Chapter 803: Mass Production of the Zero Potion

Locke inverted the Bronze Cauldron, tossed a black wizard's corpse inside, then ignited the Primordial Fire within it. The flames evolved from primordial force instantly filled the interior of the Bronze Cauldron, and within it the shape of a person formed from spirituality appeared.

The Spiritual Resonance on the surface of the Bronze Cauldron was continuously evolving.

Locke looked at the surface of the Bronze Cauldron, which bore engraved upon it the scene of the Heliotos Imperial Court at its height seventy thousand years ago. Only now that he had taken his first steps in Spiritual Resonance studies did Locke realize that by engraving the Spiritual Resonance of the Heliotos Imperial Court onto the Bronze Cauldron, the Great King Otto had completed the ritual action on his behalf.

'Just completing a single ritual action for a potion I am refining myself already consumes all of my energy and requires my full effort.'

Locke reflected, 'And the Great King Otto, seventy thousand years later, engraved the Spiritual Resonance of the Heliotos Imperial Court onto the Bronze Cauldron for me, allowing me to freely refine the Zero Potion without needing to call upon Spiritual Resonance myself.'

'Were it not for that, my Lunar Cultivation Method would likely have far more restrictions than it does now and would be far more difficult to apply.'

Locke thought, "No wonder I can refine two bottles of Second Circle potions per month. It turns out that my accumulation of perceptive sensitivity to Spiritual Resonance has not been absent after all. I was already building up a portion of it each time I refined the Zero Potion."

At this moment, Locke grabbed the black wizards nearby and threw them into his Bronze Cauldron one after another. He reverse-refined the potions, extracting the spiritual energy from these black wizards and converting it into the Zero Potion.

Large quantities of moon essence kept appearing inside the Bronze Cauldron.

Witch Valerie watched from the Peach Boat, jaw dropped.

"Junior uncle is actually refining those black wizards into potions. I have never heard of such a thing, nor seen it."

"Locke junior uncle would not secretly be using white wizards for potion-making too, would he?"

Witch Valerie looked at Locke with suspicious eyes, but then she shook her head.

"Junior uncle Locke is such a good person. He even spoke up for me when no one was paying me any attention. He cannot be that kind of person."

"He must only be using black wizards to make potions. Legally those black wizards are not people, and besides, these pirates were the ones who attacked this transport station first."

Witch Valerie made every effort to convince herself to accept the brutal scene before her. "If we had not come, those black wizards would have taken all the supplies on the transport station, slaughtered everyone, and kidnapped the apprentices. So... so junior uncle Locke must be this ruthless toward them because of that."

At this moment, on the three pirate ships, the enchantment-school black wizards of the Chaos Mothership who witnessed this scene were all grinding their teeth in rage.

The one leading them was a moon ring wizard. This black wizard of the moon ring stared wide-eyed and was consumed by fury. Trajan was slaughtering his people, and the ordinary Second Circle wizard behind him was actually holding up a crucible-type magical artifact, following after Trajan and harvesting the bodies of their pirates to brew potions.

Evil.

This was too evil.

Compared to this, what was their own human artifact enchantment magic?

Damn the White Wizard Association. Was no one going to do anything about this?

This person was literally using people to brew potions!

Lines appeared across the moon ring wizard's face, making him look as though he were wearing a Sichuan opera face mask, though those markings were in essence enchantment-school spell models, each one of them on closer inspection.

His face had turned black at this moment, and he stared furiously at Locke, but Locke put on his Second Circle wizard shoes, the Great Blood Wave Bromeliad wizard shoes, covered his body with the Magical Dragon Rose, and with a nimble twist turned, vanishing from the moon ring wizard's sight in an instant.

All that remained before him was Wizard Trajan, whose eyes had gone red with killing.

"Crafty young wizard."

Even this moon ring wizard pirate could not help but offer a word of admiration. Locke was too slippery, somehow managing to relocate instantly in the very moment the wizard looked at him with his spirit-binding enchantment mask.

At that moment, Wizard Trajan directly ignored the opponent's psychic enchantment. It was nothing more than an attempt to plant external fear into another's soul through enchantment-school means.

Using the human artifact face mask method, one could amplify the effect of this enchantment spell in the form of a magical artifact.

This allowed an enchantment spell that would ordinarily be difficult to successfully apply to an opponent in combat to take effect on them.

Trajan raised his left hand, and at once a storm of peach blossom petals drove toward the moon ring black wizard in a shredding assault.

The moon ring black wizard immediately changed his face, swapping the black face for a red one. As he changed the enchantment spell on his body, his properties as a magical artifact shifted as well.

As a result, his physical capabilities were greatly enhanced, and he retreated rapidly, dodging this spell from Trajan.

