Chapter 870 – Seventh Rank Sorceress

The source power refined through this process would have its Immortal Realm imprint completely erased. Whether she absorbed it herself or condensed it into Source Mana crystals for other uses, it meant this portion of source power would be permanently stripped from the Immortal Realm.

Rather than letting it return to nourish the enemy, she might as well use it for herself and weaken her opponent.

By this point, Mo Lan no longer insisted on avoiding Star Refinement.

When she rose and walked to the control light screen, she found that Clack had already carefully detected and gathered together all the debris left behind from the void battle while she had been sorting through memories.

Now, Mo Lan didn’t need to waste effort searching. She could inspect these items directly.

Drawing on Duan Yan’s memories, Mo Lan’s gaze swept quickly over the floating wreckage, precisely identifying Duan Yan’s personal belongings. She had Clack pilot the Starsea Ark to retrieve those items that hadn’t been completely destroyed and still held some value.

Among them, two items stood out the most: a crimson stone roughly the size of a fist, its interior seeming to flow with magma and constantly emanating pure fire-element fluctuations, and an unremarkable grayish-black ring that faintly pulsed with spatial power.

According to Duan Yan’s memories, these two were his most important treasures.

The crimson crystal was the space core of his Blazing Flame Grotto-Heaven, bearing the source of the entire grotto-heaven. Even with its master’s demise, it still maintained its basic form.

The grayish-black ring was a divine-artifact-grade cosmos ring. When worn on a finger, it was invisible and intangible to others, and inside it stored the bulk of his possessions.

Mo Lan first turned her attention to the dusty cosmos ring.

Duan Yan’s physical body and primordial spirit had both been destroyed — he was as dead as dead could be. This cosmos ring had become an ownerless object. After re-refining and binding it to a new owner, it could be opened.

She converted her Mana into immortal energy and employed the method she had obtained from Duan Yan’s memories to refine this storage ring.

Before long, the dull grayish color on the ring’s surface gradually faded, revealing a warm, jade-like luster beneath.

When her psychic power probed inside, even the well-experienced Mo Lan couldn’t help but be moved.

The space within this storage ring was incomparably vast, comparable to a large city. Inside, countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures, technique jade slips, and various immortal artifacts and treasures were stored in neatly organized categories.

“Worthy of a Dao Ancestor’s collection indeed,” Mo Lan murmured in admiration.

Although these items were precious, they contained very little source power. Without hesitation, she handed all of it over to the Book of Cards as card-crafting materials — essentially replenishing the Book of Cards with a batch of cultivation-world-themed cards.

Her main attention remained on the Blazing Flame Grotto-Heaven core.

The entirely crimson stone radiated a gentle heat in her palm, as though a ball of fire were sealed within.

Mo Lan cupped the crystal between her hands, chanting ancient incantations as Mana transformed into rune chains that emerged from her palms. Like stars, they orbited around the grotto-heaven core, then gradually tightened.

The Immortal Realm’s imprint was utterly ineffective against Star Refinement. Before long, streams of pure source power were slowly drawn out, condensing into Source Mana crystals one after another.

This process lasted a full seven days.

When the last wisp of source power was drained from the Blazing Flame Grotto-Heaven’s space core, the blazing red stone lost all its luster completely. Cracks spread across its surface inch by inch before it crumbled into a pinch of dust devoid of any energy fluctuation.

The entire grotto-heaven collapsed along with it, dissipating into the void without a trace.

“Master! So many, so many Source Mana crystals!” Zhizhi, who had been keeping watch the entire time, saw that she had finally finished her sustained spellcasting and immediately bounded over, clutching a {Spatial Card} with excitement.

Over these seven days, its task had been specifically to collect the Source Mana crystals that continuously condensed and dropped during Mo Lan’s refinement process.

By now, this {Spatial Card} was nearly packed full.

Mo Lan took the card and, seeing the enormous quantity of Source Mana crystals inside, allowed a look of satisfaction to cross her face. She then spent several more days using up all of these Source Mana crystals, converting them into permanent Mana under her control.

Her total Mana surged by several billion Mana at once, directly breaking through the ten-billion mark.

Once she raised her Magic rank as well, she would be a true Seventh Rank Sorceress.

With her strength increased, she could accumulate more disposable Mana each day, giving her greater confidence in dealing with the Dao Ancestor cultivators the Immortal Realm might send after her.

Mo Lan let out a soft breath. “Clack, let’s visit the Celestial Profound Realm once more.”

It was time to try communicating with the Celestial Profound Realm’s world consciousness.

The Starsea Ark slipped silently through the Celestial Profound Realm’s boundary membrane once more. Mo Lan opened the door of the Witch’s home, descended into the Celestial Profound Realm on her flying carpet, and chose a location where spiritual energy was relatively thin and few people ventured. She held her breath, cleared her mind of stray thoughts, and began casting Star Language.

First, she converted Mana into a type of magical energy similar to yet distinct from psychic power — psychokinesis.

Then she adjusted the psychokinesis to a gentle, encompassing state, like soft ripples of water. Centered on herself, it slowly spread outward in all directions — into the earth below, into the formless sky above.

The psychokinesis penetrated soil, swept over rivers, brushed across grass and trees, searching for the Celestial Profound Realm’s world consciousness — which, under the Immortal Realm’s deliberate suppression, might have fallen into dormancy or been forced into hibernation.

The process was slow and mentally draining. Time trickled by as Mo Lan, like a patient angler, continuously sent out friendly signals, waiting for what might be an extremely faint response.

After an unknown amount of time, an extremely faint, exhausted consciousness — yet tinged with a hint of curiosity and wariness — like a firefly flickering in darkness, cautiously touched the psychokinetic ripples she had been emitting.

Success! There was a response!

What followed was a series of consciousness fluctuations, a jumble of exhaustion, pain, confusion, and a thread of gratitude that Mo Lan “heard”:

“…hurts…trapped…”

“…who are you…outsider…”

“…doesn’t seem to hurt as much…”

“…was it you who helped me?”

“…thank you…this is for you…”

A white crystal stone and a blue-green jade token appeared in Mo Lan’s hands.

The white crystal contained source power, roughly equivalent to five million units of Source Mana crystals.

Though it was less than what even a Rank Zero world like White Crystal Star had given her, the fact that the consciousness could still squeeze out some source power in such a weakened state was already quite remarkable.

As for the blue-green jade token, it was the Celestial Profound Realm’s world invitation token.

Sure enough, worlds aligned with neutral or good factions were all quite grateful for kindness received. It had barely been awakened before it was already thanking her for severing the ascension channel.

Only worlds aligned with evil factions would turn on people at the drop of a hat.

Mo Lan felt several degrees more confident about her subsequent plans.