Chapter 766 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 33

Chapter 766 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 33

Great—the money she’d just saved had instantly doubled and been spent again, and on even more preventive measures at that.

Once again, she deeply felt the chasm between the financial power of a “Mirror Lord’s child” and a commoner student like herself.

Still, she would rather endure hardship than accept favors and end up beholden to someone. Besides, they hadn’t reached a desperate situation yet, had they?

She was just about to say something when she noticed Mo Lan had walked over at some point and was speaking to Wang Jingnan:

“Having Teacher Yan Shuang secretly protecting us is already the greatest safety guarantee in itself. And this off-campus field practice is a rare opportunity for us to leave the greenhouse and get real combat experience.”

She paused briefly, then asked in return, “Don’t you want to truly challenge yourself? To experience what it feels like to rely on your own strength and teamwork to survive a night surrounded by the unknown and potential danger?”

Mo Lan’s words were measured and precise. Wang Jingnan was momentarily stunned.

As team leader, his first instinct was always to prioritize efficiency and absolute safety—it was his habitual way of thinking.

Mo Lan continued, her gaze falling on the golden potion bottle, “This potion is undoubtedly powerful. Once sprinkled, in this Kaleidoscope Wilderness where one-star and two-star mirror beasts are the main inhabitants, our camp would be virtually worry-free. But at the same time, it would mean we’d lose many opportunities to encounter nighttime emergencies and practice real combat responses.

If Teacher Yan Shuang weren’t here, I’d support your decision—after all, safety is more important than anything. But with Teacher Yan Shuang watching over us, at least none of us will die. If we don’t temper ourselves now, when we find our target mirror beasts later, are all of you confident you can hunt them solo in direct combat?

And besides… when you’re exploring higher-star mirror spaces in the future, are you confident you’ll always have even more powerful beast-repelling potions to guarantee your safety every single time?”

Beast cores obtained by hunting a mirror beast solo in direct combat had a greater extraction yield than those obtained through opportunistic methods, which in turn were greater than those obtained with someone else’s assistance, which were greater than cores hunted by someone else entirely.

As students of Mirror Explorer Class One, none of them would want to merely extract the skill of the weakest one-star beast core.

Wang Jingnan’s hand, gripping the potion bottle, froze mid-motion.

He looked at Mo Lan, then at Su Yu beside her who hadn’t spoken but whose eyes clearly showed agreement, and then at Zhao Wuchen, Chen Xingye, and the others not far away who also seemed to be listening with pricked ears.

He realized that perhaps not everyone on the team yearned for this kind of “absolute safety” built with money.

He pondered for a moment, then slowly put away the expensive three-star beast-repelling potion. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking it through. The opportunity to train is indeed more important than momentary comfort. Then we’ll stick with the original plan—reinforce the camp defenses. Since everyone just got here and still has plenty of energy, it’s a good time to get used to keeping watch!”

Zhou Ming and the others quickly dug a deep pit, pushed all the insect carcasses in and buried them, then looked toward Su Yu.

Su Yu silently produced a large paper packet. Inside was a fine, grayish-white powder. She spread the deodorizing powder evenly and thickly over the burial site and the surrounding ground where the smell might have seeped in.

When the powder made contact with the soil and residual fluids, it emitted a faint sizzling sound, and that pungent, foul stench began to dissipate rapidly.

Lin Yue blinked, her face full of curiosity as she sidled up to Mo Lan. She lightly bumped her with an elbow and whispered with a teasing grin, “Hm? Not being antisocial today? It’s rare to hear you say so much in one go! And it actually made a lot of sense—you even talked our Captain Wang into it.”

She remembered very clearly that normally in class, aside from necessary answers and brief commands during martial technique sparring, Mo Lan was exceptionally sparing with her words. Most of the time she was immersed in her own books or training, like a quiet little wallflower with her own invisible barrier.

For her to actually step forward on her own initiative today and deliver such a well-reasoned, even slightly rousing speech—that was truly a rare sight.

Mo Lan was caught off guard by Lin Yue’s teasing and nearly broke character. After a brief pause, she said, “I was merely stating facts.”

In truth, she was afraid that no mirror beasts would dare approach at night, robbing her of the chance to practice her saber techniques and dagger work. That was the real reason she’d spoken up to stop him.

Compared to growing stronger, maintaining a taciturn persona was utterly insignificant.

Lin Yue burst out laughing at that, but didn’t continue teasing her. Instead, she nodded. “Fair point. If we had a perfectly quiet night, how boring would that be? We might as well be back at the Academy training grounds! But…”

Her tone shifted, carrying a touch of her young lady’s concern. “If something really tough shows up tonight, you’d better look out for me a bit!”

Lin Yue vividly remembered that last martial technique combat class, where Mo Lan had taken on eleven opponents at once and dominated everyone to become the undisputed number one by a wide margin.

Red-eyed grasshoppers were nothing special, but not all one-star mirror beasts were that easy to deal with—and the Kaleidoscope Wilderness had two-star mirror beasts as well!

The supplies she’d prepared were no less comprehensive than Wang Jingnan’s, but she only intended to use them as a safety net.

That being the case, there would inevitably be gaps in her defenses during combat.

Having a classmate and teammate help out was far better than being rescued by Teacher Yan Shuang and getting eliminated because of it!

Mo Lan nodded, turning her gaze back toward the distant horizon that was gradually being swallowed by the encroaching darkness. “I will.”

For her, this too was an opportunity to train.

With everyone working together, the simple campsite—protected by obstacles and traps—was finally set up before nightfall.

The campfire crackled in the center of the camp. The dancing flames not only dispelled the growing chill of the Giant Toe Meadow at night, but also had a certain repelling effect on fire-averse mirror beasts—especially those of water and wood attributes—while providing the camp with the most basic source of light and sense of security.

A richly detailed《Kaleidoscope Wilderness Detailed Map》was carefully unfolded beside the campfire, its corners held down by small stones.

Twelve heads crowded around, all eyes focused on the map.

“Our current position is here—Giant Toe Meadow, coordinates N-37, E-15.”

Wang Jingnan tapped the marked location on the map with a small twig. “Next, we need to determine our exploration route so everyone can find and hunt their target mirror beasts as efficiently as possible.”

He looked at the group. “Now I need everyone to reconfirm your targets and share where they’re most likely to appear and their seasonal preferences. I’ll go first.

My target is the wind-stripe leopard cat. They prefer open, windy terrain and come out to hunt on clear, breezy days. In hot, windless weather, they hide in their dens.

Open terrain, ridgelines, and these several ‘forest wind corridors’ on the western part of the map are all places where they might appear.

Wind-stripe leopard cats are very fast, but don’t worry—when the time comes, I’ll be wearing boots embedded with wind-attribute beast cores to fight them. I’ll just need everyone’s help to locate them.”