Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 574 Seeds of Civilization and Early Leaders, Rejection Incident
Inside the dormitory, Locke placed his hands on the Golden Branch and the Little Golden Jujube Hanging, chanting a spell to establish a complete magical connection with them.

Two powerful demonic plants rose up, exuding an unusual and unpredictable magical pressure, with complex spirituality, attempting to resist Locke from establishing a magical connection with them.

But suddenly, the spirit of the ancient tree sapling appeared behind Locke. With the blessing of this spirit, he used his magic pressure of 9100 and amplified it to the limit of the first ring through the ferocious beast panel. Then he forcibly established a magical grafting relationship with the two magical plants and incorporated them into the distributed psionic network.

Locke breathed softly. "As expected of these luxury magical plants in the first ring, it is indeed difficult to establish a magical grafting relationship with them. Even with my identity as a ferocious beast and the sapling of the Ancient Tree of Life, it is still so difficult. If it were an ordinary botanical wizard, I estimate it would take at least a year to imprint a soul mark on these two magical plants."

However, in this way, the two luxury magical plants became Locke's right and left arms, as easy to use as his own arms.

At the same time, two powerful tree-like magical plants floated in mid-air, and with Locke at their core, they began to construct the spell model of the Peach Arch Thorn Arrow.

An intricate magic circle appeared beneath Locke's feet.

Peach Bow Thorn Arrow is actually a semi-ritual magic. It is said to be semi-ritual magic because in the era when it first appeared, there was no such thing as ritual magic.

Ritual magic is inspired by ancient magic such as peach bows and thorn arrows.

'The Peachblossom Arrow needs to connect with the spirits of the pioneering leaders of the ancient human tribes on this land, who braved hardships and overcame countless obstacles, and borrow the power of their civilization. Therefore, throughout the entire process, I must remain focused at all times, without the slightest distraction, and absolutely without any negative emotions; otherwise, I will be in great danger from the magical backlash.'

Locke pondered. 'Fortunately, the Little Golden Jujube Hanging Potion possesses the ability of [Substitute Death], a core function that even the Permanent Defense Force Field lacks.'

In this magical backlash, the wizard's permanent defensive field is like an eggshell, easily resisting attacks from the outside. However, in this self-backlash from the inside out, the effectiveness of the permanent defensive field will be greatly reduced.

Of course, it can't be useless either.

At least it won't make it so easy for the wizard to self-destruct.

At this moment, a mysterious magic circle appeared beneath Locke's feet. It was a magic circle with dozens of polygons nested together, and there were three patterns inside the magic circle: flames, a knife, and a seed.

The Golden Palace Branch and the Little Vajra Jujube Hanging automatically flew into the magic array, tasked with summoning the spirits of the ancient leaders and establishing a bridge of connection with them.

During this process, Locke entered a state of extreme concentration, in which he even had a distorted perception of time.

But just as Locke was about to analyze the underlying mechanism of this misperception, the magical backlash struck him like a raging river crashing through his body. With the help of the five-headed serpent plant he carried, the power of the Myster and the life armor within him manifested one after another.

A small jujube tree vine has lost some of its fast-growing branches.

The magic circle beneath his feet also disappeared.

Locke frowned. "I just subconsciously wanted to analyze that special state, this instinctive analysis actually caused me to suffer a magical backlash. But all wizards, when encountering unknown phenomena, will probably remember them to some extent, analyze them, or have a slight reaction."

No wonder the Peach Bow and Thorn Arrow, despite their high level of danger, are gradually being phased out.

“It was also because my mind was cluttered just now,” Locke pondered. “I may have misunderstood the requirements of Peach Bow and Thorn Arrow for concentration. Whether it’s ordinary meditation or advanced meditation, the so-called concentration required is to simulate the spirituality of a certain power, which means that I was actually still thinking.”

"Not only are they thinking, but they are thinking with great concentration, and the content of their thinking is extremely complex."

I have learned two meditation methods.

The Ancient Tree of Life Meditation Method allows one's magical energy fluctuations to resemble those of an ancient Ancient Tree of Life, while the Nature Meditation Method allows one's magical pressure fluctuations to approach those of the Great World Tree.

However, Peach Bow Thorn Arrow required himself to not think at all, and he was not even allowed to focus on the content of his thoughts.

"It's probably about clearing your mind," Locke thought. "Making your brain completely stop thinking about anything."

"No, it's not that simple. When I clear my mind and stop thinking, my spiritual and demonic pressure levels must undergo corresponding changes, entering a special state of calm and tranquility."

