Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 617 Fusion of the Peach Blossom Arrow! The Great Sun that Slays Demons! An Arrow Shot Towards Truth!
With a wave of her hand, the witch Catherine transferred all the furnishings in Locke's living room to the spirit world, leaving the entire living room temporarily empty.

At the same time, she stretched out her left hand into the air, and instantly a peach wood bow and arrow appeared in her left hand, with countless righteous forces converging towards her palm.

At the same time, Catherine the Witch unleashed her immense magic; a branch of a jujube tree sprouted from the beast tide and landed on her peachwood bow. Then, Catherine the Witch suddenly aimed an arrow at Locke's forehead.

Locke was startled, his whole body stiffened, and he instinctively summoned the power of Myster to protect himself.

"teacher?"

Catherine released her grip, and the next moment, a jujube tree branch arrow fell towards Locke's brow.

The magic seemed to ignore Locke's permanent defensive field, striking him directly between the eyebrows at an incredible angle.

Locke was startled for a moment, then suddenly realized that the arrow was not made of magical energy, but simply spiritual energy.

In other words, there is no real magical energy.

This is at least true for first-ring wizards, who at this stage do not have the ability to access the imaginary world.

On the contrary, this arrow forced Locke's spirituality to assimilate with the spirituality on the arrow.

The witch Catherine said, "If you hadn't reached your current level, I wouldn't have dared to do this. But I judge that you are now worthy to take this arrow from me."

"This is my legacy, passed down to me by a teacher who went to the Starfield Sea. So far, I have only passed this legacy on to four people."

"You are the fifth one."

"This part of the knowledge cannot be described with words or magical texts, or rather, it is inefficient. I used a spiritual arrow to forcibly bring you into a state where the power of the [Peach Arc] and [Thorn Arrow] are combined into one."

As Catherine the witch watched Locke close his eyes and withdraw his spirituality, she left the living room and entered Locke's study. With a touch of curiosity, she glanced at the furnishings of Locke's study, then casually picked up a book from the table and sat down to read.

As expected, Locke would be able to obtain the inherited witchcraft of their lineage in just half a night.

However, if it fails, then some external force is needed to awaken it from its spiritually introverted state.

Therefore, she still needs to wait here.

Otherwise, a slight mistake could easily lead to an accident.

At the same time, Locke felt his spirituality enter a special state, his spirituality was forced into a fixed fluctuation, and then he made contact with a more ancient being.

First, he saw that in a certain dark and chaotic era, countless evil forces, due to the suppression of the entire civilization's potential in this dark, decadent, and ignorant age, attracted these evil forces to infiltrate this society.

The scenes created by spiritual power are extremely realistic.

Locke quickly realized that this must be the Dark Ages that archaeologists had only mentioned in snippets in their historical records—

We do not know exactly where the Dark Ages are located in the entire Wizarding Civilization, whether it is after or before the Age of Empires or the Age of Stars, but the Wizarding Civilization did have this era.

It's unclear what triggered this era, but the wizarding civilization of that time suffered from severe ideological stagnation and a lack of ambition. An authoritative ideology led all wizards in the world to adopt a cult of faith.

If a wizard believes that mainstream thought is wrong, then he has gone astray.

Any dissenting opinions will be suppressed.

Without reflection, the wizards' aggression was emasculated, and perfect academic thought ruled that world.

It was a dark age where there was no competition and every wizard simply did their job.

It was a utterly ignorant era, cold and lifeless; for an entire era, not a single academic article on the subject appeared.

Archaeologists speculate that the sorcerers at the time seemed to believe that ancient things were valuable, and therefore no sorcerer was qualified to write new research articles.

Moreover, the prevalence of magic reached a record low in the history of wizarding civilization, and it was even suspected that it might be in the early stages of wizarding civilization, but data from various archaeological fragments show that this is not the case.

In short, the entire period is difficult to verify precisely because so few historical records have been left from that time.

But how was Locke able to recognize it?

Archaeologists have discovered a typical characteristic of this era based on their research: the entire wizarding civilization, by excessively suppressing its own creativity in order to maintain a certain order and by excessively pursuing order and stability, lost the ability to resist many external forces.

In this era, a vast amount of evil power from the endless void has been drawn forth.

Disc creatures have rampaged through the wizarding world.

There are many other evil forces as well.

In that era, the wizards whose thoughts were suppressed were not only not simple-minded, but their hearts were even more evil. If these evil thoughts appeared for a long time, they would attract the attention of certain beings in the void.

Those beings entered this wizarding world.

Therefore, a typical characteristic of the Dark Ages was the abundance of demons and monsters.

Locke realized from this spiritual change that the era in which this spirituality originated should be the Dark Ages of the wizarding world.

