Chapter 899 – The Mutant Hollow Tree

It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning, when the directional teleportation channel leading to the Witch Academy Semi-Plane appeared beside them, that Cecilia and Pushila finally snapped out of their successive waves of shock.

Cecilia closed the journal in her hands, not forgetting to summon her own Grimoire and transcribe all its contents. Her tone was somewhat urgent as she said, “Let’s go! We’re heading to the gathering! We need to find Moira and ask her how she managed all of this!”

As a Card Sorceress, using Card Magic to earn permanent Mana was easier for her than for others, and her Mana rank advanced rapidly—this they could envy yet still understand, since including Valen, Card Magic had already been widely adopted across seventeen worlds.

But advancing one’s Witch Magic level genuinely required the accumulation of time and repeated practice!

How was it that her Witch Magic level had also skyrocketed as if riding a broomstick?

Having several branches of Witch Magic reach Eighth Rank was one thing, but to think that even her mage magic had reached such an astounding level!

The difficulty of learning mage magic was far greater than Witch Magic. Without sufficiently deep accumulation of magical knowledge and a thorough perception and understanding of magical energy, one simply couldn’t construct spell structures, let alone cast high-rank magic.

Yet Mo Lan could only have begun studying mage magic after reaching adulthood at the earliest, and her current attainment in mage magic already surpassed those human mages who specialized exclusively in it by a wide margin.

This utterly shattered Cecilia and Pushila’s understanding of magic.

Carrying a bellyful of questions and intense curiosity, the two stepped without hesitation into the teleportation channel to the Witch Academy Semi-Plane.

They couldn’t wait to find Mo Lan at the gathering and ask her the secret behind her rapid magical advancement.

*

On the other side, after Mo Lan emerged from Starault Hall, she didn’t linger. She immediately teleported to Lilith’s current residence using the coordinates Lilith had given her earlier.

In the blink of an eye, she arrived at her destination.

On one side stretched the Sea of Roses, blanketing the hills in rich fragrance as far as the eye could see. On the other lay the Sunset Forest, deep and tranquil, with ancient trees towering into the sky.

On a gentle slope at the boundary between the sea of flowers and the forest stood a particularly striking giant tree.

This was Lilith’s current residence—the Mutant Hollow Tree.

The hollow trees of the Dreamweaver World’s ethereal side were renowned for their enormous forms and naturally hollow interiors. Their inner walls were extraordinarily tough, making them ideal trees to convert into treehouses.

After Sylph had successfully cultivated a hollow tree, the Box of Ten Thousand Seeds had naturally produced Mutant Hollow Tree seeds.

The Mutant Hollow Tree required specific Hybrid Magic to cultivate. During its growth, a peculiar tree heart would gradually form and develop at the center of the trunk.

This tree heart could store the excess Hybrid Mana that the cultivator infused during daily care.

When needed, the tree heart could condense a life essence with powerful healing effects, or activate a natural protective magic that firmly shielded the entire hollow tree.

Most miraculous of all, once the hollow tree entered full maturity and the tree heart had accumulated energy to a certain threshold, the cultivator could shrink the entire massive hollow tree into the fist-sized tree heart, making it convenient to carry around.

When it needed to be set up again, one only had to place the tree heart on suitable ground, and the energy contained within would help the hollow tree rapidly adapt to its new environment.

Compared to the Burrowing Mushroom, the Mutant Hollow Tree offered far more internal space and was better suited as a long-term dwelling.

Lilith had originally planned to cultivate this hollow tree as her future portable Witch’s home.

However, after learning from Mo Lan that she could commission a customized mirror space card with more comprehensive and flexible features, she had somewhat reduced her investment and expectations for this hollow tree. Even so, thanks to her meticulous early care and the nourishment of Hybrid Magic, this hollow tree had already grown to the very edge of maturity, needing only one final push.

For this reason, Lilith had specially invited Mo Lan, Vasida, and Sylph to come to her place this evening to witness the hollow tree’s entry into maturity together. Then, in the early morning hours, they would head to Starault Hall as a group for the centennial gathering.

Now, Mo Lan looked up at Lilith’s Mutant Hollow Tree and felt it was even taller and more imposing than the hollow tree at the Heartwood Inn—the one formed from a Dryad.

Its thick trunk was too wide for several people to wrap their arms around. Its canopy spread toward the sky like a magnificent parasol, and under the glow of the setting sun, the edges of its leaves seemed gilded with a halo of golden red.

She walked to the small door at the base of the trunk—a door that blended seamlessly with the bark—and knocked gently.

Beside the door, a golden trumpet-shaped flower entwined around the door handle trembled slightly, and from within came Lilith’s cheerful voice:

“Moira! You’re finally here! We’re all up on the treetop platform watching the sunset—the view up here is absolutely spectacular! There’s a potted Drifting Tea Tree by the door. Just float on up!”

Mo Lan looked down and indeed found a potted Drifting Tea Tree beside the door.

It looked like it hadn’t been planted long ago—it was only half a meter tall.

She plucked a Drifting Tea leaf and placed it in her mouth. Instantly, a cool sensation spread through her, as if all gravity had been stripped from her body in an instant. She naturally began to float upward, using her hands against the trunk to steer as she drifted swiftly toward the treetop.

Passing through layer upon layer of lush foliage, she finally floated up to the spacious, flat treetop platform.

Mo Lan spat out the Drifting Tea leaf just in time, and the floating sensation vanished.

The moment her feet touched the platform floor—naturally formed from interwoven sturdy branches—her gaze was immediately captured by the magnificent vista in the distance, and she blurted out in surprise:

“You can even see the sea from here?!”

There, at the distant horizon, an endless expanse of azure blue spread before her eyes.

The sky displayed a gentle gradient from tangerine to lavender purple, while the sea below served as an enormous canvas reflecting the brilliant sunset glow across the heavens. The water shimmered and sparkled as if strewn with shattered gold.

A salty, liberating sea breeze swept across the vast Sea of Roses and through the Sunset Forest, reaching this lofty platform and carrying with it a scent entirely different from the forest’s floral fragrance.

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph were lounging comfortably in large vine armchairs that grew naturally along the platform’s edge, each cradling a large bamboo tube and drinking from it.

Hearing Mo Lan’s exclamation, Lilith tilted her chin up proudly:

“Of course! I chose this spot with great care—forest, flowers, sunset, ocean—can’t do without a single one!”

Sylph patted the empty spot beside her. “Moira, sit here! From this angle you can enjoy both the forest sunset and the ocean’s evening glow!”

Vasida produced a bamboo tube thicker than her own arm. “This is my Hundred-Fruit Bamboo Wine, brewed with culinary magic—bamboo wine as the base, blended with a hundred different magical fruits. It’s delicious, won’t get you drunk, and it’s even good for your complexion. Give it a try!”

(End of Chapter)