plane’s world consciousness fluctuations on the dark-gold pillars connecting them?”

This hypothesis sent a surge of excitement through her.

If the source of danger came directly from the gargantuan plane’s world consciousness, did that mean this world consciousness had already infiltrated and seized partial control over these worlds’ laws through the dark-gold pillars?

Only that would explain how the strength of the world consciousness on the dark-gold pillars could affect the danger level of entering these worlds.

Mo Lan immediately turned to Sentai: “Find me all the detection data we’ve recorded on world consciousness fluctuation intensities within the dark-gold pillars!”