Chapter 847: The Second Circle Mid-Tier Trap and the Dark Magic Sound

Locke forwarded the message from Southern Gold trying to recruit him to his senior martial brother and asked whether it was trustworthy.

At that moment, in the Dark Great World.

The nameless wizard walked through this peculiar world with over ten thousand shades of black. His entire body had been stained black, the different blacks layering over him, making him look weathered and travel-worn.

The black of this world had dyed his body, assimilating his magic pressure.

A dark titan carrying a skull scepter walked across the ground of this world. Each step shook the earth, and the demons and specters in the darkness perished with every footfall.

The dark titan was the size of a mountain and traveled with an army of countless servants, all creatures bound to him in this world.

The dark titan suddenly spoke. "Wizard, you have fought me for so long. Are you not tired?"

"Return the sacred object of this world to me. I will let you leave. Otherwise, sooner or later I will find you, and you will not be able to leave this place."

The nameless wizard's expression did not change at all.

He looked at the small silver flower in his hand, shaped like a teardrop. "If my hypothesis is correct, then the Night Curtain above the Sunshade Peninsula and the Dark Great World are connected. This magical plant is the proof. This could at least allow one of my students to become a moon ring wizard. Hmm... should I give it to my junior martial brother?"

"Never mind. He is still an ordinary Second Circle wizard. Even if I gave him this hypothesis, he could not use it. Would I need to wait for him for decades? On top of that, his teacher has personally arranged his growth plan. If I interfere casually, I might anger the teacher."

At that moment, the dark titan suddenly began chanting a terrifying magic sound, like the wailing of countless hell-bound spirits, and like the alluring words of a demon god speaking from the darkness.

The entire world, under the interference of this dark magic sound, became wildly frenzied. One after another, demons and specters were driven by the magic sound to cover their ears, for otherwise their eardrums would burst, their fundamental existences would change, and they would spontaneously transform into different beings entirely.

These natives of the Dark Great World could not withstand the magic sound, and could only flee through the dimension passages of the Dark Great World to other smaller-scale worlds under the Dark Great World's domain.

The dark titan laughed uproariously. The army behind him also joined him in chanting the dark magic sound, and these sounds created fierce friction against the nameless wizard's permanent defensive field shell.

The nameless wizard's mind was being assaulted continuously.

He wanted to speak his own name.

He wanted to give his name to the Dark Great World.

"Almost all the darkness of this world is under the Dark Great Villain King's control." The nameless wizard thought. "These magic sounds are not attacking my mind but are controlling the darkness that has been assimilated with me."

The nameless wizard's Grand Magic, a peach tree, was surrounded everywhere by darkness like black ink, trying to infect the peach tree.

Everything was black, only the peach tree still had color.

And under this influence, even with all his effort at self-control, the nameless wizard's lips moved slightly, and he began to emit syllables one by one.

"No... name... no... surname..."

The Dark Great Villain King showed an expression of astonishment. In an instant he stopped chanting the magic sound. The army of one million demons and specters behind him also immediately ceased chanting the dark magic sound.

The Dark Great Villain King said, "No name? It is impossible for a person to have no name. A name is the lowest-cost tool through which you can connect with the world's fundamental nature. Where have you put your name? This wizard of the Nightmare Legion, I will certainly keep you here."

He resumed chanting the magic sound, and the one million troops behind him also began chanting again.

The entire world's darkness also chanted along.

But the Dark Great Villain King suddenly stopped when approaching a certain region, because what lay ahead was no longer within his domain in the Dark Great World. That was another Dark Great Lord's territory.

'The Heartbreak Flower is only a small reflection of the fundamental nature of my Dark Great World, but it does contain the root secrets of my Dark Great World.' The Dark Great Villain King gazed into the darkness ahead. 'For a thousand years, only our Dark Great World has invaded other worlds. Never, in a million years, has another world invaded ours.'

'Today, I have been humiliated by this wizard. I will have my revenge.'

'He is carrying my Heartbreak Flower from my dark domain. Either he leaves this world directly and gives up the Heartbreak Flower. Or he can only come back onto my territory, carrying my Heartbreak Flower, and try to leave the world from there. I will not let you go. Nameless wizard.'

The nameless wizard leaned on his walking staff and saw the Dark Great Villain King standing motionless on the border line. He knew he had won his gamble.

The Dark Great Villain King was indeed not the sole ruler of this world.

The Dark Great World was an even larger world than the wizard world had imagined.

