Chapter 875 – Dividing the Spoils

Slowly, the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light’s immortal power dwindled further and further, his protective immortal radiance flickering violently like a candle guttering in the wind, its light wavering between existence and oblivion.

Carrying boundless unwillingness and a final burst of madness, the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light poured every last drop of his remaining immortal power into his escape technique, abandoning even his protective immortal radiance. With one last desperate effort, he hurled himself bodily against the surrounding space that had been reinforced countless times over by Spatial Lockdown.

“Boom-crack!”

The layers of Spatial Lockdown shattered one after another, and a brief rift appeared. Hope seemed within reach.

Yet that hope vanished in an instant.

Almost the very moment the rift appeared, hundreds of pre-prepared Magic Cards — Spatial Lockdown — materialized at that exact spot. The space that had just been torn open instantly solidified once more, even more impenetrable than before!

“No——!”

Despair, cold as the Abyss itself, swallowed the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light whole.

His protective immortal radiance, now bereft of any immortal power to sustain it, shattered under the relentless magical bombardment. And his physical body, stripped of that radiant shield, crumbled inch by inch beneath the unceasing Spatial Magic like fragile glass — his blood hadn’t even had time to splash before it was swept away and annihilated.

The Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light’s pupils dimmed rapidly, and his life force was extinguished completely.

At that same moment, an incredibly condensed primordial spirit flickering with purple lightning shot out from the ruined body at astonishing speed, making straight for the boundary membrane of the Celestial Profound Realm without the slightest hesitation.

The boundary membrane could effectively block the physical forms and attacks of visitors from other worlds, but against a Dao Ancestor’s primordial spirit — which was closer in essence to soul energy and of an extremely high order — its obstructive effect was greatly diminished.

The Celestial Profound Realm’s world consciousness gathered its strength and attempted to intercept. The boundary membrane shimmered with flowing radiance, forming a solid barrier. But that lightning-wreathed primordial spirit passed through as though incorporeal, slipping inside with ease. Though a measure of its spiritual luminescence was shaved away, its speed barely decreased at all. It was on the verge of breaking through the boundary membrane and escaping into the Celestial Profound Realm.

However, in that split second, the boundary membrane’s resistance suddenly relaxed, as if it had voluntarily opened a passage.

The Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light didn’t have time to think it through and rode the momentum straight through the membrane.

But the instant he entered, he found himself staring into a pair of unfamiliar eyes.

Mo Lan had, at some unknown point, quietly left the Starsea Ark and now stood motionless within the boundary membrane, as though she had been waiting here for a long time.

In her hand was a stack of cards — all Magic Cards she had created by combining the Peak level mage spell Soul Imprisonment with similar beast core techniques, resulting in a Sixth Rank Soul Imprisonment spell rendered into card form.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

A single card shot forth.

The card activated, and an enormous invisible net specifically targeting the soul unfurled in an instant, descending squarely over the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light’s primordial spirit — freshly separated from its body and still reeling in shock.

The Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light’s primordial spirit emitted sharp soul fluctuations, brimming with disbelief. He struggled desperately, frantically battering against the net.

The net turned out to be far more fragile than he had expected. At the cost of some primordial spirit energy, he tore through it with ease — only for several more cards to arrive the very next moment, transforming into new nets that enveloped him once again.

New nets appeared far faster than he could break through them. Powerful as his primordial spirit was, there was nothing he could do. Bit by bit, as the nets contracted, he was drawn into Mo Lan’s mental sea.

Only upon entering this place did the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light understand what true terror meant.

His cultivation, his physical body, and his primordial spirit were all stronger than Duan Yan’s — yet in this vast mental sea, he still couldn’t stir even a single ripple.

He didn’t even manage to mount any effective resistance before that condensed, lightning-radiant primordial spirit was thoroughly disassembled and assimilated in the span of a breath, transformed into a torrent of supremely pure psychic power that flowed into Mo Lan’s already unfathomably deep mental sea.

Only the enormous trove of memories belonging to the Dao Ancestor was stripped away and sealed in a corner of her mental sea.

Mo Lan sensed that her psychic power had grown considerably — at the very least, compared to the battle’s consumption, she had come out well ahead. The Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light’s memories were also perfectly intact. Nodding with satisfaction, she opened her eyes and lifted her gaze toward the void, sending a thought to the world consciousness:

“It’s done. Let me go through his memories and locate the grotto-heaven first, then we’ll divide the spoils.”

A gentle ripple came through the boundary membrane: “Alright…”

Several days later, using information gleaned from the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light’s memories, Mo Lan successfully located the Thunder Pool Grotto-Heaven’s core, hidden within a spatial crevice at the edge of the void battlefield.

It was an extraordinary crystal, deep purple throughout, with what seemed like countless electric serpents writhing and surging within. Even without its master, it still radiated an unsettling pulse of violent energy.

Without hesitation, Mo Lan once again employed Star Refinement. Chains of runes coiled around the purple crystal, and the refinement began.

Days later, as the final wisp of source power bearing the Immortal Realm’s imprint was extracted and condensed, the Thunder Pool Grotto-Heaven’s core followed the same fate as the Blazing Flame Grotto-Heaven before it — reduced entirely to ash and scattered into nothingness.

With all of that taken care of, Mo Lan found a vast, desolate desert within the Celestial Profound Realm — utterly devoid of human presence — as the site for this “division of spoils.”

The scorching sun hung overhead, baking the boundless golden sea of sand, heat waves warping the distant horizon.

Mo Lan stood upon the scalding sand as the Spatial Card containing the entirety of this campaign’s harvest appeared in her hand.

She lightly tossed the card into the air.

The next moment, countless crystals brimming with pure source power surged forth like a bursting river of stars, instantly piling into a veritable mountain.

“As agreed — a fifty-fifty split.” Mo Lan’s voice was calm. She knew the world consciousness was watching.

She raised her hand, and the Source Mana crystals flew out one by one. The single mountain of crystals divided into two smaller mountains of perfectly equal quantity and quality.

“This is your share.” Mo Lan pointed to one of the crystal mountains.

As if in response to her words, the entire desert — no, the entire Celestial Profound Realm — seemed to tremble ever so slightly.

Immediately afterward, a beam of golden light — warm and immense, woven purely from the world’s will — descended from the heavens, enveloping one of the crystal mountains with perfect precision.

The Source Mana crystals dissolved rapidly within the golden light, transforming into the purest source power, which was absorbed by the Celestial Profound Realm’s world consciousness.

The entire world seemed to release a sigh — one of both relief and contentment.

When the last crystal had been fully absorbed by the world consciousness, the golden light and celestial phenomena in the sky slowly faded, returning to their original clear blue.

A thought — clearer and more refined than ever before — gently brushed past Mo Lan’s ear:

“Thank you, my friend~ I feel so much better!”

Mo Lan tilted her head back to gaze at the restored, crystalline sky, and a sincere smile curved the corner of her lips.

She then absorbed her own share of Source Mana crystals on the spot, and her total Mana capacity immediately increased by over five billion Mana.

After all, it was split between two, so she received less than last time with the Dao Ancestor of Blazing Flame. But factoring in the psychic power gained from the Dao Ancestor of Thunder Light’s primordial spirit, it was still an enormous windfall!