677: collective consciousness resonance! The Plasticity of Life!
Locke ultimately chose not to intervene. For someone like him, a possessor of high magic pressure and high psionic energy, it was incredibly simple to remain undetected by these two natives whose civilization had regressed almost to that of cavemen.
He followed behind them, watching as they entered a place filled with natural limestone caves, where the remaining Dune People eked out a living.
According to the materials Locke had read before, the Dune civilization had a population of about sixteen billion at its peak. After all, the original area of the entire Dune Plane was more than three times its current size.
However, because it was previously too close to the Sun Plane, many regions on the edge of the Plane had already been swallowed by it.
Actually, this situation was very similar to the scenes Locke had witnessed in the Age of Stars, only it was a downscaled version of the Wizard World back then. The Wizard World of that era also seemed to have been severely fragmented due to certain events that occurred during the Imperial Era.
It was just that the foundation and heritage of the Wizard World were not something the Dune Plane could compare to.
Therefore, the Wizard World still had a chance to start over, while the Dune Plane's life bar had been drained dry by the gravitational pull of the Sun Plane. Over the years, solar storms had evaporated at least two-thirds of its area.
In essence, the current Dune Plane was merely the core region of the original Dune Plane. The demiplanes, small-scale Plane worlds, and peripheral regions that originally belonged to the Dune Plane's crystal wall system had all been sucked into the Sun Plane.
The current Dune Plane was a primary material world of the original Plane—specifically, the primary material world of the core region.
Logically speaking, buried beneath this continuous desert were the ruins of the Dune People's civilization, which spanned tens of thousands of years!
The two Dune People Locke had first encountered were there; the one who had eaten the cold fish and was infected with residual toxicity from huan element heavy particles was now lying on the rocky ground, his entire body swollen.
Had Locke not secretly used moonlight to apply some Holy Spring Nectar Potion to him, this mortal would have died long ago, and even his corpse would have dissolved into a pool of bloody water.
At this moment, another mutation appeared in his body. A type of steel-like bone actually grew out of his chest, piercing through his torso with a twisted shape.
He let out a scream of agony with every breath he took.
Watching this, Locke frowned. "Pollution from huan element heavy particles only causes bloodline essence to completely collapse. This physical mutation seems to be something he has possessed since birth."
"In other words, amidst the apocalypse, the Dune People themselves have already developed some kind of deformity."
Locke watched, knowing that the mortal would likely die within ten minutes, and in that time, the doctors among this group of primitive Dune People would not be able to treat him.
No.
Locke shook his head. "Where would there be any doctors? The Dune civilization has collapsed; these Dune People are merely the descendants of what was once a highly developed telepathic civilization."
"Even their bloodline essence has changed."
Locke mused, "If I don't directly step in to help them, this mortal will die, and the entire tribe will perish because of that contaminated water."
"Although ecological restoration should follow the principle of minimal intervention, sometimes things are just that direct. If one doesn't intervene directly and stop it immediately, this ecosystem will be destroyed in an instant."
Locke stood directly in front of them, yet all the Dune People seemed not to see him at all. This was because the gap in magic pressure between the two sides was simply too vast.
It was so vast they might as well have been beings from two different dimensions.
The powerful magic pressure formed an insurmountable barrier, weighing down the minds of those Dune People so that they simply could not perceive Locke.
As someone approaching the level of a Second Ring Wizard, Locke had simply used his introductory knowledge of the Mind School, combined with his Distributed Psionic Network, to craft a third-class apprentice-level mind spell.
But to these Dune People, it was already a method akin to gods or demons.
Locke pondered, "Should I save them? But even if I save one, what use is it? These Dune People will all die eventually because their environment is ruined. Am I supposed to save all two hundred or so Dune People here?"
"By that logic, should I save the Dune People of the entire world?" Locke's eyes grew emotionally cold. "To feel sorrow upon seeing something similar to oneself die a tragic death is not a sign of a weak character, but rather a natural compassion born from seeing one's own kind suffer."
"This is simply my personal respect for life."
"Otherwise, I wouldn't be studying Life Magic; I would be studying Necromancy."
