Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 651 Ancient Flowers and the Truly Hidden Thing!
Inside the hut, the mortal king suddenly had a flash of lightning in his eyes, and he abruptly looked up at Locke and the witch Shirley in the corner of the hut. "Who is it?"

The next moment, he raised the Thunder Greatsword and slashed at Locke and the witch Shirley.

The King's Greatsword, at the first level of crystallization, was wrapped in terrifying lightning, but before it could even get close to Locke, it was blocked by Locke with a single finger.

Van Wang's pupils contracted slightly. "Is it a wizard? How could a wizard possibly possess such power?"

Locke frowned.

He used the archaeological spell model [Historical Projection] to record his entire encounter with this mortal king.

The witch Shirley looked at Locke curiously and asked, "How is it?"

Locke shook his head slightly. "He's merely a user of power, not its true master. He knows what it is but not why it is. Even if he possesses a first-ring crystallization level of magical pressure because of that iron ball, that's all he is."

"The main reason they were able to kill those liches was because the kingdom's domain suppressed the power of necromancy."

"Furthermore, Otto should be a botanical wizard. His kingdom possesses incredibly powerful vitality, and similarly, this so-called Greatsword of the King... should not be merely a masterpiece of alchemy."

In the horrified gaze of the mortal king, Locke's fingers touched the core of the hilt of his greatsword, the mysterious iron ball.

The next moment, a bolt of magical lightning deflected Locke's finger.

A magical eye appeared on Locke's forehead, capturing the subtle, rapidly changing spirituality. As a skilled potion master, Locke frowned, sensing the traces of potion-making within it.

The king's men inside the cabin, all wielding sharp weapons, slashed at Locke and the witch Shirley.

"Release our king!"

“Wizards! This era does not belong to you…”

The next moment, the scene changed again, and Locke and the witch Shirley saw that the city of Heliotos was full of soldiers who had launched a rebellion.

The weapons in the hands of these soldiers were all blessed with special power.

Clearly, before the dawn of the mortal age had even arrived, these chosen kings, who should have formed the backbone of the mortal era, betrayed the Heliotus Royal Court first, and ignited a war between wizards and mortals.

One by one, lich wizards, bound by chains, were forcibly paraded through the streets of the Heliotos Royal Court by mortal armies, as the mortals scorned these undead who had lived for thousands of years.

Under the suppression of the kingdom of the Heliotos Royal Court, those liches have lost their power, and the soul fire flickering in their eye sockets is no longer strong.

Locke realized that the [Heliotos Royal Court] of this era was no longer the small country it once was. A ruler was only at the first stage of crystallization, and the kingdom was just a simple, ordinary magical kingdom.

At this time, the Heliotos Royal Court was a vast nation that had unified seventy percent of the wizarding world's territory and domain.

Its kingdom realm is a complex system that Locke can no longer intervene in with his rudimentary form of great magic, and it is even completely different from the original ordinary magic realm.

Even Locke and the witch Shirley felt their magical power completely sealed, making it almost impossible for them to cast spells.

Not to mention the liches, who were the primary targets of this era.

The liches were crestfallen.

As the procession passed Locke and the witch Shirley, a lich being escorted by two mortal soldiers suddenly raised his head and looked at Locke and Shirley.

Are you two...my colleagues?

"Do you see? Powerful sages are being humiliated by these foolish mortals. The [Heliotus Royal Court] has brewed a new tragedy; this is a great persecution."

“You wizards initially stood by indifferently, but the flames of war have now spread to you. Mortals will not be content with merely eliminating us; those mortal kings are ambitious, and they will devour any power they can reach. The great King Otto, the era he ushered in has plunged us all into a desperate situation.”

Two mortal soldiers dragged him forward with displeasure, glaring at Locke and the witch Shirley.

However, they did not launch an attack on the two.

At that moment, within the city, the statue of King Otto was suddenly pulled down by a group of soldiers who tied it with reins. The entire statue shattered into more than a dozen pieces.

A mortal king stood atop the city wall and proclaimed, "The era of the undead is over, but King Otto himself was a wizard. All wizards should be ruled by the king!"

"Under the whole heaven, all land belongs to the king! Overthrow King Otto, wizards! Only by obeying the orders of us kings will you have a place to live in the future."

“We have the combined army of sixty-one kings; you should understand how powerful the king is.”

"Rebel against Otto! Rebel against Otto! Establish a politics that truly belongs to our king!"

