Chapter 854

Chapter 850 The Dark World Natives Who Came to Our Doorstep and the Asymmetrical Green-leaved Dragonfly Plant Factor Group!

Inside the Feathered Serpent Pavilion, Locke fell into deep thought before Lady Tataroni. Should he restart the Heavenly Ladder and begin the fifth Heavenly Ladder?

Locke asked, “How long is the completion time for the fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder’s mission?”

Lady Tataroni smiled and gracefully bowed to Locke, her silver dragon half-dragon tail wagging. “Ten years.”

“Spiritual magic is extremely complex, and second-circle potions are even more intricate, therefore each test takes ten years.”

Locke asked, “Could you tell me the questions for the fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder test?”

Lady Tataroni’s eyes hesitated.

“Lord Augustine, I very much want to help beings with great bloodlines like yourself. But the Heavenly Ladder test is the foundation of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion, and this is the only thing I cannot make an exception for. However, you still have one opportunity to forcibly stop the test midway and restart a round of the Heavenly Ladder test.”

“But starting from the fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder, you can only use this privilege once.”

Locke nodded.

“I understand.”

Locke said, “I will participate.”

This was something he had carefully considered.

Although failing the Ladder test would mean losing this quick access to Potions resources, the problem is, with ten years already given, surely he has the confidence to pass the fifth round of the Ladder?

The various benefits of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion only become available as supplementary services after the Ladder is activated. If he waits until later to activate it without high-quality Potions inheritance, it would be a waste of time.

Moreover, he is confident he can pass the Ladder test.

First, he possesses the Synthesis Cube.

Second, he has the Potions Reverse Refinement technique given to him by King Otto, and he has the Bronze Cauldron to refine the Potion of Zero, accumulating perception of spirits and rapidly increasing his [Spiritual Awareness].

Spiritual Awareness is the ability to perceive spirits.

Therefore, while ten years might be too short for others, it shouldn’t be a problem for him.

From another perspective, if he can’t become a second-circle Potions Master for a long time, he should give up Potions, otherwise it might negatively impact his chances of becoming a top genius in the wizarding world.

Locke said, “Very well. Lady Tataroni, I will begin the Heavenly Ladder Test.”

Lady Tataroni bowed to Locke. “Excuse me, Lord Augustine.”

She suddenly extended her hand, covered in silver dragon scales, towards Locke. Then, magic appeared on her five fingers, and strands of magic burned like flames, transforming into blue flames.

These blue flames intertwined, forming threads of fire, which then swirled around Locke.

Soon, a drop of emerald green liquid appeared in the center of these threads of fire.

Locke’s eyes flickered slightly.

“You extracted the essence of my name?”

Lady Tataroni used the Time Gold Crystal Potion Bottle to collect the emerald green liquid, then chanted a spell, summoning a massive cauldron behind her.

The cauldron appeared both real and illusory, like a dream, seemingly located within a palace. The magnificent palace, with its carved beams and painted rafters, possessed a style completely different from that of the modern magical era, and was adorned with many feathered snake totems.

Lady Tataroni dripped the emerald green soul into the cauldron.

Locke, witnessing this, exchanged a flicker of emotion.

‘There’s no mistake. She extracted the spirit essence from my name. I never imagined that second-circle potion-making had developed to this level, actually able to extract a spirit essence from my name.’

‘But it’s not a big deal. A spirit essence is merely a hidden true form of all things. Her extraction of a spirit essence from my name has no effect on me whatsoever.’

‘It’s just that concocting a potion from someone else’s name is truly too mystical.’

At this moment, Lady Tataroni breathed slightly, seemingly quite tired.

She bowed to Locke, then looked up and explained, “According to the rules, starting from the fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder test, you need to pour your Name Potion into the [Heart of the Feathered Serpent Ancestor] of our Feathered Serpent Pavilion.”

