Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 774 The Ancient Court and the Black Wizard Leader of the Pale Pilgrimage

Patty drove the carriage with extreme caution, afraid that the seven first-ring vaporization stage dark wizards would notice something amiss. In her eyes, Locke was merely a first-class wizard apprentice.

However, she did not expect that Locke did not take it seriously at all.

He had two choices at that moment—the first was to follow this group to the Black Wizard Alliance and then have a friendly exchange with the leader of the Ghost Cult.

The second option is to kill all six, leave one alive, and then control him to head to the meeting place of the Dark Wizards Alliance.

It doesn't matter which choice Locke makes.

Locke and Patty had a brief exchange and learned about the current situation in the southeastern corner region.

A year ago, the Southeast Corner Region was in a situation where the Black Wizard Alliance was being suppressed by the White Wizard Association and was constantly losing battles. But a year ago, the situation suddenly changed.

A mysterious force suddenly intervened, strengthening the dark wizarding power in the southeastern corner of the region. A year ago, they organized an operation that was ostensibly an attack on the Four Seasons Garden, but in reality, a surprise attack on the University of Verdandia.

This operation was later referred to as the "Black Wizard Raid".

As for the University of Verdandia, its main wizards had already left the headquarters during the attack. Therefore, unable to reverse the situation, it could only abandon its base and break up into smaller groups, sending its students and wizard mentors to commit suicide.

Patty had already run away, but half a year ago, due to the lack of magical tides in the mortal country, her magic power declined. She had only recently broken through to the second-level wizard apprentice level, so in order to prevent falling back to the third-level wizard apprentice level, she had to leave.

After she exhausted her magic, she tried to find some magical resources. However, as soon as she entered a magic market in that mortal country, she was captured by the Blood Curse Court and a blood curse was placed on her.

Locke paused slightly after hearing Patty's story.

He then realized that this was the southeastern corner region, not the prosperous Yunze Wetland.

In the Cloud Marsh Wetlands and the mortal kingdoms, magical tides abound. In the southeastern corner, the various wizarding academies possess numerous magic arrays that gather the surrounding magical tides, enhancing the concentration of magic. Meanwhile, the mortal kingdoms are almost magic-free regions.

A weak wizard who stays in such a place for a long time will only see his power decline.

Locke looked at his right hand. After using Banxia and summoning the Moon Realm, he had lost his magical pressure and could not recover it in time.

After all, the southeastern corner region was far too barren for them.

Big fish can't come out of shallow water.

Even a large fish will find it increasingly difficult to survive in a shallow puddle.

Almost all the resources here are useless to a second-circle wizard.

Locke pondered, 'Therefore, there are very few second-circle wizards here.'

"Of course, according to the information I reviewed in the Yunze Wetland Free Library, besides that, the White Wizard Association also doesn't want wizards with too high a ring to enter weak wizarding territories."

'Staying here for an extended period, or undertaking any significant activities here, will attract the special attention of the association's ethics review committee.'

'And visits from the various officials stationed in this wizarding land. But I've been here for so long, and none of them have come to visit me. Either they're too busy with their own affairs, or they haven't discovered me yet…'

Locke said.

Regardless of the circumstances, it demonstrates that the intensity of the war in the southeastern corner region is escalating.

The local White Wizarding Association, which should have been paying close attention to the passenger list of the wizard's airship, didn't even have anyone contact him, a second-circle wizard who was visiting his hometown.

This is unusual in itself.

Locke said to Patty, "After this matter is over, I can write you a letter of recommendation so you can study at Lilith's Cottage."

Patty was stunned for a moment; she didn't quite understand.

Does a first-class wizard apprentice have such a high status at Lilith's Hut?
Could a single sentence grant her admission to Lilith's Hut for temporary study?

But Patty did not refuse. After all, she was in dire straits at the moment, and it would be best if she could get the protection of Lilith's Hut.

As Patty drove the carriage, she whispered to Locke, "But Locke, I've already drunk the cursed blood those damned black wizards fed me. I've entered a state between life and death."

"Can I, in this state, still return to the White Wizard community?"

Patty looked utterly desperate.

Locke frowned in surprise, lifted the carriage curtain, and then a primordial fire ignited at his fingertips. Immediately afterward, Locke placed his fingers on her back, and the primordial fire entered her body.

