Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 778 The Giant of the Underworld and the Iron Tree of the Underworld!
Within the River Styx, the waves surge and countless consciousnesses churn; a single drop of water from the River Styx represents countless consciousnesses.

And in this main section of the Styx River, there is actually an iron tree.

Who planted this?

Locke looked at the iron tree, puzzled.

The Styx River is so mysterious that it is a dangerous and desolate place that even second-ring wizards cannot stay in for long. So who planted such a magical plant here?
What is the purpose of this magical plant?

Locke saw countless imaginary roots appear at the base of the demonic plant, which spread towards the Styx Riverbed and took root there, seemingly entering the imaginary sea of ​​the Styx.

That is the 'possibility' of the River Styx.

These imaginary roots were completely different from all the imaginary roots Locke had seen before; they seemed more perfect and more developed, like a pale brain neuron.

These imaginary roots are covered with dense root hairs, and each root hair has a spiritual bubble on it.

At this moment, without the suppression of the Styx River, these spiritual bubbles began to burst one by one, and one after another, spiritual radiance rose up and transformed into spiritual clouds. The spiritual clouds gathered together, and soon, a phantom spiritual realm similar to the [Root Realm] gradually appeared.

Upon seeing this, Locke immediately fell into deep thought.

No matter how surprised he was, he had to admit that the special realm formed by the convergence of spiritual energy after the spiritual bubbles in front of him seemed to be the Root Realm.

The two are too similar.

"Many spell models are based on the magical plant itself, or the structure or mechanism of its natural magical components."

Locke looked thoughtful.

“As the witch Victoria once said, only third-circle wizards can condense the Root Realm and gather the magical power of second-circle and first-circle wizards to form the Root Realm. The main power supporting the Root Realm is the great magic of second-circle wizards.”

"Perhaps she didn't tell me at the time that the prototype of the Root Realm was a special realm created by imitating the advanced imaginary root, or perhaps the Root Realm was simply the 'fruit' harvested from the advanced imaginary root?"

"Of course, it's also possible that this isn't the 'root realm' at all."

Locke looked at the magical plant in the River Styx and pondered, "The water of the River Styx is as heavy as a thousand pounds. A second-circle wizard could not possibly move it even an inch. At least in my view, it is impossible to move it."

"If it weren't for the Crimson Deep Court diverting the Huai River into the sea, I doubt I would have had the chance to discover the true nature of that iron tree. So it seems that the branch of this iron tree that protrudes above the water was used to reduce the learning difficulty and casting conditions of the Ghostly Magic of the Ghostly Holy Cult."

"The rest of the cycad is likely used for other things. But what for?"

Locke fell into deep thought. "I must seize this opportunity."

"This undoubtedly hides a huge secret, and it could exist as a major project."

Locke's eyes gleamed; if he could seize this opportunity, this discovery might become the subject of his top-funded project.

You'll then have a better grasp of your application.

Moreover, if the Ghostly Cult can use this magical plant to turn it into their central server for Ghostly Magic, then as a proper breeder and botanical wizard, can't I also use this magical plant?

Locke pondered, "Most likely, this demonic plant was planted first, and then the founder of the Ghostly Holy Cult came here. Then, he used the part of the demonic plant that was above the water to inscribe runes and create a public server."

Locke felt a sense of amazement at that moment.

Who could plant a demonic plant in such a terrifying River Styx?
Locke first tried to collect the rudimentary form of the special realm on the imaginary root. Since it was a kind of 'fruit', the 'fruit' that the imaginary root produced could be harvested.

Locke first used his telekinesis to capture that special realm, and then tried to put it into his astral ring. However, his telekinesis passed through the special realm and then crossed over, making it impossible to harvest it. The astral ring also failed to take in that special 'realm'.

Locke frowned, took out a second-ring sea gold sand, which was enveloped by the spell model of [A Lone Tree Cannot Support It], and transformed into a fern spear, which shot towards the special realm. However, for some reason, even the powerful second-ring botanical magic passed directly through the special realm and could not be collected at all.

Next, Locke tried three more methods, but nothing could touch that special 'realm'.

Locke said, "It's like I see the 'fruit' but don't have the right sickle to harvest it."

"This thing is probably impossible for me to harvest at my current level."

Locke looked displeased, after all, the treasure was right in front of him, yet he couldn't take it away.

"Wait a moment."

Locke realized what was happening.

“Other wizards have been here long ago. If it were so easy to take away this special realm, the wizard who used a branch of the Styx Iron Tree would probably have taken it away first.”

