Chapter 879 – Please, I’m Begging You

After hearing Mo Lan’s proposal, the Verdant Depths world consciousness immediately transmitted an incredibly “excited” and “approving” stream of thought, its gratitude even more “surging” than before:

“…Brilliant! …What a magnificent plan… To think there exists… such a perfect solution…”

“…Outsider… no, esteemed ally… you are truly… my savior…”

“…If this can truly be done… I… I will cooperate with all my strength… Thank you… for showing me… a path to survival…”

Its response was extraordinarily enthusiastic, as if it had encountered its one and only savior. That desperate eagerness to change its situation nearly made Mo Lan believe that the overly “flimsy” gift of gratitude from earlier was simply because it was too weak and had nothing left to give.

“Then let us sign a cooperation contract!”

Mo Lan smiled and produced a formal cooperation contract imbued with powerful magical binding force, its terms clearly laid out.

The Verdant Depths world consciousness, which had been brimming with excitement just moments ago, suddenly froze. What followed was a prolonged, suffocating silence.

“…This… a contract… might I… be allowed to… consider it further?…”

“…The matter is of great consequence… it concerns… the future of the entire world… I… I need time…”

All the gratitude, approval, and urgency from before rapidly faded away, replaced by an indescribable hesitation. Mo Lan even detected a hint of veiled hostility and malice.

Something was wrong!

Mo Lan’s heart instantly tightened, her vigilance rising to its peak.

At that very moment, an unimaginably vast and terrifying pressure descended upon her without warning.

The surrounding rocks, grass, and trees hadn’t moved, yet Mo Lan felt as though the weight of a billion tons was pressing in from all directions. The air solidified like iron, space itself became viscous beyond measure, threatening to imprison and crush her completely.

The Verdant Depths world consciousness, which had seemed so feeble just moments ago, was now overflowing with greed and calculation.

Mo Lan immediately realized that all of the Verdant Depths’ earlier friendliness had been a facade. Though surprised, she didn’t panic.

Every world was different, and the alignment of each world consciousness varied accordingly—otherwise she wouldn’t have prepared a contract in the first place.

The contract from her senior Carmela contained the power of rules. Once signed, even a world consciousness would be bound to honor its terms.

She didn’t care about the alignment of the worlds she helped. As long as the contract could be established, adding another world as a market for Card Magic would be a done deal.

And if negotiations fell through—well, she was facing a world consciousness that hadn’t fully recovered. She was confident she could leave.

Formidable Mana erupted from within her body, forcibly resisting the crushing pressure of the world consciousness. She then connected to her mirror space and opened a transport channel.

The next instant, Mo Lan appeared inside the Starsea Ark’s main control room. The momentary effort of resisting the pressure of an entire world while forcing a teleportation had cost her dearly—her face was slightly pale. Without a moment’s hesitation, she commanded:

“Clack! Jump immediately—leave this realm!”

If the Verdant Depths world consciousness refused to cooperate, she’d simply find the next one.

Had it not been necessary to sever the ascension channel first in order to contact the world consciousness without alerting the Immortal Realm, Mo Lan would have wished she could go back to the moment she first arrived at the Verdant Depths Realm and tell herself not to bother with this world at all.

“Understood!” Clack’s hands flew across the controls.

Worlds with a world consciousness were inherently difficult to enter but easy to leave. Moreover, the mirror space that the Starsea Ark relied on originated from a Rank Ten world. With a single jump, the Starsea Ark pierced through the boundary membrane.

The Verdant Depths world consciousness let out a silent roar, clearly not having anticipated that Mo Lan could break free so effortlessly.

The moment the Ark separated from the Verdant Depths Realm’s boundary membrane, the Verdant Depths world consciousness could no longer touch Mo Lan or her companions.

Clack was about to initiate a second long-range jump to put even more distance between them and this world when a piercing alarm tore through the brief calm of the control room.

“Three ultra-high-intensity energy sources detected, approaching at extreme speed from the direction of the Immortal Realm! Energy level assessment—Dao Ancestor realm! Estimated time of arrival: thirty seconds!”

On the light screen, a three-dimensional star map clearly marked three streaks of light, blazing like miniature stars, hurtling through the void at a heart-stopping velocity. Their target: the Verdant Depths Realm!

Their undisguised, overwhelming pressure was suffocating even across the gulf of empty space.

The appearance of these three streaks of light was not only captured clearly by Mo Lan and the Starsea Ark, but also alarmed the Verdant Depths world consciousness, which had just been lamenting the escape of such a plump piece of “meat.”

Just as Mo Lan ordered Clack to steer the Ark in the direction opposite the approaching streaks and initiate an ultra-long-range jump regardless of energy expenditure, a surge of thought pierced through the Starsea Ark’s barriers—drenched in absolute panic, despair, and abject pleading—and forced its way into the control room, reverberating through Mo Lan’s mind.

A complete reversal from the greedy, calculating posture of moments ago, the Verdant Depths world consciousness now trembled violently in its thoughts, nearly incoherent:

“No! Don’t go! Please, I’m begging you! Don’t abandon me! The contract! I’ll sign it! I’ll sign it right now! Before… before, I was foolish! I thought everything you said about the Immortal Realm retaliating, about Dao Ancestors descending—I thought it was all fear-mongering, exaggerated nonsense meant to swindle me out of my source power! I was wrong! I truly know I was wrong!”

Its thoughts carried the sound of weeping, filled with boundless regret.

“They’re coming! Three of them! Three entire Dao Ancestors! They’ll drain the last of my source power dry! They might even obliterate my existence entirely and replace me completely! I don’t want… I don’t want to be endlessly suppressed and drained like that again! That’s more agonizing than total annihilation! Please, I’m begging you! Save me! I’m willing to pay any price, sign the strictest contract! Help me—let us fight them together! I’m begging you!!”

Mo Lan listened to the Verdant Depths world consciousness’s utterly wretched pleas, cold laughter rising in her heart.

She didn’t believe a single word from this world consciousness that had been arrogant one moment and groveling the next, fickle and treacherous to the core.

All that nonsense about thinking it was fear-mongering—it had simply been banking on its luck, scheming to freeload off her help without paying anything. It had probably even been planning to stab her in the back at a critical moment! The only thing that was genuine was its terror at the approaching Immortal Realm Dao Ancestors, dreading a return to its former desperate plight.

However, for Mo Lan, as long as the contract could be established, bound by the rules of the contract, it didn’t matter what the Verdant Depths world consciousness truly thought.

The power of the contract would compel it to fulfill its terms. The cost of breach was something it could not afford.

But she wasn’t without a temper either.

When she’d tried to negotiate amicably, it had stalled with every excuse and even harbored malicious intent. Now that catastrophe was at its doorstep, it came wagging its tail and begging—since when had the world worked so conveniently?

In a flash of thought, Mo Lan took the original clause—a fifty-fifty split of source power refined from the cave-heaven cores of any invading Dao Ancestors they killed—and without the slightest hesitation, revised it to: “All spoils of war (including but not limited to Dao Ancestor cave-heaven cores, personal treasures, and similar items) shall belong solely to Mo Lan.”

(End of Chapter)