Chapter 845 – The White Planet

The Starsea Ark sailed smoothly through the silent void sea. Just as it was about to leave the edge of this star region that had been repeatedly surveyed by countless Explorers, inside the main control room, the world detector — which had shown no activity since their departure — suddenly lit up with a ring of faint blue light. It was the signal for a discovered target.

The little skeleton Clack, who had been sitting on a small sofa assembled from bones, immediately stood up from his dedicated pilot seat. The soul fire within his skull flickered violently with excitement.

He quickly pressed a button on the control panel, bringing the Ark to a hover in place, then dashed over to the observation window of the main control room in a few steps. He raised a hand and tapped on one of Sentai’s brown roots that had extended over and was resting against the windowsill.

On the smooth wooden surface, Clack traced out each character deliberately with his finger bones: “Endangered world discovered.”

The root trembled slightly, curling its tip upward to hook around Clack’s finger bone in acknowledgment.

By the pond, Sentai’s massive canopy rustled softly, and a verdant green root hidden in the Cat Claw Tree Forest ecological zone rose up in response.

At that moment, Zhizhi was nimbly hanging upside down from a branch, watching Mo Lan below as she cast the Growth Acceleration spell on several cat claw trees — Magic plants native to Valen.

This was a new hobby Mo Lan had cultivated after studying the vast troves of information in Starault Hall.

Finding spots with suitable environments within the ecological zones to transplant Magic plants from Valen or other worlds could enrich the biodiversity within the mirror space and also alleviate the loneliness of the long journey.

Valen’s cat claw trees were completely different in appearance and properties from the plants of the same name from the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World, but planted side by side, they were surprisingly harmonious.

The moment Sentai’s root rose, Zhizhi was the first to notice.

Even without Mo Lan casting Wood Speech to translate, she could read the message conveyed by the swaying root through the signals they had long since agreed upon between them.

“Master, an endangered world has been discovered!” Zhizhi immediately reported in clear 《Valen Common Language》, then leaped lightly and landed steadily on Mo Lan’s shoulder.

The Magic glow flowing through Mo Lan’s hands paused for a brief moment. In the next instant, she and Zhizhi on her shoulder teleported back to the main control room together.

Zhizhi nimbly hopped off her shoulder.

Seeing them arrive, Clack immediately pointed a finger bone toward the central control screen, his jawbone gently opening and closing to signal them to look.

Sentai’s root, which had extended into the control room, also leaned closer with curiosity.

Mo Lan looked at the white planet displayed on the control screen, located roughly half a jump distance ahead and to the left of the Ark, and a flash of pleasant surprise crossed her eyes. “It’s a Class Zero endangered world!”

With a thought, she issued the Ark a command to adjust course, perform a short-range jump, and approach the world’s boundary membrane.

After one short-range jump, the Ark arrived outside this world’s boundary membrane.

Viewed from outside the boundary membrane, this world presented an entirely soft milky white hue, like a massive piece of uncarved jade.

The world consciousness was extremely feeble. The boundary membrane was like a door that was neither locked nor guarded, and the Ark slid through with ease, finding a pocket of space to dock.

From the high-altitude aerial vantage point, the general landscape of this world’s surface was projected onto the largest display screen in the main control room.

Different worlds had different natural light sources.

Planar worlds like Valen typically drew their natural light from celestial projections formed by condensed light elements.

Planetary worlds like Earth, on the other hand, usually relied on nearby constant-light stars. The world before them was also a planetary world, but it was a lonely planet. The light from the nearest constant-light star was completely blocked, unable to bestow even a sliver of its grace upon this world.

What illuminated this land were three “light-drawing stars” of varying sizes orbiting around it, similar to Earth’s moon.

They could not produce light elements themselves, but they could draw in light elements from the distant starry sky and convert them into a cool, clear radiance distinctly different from the scorching brilliance of constant-light stars.

These three light-drawing stars simultaneously cast a pure and bright, yet heatless radiance that spread evenly across every corner of the planet.

Under this cool yet luminous glow, the contours of the land were clearly visible.

Countless enormous, semi-transparent crystal clusters rose from the ground like ancient towering trees. Their heights rivaled mountain ranges, refracting and scattering the light from the light-drawing stars, painting the vast surface in endless stretches of dazzling, multicolored light.

In certain areas, the crystal clusters were arranged with remarkable regularity, suggesting traces of intelligent life activity.

Their position was too far from the surface to make out any finer details.

However, it was obvious that this world’s environment was unsuitable for human survival, and the probability of the intelligent species being human was extremely slim.

Although every intelligent species would have some or all individuals with Magic aptitude, the manifestation of that aptitude differed from species to species.

If the intelligent species here was neither human nor any other race known to Valen, guiding this world’s intelligent beings onto the correct path of the extraordinary would be rather troublesome for her.

Mo Lan could only hope now that this was a species previously discovered by Valen Explorers, so she would at least have reference materials to consult.

She decided to descend into this world personally to investigate.

Since she didn’t know the form or habits of the intelligent beings here, she took out her broomstick to avoid unnecessary attention, converted it into flying carpet form, and activated its invisibility function.

After estimating the distance, she opened a temporary teleportation channel with its exit positioned a thousand meters above this world’s surface.

She then rode the invisible flying carpet silently through the portal, descending slowly toward a cluster of crystals below that was neatly arranged and clearly bore an architectural style.

Her guess was correct — there were indeed intelligent beings active within this crystal forest. These tall, orderly crystal formations had been meticulously carved and stacked together, their interiors hollowed out. Between adjacent clusters, there were crystal skywalks wide enough for people to traverse.

On the skywalks, many slender and elegant humanoid beings walked at a leisurely pace. Their skin had a unique semi-transparent quality, and faint streams of light could be glimpsed flowing within.

Most striking of all were the enormous ears on either side of their heads, shaped like butterfly wings.

When they communicated, besides producing short but rhythmically patterned syllables, they would also extend their ears slightly forward.

When this happened, their ear wings would display halos of different colors.

It appeared they had already developed their own language, along with a unique method of receiving information.

Mo Lan furrowed her brow slightly, rapidly searching through every piece of otherworld documentation she had ever read — from the records in the Otherworld Archives to the texts in Starault Hall — yet not a single species matched the beings before her.

Clearly, this was an intelligent species that had yet to be discovered and documented by Valen Explorers.