Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Chapter 714: The Truth of the First Emperor's Death

At this moment, Witch Georgina had returned to the realm, bringing the Fate Loom with her and hiding it in the deepest part of the realm, guarding against being encircled and attacked by Locke and the unfamiliar witch at her most vulnerable.But very quickly Witch Georgina noticed something was wrong.

'Wait... why has the Temporal Shadow Fern not disappeared? Why has the Land of All Spirits not disappeared?'

'What the Fate Loom severed was Edgar's existence spirituality, which is to say his fate. Even a holy avatar can have its true body directly killed and its demise accelerated. His fate has already been severed by me. He has been killed by me.'

'The Land of All Spirits should have disappeared as well.'

Witch Georgina stood in the realm, looking out toward the mortal world, and watched with surprise as the Land of All Spirits was being absorbed by Locke's realm at this very moment.

Locke had always intended to merge the Land of All Spirits with the realm, an act that aligned with the Silent Plane's interests.

At this moment, with Edgar's presiding magic pressure gone, his Land of All Spirits was left with no one at the helm, and was absorbed by Locke's realm.

What caught Witch Georgina's attention the most was that Edgar's Temporal Shadow Fern had actually broken free from the Land of All Spirits and was flying toward the Moon of Evolution hanging in the sky above the realm.

Witch Georgina stood in the deepest part of the realm, looking up at the sky. "Is this Edgar's handiwork, or Locke's?"

The Fate Loom behind her transformed into a fate calculator and began helping her deduce the workings of fate. However, since this was not a pure divination school Grand Magic, and Witch Georgina lacked sufficient information, she could not deduce the true outcome.

"If Edgar were dead, his Grand Magic should have collapsed together with him. How is it possible for it to change owners?"

"The current situation has somewhat exceeded my expectations. The Temporal Shadow Fern is changing owners."

Witch Georgina thought. "So be it. Right now I can only proceed carefully and steadily. The first step of weaving is not acquiring raw materials, but observing the original pattern I intend to weave."

At this moment, the Fate Loom behind her had already woven five full moon patterns, and was continuously weaving new pieces of fabric bearing full moon patterns.

The wizards beneath the Silent Throne who saw this also broke into lively discussion.

The magical weavers in particular reacted very strongly.

The normal first step of textile studies was to prepare raw materials.

But Witch Georgina's first step was to first observe the weaving original pattern, continuously adjusting weaving techniques and materials, and instructing her charitable society officers in the empire's mortal world to collect specific raw materials in order to produce thread better suited to weaving the pattern of the Moon of Evolution.

So this so-called new textile studies had changed even the first step's procedures.

In the eyes of those conservative magical weavers, this was like digging up their ancestors' graves.

Witch Georgina's Fate Loom possessed the ability, through its existence spirituality inventory system, to reverse-deduce the weaknesses in the other party's magic pressure flow.

And through the process of imitating the other party, referencing the other party, and embroidering it onto a garment, it could further probe into even more complex and powerful targets.

Witch Georgina intended to use the philosophy of the new textile studies to reverse-engineer the weaknesses of the Moon of Evolution and then defeat it.

At the same time, inside the special permission space of the mind network, Locke noticed that both things he had always desired were coming to him on their own. The Land of All Spirits was being absorbed by his realm, and the Temporal Shadow Fern was entering his Moon of Evolution.

Both things were flying into his hands on their own. At this moment Locke had not yet discovered that Wizard Smith's act of self-destruction through his own 'selfless sacrifice' had revived everyone else's situations.

Locke's expression was peculiar. He glanced at Grand Duke Westminster.

He opened his right hand and saw a Temporal Shadow Fern appear in one of the craters on the dark face of his Moon of Evolution.

'The Temporal Shadow Fern could not resist the gravitational pull of my moon and became part of my ecological community. Although this is not a complete Temporal Shadow Fern, it means something happened to Edgar.'

Locke directed his attention back to the mortal world and was surprised to find the mortal world of the Silent Plane empty, with not a single Second Circle-level magic pressure signature to be found.

'What is going on? I only entered the permission space of the mind network, and yet both Edgar's and Wizard Smith's magic pressure signatures have disappeared. Witch Georgina has vanished without a trace and hidden herself in the deepest part of the realm.'

Inside the permission space of the mind network, Locke blinked.

'Worthy of the Silent Chalice competition. The talents among the competitors are truly many.'

