Chapter 918 – A Frontal Assault on the Immortal Realm?

Without these top-tier combatants shouldering the burden, the Immortal Realm could only take a passive beating in any form of confrontation that followed.

For the Immortal Realm to inflict effective, direct strikes against beings outside its world would become extremely difficult — perhaps even… impossible.

“Does that mean we can just attack the Immortal Realm’s boundary membrane directly?” Anita’s eyes instantly lit up with astonishing brilliance, as if fireworks were blooming within her pupils.

Mo Lan considered briefly, the light of calculation flowing through her eyes, then nodded affirmatively. “The feasibility is very high! Judging from how it didn’t hesitate to reclaim all the Dao Ancestors’ source power, the Immortal Realm’s world consciousness is extremely selfish. ‘Preserving its own rank’ is its absolute highest priority.

This priority even surpasses cultivating powerful spellcasters, even surpasses maintaining the ability to plunder other worlds’ source power.

If we shift to attacking its boundary membrane, there’s an extremely high probability it would lean toward committing fully to defense and self-preservation, rather than risking the expenditure of source power to produce Dao Ancestors to attack us.

Because sending Dao Ancestors into battle also carries the risk of us slaying them and causing permanent loss of source power.

From its perspective, holding fast is the lower-risk choice.”

Traci also voiced her agreement:

“Not only that. Even if it changed its mind at some point and wanted to produce Dao Ancestors again, it would be far from easy.

According to the Immortal Realm intelligence you extracted from those Dao Ancestors’ memories, ‘merging oneself with the Dao to attain eternal life’ is the ultimate goal pursued by virtually all Immortal Realm cultivators.

And Dao Ancestor cultivators were the successful ‘exemplars’ on that path — symbols of eternal life, beacons that countless cultivators strived toward.

Now, all of these ‘exemplars’ have vanished and perished collectively in an instant, without any warning.

This is absolutely a devastating blow to the cultivation system, faith, and entire power structure that has persisted within the Immortal Realm for countless years!

The vast factions that depended on each Dao Ancestor, the sects with legacies spanning tens of thousands of years, and the deeply entrenched cultivation philosophies — all of it will crumble along with them.

Within the Immortal Realm, things have likely already descended — or are about to descend — into unprecedented chaos and a crisis of faith.

Against this backdrop of widespread panic, immense fear, and doubt toward advancing to Dao Ancestor, even if the world consciousness wanted to produce new Dao Ancestors, would those top cultivators on the verge of breakthrough still choose to advance as eagerly and unhesitatingly as their predecessors?

After all, no one knows whether what awaits them after advancing to Dao Ancestor is the same fate as those predecessors — being silently reclaimed one day by the world consciousness like ‘stored provisions’…”

“So the core question now is whether our existing Mana reserves are sufficient to sustain a prolonged war of attrition against the Immortal Realm.” Mo Lan summarized. “We must have enough firepower to continuously assault its boundary membrane until we force it to sign a cooperation contract, allowing us to enter the Immortal Realm to promote Card Magic — only then can we profit from it!”

“The situation may not be optimistic!” Traci shook her head. “Don’t forget, the Immortal Realm is ultimately a Fourteenth Rank world!

Even if it’s the weakest in foundation among Fourteenth Rank worlds, the depth of its source power still far exceeds our imagination.

Even after suffering severe damage and reclaiming all the Dao Ancestors’ source power, the strength of its boundary membrane remains an unknown quantity.

Moreover, given the extreme selfishness and ruthlessness the Immortal Realm’s world consciousness has displayed, in a war of attrition, if it discovers that the cost of maintaining its boundary membrane defense is too great, it’s hard to say whether it might resort to even more extreme measures.

For instance, treating all cultivators as renewable ‘reserve resources,’ periodically or on-demand reclaiming the source power from their bodies to replenish the boundary membrane’s consumption!”

This speculation sent a chill through quite a few of those present.

But they knew it was indeed very possible. After all, the Immortal Realm had never truly bestowed source power upon the cultivators within its world. Even cultivators who had ascended from the lower realms had long been marked by it, ready to be harvested at any time.

If that were truly the case, the Immortal Realm’s endurance would become terrifyingly formidable.

“What? Wouldn’t that be endless then?” Anita’s beautiful eyebrows knitted together, her face written over with unwillingness. “We finally managed to force it into being a turtle hiding in its shell, and now we still have to outlast it?”

She whipped her head around to look at Mo Lan, her eyes shining with hopeful light. “Moira! How about you try divining with the Fortune-Telling Spell? If we change plans and concentrate all our strength on a frontal assault on the Immortal Realm, can we achieve a quick decisive victory?

If we can take down the Immortal Realm — the big one — first, won’t the remaining Spirit Realm be ours to handle however we please?”

Capture the king to capture the thieves — if they could conquer the core in one fell swoop, it would indeed spare them countless troubles.

Mo Lan had been thinking the same thing. She nodded without further words, directly channeling Mana to convert it into the power of fate, and cast the Eighth Rank Fortune-Telling Spell at full strength, divining the outcome of the strategic option to “prioritize a frontal assault on the Immortal Realm.”

Everyone held their breath in rapt attention, awaiting the result of Mo Lan’s divination.

Time trickled by, and the aura of Mana around Mo Lan gradually subsided. She slowly opened her eyes and looked toward the expectant Anita, but gently shook her head.

“The divination result isn’t good. The prospects for assaulting the Immortal Realm now are unfavorable — it would very likely end in failure. We probably still need to start with the Spirit Realm first, bolstering our own Mana reserves, before we’ll have a chance to ultimately defeat the Immortal Realm.”

Though somewhat disappointed, everyone had absolute trust in Mo Lan’s Fortune-Telling Spell.

The unfavorable divination result immediately calmed the restless eagerness stirring in their hearts, and they reconsidered the most prudent plan — also the one with the highest success rate.

By promoting Card Magic in the Spirit Realm, they could not only obtain a continuous income of disposable Mana and permanent Mana to strengthen their overall force, but also further isolate the Immortal Realm, cutting off any potential avenue for its recovery.

Only when they had amassed sufficient power and then turned to deal with the Immortal Realm would it be a natural, sure-fire victory.

“Understood!” Though Anita felt a trace of regret at not being able to immediately challenge a powerful enemy, her naturally optimistic disposition allowed her to rally quickly. The flames of fighting spirit reignited in her eyes. “Then we’ll follow the original plan — start by going after those Spirit Realms! Once we’ve saved up enough Mana and grown stronger, we’ll come back and properly deal with this iron-shelled turtle!”

“Target: the Mystic Spirit Realm!” Mo Lan reconfirmed their course of action.

This time, no further surprises occurred, and no one raised any objections.

The Starsea Ark adjusted its heading and leaped decisively toward the location of their first target Spirit Realm — the Mystic Spirit Realm — leaving the Immortal Realm with its solidified boundary membrane temporarily behind them.

The Sorceresses, Witches, Elves, and dragons in the observation space lingered no longer either, each returning to the green mossy meadows within the mirror space to rest temporarily, awaiting the great battle that would soon come.