Chapter 1161

Chapter 1137: Second-Circle Wizard Shoes with Excellent-Grade Mystic Meaning!

Locke sighed, clutching his head. His brain, still throbbing with pain from the previous blackout, was throbbing.

“Professor Helen, how did you get involved in so many illegal organizations?”

“The Death God Elective Society, the Twelve Zodiacs Society… I wonder if they’re still around. Before leaving the Sea King World, I need to finish one last experiment.”

Locke checked himself and found nothing amiss. Aside from the Death God Elder Ring and the super magical bloodline potion he couldn’t understand, he hadn’t lost anything. He didn’t care anymore; who would have thought his potions master, a highly respected Throne Potions Master, could manage to get him drunk?

Before the Divine Star, Locke took out a second-circle magical artifact grafting knife, slightly cutting open the root of the *Vaccaria segetalis*, then took out a Super Dream Flower he had cultivated and grafted it onto the *Vaccaria segetalis* using the grafting cultivation method.

Locke waved the Tree of Prosperity wand, and instantly the Super Jaeger Dream Flower and the King of White Lotus were grafted.

He had kept some original seeds when cultivating the Super Jaeger Dream Flower, so this was a cost-free process.

At this moment, the cambium layers at the roots of the Dream Flower and the King of White Lotus had healed. Locke breathed a sigh of relief; with his current abilities, grafting a Star Ring Magic Plant and a Second Ring Magic Plant together using the approach grafting method was not difficult.

—At

this moment, the King of White Lotus, seemingly emerging from ink, and the Dream Flower, seemingly a dream, grew together, their roots anchored in the stars formed from divine power within the dark space of the Sea King’s World, a space devoid of stars.

Locke glanced at the cambium layers; the area he had cut out of the two plants’ root cambium layers with his grafting knife was not large. This was a compromise for the Dream Flower, which was only a Second Ring Magic Plant.

Otherwise, the energy absorbed by the roots of the Star Ring Magic Plant would be too strong, causing the Dream Flower to die from excessive energy.

Locke waited a while, confirming that the grafting method was perfectly completed.

As long as it was completed, there wouldn’t be any major problems.

After all, he only wanted to use this energy to amplify the second-ring wizard shoes, Golden Dragon Claw Air Plants.

At this moment, Locke entered the dream created by the Dream Flower. He saw countless Dream Flowers appearing in the dream, and Locke randomly selected one. He then used the Prosperity Tree Wand to mirror and copy his already-made Golden Dragon Claw Air Plants onto the magical plant.

Soon, one pair of air plants became two pairs.

Locke grafted one of the air plants onto two Dream Flowers using the approach grafting method and applied the second-circle spell “Forgetful of Home” to it.

This was a spell model he had specifically developed to use the Dream Flowers.

At this moment, Locke used subtraction replication on the two magical plants, turning the two pairs of wizard shoes into one pair. Locke also canceled the use of the ultimate spell, Tree of Prosperity.

When Locke returned to the Sea King world, he looked at the Golden Dragon Claw Air Plant in his hand. The wizard shoes, which resembled golden dragon claws, initially showed no change, but soon, starlight-like magical patterns crawled onto the surface of these Golden Dragon Claw Air Plants.

“It actually succeeded?” Locke was stunned.

Dream Flowers can be grafted multiple times because the grafting in the material world only happens once; the others are connections within the dream world.

It’s a soft connection.

Moreover, the energy source is not the Dream Flower, but the Vaccaria segetalis, whose energy originates from the world energy of the Sea King World, which is being purified.

As for his Golden Dragon Claw Air Plant, he had already used the thirteen-fold grafting method, an advanced grafting cultivation technique.

That is, a Golden Dragon Claw Air Plant was grafted onto a Dream Flower, a Dream Flower onto a Shadow Fern, and a Shadow Fern onto a Netherworld Iron Tree—a triple grafting advanced cultivation method. However, Locke had now achieved a composite grafting on top of this triple grafting.

