Chapter 926 – A Coveted Position

After seeing the others off, Mo Lan returned home only to hear a knock at the door.

Glancing at the icon flickering on the magical clock beside the door, someone was visiting at the lakeside cottage in Witch’s Town.

“Who could it be at this hour?” Mo Lan walked to the door with mild curiosity, gripped the handle, and with a flicker of thought, turned the magical clock’s hand to the lakeside cottage icon before gently pulling the door open.

Standing outside, beaming with a radiant smile, was Sylph.

“You’re finally back! I’ve been counting the days and came to find you the moment you returned!”

Mo Lan smiled and welcomed her inside. “What’s the rush?”

“Of course there’s a rush!” Sylph nodded emphatically, her eyes full of anticipation. “I’m here to commission a custom mirror space card! I’ve saved up enough disposable Mana ages ago!”

Though Sylph hadn’t personally participated in the “Immortal Realm Expedition,” the vast Card Magic market they had opened up had also driven her Hybrid Magic card sales to new heights.

After two hundred years of accumulation, she had long since amassed an ocean of disposable Mana that she once wouldn’t have dared to imagine — more than enough to commission the mirror space of her dreams.

“Are the requirements still the same as what we discussed before? Any new inspirations or ideas?” During the return journey to Valen, Mo Lan had already crafted mirror spaces for quite a few Witches who had reaped bountiful rewards, and she was well-practiced with the process by now.

“Yes! I have some new concepts. I’ve written everything down in detail right here.” Sylph had come prepared. She retrieved a slightly dog-eared parchment booklet from her personal storage space and handed it to Mo Lan.

Mo Lan took the booklet and read through it carefully, discussing the details with Sylph along the way. Once the design was finalized, crafting the card itself was remarkably quick.

“All done!” Mo Lan handed the mirror space card to Sylph. “Per your specifications, the internal space has been expanded with maximum ecological diversity. You can also adjust localized weather and temperature. Take a look and see if everything’s in order. If anything needs changing, we can always rework it.”

Sylph couldn’t wait to take the card. After binding it to herself and sensing the vast expanse of space within, her face bloomed with a contented smile.

She immediately invited Mo Lan, along with Vasida and Lilith who had only recently returned home, to enter her new mirror space for a tour.

Before their eyes stretched vast tracts of fertile grassland awaiting cultivation. In the distance lay simulated biomes of varying terrains and climates — a rainforest zone, a temperate forest zone, a desert zone, a wetland zone, a volcanic zone, a snowfield zone, an oceanic zone, a subterranean zone, and more.

The total area was even larger than Mo Lan’s mirror space, and the ecological zones were more detailed and diverse.

After touring the mirror space, the four of them returned to the balcony of Sylph’s Witch’s home for tea and conversation.

“So, Vasida and Lilith are going to stay in Valen and focus on improving their Magic levels, while you, Moira, are heading to the Seran world in a week?”

Having heard their plans, Sylph wasn’t particularly surprised.

She hadn’t participated in the expedition, so the growth in her total Mana was far less than that of her Sorceress friends.

But that also meant she’d had ample time and energy to make full use of the Headmistress’s Golden Chalice’s clone ability, practicing Magic without restraint. Her Magic level had been climbing steadily, barely keeping pace with her Mana rank.

Vasida and Lilith, on the other hand, had devoted most of their energy over the years to the Immortal Realm campaigns, so naturally their Magic levels had fallen behind. They now urgently needed time to consolidate, transforming their rapidly inflated Mana into genuine, tangible strength.

By comparison, Sylph was more interested in another question:

“In that case… won’t the position of Witch Academy Headmistress become incredibly coveted now?

All the high-ranking Witches who participated in the operation saw massive increases in their total Mana. Their next step will inevitably be finding ways to raise their Magic levels.

Without using the mirror space’s time-acceleration function, the Headmistress’s Golden Chalice’s clone ability is the best auxiliary tool for rapid Magic practice.”

The more Sylph spoke, the more convinced she became. Her eyes were practically sparkling:

“Does that mean I can find a successor soon?”

“You don’t want to be Headmistress anymore?” Vasida sat bolt upright in surprise, even forgetting about the pastry she’d been about to eat.

Lilith and Mo Lan also turned to her with curious looks.

“Well, the thing is,” Sylph said with a slightly embarrassed smile, “with enough clones handling the daily work and management, being Headmistress isn’t nearly as busy as you’d imagine. You could even say it’s… quite relaxing.”

She explained, “It’s just that I’ve earned so much Mana over the years that I went a little overboard creating clones… and the result is that every single Magic plant seed in my collection has been fully cultivated!

On top of that, thanks to my clones practicing nonstop, most of my Witch Magic levels have been raised to Seventh Rank.

And now, I’ve even gotten my hands on a mirror space.

I think it’s time for me to leave Valen, travel to other worlds, and see with my own eyes — experience firsthand — the real growing environments of different Magic plants.

Relying solely on research from data brought back by clones and Explorers, I always feel like something’s missing.”