"Where would it be my turn?"

"After all, the 'fruit' of this imaginary root seems extremely difficult to cultivate, and it seems to require a long time to accumulate, rather than being cultivated overnight."

Locke then used the moonlight of the Moon of Evolution to try to nurture the magical plant and see if it could be incorporated into his Moon of Evolution. However, when his moonlight shone on the magical plant, it was like rain entering a desert, with the boundless rain being swallowed up by the boundless desert.

No matter how much 'rain' fell or how much moonlight was sprinkled, it had no effect whatsoever.

On the contrary, Locke discovered with a grim expression that the essence of the moon he had sprinkled onto the magical plant had been devoured by it, and he was unable to retrieve it.

But the magical plant itself did not change at all.

Locke frowned. "As expected, the fact that this magical plant can grow and exist in the River Styx means that it can either coexist harmoniously with the River Styx, or that its normal defensive power exceeds the corrosive power it would suffer from constantly being in the River Styx."

"Whichever it is, it demonstrates the extraordinary nature of this magical plant. It is difficult to utilize."

Locke flew quickly toward the magical plant, took out an ordinary grafting knife, and wanted to carve botanical runes, some powerful tree runes, onto the plant. Perhaps this could be a breakthrough to understand and utilize the plant's power.

But the next moment, the grafting knife shattered instantly upon striking the iron tree.

Locke frowned. "Not even the bark can be damaged in the slightest?"

"How did the founding wizard of the Ghostly Holy Cult leave his mark on this demonic plant?"

Locke took out the second-circle magical artifact grafting knife, the Spirit Vein Stitcher, which had been given to him by his third senior sister, the witch Fiona. As soon as the Spirit Vein Stitcher touched the bark of the iron tree, sparks of magic flew out.

Locke felt that if he used even a little force, this second-ring magic weapon would likely be destroyed, so he didn't dare to use too much force.

"This... this magical plant's normal defensive power, could it be that it surpasses my offensive magic?"

"Do I really want to try inscribing my magical runes on its bark with offensive magic? No, that's pointless. The damage caused by offensive magic cannot be precisely controlled, and magical rune enchanting is an art that pursues precision and delicacy."

Locke used the "Lone Tree Cannot Support" technique to ride the magic dragon Rose into the sky. He saw eight runes on the topmost branch and touched them with his fingers. Using archaeological magic, he collected information about the negative energy particle field on the runes to determine their age.

It was left behind approximately five hundred years ago.

'This wizard is most likely the founding wizard of the Ghostly Cult. There's severe magical pressure interference, making it impossible to determine whether it's a solar or lunar ring, but his magical pressure level is still within the second ring. He must have been using an extremely powerful form of necromancy.' Locke suddenly made a grabbing motion in the air.

"There is."

He pulled back sharply and threw it beside him. Then he used [Historical Recreation], and a phantom historical projection appeared beside him.

A wizard whose face was obscured, dressed in an elaborate robe with a white bone hand symbol on his back, stood in front of the iron tree, raising his right hand. At this moment, his necromancy magic seemed to be supported by a particularly powerful force.

His immense magic was held very high.

A black ghost fire appeared at the tip of his right finger. Then he stretched out his finger and drew in the air. The drawing automatically combined into a document in mid-air.

The document resembled neither brocade nor silk.

He said, "Please have the Minister of the Imperial Seal affix his seal, please have the Auditorium affix its seal, please have the Central Council Ministers affix their seals, please have the Dukes of the Palace affix their seals, please have His Majesty affix his imperial edict! Please have the Control Yuan affix its seal!"

"Please issue a decree, Your Majesty!"

The next moment, six illusory seals fell down simultaneously.

A cold, ruthless voice rang out. "In the name of the Pale Lord, permission granted."

Immediately afterwards, the document flew directly towards the branch of the iron tree, creating a huge magical conflict.

Once the burst of magical light subsided, four words appeared on the branches of the iron tree.

The illusion shattered, and the historical reenactment spell model ended.

Because of the excessive and high-quality magical pressure involved, Locke could only utilize this negative energy particle field information once before it shattered and could no longer be reproduced through historical reconstruction.

But at this moment, Locke finished reading the information and confirmed two things.

First, the founder of the Ghost Cult five hundred years ago was probably a Moon Ring Wizard or a Sun Ring Wizard, but he possessed special magic that could be stamped by the Pale Lord, and it seemed to be a special necromancy of the Pale Pilgrimage system.

As if by divine decree, this iron tree could be moved, leaving four magical rune words on it, thus creating the five-hundred-year history and prosperity of the Ghostly Holy Church's Ghostly Studies.