He had combined the triple grafting relationship of Netherworld Iron Tree-Shadow Fern-Dream Flower-Golden Dragon Claw with the double grafting relationship of Vaccaria segetalis-Dream Flower-Golden Dragon Claw, using a single Golden Dragon Claw plant.

Locke manipulated the Tree of Prosperity, controlling the smooth flow of life force within these magical plants. He infused the plants with the spiritual energy from the verdant spiritual ore, using life force to accelerate wound healing and guide the plants towards the correct flow of life force.

The key difficulties of multiple grafting and composite grafting methods lie in three aspects: First, they demand extremely high levels of life magic from the wizard. Second, each plant’s wound needs to heal and be precisely aligned. Third, the more plants involved, the more difficult it becomes to balance the nutrient relationship, easily leading to the death of the rootstock.

Multiple grafting involves grafting one plant onto another, continuously adding layers.

The composite grafting method is the opposite; it’s not a superimposed grafting, but a parallel grafting, using an intermediate rootstock to unite a series of magical plants.

If Locke were still just an ordinary second-ring breeder, without considering the spiritual energy aspect, he could only consider it from a nutritional perspective. He would need to consider the different nutritional needs of the six magical plants, their limits of magical pressure to withstand, and even encounter the Netherworld Iron Tree, for which he would have no data at all.

In other words, without considering the spiritual energy aspect, this triple-graft x double-graft composite grafting method would be almost impossible to complete.

Data on the Netherworld Iron Tree would be unavailable, the type of rootstock used for grafting would need to be reselected, and even a corresponding variety would need to be cultivated.

However, these problems can be easily solved by considering the spiritual energy aspect. Using a piece of verdant spiritual energy ore on his person, he could simultaneously accelerate the healing of the six magical plants and guide the correct flow of life force, allowing the six magical plants to find the most suitable way for life force to flow. In this way, the life force circulation would be completed, and the six magical plants would automatically distribute nutrients.

This wouldn’t result in a magical plant being too weak to absorb nutrients.

Locke sighed, “Some problems can be solved by considering them from a different perspective. A single Emerald Spirit Ore combined with my life magic can complete the 2×3 composite grafting method.”

Locke pondered, “From the perspective of spirit energy science, as long as the grafting cultivation method is basically up to standard, and the cuts are fine, then as long as the spirit energy cycle can be completed, the grafting cultivation can be completed.”

“From what I can see so far, the flow of life energy from the Underworld Ancient Tree and the King of the Vinegar is being guided very smoothly by my Emerald Spirit Ore. 2×3 composite grafting should not be my limit. My current breeding limit is 3×3 composite breeding.”

That is, a combined composite breeding of two triple grafts.

However, his level should not be able to do quadruple grafting.

Locke put on the Starry Golden Dragon Claw Air Pineapple Pair, and with a light jump, he leaped directly from the ground into the sky of the Sea King World, standing on the crystal wall system of the Sea King World.

“The jumping ability has roughly doubled.”

Locke shifted slightly. “The other magical plant traits have also roughly doubled as a result.”

The Golden Dragon Claw Air Plant was already better than the average second-circle wizard’s shoes in terms of various stats, and now, after using the 2×3 composite grafting method, the performance of its magical plant traits far surpasses that of ordinary second-circle wizard’s shoes.

It’s just a pity that because it requires the use of the Tree of Prosperity, the cost is estimated to be several times higher than before.

Therefore, the price of his Starry Golden Dragon Claw Air Plant should also be much higher than before.

But it doesn’t matter.

Augustus’s reputation has been established, and it’s time to release some high-priced super items.

“In this way, I’ll be confident in dealing with the impact from Solas’s Lightfoot.” Locke pondered, “Although I know that this level of grafting is not something that ordinary wizards can do, I can still ask the Queen if the elven wizards in their main elven world of Arthas are capable of making this craft.”

If they are, he can still reduce the cost.

Locke took out his Lingzhi magical plant and browsed through the current second-ring, first-zone journals on multiple grafting and composite grafting methods, wanting to determine if his 2×3 composite grafting technique could be published in a first-zone journal.