Trajan's Peach Kill Curse landed on the deck of the pirate ship instead.

What mildly surprised Locke was that the pirate ship appeared to sustain no damage whatsoever.

'There must be some extremely skilled enchanters among these black wizards of the pirate mothership.'

Locke thought, "The ships they build are actually of quite high quality."

"That moon ring black wizard just now seemed to be targeting me. But I moved fast enough."

"There is no need for me to go head-to-head with a moon ring black wizard. After all, Senior Trajan is here. I should focus on collecting the black wizards' bodies and the pirate badges on them."

The bodies could be refined into moon essence, and the pirate badges could serve as proof of kills to be exchanged for payment.

Locke glanced at the pair of wizard shoes on his feet. He was finding more and more that having a good pair of wizard shoes in combat was truly invaluable.

Were it not for these shoes further enhancing his speed, he would not have been able to shift his position immediately in the moment that black wizard's eyes had turned toward him, allowing him to move in and out with ease.

'When that black wizard wearing the black mask looked at me just now, I felt for an instant that my mind was adrift, as though something were trying to crawl into my head and enter my soul.'

'According to the spell models of the enchantment school, it is difficult to directly influence an opponent in combat. Even with his magic pressure far exceeding mine, he should not be able to affect my mind with a single glance, adding or removing elements through an enchantment blade.'

'Is that the effect of the special mask?'

Locke hoisted the Bronze Cauldron and had already loaded over a hundred black wizards' bodies into it along the way.

The last time, when he had wiped out the Ghost Sacred Order, because the Ghost Sacred Order were essentially crops cultivated by the Pale Pilgrimage, he had only been able to destroy the spiritual energy together with everything else to prevent the Pale Pilgrimage from exploiting it again.

But this time, these Chaos Mothership pirates had no such issue, so he could freely collect their bodies without any problem.

Seeing the spiritual energy within growing ever greater, Locke was extremely pleased.

Senior was doing tremendous work.

Boom.

In an instant, an ordinary Second Circle wizard with a magic pressure of ten thousand had his soul, permanent defensive force field, and Grand Magic forcibly destroyed by Trajan's Three Thousand Peach Kill Curse.

The Grand Magic of the Chaos Mothership's black wizards was themselves.

After all, since they themselves were human artifacts, one only needed to refine oneself into a Second Circle magical artifact and use that Second Circle magical artifact as one's Grand Magic to become a Second Circle wizard.

Therefore, their Grand Magic was a Second Circle magical artifact, and that artifact was themselves.

But this also meant that the threshold for becoming a Second Circle wizard was somewhat lower for the pirate mothership's black wizards, and those who became Second Circle wizards by this method were extraordinarily watered-down, little more than oversized First Circle wizards.

Because using this method to reach the Second Circle was essentially becoming a specially upgraded Second Circle magical artifact of that truth-seeker wizard who had defected to the Chaos Mothership, equivalent to turning oneself into a slightly special Second Circle magical artifact belonging to that truth-seeker wizard.

Locke watched as that Second Circle black wizard's entire body was destroyed, then immediately loaded him into the Bronze Cauldron, activated the reverse potion refinement method, ignited the Primordial Fire, and extracted the spirituality within, converting it into the Zero Potion.

"Thank you, senior. A single Second Circle wizard like this can be refined directly into one dose of the Zero Potion."

Wizard Trajan looked back and a flash of surprise crossed his eyes. He, who normally disliked speaking while killing black wizards, actually stopped to think.

'Junior is actually using black wizards to brew potions.'

'Well, this is not bad. I kill, he brews potions, and we each take what we need. When I think about it carefully, this combination is perhaps better. This is what one calls making full use of available resources.'

Wizard Trajan's eyes blazed with a fierce light as he turned toward a Second Circle wizard and a star ring wizard standing behind the moon ring wizard.

'Since junior wants these black wizards' bodies, then I will help him kill a few more.'

'I did not expect junior to suit me so well. I am just using the Peach Kill Curse to temper my Grand Magic with those black wizards, and junior has already started brewing potions with them. Ha ha ha ha...'

'If I could kill that moon ring wizard and use his body to brew a potion, who knows what kind of potion it would produce. We could split it in half, one for each of us.'

'Though the moon ring wizard is too close to my own level. I have only just become a sun ring wizard, and I estimate I can defeat him but cannot keep him contained. Unless he refuses to retreat in order to protect his subordinates.'

The black wizards' side sensed the malice from Wizard Trajan, the executioner, and one by one began to waver.

After all, by any measure, the executioner wizard seemed to bear considerably more malice toward them.

They all looked toward the moon ring wizard captain, waiting to see whether he would order a retreat or continue fighting.

