Chapter 853: Becoming the Small Breath Cup Champion and Obtaining Sponsorship!

Wizard Salonius looked at the abbreviated report in Locke's hand. It had already outlined the magical plant characteristics of the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow at the First Circle level, as well as the magical plant characteristics of the Four-Wing Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow cultivated through the sword tomb method.

The furrow in his brow smoothed out, because the project appeared to have a solid degree of completion, had real results to show, and the design concept also seemed quite good.

At the same time, he saw that the report specifically mentioned a joint development with a Third Circle Throne Wizard of the Rose Council, one of the top wizard universities in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands. The joint development involved a magical plant, specifically the concept of grafting the Magical Dragon Rose and the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow and completing an atavistic evolution.

Wizard Salonius's pupils contracted sharply upon reading this.

The Rose Council?

The Rose Council had been prominently renowned in Rose Floriography lately, though that was only a niche discipline raised by the past few generations of Rose Witches. But the Rose Council was very well known throughout the eastern boundary zone for its breeding and cultivation of rose-type magical plants.

The Rose Council was also highly regarded in textile studies and in the potion studies sub-branch of aromatherapy.

Particularly in aromatherapy. The incenses produced by the Rose Council had long been favored by the golden nobility, and the magical flower arrangements made by floral artists had recently begun gaining popularity in the Twilight Border as well. The Golden Dynasty of the Twilight Border had always had a fondness for various objects of enjoyment.

So for Wizard Salonius, the name of the Rose Council was even more useful than the name of any other top wizard university of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands alone.

Wizard Salonius recalled a moon ring wizard friend of his who, when his clone had entered the Cloud Marsh Wetlands this time, had entrusted him to buy some specific varieties of magical incense to bring back along the way.

Wizard Salonius looked at Locke with surprise and said, "The Rose Council's greatest fame comes from the many Throne Wizards that were born out of their rose-type magical plant research over thousands of years of history, even earning them the distinguished name of the Hundred Flower Throne. Although they never truly reached a full hundred, there were certainly dozens, and among them were no fewer than one Fourth Circle wizard."

"Of course, the successive Rose Thrones are special. In a certain sense, that represents administrative control over the Rose Council."

"Those Fourth Circle wizards would naturally never go directly managing the small matters below, so the management of the Rose Council has always remained with the Rose Throne."

"You actually managed to get the Rose Throne to collaborate with you?"

Locke realized that Wizard Salonius, as a wizard from the Twilight Border, had no real understanding of the internal details of the Three Marshes. He said casually, "Yes. The Magical Dragon Rose was indeed a work completed jointly by the Rose Throne and myself. My teacher is the Red Dragon Throne."

"The last time they had an academic exchange, the Rose Throne helped me complete this magical plant."

Wizard Salonius looked at the Magical Dragon Rose in Locke's hand, sensing the power of the mutant golden dragon contained within it.

His expression shifted.

He had no data on a world-ending magic dragon, but as a wizard of the Golden School, he could naturally sense the very considerable golden magical power contained within this magical plant. It was practically a golden magical plant.

The golden magic contained within it was extraordinary.

Crucially, this type of golden magical energy seemed to be a special mutation.

Wizard Salonius said, "May I examine this magical plant personally?"

Locke smiled and said, "By all means. Wizard Salonius, here you are."

Wizard Salonius took the magical plant. A very complex moon ring level spell model appeared automatically in his left eye. The spell model first summoned three golden beads, then the three golden beads expanded into three single-lens golden monocles.

The three golden monocles then assembled together, connected by channels of illusory golden magic between them.

This was a moon ring level spell model: the Golden Eye.

This spell was an identification-type spell with special strengths in observing magical energy attributes and spirituality categories.

It was a very high-grade form of golden magic.

At that moment, Wizard Salonius used the Golden Eye, as if his left eye had been fitted with a complex long-barreled monocle.

Ten minutes later, he said to Locke, "This magical plant contains a golden magical power of an isomeric form. The defining quality of golden magic is the immovable gold nature."