Within the city of Heliotos, soldiers everywhere chanted slogans of rebellion against Otto and the pursuit of true freedom, while others chose to stand with King Otto and maintain the existing order.

The witch Shirley and Locke tried their best to record everything that happened in this era: riots, destruction, and the self-destruction of mortals.

The witch Shirley said, "I see. I always thought it was the Black Sun Tower that directly intervened, causing the mortal era plan to fail. But now it seems that the mortal plan of the [Heliotos Royal Court] was already impossible to realize before the Black Sun Tower made its move."

Locke said, "Moreover, based on current historical records, I can make a historical conjecture—the [Heliotus Royal Court] had to be dismantled after its plan in the mortal era completely failed."

"Because the [Heliotos Royal Court] has lost the possibility of ending the Age of Stars, but its size is too large. The Tower of the Black Sun played the role of adjudicator and promoter of civilization during the Age of Stars."

The witch Shirley nodded and said, "Currently, the mainstream historical theories all believe that the Tower of the Black Sun ended the Age of Empires."

"So here's the question: after the Black Sun Tower ended the Imperial Era, why didn't it directly rule the next era? Instead, it created the Era of Stars, placing itself above all the magic kingdoms, yet it ruled without governing, allowing those magic kingdoms to develop on their own?"

Locke shook his head slightly. "This may involve the most fundamental secrets of the Age of Stars, so it is impossible to find out clearly with just these."

"What role did the Tower of the Black Sun play in the Age of Stars? What were its specific methods of ruling the wizarding world during that era? How much power did the major magical kingdoms actually possess? We still don't know the answers to these questions."

Locke looked at the seven-petaled red flowers, each as tall as a person, that had grown in the city of Heliotos Royal Court. "And did you see that? For some reason, so many magical plants at the first stage of crystallization have grown in this city."

"These magical plants require a large amount of magical tides and resources to grow, but at this moment, they are blooming in the streets and alleys of the [Heliotos Royal Court], which is very abnormal."

"Was the destruction of the Heliotos Royal Court related to this flower?"

Locke crouched down and looked at the seven-petaled crimson flower. The flower was shrouded in a crimson magic, and coral-like blood vessels extended from the edges of the ancient flower, drifting upwards and dancing.

Locke recognized it as a type of rose-like magical plant, but he had never seen such a plant before in Golden Crown Mountain.

A miniature moon appeared in Locke's hand. Under the moonlight of the full moon, the ancient flower grew rapidly, and its scarlet petals and blood streaks withered in a very short time.

Then, the ancient flower produced fruit, which withered, and a seed fell to the ground. To Locke's astonishment, the seed quickly took root and sprouted.

The entire scarlet flower plant withered and turned into fertilizer.

The surrounding land instantly became more fertile.

Meanwhile, the withering of an ancient flower gave birth to five seeds, all of which sprouted in a very short time under Locke's magic.

"Can this special magical plant fertilize the soil and even amplify the surrounding magical tides? How does it do that?"

At this moment, the witch Shirley reminded Locke, "Locke, be careful of your surroundings."

Locke looked up and saw many soldiers around him, and a Vanquisher holding a greatsword of ice, standing in front of them, surrounding them.

A soldier pointed at Locke and said, "It was him who used magic without permission."

The mortal king, wielding the Greatsword of Kings, looked at Locke with a hideous and greedy expression and said, "Spellcaster, are you a nobleman or a commoner? Why do you not kneel before the king?"

Do you still remember who you are?

The witch Shirley couldn't help but frown.

Locke realized that in this nascent so-called mortal age, Otto's excessive suppression of the wizards had only emboldened the mortals.

Therefore, power was no longer the most important thing; status and position became the tools for displaying one's worth.

Even if this so-called identity and status do not contribute to social productivity or the progress of civilization.

King Van became angry when Locke did not answer. "Wizard, how dare you disregard the king! Let me tell you, King Otto is about to be overthrown by us, and any wizard who does not choose to submit to us will be killed."

"Just like those pathetic lich monsters."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

“In that case, kill these two wizards. I will put their bodies on spears as a banner of my rebellion.”

The witch Shirley immediately drew her wizard's sword, but she felt that her magic was reduced to less than one-tenth under the suppression of the kingdom's domain.

The mortal army before them, however, were all blessed with the power of the Greatsword of the King and possessed magical abilities. With this shift in power, the difference in strength between the two sides was reversed.

