Chapter 822 – Witch’s Home

The main structure of the house was built from dark brown timber, with lush green vines naturally climbing the walls, dotted with tiny flowers like scattered stars.

Atop the tall, steeply pointed roof lay fish-scale-like tiles of deep purple Crystal, and the edges of the roof curled playfully upward in several small spiraling tips.

Colorful diamond-patterned lattice windows, a plump spiral chimney, an arched wooden door, a low picket fence, a path paved with cobblestones…

The entire cottage was brimming with the mystique of Magic, yet retained the warmth and whimsy of a fairy tale.

The most distinctive feature was the magical wall clock hanging on the left side of the front door.

This clock’s purpose went far beyond simply telling time.

Mo Lan had ingeniously combined the mirror space’s teleportation channel function with the time flow alteration function of the Dream Chronodisk—something she had long yearned to achieve—merging them both into this single clock to create a multifunctional magical clock.

By turning the hands clockwise and pointing them to different markings on the clock face, one could open teleportation channels leading to various preset coordinates.

The markings on the clock face could be customized with various symbols.

Mo Lan planned to input the coordinates of her cottage by Spring Sight Lake in Witch’s Town, as well as her personal tent at the Explorer’s Camp.

When the time came, she would simply turn the hands to the corresponding position and open the door—and the scene beyond would no longer be the pond and meadow inside the mirror space, but a direct connection to the lakeside cottage or the Explorer’s Camp, truly achieving the convenience of “open the door and arrive.”

In effect, this would establish a private rapid-transit network across all her bases, one entirely under her absolute control.

Turning the hands counterclockwise could alter the flow of time within the house or even across specific zones of the entire mirror space.

This function allowed for even finer control: the hour hand was used to select the zone where the time flow would be changed—it could be the entire mirror space, just the interior of the house, or even a single room—while the minute hand precisely set the ratio of time acceleration.

This would be an extraordinarily powerful function. Whether used to accelerate the growth of magical plants or to create more ample time for research or cultivation, the applications were limitless.

Of course, such a powerful function came with safeguards. Only adjustments infused with her own Mana would take effect; even if others touched the hands, they could not activate any function.

Moreover, using each corresponding function also consumed energy—especially the time flow alteration, which demanded an enormous amount.

Before each use, a sufficient quantity of disposable Mana had to be injected into the clock’s base as “fuel” in advance.

The greater the change in flow rate, the wider the area, and the longer the duration, the more Mana was required.

This was the optimal solution Mo Lan could devise given her current Mana reserves—one that achieved the desired effect while keeping consumption under control.

If she didn’t feel like walking to the door to turn the hands, once she had successfully bound the mirror space, she could simply issue commands through the space core—now transformed into a card within her mental sea—to achieve the same teleportation and time adjustment functions.

The wall clock was more of a tangible, ceremonial control terminal, inspired by an anime she had watched back on Earth.

After finalizing the card’s functional design, Mo Lan estimated the corresponding Mana consumption.

【Estimated cost: 3,012,323,123,412 Mana in disposable Mana】

Seeing this number, Mo Lan let out a sigh of relief. “Good—the stored disposable Mana is still enough!”

Brimming with anticipation, she issued the card creation command to the Book of Cards and named this card {Mirror Space Card — Moira’s Witch’s Home}.

The Mana stored in the Purple Gemstone surged into the card slot like flowing water, and a few minutes later, a card radiating a deep, lustrous sheen appeared in the center of the slot.

The card had a deep purple mirrored finish, with silvery starlight streaming along its edges, and at its center, the faint silhouette of a pointed-roof cottage and a pond could be glimpsed.

In nature, this card was akin to a space core for a mirror space. Once bound to its owner, it could be carried on one’s person or, like a space core, stored within the mental sea.

Mo Lan, as was her habit, chose to store it within her mental sea.

With a single thought, Mo Lan’s figure instantly vanished from Ember Valley, teleporting into the interior of the Witch’s Home.

Everything before her eyes perfectly matched her original vision.

A tranquil pond, soft green moss-covered meadows, and in the distance, separated by the spatial barrier, snow-capped mountains, a bay, forests… and behind her, the fairy-tale-like pointed-roof Witch’s cottage.

The air was fresh, the energy abundant, and time itself seemed to slow its pace here.

Mo Lan gently tapped the wooden vine that Sentai had formed around her wrist, pointing toward the most fertile patch of green moss by the pond. “Go find a spot you like over there and put down roots!”

Sentai cheerfully detached from her wrist, dropped into the soil, and rapidly grew and spread. Before long, it had restored itself to that great tree draped in thick moss, vines, and mushrooms.

It stretched its branches and leaves, rustling with contentment, merging perfectly with its new home.

A Moss-Forest Guardian ultimately needed to root itself in real soil to truly thrive.

Mo Lan didn’t linger long inside the Witch’s Home mirror space—back in Ember Valley, there were still many mirror beasts slumbering in beast cages, waiting to be settled!

She began frequently constructing temporary teleportation channels between the various ecological zones of the Witch’s Home and Ember Valley, precisely releasing different mirror beast populations into the habitats best suited to their survival.

Lightning cats darted into the cat-claw tree groves, Radiance Forest Deer wandered through dense woodland meadows… The once-quiet space suddenly came alive with activity.

Only after the last mirror beast had been properly settled did Mo Lan return to Ember Valley.

She took a deep breath, withdrew the spiritual imprint she had branded onto Ember Valley’s space core—that crimson mineral—and then fed it to the Book of Cards as card-crafting material.

In the next instant, the Ember Valley mirror space crumbled inch by inch, annihilated completely.

Mo Lan’s figure appeared in the spatial interstices of the void that was the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World, surrounded by mirror spaces resembling shattered mirrors.

The Sixth Rank Spatial shield she had prepared in advance activated instantly, forming a stable spherical barrier that held her firmly within, warding off the erosion of the violent spatial power.

Once the Book of Cards finished analyzing the space core of the Ember Valley mirror space, she immediately used the return function of the realm-friend invitation.

The scene before her eyes shifted abruptly. The familiar cramped gray space, the white door, the Well of the Sky—she was back in her personal tent at the Explorer’s Camp in the world of Valen.

Everything was exactly as she had left it.

The expedition to the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World, spanning several years, had finally come to a perfect conclusion. Mo Lan eagerly took out her {Communication Card}, ready to tell her friends the news—she was back. (End of Chapter)