Secondly, Locke confirmed his previous conjecture through this archaeological evidence.

Indeed, this tree appeared first.

The pale pilgrims were merely using this tree.

Locke fell into deep thought. The question now was how he could make use of this magical plant.
'This demonic plant appeared in the River Styx, which is known for its ability to gather numerous consciousnesses. And since this demonic plant is located within the River Styx, if I could choose a suitable demonic plant to graft onto this one…'

Locke's heart stirred slightly.

"Then I might be able to realize my vision of an imaginary root server."

Although this is only a prototype, once this step is achieved, the idea that originally only existed in my mind will become a real prototype.

At this moment, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has presented itself: the water level in parts of the Styx River has dropped, and he must seize this opportunity, which may be the only one in the near future, to complete the grafting.

As long as the grafting of the magical plant is completed, it will be equivalent to leaving an interface on this Styx Iron Tree. Even if the Styx water level recovers and submerges the iron tree again, one can still use the grafted magical plant belonging to one's own ecological community to indirectly utilize the iron tree and further explore it.

But the problem now is that we can't even break through its defenses ourselves, so how can we complete the grafting?
I don't have any imperial edict from the Great King in my possession!
Locke frowned. As if things weren't going to get any worse, Locke looked up and saw a giant standing in the sky above the River Styx. The giant was so tall and large that it seemed to be far away in the sky.

Therefore, Locke could not see its appearance at all.

The giant seemed to be looking down at them, his voice incredibly loud.

"Editon, Kruger, you two are in charge of section 7265 of the River Styx. Why is the water level rising so high in this section, even flooding the surrounding areas?"

'Very well, let me calm this river.'

The giant stretched out his enormous hand toward this place.

At this moment, Locke realized that perhaps in the eyes of that giant, both he and the Crimson Deep Court seemed to be just a wisp of consciousness in the Styx River.

There is no difference.

The enormous hand descended from the gray clouds, and a terrifying demonic pressure enveloped it, even causing the Moon of Evolution to sink continuously. This immense pressure also suppressed the ceaseless torrent of the River Styx and separated the Crimson Deep Court from the River Styx.

Locke felt immense pressure, realizing that if he didn't act, the Styx River here would be suppressed, the water level would return, and he would no longer have such a good opportunity to study this Styx Iron Tree in the short term.

Locke gritted his teeth.

Wait a minute, the founding wizard of the Ghostly Holy Cult has the Great Lord's decree, but he also has a ferocious beast panel.

At this moment, Locke's eyes flashed with a fierce light, and primordial runes appeared in the tiger eye on his forehead.

The Beast Panel's powerful magic boosted Locke's Evolution Moon magic pressure, instantly increasing it from 16000 to 19000.

The Beast Panel can increase your magic pressure by 3000 points out of thin air!
By using ultimate magic, one can amplify the magical pressure of the clone, but in doing so, the main body will be unable to directly use ultimate magic.

After all, one can only have one ultimate spell, and at any given time, only one entity can use one ultimate spell.

Unless one possesses two extremely powerful spells.

At that moment, Locke did one more thing: he recited the incantation for ritual magic and offered two oak leaves as a sacrifice.

Immediately afterwards, Locke borrowed power like the Emerald Dream.

The power of the Emerald Dream needs to be earned by completing tasks. Of course, it can be overdrawn to a certain extent, but it must be repaid by entering the Emerald Sleep afterwards.

Therefore, Locke directly overdrafted all the remaining balance that Emerald Dream could give him.

He then applied the resulting magical power and the plant enlargement mechanism to the second-ring fern spear.

Locke held the Fern Spear, intending to use it as a grafting knife to forcibly cut a V-shaped incision in the iron tree and then plant his own Shadow Fern on it!

The Time Shadow Fern is the core of its own Evolution Month's ecological community, with a large number of mature Imaginary Roots, unlike those Second-Ring Magic Plants that it has nurtured, which only have one Imaginary Root.

I currently only have four magical plants suitable for grafting: one is a Magical Dragon Rose, one is a Time Shadow Fern, one is a Golden Peach Tree, and one is a Pinellia ternata!

The Golden Peach Tree needs to be paired with the Peach Arch Thorn Arrow, while the Demon Dragon Rose is deeply related to its own Demon Dragon bloodline, and the Half Summer is related to the generational succession. Therefore, only the Time Shadow Fern is most suitable to be grafted onto the branch of that Underworld Iron Tree!

(End of this chapter)