Chapter 799: The Move Played by Takamagahara

Wizard Gakula was at this moment filled with guilt. He looked at Locke and said, "Locke, are you not staying to research together?"

"The two of us can collaborate. I have long wanted to work with a talent like you."

Locke waved his hand.

"No."

"It is not that I am declining out of politeness. I have more projects than I can handle. I will leave this side to you, Wizard Gakula."

Wizard Gakula felt guilty for having suspected Locke earlier.

"Understood, Wizard Locke."

Locke glanced at him, then rode the Magical Dragon Rose and flew out of the Forbidden Forest. The interior of the Forbidden Forest was full of mysteries, so he had no need to worry about Gakula's safety. Rather, it was Gakula himself who needed to worry about his own safety.

Locke quickly made his way toward the southeastern quadrant's wizard floating vessels, preparing to return to Golden Crown Mountain.

He needed to buy two ship tickets, because in addition to himself, there was now Witch Stephanie.

An unlicensed wizard apprentice did not count as a person, so he could easily place a black wizard apprentice into his half-plane and board the floating vessel that way, but a crystallization witch was another matter.

At this moment, aboard the wizard floating vessel, Locke looked at Witch Stephanie with an expressionless face and said, "High Priestess, I hope you will not try any tricks. Otherwise, do not blame me for turning on you."

"Throughout this time you have refused to tell me the Ghost Sacred Order's core spell models, but I think once you go to the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, to Golden Crown Mountain, you may have a different perspective."

Witch Stephanie bowed to Locke, her heart filled with overwhelming fear.

"In the presence of a great wizard like you, how would I dare make any move. It is only that if I hand over those core spell models, I would be betraying the Pale Pilgrimage. I could never go back."

"I would lose my backing. And moreover, once the secret was shared with you, you might turn around and kill me."

"Great Wizard Eye Demon, I wish to propose a deal with you. As long as you are willing to give me a standing within a white wizard organization, I will agree to hand over the core spell models."

Locke did not accept this deal at all.

"You do not have the standing to negotiate with me."

Because things had been so busy lately, his main body was still racing to research the situation with the Stygian ancient tree, and he had not yet reached the stage of making use of the Stygian River's properties. That was why he had not been pressing her for the Ghost Sacred Order's core spell models.

But whenever he was ready, as an alchemist, he had plenty of methods available.

Truth serum-type potions, with a bit of research, could easily be combined into a combination potion effective even against a crystallization witch.

Locke brought her aboard the wizard floating vessel, and on the floating vessel, Locke happened to encounter Witch Zoe again.

Witch Zoe looked uneasily at Witch Stephanie, who was under Locke's control. 'Eye Demon Wizard, a few months without meeting and you have started trafficking people?'

'Is the Eye Demon Wizard a white wizard or a black wizard?'

'Terrifying. I had better keep my distance from him.'

Locke looked at Witch Zoe with some surprise. 'This woman's magic pressure is rising very quickly. She is nearly at the crystalline stage. I have run into her twice now.'

'Is this a coincidence? Or is she following me? She should not have the nerve to do that. Then it is a coincidence.'

'Something is off.'

The tiger's eye on Locke's forehead opened, looking down at her from above.

Witch Zoe was so frightened she dared not move, afraid that Locke might suddenly make a move.

Although this was a wizard floating vessel, she could not be certain that Locke was not ruthless enough to publicly disregard the laws of white wizard society.

A drop of sweat ran down Witch Zoe's forehead.

After careful examination, Locke finally caught a fleeting glimpse of something. Witch Zoe's soul seemed to have some special planar force coiling around it.

'This woman has a problem. She has special planar force around her, seemingly designed to deliberately draw misfortune toward her.'

'She has encountered me twice. Was that truly a coincidence?'

'It is the special planar force wrapped around her soul that keeps drawing me toward her. This person's background is Takamagahara, the Purple Exile Road's high-circle wizard. She is that high-circle wizard's daughter. Either her soul has been tampered with by the high-circle wizard, either to protect her, or it is a kind of... binding restriction.'

'I was careless. Very likely all three of my encounters with her were guided by that special force.'

A cold sweat ran down Locke's back.

He had not anticipated that his encounter with Witch Zoe back at the First Circle stage had very likely also been influenced by a high-circle wizard.

Back then, fortunately, he had not discovered Witch Zoe's true identity. He had not recognized that she was a false sacred wizard.

'If I had recognized it back then.'