"But this magical plant contains a mutant golden magic. Within the apoplastic solution between the plant's cell walls, I have found many isomers of natural magical force structural components resembling golden magic."

"It seems these isomers have caused this golden magic to undergo a mutation. No... I cannot say with certainty what has happened."

Wizard Salonius, as a moon ring wizard of the Golden School, bowed his head and after a full two minutes of thought, said, "This mutation is like illuminating the other face of the immovable gold nature. It is as if... it is saying that the gold nature which cannot be destroyed is simultaneously the most powerful force of destruction."

At that moment, the three golden monocles in Wizard Salonius's left eye began to rotate. He suddenly covered his left eye and lowered his head. "This is bad. I cannot continue examining this magical plant."

"The fundamental nature of the magical power contained in this magical plant runs parallel to the magic of my Golden School, like two parallel lines. While I observe it, it becomes the greatest challenge to my own golden magic. A Second Circle wizard cannot yet achieve the transformation from false to true..."

Wizard Salonius murmured to himself. He even bit through his own lip, drawing a trickle of blood, using the pain to remind his rational mind.

"A Second Circle wizard cannot yet observe a path that runs parallel to their own, a path that perhaps leads to a more distant future and touches truth more easily, while remaining unmoved."

"I will waver, but this wavering does me only harm."

Wizard Salonius returned the magical plant to Locke. Only after Locke put the Magical Dragon Rose away did he let out a breath of relief.

Locke looked at Wizard Salonius with puzzlement. He had not expected that simply showing this wizard a glimpse of the Magical Dragon Rose would trigger such a strong reaction from him.

'The golden dragon is one of the symbols of the Twilight Border. The world-ending magic dragon is a subspecies of the golden dragon family, and the Magical Dragon Rose contains the complete bloodline essence of an ordinary Second Circle world-ending magic dragon, having transformed that bloodline essence into a phytogen.'

"In other words, Wizard Salonius, while observing the world-ending magic dragon's bloodline essence, felt that his own path was being called into question, and so fell into pain and doubt?"

Locke immediately realized that the world-ending magic dragon and the golden dragon family, along with the Twilight Border, very likely had an enormous connection, or even an entirely adversarial relationship.

Wizard Salonius of the Golden School had merely caught a glance at the Magical Dragon Rose, which carried a complete world-ending magic dragon phytogen, and had lost his composure to this extent.

Could it be that the disappearance of the world-ending magic dragon and the golden dragon family was actually related to the Twilight Border losing its status as a leader wizard territory?

But why was it the Pale Pilgrimage that had attacked the Twilight Border back then?

And the time periods and regions in which the two primarily existed and were active in history did not even overlap.

Strangest of all, the world-ending magic dragon had a deep connection with the Black Sun Tower, and based on the information Locke currently held, the Black Sun Tower had serious conflicts with undead magic practitioners.

By conventional logic, the world-ending magic dragon should not have been linked to the Pale Pilgrimage.

Or perhaps the Twilight Border of that era had, for some reason, many enemies.

Locke looked at Wizard Salonius without changing his expression. "Wizard Salonius, do you think this project of mine could receive sponsorship from the Golden Cup?"

Wizard Salonius raised his head. After a brief hesitation, he smiled and shook his head, saying, "It can."

"Let me now try to contact the staff of the Golden Cup's events committee office."

For the sake of his bonus, he had to make the effort.

After all, Locke had no longer any possibility of bringing the atavistic golden ear wheat project results to the Golden Cup.

He had already used that project to win the Small Breath Cup championship.

Although the results had not yet been announced, by conventional reasoning it was obvious Locke was not going to give it up.

So this project before him, which was clearly also a form of golden magic, if it could be brought to the Golden Cup, would count as a contribution on his part.

By this point, Wizard Salonius had also figured out why Locke had invited him to this meal.

'The project's quality is quite good. Even with just the first half of the results, it already counts as a fine magical plant. And then there is the second half, an idea that can only be described as inspired. Plus that magical plant carrying a strange mutant golden magical power, and the endorsement of the Rose Council and the Rose Throne.'