Locke saw a city filled with statues of various 'great wizards of the past,' representing all the words these great wizards had spoken in the past, and any magical interpretations they had left behind.

They have all become the most precious classics in this era.

These statues of great wizards of the past are revered as deities in the city, and every wizard worships them.

Although not a god, he is no different from a god.

In this city filled with 'statues', Locke saw a scholar statue in the center of the city.

The statue looked down at all the wizards.

Instead of conducting research, countless wizards worshipped idols here. Locke saw a wizard arguing with someone here. The cause was unknown, but it seemed that this wizard had put forward a different opinion.

So the other wizards in the city tried to guide him onto the right path.

But the wizard used the ancient Peach Bow and Thorn Arrow magic, working day and night to forge a bow and an arrow.

That day, he drew his bow and aimed an arrow at the statue in front of everyone.

The wizards in all the cities whose faces were obscured were terrified.

'Stop! That's a statue of the former Witch King, a statue of a high-ring wizard! Do you really think you're more powerful than those high-ring wizards?!'

"Your theoretical foundation is too weak, which is why you hold extreme views! The Witch King is the embodiment of truth for us; you should learn from him. The Witch King is our teacher; how can you disrespect your teacher?"

'You must remain rational! Don't be arrogant!'

At that moment, Locke realized that he seemed to have transformed into that wizard, being condemned by everyone and misunderstood by all.

He received stares from everyone who thought he was crazy.

Locke sensed that a spirit was guiding him to choose whether to shoot or not, and that his own spirit was becoming increasingly aligned with Catherine's spiritual arrow.

Locke frowned. If it were just one arrow, that would be fine.

What's the big deal?

He picked up the peach wood bow and the jujube arrows, and the wizards looked on in alarm.

But the next moment, Locke was stunned, because the statue's appearance had changed. It had transformed from a statue of an unfamiliar middle-aged man into a statue of the witch Catherine.

All the teachings that Catherine the Witch had given her in the past flashed through her mind in an instant.

Moreover, the leader of the wizards who tried to stop them had become the Mason Witch. She looked at Locke in astonishment, "Locke, are you crazy? How dare you shoot an arrow at the statue of the Throne Wizard!"

"Do you have any rationality left? Look at yourself, are you even human? You've gone astray, put down your magic right now."

"Righteous mind and right thought," said Mason Witch. "You cannot be influenced by the chaotic spirituality here. You need to maintain respect for the truth. If even a witch like you cannot maintain respect for the truth, then who will?"

Mason Witch said, “The greatest enemy of truth is stupidity. Stupid people are arrogant, so we need to maintain the world’s respect for truth by showing respect to the Throne Wizard.”

"Quickly put down the arrows," said Mason Witch. "Only then can you merge the two spirits."

"You need to find a sense of awe for the truth."

"You're not shooting at this statue, you're shooting at your own folly!"

Locke hesitated and looked at Mason Witch.

Start to consider whether what the other person is saying is correct or not.

Which one should we shoot?

At the same time, a second statue appeared behind Locke, depicting himself fiercely refuting others and presenting his own viewpoint.

Mason Witch looked at Locke and said, “Locke, listen to me. This is your last chance. Don’t make the wrong choice. You must reflect on yourself with respect for the truth. Now you must make the right choice.”

"Your choice will be confirmed by the sacred dragon [Cassiodrak] who originated in the Dark Ages. If you make the right choice, your arrows will be imbued with the spiritual power of the sacred dragon Cassiodrak, and this power will increase with every point you gain in strength."

Mason Witch said, "The Holy Dragon Cassiodrak is also the Guardian of Order, the Guardian of Truth, and the Wizard who upholds Truth."

"If you make the wrong choice here, you will lose the blessing of the Holy Dragon. The Holy Dragon will forever abhor wizards who defile the truth."

Just then, a wizard suddenly walked up behind Locke, looked at him and said, "Locke, shoot that arrow, shoot that arrow at the statue of the throne wizard."

"What throne wizard? They're not even worth a hair on your head. You are the greatest wizard, possessing the greatest insight in the world. When you shoot that arrow, the world is foolish, but you are the most clear-headed!"

Mason Witch glared at him. "Shut up, you madman."

The wizard retorted sarcastically, "That's still much better than someone like you who just parrots others."

The wizard looked at Locke and said, "This is a test from the human wizard Cassiodrak, a challenger of truth originating from the Dark Ages. Only by shooting that arrow at the statue of the throne wizard can you gain Lord Cassiodrak's spiritual confirmation."

Locke frowned.

He discovered that fusing the power of the Peach Arch Thorn Arrow to pass this trial and obtain certification from a wizard from ancient times was more difficult than he had imagined.