Locke recalled the literature he had read about the Peach Blossom and Thorn Arrow. "This is what the literature refers to as the 'blank state.' At the time, I didn't quite understand why stopping thinking meant the blank state, but now I realize that it truly refers to my spirit entering a blank state, so that I can connect with the spirits of the ancient leaders and borrow the power of their special spark of civilization."

"Let the Little Golden Jujube Hanging and the Golden Palace Remnant Branch carry the power of the spark of civilization, so that we can use the spell that surpasses the highest theoretical value of the first ring damage—Peach Bow Thorn Arrow!"

If the War Spear of the Ancient Tree of War can reach the maximum damage output limit in the first stage under the condition of magic pressure, then the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow can break this limit.

The reason is simple: this magic has second-circle characteristics, allowing it to connect spiritually with the leaders of the First Nations, achieving damage that ordinary first-circle wizards cannot inflict with their own magical pressure.

Moreover, if Locke's Peach Arch Thorn Arrow is successfully constructed, he can use the Golden Palace Remnant Branch and the Small Vajra Jujube Hanging. These two magical plants can also borrow the spirituality of the Fire Element Emperor and the Phoenix, as well as the Vajra spirituality inside the Vajra Witch Stone, a second-ring level treasure.

In other words, the damage from the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow will reach an unbelievable level.

But most importantly, Locke realized that the true purpose of this magic was probably not to fight against people.

Rather, in ancient times, wizards learned spells in advance specifically to break through barriers in order to advance to the second circle of wizards.

This function was likely later considered by wizards to have been completely replaced by ritual magic, which may be the reason why no one learned the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow.

The witch Catherine, however, believed that it was still necessary for her to learn the Peach Bow and Thorn Arrow, and that she could gain something from it that was different from learning ritual magic.

Of course, Catherine the Witch is quite old in a strict sense, and Locke couldn't figure out whether she had a bias towards the Peach Curtain Thorn Arrow or genuinely believed that it had unique advantages.

In any case, most of the first-ring crystallization wizards of this era... especially those first-ring crystallization wizards outside the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, did not really understand the true function of ritual magic.

Therefore, it is possible that many wizards were unaware of the effects of the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow.

Locke said, "Let's just follow the study plan that the Throne Wizard arranged for me. That's the right way."

"First, they arranged for me to form a contract with the Emerald Dream Plane and made me aware of the effects of ritual magic. Now they've arranged for me to learn the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow, a prerequisite for learning advanced meditation techniques."

Locke said, “That’s really thoughtful. Sure enough, my decision to come to Golden Crown Mountain and follow the witch Catherine’s judgment was correct. I wonder if the other researchers at Golden Crown Mountain are treated the same way. Probably so… It took Catherine a long time to help the witch Mason sign the contract for the Ancient Sky Illusion.”

"Mentoring fellow wizards and helping them on their path to the second circle seems to be one of Catherine the Witch's responsibilities. This is similar to how I helped Williams and Gregor become full-fledged wizards."

Locke studied the Peach Bow and Thorn Arrow for a while longer, constantly putting himself into a special state that met the requirements for learning the Peach Bow and Thorn Arrow.

In his continuous spiritual connection with the unknown, Locke seemed to see, on the ancient, vast land, early inhabitants holding torches in their left hands and cleavers in their right, cultivating the land with fire and spreading the flame of civilization.

That was a time of ignorance for humanity before the discovery of magic, a time when a seed had just sprouted and possessed the greatest potential for the future.

Locke was connected to his spirit, and in this special state, his understanding of botanical magic inexplicably began to increase.

Under the illumination of the flame of civilization, even the existing knowledge in our minds begins to be automatically reconstructed, constantly innovating and giving rise to new knowledge.

However, the magic circle collapsed ten minutes later.

“Three hours…” Locke said, “To complete this magic for the first time, you need to maintain the magic circle ritual for at least three hours, which means entering a state where your mind is completely blank and your spirit is in a state of emptiness for three hours.”

"Moreover, I also discovered something else—the spiritual state of entering a blank state is to connect with the spirituality of ancient beings, but when one enters a blank state, one is also vulnerable to being taken advantage of."

"If we encounter nightmare creatures or disc-shaped creatures, it will be troublesome. Fortunately, we have the spirituality of the Little Golden Jujube Hanging, the Forest Sanctuary, the Life Tree Sapling, and the Golden Palace Remnant Branch. These spiritualities can prevent anything from taking advantage of our weakness."