The witch Shirley whispered, "What an absurd era. Nameless King, what have you done? Are you just going to watch these mortals who have gained power out of thin air?"

King Fan sneered, "I'm giving you one last chance. Kneel before me and submit to my power."

"otherwise……"

Locke said, "Power comes from wisdom."

King Van was stunned. "What did you say? What does power have to do with wisdom? Power comes from status and position. I am the king chosen by King Otto himself!" Locke sighed. "A witch from later generations told me that power comes from human wisdom. When you are a little smarter than others, you can lead them. When you are much smarter than others, you are the master of this world."

"King of mortals, you have lost your wisdom. Look behind you."

The mortal king instinctively followed Locke's voice and looked behind him, only to see a group of expressionless soldiers.

Locke chuckled coldly, snapped his fingers, and used the spell model [Historical Projection] to recreate the expressions of the mortal soldiers and generals behind him.

What frightened the mortal king was that every time he emphasized that he was the king chosen by Otto, the mortal soldiers and generals all showed the same contempt.

Some generals even sneered.

This made the mortal king realize that just as they could choose to overthrow Otto, why couldn't his generals overthrow him after they had done so?

The seeds of disaster were sown from the very beginning.

Van Wang was immediately covered in cold sweat.

Locke said, “Power comes from wisdom. Mortal king, do you believe your wisdom is still above that of your subjects?”

The King of Mortals looked at Locke with a vicious glint in his eyes and said, "Wizard, this is just a little trick you're playing."

Locke's pupils turned into golden vertical pupils, and some kind of power flowed through those ancient flowers into his blood, awakening the power of the world-destroying demon dragon.

A bright moon appeared in the sky, and then, the boundless moonlight shone upon the boundless earth. Countless ancient flower seeds, carried by the magical tides, were blown from the capital of the Heliotos Royal Court to the entire territory.

The poignant seeds of ancient flowers took root and flourished, continuously increasing the fertility of the soil and the magical tides throughout the wizarding world.

These ancient flowers, in their withering and flourishing, altered the geography of the wizarding world.

Meanwhile, within the city of Heliotos Royal Court, the mortals, after breathing in the fragrance of the ancient flowers wafting through the air, developed an even more terrifying desire in their eyes, as if they could devour people.

The witch Shirley looked at Locke with concern and asked, "Locke, are you alright?"

Locke stopped the spell and looked at the full moon above him. "It's nothing. What just happened was merely a projection of history, using me to recreate an event that has already occurred in history."

"It seems that this mysterious ancient flower is directly related to the destruction of the [Heliotos Royal Court]."

"In history, there was a wizard from the Tower of the Black Sun who spread this flower. Of course, it is very likely that my power composition is too similar to that wizard's, so this historical reenactment simply used me to simulate the process."

The witch Shirley breathed a sigh of relief. "It's good that you're alright."

"But why are you able to use magic normally here?"

Locke released the iron ball from his hand, and saw it shimmer with a faint light. A special spiritual energy entered his body, enhancing his magical pressure. "It seems this is a public force. So it's not just mortals who can be chosen as kings; wizards can also be chosen as kings in the mortal era."

"Therefore, in this era, my power will not be suppressed. Moreover, being so close to this power, I am certain that it involves the techniques of potion-making."

Locke glanced at the terrified and uneasy mortal army, and then the Great Azure Leaf Dragon Sparrow appeared behind him. He flew into the sky and looked down at the entire land. He saw that the [Heliotos Royal Court] was filled with those poignant ancient flowers.

'Ancient flowers seem to have the property of amplifying human desires,' Locke pondered. 'This will hasten the demise of the Heliotus Royal Court.'

'This flower must be from the Tower of the Black Sun, the one used to destroy the [Heliotos Royal Court]. In this historical fragment, I've simply accelerated the process. In the original timeline, this flower would likely have been seen as a symbol of wealth by the [Heliotos Royal Court] upon its appearance.'

After all, this strange flower can reproduce rapidly out of thin air, and it can also fertilize the soil and generate abundant magical tides.

That's really amazing.

Locke thought of Group 2, located in the Sand Plane. For Group 2, this mysterious flower was definitely a divine artifact.

Of course, since I couldn't take the magical plant seeds out of this past illusion, I could only use archaeological magic to record the information.

Locke looked down at the earth and saw these flowers everywhere. "Were these flowers everywhere in the final days of the [Heliotos Royal Court]?"