Locke used the reverse refining method to refine her spirituality, and then burned a bright red blood bead from her separated spirituality. The blood bead was immediately burned away by the primordial fire.

Then, her spirit returned to her body automatically.

Locke said, "Alright. The cursed blood in your body is gone."

"You don't need to worry about becoming a blood servant anymore."

Outside the carriage, Patty lifted her sleeve and saw that the blood streaks that would have appeared on her arm after drinking the cursed blood had disappeared, which meant that she really didn't have to worry about becoming a blood servant.

Patty's eyes widened, and after a long pause, she suddenly spoke to Locke in a respectful tone, whispering, "Lord Locke, thank you."

Even if she were incredibly dense, she wouldn't fail to realize that Locke might not be a first-class wizard apprentice now.

That was a curse placed on her by a first-class wizard apprentice from the Blood Curse Court who was closest to becoming a formal wizard, and Locke dispelled the spell in an instant. That can only mean that Locke is very likely a formal wizard!
In the southeastern corner region, the status of a formal wizard and a wizard apprentice is worlds apart.

Patty had already experienced this when he was at the University of Verdandia.

At this moment, her voice carried an insurmountable respect and awe.

Locke sat in the carriage and sighed.

We can never go back to the way things were.

In the past, Patty and he could chat and laugh about magical texts on the sunny paths of Orlean's Academy in Corfu, but now Patty is a second-class wizard apprentice, while he is a second-circle wizard.

The gap is really too big.

Even though she was determined to stay true to her original aspirations, Patty couldn't be the same person she remembered from the past.

This is the best possible outcome. If she knew that I was a second-circle wizard, the rift between us would likely be even greater.

However, we must look forward.

As I've journeyed along, more and more people have joined me.

As long as you keep going to higher institutions of learning, you will meet more people who share your pursuit of truth.

Locke, sitting in the carriage, asked Patty, "Patty, how many second-circle wizards came during the great black wizard raid?"

Patty said, "Two...two people. It was terrifying. I couldn't breathe when they appeared. All I heard were two people laughing loudly from the dark wizards' side, saying they were second-circle wizards..."

"Our second-circle wizard director from the University of Verdandia was quickly and severely injured by their combined attack."

"However, I only heard about these things secondhand."

Locke was not surprised by this; he sat in the carriage, fine-tuning all his botanical spell models.

A day later, the magical horse caravan arrived at the original site of the University of Verdandia.

The once majestic white building complex has been uprooted and completely destroyed, leaving only a pile of ruins.

After a day, Locke had used the Water Hyacinth System to inquire with the Celtic leader and learned what the banner of the White Bone Hand symbolized.

Pale Pilgrimage to the Hidden Spirit Land!
That is the symbol of the five major black wizard groups in Yunze Wetland.

In other words, the Southeast Corner is backed by the Pale Pilgrimage Hidden Lands, one of the five major dark wizarding groups in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands.

The Pale Pilgrimage Hidden Land is itself a place where a group of beings who are neither alive nor dead gather.

The White Wizarding Association forbids all wizards from researching necromancy. Any wizard who researches necromancy must pay a heavy fine, and if they refuse to pay the fine, they will be marked as a black wizard.

The Pale Pilgrimage Hidden Lands are a gathering place for marginalized groups within the white wizarding society who study necromancy and are associated with various wizarding lands.

Only after realizing this did Locke come to his senses.

"But the major dark wizarding forces in the southeastern corner are almost all researching necromancy. This suggests that the dark wizarding alliance in the southeastern corner is probably already deeply influenced by the Pale Pilgrimage Haunted Land."

"Furthermore, Patty said she heard that two second-circle wizards appeared during the [Dark Wizard Raid]. Originally, there were only two second-circle wizards in the Southeast Corner. This means that many new second-circle wizards have been sent from the Pale Pilgrimage Hidden Lands."

"Of course, the waters in the southeast corner aren't that shallow either. I guess the White Wizard Association has also invited second-ring wizards from outside to enter this wizarding territory."

Locke now feels fortunate that he did not choose to stay in the southeastern corner of the region to develop, otherwise he would definitely have been caught up in this war.

