Chapter 876 – Diversifying Attacks

Feeling the surging growth of Mana within her body, Mo Lan even found herself eagerly anticipating more, like someone who had tasted the marrow and craved it: “How wonderful it would be if a few more Dao Ancestors came along!”

She quickly ran the numbers in her head. The grotto-heaven core of a single Dao Ancestor, once refined and distributed, yielded enough source Mana to send her permanent Mana reserves skyrocketing by nearly five billion Mana!

If she could take down eighteen, she would firmly step into the realm of an Eighth Rank Sorceress. And if she could gather one hundred and ninety-eight… advancing to Ninth Rank wouldn’t be out of the question either.

“Tch, the only question is whether the Immortal Realm has deep enough pockets to produce that many Dao Ancestors for me to harvest…”

Mo Lan cast the Fortune-Telling Spell once more, predicting the fortune of leaving the Celestial Profound Realm at this moment.

The result was utterly unremarkable — no auspicious signs, no ill omens, just the most ordinary state possible.

“Hm?” The result left her somewhat reluctant to leave.

The cooperation with the Celestial Profound Realm had been so pleasant. The world consciousness was supportive, and she could leverage the boundary membrane to wait at ease for her enemies to come to her. It was practically a prime “feng shui treasure ground” for farming Dao Ancestors.

The next world might not offer such favorable conditions.

Unwilling to give up, she performed another divination specifically for the Celestial Profound Realm, hoping to see whether the Immortal Realm would “deliver to her doorstep” anytime soon.

Mana flowed and circulated. Fragments of the Celestial Profound Realm’s future appeared on the card — beyond the boundary membrane, there was nothing but empty silence. The membrane itself was clean and clear, with no new ascension passages appearing whatsoever.

“It seems the Immortal Realm won’t be sending any Dao Ancestors here for a while.”

Mo Lan sighed softly, her tone carrying obvious regret.

The Immortal Realm had apparently detected the anomaly here, or had grown far more cautious after losing two Dao Ancestors in succession, temporarily abandoning the Celestial Profound Realm as a “tough nut to crack.”

She put away her cards and sent a formal farewell through Star Language:

“Celestial Profound, this time I really am leaving.”

The world consciousness sent back a gentle ripple: “May your path ahead be smooth. Come back to visit when you have the time…”

“I will!” Mo Lan hesitated no longer. She turned and returned to the mirror space control room. “Clack, let’s set off. We’re going to find the next cultivation world.”

The Starsea Ark slowly pulled away from the Celestial Profound Realm. After entering the void, a single long-distance spatial jump left the Celestial Profound Realm far behind in the endless void, not even a trace of it remaining to be found.

Mo Lan pulled up the star chart she had mapped during her previous journey toward the Immortal Realm, her gaze roaming among the points of light representing worlds with ascension passages. To be cautious, she cast the Fortune-Telling Spell again, performing divinations one by one for each of these potential targets.

“The Mystic Spirit Realm is out of the question for now. The Immortal Realm’s world consciousness has infiltrated too deeply — the difficulty of rescuing it is too great.”

She first eliminated that tough nut, then let her gaze fall on the Profound Darkness Realm — the closest world to the Celestial Profound Realm, and also not far from their current position.

Like the Celestial Profound Realm, the Profound Darkness Realm was a cultivation world subordinate to the Mystic Spirit Realm, positioned slightly closer to the Mystic Spirit Realm than the Celestial Profound Realm was.

“Let’s start with this nearest one.” She focused her mind and performed a divination for the Profound Darkness Realm.

“Whoa! Great peril?!”

Mo Lan’s pupils contracted, caught off guard.

After all, the last time — when she might have run face-first into the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light in the void — the result had only been “peril”!

And that had already been a dangerous situation requiring her to be on full alert.

“Even more dangerous than last time… could it be…” A thought flashed through her mind, making her expression turn grave. “Has the Immortal Realm sent two, or even more Dao Ancestors to lie in wait at the Profound Darkness Realm?”

