Chapter 843 – Starsea Ark

Valen world, one year later.

In a corner of the Explorer’s Camp, inside Mo Lan’s personal tent.

Zhizhi, Clack, and Sentai—who had shrunk its body and taken root in the spatial planting pot—sat in a neat row. The three little fellows stared intently at Mo Lan’s every move, their eyes brimming with curiosity and anticipation.

Over the past year, with the help of mirror space’s ability to adjust the flow of time, Mo Lan had thoroughly remodeled and upgraded the Witch’s home mirror space. Every key device required for cosmic travel had been installed in place; everything was ready, lacking only the final step: integrating these independent components into a unified whole and linking them to the main control room.

Originally, completing this step would have required major construction inside the mirror space—laying down energy lines—but her mirror space was also a card at the same time.

What method could be more natural, and more tightly integrated, than turning all of it into part of the {mirror space card} itself?

With a slight shift of thought, Mo Lan summoned the Book of Cards and solemnly set {Mirror Space Card — Moira’s Witch’s Home} into the cover’s card slot, preparing to reshape it.

As disposable Mana flowed in, the card slot flared with brilliant light. The card’s outline gradually blurred, as if melting into the light—then reorganizing.

Several minutes later, the radiance faded. Lying quietly in the slot was a completely renewed card.

The pattern on the card face could switch freely between a mirror-like card image and a sleek, silver, shuttle-shaped little boat.

{Mo Lan’s Witch’s Home (Dual Form)}

【Function: The Witch’s home of the Sorceress Mo Lan. Contains a small mirror space and has two forms: card and vehicle. In card form, the mirror space remains in stasis; the space core becomes a mirror card that can be stored within the mental sea, and entered or exited at any time within a certain spatial distance. In this form, it produces no energy consumption at all. In vehicle form, the mirror space unfolds into the “Starsea Ark.” When energy is sufficient, it can perform continuous spatial jumps, resist void erosion and energy storms, and travel freely through the universe.】

It worked!

From this day on, this card was both the paradise where she could live in peace, and the ark that would carry her on expeditions across the starsea.

Mo Lan picked up the brand-new card and looked at her companions. “Ready? Our new journey is about to begin—right now!”

Zhizhi, Clack, and Sentai all nodded.

They had long since arranged the work at the Mo-Zhi-Ka-Sen Familiar Boarding House, just waiting for Mo Lan to finish building the Starsea Ark so they could travel through the universe together.

Mo Lan pulled open the tent flap, bringing Zhizhi, Clack, and Sentai back into the remodeled mirror space, and walked straight to the Witch’s home’s Starsea Ark main control room.

She had retained the Starsea Ark’s traditional piloting method—the main control room—while also adding an even more convenient psychic power control method based on the mirror space’s characteristics.

One could either pilot manually in the main control room, or control the ark’s movement with psychic power from anywhere inside the mirror space.

Standing within the main control room, Mo Lan willed it—and activated the mirror space’s vehicle form.

A low hum rose from the depths of the space, and a powerful surge of energy swept through every corner like a tide.

Inside the main control room, the light screens of every controller lit up one after another, flowing with an intertwined glow of deep blue and silver-white.

On the light screen of the ark defense system controller, the mirror space boundary membrane—fused with Star Steel and Void Whale amber—was clearly displayed. It had already turned a silvery gray, and its defensive power was several times stronger than at the beginning.

As the invisibility function activated, an invisible layer of energy rippled across the boundary membrane like water patterns. The mirror space, which had originally relied on the Valen world, quietly erased all traces of itself, as though it had merged into the void.

Within the light screen of the navigation system controller, a vast star chart slowly unfolded. A preset route—like a glowing purple ribbon—wound between the stars, pointing toward the distant reaches.

Mo Lan raised her hand and pressed the ark’s start button. The silver ark formed from the entire mirror space began to jump forward rapidly along the preset route.

A panoramic image was projected in real time onto the largest light screen at the front of the main control room. Through the projection from the ark’s rearward perspective, the Valen world—which had originally filled the entire field of view—became, in the span of a single breath, a star-dot the size of an egg, giving off a gentle halo, floating quietly in the depths of boundless darkness.

The ark was traveling steadily along the star chart left behind by the Witch seniors of Starault Hall.

Every plane and every planet they passed had long since been explored by the high-tier Explorers of the Valen world.

This star region had once also seen zero-tier worlds and endangered worlds.

Only now, some had had their source power completely drained, refined into Source Mana crystals, and fallen into lifeless dead stars; others had successfully advanced in world tier, or the intelligent races within had survived their existential crises.

Those dead stars might be able to draw energy from the void again and once more give birth to intelligent life—but it would take an unimaginably long time.

And whether it was a world’s advancement or the lifting of a crisis, it meant the world consciousness had already grown strong—or recovered.

Without its permission, external forces could almost never descend by brute force.

Only by sailing out of this repeatedly explored star region and reaching those unknown starfields would there be any chance of gain.

Mo Lan had estimated the voyage. At the current extreme speed of her Starsea Ark, pushing forward at full power without counting energy losses, it would still take at least three years to reach the edge of this star region.

It was precisely because she understood how time-consuming travel was on a cosmic scale that she had previously placed the mirror space renovation as her top priority.

As for other books, materials, and research projects, they would all become the best ways to pass the time on this long journey.

After confirming the Starsea Ark was running stably and that no further operations were needed for the moment, Mo Lan went straight to the rest area specially reserved within the main control room.

The rest area and the main control room were in the same room, with no barrier between them. But on the rest area side, there were comfortable tables and chairs for reading and studying, and one could also set the time flow rate for this small section alone.

Mo Lan sat down at her desk in the rest area, took out a copy of 《On Cosmic Three-Dimensionality》, and began reading impatiently.

Like master, like familiars: with Mo Lan off reading, Zhizhi, Clack, and Sentai also gathered together to study a big book.

It was the 《Starsea Ark Piloting Manual》 that Mo Lan had specially recorded for them at the request of the three of them.

Ever since learning that she was going to transform the mirror space into the Starsea Ark, Zhizhi had decided it wanted to learn to pilot.

However, it had positioned its role as the driving instructor. Clack and Sentai—one an undead creature, the other a plant-type mirror beast—didn’t get hungry, didn’t get sleepy, and didn’t get tired, so Zhizhi designated them as trainee pilots and future pilots.

Now Zhizhi was following the piloting manual Mo Lan had written, learning as it went and teaching Clack and Sentai at the same time.

As for Mo Lan, she was more than happy to see it happen. (End of this chapter)