773: Encountering the Six-Fold Curse Barrier for the Third Time and Reuniting with Patty
Grem Stein's eyes lit up slightly; Black Wizards lacked a systematic education in Potionology, and his own foundation was far from solid.
In the Blood Curse Court, he had learned knowledge in bits and pieces, leaving him lacking in much fundamental knowledge. At this moment, with the help of this poor little witch, it seemed he could identify a large number of high-level potion names from White Wizard Society.
That would bring him many advantages within the Blood Curse Court, and could even help him gain face with the clan elders, or even receive praise from the Blood Lord!
At the thought of this, Grem Stein's gaze changed, and he chuckled sinisterly, "Don't worry, I won't eat you, little witch."
"I have already fed you my heart's blood. As soon as you die once more and consume the blood of a magical creature, you will become one of my Blood Servants."
"It's not the Vampire transformation curse—that is too high-level for you. It will simply turn you into a low-intelligence Blood Servant that I can easily control."
Patty's face turned pale.
Grem Stein smiled and said, "Although a Blood Servant won't have the ability to continue learning, they can at least retain some of the skills a Wizard Apprentice had in life. I only need some of your skills. After all, I'm not stupid; controlling a White Wizard Apprentice is far too difficult. I would have to devote a portion of my energy to you at every moment to suppress your little schemes."
"Even if I planted a Paralysis Curse on your body, I wouldn't be at ease. My style of doing things is to only leave behind obedient Blood Servants."
"Hehehe..."
Patty's face was ashen, her heart filled with absolute despair.
How could she possibly escape from this crowd of Black Wizards?
No matter how hard Patty racked her brains, she felt she was finished. Regardless of how she applied the Botany knowledge she had learned at Verdantia University, she had no ability to escape from the side of so many powerful Black Wizards.
Moreover, she had already consumed Grem Stein's essence blood.
Should she give up?
Patty grit her teeth, remembering how she had entered Aurelian Academy on Corfu Island to begin her contact with magic at the age of eight.
It had been a full fifteen years until now.
Fifteen cycles of sun and moon had passed. How much effort had she put in back then to walk out of a poor, bitter land like Corfu Island and have the good fortune to enter Verdantia University to study!
On Corfu Island, as the child of a commoner, she had once spent so much effort to rise above that group of noble children whom she had once thought were the chosen ones of heaven.
Thinking of those noble children on Corfu Island, Patty's gaze became dazed once more.
Because she remembered a certain person.
At the same time, she also thought of something else.
Had those former classmates who studied at Aurelian Academy already inherited their family businesses on Corfu Island, or become wealthy locals there?
While she, a witch apprentice who considered herself superior to them on Corfu Island, was now hopelessly mired in the cruel war between Black and White Wizards in the Wizard World, her life in peril, even facing the danger of death and becoming a Blood Servant to a Black Wizard Apprentice.
Thinking of this, Patty felt a surge of regret.
Would it have been better if she had stayed on Corfu Island?
Just then, Grem Stein was surprised to find that the ordinary wooden frame of the carriage suddenly became burning hot, and the black walnut skeleton of the magic carriage actually began to turn red, with sparks appearing one after another, just like firewood placed in a fire pit.
Grem Stein furrowed his brows.
Only then did he notice that his magic carriage had separated from the main group and driven into an unknown forest. This forest was filled with mist, and a bright, clear moon hung in the sky, dreamlike and illusory, as if it were vastly different from the real world.
The entire forest possessed a hazy beauty.
The wizard Grem Stein began to grin hideously. "White Wizards? Hahaha, do you think we acted so arrogantly for any reason other than to lure you stray dogs of Verdantia University into attacking us? Hahaha... you've fallen into a trap!"
"Every carriage in the convoy has been tampered with, just waiting for you to come. Hahaha... Six-Fold Curse Barrier! White Wizard, I'm going to kill you."
A hexagram formation emerged from beneath his carriage.
At the same time, an orb appeared inside his carriage, providing negative energy for this Six-Fold Curse Barrier.
In this way, a de facto anti-magic field targeting White Wizards could be created.
Locke's voice appeared in his ear.
"My fellow apprentice, your joke has really gone too far."
Locke appeared inside this magic carriage.
Instantly, Grem Stein felt his hair stand on end.
He looked at Locke, his eyes a bit blurred, because this clone of Locke's was only wearing a Black Wizard robe; other than that, he carried no badges or emblems, making it naturally impossible to identify his status.
At the same time, because the gap in magic pressure between him and Locke was simply too vast.
Consequently, this top-ranked wizard candidate of the Blood Curse Court was actually unable to discern Locke's magic pressure, feeling as if the other party was empty—as if he were standing before him, yet also as if he were not there at all.
What made Grem Stein feel most terrified and uneasy was that the White Wizard before him seemed to completely ignore the Six-Fold Curse Barrier.
That terrifying formation, which could apply six opposing negative energies to a White Wizard, had been augmented by a Ghost Orb from the Ghost Saint Church. This combination created a massive killing move against White Wizards, solving the Six-Fold Inverse Barrier's greatest flaw: the potential for insufficient negative energy.
But such a powerful killing move seemed as if it didn't even exist to the wizard before him.
Moreover, the other party was actually looking with great interest at the hexagram pattern of the Six-Fold Curse Barrier appearing on the carriage floor.
Locke looked at this Six-Fold Curse Barrier with quite a bit of emotion.
Because this was the third time he had encountered this formation.
