Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Locke did not indulge Witch Camilla. He sent her a message directly and warned her, "Watch your tone. This is no way to speak to a business partner."

On the Wish Lingzhi network panel, Witch Camilla did not reply immediately.

But after a short while, Witch Camilla sent a message. "I apologize. I lost my composure just now."

"Locke, for the sake of the pleasant trade we conducted the first time, please tell me, do you or do you not have a way to obtain a Dragon Viewing Peach?"

Locke glanced at the message he had just sent to Witch Yekaterina, asking whether it was possible to trade for a Dragon Viewing Peach.

Witch Yekaterina refused immediately. "The Dragon Viewing Peach is an asset of Golden Crown Mountain, and I have signed a special contract with Golden Crown Mountain. My Dragon Viewing Peach Garden is maintained and upgraded with resources paid by Golden Crown Mountain, and the output of the Dragon Viewing Peach Garden is under strict control by Golden Crown Mountain."

"It is impossible to give a Dragon Viewing Peach to a First Circle wizard. Besides, you have no need for one."

Witch Yekaterina followed with another message. "Also, regarding the Grand Magic matter, there are two things I need to tell you."

"First, the owner of the Dragon Saliva Peach Garden, one of Golden Crown Mountain's Twelve Peaches, a moon ring wizard, was killed by a Third Circle wizard from the Twin Demon Realm. The Dragon Saliva Peach Garden has automatically flown back to Golden Crown Mountain. This garden is worth half a Grand Magic on its own. Using it to build your Grand Magic would save you a tremendous amount of resources."

"Currently, the Council of Elders, the Academic Committee, and the Executive Inspection Group are all competing for ownership of the garden. Would you like it? If you do, I can expend certain resources to secure it for you. Of course, I would need to pay a certain cost on my end, but that is not something you need to worry about."

"Second, the Grand Magic modeling competition is fast approaching. At the request of Director Gaia, I have invited Golden Crown Mountain's participant from the previous Silent Chalice Competition to come and help you. Come see me in a week."

"The participant from ten years ago is a wizard from Rift Ridge Bridge, and they are currently a moon ring wizard."

Locke paused for a moment. The wizard who had represented Golden Crown Mountain ten years ago had actually been from Rift Ridge Bridge, and this person was now willing to come and guide him on behalf of Golden Crown Mountain.

Right, Witch Yekaterina had mentioned before that Rift Ridge Bridge and Golden Crown Mountain shared a special relationship. The outside world only saw the endless conflict between the two, and rarely noticed that their relationship had always been one of strife without severance, with close ties maintained throughout.

In the eyes of the White Wizard Association, these two wizard academies still counted as a single wizard university.

Locke thought it over and sent a message to Witch Yekaterina. "Teacher, after I take the Dragon Saliva Peach Garden, would I still be able to leave Golden Crown Mountain? And what kind of impact would this garden have on my Grand Magic?"

Witch Yekaterina sent back a reply. "No. The Dragon Saliva Peach Garden is a high-quality fixed asset of Golden Crown Mountain, passed down through a thousand years. It is impossible to allow a wizard to take it away."

"The Dragon Saliva Peach can grant a wizard a special life force with many wonderful uses. Simply put, it can repair a wizard's physical body and spiritual power, even if both have suffered severe contamination. The characteristics of the Dragon Saliva Peach Garden would influence your Grand Magic to a very significant degree."

After careful consideration, Locke still declined. "Teacher, I'm sorry. I believe I don't need the Dragon Saliva Peach Garden."

Becoming a Second Circle wizard only required establishing a Grand Magic.

And the framework of his first Grand Magic was already complete. The Moon of Evolution, as long as it was further combined with the spell model of the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow, would have a framework for an offensive magic spell model.

At this point, bringing in the Dragon Saliva Peach Garden would undoubtedly force him to adjust his spell model framework and make way for this so-called thousand-year inheritance.

Furthermore, once he accepted it, he could very well forget about ever leaving Golden Crown Mountain for the rest of his life.

So it was best to decline.

Witch Yekaterina seemed unsurprised by this. "Understood."

Locke then sent a message to Witch Camilla. "The Dragon Viewing Peach is an important asset of Golden Crown Mountain. There is no way for me to get my hands on it."

Witch Camilla replied, "How disappointing. Then our deal is cancelled."

Locke hesitated for a moment. "Camilla, bring your sister here. I may have another way to help her."

"Of course, I only say there is a possibility. Bring her to the Feathered Serpent Pavilion."

Locke blinked his right eye and, through his line of sight, glimpsed the special rock spirit in his half-plane.

He still had a large amount of blank spiritual power available. If he took out a portion of it and used the Full Moon Growth spell model to fuse that spiritual power with Witch Camilla's sister's spiritual power, it might be possible to replenish the portion of human spiritual power that had been stolen from her.