“Moreover, I can draw on the magic circle of ritual magic.” Locke’s current thinking has been enhanced by the Flame of Civilization, making his thoughts clearer and following a kind of intuition. “Ritual magic is composed of many parts, each of which is the result of many years of research by high-ring wizards from the Starfield Sea. Those research results have been incorporated into the wizards’ magic level system.”

"Although wizards still have a lot of secret knowledge that they only teach their students, and even their students keep some of it to themselves, it seems that many wizards at higher levels are pursuing the goal of having their research results incorporated into the wizarding power ranking system."

"Therefore, we young wizards can even enjoy the benefits brought by the research results of those high-ring wizards. Moreover, this Flame of Civilization seems to greatly enhance my thinking. It doesn't make me smarter, but it makes my ability to find key points more acute."

Locke suspected that this was one of the main reasons why the witch Catherine had made him learn the Peach Bow and Thorn Arrow.

It was already the afternoon of the second day.

Locke decided to pause for a while. He was exhausted from the backlash of magic, and the little golden jujube tree also needed time and magical energy to regenerate the lost fast-growing branches.

He first returned to the public laboratory and discussed his project progress with Mason Witch and others. He discovered that the pathways and mechanisms of interaction between the reproductive capacity of the 26 types of air plant magic plants and magical creatures had already been analyzed.

Meanwhile, the analysis of the six natural unknown magical structures has been completed, and the funds have been basically spent.

Locke discussed with them the experimental procedure for Tyrant Essence No. 2, and they would handle the rest of the trivial experiments, while he would go to the Feathered Serpent Pavilion to borrow the Queen's Chessboard.

Next, Locke sought out Gregory and Williams, inquiring about their progress in increasing their magical pressure, their preparations for the competition, and Williams's performance on the potion relay team. At his workstation, Williams smiled sweetly at Locke, saying, "Thank you for your concern, mentor. I'm doing very well on the team. The team's leader thinks I'm performing very well."

"She thought my theoretical foundation was solid, and I told her that it was all thanks to your teaching."

Williams said with no small amount of pride, "The school team's coach has decided that I will represent Golden Crown Mountain in the potion relay race on Sports Day."

The potion relay race wasn't about brewing potions. Instead, it involved six potion-making assistants who were first-class wizard apprentices. During the race, they had to choose one potion from a large selection of unlabeled potions to drink, but some of these potions were mixed with poison.

Therefore, the so-called potion relay race is a competition that tests the potion master's eyesight. Of course, there are also unorthodox methods, such as using anti-toxicity to forcibly make up for one's lack of identification ability.

The Golden Crown Mountain Sports Festival is not only an internal event, but also invites most of the wizarding organizations in the vicinity of Golden Crown Mountain, their wizarding apprentices, and even full-fledged wizards to participate in the sports competitions.

In Yunze Wetland, sports competitions are essentially tied to commerce and politics.

By holding an annual sports festival, Mount Golden Crown can strengthen the cohesion between students and formal wizards within the academy, allow some wizards to take the opportunity to do projects, and also bring together nearby small and medium-sized wizard organizations to demonstrate Mount Golden Crown's dominance!
Essentially, this was a collective event organized by Golden Crown Mountain for the major wizarding colleges in the vicinity.

Furthermore, when Golden Crown Mountain wants to target a particular wizarding academy, it can indirectly boycott that academy by not inviting it to participate.

Of course, for Golden Crown Mountain, hosting a sports festival also seems to get special sponsorship from the White Wizard Association headquarters, which is always happy to see such things happen.

Similarly, smaller wizarding organizations are likely to associate participation in sporting events with access to specific resources or better recruitment opportunities.

Therefore, after learning about the sports festival at Mount Golden Crown, Locke realized why an ordinary second-ring wizard had gone to Catherine the Witch to complain when Williams joined a school team.

The reason is that the Sports Festival is a far more meaningful and important festival than a commercially driven festival like the Love Festival.

Behind this festival lies the issue of resource allocation quotas for the Wizarding Realm, as well as resource allocation issues from the academy's higher-ups.

Sports are a variant of war, a battleground where various wizarding academies vie for control of resources in a region.

Dark wizards need to obtain resources through war and destruction, while white wizards always avoid unnecessary destruction and hope to become richer through war. Thus, they found a new form of warfare—sports.

Even the various wizarding academies that organize sporting events and participate in this alternative war might be able to make some money.

Essentially, the Yunze Cup competition was also a form of 'war'.

However, the wizards shifted their own wars onto the Mekanis and the Suryas, two subordinate civilizations.