'This is a good project. One could say it is a championship contender.'

'Applying for support on his behalf is not a losing proposition for me. I could even be said to be doing the Golden Cup a favor.'

This kind of recommendation, if you were recommending a less impressive but still acceptable work, would spend your goodwill.

But if you recommended a project of this quality, you collected goodwill from both sides.

Of course, Wizard Salonius knew inwardly that completely unqualified works he could never recommend to the events committee's wizards.

That would simply be making enemies.

Half an hour later, Wizard Salonius reached an agreement with the Golden Cup's events committee staff and had shown them Locke's report.

The Golden Cup's events committee was different from the Small Breath Cup's side. This was a competition that had been maintained for thousands of years, already very well established and firmly positioned, so it was not lacking in quality entries and had little motivation to push itself further.

As a result, the Golden Cup's events committee was quite relaxed about things.

Locke had previously guessed that even if he approached that competition's events committee directly to negotiate cooperation, he would likely not be able to extract any sponsorship.

But at that moment, after Wizard Salonius was impressed by the name of the Rose Throne, he also used his own name as a personal guarantee for the Golden Cup's events committee. After going back and forth, the Golden Cup's events committee actually agreed to sponsor Locke with five million magic stones to help him complete the work in hand.

Locke smiled and added as a friend the Golden Cup's star ring wizard staff member on the water hyacinth system, and learned that the other party had already wired funds to the Faerie Clan Bank.

This was essentially leveraging one's credit rating.

Of course, he could accomplish all of this only because three prerequisites were in place.

First, he had already produced results, having at least completed the first half of his planned objectives. With something concrete to show, these people would believe that what he had written in the proposal for the second half of his ideas was sincere and potentially achievable.

Otherwise, without proof, the wizards of the Twilight Border would not have believed his ideas were viable.

Second, the Rose Throne had indeed jointly created the Magical Dragon Rose with him. Even if they brought in a Third Circle diviner to perform truth detection on him a hundred times over, he could guarantee he would pass all hundred times.

Because it was true.

It was just that the Rose Witch had contributed a spell, while he had directly contributed a life obtained from using the world wonder, the Dragon-Devouring Strange Seed, at the time.

Third, he had treated this Twilight Border moon ring wizard to a meal in a way that left the wizard in a good mood.

Otherwise, had he felt irritated or uninterested in Locke's proposal, he could simply have turned and walked away. There would have been no reason for him to continue the conversation.

After the matter of helping himself secure sponsorship was settled, Wizard Salonius seemed to feel somewhat closer to Locke. By lending his own name as a guarantee, in a certain sense his interests and Locke's were now bound together.

If Locke made a big mistake, he would also lose face.

If Locke's work achieved results at the Golden Cup's flying magical plant competition, or even won the championship, that would reflect well on him, and the Golden Cup's staff would owe him a favor.

Wizard Salonius said to Locke with a smile, "I have not stood as guarantor for a junior in quite some time. This is the first time in the past ten years. Wizard Locke, you had better work hard."

Locke said to Wizard Salonius, "Of course. Thank you, Director Salonius."

Wizard Salonius paused, then the smile on his face grew even wider.

"No need to thank me. The project you showed me was championship caliber from the start."

"So I did not need to exert much effort to persuade my friend to sponsor you in advance."

"The Twilight Border has already lost many of its symbols, so we are working hard to revive our wizard territory."

He let out a sigh.

"But unfortunately, wizards in our Twilight Border are severely polarized. Some of us are aware of the vastness of the outside world, the strength of the Star Domain Sea, the rise of the Three Marshes, the growing power of the Dragon Fall Lands in recent years, and the Four Bright Waters with their millennium of heritage and unceasing stream of talented people."

"Even the Southern Wizard Capital, after embracing certain black wizard factions and gaining advantages in certain controversial gray areas, has started to rise."

"This group of wizards racks their brains every day, hoping to revive the former glory of the Golden School."