...

On the first underground floor of the castle within Golden Crown Mountain's Longevity Peach Grove, in a secluded, unoccupied room, a planar gate suddenly appeared.

In the next moment, Douglas stepped out from the gate. His expression was grim, his wizard's robe was torn and tattered, and his left arm bore a wound that was oozing black pus, with something foul-smelling seeping from it.

Douglas's magic pressure was in a state of extreme chaos. "Damn it. How could there be a void serpent in there?"

"Teacher, I nearly died in that plane."

The voice of Wizard King Laghemaon appeared in his ear. "Void creatures can survive in the void. That was just a juvenile serpent, with only ordinary Second Circle-level magic pressure. It must have been swept into the plane I was using to store my treasure by the currents of the void."

"The juvenile serpent was in a state of hibernation. What just happened was an unconscious attack. If it had been otherwise, you would be dead inside there right now."

Douglas felt a chill run through him. "Then what do I do?"

Wizard King Laghemaon said quietly, "The juvenile serpent is lying atop my treasury. Without dealing with it, there is no way to access the treasury."

"If you want to quickly reach the First Circle crystallization stage, you will need the special resources inside the treasury. But dealing with that juvenile serpent will require a Second Circle wizard to step in and help you."

Douglas felt a surge of joy. "Teacher, couldn't you possess my body and bring out the combat power of a Second Circle wizard?"

Wizard King Laghemaon said, "That's not possible. The Twin Demon Realm may have ties to the Black Sun Tower, and right now the Twin Demon Realm is in close void orbit around the wizard world. During this critical period, I cannot afford to take the risk of helping you."

"Golden Crown Mountain has so many high-Circle wizards. You can find any one of them."

Douglas wrinkled his brow in frustration. "Golden Crown Mountain has plenty of high-Circle wizards, but if I go looking for someone else, I will have to share the treasure with them. And I'm only a First Circle wizard. Working with a Second Circle wizard would be like negotiating with a tiger. Whether I could even get my share of the treasure is another question entirely."

"Unless... unless I invest early, build a friendship with a Second Circle wizard while they are still at the First Circle stage, and lay the groundwork in advance."

The Wizard King's voice appeared in his ear. "That is also an option. Weigh it yourself. In any case, the incantation to enter this room is already in your mind."

Douglas thought back. Among the people at Golden Crown Mountain who were most likely to become Second Circle wizards and were also close to him, one person immediately surfaced in his mind, Locke Augustine.

Douglas left the room, then pretended he was merely taking a leisurely stroll through the Longevity Peach Grove. Whenever he happened to come across servants and wizard apprentices within the castle, he wore a natural, unbothered expression, as though everything were perfectly ordinary.

Not a trace of guilt, so as to prevent anyone from sensing that something was off.

Douglas thought to himself, "Do I have anything on hand right now that could attract Locke Augustine's interest? Not much. But Teacher once taught me how to construct a Kingdom Domain."

"This knowledge might be something that wizard would find interesting."

"Alright, I'll find a way to get on his good side first. My talent is limited, and whether I can successfully crystallize my mental power still depends on the special resources inside that treasury. And to open that treasury, I need the help of a Second Circle wizard."

"So I have no choice but to place my hopes on Locke. Or I could wait for the Demon Realm War to pass, but I've heard that the Demon Realm War lasts quite a long time."

...

Three days later, inside the Feathered Serpent Pavilion, Locke met Witch Camilla and her dazed, vacant sister in a private room.

Witch Camilla looked at Locke nervously and asked, "Locke, do you actually have a way?"

Locke examined her sister's condition. "This is indeed not something an ordinary potion master could cure."

"I have no absolute certainty either. I can only say I'll do my best to try."

Witch Camilla hesitated for a moment, then said, "I have brought a sufficient number of natal witch porcelain pieces this time. As long as you can heal her, I will trade all of these to you."

"Each one is only two hundred thousand magic stones."

Locke nodded. Two hundred thousand magic stones was fairly reasonable, and was probably even just the cost price.

The price of an ordinary First Circle crystallization-level magical instrument was around a hundred thousand magic stones, with higher-quality ones going for ten to a few hundred thousand.

As the most cutting-edge research product of the Demon Hub City, two hundred thousand magic stones for natal witch porcelain was not expensive at all.

These items did not belong to Witch Camilla personally, so she could only trade them rather than gift them.

Otherwise, she would not be able to balance her accounts.

The fact that she had managed to bring such a large quantity of natal witch porcelain clearly meant she had taken on considerable pressure to do so.

Locke turned over his palm. A spell-formed moon appeared in the center of his right hand, its pure moonlight dancing between his fingers.

Witch Camilla's eyes went wide. "The degree of refinement of this spell... it's already this high?"

Her gaze was tinged with something close to bewilderment.