The day before, Patty had told her that the Four Seasons Garden was still under siege by the Dark Wizard Alliance, and she didn't know if it had fallen yet.

Once it falls, then the only remaining major white wizard force in the entire southeastern region will be Lilith's Hut.

All the remaining white wizarding academies are a rabble.

Lilith's Hut will bear all the pressure of the war.

Locke sat in the carriage, pondering the current situation. He never expected that the situation in the southeastern corner of the region would turn out this way.

As for myself, I'll just have to take it one step at a time.

He had originally returned this time to personally discuss the Myster Power Research Institute project with Lilith's Hut, intending to use Wizard Albert as a model to train more formal wizards who could achieve first-ring wizard status through the Forest Sanctuary.

Little did they expect that the war here had raged on for so long.

Moreover, the dark wizarding forces from the higher-level wizarding lands are also involved here.

Locke said in a low voice, "Strange, even in this situation, the Southeast Corner Region has not yet asked headquarters for help."

Outside the carriage, Patty, who was driving for Locke, remained silent because she couldn't understand a word Locke was saying.

The information she possessed was vastly different from what Locke knew.

For her, the southeastern corner region was the whole world, and the fall of Verdantia left her with enormous psychological trauma.

She felt like the sky was about to fall.

It's as if the Black Wizard Alliance is really that powerful, just like the Frankish Empire on Corfu that was about to unify six countries.

Little did Locke know that, in his eyes, this was nothing more than a minor conflict within an ordinary wizarding community.

Not to mention the White Wizard Association headquarters, even the White Wizard Association's eastern boundary branch in the Starfield Sea wouldn't need to take action. As long as the White Wizard Association branch in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands takes action, this Black Wizard turmoil will be suppressed very quickly.

Therefore, depending on the perspective, even the same problem can appear to have completely different severity and nature.

At this moment, before the ruins of Verdandia, a headless knight clad entirely in black armor stood blocking the path of the magical convoy. He wielded a black lance, a single-ringed magical artifact, and rode atop a hellish warhorse. His black armor was covered in chilling barbs. He had no head, and a wisp of soulfire flickered around his neck.

"Stop. License."

Inside the Blood Curse Court's magical carriage, a vampire elder, supported by a blood servant, stepped down and walked shakily to the headless knight, respectfully handing over a medal of the Bone Hand.

The aged, solemn vampire clan elder exclaimed excitedly, "Pale Pilgrimage, embracing eternal dominion!"

Locke sat in the magic carriage and immediately frowned.

"Eternal life?"

"This Pale Pilgrimage Haunted Land is a sacred site of necromancy. They seem to crave eternal domination, much like the Lich Kings of the Age of Stars."

A thought flashed through Locke's mind.

'I wonder if these two forces are connected.'

At this moment, in front of the magic carriage convoy, the headless knight, after seeing the permit, did not choose to move his spear, but continued to block the way with it.

It seemed to be wondering about something, so it didn't move.

Locke smiled wryly at the sight. It didn't matter; if this guy really recognized him, then he would have no choice but to kill him.

This is what they call "choosing the path to hell when there's no way to go to heaven."

Patty gripped the reins tightly, extremely nervous, her palms sweating profusely, fearing that the headless horseman might suddenly attack them.

The headless knight showed no intention of moving. Instead, he held a black spear-like magical weapon and pointed it at the nose of the clan elder of the Blood Curse Court, but he neither spoke nor made any move.

They seem to be assessing the situation.

The next moment, a vampire wizard suddenly rushed out, pierced the headless knight's armor with his blood claws, then pressed him to the ground and tore him into four or five pieces.

This move startled the other elders of the Blood Curse Court.

This is a high-level undead that the Crystallization Wizard set up here!

The young clan elder sneered, "When did we dark wizards become so rule-abiding? I've got my eye on this first-ring magical artifact. It's mine."

“I found this on the roadside, so it’s mine now.”

The other clan elders also looked greedily at the various parts of the headless knight.

"Then I want the soul fire of the headless horseman!"

"I want its body."

"I want its armor!"

"I want that hellhorse..."

In an instant, a perfectly healthy undead that was close to reaching the first ring was completely devoured by these fools.