The nameless wizard thought: "That is inconsistent. Previous explorers confirmed that this world had only one Dark King, which is to say this Dark Great Villain King whose specific title I have only just now figured out."

"He considers himself not a divine being, but the deepest evil of the Dark Great World, though he has been called the Dark God by dark worshippers across many planes of the infinite void. We believed that precisely because of such an existence, the Dark Great World was a large-scale plane."

"But what if he is not the sole Dark King here?"

The nameless wizard's face showed a contemplative expression. "The Dark Great World is very likely a higher-tier plane. No wonder even as a sun ring wizard, I have been chased through this world like a stray dog. That Dark Great Villain King has at minimum the strength of a Third Circle wizard."

"Unfortunately I could not get close enough to him to measure his exact magic pressure."

"It is difficult to confirm whether he is at Throne level or approaching a Fourth Circle wizard."

At the end of the day, he was a plant hunter. He had not come to eliminate the Dark Great Villain King, and he could not do so even if he tried.

The fellow had the world force of the Dark Great World, a world of unfathomable depth, behind him. Even his own teacher coming here might be at a disadvantage on the fellow's home turf.

"Hmm? Carrying this magical plant, I cannot leave the Dark Great World from this region? This is troublesome." The nameless wizard gazed into the distance. The Dark Great Villain King was still leading his army on border patrol.

Left with no other option, he rose immediately and blended into a mortal caravan of this world, entering a dark village.

Although the mortals of this world were, in the eyes of other worlds, all demonic beings.

The nameless wizard sensed Locke reaching out to him. He took out his Ganoderma magical plant and frowned, noticing that the originally verdant Ganoderma magical plant now had a trace of black on it.

The nameless wizard furrowed his brow. He had not expected that even the darkness of this world had stained a magical plant from the wizard world.

The nameless wizard saw the message Locke had left him and replied: "Locke, I just saw your message. Southern Wizard Capital, you said? I am not very familiar with Southern Gold. It was probably Tier 2 before and only recently got elevated to Tier 1. Other than journals related to me, I rarely bother remembering the names of Tier 2 journals."

"But there is one thing you should pay attention to. Wizards from the Southern Wizard Capital are different from wizards from other wizard territories..."

...

Cloud Marsh Wetlands, Golden Crown Mountain. Locke had already returned to his dormitory.

Locke saw his senior martial brother emphasize that wizards from the Southern Wizard Capital were the type who, when making deals with other wizards, could speak freely and say whatever came to mind to achieve their ends.

It could not exactly be called deception, because in their own subjective perception, they did not think they were deceiving anyone.

They were simply talking fast and loose.

In any case, by the time things played out, it would turn out that you had misunderstood, or had heard wrong, or that they had forgotten the details, and then the matter would just be fudged away.

Many wizards from the Southern Wizard Capital had these habits. Of course there were also upright white wizards from there, though with a more hotheaded temperament. If they saw a swindler, they might grab the person by the collar and give them a beating.

That kind was probably the result of having been swindled too many times.

Locke read his senior martial brother's message: 'My experience dealing with them is to test the waters by asking the wizard from the Southern Wizard Capital whether it is possible to fulfill a portion of the agreed conditions in advance. If they can, then they want to make a deal with you. But if they cannot, then they are stringing you along.'

'You said that Southern Gold promised you many things. Have you considered why they dared to message you directly through the water hyacinth system? This only proves one thing: wizards from the Southern Wizard Capital are nearly without inhibition. When cooperating with people who are not bound by rules, one must always learn to protect oneself.'

Locke sent his senior martial brother a grateful reply.

It was lucky he had asked his senior martial brother, otherwise he might have been taken advantage of.

His sun ring senior martial brother then sent him another message: 'By the way, I received news here that the Heavenly Cold River has burst its banks, and snowstorms have appeared along the Heavenly River's coast. I will arrange for people to deal with this matter, but you count as a core member of our lineage, one of our own among our own.'

'You should pay close attention. No need to do anything in just stay alert.'

Locke replied: 'Understood, senior martial brother.'

Back in his dormitory, Locke sent a message to the Solannas Mortes wizard of Southern Gold: "Hello, Wizard Solannas. If I agree to your commissioned article request, could you let me see some materials from the Black and White Magical Text in advance? Or even just a photograph would be fine."

Wizard Solannas Mortes replied quickly. "That... would be quite difficult."