The spell-formed moon before her eyes was so flawless, so close to a real moon. The complexity of its spell model had reached a level she could barely begin to imagine.

It was almost beyond her comprehension.

She raised her head and looked at Locke in astonishment, struggling to believe that this was the same spell he had once used against her carnivorous flower jungle.

In less than half a year, Locke's improvement had been this immense.

A trace of admiration appeared in Witch Camilla's eyes. By comparison, she had made almost no progress in these past few months.

"Locke, the complexity and refinement of this spell model made me think for a moment that it was a Grand Magic."

"My teacher's Grand Magic is about at this level."

"What a shame, it's still missing a World Stone."

Witch Camilla let out a sigh. "I'll be subscribing to this year's Silent Chalice Competition."

"But more importantly, can my sister actually be healed?"

At that moment, Locke extracted the rock spirit's spiritual power from within the half-plane he kept in his right eye, fused it with moonlight, transformed it into Lunar Essence, and let it settle upon Witch Camilla's sister.

The witch's own spiritual power resisted the merging with the Lunar Essence, though the resistance was not particularly strong.

A minute later, the two fused successfully.

In an instant, her sister suddenly lifted her head sharply, like someone jolting awake from a long sleep.

The witch looked up at Witch Camilla in bewilderment. "Sister?"

"No, Lady Camilla."

The witch remembered that Witch Camilla had told her not to call her sister within the Demon Hub City, but to use a formal address, and quickly corrected herself.

Witch Camilla's expression shifted from a flash of surprise to one of delighted astonishment.

She looked at Locke and said, "Locke, thank you. I didn't expect you would actually have a way."

"It's hard to believe. A problem that so many potion masters couldn't solve, and you could."

But the witch turned her gaze toward Locke, and her eyes suddenly fell into confusion. Then she said, "Master?"

"No, wait. Why am I calling you Master?"

The witch pressed her hands to her head, seeming to be in significant pain. "Ah, my head hurts terribly."

Witch Camilla immediately spun around and looked at Locke, her eyes blazing with fury. "Locke, didn't you say you were going to heal my sister?"

"What is going on?"

Locke had, from the start, been treating this as a desperate measure. He had fused the special spiritual power with this witch, using it to replace the portion of human spiritual power that had been stolen from her.

He simply hadn't expected something like this to happen.

And from what had just occurred, it was clear that human spiritual power and special spiritual power were normally incompatible, like water and fire.

Had this witch not had a portion of her human spiritual power stolen, leaving her in the half-beast state, Locke would very likely have been unable to use Full Moon Growth to merge the special spiritual power with her own.

Locke looked at Witch Camilla and said, "Don't be hasty. Your sister has at least recovered her human rationality. Can't you see that?"

Witch Camilla gave him a speechless look. "She has recovered her rationality, yes. But she's also under your mental control. What exactly did you do to her?"

"Don't think we're easy to push around. You... you... mentally controlling a White Wizard, if I go to the Sacred Judiciary, you are absolutely going to regret it!"

Witch Camilla instinctively wanted to make threats, but thinking back to that Full Moon Growth Locke had just displayed, she knew she was no match for Locke in any way, and so switched to threatening to go to the Sacred Judiciary instead.

Locke furrowed his brow. At that moment, Witch Camilla's sister was pressing her hands to her head and had sat down on a stool.

"After fusing with the special spiritual power, does it automatically form a state of loyalty toward me?"

"This must have something to do with the rock spirit itself. I still don't know what the rock spirit actually is. Based on the materials I've looked through, it's neither a native god nor a totemic god. I'm not sure what kind of thing it is."

"In any case, this thing has formed loyalty toward me, and the people or objects whose spiritual power merges with it will also form loyalty toward me. But it seems that a person's nature and this thing's nature come into conflict with each other, so I cannot properly merge this spiritual power with a person."

Locke suddenly thought of something, reached out, pressed his hand to Witch Camilla's sister's forehead, and then extracted the special spiritual power from her body.

In an instant, her sister's eyes went vacant again. She sat in the chair, dazed and listless.

Locke then found the half-dragon store clerk of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion and asked for a white mouse used for potion testing. He then attempted to fuse the special spiritual power with the white mouse, but the two were completely incompatible.

"It can only fuse with plants?"

"Just now, the witch did not truly fuse with the special spiritual power I gave her. It was only being carried on her body because of the special properties of the Zero Potion. So it cannot really be called a spiritual fusion."

"Because of that, the witch was caught in a contradiction between following me and not following me. If the fusion had been complete, she would by now have become someone fully loyal to me."

"This special spiritual power can only fuse with plants."

Locke understood now.

But as long as this mechanism was properly utilized, any magical plant influenced by his Moon of Evolution could be made to actively become loyal to him.

Witch Camilla, seeing her sister revert to her former state, immediately grew anxious. "Locke, what are you doing now? I only said a few words to you, and you've already turned my sister back."