“This ensures that you have only participated in the Heavenly Ladder once, and that you can only participate once in this lifetime. The fairness of the subsequent Heavenly Ladder tests will be protected by the [Heart of the Feathered Serpent Ancestor].”

Locke’s gaze narrowed slightly. The Heart of the Feathered Serpent?

Why would a cauldron be the Heart of the Feathered Serpent Ancestor?

Is it just a simple name?

No, for a second-ring potion master, they can directly extract the essence from someone’s name and use techniques to refine a Name Potion, then use the Name Potion to ensure that person’s eligibility to participate.

For a higher-ring potion master in the Feathered Serpent Pavilion, the name of an object is certainly not chosen randomly.

Because the name itself contains an essence.

Locke learned this from the fact that she was refining a Name Potion in front of him.

Locke asked directly, “Why is this called the Heart of the Feathered Serpent Ancestor? Is this truly the heart of the Feathered Serpent Ancestor? Or is it a cauldron made from the heart of the Feathered Serpent Ancestor?”

Lady Tataroni smiled without speaking, elegantly shaking her head slightly.

“Regarding this, due to the regulations above, I cannot reveal it to you.”

Locke nodded.

“I understand.”

The fact that he couldn’t say anything already conveyed a message.

Suddenly, a burst of magical flame erupted from the Feathered Serpent Ancestor’s Heart Cauldron behind Lady Tataroni. Within the flame, a piece of paper appeared and floated into Locke’s hand.

Lady Tataroni said, “What you see is the content of the fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder Test.”

The palace and cauldron behind her disappeared.

Locke looked at the paper and saw that it was signed “[Universal Engine],” which seemed to be the name of the cauldron.

The Feathered Serpent Pavilion was truly mysterious.

It seemed that the one setting the questions for him in the fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder Test was no longer the higher-ups of the Feathered Serpent Pavilion, but rather the Universal Engine, or the Heart of the Feathered Serpent Ancestor, or something behind that magical cauldron artifact.

The magical pressure emanating from that crucible artifact was incredibly vast; Locke couldn’t even determine its level, only sensing an immeasurable amount and intensity of magical pressure.

Locke looked at the contents of the paper:

“Within ten years, master the following potions: the Doppelganger Potion and the Archangel Potion.”

“Only one set of ingredients for the Doppelganger Potion and one set for the Archangel Potion are provided. You may use Primal Flame, any other auxiliary magical artifacts, or special powers.”

Locke pondered.

This requirement…

He had already learned his first potion, the Spirit Stabilizer Potion, the simplest second-ring potion.

The Doppelganger Potion was much more complex than the Spirit Stabilizer Potion, so although he had obtained the Two-Cicada Spirit Macro, he hadn’t yet learned the Doppelganger Potion. The Archangel Potion, on the other hand, was considered a relatively complex ordinary second-ring potion.

If he passed this round of the ladder test, he would become a second-ring potion master.

Therefore, this round of the ladder test didn’t essentially require him to brew two potions, but rather to become a second-ring potion master in the most orthodox way.

Because the condition for passing the second-ring potion master test was to brew three different second-ring potions on the spot, which meant that a potion master could become a second-ring potion master by learning three of the simplest potions and passing the test.

He had already begun the fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder Test, which meant he had to use potions of varying difficulty—from simple to ordinary to complex—to pass the Second Ring Potions Mastery exam.

Upright and honest.

No shortcuts.

This was the testing method used by students of the old school of potions masters.

Therefore, essentially, this fifth round of the Heavenly Ladder Test required him to pass the Second Ring Potions Mastery exam without resorting to trickery, and he had a ten-year time limit.

Locke said, “I understand. Give me the materials.”

Lady Tataroni immediately shook her magical bell, summoning servants to fetch two sets of potion ingredients.

“Lord Augustine, I will contact you after obtaining the master potions master’s invitation. You can await my good news.”

Locke nodded slightly.

“Thank you.”

After taking the materials, he immediately left the Feathered Serpent Pavilion.

At the same time, Locke began a new round of development on flying magical plants.