"But I am only a wizard, not a Creator, nor a god. Therefore, I truly have no necessity to act."
At this moment, Locke intended to simply apply the remaining power of the Holy Spring Nectar Potion over the tribe to perform a collective purification of the pollution, then turn and leave, fulfilling the impulse of kindness in his heart.
However, just then, Locke noticed that these Dune People were actually wasting hard-won food and pure water, offering them to a strangely shaped rock.
At the same time, these Dune People moved the suffering man onto that rock.
Then, using some mud from the ground, they painted and drew on their faces, wasting their remaining resources seemingly just to perform some ritualistic actions.
Ten relatively healthy young men were selected from among the Dune People. They surrounded the rock and began to perform a strange dance, chanting odd syllables.
Locke, who had already mentally sentenced these Dune People to death and intended to sprinkle the potion and leave, felt a flash of interest in his eyes upon seeing this. "Interesting. In such a desperate situation, these Dune People are actually wasting their few remaining resources to hold a sacrificial ritual for an ordinary rock."
"In the ancient Wizard World, as far as I know, one of the oldest forms of magic is Sacrificial Magic."
"At least for the Age of Stars, that is indeed the case."
"The act of sacrifice seems to have some instinctive resonance with intelligent life. Is this a psychological comfort that wastes resources, or is there another reason?"
Seeing this, Locke immediately abandoned his thought of leaving and prepared to stay and observe. Simultaneously, he took a true sight crystal from his astral ring to record the scene at all times.
The Dune People surrounded the sick man, shouting and singing. Someone even gave him a special plant-based drink to consume.
A middle-aged Dune Person said via telepathy: "Great Stone Spirit, you who guided us to find our homeland, protected our survival to this day, and led our evolution. Please, Great Stone Spirit, let this warrior achieve an evolution that transcends pain!"
"Please, Great Stone Spirit, guide our evolution!"
"Please, Great Stone Spirit, grant us the ability to survive!"
Eleven minutes later, the Dune man on the rock had a breath as thin as a thread, hovering on the brink of death.
It wouldn't be surprising if he died in the very next moment.
Yet, the ritual where the Dune People placed their psychological hopes was still ongoing.
From the sacrificial words of the elder, Locke learned that because this tribe sought out rocks that had a higher chance of appearing near water sources, they used this method to find water, which led to a specific worship of rocks.
At the same time, someone had started a lie at some point—that this group of Dune People possessed the protection of some deity.
The Dune People naturally didn't understand what a deity was, nor did they know the difference between the True Gods of the Celestial Realm and the hypocritical false gods of the various Colonial Worlds, but they did indeed believe they were protected by a powerful deity through their own needs.
Crucially, they didn't just believe they were protected by a deity; they also believed this deity had been guiding their evolution.
Over the past several centuries, whenever they faced a crisis of extinction, they would collectively pray to the Stone Spirit, and then something miraculous would happen.
Although those sacrifices seemed completely useless at the time, the extinction crisis would always mysteriously vanish, and the plants their tribe needed would grow around the stones.
It was as if... the Stone Spirit actually existed.
Furthermore, the bloodline essence of the Dune People had indeed undergone specific changes. This phenomenon of changing their own bloodline essence through the worship of the Stone Spirit seemed to be the reason their civilization had managed to endure until now, according to their sacrificial language.
From the mouth of the old Dune Person, Locke also learned that the population of this Dune tribe had been declining over the years.
On one hand, it was the continuous deterioration of the environment; on the other hand, this evolution seemed to be entering a dead end. The mortality rate of their newborn infants had been rising higher and higher recently.
And Wizard Zalan Bailey's Dune Plane restoration plan was the final blow to this last remnant of the Dune People's civilization.
Locke frowned. "Stone Spirit?"
He walked right up to the rock in front of the many Dune People and placed his palm on it, carefully feeling for any magic pressure, specific magic tides, or special spiritual fluctuations.
But... there was nothing.
It was just an ordinary rock.
Locke looked at the swollen Dune man lying on the rock. That unique huan element heavy particle pollution, though only a tiny amount, was rapidly destroying the man's bloodline essence. Eventually, he would turn into a pool of pus and lose his life.