After reading, Locke frowned. In the second-ring realm, the maximum limit for multiple grafting was five grafts.

Composite grafting, on the other hand, had many more variations. The most common example was the Rose Council’s witch, Lana, who grafted one hundred different rose magical plants onto a single Siren Rose. She was able to do this by simultaneously using auxiliary grafting techniques within composite grafting—grafting auxiliary magical plants to transport nutrients—and utilizing ecological corridors to further facilitate nutrient delivery.

In other words, to publish in a first-zone journal, at least five grafts were needed in multiple grafting, meaning five consecutive grafting relationships, one scion, and five rootstocks. For composite grafting to be published in a first-zone journal, at least one hundred magical plants needed to be grafted together—one rootstock and one hundred scions.

His current 2×3 composite grafting technique could only be published in a second-zone journal at best.

However, this was already quite impressive.

After all, he hadn’t used the most important auxiliary grafting technique in the composite grafting method.

Locke flipped through the materials. Currently, the top research directions in grafting methods at the second ring stage were mainly four: the first was multiple grafting, the second was composite grafting, the third was grafting of extremely small magical plants, and the fourth was grafting of extremely large magical plants.

There were also two controversial development directions.

One was the grafting method of magical creature bloodline essence, and the other was the grafting of heterogeneous magical plants, namely the grafting of hell plants and abyssal plants.

These two directions were very sensitive and easily failed ethical and moral reviews, but because they could easily produce powerful magical plants, they would occasionally appear in some journals.

In addition to these, Locke searched the materials and found that other basic cultivation methods in the Eastern Boundary, basically at the second ring stage, had also developed into their own unique cutting-edge directions.

Locke also knew that the reason why his composite grafting cultivation method could not be published in the first zone was not because his life magic was not good enough, but because he had hardly devoted himself to specific grafting cultivation research directions, and had only forcibly made it through the extremely large magic – Tree of Prosperity.

Ordinary wizards shouldn’t be able to achieve this level.

After all, he hadn’t used any special grafting cultivation methods.

In other words, his basic abilities in grafting cultivation were still insufficient.

Locke pondered, “This is something I can work on later.”

“With the Tree of Prosperity, achieving results in the three basic grafting cultivation methods will be much easier than for ordinary breeders.”

Locke moved slightly, then his expression changed slightly.

Could it be?

Locke moved forward and discovered that he had actually used the Starry Golden Dragon Claw Air Pineapple beneath his feet, applying the mystical meaning of Wang Bu Liu Xing [Purification in Flow]. The residual divine energy on the ground where his wizard shoes touched began to flow.

This caused the area he walked on to transform into a golden pool.

Locke was speechless for a moment. “Using the ‘connection method’—it’s indeed possible for my wizard shoes to indirectly utilize the mystical meaning of *Vaccaria segetalis*. However, based on the current usage of the two Starry Golden Dragon Claws, it seems only one air plant can invoke the mystical meaning of *Vaccaria segetalis* at a time.”

“But—”

“That’s alright. I can design a spell model and manually control my *Vaccaria segetalis*, allowing wizards using my Augustus wizard shoes to instantly invoke the mystical meaning, and then quickly stop providing access afterward. This way, all wizards using Starry Golden Dragon Claws can temporarily use the mystical meaning of *Vaccaria segetalis*.”

Second-ring wizard shoes can use mystical meanings that should only be available at the Star Ring stage!

This significance is truly immense.

The reason Locke can now create such powerful wizard shoes is because his life magic has recently made tremendous progress.

Locke walked across a meadow, and under his magical manipulation, the roots of countless plants attempted to entangle his feet. However, magical energy flowed across the surface of the Starry Golden Dragon Claw, and as the mystical meaning took effect, the magical energy binding the roots quickly flowed away like water, and the bound roots returned to their original state.

This mystical meaning is equivalent to giving Locke’s wizard shoes a purification with extremely high priority.

Because this utilizes the mystical meaning of the Star Ring level, this purification ability is almost impossible to resist at the second ring level.

