If You're Going to Do It, Go Big!

Compared to the "heated" atmosphere in the meeting room, Lan Qingyou’s side was notably quiet.

But it didn't matter; she preferred the peace and quiet.

Besides, she was currently pouring all her concentration into serious business.

The magic circle needed to be redrawn—though not entirely from scratch.

After all, the existing Five Dragon Reincarnation Protection Magic Circle was already there. Unless she dismantled it completely, redrawing it from the ground up was impossible.

Thus, she could only add something fresh to the original foundation.

Fortunately, although Lan Qingyou had been busy during this period, she hadn't neglected her studies. She had even managed to learn a few more things.

Consequently, she decided to integrate Astronomy, which she had recently pushed to A-grade, into the design.

Since the goal was to connect all the newly drawn magic circles with the previous ones to maximize their effects, Lan Qingyou had chosen Astronomy without a second thought.

The primary reason for choosing Astronomy was that the two shared similarities in their forms of expression.

Astronomy was a wonderful field.

When Lan Qingyou had only learned the basics before, she hadn't thought much of it.

She had merely viewed it as a way to borrow existing energy.

However, after deep and systematic study, she discovered that the celestial bodies in this world—be they planets, satellites, or stars—generated massive amounts of energy through their movement.

As this energy was produced, it simultaneously influenced the surrounding orbs.

This influence, in turn, prompted those orbs to generate energy that affected other planets.

And so, back and forth, the universe where Planet Kalim resided was filled with mana generated by various celestial bodies.

From this point alone, as long as one understood the stars in the sky, they would effectively possess an inexhaustible source of mana.

However, it was clear from the miscellaneous notes she had collected that, so far, no one had been able to achieve this.

Well...

While it sounded incredibly impressive, the same principle actually applied to the universe of Blue Star.

The only difference was that, compared to Blue Star, the universe on this side seemed to have a much larger and more concrete impact on Kalim.

Natural phenomena like mana turbulence and mana tides were typical examples of this.

Driven by a sudden spark of ambition and a competitive streak, Lan Qingyou decided to go big this time.

Even bigger than the Cursed Corridor.

Didn't people say the area was too small?

Then what would it feel like to encircle the entire Abandoned Land?

Lan Qingyou didn't know, but she felt it was worth a try.

All adventure lies in the unknown.

So, after Diana left, she began working on the design.

Her design concept was as follows:

She would design the magic circle based on the laws of celestial bodies orbiting one another and have it operate in the same manner.

But this approach presented a problem.

The core area—the thousand-meter radius around the five giant trees where the shelter was located—had to be even stronger.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to withstand the energy generated when so many external magic circles were running simultaneously.

This relationship of strength was relative.

If the outside was too strong, the inside would easily be torn apart.

By the same logic, if the inside was too strong, the outside would easily be torn apart.

Therefore, in addition to designing the operation and energy absorption, she also had to consider the balance.

After spending over a day on it, Lan Qingyou completed the design.

She then etched and ran the design on stone slabs several times to check for any flaws and refine it.

And so, three days later, Lan Qingyou officially began the drawing process.

Aside from Lan Qingyou, the drawing team included 88 witches from the original 101 Witch Group. As for the others, they were formal employees of the Supreme Council and, like Sophia, had not stayed behind.

However, these 88 people were enough for Lan Qingyou.

Furthermore, she had stockpiled a significant amount of materials. Once she decided to undertake such a large-scale project, she had Diana purchase more and received a substantial amount from Shang Chuan, so there was no need to worry about running out.

There were still about twenty days until the next mana tide.

Since the magic tents could withstand mana turbulence, Lan Qingyou and the others didn't even bother going back, instead roaming the outskirts of the Abandoned Land.

As magic circles, their forms were naturally based on circles.

However, considering that the witches' research was incredibly diverse, Lan Qingyou took all the terrains of the Abandoned Land into account during the selection process.

After all, the greatest feature and advantage of the Abandoned Land was its geographical diversity.

This would also make it easier for everyone to conduct their experiments.

Thus, Lan Qingyou included a portion of the Abandoned Mountains.

The entire outer magic circle stretched north to the Abandoned Mountains, south to the Abandoned Sea, east to the towering cliffs, and west to the Abandoned Valley.

That’s right—Lan Qingyou had even enclosed the Abandoned Sea within the magic circle.

But despite how hard Lan Qingyou and the others were working, this massive outer ring was actually only the beginning.

Inside this outer ring, in the vast area outside Typhon City, they still had to create a full 28 large circles and 88 small circles.

So...

Although Diana had previously mentioned a timeframe of one month...

Under Lan Qingyou’s "ambition," this deadline had to be pushed back by another ten days.

But that was the limit.

Any later and others would surely start to notice something was up.

Especially with other cities receiving recognition from the world consciousness one after another.

"The schedule is tight, and the workload is heavy..."

Ten days later, as the final deadline approached, Lan Qingyou stood on the Yin-Yang fish inside the shelter and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

This was the center point of the shelter’s magic circle and, simultaneously, the center of the entire magic circle system.

Of course, that wasn't the important part. What mattered was that she was about to connect all the mana circuits here, linking all the magic circles that the 89 of them had drawn over the past month or so.

As for why Lan Qingyou was standing here alone instead of with the 88 members of the witch group, it was because those 88 witches had already been assigned to the 88 small magic circles.

Though they were called small magic circles, each one actually had a diameter of a hundred meters.

They were the fulcrums of the entire magic circle, so they would be stationed there as maintenance personnel.

However, because each worked alone, it was inevitable that some might forget their duties because they were too absorbed in research or brewing potions.

Therefore, every three days, someone would be sent to deliver food and drinks and give them a gentle reminder.

The 28 large magic circles were slightly smaller than Typhon City, each with a diameter of 2,500 meters.

These places would eventually become towns. While witches would be stationed there for maintenance, they could also accommodate a larger population.

And because everything was interconnected, the magic barrier covering the entire Abandoned Land would benefit from the defense value bonus.

In other words, as soon as you stepped into the Abandoned Land...

Whether you were atop a snowy peak or exploring the seabed, you would be protected by the cold numbers of that defense value.