'Earlier, my super-intuition told me not to directly attack Edgar. Looking at it now, that was indeed the right call.'

'At that time, the situation must have involved some circumstance I was not aware of. Which means either Edgar had laid a trap, or Witch Georgina had laid a trap.'

Locke looked at the Temporal Shadow Fern in the crater of the Moon of Evolution. "I wanted this thing not because I was interested in its functions."

Grand Duke Westminster, who seemed to have transformed into a devoted loyal subject, asked from the side, "Your Majesty, then what do you need it for?"

Locke gave Grand Duke Westminster a half-smiling look. This person was rather interesting. Ever since he had usurped his position, he had actually been behaving like his subordinate.

"I am a botanical wizard, and now that I have become a Second Circle wizard, I do not have a single Second Circle magical plant in my possession."

"The Moon of Evolution, as a botanical Grand Magic, has the word evolution at its core. If it cannot evolve a magical plant into a Second Circle magical plant, it cannot be considered complete."

"But there is one major difference between a Second Circle magical plant and a First Circle magical plant, which is the virtual root."

Locke thought for a moment. He used his left hand to play with the Moon of Evolution in his right palm and used his magical power to cut away the upper portion of the now ownerless Temporal Shadow Fern. Then he took an ordinary climbing fern and grafted it onto the rootstock of this Temporal Shadow Fern using the grafting cultivation method.

At the same time, he used the power of the Moon of Evolution to continuously strengthen the ordinary climbing fern, preventing it from dying.

Locke said, "A Second Circle magical plant possesses a special root, the virtual root. Even the Moon of Evolution cannot transform a magical plant into a Second Circle magical plant without this."

"So the reason I want the Temporal Shadow Fern is to obtain the virtual root. With just one Temporal Shadow Fern, I can produce many Second Circle magical plants."

An virtual root was by nature an exogenous plant root, and therefore more amenable to grafting. He only needed one Second Circle magical plant to harvest its exogenous plant root and graft it onto other selected magical plants, helping them evolve into Second Circle magical plants.

Only by causing a First Circle magical plant to evolve into a Second Circle magical plant would his Moon of Evolution be considered truly complete in the fullest sense.

So far, his Moon of Evolution had only scratched the surface and had not truly fulfilled its genuine function.

The first time plants evolved a root system, it led to plants spreading from the ocean to the inland, and the appearance of plant roots resulted in the emergence of soil.

If not for plant roots, there would simply be no such thing as soil in this world.

And the second major evolutionary event in plants involving a large-scale development of root systems was the virtual root. The emergence of the virtual root led to the appearance of Second Circle magical plants.

And led to the emergence of a series of corresponding things.

For this reason, this was a matter at the level of Grand Magic. Even Locke's Grand Magic could not directly create virtual roots. He could only borrow the virtual roots from the Second Circle magical plants Edgar had.

He imagined that Edgar's few Second Circle magical plants had been obtained from Quinn Jol's side.

Edgar had both risen and fallen because of Quinn Jol.

Because of Quinn Jol, he had obtained many resources. And because of Quinn Jol, his Grand Magic seemed unable to be constructed entirely according to his own wishes.

In contrast, although Witch Yekaterina had not directly helped him very much, she had guided him to go to the Dune Plane where Block 2 was located. Looking back now, having become a Second Circle wizard, he finally saw the purpose behind Witch Yekaterina's arrangement of sending him to the Dune Plane.

The higher you stand, the farther you can see.

Having become a Second Circle wizard, Locke could finally see much of the groundwork that Witch Yekaterina had laid in advance. He immediately realized that there was one more significant advantage he had not yet used in this competition.

Locke thought, "This is good as well."

"I still have quite a few follow-up moves I have not used."

At this moment, the former emperor, now Grand Duke Westminster, glanced at Locke, and his eyes were full of shock.

So Locke still had many follow-up moves held in reserve?

Locke looked at Grand Duke Westminster. "Continue speaking."

Grand Duke Westminster gave Locke a bow and said, "Your Majesty, the builder of the mind network was named Zorro Ryke."

"At that time, the Silent Plane had dozens of nations internally, every one of them hostile to each other. We fought every day and seemed to be trapped in an eternal war."

Locke gave a slight nod. The wizard world's Era of Stars had encountered the same situation, which had been caused by the fragmentation of three hundred million magical kingdoms leading to an eternal war.

