Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Chapter 654: The Ancient Flower That Is Not a Plant!

On the surface of the Abyssal River, black waters churned, demon fish leaped, and countless abyssal worms stirred restlessly beneath the surface. The ecosystem within the vast Abyssal River had already grown more complex and complete than the ecosystems of many planes.Yet the Abyssal River was extraordinarily dangerous. Without specialized equipment, even Locke at his current level would not dare to venture deep into it, for fear of entering the abyssal reincarnation system, which would mean certain and irreversible doom.

Aboard the ferry, Locke and Witch Shirley stood on deck and handed over their last two underworld gold coins to the Styx Ferryman.

The Styx Ferryman rowed with his oar and ferried the two of them in the direction of where the Cinder Esoteric Order Academy was located.

Witch Shirley thought aloud, "You've shared a great deal of analysis with me along the way. If that's the case, then I believe everything pertaining to the Loom Princess has been altered by the Black Sun Tower's representative. Then, at some point in a later era, a wizard witnessed all of this and left a line with his own name on the princess's empty coffin."

"Wizard Maxwell, who knows what kind of figure he was. All I can say is that wizard civilization has a long history, and every era produces its own outstanding talents." Witch Shirley added, "Of course, you and I are both nothing more than small and insignificant members of the current wizard world. Wizard civilization today has reached an unprecedented level of prosperity."

"Even you and I, Junior Brother, are only ordinary members of this era."

Witch Shirley said, "But if everything about the princess has been altered, then how much of what we encountered inside that mausoleum was false, and how much was real?"

Locke thought it over and said, "I estimate that the parts pertaining to King Otto should all be true. But everything related to the princess, aside from the fact that she existed as a person and the portions that directly involve King Otto and can therefore be corroborated, should all be false."

"We can use cross-verification. We can use the portion about King Otto to verify the authenticity of the princess's related experiences. Furthermore, the Black Sun Tower must have tampered with the princess's echo. The echo that erupted from the center of the city was very likely not the princess's echo at all, but King Otto's echo."

"It probably wasn't a complete echo either, more like fragments of an echo."

"Only that explanation would account for why, when we entered the space of the Historical Milestone Curse, the main subject was King Otto throughout, and the primary perspective was centered on him."

Locke thought further. "There's one more thing. Was the princess... truly a First Circle witch?"

Witch Shirley's pupils suddenly contracted.

Locke said, "Did the princess truly die? If the Black Sun Tower's emissary entered the mausoleum and found no body, what would he do?"

Witch Shirley thought it through. "Then he would certainly remain in the mortal world and do everything in his power to search for the princess. He would inevitably leave traces behind, and at this very moment, some archaeologist may have already found those traces."

"As long as we can find related traces, it would corroborate this view."

"But this portion of what you're saying is still only a hypothesis at this point."

Locke gave a nod. "It is only a hypothesis, yes."

Locke said, "Now I finally understand why my Wizard King Grimoire states, 'The first principle of archaeology is to learn to ask questions!'"

"Only by learning how to ask the right questions can one conduct better archaeological research."

Witch Shirley nodded. "Junior Brother Locke, I hope you will not share this portion of our speculation about the Loom Princess with those two black wizard friends of yours."

Locke gave Witch Shirley a curious look.

Witch Shirley said, "This is my thinking. First, the primary purpose of our joint exploration of this ruin was to uncover the historical truth about the nameless king, the reason he was expunged, and to discover the Mortal Age."

"That plan has already been perfectly fulfilled."

"As for the portion regarding the princess, the evidence is incomplete to begin with, and it is an additional discovery, something the two of us found independently."

"There is no need to share it with the two black wizards."

"Second, this matter involving the princess has enormous implications, as you yourself said. The Expungement Curse's seal on the princess is still in effect. So, can we afford to let news about her leak out?"

Locke glanced at Witch Shirley, then closed his eyes. "Inside the space of the Historical Milestone Curse, my super intuition ability has been growing increasingly pronounced."

"Let me use my intuition to sense what would happen if we were to speak about the princess's portion of this..."

In the next moment, Locke opened his eyes. "We would die. We would die in the cracks between fates."

"I can sense that if we truly leaked this information, our luck would turn very, very bad. Misfortune would descend upon us. Of course, it is actually already affecting us to some degree right now. It is just that both of our magic pressures have reached 9,999, making our fate heavy enough that a minor brushing from a minor curse cannot easily affect us."

"But if we truly let the news about the princess spread." Locke said with a bitter tone, "That would be offering ourselves up as sacrifices for the sake of all the archaeology wizards in the world."