Originally, Locke had wanted to prevent this misfortune from befalling him; after all, it was just a simple task for him.
Since the scene made him feel unpleasant, and his own mood was most important, he naturally wanted to prevent such a scene from occurring before him.
But now, he frowned. "I estimated he only had ten minutes of life left, but it's been nearly thirteen minutes. This guy still hasn't died?"
"He looks like he's about to die, though."
Locke looked puzzled and turned toward the group of Dune People performing the sacrifice. "No. There are no magical fluctuations, nor any special spiritual fluctuations. There shouldn't be any supernatural power present."
"Could it actually be working?!"
Locke turned around, looking bewildered. He looked at the Dune man lying on the rock, whose life was like a guttering candle, gradually fading into darkness.
"Did I miscalculate? No, that's not right. I calculated the value based on his residual spirituality. I even estimated on the high side. As a Potion Master close to becoming a Second Ring Wizard, if I can't even calculate the life or death of a mortal, I would be far too incompetent."
"Even if the Dune People have a special resistance to huan element heavy particles, it's impossible for him to last thirteen minutes without dying. Furthermore, as a race with low magical talent, aside from a decent talent for Mind School magic, their other magical talents are a mess. They have a severe issue with skewed and low magic resistance."
Locke pondered: "Taking all the data into account, I can assume that this ritual is indeed effective. Or rather, in this ritual, some object this person consumed has taken effect."
"If I had intervened directly before, I would have prevented this ritual from occurring. If I were in a bad mood and simply ignored these two, that would have been normal as well."
"Then I wouldn't have witnessed this scene either."
"If I hadn't estimated this man's lifespan, I wouldn't have realized that this ritual could extend his life by about four minutes. I would have only thought this was a useless ritual and that this native died in ignorance and folly. But I happened to follow them, I happened to calculate it, and I realized his life had been extended in some way."
Locke's eyes showed intense interest. "To me, an unknown phenomenon is a hard-won treasure."
"Behind an unknown phenomenon, there must exist some undiscovered principle or mechanism, or at least something I haven't read about yet, belonging to niche and cutting-edge research."
"Whichever it is, I've hit the jackpot."
Locke noticed that the Dune Man before him was about to die, and he immediately frowned. If he died, Locke would be forced to stop his observations.
The next time he might see this again could be a long while away, and he would have to be responsible for daily monitoring.
In fact, if necessary, he would even need to call his two students, Williams and Gregor, over to monitor them daily, or even artificially create a situation to force these natives to perform the ritual again.
Furthermore, he couldn't be sure if this phenomenon was a random occurrence or if it only had a certain probability of appearing.
Therefore, the best way was to prevent this native's death.
Locke channeled the moonlight, guiding more of the Holy Spring Nectar Potion's medicinal power into the native's body. Simultaneously, he opened a bottle of Bear Spirit Emerald Gall Potion and, using the moonlight, injected the medicinal power into his body to boost his magic resistance.
The Holy Spring Nectar Potion boosted his origin essence, while the Bear Spirit Emerald Gall Potion boosted his magic resistance.
Under this two-pronged approach, combined with the unknown power generated by the ritual, the Dune Man's complexion actually began to improve, and his body began to return to normal.
Of course, this was only a trend.
Because Locke didn't directly intervene to heal him, and because a mortal's soul lacks a magic pressure structure—making it more fragile than a block of tofu—Locke couldn't administer the medicine too strongly. Thus, the man remained half-dead.
If it were an ordinary First Ring Potion Master, they might not necessarily have been able to save him.
After all, consuming a potion itself increases a specific type of magical pollution.
A mortal soul is so fragile that if he drank a potion with even slightly strong effects, he would drop dead instantly.
"According to my plan, the effects shouldn't be this good," Locke said, looking at the mortal. "The two potions I gave him were both diluted ten thousand times using moonlight before I dared use them on him. Otherwise, he would have been poisoned to death by my potions first."
At this moment, the Dune Man on the rock had regained some ability to speak. He said joyfully, "The Stone Spirit has appeared... It has guided my evolution!"