It was one of the four great crises of that era.

At that time, because each of the major magical kingdoms had a Kingdom Domain, the wizard world had a baseline of three hundred million Kingdom Domains in the mortal world.

With that being the case, the wizard world still wanted peace?

Of course, the reason the Silent Plane had fallen into this state should have been different from the wizard world.

The wizard world's cause had been the Kingdom Domain and the dual operation of sun and moon. But this world was probably because the void in the sky had left the world plane barren, the world itself lacking sufficient resources to guide the plane into the next era.

This situation had probably only been alleviated after the first emperor, Zorro Ryke, established the canopy of the mind network.

Grand Duke Westminster said with feeling, "We were all still young back then. I was still a boy. I remember the first day I met Zorro Ryke was in a back alley of the streets. Back then I was one among the children of the poor."

"I and those other children of the poor kicked a ball around together wearing dirty T-shirts. If I had not met him, becoming a poor commoner myself would have been my original fate. I was just an ordinary person like that."

Locke gave him a glance.

In the era of Grand Duke Westminster's birth, ordinary people's children could still kick balls in the streets. But in the era he ruled over, the children of ordinary people in the Silent Plane could only crawl into chimneys and work inside pitch-black factories.

This person had clearly come from the lower classes, yet after he rose to power, the ordinary people of this world had not lived better. They had in fact lived even worse.

However, these matters were not his concern, so although Locke saw through this, he had absolutely no inclination to voice it.

Grand Duke Westminster said, "Zorro Ryke was also just an ordinary person's child back then, but he himself was not ordinary. He found me, and others, those old bones. He told us that the rulers of this world were foolish and corrupt."

"Our future had to be controlled by ourselves. Our future did not have to be a fate of serving as prey for those in power."

"Some of his ideas, for reasons unknown, gained the recognition of certain lesser sons of great nobles who received little attention, or certain marginal figures within the noble class. He was always so dazzling, full of charisma. Everyone could not explain why they liked him."

"He got us access to the then-primitive force system content and had us study it. He always learned faster than everyone else. When we had learned one, he had already reached a hundred. And even showing us that he had reached a hundred, he had very likely already reached a thousand."

Grand Duke Westminster spoke in a nostalgic tone. "Zorro Ryke was like a brilliant beam of sunlight, shining upon us. Back then, many people, under his rallying call, began to think about our future. Whether to continue sinking, or to resist."

"We chose to resist."

"Every nation viewed us as dangerous elements and wanted to suppress us, but our numbers kept growing. Our power kept growing stronger. We initially moved erratically between nations, but later we genuinely controlled some territory."

Grand Duke Westminster said, "Then one day, he suddenly told us that he had gotten hold of a meteorite. A meteorite that had been hidden by those in power. It turned out that in this world there was a beautiful ideal world, and that world was called the Other Shore Great World. That world was everywhere freely giving knowledge to backward civilizations."

"He told us that we were not alone. The Other Shore Great World was our distant allies whom we had never met."

"That meteorite had previously been hidden by the powerful people of this world, but now it would help us overthrow the corrupt rule of the powerful in this world and lead us toward a new future."

Grand Duke Westminster recalled the past, tears glistening at the corners of his eyes. "In that time, we truly were willing to live and die alongside him. Even dying for him, not a single one of us would have been unwilling!"

"Later, we, all of us, finally overthrew those powerful people according to the ideal we had in our hearts. We won this world."

Locke suddenly spoke up. "Grand Duke, how did the first emperor die?"

Grand Duke Westminster gritted his teeth. "I killed him."

Locke said, "So you were also someone who would have died for him at the time?"

Grand Duke Westminster seemed extremely agitated. "Of course. I regarded him as my idol, my everything."

"But he betrayed us first! We risked our lives for him. We had finally won this world at such great cost. But then he wanted us to surrender power and hand it over to people more capable of governing this world, to manage it."

"He also wanted to publicly release to the entire world all the force system knowledge that he and we had compiled together. He wanted every person in the entire world to be able to become someone with extraordinary abilities."

Grand Duke Westminster's eyes were wide with fury. "He was so selfless. But did he treat us, the brothers who had lived and died alongside him, as human beings?"

"We thought... I thought... it should be him as the emperor, and us as the nobles! Was that not how it should be? Yet he actually had the audacity to refuse to be that emperor! So I had no choice but to go and be him."