“Good,”

Locke said. “Only wizard shoes like these can be considered a step up, not just slightly modified functions that can be called a new version.”

Locke prepared to leave the Sea King World. At this moment, the entire Sea King World was essentially under his temporary control. However, the damage to the Sea King World was too severe. The current population was less than ten million, and all previous civilizations had basically collapsed. Intelligent life forms had almost reverted to a primitive state.

The original civilization was also almost gone.

Under the continuous manipulation of Shan Chuan Ke, Gang Ding Di, and the Persepolis gods, this world had almost no civilizational foundation left.

Therefore, he could only use the reverse magic potion refining method and Wang Bu Liu Xing to slowly repair this world.

Locke looked around. “This world is so badly damaged; there are almost no extra resources left. Fortunately, I have the Ancestral God’s Talisman and Treasures. They still have some reference value. I can come here more often to learn from the mysteries of the Ancestral Gods, which might help me advance my potion-reversing technique.”

“Teacher Sea Maiden, let me get more money, at least two hundred million magic stones. This—”

Locke smiled wryly, “I’ll try my best.”

“The more magic stones, the better; you’ll never have to worry about where to spend them. Besides, since I’m going to participate in the Twelve Zodiacs Gathering, I should probably improve my potion-making skills. I wonder what the average level of potion makers in that organization is. I’m not the worst in the Twelve Zodiacs Gathering, am I?”

Locke coughed; he hadn’t been the worst performer in a long time.

He wondered if there were anyone worse than him in the Twelve Zodiacs Gathering.

As Locke looked around, the Mountain Guest, afraid Locke wouldn’t see him, kept jumping around on the ground. “Lord Tianyuan, I’m here, I’m here!”

Locke waved his hand, instantly carrying him away using the jade slip given to him by the Sea Queen.

At Golden Crown Mountain, in the Saffron Peach Garden, inside Locke’s research group’s laboratory.

In his office, Locke placed Shanchuanke on Nika’s shoulder. He pointed, and Shanchuanke’s body automatically transformed into pure and turbid energy, then flowed towards Nika’s body.

Locke said to Nika, “Don’t resist. All living beings have life. Your resistance might cause my spell to fail.”

Nika felt streams of pure energy rush into his body, making him feel incredibly relaxed. His previous weakness quickly vanished. Shanchuanke seemed to have formed a balance with the curse within him; after merging with him, Shanchuanke enhanced his self-healing ability and stabilized the state of the reversed curse.

Shanchuanke finally asked, “Lord Tianyuan, may I ask, when do you plan to separate me from this mortal boy?”

Locke smiled, “It’ll be about time when he becomes a Star Ring Wizard.”

Shanchuanke immediately regretted his decision. “What, a star ring? I thought it was just temporary. I won’t merge anymore, no.”

The Pure and Turbid Heavenly Position appeared behind Locke, a position inherent to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. He used this position to suppress Shan Chuan Ke, temporarily fusing Shan Chuan Ke’s pure and turbid energies with Nika’s body, using the pure and turbid energies to stabilize the half-baked reversal curse.

Thus, the reversal curse was finally complete.

Locke thought to himself, “Shan Chuan Ke, one day you will thank me.”

Growing up with this child, starting your life anew from a mortal’s perspective—I believe this can give you what you lack most: the time to be human.

Nika’s face instantly turned rosy and radiant, even his appearance improved several levels; he felt as if he had grown up.

Nika looked at Locke with delight and said, “Teacher, I feel like I have inexhaustible strength.”

“I can help you with chores—no, I can help move chores.”

Locke

smiled and said, “Then you underestimate the modifications I, the potion master, have made to you. Try drinking this potion that can kill a herd of cattle. You’ll have a new discovery. Congratulations, Nika, from now on, you will be free from weakness and incompetence. You will discover that your potential is so great. You can do many things.”

Nika swallowed hard, his eyes reddening, and bowed to Locke. “Teacher, thank you. I don’t know why you’re helping me like this. I couldn’t do any work for you before.”

Locke said, “Because you are a genius. And I can see that.”