"The Black and White Magical Text is an important treasure of the Southern Wizard Capital. Not to mention the materials, even a photograph would not be easy to lend out."

Wizard Solannas Mortes quickly sent another message: 'If you submit to our Southern Gold, I can pay you five hundred thousand magic stones in advance as compensation for you. Wizard Locke, what do you think?'

Locke immediately understood the other party's intentions upon seeing this.

If the Black and White Magical Text was such an important treasure that even a photograph could not be shared, then even if he submitted to Southern Gold and had the paper accepted, the hope of the other party actually providing him with even partial materials from the Black and White Magical Text was very slim.

And even if they did give him something, they could very easily hand over completely useless scraps.

That said, the other party was not entirely dishonest, because there was a element to their offer.

They were willing to proactively provide a more conventional submission reward, which showed they had some sincerity, just not much.

Or rather, this was characteristic of some wizards from the Southern Wizard Capital, the tendency to exaggerate their own capabilities when making deals with others. Locke suspected that the other party, as a moon ring wizard of the Southern Gold journal, might not even have the ability to borrow the Black and White Magical Text from the Southern Library in the first place.

Perhaps from the very beginning, they had never had that ability.

Once he actually submitted a paper, they could just lament their difficulties to him. And was he really going to buy a ship ticket and go all the way to the Southern Wizard Capital to settle accounts with a moon ring great wizard?

Locke sent a message to Wizard Solannas Mortes: "Oh, I see. Well, that is fine. It is just that lately I am busy preparing to participate in two Second Circle competitions, along with other matters to handle, so I have no spare energy right now. I hope we have the opportunity to cooperate in the future."

Wizard Solannas Mortes replied after a while: "Understood. Our Southern Gold always has its doors open for you. We need high-quality papers from wizards like you."

Locke set down his Ganoderma magical plant. He did not even notice that a trace of black had appeared on the Ganoderma magical plant, which then quickly faded, as though it had lost color.

Locke left his dormitory, boarded his Rainbow Sparrow, and headed toward the Feathered Serpent Pavilion. "It seems there is no relying on Southern Gold to obtain the Black and White Magical Text. But the advantage is that I at least now know the specific location of a Black and White Magical Text."

"And I have no intention of delving further into my archaeology studies at this time. It is not the moment yet."

Archaeology, potion studies, and breeding studies were all so vast in their Second Circle content that he could only simultaneously study potion studies and breeding studies first, then consider taking up others.

Breeding studies was primary, potion studies secondary.

After all, he had no good potion studies lineage.

So since Southern Gold had no intention of giving him a rubbing of the Black and White Magical Text, the Black and White Magical Text was not an immediate necessity for him in the short term.

It was a case of: obtain it now and study it now, but if it could not be obtained now, pursue it gradually later.

At the very least, the forging of his Grand Magic absolutely depended on a sufficient level of both potion studies and breeding studies, so improving in both was his greatest current objective.

Of course, archaeology involved ancient botany, ancient magical creature bloodlines, and the unknown catastrophe five hundred thousand years ago that caused most ancient creatures to disappear.

So he could not abandon it either.

Locke sat on his Rainbow Sparrow, and a thought came to him. "The Star Domain Sea has again raised the overall magical tide of the eastern boundary zone, which is absolutely advantageous for me. First, it will be easier for me to advance to star ring wizard level. My speed of raising magic pressure at the Second Circle stage is at least double what it was before."

"Also, the principle of the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow is that it uses plant mimicry of the dragon race to obtain the dragon race's ability to harness magical wind. And now that the magical tide concentration gradient has risen by three tiers, this means the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow's fundamental abilities have spontaneously risen by several levels."

Locke thought: "The Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow was the best flying magical plant I cultivated at the First Circle stage using the finite element cultivation method. Who could have thought that the technical path I chose at that time would, entirely by chance because of the Star Domain Sea's magic-raising plan, catch exactly the right wind and become infinitely correct."

"If that is the case, my chances of winning the championship at the Golden Cup are even greater. And now that the magical tide concentration gradient has risen, it may also have a somewhat accelerating effect on the mutation speed of plants and a shortening effect on growth cycles."

No, not just may. It definitely would.

Under the current magical tide concentration gradient, even those Tier 1 apprentice-level magical plants might become very easy to grow.

More apprentice-level magical plants would lead to growth in the numbers of First Circle and Second Circle magical plants as well.