The next moment, the scene changed.

Locke stood in the sky and saw the Heliotos Royal Court shattered into pieces.

This special ancient flower has two medicinal properties.

First, enrich the land and strengthen the magical tides.

Secondly, the fragrance of flowers can amplify human desires.

As a result, the mortal cities throughout the Heliotos Royal Court can exist independently and protect themselves without relying on the central system of the Heliotos Royal Court, in addition to the rampant desires and ambitions of mortals.

This vast empire was torn apart.

"Is this the truth behind the destruction of the [Heliotos Royal Court]?" Locke pondered.

The next moment, the scene before him changed again, and the young wizard's voice appeared. "Locke, thank you for holding on until now. We're almost at the end. Thank you. Consider this a favor I owe you. If we meet again, I will repay this favor."

Locke looked around and found himself in a dimly lit, golden hall. "Senior Sister?"

“Your senior sister isn’t here.” A middle-aged wizard wearing a crown sat on the throne and looked at Locke, saying, “You personally destroyed my dynasty, are you pleased?”

"Ezra Clarkson!"

"Does the Tower of the Black Sun hate me this much?"

Locke frowned and looked at the Wizard King sitting on the throne. "What are you talking about?"

The Wizard King stepped down from his throne and walked towards Locke.

Locke instantly realized that the role he was playing here was not just himself, but a wizard from history who was meeting the nameless king at this very moment in this very place.

It is very likely that this is the spokesperson sent by the Tower of the Black Sun.

King Otto asked, “I know what you Black Sun Tower fear. So I know why you possess such great power, yet you have never dared to rule this world. The flowers of destruction you planted in my land have torn my kingdom apart. But in the end, it was those mortal kings who utterly destroyed my kingdom.”

Locke did not speak.

In any case, at this moment, we are simply making inferences based on scenes that have occurred in history.

Therefore, whether you say it or not makes no difference.

In Otto's eyes, he was still representing a wizard from a certain historical Black Sun Tower, and was conversing with it.

King Otto said, "My true form is now dead. Will you choose a new king? How will you end this Age of Stars? So that's it… Don't you yourselves have the answers?"

"Actually, if I had a little more time, I could have completed an even more perfect idea."

Locke uttered a sound. "Your thirty-year reign is over."

King Otto pointed to a massive bronze cauldron in the center of the golden palace. "This is a bronze magical artifact. A type of magical artifact popular in an interesting wizarding region I conquered. However, it's just a container; it's not the main point."

“We are both botanical wizards. But I am also a potion wizard.” King Otto waved his hand, and the lid of the bronze cauldron lifted into the air, revealing a blank spiritual entity within.

“I have analyzed why the mortal age failed. But I do not believe that my views are entirely wrong. Power and strength should be separated.”

“Those who maintain the order of civilization should not have unlimited lifespans. But my trust in mortals now seems to be just another form of folly.”

Locke frowned.

That blank spirituality was similar to the spirituality he had observed on the iron sphere. "What is that?"

King Otto said, "I used a bronze furnace and combined it with potion-making techniques to create a special kind of blank spirituality that anyone can possess. I plan to put some special powers into it to form a specific [rank].

"Those who possess these [ranks] will have power for a certain period of time and within a certain scope of responsibility. However, [ranks] are public and anyone can obtain them."

"In this way, I can separate the power and authority of a civilized administrator."

"Although my mortal life was a failure, I believe the idea of ​​public power still has potential."

"This is a shared, extraordinary power."

King Otto said, "It's a pity you won't give me a second chance to conduct a sociological experiment, will you?"

"It allows the holder of power to take turns. It's just a pity that there are still some imperfections. I don't yet know how to link it with some special positions and transform it into the [rank] I envision."

"Hmm... It's somewhat similar to the divine office of gods, but those who possess these ranks are still just human beings, servants of civilization. I call it separating power from authority. However, perhaps it's not suitable for this era; it's a bit ahead of its time. What do you think?"

"Is that so? You won't give me a second chance... Hehehe... Then my last and greatest achievement can only be sealed in history, unknown to anyone."

Locke heard someone speaking in their own voice: "No, even in history, everything about you will be erased, and no wizard will know what you have done."

"This is the judgment the Tower of the Black Sun has handed down on you."

Princess Loom, who had been hiding behind the golden palace, finally couldn't hold back any longer and spoke up: "No!"

(End of this chapter)