631: Three Changes of Lunar Phases, Forbidden Forest Concept, and the Arrow of Transformation
The half-dragon maid, Ginny, said to Locke, "Little Master, I have rented a room for Lord Warwick as you instructed. I also allowed him to borrow some books using my identity. However, he seems to be in quite a hurry."
Locke smiled slightly and said, "As long as he hasn't left, it means he isn't that anxious yet."
"The key is that I must completely finish updating my Forest Sanctuary before taking action. Otherwise, if my power isn't at its peak and I act rashly, I won't be able to seize any opportunities I might encounter."
Locke said to Ginny, "Anyway, this isn't something that can be done in a moment. Tell Warwick to be prepared to wait for another half a month."
The half-dragon Ginny was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, my little master."
"I'll do my best."
Locke looked at the Elf Queen and said, "I still need to transplant approximately four hundred and ninety-four magic plants into my Forest Sanctuary."
"I will go and purchase the specific trees. Afterward, I can pay you one hundred and thirty thousand magic stones as compensation for employing your tribe."
Queen Sabrina of the elves calculated the total number of magic plants Locke needed, the biological mass, and the scale of the forest in her mind. She was slightly shocked because this undertaking was simply too massive.
It was almost to the point of man-making an ancient forest.
The investment cost, the amount of effort, and the level of technique involved were things an ordinary One-Ring Wizard like her wouldn't even dare to imagine.
The thought of her elf tribe being able to join such a great plan filled Queen Sabrina with excitement.
Transplanting such a powerful forest would be one of the greatest things she and her clansmen had ever done in their lives.
Queen Sabrina said, "Lord Augustine, I am of course willing to be employed by you and help with this task. However, do you really not need our tribe to reside permanently in this forest? According to the forest you've envisioned, the area is already quite large. Yet, your current forest still lacks animals."
Locke shook his head slightly. "Say no more. I know what I'm doing."
Queen Sabrina bowed to Locke again and said, "Lord Augustine, as you say. It was my offense. Attempting to evaluate this with my shallow knowledge was indeed foolish."
Locke left the demiplane, summoned a Cloud Whale, and headed to the Dragon Blood Market castle. He entered the Golden Peach Garden and found the trader Bruce. Whenever Trader Bruce saw Locke now, his eyes would light up.
Trader Bruce said, "Lord Augustine, what are you looking to buy this time?"
Locke said, "I need a series of magic plants: Thorn Queen, Sentry Holly, Clear Sky Birch, Wind-Whisper Dandelion, Leyline Fern, and Prism Sunflower."
Trader Bruce's expression became serious because the variety Locke mentioned made it clear this was a major project.
Most terrifyingly, as a Botanical Wizard himself, he could naturally sense some of Locke's intentions.
Most of these magic plants were functional magic plants.
Furthermore, they were magic plants for typical ecological use. As a trader here, Wizard Bruce had handled so many deals; how could he not understand what was hidden behind Locke's shopping list?
Wizard Bruce bowed to Locke. "Mr. Augustine, thank you for your trust in me, purchasing magic plants from me time and again without splitting your orders elsewhere."
"Please follow me. This is the storefront, not a convenient place to talk."
The two entered a quiet room on the second floor of the Golden Peach Garden. Wizard Bruce said to Locke, "Previously, you bought over four hundred beech trees from me. Beeches have the effect of absorbing water and heavy metal elements from the ground. Sentry Holly has special roots that transport groundwater and heavy metals, and Clear Sky Birch can absorb sunlight and convert it into light energy to spread throughout the forest."
"The Gem Holly you bought before can release forest energy to lower the temperature. The Thorn Queen is a typical magic plant for digesting decaying matter..."
"Wind-Whisper Dandelions and Prism Sunflowers are both auxiliary herbaceous magic plants. Wind-Whisper Dandelions can create a breeze within the forest to transport seeds, and Prism Sunflowers can enhance the utilization of sunlight inside the forest."
Trader Bruce asked in a low voice, "From Clear Sky Birch to Prism Sunflower, beech, Sentry Holly, Thorn Queen, and Wind-Whisper Dandelion..."
"You are already capable of creating a completely closed-loop, pure magic plant ecological chain."
"Energy producers, nutrient converters, energy transport networks, defenders, regulatory centers, energy vents, and reproductive propagators. You have all seven key elements for composing a pure magic plant ecology. Are you trying to build a complete magic plant ecosystem?"