This time, he clearly felt in the Dune Plane that the concentration gradient of the magical tides introduced from the Wizarding World by the two research institutes had increased significantly, causing corresponding changes in the mutations and growth cycles of the magical plants.

“An unexpected effect.”

Locke looked at the fast-growing subspecies of the Great Green-Leaf Dragonfly before him. This fast-growing plant was swaying constantly in the magical winds; despite being just a fast-growing plant, it had begun to summon magical winds.

A month later, after investing another ten million magic stones

, Locke stood in the Sword Tomb. Meanwhile, on the tenth underground level of the two research institutes, Douglas and the witch Mason stood behind Locke, observing the situation.

Locke raised his right hand, and a magical magnetic field appeared, instantly drawing countless rays of light from the entire tenth underground level towards his right hand.

The magical magnetic field unleashed by the second-ring wizard was incredibly vast, seemingly an integral part of the earth’s magnetic field, enveloping the laboratory.

One after another, selected plant factors were sliced by his magical magnetic field, falling into the energy sphere in his hand. The plant factors continuously combined within this emerald green energy sphere.

Following the finite element cultivation method, these advantageous plant factors were rearranged and combined, hoping to produce a second-ring level Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow.

But Locke knew this wasn’t enough.

The gap between first and second rings was simply too great.

Therefore, the traditional finite element cultivation method could no longer cultivate second-ring magical plants using the finite element cutting method.

Thus, he added three more super plant factors.

These were super plant factors he had obtained after a full month, using many doses of [Azure Spirit Breath]!

They were—

3 times Type 2 Feathering Plant Factor,

2 times Type T Gibberellic Acid Secretion Plant Factor, and

Great Green Acer Asymmetric Spiral Leaf Plant Factor.

This forms a plant factor combination that Locke calls the “Asymmetric Large Blue Leaf Dragonfly Plant Factor Set.”

Locke himself adjusted the Large Blue Leaf Dragonfly plant essence combination cultivated using the finite element method specifically for this set of plant factors.

Simply put, this set of super plant factors forms a complementary relationship. The side effect of the 3x type 2 pellucidatoin plant factor is that it shrinks the Large Blue Leaf Dragonfly plant, while the 2x T-type gibberellic acid secretion plant factor allows the Large Blue Leaf Dragonfly to secrete twice the normal amount of T-type gibberellic acid.

The most significant effect of gibberellic acid is that it promotes plant growth and cell elongation,

especially effective on banana plants.

T-type gibberellic acid is a natural magical structural component secreted by the Large Blue Leaf Dragonfly, a banana-type magical plant. Therefore, Locke simply developed a super plant factor to multiply its secretion.

T-type gibberellic acid can increase the size of banana plants and also has a certain allelopathic effect, because after the secretion of T-type gibberellic acid, it inhibits the growth of non-banana plants, only promoting the growth of banana plants.

Using 2x T-type gibberellic acid plant factor can compensate for the deficiencies of 3x feather-dropping plant factor.

Meanwhile, the asymmetric spiral leaf factor of the large-leaved maple was obtained by Locke through finite element cultivation and grafting, grafting a portion of the large-leaved maple’s winged fruit’s spirituality with the specific spirituality of the large-leaved dragon sparrow, and then growing it within the large-leaved dragon sparrow. The

extra five million magic stones spent this month were consumed in this step.

In this way, he could extract a plant factor from the large-leaved maple’s winged fruit, corresponding to a special curling-leaf magical plant trait that could create vortices in magical winds.

Locke extracted it, conducted some simple tests, and combined this plant factor with two other super plant factors to form a super plant factor set.

An hour later, all the plant factors gradually took shape and arranged themselves within the plant essence sphere in Locke’s hand.

Locke then used a magical magnetic field to inject his adjusted plant essence into a large-leaved dragon sparrow seedling before him.

The adjusted Azure-Leaf Dragon Sparrow seedling had essentially undergone two enhancements using plant essence.