Nika pursed his lips in disbelief. “Ah? Me—am I? If I’m not, will you abandon me? I’m so useless. I get out of breath after working for a short while, I eat a lot, sleep a lot, and can’t do anything well.”

Nika said somewhat embarrassedly, “When I went to the Golden Crown Mountain public classroom today, the other—the other third-class wizard apprentices didn’t want to sit with me. They told me that I’m not qualified to enter Golden Crown Mountain and that I’ll be expelled soon. Golden Crown Mountain has strict rules, many people want to get in, and there are few student spots. I’m not worthy of taking up a precious spot.”

“I’ll be expelled soon—”

Locke handed him a bottle of poison. “Drink it.”

“This spot is perfect for you.”

Nika took the bottle of potion from Locke. He had already drunk many potions before, so he didn’t care about this one now. He even considered this behavior as his value in staying with Locke, so he quickly drank it.

The next moment, Nika felt a sudden surge of heat and cold throughout his body; one half was hot, the other half cold. The heat and cold quickly dissipated, replaced by a feeling of emptiness, followed by a heavy sensation in his legs.

Nika clutched his head, and with a muffled groan, a teacup on Locke’s desk suddenly lurched towards him, causing the lid to roll off and land in Locke’s hand.

Nika slumped to the floor, drenched in sweat. Soon, all the strange sensations vanished, and when he stood up, he felt different.

Things seemed different to Nika; the entire office radiated a terrifying magical light.

He felt as if he were in an alien world—

a world completely different from anything he had ever known or experienced!

Nika cried out, “Teacher—what happened to me?”

Locke said, “I just gave you a poison that I mixed three common poisons, which could barely be called a magical potion. Because of the reverse curse spell I modified on your body, the original mixture of three highly toxic substances would cause the poisoned person to experience absolute torment and gradually die from respiratory arrest due to paralysis. That respiratory arrest is not an immediate cessation of breathing, but a slow asphyxiation caused by muscle paralysis. You may experience the most painful way to die in the world. The suffering of those who die from this poison is greater than that of drowning or being buried alive.”

Nika shuddered.

Locke said, “However, because of the Reversal Curse Spell, you reversed its effect, turning this torment into an increase in mental strength. You should know that for a wizard, the ability to acquire resources is also a talent. And now you can take poisons that others consider trash, or other highly toxic substances, and in turn enhance your magical pressure and physique.” “

This is the information I’ve compiled about your physical constitution for you. Consider it an instruction manual. Read it carefully and figure out the potions you’ll need to take in the future. I’ve been very busy lately and haven’t had time for such trivial matters. By the way, the upper limit of the effect of your Reversal Curse Spell is related to your magical pressure level. In other words, don’t take poisons exceeding your level beforehand, or you’ll still die. Moreover, different poisons have different effects on you. I can only give you a general overview; you’ll need to grasp the details yourself.” “

Nika, continue attending the public classes at Golden Crown Mountain. You don’t have a student quota yet, so the courses will be very expensive for you,”

Locke said. “Sign this agreement for the loan of one thousand magic stones from me. I won’t charge you interest. You just need to repay the money within five years.”

“I’ll give you a portion each month; you can use those magic stones to pay for your courses.”

Nika took the documents and loan agreement.

Locke, seeing his slight bewilderment, said, “Even for the Child of Elements and the favorable conditions at Golden Crown Mountain, it would still take at least a month to become a third-class wizard apprentice. But after you took my poison, you’ve already become a third-class wizard apprentice.”

“Nika, the apprentice public classes at Golden Crown Mountain are credit-based; I hope you can accumulate one hundred credits soon. Also, when you become a second-class wizard apprentice, you can choose your own wizard mentor. However, since you’re my student, no one should choose you; just write my name when you fill out the forms.”

9.

Nika signed his name on the contract.

He felt that his life had changed from this day forward.

Nika secretly glanced at Locke, suddenly feeling a sense of peace he had never experienced before. Although Professor Augustine was always cold and indifferent to him, it seemed that nothing could change Professor Augustine’s attitude towards him. What

Nika feared most was that someone who had been kind to him would suddenly become hateful.