Trader Bruce said, "This is the standard for Great Magic!"
Locke glanced at him.
Only then did he realize that his requirements for constructing the Forest Sanctuary had unintentionally approached the state of other wizards constructing Great Magic.
Of course, this didn't mean it was already enough to construct Great Magic, as only the structure was similar.
The resources required to construct Great Magic were far greater.
Furthermore, if he were to construct Great Magic, he would need to go to a medium-scale Plane; doing it in this demiplane would be of little significance.
'Bruce actually reminded me,' Locke thought. 'If my Forest Sanctuary is successfully built and I complete the Forest Alliance Spell, then for the Great Magic I build in that medium-scale world, I can completely use the Forest Alliance Spell to separate a portion of it from my Forest Sanctuary.'
'At the same time, I can connect other forests through the Forest Alliance Spell to create a Great Forest Alliance.' Locke pondered, 'Even among Great Magics, there are differences in strength and upper limits. A Great Magic constructed this way would definitely be extremely powerful!'
'The important thing is to find the right positioning for my Great Magic within the world. The better the positioning...'
Locke suddenly had a realization, and the image of the Forbidden Forest appeared in his mind.
Was the Forbidden Forest a wizard's Great Magic?
The Forbidden Forest carried the responsibilities of an ecological reserve for the Wizard World, as well as species and civilization diversity. If his Great Magic was modeled after the Forbidden Forest and he also created a Forbidden Forest in another medium-scale world... would that be possible?
No, while the idea was viable, it was still too crude.
Locke quickly realized that he needed to recognize his own strengths and weaknesses—to know himself.
The so-called Great Magic is also a process of self-realization during the exploration.
Locke said to Wizard Bruce, "I do indeed intend to create a pure magic plant ecology. In short, I need two hundred Clear Sky Birches, two hundred Sentry Hollies, one hundred Queens of Thorns, three thousand Wind-Whisper Dandelions, and three thousand Prism Sunflowers."
"Also, a repair ecology gift set of one hundred thousand Apprentice-level Magic Plants, including green manure and wind-fixing element magic plants."
Wind-Whisper Dandelions and Prism Sunflowers were both Apprentice-level Magic Plants.
So he could buy many at once.
Clear Sky Birch would be very useful to him; it could serve as a cellular binder for tyrant element no. 2 and could also be used to provide energy for the forest.
Sentry Holly was a resource-type holly, similar to Gem Holly. Individually, it couldn't compare to Red Earth Holly, but it was much cheaper.
The Thorn Queen belonged to the semi-combat magic plant category. Covered in thorns, it was a giant thorny tree that could digest decaying wood and injured, withered trees in the forest, playing the role of a decomposer in the ecosystem.
It was foreseeable that if his plan succeeded, his Forest Sanctuary would transform from a man-made forest into an energy-closed, self-circulating pure magic plant ecosystem (with the addition of magic fungi).
These were two different concepts.
Although it still didn't solve the problem of living creatures in the forest, it was sufficient to serve as a normal forest.
After all, in the Wizard World, there were special natural forests that had existed for thousands or even tens of thousands of years without a single magical creature.
Therefore, a forest didn't necessarily have to have animals.
That was just a direction Locke felt he should develop in the future, but it didn't necessarily need to be completed during the First Ring stage.
Based on the knowledge Locke had currently learned from various ecological spells, this current approach was enough to construct a Second Ring-level magic plant forest.
Trader Bruce was quickly calculating, "A total of 2.3 million magic stones. It's not that our unit prices are expensive, but that you're buying quite a lot of magic plants. Especially those One-Ring Magic Plants; you've almost bought out the entire production capacity of one of Golden Peach Garden's Colonial Worlds."
"However, we can still complete the delivery today. If you bought any more, you might have to wait for a full growing cycle before you could get these magic plants."
Locke had calculated beforehand and knew that charging only 2.3 million magic stones was already giving him face.
The price had been lowered significantly.
His initial estimate was 2.6 million, and the other party had reduced it to 2.5 million.
He hadn't expected Trader Bruce to give him so much face.
After Trader Bruce finished signing the contract with Locke, he bowed to him and said, "Lord Augustine, thank you for completing such a large transaction with us."