"Look at my chest! You didn't see me, my deformed bones are starting to become normal. I've evolved, I've evolved..."
The Dune People were overjoyed, immediately jumping more vigorously and singing louder.
"He's evolved, he's evolved! The Stone Spirit has been guiding our evolution!"
"The Stone Spirit has bestowed upon us everything we need to evolve!"
Locke suddenly thought of something. "The Dune People have always had a stone worship derived from the purpose of finding water, and there's even an evolutionary worship bound to stones."
"They believe that evolution can help them solve their current plight. Could it be that they believe the Dune Man lying on this rock is currently undergoing some kind of evolution?"
"Because they believe, their evolution is actually being accelerated?"
Locke looked at the deformed bones on the chest of the Dune Man on the rock. "This kind of steel-like bone should have been produced to cope with extreme drought and to retain water."
"I've read data on the Dune People; their evolutionary speed is indeed very abnormal."
Locke pondered: "In Life Magic, one must dare to propose hypotheses to break through the boundaries of my knowledge. Although it sounds far-fetched, I can indeed propose a hypothesis—by believing the Stone Spirit is helping them evolve and receiving evolutionary energy and ability from it, the speed of evolution in the Dune People has been correspondingly accelerated."
"The rituals of the Dune People have accelerated their own evolution."
"A certain collective consciousness resonance might be able to accelerate a specific evolutionary direction for an organism."
Locke looked at the Dune Man on the rock and, realizing he was about to die, frowned. "In that case, I won't allow you to die."
He took out the last bottle of Lucky Potion he had prepared from his astral ring and then used moonlight to drive it into the mortal's body.
Lucky Potion is one of the few potions that, after consumption, does not require enduring massive magic pressure and has a very small load on the soul.
Even an ordinary person only needs it to be diluted tenfold to drink it safely.
Using this mechanism, he could use a less diluted Lucky Potion to maintain its medicinal power to the greatest extent to protect this mortal's life.
He let the portion of luck he had gathered while brewing the Lucky Potion favor this mortal entirely, guiding him toward the best possible outcome for his situation.
This could indirectly guide him away from death.
Most importantly, this wouldn't destroy the effect of the ritual itself; Locke was merely strengthening that effect, not completely twisting it.
This wouldn't interfere with his observations.
At this moment, a full moon appeared above the rock.
The Dune People were stunned for a moment, then they seemed to believe it was the Stone Spirit manifesting, and they called that moon the Moon God.
Locke felt a certain cognitive force converging.
"This feeling... Kingdom Domain? I see. The collective consciousness cognition of normal organisms cannot be gathered. It's like a tree without roots or duckweed without water."
"But the Dune People are a natural telepathic race with a high talent for Mind School magic. Every one of them, even children, can perform brief telepathy."
Unlike the massive Distributed Psionic Network that Locke had built based on a mature Spell Model, the telepathy of these Dune People was like two people holding walkie-talkies face-to-face.
If the distance was even slightly further or the environment slightly more complex, assimilation could not be achieved.
But this level of telepathy was enough...
Their cognition of wanting to survive was placed upon their worship of a god, thereby gaining a thought that they could definitely overcome their physical environment. This thought would vanish and appear in an instant.
But because of the telepathic field of the Dune People, it persisted for a long time, turning into a collective consciousness resonance that had echoed for thousands of years.
This special collective consciousness reflected the collective ideal of the entire Dune People civilization, and this ideal was guiding these Dune People to accelerate their evolution and deal with this crisis.
After realizing this, Locke immediately thought: "The researchers in Group 2, and those from other Wizard Academies, likely haven't realized this."
"There are many reasons. It's because the Dune People have indeed survived temporarily due to some special underground structures in the Dune Plane, such as underground glaciers."
"Even if this so-called collective consciousness resonance accelerated evolution hypothesis is true, it's merely the icing on the cake, not the true reason they've survived. So, if other researchers don't observe closely, it should be really hard to notice."
"Another thing: this is just a low-level, backward Colonial Plane. If those wizards are arrogant and believe they've already re