Patty became even more nervous upon seeing this.

They even killed their own people!

This group of people is terrifying!

Do they really want to mingle with such a group of horrible lunatics?
Patty was trembling all over as she watched.

Locke, sitting in the carriage, had a strange expression on his face. Good heavens, he had originally planned to go out and kill all the black wizards in the caravan, including the headless horseman, and then go straight into the venue.

Who knew that when the group of dark wizards saw the high-ranking undead blocking their way, they immediately harbored malicious intentions, killed the undead, and instantly robbed all of the high-ranking undead's components.

All I can say is that they were lucky.

After killing the undead blocking their way, the magical carriage caravan entered the ruins of Vildantia, where many wizarding apprentices from various dark wizarding academies were scavenging.

Because this region had only been occupied for a year, many resources, which might be useful or even precious to the apprentices, remained in these ruins. Therefore, there was no shortage of black wizard apprentices scavenging here.

Who knows, one day a lucky dark wizard apprentice might plunder some precious resources here, causing a bloodbath.

Locke donned a black robe and followed the Blood Curse Court to a ruin where many dark wizards had already gathered.

Because they were wearing black robes and black hoods, and because hundreds of formal wizards were gathered here at the moment, creating a chaotic magical atmosphere, none of them noticed Locke's unusual behavior.

Locke immediately noticed that there were several of his old acquaintances there.

The first one is the witch Stephania, the female leader of the Ghost Cult.

The second is the Blood Lord.

He had no personal relationship with the Blood Lord, but he had clashed with several wizards of the Blood Curse Court in the past, so he naturally took a second look at the Blood Lord standing among the crowd in the ruins.

The third wizard was the Golden Skeleton King wizard from the Bone Cult.

At the same time, Locke also saw the wizard Hammerk, the chief wizard mentor of the Court of Bones who had overseen the Dark Wizard Alliance's operations at Lilith's Hut.

More and more dark wizards would occasionally gather at this ruin.

Clearly, this is a gathering of dark wizards, discussing how to further attack the White Wizard Association in the southeast corner of the region.

Besides the top-tier dark wizard academies in the four southeastern corner regions, there are also many smaller dark wizard academies, and some even have only a few wizards.

The wizard Hammerk glanced at the assembled formal wizards and dark wizards, their eyes gleaming.

"Only the Pale Pilgrimage possesses such power."

"With just one order, even the most remote and secluded black wizard academies in the southeast corner of the region can be gathered here. These are beings that my Imperial Body Court cannot command."

The Blood Lord said in a low voice, "After all, in theory, all our heritages were passed down from the Pale Pilgrimage. Especially our Blood Curse Court, the Corpse Control Court, the Ghostly Holy Church, and the White Bone Order."

"The founding wizards of these four wizarding academies all came from the Pale Pilgrimage. The other smaller wizarding academies were generally founded by graduates of our four academies."

The Blood Lord said, "Because of this order, all the official wizards of my Blood Curse Court have come. Otherwise, I'm afraid it would have been difficult for all the official wizards of our Blood Curse Court to be present at once. Not only that, even the official wizards from our Blood Curse Court's larger wizarding academies, such as the Tower of Curses, the Blood Church, and the Blood Slaughterhouse, have come. Hehe... All the official wizards of our Blood Curse Court lineage are here."

The chief wizard mentor of the Hall of Bones, Hammerk, ordered the old medium beside him to raise a medium lamp and illuminate the ruins.

As the eerie ghostly flame ignited, everyone's faces were bathed in a greenish glow by the magical light.

The old medium said, "We have conveyed the orders of the court ministers. Before the Great King's royal court moves here, the White Wizard Associations of this land must be cleared out. Therefore, we must launch a final attack on the White Wizards. Currently, among the larger wizarding academies of the White Wizard Association, only Lilith's Hut has not fallen."

"Today, under the witness of our Lord, the leader of the Dark Wizarding Alliance, we will elect a leader to carry out the mission of storming Lilith's Hut! He will lead us to conquer the last stronghold of the White Wizarding Association in the area. This is the decree of the High Priest delivered by the Pale Pilgrimage!"

Locke was stunned.