The moment she finished speaking —

“Me, me, me!” Vasida and Lilith cried out almost in perfect unison, both raising their hands at the same time.

They froze for a moment, looked at each other, and were both caught off guard.

“You want to be Headmistress too?” “You as well?”

Sylph let out a light laugh and winked at Mo Lan. “See? I told you the Headmistress position would be incredibly coveted right now!”

“If you want to be Headmistress, submit your applications to the Witch Council as soon as possible!” Mo Lan suggested. “From what I know, when all qualifications are equal, the timing of your application is an important factor! And remember to apply with a formal letter!”

Just as Vasida and Lilith swiftly pulled out golden bird stationery, preparing to write self-recommendation letters to Amisha, Sylph turned to Mo Lan and asked about the other matter on her mind:

“Moira, could you sell me one of those Seran world Realm-friend invitations you have?”

“You want to go to the Seran world too?” Mo Lan was somewhat surprised. “When are you planning to go?”

“Well,” Sylph nodded. After years of teaching at the Witch Academy, she had matured considerably and developed a much clearer vision for herself. “I’m not in desperate need of permanent Mana right now, so I thought I’d go train in a higher-level otherworld, broaden my horizons, search for more unique plant specimens, and improve my combat ability along the way. Just practicing Magic in training rooms all the time isn’t enough.

Unfortunately, there are too few high-level worlds posting missions in the Well of the Sky. I’ve been watching for a long time, and the highest I’ve seen is only Rank Ten worlds.”

She was finally beginning to understand a bit of the frustration Mo Lan had once felt:

“Even factoring in that I haven’t been on a long journey in a while and don’t plan to go directly to a world far above my current Mana rank, I still can’t find a suitable channel through the Well of the Sky.

However, during the last centennial gathering at Starault Hall, when Senior Traci brought out the Realm-friend invitations, I traded for a Permanent Realm-friend Invitation to the Cangyuan Realm.

The Cangyuan Realm’s world level is just right for me at the moment, so I plan to travel there first.

Once I return from the Cangyuan Realm with more experience under my belt, my strength should be sufficient to explore even higher-level worlds. Going to the Seran world then should be about right.

I’m worried that by then our schedules won’t align and I’ll miss you, so I wanted to secure the invitation now while I can.”

Mo Lan nodded in understanding. Sylph’s thinking was quite thorough.

With a flicker of thought, she retrieved the five Seran world Realm-friend invitations stored in her Spatial Card.

“This one has just over a hundred years left before it expires. I plan to use it myself.

Of the remaining ones, there’s one with a little over two hundred years of validity, and three permanent ones.”

She looked at Sylph and suggested:

“I’ve done some research on the Cangyuan Realm. It’s an extremely vast and well-structured cultivation-type world.

Realm-friend invitations typically grant you a local identity with cultivation aptitude but no existing cultivation base.

If you go to the Cangyuan Realm, you’ll most likely start in the lower realm, and you’ll certainly receive spiritual roots. It would be such a waste not to try learning to cultivate according to that world’s practitioner system.

If you’re starting cultivation from scratch and want to ascend to the upper realm for a look, it will probably take an extraordinarily long time.

To be safe, why not just trade for a permanent one? That way you’ll have complete freedom with your timeline and won’t need to worry about any issues down the road.”

“Alright, I’ll take your advice and go with a permanent one!” Sylph said.

Mo Lan looked at the remaining invitations in her hand, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. “You’ve actually reminded me of something. Before I set off for the Seran world, I should deposit these remaining invitations in the Otherworld Invitation Letter Collection Library managed by the Witch Council.

Once the senior Witches of our clan have finished digesting the gains from this outing, quite a few of them should be interested in exploring a powerful Fifteenth Rank world like the Seran world.

These invitations will achieve their greatest value in the collection library.”

She only needed one invitation for herself. Keeping the extras served no purpose.

From that day on, Mo Lan began her preparations for the journey to the Seran world.

The Witches actually knew very little about the Seran world. There was scant existing documentation, and what little existed was all secondhand hearsay — hardly reliable reference material.

Fortunately, she had heard some things from Queen Eliana and Lady Meridis over the years, and just a few days ago she had traded with them for several books from the Seran world.

Granted, these were all transcribed copies of antique books that the Elves and dragons had brought with them when they migrated from the Seran world during the Age of Divine Descent. After so many years, the information recorded in these books might well have changed. But they could still provide a general sense of that world’s foundations.

The content wasn’t extensive. Without time acceleration, three days would be more than enough for her to finish reading everything.

The extra few days were set aside for Zhizhi and the others to wrap up the business affairs of the Mo-Zhi-Ka-Sen Familiar Boarding House.

Ever since seeing Mo Lan tally up her Card Magic earnings during the return journey, Zhizhi and the others had decided to gift the Mo-Zhi-Ka-Sen Familiar Boarding House to the Witch Council.

Though the boarding house’s business was thriving, the Mana crystals it earned didn’t even amount to a fraction of Mo Lan’s card revenue. It was of little use to her, and handing it over to the Witch Council meant Zhizhi and the others could follow Mo Lan to the Seran world with peace of mind.