"And then there is the other group, who are lost in the brilliance of the Golden Dynasty. They read history books and read only the history of the ancient Twilight Border, not the history of the modern Twilight Border. That way they can avoid seeing things that cause them pain."

"This group remains completely indifferent to the outside world. They refuse to accept new things."

"Deeply conservative."

Wizard Salonius sighed.

"When exchanging ideas with someone like yourself, a wizard who carries the excellent golden dragon bloodline, you should be able to somewhat understand what I mean."

"In the old days, the Twilight Border was where the finest wizard spirits were produced, not the Rain Marsh Lowlands. Back then the Twilight Border had the finest liquor, the Jade Gold Wizard Spirits."

"Sadly, the Jade Gold Spirits are now a lost art."

Wizard Salonius gave a long sigh.

"To think that we, the Golden People, once had a glorious past. We have noble bloodlines. Our wizards, by virtue of golden magic, naturally find it easier to become Third Circle wizards."

Locke's pupils contracted sharply. He looked at Wizard Salonius.

Wizard Salonius continued to sigh. "And yet, who would have expected we would end up in this state today."

Locke nodded and said, "Wizard Salonius, please do not worry. Just as the sun must set each day, it must also rise each day. Where there are valleys, there will be peaks. The Twilight Border is currently in a valley. And being this formidable even at a low point means the return to a peak will surely see it become even stronger."

Wizard Salonius's eyes brightened slightly.

"Where there are valleys, there will be peaks? Yes. As long as we climb out of the valley, it means we can become even stronger."

Wizard Salonius smiled at Locke and said, "Locke, I am very fond of you as a junior. Had I known you were such an open-minded person, I truly should not have rejected your paper right from the..."

He seemed to realize something, smiled, and suddenly changed his words. "Now that things have been settled, I will be on my way first. If you ever have anything you need to ask me in the future, you can reach me directly through the water hyacinth system."

"You are welcome to continue submitting to our Myriad Phenomena Crossroads going forward."

"I hope to see more excellent papers from you in Myriad Phenomena Crossroads."

Locke nodded. "I will."

Wizard Salonius gave a slight nod. By his estimate, over the next few years it would probably be somewhat unlikely.

Because for an ordinary Second Circle wizard to publish a Second Circle Tier 1 paper required enormous effort.

Even a genius breeder like Locke needed a great deal of accumulation.

Locke then thought: 'Because of the Magical Dragon bloodline, and my long-standing research on the golden magical plant, the climbing fern, I have a certain foundation in golden magic research.'

'Wizard Salonius just said that people of the Golden School find it easier to become Third Circle wizards? Third Circle knowledge, even if I asked Salonius directly, he probably could not explain it clearly to me. That is still fairly remote from where I stand right now. But in any case, putting slightly more emphasis on my golden magic research going forward will certainly not be wrong.'

'Second, judging by what Salonius said, it seems he actually rejected my paper immediately when I first submitted to Myriad Phenomena Crossroads.'

In truth, Locke had already suspected this.

After all, a moon ring great wizard's clone had traveled by wizard air vessel across wizard territories to find him. Either there was some major project to collaborate on, or he had come for some special personal reason.

That was not a difficult thing to deduce.

Locke thought inwardly: 'Wizard Salonius was likely penalized in some way for casually rejecting papers. That is why he needed to pull me into the Golden Cup competition at all costs.'

Locke chatted with him for a few more exchanges, the two conversed amicably, and then they took their leave of the Witch's Kitchen one after the other.

At that moment, Locke continued to stay connected with his main body's situation. His main body was currently piloting the Exploration Vanguard and attempting to approach the Three-Hole World, trying to bring the Exploration Vanguard close to the Three-Hole World's near-void orbit and have the Exploration Vanguard use planar gravity to capture the Three-Hole World, then dock directly on the surface of the Three-Hole World's crystal wall system.

'This is my first time doing this, and I am somewhat inexperienced. It will probably take some more time. Once the docking is complete, my main body should not be able to enter that world immediately. But I can try to send some First Circle wizards into that world, or send in some of my magic, then find a way to create the conditions for a saintly descent, or create the environmental conditions for my main body to enter directly.'

