Chapter 885 – Eighth Rank Sorceress

Pressure and motivation were transmitted to every family and every member in an unprecedented manner.

To secure a place on the rankings, to avoid being outshone by other families, the great clans invested in magic more recklessly than ever, and the enthusiasm for cultivating magic among their younger members surged to unprecedented heights.

The magical tide sweeping across the entire Verdant Depths Realm, spurred by the release of this “Family Series” set of cards, had transformed from an underground undercurrent into an all-consuming torrent out in the open.

Mo Lan’s total Mana and disposable Mana were also rising rapidly alongside the Verdant Depths Society’s growing popularity.

On the day she left the Verdant Depths Realm, Mo Lan carefully tallied the gains from this trip.

The cave-heavens of three Dao Ancestor realm cultivators had been refined into approximately 37.2 billion units of Source Mana crystals.

The Verdant Depths Society’s magic operations had earned her roughly 20 billion Mana in permanent Mana so far, along with approximately 20 trillion in disposable Mana.

And that wasn’t even counting the boost to her psychic power from absorbing the primordial spirits of three Dao Ancestor realm cultivators.

After fully digesting all the Source Mana crystals refined from the cave-heavens, Mo Lan’s total Mana jumped directly to around 85 billion.

Just one more Dao Ancestor, or one more cultivation world where she could promote Card Magic, and her total Mana would reach the hundred-billion Mana threshold—enough to advance to Eighth Rank.

With her strength improved, Mo Lan’s mindset had also shifted.

She was no longer afraid of facing Immortal Realm Dao Ancestor cultivators head-on.

This confidence stemmed not only from the explosive growth in her total Mana, but also from the repeated verification she had conducted through the memories of five Dao Ancestors, as well as her experience battling three Dao Ancestors with Psychic Magic this time.

The Immortal Realm simply had no cultivation techniques or divine abilities for the Dao Ancestor realm.

After advancing to Dao Ancestor, a cultivator’s strength relied almost entirely on the strength of the “Great Dao” they had comprehended.

A strong Dao earned more “favor” from the Heavenly Dao—not only would their immortal power be formidable, but their combat strength would also be greater.

A weak Dao, without any special attention from the Heavenly Dao, meant immortal power roughly equivalent to one trillion Mana—essentially the entry level of Ninth Rank.

Every Dao Ancestor possessed immortal power exceeding one trillion Mana, but aside from the divine abilities related to their own Dao, they severely lacked matching Ninth Rank combat techniques for fighting enemies. Their combat methods were relatively monotonous and crude.

Their primordial spirits were an especially common weakness.

To date, no Dao Ancestor had ever comprehended the “Dao of the Primordial Spirit.”

Even those Dao Ancestors who had focused on primordial spirit cultivation at lower realms found themselves stagnating after reaching the Dao Ancestor realm due to the lack of advanced techniques. At best, their primordial spirit strength could only reach the Daluo realm—Eighth Rank level.

Most cultivators never specifically trained their primordial spirits at all, simply allowing them to grow stronger naturally as their cultivation advanced. This meant their primordial spirits lagged behind their actual cultivation level. After such cultivators advanced to Dao Ancestor, their primordial spirits might only be at Seventh Rank.

Take, for example, Dao Ancestor Everlasting Spring, whom she had seized control of first—his fragile primordial spirit had crumbled instantly before her Eighth Rank Psychic Magic.

As long as no Dao Ancestor had a primordial spirit that had also reached Ninth Rank, even though Mo Lan’s Mana level was only Seventh Rank, she was confident she could quickly seize control of a Dao Ancestor cultivator with Psychic Magic.

After all, her total psychic power had already surpassed Ninth Rank, and she had mastered several Eighth Rank psychic spells.

From the perspective of psychic power, she was already stronger than Dao Ancestor realm cultivators. Combined with her reserves of tens of trillions in disposable Mana, even in a direct confrontation with a Dao Ancestor realm cultivator, the likelihood of defeat was slim.

The only thing she needed to guard against was the Immortal Realm sending too many Dao Ancestors at once.