Locke was somewhat at a loss.

He said directly, "It was you who was bothered just now, feeling that I had manipulated your sister. But with my current capabilities, this is the only method I have to save your sister."

"At worst, she simply avoids being around me from now on. As long as she doesn't see me, she naturally won't fall into that contradictory state."

"But if you object, there's nothing I can do about it."

Witch Camilla fell into doubt. "Is there really no way for you to get a Dragon Viewing Peach?"

"Witch Yekaterina is your teacher. And she dotes on you considerably."

Locke coughed once. "I'm only her cooperative wizard. She treats me the same as everyone else."

Locke gave her an odd look. "I truly don't know what you're talking about. Teacher is a Third Circle Throne Wizard. What possible way would I have of getting a Dragon Viewing Peach?"

Witch Camilla sighed and fell into a dilemma.

She looked at her sister sitting there in a stupor, and said, "Fine then. Even if she ends up somewhat mentally bound to you, at least she can return to being a normal person for now."

"At worst, I'll just take her far away from you. Distance is the best defense against special magic. I can have her go to another wizard land."

"With the barrier of great distance, I don't believe your magic can still take effect."

"And there are also the sealing spells of the Protection School."

Witch Camilla said, "Locke, then please bind my sister again..."

Locke reminded her, "Watch your choice of words. I am a legitimate potion master, and I am simply treating your sister. Don't make it sound as if I am particularly keen on mentally binding an ordinary First Circle wizard."

"What would be the point of me controlling someone at that level?"

Besides, the moment she was in his presence, she would fall into a special state of mental conflict, rendering her essentially incapacitated anyway.

Locke placed a portion of the Zero Potion onto her forehead. Immediately, the witch's eyes regained their awareness.

She raised her head and looked at Witch Camilla and Locke. "Sister... Master..."

Witch Camilla had just shown a flicker of excitement, but her expression now tightened. She looked at Locke with an accusatory gaze.

"Didn't you just say you had no particular interest in mentally binding an ordinary First Circle wizard?"

Locke shrugged.

The reason he did not mind spending most of the special spiritual power on this witch, aside from his strong need for large quantities of natal witch porcelain, was that the Zero Potion was an out-of-print resource that was completely unobtainable for him at this current stage.

But the moment he stepped into the Silent Chalice Competition, he was confident he could immediately advance to the Second Circle.

After all, he had already used the Second Circle experience card twice before.

Once he became a Second Circle wizard, he could use the Bronze Cauldron and the Reverse Refinement Method to refine the Zero Potion.

And that step was also a critical step in constructing his Grand Magic.

So at this moment, spending a large amount of the special spiritual power stored in the rock spirit on Witch Camilla's sister in exchange for a large quantity of natal witch porcelain was not a bad deal for him at all.

Witch Camilla exchanged a few words with her sister and was relieved to find that, apart from the strange behavior of intermittently calling Locke "Master" and then questioning why she was doing so whenever she saw him, everything else was completely normal.

Her memory, however, seemed to still be anchored in the time of the Spell Combat Tournament.

The witch asked Witch Camilla nervously, "Sister, have the black wizards from the Twin Demon Realm left? Are we safe now?"

"That black wizard said he was going to steal my talent. And there was also an ancient soul possessing my body that wanted to steal it too."

Witch Camilla immediately asked, "Who was that black wizard? Do you know his name? No... you probably don't. Do you know what he looked like?"

The witch thought for a moment. "Actually, I do still remember what he looked like."

A flash of wild joy crossed Witch Camilla's eyes.

As long as she could find that black wizard, there was a chance of recovering what had been stolen from her sister.

Camilla said, "That's fine. I'll find a magic portrait artist to help me, and they can quickly sketch his likeness."

Locke then spoke up and asked the witch, "An ancient soul possessing you? From which era? What happened exactly?"

The witch looked at Locke respectfully. "Master, there was once an ancient soul from the Era of Stars that possessed my body, and with its help, I quickly became a First Circle wizard."

Witch Camilla said in surprise, "How did I not know any of this?"

The witch said guiltily, "That soul said this matter was of great importance, so it told me not to speak of it."

"Strange, why do I keep calling you Master..."

The witch once again fell into her conflicted state.

Locke sank into deep thought. "Back then, the Twin Demon Realm suddenly attacked the Spell Combat Tournament arena. Could it be that the main purpose wasn't to disrupt the sporting event hosted by Golden Crown Mountain, but to capture those ancient souls that had awakened from the Era of Stars?"

"How could those ancient souls have survived all this time without dying? The souls of Third Circle wizards possess immortality, setting that aside for now, but what about Second Circle wizards? Was the soul possessing Camilla's sister a Second Circle or a Third Circle soul?"

"So could it be that the immortal dictators of the past have revived once more?"