After all, this was the cultivation world closest to the Celestial Profound Realm. To verify this suspicion, Mo Lan immediately performed rapid divinations for the other cultivation worlds subordinate to the Mystic Spirit Realm.

“Peril.”

“Peril.”

“Still peril!”

The string of unfavorable results confirmed her suspicions entirely.

The Immortal Realm had clearly detected the incident in the Celestial Profound Realm and become aware of her existence as a “disruptor,” and their response was extremely swift and forceful!

They had very likely dispatched multiple Dao Ancestor realm cultivators, descending ahead of time to the cultivation worlds she was most likely to visit, casting a dragnet and simply waiting for her to walk right into the trap.

She did want to harvest Dao Ancestors to increase her strength, that was true — but the prerequisite was being able to leverage the world consciousness’s boundary membrane for defense and sever ascension passages to cut off the enemy’s reinforcements.

If she encountered them in the void, or was besieged by multiple Dao Ancestors inside a world where the ascension passage remained intact, her mirror space’s rules were still incomplete. Without a world consciousness, even a reinforced boundary membrane couldn’t withstand that level of onslaught.

“It seems none of these cultivation worlds can be visited for the time being.” Mo Lan quickly calmed down, not the least bit discouraged.

Since the known paths were blocked, she would simply open up new battlefields.

She recalled the general directions in which those ascension passages extended, as she had recorded during her earlier observations from the periphery of the Immortal Realm.

Her finger traced across the star chart, circling several vast star regions that very likely contained cultivation worlds with ascension passages to the Immortal Realm.

“Clack, adjust our heading. We’re not going to the Profound Darkness Realm anymore. Let’s head toward these areas first.”

Mo Lan planned to locate target cultivation worlds first, then screen them with the Fortune-Telling Spell. As long as the result wasn’t “peril,” she could consider making her move.

“Yes, Master!” Clack maneuvered the Starsea Ark in a graceful arc, veering away from the original course toward the Profound Darkness Realm.

Entering unexplored star regions inevitably slowed their speed. Mo Lan stayed in the control room for a while. Once she confirmed the voyage was smooth and there were no unexpected risks, she handed over routine control to Clack and dove headfirst into the study.

She first reviewed her currently highest-level Magic — her spatial-class spells.

Spatial blade, Spatial Distortion, Spatial Lockdown, and the other Seventh Rank spells combined were remarkably effective at dealing with a Dao Ancestor’s physical body and restricting their movements.

From the memories of Duan Yan and the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light, no single Dao Ancestor in the Immortal Realm had comprehended the Dao of Space.

Cultivators all believed this was because the Dao of Space was too difficult to comprehend. But Mo Lan suspected it was far more likely that the Heavenly Dao had deliberately monopolized control over spatial rules, never allowing any cultivator to truly comprehend the Dao of Space. Consequently, the corresponding spatial divine abilities, techniques, and Dao arts simply didn’t exist in the Immortal Realm.

The spatial escape technique that Dao Ancestors used for traveling through the void on official business was directly bestowed by the Immortal Realm’s Heavenly Dao for the sole purpose of travel. It could only be used within a certain time limit, and its underlying principles could not be understood.

But this didn’t mean she could rest easy. The Dao Ancestors she had killed had their physical bodies and primordial spirits completely destroyed, so they truly had no opportunity to transmit information back. However, she had used spatial blades to sever every ascension passage, and those passages were part of the Immortal Realm’s boundary membrane.

As the Immortal Realm’s losses of Dao Ancestors mounted, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t find a way to produce someone skilled in spatial divine abilities — or at the very least, someone capable of countering Spatial Lockdown — to deal with her.

When that time came, the effectiveness of her Spatial Magic could be drastically reduced.

To prepare for this potential threat, Mo Lan decided to diversify her attack methods.

Other Magic would improve too slowly, with limited progress achievable in a short timeframe. She turned her attention to dragon-tongue magic.