Chapter 901 – The Grindlord Sorceress

“Moira!”

The moment her feet touched the soft grass, a familiar voice reached her ears. Mo Lan looked up to see Cecilia and Pushila—whom she had just seen earlier that day in Starault Hall—striding quickly toward her.

Behind them trailed a large group of senior Witches: some whose portraits she had seen in ancient texts, others who looked vaguely familiar, and still others who were complete strangers.

At this moment, these powerful Witches—normally scattered across the universe and rarely seen in one place—had their gazes trained almost uniformly on her, each pair of eyes brimming with undisguised curiosity and scrutiny.

“Moira,” Cecilia spoke first, her tone urgent yet seeking confirmation, “have you already reached Eighth Rank Sorceress?”

The moment she finished, Pushila immediately chimed in, speaking at breakneck speed: “Are your fire, lightning, ice, and wood Witch Magic all at Eighth Rank now?”

“I noticed that the other elemental Magic Cards and spatial Magic Cards in your Card Shop have been listed at Seventh Rank too—does that mean your magic in those branches has also reached Seventh Rank?” A Witch surrounded by gentle breezes pressed the question without missing a beat.

“Even her lowest Witch Magic Cards are Sixth Rank—she’s an all-rounder!” someone else added.

“And she’s exceptionally skilled in mage magic too! Fire, lightning, wood, ice—especially mental magic—all at Eighth Rank level!”

“This is unbelievable! How on earth did you raise your magic levels so quickly in such a short time?”

That question was virtually the shared thought of every Witch present.

It wasn’t just Cecilia and Pushila—who had noticed the clues after reading Mo Lan’s 《Universe Travel Journal》—who had caught on. Other well-informed senior Witches had long since detected something unusual from the steady stream of Seventh and Eighth Rank Magic Cards appearing in the Witch edition of the Card Shop.

Magic Cards required the creator to personally master the relevant knowledge and abilities before they could be crafted. The fact that Mo Lan could produce so many high-rank Magic Cards meant her own magic levels were certainly no lower than that!

Every Witch present had diligently completed world missions in the Well of the Sky, spending hundreds or thousands of years painstakingly raising their Mana rank to Sixth Rank before beginning to construct their own cosmic travel vessels and embarking on independent exploration of the stellar sea.

They knew better than anyone how agonizingly difficult it was to advance each rank of Mana—and especially magic level—in the later stages, requiring immense accumulation over vast stretches of time.

Even though Sorceresses possessed an innate advantage in acquiring Mana, when it came to advancing magic levels, everyone was theoretically on the same starting line, needing to invest equal effort and time.

They simply could not fathom how Mo Lan had shattered this ironclad rule and achieved such a comprehensive leap in magic levels in so short a time.

Now that they had finally met the person in question, these senior Witches—averaging over a thousand years old—could no longer contain their curiosity and thirst for knowledge. They crowded around her, questions tumbling out from every direction, while eagerly offering to trade their treasured knowledge, rare materials, or anything else for information and experience on this matter.

The scene became quite lively, catching the just-arrived Mo Lan somewhat off guard.

Fortunately, none of this was some closely guarded secret technique. In fact, she had long since turned her relevant experiences and methods into cards and uploaded them to the Witch edition of the Card Shop—it was just that everyone probably hadn’t yet connected those cards to the rapid surge in her power.

“Esteemed seniors, please, there’s no need to worry,” Mo Lan said with a smile, her voice carrying clearly to every Witch’s ears.

She opened her Card Shop interface and set it to a mode visible to everyone, then quickly located the key cards to introduce to them.

“The method isn’t actually complicated,” Mo Lan began, tapping on the mirror space card, her tone calm and measured. “First, you need a mirror space with a ‘time flow adjustment’ function. You set the time flow rate in certain areas of the mirror space to maximum speed, creating a study environment where time passes far faster than in the outside world.”

She then tapped on the Knowledge Card — Blazing Flame Dao Ancestor, Knowledge Card — Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light, Knowledge Card — Dao Ancestor Mystic Ice, and Knowledge Card — Dao Ancestor Everlasting Spring. “Then, you use the Dao comprehensions and cultivation knowledge systems from the memories of these Ninth Rank Dao Ancestor realm cultivators as references and blueprints for in-depth study.”

“The knowledge and insights from the cultivation world deal with magical energy that is virtually identical to what certain mage and Witch Magic disciplines employ. By drawing parallels and cross-referencing, they are enormously beneficial for understanding and advancing these types of magical energy. You can use them to expand your reservoir of magical knowledge, then attempt to deduce and construct corresponding high-rank spell structures, while simultaneously raising the levels of your related Witch Magic.”

She paused briefly, then added, “Once you have the theory and direction, the rest is simply conducting massive, repeated practice and verification within the accelerated time, constantly adjusting and optimizing… That’s how it was built up, step by step.”

Mo Lan made it sound effortless, but every Witch present instantly grasped both the key insight and the price it demanded.

On the surface, it seemed as though she hadn’t spent much time reaching her current level. But in reality, within that time-accelerated mirror space, she had invested an unimaginable amount of time.

Not only had she poured in vast quantities of Mana to maintain the altered time flow, she had also devoted enormous amounts of time and energy to studying, researching, and practicing—only then could her magic levels rise so rapidly.

Even though she was a Sorceress, blessed with a natural lifespan far exceeding that of ordinary Witches and even most long-lived races—never needing to worry about aging or longevity as long as her Mana continued to grow, nor needing to fear the consequences of so recklessly burning through time and accelerating her life’s passage—

The sheer tedium of studying and researching for such extended periods in a sealed space was not something just anyone could endure.

For a moment, the lakeside fell into brief silence.

The way the Witches looked at Mo Lan shifted from simple curiosity and astonishment to include a measure of genuine admiration.

Finally, someone in the crowd let out a quiet sigh: “As expected of… the Grindlord Sorceress!”

Others nodded in agreement: “What a grinder!”

“???” Mo Lan, who had been scrolling through the Card Shop searching for other related cards, froze mid-gesture and looked up in genuine bewilderment, her face full of honest confusion:

“During the long stretches of cosmic travel, don’t you all get bored with nothing to do? Having something interesting to study and learn at times like that—isn’t that the most wonderful thing?”

“Of course we get bored!” Cecilia responded immediately. “But hardly anyone chooses to spend all their free time studying and researching magic the way you do! You even deliberately adjust the time flow rate just to squeeze out more study time!”