Locke’s stability constantly soothed the turmoil in his heart.

Locke watched Nika’s departing figure and frowned. “This child—it seems that he has lost the ability to grasp the psychological distance between people because he has been emotionally hurt by many people in the past. He is either too enthusiastic towards people or too afraid of them.”

“Is it because of those years he spent wandering the streets?”

Locke exhaled a breath of stale air and laughed at himself, “Although I tried to imitate the methods of Professor Sophia and Professor Ekaterina, even I don’t know if my methods are right or if I am on the right path of teaching.”

Before, when he spread his power system in other worlds, his goal was simply to spread the power system.

Even as a villain in the world of the Azure Lotus of Creation, his primary goal was the power system. But these wizard students are different. If he wanted to properly teach them and have them help him, even as his personal disciples, the focus wouldn’t be on the power system, but on the students themselves.

It’s about these people.

That’s why Locke needed to sense Nika’s emotional fluctuations, to reflect on Nika’s past, to understand what happened to him, and to consider how to soothe his emotional wounds. ” It takes

ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to cultivate a person.”

Locke believed that since he had taken Nika as his student, he should teach him carefully,

just like the witches Sophia and Catherine.

A tree only needs ten years, but a person needs a hundred. Just as he had spent countless days and nights calculating how to cultivate a magical plant, he also needed to consider how to cultivate a wizard talent.

“Nika seems to really need stable attitudes from others,”

Locke pondered. “What he lacks is a sense of security. But once he achieves something, that security should come from outside. Although the security he gains this way is very unstable and will affect his potential, at least until he reaches the first-ring wizard stage, this personality flaw won’t have a significant impact on him.”

“Let’s take it one step at a time. I can’t directly control his mind with enchanting magic; that would only result in a puppet, not a student.”

Locke rubbed his temples. “Seriously nurturing a student is such a tiring thing. I really want to be like in other worlds, where I can just select students without nurturing them, focusing on spreading my power system and knowledge.” “

But that wouldn’t be nurturing people. It would just be increasing the spread of knowledge.”

“Whether a teacher is increasing the spread of knowledge, nurturing people, or just wanting to consume resources, or just doing a mediocre job, the difference between these four is quite significant. It’s also one of the differences between a great teacher and a mediocre teacher.” Both

the Sophia Witch and the Catherine Witch were nurturing themselves, so they could teach according to their aptitude.

For a long time, the Sea Queen had only been disseminating knowledge of potions, especially during the accelerated advancement classes. However, he had no idea what her attitude towards him was now. After all, learning potions was the most important thing to him.

Locke left the laboratory and walked through the castle in the Saffron Peach Garden, pondering how to obtain two hundred million magic stones to participate in the Twelve Zodiacs Gathering.

At the same time, Locke overheard two wizards complaining in the castle.

Locke recognized one as a Star Ring Wizard and the other as a Moon Ring Wizard. The Saffron Peach Garden was essentially Catherine the Witch’s territory, meaning these two were also members of his own lineage.

He heard the Moon Ring Wizard complaining to his colleague, the Star Ring Wizard, about how terrible the current environment was.

“When I go out now, people think I’m the Grand Wizard of Mount Golden Crown, not a penniless pauper who owes someone 150 million magic stones. It’s infuriating! Just the other day, a colleague asked to borrow money. If I didn’t lend it to him, I’d offend him. I did lend it—but I don’t have the money anyway.”

“My research group spends money every day. I have to pay them salaries and reimburse their expenses daily. If they cause trouble, I have to pay to clean up their messes.” “

But the commercial value my research group can generate is far too little.”

Moon Ring Wizard Hugo Russell sighed. “My research group’s main research direction is currently the fivefold approach method.”

Star Ring Wizard Wesley Payne looked at him with sympathy. Both of them were formal wizarding instructors at Mount Golden Crown, and they had obtained their teaching positions through their own abilities, rather than on contract. Since they were friends for many years, they naturally talked about everything.