The moon ring wizard captain gritted his teeth. He looked at Trajan with his one eye and raised the poisoned blade in his left hand. A vivid green poison dripped from the blade, which appeared to be a fine high-grade magical artifact, and because he himself was now also a magical artifact, mounting this poisoned blade on his arm was equivalent to combining two magical artifacts.

His Grand Magic could supply this artifact with power.

The moon ring wizard captain passed his right hand over his face, and at once a green face-mask appeared on his face.

"Executioner wizard, let us make a deal. Allow us to take half the supplies and then withdraw."

"What I hold is a lethally poisonous magical artifact, and under the augmentation of my human artifact, its toxicity becomes extraordinarily potent. This is a toxin enhanced through enchantment magic, and without a Second Circle potion-maker on your side, you cannot cure this poison. Should I happen to injure you or the Second Circle wizard behind you, that would not look good for anyone. Oh, and there is also a crystallization wizard on that Peach Boat of yours."

The captain said with a dark expression.

The next moment, his pupils suddenly contracted, because Wizard Trajan did not waste a single word on him and immediately drove a Three Thousand Peach Kill Curse directly at him.

He hurriedly summoned the shield artifact ring on his right hand, expanding it to cover himself as protection.

Wizard Trajan then stepped on that shield and, holding a sword-peach in hand, slashed toward the moon ring wizard.

On the other side, Locke followed behind Trajan, preparing to collect a few more Second Circle wizard bodies.

He pressed the Bronze Cauldron down over the body of a Second Circle wizard that Trajan had just killed under a combined assault.

Then Locke felt a magic pressure similar to his own approaching him.

Here it comes.

Although at this moment all the black wizards were concentrated on attacking his senior, as they realized they were no match for Trajan, they would quickly shift their target to wizards beyond Trajan, someone like himself.

Locke used the Magical Dragon Rose and the Great Blood Wave wizard shoes to speed away from his original position, but unexpectedly, the black wizard on the other side matched his speed in the very next instant.

And that wizard's speed was even faster than his own.

Locke stopped, and the black wizard also stopped.

That black wizard was an elderly man who appeared to be very old. He had only one eye, one leg, one arm, with a poisoned blade on his left hand and an alchemical prosthetic leg where his right leg should have been.

This Second Circle black wizard looked at Locke with a half-smiling expression and said, "Why have you stopped running?"

Locke looked at the wizard shoes on the man's feet and immediately frowned.

"Solas Light Foot wizard shoes?"

"How is it that Solas Light Foot is also doing business with your pirate mothership?"

The last time around, the Second Circle wizard from the Pale Pilgrimage he had killed had also worn Solas Light Foot shoes, an unreleased test pair at that.

And the wizard shoes on this black wizard before him now, Locke recognized them as an older model from Solas Light Foot with poor sales. He believed they were called the Archangel Battleboots.

The Second Circle elderly black wizard laughed and said, "No business partnership, just a regular purchase. After all, a good thing is something anyone would want to buy, is it not? Anyone can buy, no special partnership required."

"White wizard, you encounter our pirates and still think to walk away unscathed. That seems unreasonable. And you are so ruthlessly bloodthirsty, using our fellow black wizards to brew your potions."

Locke swept a cold gaze over him.

"If I could brew good things from your black wizard companions and even share the results with you, what would you say to that?"

The old black wizard immediately released a greedy gleam from his eyes.

"Then I would kill them for you with my own hands."

Locke said coldly, "Are they not your companions?"

The old black wizard sneered, "They are companions, which is exactly why they should be killed. You do not understand. That is what it means to be pirates."

Locke shook his head slightly.

"I do not understand the ways of pirates, but I had originally thought you had a business arrangement with Solas Light Foot, or had even received funding from the Rose Council. But looking at this now, it seems they simply offloaded old inventory that had been sitting unsold for a long time onto you."

"Is that why you were intercepting the transport carrying Golden Crown Mountain's goods?"

Locke held a nameplate he had picked up on the transport station during the battle, on which the origin and type of the cargo were recorded.

The Second Circle elderly black wizard's expression turned dark, his eyes going cold and vicious.

"Unsold trash, was it? Those people at Solas Light Foot said these were fine goods, items not for sale to the public among your white wizards, items that ordinary white wizards could not get their hands on. So they had us purchase this batch of goods at an eighty percent premium."

Locke immediately regarded him with a look of pity.

"A hundred and eighty percent of the original price? The Archangel Battleboots have the special ability to use light magic for gliding and rapid short-distance movement. Commonly called Light Riding, that is why you were able to catch up with me just now. However, these wizard shoes have durability problems and are unsuitable for medium-to-long-distance movement, which is why they sold poorly. They could not be sold."

"They are simply a failed design."

The Second Circle black wizard pirate's eyes burned with rage and he said, "I will kill you."