So that's how it is. Even the Four Seasons Garden has been breached by now?
Even Niflheim University couldn't withstand the Dark Wizards' Alliance's attack.
Patty has been a slave to the wizards of the Blood Curse Court for half a year, so the information she knows is probably outdated. It seems that in the past six months, both the Four Seasons Garden and Niflheim University have fallen.

He had been busy with the Silent Grail and hadn't contacted the wizards in the southeast corner region at all.

The old medium, speaking in a somber tone, said, "We need to force the local White Wizard Association to reach an agreement with us. Therefore, we need to organize an operation to storm Lilith's Hut, forcing the White Wizard Association to negotiate with us and agree to let the High Priest's Palace descend."

Locke frowned.

Since the king, the palace, and the royal court are all very ancient things, logically speaking, after the Enlightenment, no wizard should have dared to call himself king or emperor.

With the White Wizards Association around, which wizard in the world would dare to truly consider himself an ancient wizarding monarch? He would surely be attacked by the entire world.

Pale Pilgrimage, who spends his days practicing eerie necromancy, never imagined that even the political system was still completely outdated, dating back to before the Enlightenment.

Court Minister?

If the second-circle wizard is a court minister in the Pale Pilgrimage, then it means there should be a third-circle wizard in the Pale Pilgrimage.

Locke used the Water Hyacinth System to inquire with Celtic Team Leader about which academy in Yunze Wetland was sponsoring the Pale Pilgrimage.

The Celtic team leader quickly gave himself a reply.

'It's the Rose Council and the Storm Tower.'

"Locke, I almost managed to seduce a Sun-Shepherd Dragon. I was planning to give it to you as a congratulatory gift after you become a second-circle wizard. Alas, that dragon died."

Locke blinked, his face twitching, and asked, "Why does Storm Tower support so many dark wizards? Team leader, which one do we at Golden Crown Mountain support?"

The Celtic team leader said, "Storm Tower has a lot of shady businesses, so it needs black wizards to help them cover up. Whenever someone is about to get evidence and is about to sue them, they can contact those black wizards."

"Golden Crown Mountain is funding the Chaos Mothership."

Why are you asking these questions?

Locke replied, "It's nothing, I just encountered the Pale Pilgrim in the southeast corner region."

The Celtic group sent a string of "??"

"How come, Locke, you're just visiting relatives and you run into a dark wizard causing trouble? You can report this to the White Wizard Association of Yunze Wetlands. Although our White Wizard Association of Yunze Wetlands is just a White Wizard Association of a wizarding land, because of its economic status, it's a level higher than the White Wizard Associations of ordinary wizarding lands."

'However, there's no benefit in reporting it.'

"Of course, you can handle it yourself. Anyway, this kind of thing is none of our business. This time, the Pale Pilgrimage's opponents were Storm Tower and Cassilos University of the Arts. The Pale Pilgrimage defeated Storm Tower but lost to Cassilos University of the Arts. According to the rules, the Pale Pilgrimage hunted a portion of the living in our Cloudswamp Wetlands, thus greatly increasing their influence in the wizarding world."

'I suspect that's why they were able to cause trouble in the southeastern corner of the region.'

Even if you leave them alone, if they dare to cause trouble, the Witcher army will come to suppress them.

Locke was speechless. Was the Storm Tower really that useless?

Good heavens, the competition system in Cloudze Wetlands is flawed. The reason why there is no academy to replace it in the Storm Tower region is entirely because Storm Tower forcibly suppresses the wizarding academies in the entire region.

Locke pondered for a moment.

This top-ranked weather wizarding academy, which is always at the bottom of the list, seems to be facing some uncertainty about its position lately.

The Silent Grail is consistently at the bottom of the rankings, and it has also lost the five major wars.

Even if it's just a temporary bug, the Yunze Council has probably been unhappy with it for a long time and is likely already secretly planning how to eliminate it, but they're just holding back.

It's important to know that Yunze Wetland has a total of ten districts, but only seven of them have top-tier wizard academies, while the remaining three districts have a large number of medium- to large-scale wizard academies.

Those wizarding colleges could easily leave one region and go to another!
Or they could stay in their region and launch an academic challenge against Storm Tower, replacing Storm Tower with a new region—either is a possibility.

(End of this chapter)