Simultaneously controlling the primordial spirits of three was manageable, four would be somewhat strenuous, and with five—if all their primordial spirits were only at Seventh Rank it would still be feasible, but if even one had reached Eighth Rank, it would be very difficult to control them all at once, and the situation could spiral out of control.

The Immortal Realm’s Heavenly Dao was no fool, either.

After she had consecutively slain Dao Ancestors Blazing Flame and Thunder Light, the Immortal Realm had immediately dispatched Ling Feng, Mystic Ice, and Everlasting Spring—three top-tier veteran Dao Ancestors—to lie in wait in the Profound Darkness Realm. After she severed the Verdant Depths Realm’s ascension channel, the three of them received word from the Immortal Realm’s Heavenly Dao, quickly returned to the Immortal Realm through an ascension channel, and then headed for the Verdant Depths Realm to ambush and kill her.

This time, she had annihilated all three Dao Ancestors nearly “simultaneously,” which would undoubtedly draw the Immortal Realm’s Heavenly Dao’s serious attention.

“Next time… they’ll certainly send more than just three.”

The Immortal Realm still had twelve Dao Ancestors left!

Even though the remaining Dao Ancestors hadn’t been at the Dao Ancestor realm as long as Dao Ancestor Ling Feng, Dao Ancestor Mystic Ice, and Dao Ancestor Everlasting Spring, and didn’t possess as formidable immortal power, Mo Lan still wasn’t confident she could handle them all at once.

She planned to play it safe—continue cooperating with world consciousnesses to hunt Dao Ancestors. Once the number of remaining Dao Ancestors in the Immortal Realm dwindled to a point where they could no longer organize an effective multi-person siege, she would then try intercepting Dao Ancestors on her own in the void. That way, she wouldn’t have to split the gains from refining cave-heavens with a world consciousness.

Not every world would be like the Verdant Depths Realm—an evil-aligned world that just happened to have an epiphany when a Dao Ancestor descended and came begging her to form a contract.

The Starsea Ark sailed through the void, searching for the next target cultivation world.

Mo Lan maintained her heightened vigilance. Each time the Ark’s sensors detected a cultivation world with a dark-gold pillar of light, her first action was to cast Divination Magic to divine whether fortune or misfortune awaited.

Approximately one year after leaving the Verdant Depths Realm, Mo Lan discovered three cultivation worlds in a nearby star region, not far from each other, whose ascension channels all connected to the same Spirit Realm.

She first targeted the world closest to her position and performed a divination. The result was “fortune.”

Mo Lan didn’t hesitate, operating with practiced ease.

Approach under concealment, lock onto the target, then unleash an overwhelming flood of Seventh Rank spatial blades.

After swiftly severing the ascension channel, she infiltrated the world and cast Star Language to communicate with the world consciousness.

This world was called the Canlan Realm. Its world level, like the Celestial Profound Realm, was below Grade Three—extremely weakened but relatively “pure.” Upon their very first meeting, it handed over Source Mana crystals and a world invitation to her.

Even more than what the Celestial Profound Realm had given.

Once it understood her purpose and the threat posed by the Immortal Realm, the contract was signed without any difficulty.

The dream revelations it provided to help her promote the “Canlan Society” were also very proactive.

In less than two years, the entire world completed its transformation from a cultivation-type world to a magic-type world.

And it allowed her Mana level to successfully advance to Eighth Rank.

The entire time until she left the Canlan Realm, the Immortal Realm never sent a single Dao Ancestor cultivator to intervene.

After leaving the Canlan Realm, Mo Lan headed for the nearby Scarlet Rock Realm.

She performed the divination without much hope. In her estimation, once she had shown herself in one of these three nearby worlds, the other two would surely have plenty of Dao Ancestor cultivators lying in ambush.

But the divination result came back as “minor fortune.”

Though Mo Lan was full of confusion, unable to fathom why the Immortal Realm had gone quiet, she trusted that a divination result of “minor fortune” meant that no matter what schemes the Immortal Realm might be plotting, her gains would outweigh her losses.

Perhaps she simply wouldn’t earn as much as she had in the Canlan Realm and the Verdant Depths Realm.