"I happen to have the authority to give gifts. To thank you for supporting my business, I would like to give you a rare magic plant."
Trader Bruce took a Dawn Witch Peach out of his astral ring. The entire peach tree seemed to be shrouded in light.
"Look, although this Witch Peach isn't as good as a golden tower branch, it is still a special One-Ring rare magic plant that needs to be on a high mountain peak every day, receiving sunlight and meeting certain annual sunshine requirements to grow. The price is between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand magic stones. It's yours. I have the authority to give one gift per year, and I'm giving it to you... my valued customer."
"This magic plant can also be used in conjunction with Peach Arc Thorn Arrow. I was thinking that you can't have only one peach-type magic plant for Peach Arc Thorn Arrow. In case you need to use Peach Arc Thorn Arrow twice simultaneously... or if one of them is temporarily unavailable. Then you can use this Dawn Witch Peach to cast Peach Arc Thorn Arrow."
Locke looked at Trader Bruce in surprise but didn't refuse, considering he had bought so many magic plants from him.
He reached out his hand, and immediately the Dawn Witch Peach was suppressed by Locke's magic pressure and the power of the Ancient Tree of Life. In just an instant, Locke's Peach Arc Thorn Arrow Spell Model was imprinted upon it. The peach tree, which radiated a faint white dawn light, fell into Locke's hand and gradually evolved into a peach wood bow.
Locke noticed that different peach-type magic plants indeed transformed into different peach wood bows when Peach Arc Thorn Arrow was cast.
The bow transformed from the golden tower branch was more domineering and powerful.
The bow transformed from the Dawn Witch Peach was not as powerful, but it had an extra sense of purity, as if an extra lamp had been lit in the quiet room.
Locke finished paying and had Wizard Bruce tally the goods. He sent people to spend half a day loading everything one by one into the demiplane space inside his right eye.
Next, he began to work hard again with the elf tribe, starting to transplant these purchased magic plants one by one into his Forest Sanctuary to form a true energy cycle.
At the same time, Locke also went to the Feathered Serpent Ancient Pavilion and spent two million magic stones to use the queens chessboard twice—that is, he used two days of the queens chessboard's time.
He used the primal force of the queens chessboard to trace and deduce the four glows he had intercepted from the Full Moon Growth during the night meteor event.
The starlight of the sacred dragon star and three beams of moonlight from the Moon Plane.
Two days later, an exhausted Locke, with a hint of fatigue on his face, looked at the four pieces of broken witch porcelain in his hand. The natural carrying containers had shattered, and the four instances of Full Moon Growth had been destroyed as a result.
This was because they had been overused.
But the result was that he had indeed analyzed a vast amount of information from the four Planes.
Locke walked out of the queens chessboard room and asked the Green Dragon Half-Dragon Shopkeeper for a free quiet room. He then cast a spell, summoning an ordinary Full Moon Growth.
"The primary gain is in the aspect of the lunar phases."
"The first Moon Plane has two lunar phases: the Phase of Light and the Phase of Darkness. As the phases shift, the lunar gravity changes as well."
The Full Moon Growth in Locke's hand originally acted like a moon simulator, but its simulation level was very low, so it remained unchanging, like a single round full moon.
It wasn't realistic at all.
Now, the Full Moon Growth in his hand showed clear light and dark variations. During the Phase of Light, the full moon was like a light bulb, hanging bright and high.
When it shifted to the Phase of Darkness, the moon's brilliance vanished completely, like a dark star.
"The moon's radiance comes from reflecting a light source. All light from the Moon Plane is essentially the reflected brilliance from various primal force Planes..."
"But the reflected brilliance transforms into special lunar essence, already filled with the Moon Plane's own world power."
As Locke's understanding of the light and dark lunar phases deepened, the Full Moon Growth in his hand looked more and more like a real moon, with bright and dark areas.
It was exceptionally beautiful.
Furthermore, the lunar gravity became even more powerful.
Locke said, "By using Full Moon Growth as the core to reflect the brilliance of the natural primal force, I can obtain the most powerful lunar gravity."
Due to time constraints and resource issues, among the three major moon problems, his research was deepest into the first—the most primary and powerful light-dark phase of the Moon Plane.
Then came the research on the second Moon Plane. In addition to the light and dark changes, the Full Moon Growth in Locke's hand began to show shape changes, no longer just an ordinary full moon.