'Had I fought with her, who knows what would have happened. Later when I became a Second Circle wizard I did not move to kill her either, and who knows what might have happened then.'

Locke reflected, 'I was far too careless.'

Had he not run into her three times in succession, he would never have suspected that something was deeply wrong.

At this moment, using the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat bloodline to enhance his eyesight, he had only just now perceived the strangeness on her.

'The wizard world is still full of dangers for me as I am now.'

'In the future I must be considerably more careful.'

Locke swept a glance at Witch Zoe and smiled at her. "Your magic pressure has been rising very quickly. Rest assured, that little windfall of yours is not something I care to pay attention to."

A passing wizard inside the vessel glanced at them strangely, then quickly moved away without wanting any trouble.

Witch Zoe let out a quiet breath of relief. "Great Wizard Eye Demon, who is the witch you have with you?"

Locke smiled and said, "The high priestess of the Ghost Sacred Order from the southeastern quadrant. I just wiped out one sect and am now inviting the high priestess to come visit my Golden Crown Mountain as a guest."

"Why should Witch Zoe find this strange?"

"Is this not perfectly normal?"

Every hair on Witch Zoe's body stood up.

This man was simply inhumane.

Wiping out an entire sect and turning the sect's wizard leader into his own slave.

Truly ruthless.

Witch Zoe immediately made a decision in her heart. From now on, whenever she saw Locke she would go around him. She swore that this was the last time she would ever encounter Locke.

From this day forward, wherever Locke was located in any wizard territory, she would leave all routes connected to that wizard territory.

No, the Cloud Marsh Wetlands seemed to be a major thoroughfare.

Then she would go to the routes of the Raze Lowlands and the Rain Marsh Swamplands.

In short, she would do everything possible to avoid running into Locke again.

Locke watched Witch Zoe's carefully retreating figure with cold indifferent eyes.

Witch Stephanie perceptively looked at Locke.

"Great Wizard Eye Demon, do you find that liquification witch disagreeable? Do you have an old grudge with her?"

"I will kill her for you. I am willing to serve you."

Locke gave her a cold glance.

Foolish.

Damned woman.

If he was not mistaken, the special planar force on Witch Zoe's soul was certainly there to draw enemies capable of killing her toward her.

He had only caught a fleeting glimpse, but could confirm that the planar force served roughly this function.

'But she has not died yet. Who died instead?'

'She should be able to plunder something from those who tried to kill her. That is the reason her magic pressure has been rising so quickly lately.'

'If that is her nature, then being a black wizard would indeed be better for her development. The more people who chase to kill her, the faster her magic pressure rises.'

'On two occasions I very nearly fell into a trap.'

Cold sweat poured down Locke's back.

'I already knew something about this situation was strange. A high-ranking white wizard official's daughter wandering all over the floating vessel routes, and no one coming to apprehend her.'

'What exactly is she looking for, or what is she fishing for?'

'Never mind. In any case, from now on if I see her, I will simply act as though I did not.'

'Once entangled with this sort of thing, it might be impossible to shake off.'

...

At Golden Crown Mountain, Little Peach Mountain, the Ghost Gate.

Locke and Wizard Trajan, along with one of Trajan's students, a crystallization witch, walked through the gloomy Ghost Gate.

The Ghost Gate was suffused with a forbidding magical aura. Because too many wars had been opened with the Twin Demon Realm, this place resembled a purgatory, covered everywhere in exposed jagged rocks.

Trajan said to his student, "Valerie Quinn, you should thank my junior. Otherwise you would not have been included in accompanying me on a near-void exploration task."

Valerie Quinn bowed to Locke. "Greetings, junior uncle. I am Valerie Quinn, a botanical wizard."

Locke gave her a slight nod.

Valerie Quinn appeared to also be a Golden Crown Mountain student, currently remaining at the school as a teaching assistant, serving in a position as an assistant wizard mentor without yet having signed a proper lecturer wizard contract.

That is, she held no faculty position provided by the White Wizard Association, only a post with benefits.

This kind of post could be dismissed by Golden Crown Mountain without reason at any time, and held no protections whatsoever.

Valerie Quinn curiously looked up to steal a glance at Locke.

She was filled with curiosity about this Second Circle wizard uncle.

He was so young, yet already a Second Circle wizard, and yet counted as a generation above her.

Locke gave her a cool nod, then looked toward Wizard Trajan. "Senior, let us go."