It was equivalent to the collective cost of magical plants for breeders undergoing a fairly significant reduction going forward.

Locke thought it over, but for magical textile workers and alchemists, this impact would be comparatively small. For them, the cost reduction would not be obvious.

Because the magical ore materials primarily used by alchemists were buried deep in the earth and required long periods of time to form and extract. A momentary rise in the magical tide concentration gradient was unlikely to have much impact on alchemists' materials.

By the same logic, whether magical textile workers used underground ore materials or biological materials, neither could have its costs reduced overnight.

The growth cycle of magical creatures was far longer than that of plants.

Plants were the first energy-tier receivers of the entire ecological environment, and also self-sustaining organisms. They were the first large-scale energy-locking network that the ecological environment used to capture energy.

Locke's expression turned peculiar. "In other words, the Star Domain Sea's current policies favor botany and breeding studies? There should be at least one very high-circle botanical wizard on the Star Domain Sea's side."

"Never mind. The current situation is favorable to me regardless. What comes next is just to keep entering competitions, win championships, publish papers, and raise my magic pressure."

"Teacher's task must not be forgotten either. It is time to design the second wizard shoe. And I need to keep releasing new works continuously to keep my Augustus Wizard Shoe Alliance perpetually in everyone's minds."

Because of the Star Domain Sea's magic-raising plan, this wizard shoe alliance that had originally been exploratory in nature had unexpectedly become a practical future direction.

This luck...

Locke thought: if back then he had chosen to develop primarily with negative energy, studying curse wizardry or mediumship doctrines or something similar, would he not have missed the wind he was riding now?

Choices truly were too important.

The key was that sometimes a choice seemed correct in the short term but wrong in the long term.

And sometimes a choice seemed correct in the long term but wrong in the short term.

True and false, solid and illusory. Until the very last moment, no one truly knew who the winner would be.

He landed at the Blood Dragon Assembly market and walked into the Feathered Serpent Pavilion. The half-dragon shopkeeper, upon seeing Locke walk in, was immediately respectful. "Congratulations, Mr. Augustine."

"You have become a Second Circle wizard, and will also in the not-too-distant future become a respected Second Circle potion wizard."

"Please, come in. I no longer have the standing to receive you."

Behind him stood a silver dragon female half-dragon who was taller than him. This silver dragon female half-dragon shopkeeper was a Second Circle wizard, and she gave Locke a slight nod. "Hello, Mr. Augustine. I am the person in charge of the Second Circle wizard section of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion at Golden Crown Mountain. You may call me Madam Tataroni."

Locke nodded to her and followed her up the stairs toward the Second Circle section above. "Hello, Madam Tataroni."

Madam Tataroni smiled and said, "I had already taken notice of you when you were only a First Circle young wizard, and had great confidence in you even then."

"Only I did not expect you would become a Second Circle wizard this quickly. A Second Circle wizard. What an enormous achievement."

Madam Tataroni let out a deep sigh. "I am not a native of the wizard world. I am a wizard of colonial world origin. In the era of the wizard world's enlightenment, that world received the gift of knowledge, which arrived through falling meteorites. So that world also had many who called themselves wizards."

"That world even for a long time, and including now, refers to itself internally and when facing other weaker colonial worlds as the wizard world."

Locke's expression showed surprise.

Was this not turning things upside down?

Madam Tataroni said, "That world is called the Great World of Ostia and calls itself the Void Minor Wizard World."

"For a long time, Ostia had no contact with the wizard world, and so on the basis of its original wizard civilization, it produced a wizard ranking system from level one to level ten. But at its core, this was only the system at the First Circle wizard level and below."

"For a long time they mistakenly believed that the highest level of magic was the magic pressure limit of First Circle crystallization, which is magic pressure 9999, and they entered a state of soul decline, calling this state a Level 10 wizard. The Level 10 wizard became a legend in Ostia, once the goal of every Ostia wizard. Until later, someone proposed that above Level 10, there should be a Level 11."

"That is easy to understand. Having already extrapolated to Level 10, the civilization soon would not be satisfied with that. Building on the Level 10 framework, they continued forward one more step and arrived at a Level 11 that transcended legend."

"So, Wizard Locke, as young as you are, you have already broken through Ostia's Level 10 wizard and become what Ostia would call a Level 16 wizard. I feel somewhat moved by this."

Locke asked out of curiosity, "How many wizard levels has the Great World of Ostia divided wizards into now?"

