Chapter 338 – The River of Prophecy

Chapter 338 – The River of Prophecy

Mo Lan slept until she woke naturally, her mind and body restored to peak condition.

After changing into clothes suited for movement, she retrieved some ingredients from her spatial ring and prepared herself a proper meal.

Once she finished eating, she stored the Spatial Tent Card and Mobile Kitchen Card, and placed her broomstick into the designated area she’d reserved inside her spatial ring.

Then she picked up her Wand and channeled her Mana.

“I want to know — in the underground passage beyond the root wall, is there anything that could pose a threat to me?”

Mo Lan focused on the event she wanted to foresee, then cast the Clairvoyance Spell.

Soon, an image appeared in her mind.

In the image was a calm underground river.

The image returned by Divination Magic was the result of the precognition.

The image was clear — it didn’t look like a failed prediction.

A calm underground river?

Mo Lan glanced at the ceaselessly rushing river water beside her. When had the underground river ever been this calm?

It made no sense that the roaring, splashing river would suddenly become quiet just because she passed through a root wall. So then… did “calm” represent safety?

A few days ago, Mo Lan had also performed a divination about whether entering the Inner Region through the underground river passage would bring fortune or misfortune. At the time, the result had shown minor fortune.

Just to be safe, she tested it again now.

Still minor fortune.

Though it wasn’t great fortune, it at least proved that taking this route wouldn’t lead to any danger she couldn’t handle — and she might even gain some benefits.

Mo Lan felt reassured.

Even so, she still layered three levels of protective magic on herself along with a series of enhancement spells — the luck spell, Wind Walk, the Invisibility spell, and more. Only after making thorough preparations did she walk toward the root wall.

The root wall that had previously refused to budge no matter what she tried now automatically parted to clear a path the moment she approached.

Mo Lan used Wind Sensing to scout ahead. Finding nothing unusual, she stepped through the root wall and set foot on the soil of the outer region.

She stood still in place for a moment. Nothing happened.

The pitch-dark underground river passage stretched on with no end in sight. The river channel had grown wider, but the riverbank had narrowed considerably — at its widest point, it was only about three or four meters across.

Occasional caves appeared along both banks, and exposed mineral deposits could be seen embedded in the cave walls.

The only sound was the flow of the river.

It seemed just as safe as the Inner Region — a perfect spot for mining in peace.

Mo Lan relaxed slightly and walked toward a half-exposed spatial gem in the distance.

Her footsteps echoed through the quiet cavern, seemingly drowning out the sound of the flowing river.

The result of the Clairvoyance Spell flashed through Mo Lan’s mind.

Calm represented safety, but the main subject of the prophetic image had been the underground river. Did that mean the problem lay within the river itself?

Mo Lan’s heart, which she had just let down, immediately shot back up. She turned to look into the river.

From upstream, a black current came surging downstream. Dense swarms of spherical black fish leapt from the water, their fang-filled jaws gaping wide as they spat water arrows toward the bank where she stood.

Mo Lan immediately deployed a golden energy shield, sealing herself safely behind it.

The water arrows struck the Metal Shield with sharp pattering sounds.

The Advanced Metal Shield spell didn’t budge an inch.

Yet those black fish seemed oblivious to the futility of their efforts, leaping with increasing excitement until the river surface was practically boiling.

“Spherical black fish, grey-white eyes, mouths full of fangs, jaws half the size of their bodies, spitting water arrows — are these grey-eyed piranhas?”

Once Mo Lan identified the species, she relaxed completely. Grey-eyed piranhas were a low-level water-type magical beast, and water arrows were their only magical attack.

If she remembered correctly, the killing power of grey-eyed piranha water arrows didn’t even match Apprentice-level magic.

Compared to their water arrows, the grey-eyed piranhas’ teeth were the more formidable weapon.

But even at their fiercest, they couldn’t breach Mo Lan’s magical defenses.

Mo Lan even dismissed the Metal Shield spell, relying solely on her sustained defensive spells — Metal Armor spell, Bark Skin, and Stone Skin — for protection.

Immediately, several grey-eyed piranhas that had exhausted their magical energy and had no more water arrows to spit leapt from the water, jaws wide open, lunging to bite her.

Their teeth shattered against her defensive magic, and they dropped to the ground.

They couldn’t even break through the Metal Armor spell, let alone the inner layers of defense.

No wonder the prophetic image had shown a calm underground river.

Her interpretation hadn’t been wrong either — the underground river represented the source of danger, and calm meant she was safe.

The grey-eyed piranhas posed no threat to her whatsoever.

However, while their attack power was lacking, their vitality was remarkably tenacious.

After landing on the bank, they stubbornly curled themselves into balls and rolled toward the river.

“You’ve already come all this way — no need to rush back.” As she spoke, Mo Lan used the Levitation Spell to float the piranhas that had jumped ashore far away from the river’s edge, then cast a Silencing spell over that area.

She didn’t even need to trap them further. The piranhas that had been accurately rolling toward the river instantly lost all sense of direction.

Grey-eyed piranhas lived permanently in dark underground waterways. Their grey-white eyes had no visual capability — they primarily relied on sound to navigate.

A single Silencing spell was enough to leave them completely disoriented.

Now they were rolling about randomly, and the moment one rolled forward, another fish would crash into it and knock it right back.

Mo Lan continued standing outside the Silencing spell’s range, acting as bait, occasionally stomping her feet to lure grey-eyed piranhas ashore.

After a huge pile of fish had accumulated on the bank, the black current in the river showed no sign of thinning — in fact, it only grew thicker.

“Just how many fish are in this river?!”

Mo Lan had originally planned to catch this entire batch, but now she realized that was likely impossible.

If she caught any more, the bank wouldn’t have room to hold them all.

She hurried into the Silencing spell’s range. Without sound to guide them, the black current in the river quickly dispersed.

Mo Lan looked at the enormous pile of fish on the bank, sighed helplessly, and pulled out her Butchering Tool Card. She directed the tools to slaughter all the fish.

She tossed the bodies into the Kitchen Waste Bin Card — treating it as food for Vasida’s Devouring Stomach — and kept only the eyes.

She had caught these fish specifically for their eyes.

In the poison potions chapter of Mo Lan’s copy of Mo Lan’s 《The Witch’s Complete Potion Comperta》, there was a blinding potion that required grey-white eyeball essence from water-type magical beasts that had lived long-term in darkness.

Back when she first started Potions class, Mo Lan had felt relieved that witch potion ingredients were all magical plants — nothing disgusting like spiders, earthworms, or toads.

She later learned that only non-toxic potions that witches themselves would drink used exclusively magical plant ingredients.

For poison potions meant for use on others, the ingredients knew no such restrictions — all manner of bizarre materials were fair game.

Mo Lan used potion-brewing magic to process the entire pile of grey-eyed piranha eyeballs, yielding several large bottles of Beginner-grade grey-eye essence.

She then scooped a bucket of water from the underground river, dug up some river mud and aquatic plants, and similarly extracted underground water essence, underground river mud essence, and underground river plant essence. Blending these with the grey-eye essence in the proper ratios produced a low-grade blinding potion.

This potion was especially effective when paired with water magic — particularly the Mist Technique.