Witch Shirley nodded and said, "Those two black wizard friends of yours, even if they found out about this afterward, would not blame you. Archaeological research is inherently full of taboos, and unlike other fields of study, it comes with a great many rules."

"Curses from ancient times are not uncommon. I currently carry no fewer than seven of them on my person."

"So I'm not particularly concerned about that. It is simply a necessary price to pay for exploring the ancient past."

Locke gave a slight nod and put the Angel's Tear bracelet back on his wrist. In that instant, the super intuition ability that had been gradually and truly awakening within him was immediately suppressed. And just before it was, Locke could feel that the faint traces of misfortune coiling around him were also being blocked by that Second Circle soul artifact.

Witch Shirley looked at Locke and smiled. "Locke, this time we have your super intuition ability to thank for detecting the logical contradiction. That is what allowed us to discover the truth that had been hidden away."

"Your super intuition is truly growing more powerful."

Locke looked up at Witch Shirley. In truth, he had wanted to say that his super intuition had only just awakened and was still quite weak.

A large part of the reason he had noticed anything at all was that he had genuinely sensed something strange, namely that the princess had appeared far too few times within the Historical Milestone Curse's space, and that peculiar feeling had never stopped lingering in his mind.

But Witch Shirley seemed to think that his super intuition was primarily responsible. Locke thought it over and decided that was fine.

There was no need to emphasize just how sharp his own reasoning had been.

Witch Shirley said, "I've heard our teacher mention that if super intuition is overused, it causes the user to lose the ability to distinguish between what is reality and what is prophecy. Junior Brother, do you truly have that kind of tendency? I'm not a prophet, so I'm genuinely curious."

"I wonder what that must feel like."

Locke looked at Witch Shirley's curious expression and pressed his lips together before saying, "Senior Sister, I don't know what that feels like either."

Mainly because he had only just acquired the super intuition ability and had essentially not yet experienced the side effects that prophets suffered.

And since Witch Yekaterina had given him the Angel's Tear soul artifact in advance, he had, in a sense, already taken preventive measures against that problem.

As long as super intuition was not used constantly, this kind of problem would not arise.

The problem would only emerge if he used it day and night.

That would be what caused him to lose the ability to distinguish between prophecy and reality.

Witch Shirley soon guided the ferry along the surface of the Abyssal River, and during the journey back to the Cinder Esoteric Order, they crossed paths again with the vessel carrying Wizard Warwick and Wizard McKinley.

At that moment, the four of them exchanged a glance.

All four of them were looking rather disheveled right now. Not a single one of them had a clean wizard's robe, but after that one glance, all four of them burst into laughter.

Wizard Warwick smiled and said, "Thank you to the three of you for helping me explore the abyssal ruin. At present, each of us holds certain key data. I have in my hands the key data from the early stage on pinpointing the location of that abyssal ruin and making a preliminary assessment of its era and the identity of its owner."

"Wizard McKinley is an expert in analyzing the strata and drift trajectories of the Abyssal River, something that only academies like ours, which have spent long periods researching the Abyssal River and have Abyssal River docks, are qualified to study and learn."

"Both of you have your own respective strengths as well. And what's more, the two of you spent even longer than us inside the Historical Milestone Curse's space. Why don't we all write a major paper together on the ruin exploration, then each publish our own individual articles, and apply for awards together?"

Wizard McKinley said weakly, "That works for me."

"I can take charge of the section on the Abyssal River drift trajectory research for that city. I collected the key data before leaving."

Locke nodded and said, "Of course. I witnessed how the Mortal Age came to an end and learned many of King Otto's secrets. I can take charge of that section."

"There were also quite a few ancient plants within that city, so I can write the section on ancient plant history."

"Using ancient plant history to corroborate the periodization history of that city, and then the dehydrated and carbonized remains of plant seeds and plants can reflect the climate and environmental changes of that era, along with certain small details of the time."

Witch Shirley thought for a moment and said, "I have a full three-dimensional model of the entire mausoleum city, along with a great deal of artifact appraisal data that can be used to support our findings."

Wizard Warwick smiled and said, "Wonderful. It seems we have an agreement. Let's celebrate our pleasant cooperation. With this, that archaeology award will most likely fall into our hands this year. Wizard McKinley and I might even become vice-principals of the Cinder Esoteric Order Academy on the strength of this."

A flash of contempt passed through Witch Shirley's eyes. "Vice-principals of a black wizard academy? What's worth striving for in something like that?"

Warwick knew that Witch Shirley looked down on black wizards, so to avoid souring the mood, he simply let out a few dry laughs.