Wizard Trajan smiled. "Let us go. For the near-void orbital track, small void flyers are used. There are rental facilities over there. The three of us can rent one."

"Some plant hunters buy a small flyer outright, but my advice is that renting is more suitable, because a small flyer sitting there needs maintenance."

"Once maintenance is required, that is another expense."

"Once you buy a small flyer, you have to use it regularly. Go one month without using it and you pay an extra month's upkeep fees. And furthermore, under the wizard laws, this kind of thing cannot be parked in the wizard world's present reality or in any of the various half-plane type equipment we carry on us."

"And so a dedicated parking space must be rented."

"My experience, therefore, is that renting is better than buying."

Wizard Trajan said, "The Ghost Gate itself has dedicated rental establishments that can meet our needs. And the fee for once is not expensive, around one hundred thousand magic stones."

Locke was somewhat surprised. "That cheap?"

Senior Fellow Trajan laughed. "It is not cheap. How would those cunning merchants ever give us anything cheap? First of all, First Circle wizards can also potentially rent these things, and for them a single trip at fifty thousand magic stones already requires gritting their teeth."

"Second, these things, because of their special construction principles, actually deteriorate faster when left sitting unused. They need to be taken out for a spin periodically. Those rental establishments' small flyers are acquired in precisely this way. In essence, we are specialized grooms hired to exercise their flyers."

"One hundred thousand magic stones is already enough to cover fuel costs and maintenance fees. And moreover, small flyers have a special function: the moment they are attacked, a magical formation activates and forces them back to the wizard territory."

"Because there is no spatial structure in the void, they can directly use spatial flickering to return to the wizard world."

"And so this kind of small flyer is extremely difficult to damage. Rest assured, anything that would cost them money, they certainly will not do. There is no need to think on their behalf about whether they have priced it too cheaply."

Wizard Trajan said.

Locke bowed slightly. "Senior is right."

Wizard Trajan looked back at Locke in surprise.

"The Eye Demon Wizard has been cutting a wide swath of destruction through the southeastern quadrant. Word has already reached the Cloud Marsh Wetlands. Eye Demon Wizard, there is no need for such politeness here with me."

"Between you and me, there is no need to be this formal. Ha ha ha..."

Wizard Trajan said to the puzzled Locke, "Under normal circumstances, news from the southeastern quadrant would be hard to reach the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, but what you did was simply too extraordinary. The Pale Pilgrimage's side seems to have learned about the southeastern quadrant's affairs through certain means and publicized your name. Tsk tsk, wiping out a single-handed entire sect."

"Your fearsome reputation has already far exceeded that of an ordinary Second Circle white wizard. I hear the Demon Hunter Corps's bureau director has expressed a desire to recruit you."

Locke coughed once.

He had not expected the Pale Pilgrimage's side to be this petty, actually broadcasting his deeds.

Beside them, Witch Valerie Quinn, listening to her teacher and Locke's exchange, felt a great storm rising within her. She never would have expected that the young man before her, who appeared entirely ordinary and mild-mannered, was in fact such a fearsome figure.

Wiping out another's entire sect. That was truly too ruthless.

Was such an efficiency of killing even possible?

Even for a Second Circle wizard, the efficiency of killing First Circle wizards surely could not be this high?

How was this accomplished?

First Circle wizards had permanent defensive force fields.

Locke said, "Those Pale Pilgrimage black wizards have the nerve to spread rumors. They clearly left their own hidden failsafe within the Ghost Sacred Order's magic themselves. I merely accidentally triggered the failsafe they had left behind. Who could have known the entire sect would die off."

Wizard Trajan shook his head with a slight smile. "I only look at results, not the process."

The three entered the marketplace at the center of the Ghost Gate. The shops within the Ghost Gate market were almost entirely establishments renting out transportation.

Locke and Trajan walked into the largest shop, a place called the Ghost Peach.

Very quickly they rented a magical plant called the Boat Peach, which appeared to be a small void flyer constructed from a star ring-level magical plant as its foundation, combined with alchemical and enchantment techniques.

It resembled a small canoe formed from a hollowed-out tree trunk. ℴℴ𝘮

Wizard Trajan patted this Boat Peach.

"Solid enough. The Boat Peach flyer is reliable. Look at these virtual roots. These are the virtual roots of a star ring magical plant, different from ordinary virtual roots in that they have a main root. Ordinary virtual roots are like a cluster of whiskers, all fine rootlets. This one has a thick main root with fine roots surrounding it."