Locke judged.

'Since the sponsorship has been secured on this side, my chances of developing the Second Circle flying magical plant for the competition should be very strong now.'

'Now I need to begin pre-selling the second pair of wizard shoes, and at the same time try to develop the second pair of wizard shoes.'

At present, all three tasks Witch Yekaterina had assigned him were advancing steadily.

Lately, Locke had even been considering whether, while preparing to apply for the special-grade grant, he should also prepare to apply for a first Second Circle grant.

After all, at the time of applying for a first Second Circle grant, he would receive a priority weighting that could give him a certain advantage when competing against moon ring and sun ring wizards for projects.

However, he still needed to deliberate.

After all, he also had to account for the time, energy, and resources involved.

A Second Circle grant was harder to obtain than a Second Circle Tier 1 paper. After all, publishing papers was not entirely zero-sum, whereas obtaining a grant was essentially zero-sum.

In this white wizard society, anything that involved asking for money was fundamentally not easy. Anything that involved spending your own money, however high you set the standards, was generally not too difficult.

Locke chatted with Witch Scarlett on the water hyacinth system and had her help get a promotional poster for his second Second Circle wizard shoe done free of charge by an Arthas magical artist, which was then put up online to begin pre-selling.

Although the product was not yet made, he could pre-sell the concept first.

After all, when it came down to it, this Second Circle wizard shoe was something he was certain he could produce. He had the Moon of Evolution, after all.

The only question was what level of magical plant characteristics the purely plant-based Second Circle wizard shoe he produced would possess.

At the same time, Locke was conducting research in Group Two's laboratory. He used a section of the Bloodline Proliferation Pool directly as an irrigation channel, mixed with the Name Potion, and watered the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow grafted onto the Magical Dragon Rose.

One month later, Locke checked on the Four-Wing Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow to confirm it was still undergoing spirituality fusion with the Magical Dragon Rose.

"The difficulty of this grafting is far greater than I had anticipated. It seems to be because of the Magical Dragon Rose's special nature. During this one month, the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow experienced several collapses at the graft site."

"Fortunately, with the careful attention of myself and Witch Mason and the others, this Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow managed to pull through. And it is undergoing spirituality fusion with the Magical Dragon Rose rootstock, producing a benign mutation."

Locke stared at the magical plant before him. If it suddenly died and withered, he would be in serious trouble.

He would need to go through the entire process again.

That would cost a great deal more money and a great deal more time.

Of course, the greatest contributor to keeping it alive and not withering, more than the careful attention of himself and his colleagues, was his use of the Moon of Evolution's Lunar Cultivation Method to inject one dose of the Zero Potion into it just before it was about to die, using the blank spirituality to bolster its own vitality.

He had forcibly propped up an originally failing graft and pushed it through to completion.

Locke proceeded in an orderly manner with the experiments on this flying magical plant. As the completion progress of the plant rose, his Spirit Breath cultivation method was also rapidly improving, and he was practicing spirituality identification exercises daily according to Witch Yekaterina's teaching plan.

Douglas and Witch Mason and the others suddenly came walking over from the other side of the magical fields, with looks of surprised delight and smiles on their faces.

Locke looked at them with some surprise. Douglas had, over this period, gotten along rather well with Witch Mason and the others.

Because this made it convenient for Locke to keep watch over him, Locke had not interfered in any way.

Witch Mason said, "Congratulations, Team Leader. The Small Breath Cup has ended its competition early and announced the championship. You are the Small Breath Cup champion!"

Douglas said to Locke with obvious admiration, "Team Leader, within three months you published a Second Circle Tier 1 paper and at the same time won the Small Breath Cup championship."

Witch Mason said with delighted surprise, "And that is not all, Team Leader. You can obtain at least two Tourmaline King Peaches. I heard this from someone else. Apparently the Tourmaline King Peach is an extremely important magical resource at Golden Crown Mountain, awarded only to true geniuses."