At least eight types of lunar phase changes appeared.
New Moon (invisible) — Waxing Crescent — First Quarter — Waxing Gibbous — Full Moon — Waning Gibbous — Last Quarter — Waning Crescent.
These eight phase changes corresponded to the moon's waxing and waning cycles.
Then there was Locke's research on the third major Moon Plane. Due to resource allocation issues, his research on the third Moon Plane was the shallowest.
The lunar phase of the Full Moon Growth in Locke's hand now had not only light-dark changes and waxing-waning cycles, but the moon in his hand also turned into a red moon.
This was the color variation of the moon.
Unfortunately, there were issues with the samples he had collected at the time, and he had made an operational error while using the queens chessboard yesterday. This caused the witch porcelain carrying the Full Moon Growth to shatter while he was analyzing the primal forces of the Black Moon and Blue Moon.
Thus, he had no choice but to stop.
"Thanks to the night meteor. The emergence of the night meteor saved me countless hours. By collecting starlight and using the queens chessboard to reverse-analyze the starlight of the three major Moon Planes, I obtained very detailed first-hand data on the lunar phases."
Locke looked at the Full Moon Growth in his hand. "This Spell Model has been perfected to an exaggerated degree. It's already sufficient to serve as a blueprint magic. I just still need to give Full Moon Growth offensive capabilities."
Locke raised the Red Moon Growth. In an instant, acting as a deep forest himself, he actually felt his blood boil within this red light.
"The red version of Full Moon Growth can make the internal fluids of all irradiated magic plants boil."
"It's already close to being offensive. If I develop it in this direction, I can transform it into an attack spell. Then it can serve as a blueprint magic."
Locke said, "But a problem has arisen. I currently have three blueprint magic spells—Full Moon Growth, Peach Arc Thorn Arrow, and Forest Sanctuary (Forbidden Forest)—and I haven't yet figured out how to integrate the Potionology, Archaeology, and Bloodline Studies systems into my Great Magic. This means I can only choose two out of the three spells. The chosen two will also need to be integrated with either my Potionology system, Archaeology system, or my bloodline power."
"I really need to think this through. Of course, I'm already much luckier than ordinary wizards. Because of my magic dragon bloodline, I can create two Great Magics, and I have a teacher. To figure out how to govern two Great Magics, there's no need to take four extra major levels during the Second Ring stage."
Locke looked at the Full Moon Growth in his hand, already extremely satisfied. He spent a day specifically fine-tuning the natal witch porcelain for the modified Full Moon Growth Spell Model.
Soon, he transferred the upgraded Spell Model onto the Porcelain Moon Growth.
At this moment, this Full Moon Growth, which possessed the Cancer natal witch porcelain, underwent a brand new transformation in power due to the upgrade of the Spell Model.
Locke had not yet fully digested everything he had gained from the queens chessboard and the night meteor.
He would wait until later to slowly digest and further perfect it.
Of course, Locke planned to wait until he entered the Abyssal Ruins.
At the same time, Locke summoned the golden tower branch and the Little Vajra Jujube. The two magic plants automatically transformed into the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow and entered Locke's hand.
A white divine dragon suddenly appeared on the surface of the peach wood bow, looking lifelike.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the Sacred Dragon glowed red, as if they were the starlight of the sacred dragon star.
"The sacred dragon star is definitely not a good star for those who seek stability. On the contrary, it is a chaotic star. The sacred dragon star represents the power of change, constant small changes. Because of these constant small changes, it can actually allow something to endure for a long time." Locke used the queens chessboard to deduce the primal force changes of the sacred dragon star's light, thereby understanding the essence of the sacred dragon star's light.
"Therefore, the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow blessed by the Sacred Dragon Heart can fire arrows of change that slay evil."
But...
Locke drew the peach bow without an arrow. Suddenly, a brilliant sacred sun descended, like the first ray of dawn rising after a long dark night. However, his left hand holding the bow was burned, leaving a bright red mark.
His hand was covered in blisters.
"The one who draws the bow will also suffer the backlash of the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow. The power of change can destroy all established things."
Locke thought of something and looked toward the queens chessboard room. Unfortunately, he was currently penniless; otherwise, he would have entered the queens chessboard now to place the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow and Abyss Energy inside together to observe the differences between them.
Because the starlight of the sacred dragon star was a