Locke, meanwhile, opened his astral ring and examined his gains. The Transmutation School equipment was something he could not use himself, but the materials could be read through when he had time, and the soul artifacts could be bundled up and sold.

Of course, before selling them, he could mention it to his cooperating mentor, in case Golden Crown Mountain happened to be interested.

After all, the research value was considerable.

And as for himself, the most valuable thing was that complete set of ancient magical plant seeds.

At the same time, Locke placed a gel-like water sphere in his hand and stared with curiosity at the colorful water-sphere-shaped objects in his palm.

He picked up the instruction manual made from a special magical creature hide and read: "Resin Sphere, a substance extracted from ancient matter within the earth. It is a high-quality magical growing medium. Place a seed inside it, and it can be used to grow magical plants. It has moderate toxicity. Mortals must not come into contact with it. Non-first-class wizard apprentices must not come into contact with it."

"Highly water-efficient when used for planting. After absorbing water, it forms a gel state and slowly releases moisture. It can improve soil quality, reduce the frequency of fertilization, withstand flooding, increase seed vitality, improve germination rates, and strengthen plant growth."

"It can also increase plant reproductive capacity."

Locke's pupils contracted sharply.

At this point, Witch Shirley and the two black wizards were already discussing nearby how to write the major paper, who would write the overview, and which specific sections each person would be responsible for, as well as which journal to submit to.

The four agreed that all would share first authorship, but who to list as the corresponding author still needed to be worked out. Bringing in someone unrelated would be far too much of a gift to that person, while listing one of the four, or some combination of them, might run into seniority-related discrimination issues.

Locke, standing to one side, took out a clay jar.

He looked at the colorful resin spheres the size of pigeon eggs resting inside the jar, hesitated for a moment, then picked one up and held it under his nose for a sniff.

"Absolutely not a natural resin secreted by some kind of tree-type magical plant. This is a potion-mastery extraction product of some substance."

"But since it is called a resin, it most likely has something to do with tree-type magical plants."

"Moreover, archaeology spells can unearth the secrets hidden within a finished product. While they cannot reveal the specific crafting process, method, or principles, they can trace back the general origin."

"If the princess has something she wants to tell me, there is a possibility that she could convey it to me through something she left behind. This peculiar object of unknown origin that openly claims to come from deep within the earth is quite possibly that kind of thing."

"The princess knew that anything she left behind would be enveloped by the Expungement Curse, and might not necessarily survive. The Black Sun Tower would also repeatedly check the things she left behind over the long span of time. There was no guarantee anything could escape inspection. So what she left for me was not a written message. It was a physical substance. She staked the future on the certainty that the founding ancestor's archaeology would be able to complete the task."

"So tracing the origin of this substance might reveal something," Locke thought. "And the properties of this substance itself already look quite impressive on their own. If I can master a method of mass-producing it, it would be genuinely useful to me, especially for the research in Group 2."

Locke thought of the Expungement Curse and decided it would be best to return to Golden Crown Mountain before probing into the origins of this substance.

If it were at Golden Crown Mountain, even if the Expungement Curse were drawn there, there would be taller figures to hold up the sky.

Before proceeding, he could first consult Witch Yekaterina's opinion.

After all, this was a weighty matter and not something to be handled carelessly.

If it caused serious losses, he would be the one footing the bill.

Locke took the seeds of the ancient flower out of his astral ring and looked at them. "These are the seeds of that flower."

He snapped his fingers, and in an instant, a historical projection appeared on the deck of the ferry. It was a historical projection of an ancient flower.

Locke put on his Concentration Technique monocle lens. "I didn't notice earlier inside the Historical Milestone Curse, but now that I've settled down and taken a careful look, I find that this thing merely resembles a magical plant in appearance. But is it truly a magical plant?"

"Why does it feel to me like this is a high-density aggregate that just looks like a magical plant? A plastic flower? The texture of this seed is also wrong. And there is something subtly off about its spirituality. Although the details of this seed and flower look lifelike, just like a real plant, with even the microstructure matching, every part of it is too smooth. It lacks the roughness of a true plant that comes from the interaction of matter."

"This is completely a plastic flower."

Locke exclaimed in astonishment, "So the plant that destroyed King Otto's imperial court was actually an artificial fake flower made by the Black Sun Tower?"

This exploration of the abyssal ruin had truly dealt him one shock after another.

Botany wizards generally spent their time studying modern magical plants. And here he was, having essentially traveled back to the past, coming into contact with historical mysteries and conspiracies, and now directly studying this plastic flower that had come from the past.

"I suppose this is also where the advantage of cross-disciplinary knowledge lies."

Locke rubbed his chin and said, "But why a plastic flower?"