The first was the ‘Sword Tomb Enhancement,’ completed over two months using the finite element cultivation method, costing eight million magic stones. This comprehensively strengthened its basic stats and increased the secretion of various natural magical structural components.

The second involved adding three sets of super plant factors from the [Asymmetric Azure-Leaf Dragon Sparrow Plant Factor Group], a step that consumed seven million magic stones.

Now, these adjusted plant factors were added to the seedling. Locke then cast a powerful acceleration evolution spell, but since it involved a second-ring magical plant, even the powerful acceleration couldn’t significantly shorten the plant’s development and growth.

Simultaneously, he needed to activate the magic array to gather the magic tide concentration gradient from the tenth layer, accelerating the plant’s growth and providing a suitable environment.

“With the blessing of the magic arrays in the two research institutes, as long as I continuously chant the powerful growth-accelerating spell, along with the Verdant Spirit Breath, I should be able to get this magical plant to complete its growth within a month.”

“Then I’ll know the result.”

Locke grafted a Imaginary Root onto the seedling of the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow.

“However, I can use the Lunar Cultivation Method to accelerate this process, which would shorten the original month-long wait to one day, and I wouldn’t need the Verdant Spirit Breath. It’s just that I don’t have… Zero Magic Potions. I can’t use the Lunar Cultivation Method.”

The main reason was that he didn’t have any extra Zero Magic Potions.

Locke pondered, “Then I’ll have to spend an extra million magic stones to buy Verdant Spirit Breath. And I’ll have to wait another month.”

Waiting another month for the result wasn’t a big deal.

Although it was a bit troublesome, and this meant waiting more than thirty times longer out of thin air.

But the problem was that he would probably have to convince Team Leader Sith to continuously provide an excess of magical energy to the tenth floor of the underground research institute in the Dune Plane for a month, to supply the hundreds of magic arrays spread throughout that floor.

Locke frowned. Where could he possibly hunt for the Zero Potion in the short term?

Aside from dark wizards, even touching a white wizard’s finger could attract the attention of the Ethics and Morality Committee.

And the Ethics and Morality Committee wasn’t just for show.

Suddenly, Locke’s expression turned strange, because as he chanted the incantation, he sensed a peculiar object nearby.

It was a strange, dark shadow.

Standing before his one-acre magical field

, Locke instantly realized what it was. He seemed to have come from another world, as he had read about monsters from the Dark World in a free magic book. Was this one of the so-called demons and monsters of the Dark World?

That world was indeed extraordinary; although he didn’t know how it had managed it, it had somehow managed to find him directly by following his chat history with his senior brother.

Locke grinned, feeling the magical pressure emanating from this second-ring level demon.

Potion ingredients, delivered right to his doorstep!

Locke looked at the four people behind him and said, “Mason, Barrett, and Freya, you three use the Growth Acceleration Spell to help me maintain this. Douglas, you’re in charge of outputting magical pressure and activating the [Growth Magic Array].”

This way, he could temporarily stop casting the powerful Acceleration Spell without worrying about the experiment being interrupted.

That was the advantage of being in the large group’s laboratory—complete equipment, mature experiments, and well-organized cooperation.

Locke looked at the monstrous creature not far away. It appeared to be a cloud of black mist, seemingly a native of the dark world.

It was staring at him with crimson eyes.

This native of the dark world had a humanoid form within the black mist.

Suddenly, it summoned a cloud of black mist, enveloping Locke and distorting space to form a black cube.

Then, within this dark space, the native of the dark world revealed its true form.

It wore priestly robes, its body painted in various colors, with dark brown skin, but overall resembling a normal human, except for its unusually wide forehead. Its eyebrows were almost as long as its face, and a thin, long stitch ran across its exaggerated forehead.

“I am a native of the dark world.”

“Zakari Potter. A monstrous creature.”

“Wizard, I have come to ask you a question. Tell me, what is the real name of the wizard who intruded into our world?”

(End of Chapter)