“There are many ways to commercialize ordinary grafting research. Grafting can save precious degenerated or dying tree species, and use the roots of other magical plants to revive high-value damaged magical plants.” “

Besides, it can also use high-value scions and low-value rootstocks to allow high-value magical plants to gain more years of life in a shorter time, increasing their magical pressure.”

“Unfortunately, Lord Hugo’s research is basic, while yours involves five grafting relationships resulting in five-fold grafting, specifically five approach grafts. Such advanced technology inevitably has a limited scope of application. Only a few high-value magical plants might need this technology. To be honest, I don’t even know what market your technology can be widely applied to.”

Wizard Hugo said, “To conduct good research, you need funding. The association’s funds alone aren’t enough; you also need a stable flow of funds in the external market to avoid being controlled by others. Originally, the market I found for my research group was high-value garden bonsai.”

“You know, this is a rare sight that only appears in our Yunze Wetland.”

“Because magical fields are extremely precious, some high-value magical fields may only be half an acre to one acre in size. If we use my five-fold grafting method, we can plant the maximum number of high-value magical plants within a half-acre of high-grade magical field,”

said Wizard Hugo. “For example, within a half-acre of magical field, we can plant one Crimson Gold Peach, one Fangtian Painting Tree, one Dragon View Peach, one White Dew Magical Peach, and one Mysterious Jade Jujube Tree. Each of these five Star Ring Magical Plants would normally require that half-acre of high-value magical field, but using my five-fold grafting method, we can plant so many Star Ring Magical Plants within that half-acre of magical field.” “

Because the five magical plants share a nutrient system.”

“However, it will also affect the growth of these magical plants to some extent. Before the pressure from the Rose School, I could barely break even by making high-value garden bonsai for people, using the proceeds to pay off my debts. But now this market has been impacted by a Moon Ring Wizard from the Rose School. He has optimized the nutrient soil, so he can plant about three Star Ring magical plants in half an acre of magical field. Although the number is less than the high-level magical plants that I intensively plant using my technical route, the cost is lower, and the magical plants he grows develop normally.”

Wizard Hugo’s face showed worry. “I calculated the cost of his nutrient soil before and found that he can take my market because he is doing business at a loss. I don’t know how long he will continue, but if this continues, my debt by the end of the year may increase from 150 million to 200 million.”

Wizard Wesley Payne was startled. “Mr. Hugo, how can the debt increase by 50 million in a year?”

Hugo Moon Ring sighed. “There’s no way around it, I’m not making any money at all right now, and I still have to pay my research group’s salaries every day.

I’m losing about 140,000 magic stones every day,”

Wizard Wesley Payne said in a low voice. “Why didn’t you open more shop alliances like I did? I opened three, three different ones, so that no matter which industry had problems, there were other shops to make up for the losses.”

Wizard Hugo coughed. “I’m already considered lucky. You should really look at the other wizarding mentor in this garden, [Jeppelie Witch]. She was eager to expand her business plans and opened five shop alliances in different fields of breeding. This year, all five shop alliances lost money, and now she owes people 500 million magic stones.”

Wizard Wesley Payne asked, “Ah? I thought Mrs. Jeppelie was very rich. I saw Jeppelie wearing a different magic ring every day, even the latest and most fashionable ones, and she changed into the most expensive wizarding robes every day.”

Wizard Hugo said in a low voice, “They are all…” “Borrowed. If she dared to let too many people know her financial situation, her creditors would probably demolish her lab and divide up her students the next moment. Some of her students have been forced to take out loans for her. However, those of us who are close to her know some things about her and have roughly estimated her debts. She was also unlucky. She wanted to sell five kinds of magical plants and opened five shop alliances, but she happened to run into the war between academic lines, and her shop alliance with several Moon Ring Wizards from the Rose Academy was essentially a self-destruction.”

Wizard Wesley Payne smiled bitterly. “I’m a Star Ring Wizard, probably not as wealthy as you guys. If the sky falls, you tall ones will hold it up, so I don’t feel it too much right now. It’s just that the cost of supplies has suddenly increased a lot lately. If you powerful Moon Ring Wizards in the academy are like this, what about the other Moon Ring Wizards in our academy?”