Madam Tataroni let out a sigh and showed an expression that, for a half-dragon, was already remarkably complex. "Fifty-five levels."

Locke coughed once.

Madam Tataroni said, "The Great World of Ostia has entered a very peculiar state. They cannot break through from Second Circle to Third Circle. So they have simply kept opening new levels within the Second Circle framework."

"This has also caused the entire civilization to fall into a dead end. And the more levels are opened up, the lower the possibility of the civilization actually breaking through to Third Circle becomes. This, in the social studies materials of our wizard world, is called the Second Circle Mid-Tier Trap."

"If a civilization opens up too many levels within the Second Circle framework without truly breaking through to Third Circle, then a wizard who has just become a Third Circle wizard may very well be no match for a Second Circle existence who has opened up countless levels. The difficulty of breaking through to Third Circle is even far greater than that of opening new levels within the Second Circle framework."

"So more and more people will come to believe that opening new levels within the Second Circle framework is a more realistic and reliable choice than attempting to break through and become a Third Circle wizard."

"They may not even realize they have taken the wrong path, or they may believe what they are doing is correct."

"This way, the more levels the civilization opens up within the Second Circle framework, the more the civilization is constrained."

"Finally, through path dependency, continuing to open new Second Circle levels, the entire civilization has completely lost its drive to advance."

Madam Tataroni sighed. "I am afraid it will be very difficult for the Great World of Ostia to ever have its own Third Circle wizard. I heard that they recently plan to open up five more levels on top of the current fifty-five, becoming Level 60 wizards."

Locke was left speechless and so remained silent.

It seemed Ostia had turned wizard levels into a game with escalating tiers. At the rate things were going, they might push the wizard world to Level 100 eventually.

Madam Tataroni, the silver dragon half-dragon, said to Locke, "I made an error in my earlier calculation. By Ostia's level system, Mr. Augustine is not a Level 11 wizard but a Level 16 wizard."

"I am a Level 19 wizard. Star ring wizards start from Level 20."

Locke nodded. Did every increase of one thousand magic pressure correspond to one level?

Then at what exaggerated degree of magic pressure had a Level 55 wizard arrived?

And a Level 60 wizard?

Or was it that opening new levels within the Second Circle framework would cause the increase in magic pressure intensity to reach a limit at some point, after which the gains would gradually diminish...

If so, the magic pressure intensity and total magic pressure of a Level 55 wizard should not be as staggering as he had imagined. Second Circle could theoretically improve strength indefinitely, but the further one went, the lower the efficiency, and eventually the cost would keep rising while the speed of improvement kept slowing.

The Second Circle section of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion.

Madam Tataroni bowed to Locke with graceful composure, even with a trace of reverence in her eyes, though it was reverence not for Locke himself but for the true dragon bloodline, and then said, "Lord Augustine."

In a place with no others around, she, as a great wizard with magic pressure of nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine at the ordinary Second Circle limit, actually addressed him with a term of respect.

"You have come to our Feathered Serpent Pavilion. Is there something you need?"

Locke looked at her with an expressionless face and said, "I need a decent potion wizard inheritance. Can the Feathered Serpent Pavilion provide one?"

Madam Tataroni elegantly tilted her head and breathed in the scent of true dragon in the air with an almost longing quality. Some half-dragons despised true dragons and the dragon race with deep loathing, while others held an inexplicable reverence for them.

She said, "Of course. But it would require an inheritance of equivalent level in exchange."

"Alternatively, the Feathered Serpent Pavilion can arrange for a specialist-level sun ring potion wizard to teach you. However, if you activate this service, you must once again begin the Ladder Test, and once begun, it can only be seen through to completion or ended by failure and elimination. The Ladder path cannot be voluntarily interrupted midway."

"Moreover, we can only recommend that potion wizard to teach you. If that potion wizard fulfills their teaching contract with us in a perfunctory and uninspired way, there is nothing we can do about it."

"Of course, since you are a Grade B talent of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion, if you select this service, we will elevate the specialist-level sun ring potion wizard we invite to a master-level potion wizard."

Locke's pupils suddenly contracted sharply.

Master-level meant Third Circle.

That would be a truly excellent potion wizard in the wizard world.

Madam Tataroni said to Locke, "As it happens, I have a very close friend I have known for a hundred years who is a potion wizard. And her teacher is a master-level Throne potion wizard from the southern boundary zone's Xiangshan Archipelago."

"Perhaps I can help you invite her."