Both options have their merits.

Moreover, it seemed that luck couldn't be relied upon, because Locke began to doubt that whatever he did was wrong.

Shooting in either direction is a mistake.

So, don't shoot?

Locke began to consider whether he should make this choice.

Mason Witch and the wizard started arguing. "Don't be extreme. That way you'll always be right."

The wizard then angrily retorted, "I am the only one who is right! You are all liars."

Locke looked at the two men, frowned, and under their gazes, picked up the peach wood bow, drew the bowstring, and aimed an arrow at the statue of Catherine the Witch.

Locke looked at the 'Mason Witch' and said, "The greatest enemy of truth is not ignorance, but the arrogance of believing that one has grasped the truth."

The 'Mason Witch' turned pale. 'If you shoot that arrow, I'm not kidding, you'll definitely fail.'

Locke looked at the 'Mason Witch' and said, "Our ancestors' teachings are not to be followed blindly. People of the past may not understand what is happening today. And the doctrines of the past may not be able to solve my problems."

"You want me to submit to authority, but I don't believe authority is the truth."

Under the wizard's excited gaze, Locke shot an arrow at the statue of Catherine the Witch.

Suddenly, the arrow shot out like the sun rising from its burrow.

A sun sets into the distance.

Mason Witch shook her head slightly, as if she were regretting something.

The wizard burst into laughter.

But the next moment, his laughter stopped abruptly, because Locke had deliberately shot at it. The arrow flew over the statue standing in the city and destroyed the top of a mountain behind it, flattening it completely.

The wizard's face immediately darkened.

At the same time, both statues began to shake and cracks started to appear.

The wizard looked at Locke and asked, "What did you do?"

Locke said, "I'm just trying to understand what that wizard was thinking back then. If I need his spiritual blessing, if I need to merge with his spirit, then I need to consider what he was thinking back then."

"I don't believe that the wizard in history actually shot an arrow at his mentor's statue out of spite and destroyed it, but he did shoot an arrow in the direction of the statue to express his genuine respect for the truth and his reasonable questioning of authority."

Locke looked at the 'Mason Witch' and the unfamiliar wizard. 'Shoot down your mentor's statue, leaving only your own. What difference is there between that and not shooting at all? It's just that the representative of authority has changed from your mentor to yourself.'

"The authority of others becomes one's own authority."

"Destroying one's own statue while keeping one's mentor's statue would be tantamount to making oneself a complete vassal of one's mentor. If I am not mistaken, this wizard of the Dark Ages held a high position in his time; he was one of the authorities of that era... which is why he was qualified to decide here whether to shoot or not."

"The pursuit of absolute correctness is itself a form of submission to authority, merely a cycle of repeating the past. Ultimately, it will lead to a dark age!"

At this point, both statues began to collapse.

The image of Mason Witch has disappeared.

The unfamiliar wizard curled his lips into a smile, and at the same time, a huge white dragon appeared where Mason had disappeared. It was a sacred dragon, so large that a single scale seemed to represent a demiplane.

The dragon had four claws, but its middle body was longer, suggesting it was a variant of a true dragon, quite different from ordinary dragons.

The wizard said, "Locke Augustine, you are right."

The wizard and the dragon spoke at the same time. "Cassiodrak is both a human and a sacred dragon, and one of the most authoritative scholars of the Dark Ages."

"Equivalent to a third-ringed throne wizard in your time!"

"He was the first pioneer in history to challenge the authority of the Dark Ages. But his end was not good... Time has passed, history has swallowed up many things, and the history of Cassiodrak has also disappeared, and many wizards no longer know him. But his spirit remains in the past."

"Since that's the case, I'll grant you that privilege and allow your arrows to receive a trace of Cassiodrak's spiritual blessing."

"May the spirit of Cassiopeia shine once more in the distant future."

"From today onward, your arrows will receive a trace of the divine dragon's spiritual blessing."

Locke seemed to see, in the past, in the Dark Ages, the moment when the sacred dragon, which expressed people's desire to abandon the mindless worship of authority, was ultimately exiled by those wizards into some terrible dark abyss.

Locke's Book of Sovereigns appeared automatically and began to absorb this historical material.

This is also a piece of historical material.

The negative energy particle field information contained within this part of the spirituality is even a very precious historical record. This precious historical record comes from the inheritance within the faction of the Golden Crown Mountain Academic Committee, something that the original black wizard archaeologists could never have touched.

Therefore, although it objectively exists in this world, it is still considered a sealed history because archaeologists cannot access it.

No one can read it.

Today, with Locke inheriting this magic, this history has been recorded by him as an archaeologist in the Book of the Sovereign.

(End of this chapter)