Wizard Hugo said, “The Moon Ring Wizards in the Rose Academy aren’t doing too well either. But you have to understand, we’ve all followed our respective master mentors for thousands of years. If our mentors can become Fourth Ring Wizards, you should understand that we’ll all rise to prominence. So everyone’s working hard.”

“Even without the War of the Schools, the financial situation of us Moon Ring Wizards isn’t great. There’s a saying, isn’t there? The greater the ability, the faster you make money, and the faster you lose it. But actually, taking out loans to make money is quite normal. As long as the amount borrowed doesn’t exceed the value of our own assets by a certain amount, we can basically scrape together enough to get by,”

Wizard Hugo said. “However, if one day someone discovers that the amount of your loans exceeds your own value by too much, and someone sets you on fire, then even if you’re a Moon Ring Wizard, you’ll fall like a shooting star. Moon Ring Wizards aren’t necessarily too powerful to fail. Hmm?”

Wizard Hugo coughed and, seeing Wesley Payne’s puzzled look, gestured with his eyes that someone was behind Wesley Payne.

Wesley Payne turned around and, initially a little annoyed that someone was eavesdropping on their conversation, immediately beamed with joy upon seeing Locke and bowed.

“It’s Lord Locke. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

By this time, Locke had essentially become an important member and star of the Red Dragon School.

Wizard Wesley Payne smiled at Locke, “You flatter me. My friend Hugo and I are just lamenting the state of the world.

“

Wizard Hugo nodded to Locke. As a veteran Moon Ring wizard, he remained somewhat reserved. His magic pressure was over 38,000, making him a long-established Moon Ring wizard.

For Moon Ring wizards, the time span is quite significant.

Wizard Hugo said, “Locke, welcome to our Saffron Peach Garden.”

Locke nodded and said to Wizard Hugo, “Mr. Hugo, to be honest, I’ve been worrying about money lately.”

Wizard Hugo’s face immediately showed a hint of understanding and frankness. “Yes, who doesn’t worry about money? If I had money, my five-fold grafting technique would have been perfected long ago.”

Locke knew that the most advanced multi-grafting technique was seven-fold grafting.

However, that was basically an experiment done by Sun Ring wizards approaching the third ring.

Besides, while both are grafting, approach grafting is different from ordinary grafting.

Approach grafting is more difficult.

Furthermore, the specific difficulty level depends on the type of plant being grafted.

Hugo the Wizard said to Locke, “Wizard Locke, you seem to mainly deal in the wizard shoe market, right? What kind of research is your group planning?”

“I heard that Solas Barefoot is holding a press conference three days in advance, oh right, today. I wonder what Solas Barefoot is planning. By the way, ever since our academy got your pure magic plant wizard shoes, I’ve been having my students mainly buy wizard shoes from your shop. Solas Barefoot, those bundled sales things, I’ve disliked them for a long time.”

Locke knew his words resonated with Hugo the Wizard, earning his favor and acceptance.

The market Hugo the Wizard was targeting was inherently dangerous; it wasn’t genuine demand, but rather a forced sales tactic and a few people’s spur-of-the-moment special needs. So even without the pressure from the Rose Academy, I felt it was easy for problems to arise. However, I couldn’t say this directly to his face; that would easily create an enemy.

Hmm? Solas Barefoot is actually holding a press conference early? Then during the press conference, they’ll definitely attack my Augustus. It’s too late to talk to Arthas about producing my Starry Golden Dragon Claw now. So—

Locke knew plans couldn’t keep up with changes; that was reality.

“It’s alright, Soras held a press conference barefoot, so will I.” “

I need to ask Arthas for a favor.”

Locke exchanged a few words with the two; after all, they’d be working in the same garden, colleagues.

He’d already met the exit requirements at the True Knowledge Institute; now, his main focus was on participating in the Tianjiang River competition, fulfilling his teaching contribution obligations, and assisting his teacher with projects. Therefore, his primary base would be in this saffron peach orchard.