Locke nodded to Gregor and Williams. "That's good. Good luck to you two. I'll be relatively free on my end lately, until I secure the second-class grant and then the first-class grant."

"Therefore, you need to make good use of this spare time and create your entries for the competition as soon as possible."

“Gregor, this is a new topic I’ve given you. Williams, this is a reading list I’ve compiled after observing your work and noticing some flaws.”

“By following the topics I've outlined and the reading list I've provided, you two can discover the flaws in your current breeding projects yourselves. This will be much more efficient than me directly telling you the flaws.”

"You can learn it too."

Williams said with delight, "Thank you, teacher. Your teaching method seems to be different from that of other formal wizards."

Locke thought of the Sophia Witch, who rarely taught him anything directly, but only gave him questions and reading lists.

Locke said, "I simply used a teaching method that is more friendly to intelligent people."

Gregor said somewhat uncertainly, "Teacher? I consider myself a smart person?"

Williams glared at him.

Locke said, "Alright, you guys go ahead."

Locke left the public breeder's laboratory, but instead of heading to the Feathered Serpent Pavilion immediately, he went to his staff quarters first and found Schneider, who was temporarily staying there and writing an article for him.

Schneider lowered his head somewhat guiltily, avoiding Locke's gaze. "I'm sorry, Lord Augustine."

"I've been working on this for a month, and recently I only have one article about the mechanism of action of the giant rubber duck pineapple and another about the black diamond pineapple, which have been published in the second-tier journal 'Environment and Plants'."

"The other two papers were rejected."

Locke frowned, not expecting this to happen.

I asked Schneider to write the paper myself, and I was listed as the corresponding author. Then I gave the first and second authorship to Gregor and Williams, respectively.

Although they themselves did not know it.

The main problem is that it's only a Q2 journal. If I were to give a Q2 first-author journal to my colleagues or friends, they might turn against me.

Even Daniel would probably feel uncomfortable if he suddenly found himself with a second-tier first-edition character.

Furthermore, if one casually adds their name to an academic journal, it could attract the attention of ethics review committees and academic committees, which would be problematic.

Gregor and Williams, in many of their experiments, actually did at least some odd jobs.

Therefore, it's not a big problem to give them a name on the list.

Locke asked Schneider to bring over the rejection letters.

After reading through a pile of rejection letters from journal editors sent to his home, Locke finally understood what had happened.

This has nothing to do with Schneider's ability to organize data and write articles, nor with the quality of the key experimental data he conducted.

The problem lies with myself.

To be precise, the problem stemmed from the fact that he was the corresponding author.

I had previously used the name Catherine the Witch as the corresponding author in my submissions, so I hadn't noticed this issue at all.

"It's because I'm just a researcher at the Institute of True Knowledge and don't hold a senior academic position, so when I was the corresponding author, the three reviewers who were responsible for reviewing the manuscript were somewhat biased by seniority."

Journal peer review is a task that cannot be undertaken with too many resources to perform reproducibility verification; it's already quite good if a few peers can take a look.

In this situation, in order to ensure the quality of the journal, reviewers will inevitably adopt some prior ideas.

For example, articles with a high-level wizard as the corresponding author are guaranteed to be of high quality, and the possibility of data fabrication is unlikely.

While these ideas are very unfair to young first-ring wizards, they are indeed based on certain objective reasons.

Of course, there are also some non-objective reasons, such as the lower academic status of young first-ring wizards, which may allow them to make way for articles with the corresponding author's name on them, like those of second-ring and third-ring wizards.

By using Catherine the Witch as the corresponding author of his article, he essentially borrowed some of Catherine the Witch's academic and social standing.

Therefore, when submitting to major journals, the manuscripts can be seen by the editors and receive serious attention and trust from the peer reviewers invited by the editors.

But when you are the corresponding author, the situation is completely different.

So, the reason why you might submit four papers to Q2 journals but only get two accepted is because your academic standing is currently relatively low.

I guess I got two of my articles approved because I was lucky. I happened to encounter three reviewers who weren't particularly senior or influential, so they approved them.

Furthermore, the article about the Rubber Duck Pineapple is related to the novel natural magical structural components inside the Rubber Duck Crown Pineapple published in the first-tier journal "Qingcao Yunze". Therefore, because the article about the Rubber Duck Pineapple is endorsed by a first-tier journal, the editor, the chief editor, and the three reviewers have more reason and confidence to get their article published in a mere second-tier journal.

"Environment and Plants" is also the top botany journal in Yunze Wetland Zone II, so the whole mechanism for reviewing manuscripts is relatively fair.

(End of this chapter)