The first time was when he followed Witch Sophia into the heart of the Blood Curse Court and fought his way into their Curse Formula Research Institute.
The second time was at Lilith's Cottage, when he counter-killed the Blood Curse Court's wizard candidates who were preparing to ambush him.
And the third time was now.
"This Six-Fold Curse Barrier is indeed ingeniously conceived."
Locke reached out and made a grasping motion, and the formation that had been set at the bottom of the carriage by a Official Wizard of the Black Wizards was directly snatched out by him, landing in his hand.
This terrified the wizard named Grem Stein so much that his heart pounded wildly and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Wait, what kind of situation was this?
Locke looked at the formation and shook his head slightly, "However, it can only be called ingenious; it doesn't even count as brilliant."
He applied a slight amount of force and directly crushed the formation.
In an instant, the shattering of the Six-Fold Curse Magic Domain caused the Ghost Orb inside the carriage to crack directly. More than a thousand souls imprisoned within the Ghost Orb immediately drifted about inside the carriage.
Locke snapped his fingers, drawing them into his own Magic Domain and utilizing the characteristics of the Land of Myriad Spirits to transform them into refined spirits.
He had already pulled this carriage into his Magic Domain.
At the Silent Grail, he had used Locke Kingdom · Magic Domain to devour Edgar's Land of Myriad Spirits and time shadow fern. Thus, although he could not use Edgar's Great Magic, his Magic Domain possessed some characteristics of the Land of Myriad Spirits.
At this moment, these souls that had been imprisoned by the Ghost Saint Church and had their structures destroyed were able to have their souls recover a certain form, thereby gaining independent functions and once again becoming part of the Magic Domain.
Then, Locke cast them out of the Magic Domain, letting them return to the natural flow of souls in the Wizard World.
The Wizard World already had a well-developed soul circulation system.
His Magic Domain was currently mainly intended to receive the refined spirits of plants, and in the future, it was prepared to host the spirituality of some cooperating worlds' civilizations. To ensure the purity of the spirituality, he did not want impurities entering.
Otherwise, it would affect the energy dissipation rate of his Great Magic and the progress of its continued forging.
Locke shook his head slightly.
"The current Blood Curse Court is truly getting worse with each generation. Hussein would definitely be very disappointed if he saw this."
"The previous number one apprentice of the Blood Curse Court could remain calm even when facing a Official Wizard, and even set a trap to kill his teacher before making a clean escape from the Blood Curse Court. How is it that the current number one is such a dull-witted person?"
Grem Stein's pupils suddenly constricted, and he squeezed out a sliver of a smile on his face.
"Senior, you are so powerful, why bother arguing with a junior like me... You..."
In the next moment, his body, which had been transformed into a Vampire by a curse, actually began to crack inch by inch. He looked down and his eyes widened in an instant. He saw that the sparks on the wooden frame of the magic carriage, which had turned into firewood, were actually extending along the soles of his feet, crawling up his body.
His entire body now looked like glowing charcoal in a furnace.
The key was that he had absolutely no idea what was happening.
The Vampire transformation curse seemed to have lost all effect. He wanted to cast a Thousand-Blade Curse, but when he opened his mouth, a burst of black gas spewed out, and even that black gas was scorched by a searing flame, burned clean in an instant.
First his throat caught fire, then his head, and then his entire body.
His undying body simply could not function.
Locke glanced at the perennial herbaceous Magic Plant pinellia in his hand, extremely satisfied with its rapier-like shape and unique spathe that resembled incense candles in a nursery.
This was the power of pinellia.
Of course, using it to deal with a Black Wizard Apprentice was a bit overkill. Locke suspected that as long as he used Single-Handed Support with all his might, even those Black Wizards in the Gasification Stage would likely have their bodies instantly destroyed by pinellia's Rising Flame Power, shattering their undying strength.
Locke shook his head slightly.
"I've killed another of Hussein's junior brothers. He should be very happy if he finds out."
Locke snapped his fingers, and the interior of the magic carriage quickly returned to its original state. The Black Wizard Apprentice who had been destroyed by pinellia's summer magic was reduced to ashes, no longer existing.
Locke sat in the magic carriage, looked at Patty in front of him, and asked, "Are you the driver of this magic carriage, Patty?"
"Drive for me. Keep up with the convoy; I also want to go to the Black Wizard Alliance meeting."
He had nothing to fear in the Southeast Corner Region.
Because after arriving here, he had already confirmed that no Second Ring Wizard could endure staying here for long!
A Second Ring Wizard here would be in a state of absolute slaughter.
At this moment, the Moon Fa Realm around the magic carriage quickly receded, and the magic carriage returned to the real world.
Throughout the entire process, the Black Wizards in this team had not noticed a single thing.
Patty was still in a daze, watching that brutal Black Wizard Apprentice die instantly before her eyes.
Hearing Locke's question, she immediately lowered her head and bowed to Locke, saying, "My Lord... My Lord, I am indeed his driver. I will drive the carriage for you. Are you a One-Ring Wizard from our White Wizard Association?"
Locke was taken aback for a moment.
"One-Ring Wizard? I am not."
Patty was instantly puzzled.
If the powerful wizard before her was not a One-Ring Wizard, then how had he killed the number one Official Wizard candidate of the Blood Curse Court amidst so many Black Wizards?
Patty blinked.
"Wait... how do you know my name? Do you know me?"
Among the Black Wizards, those slave-owner Black Wizards had never called her by name; it was either "hey" or they called her "witch."
Therefore, it only just occurred to Patty that Locke likely knew her, or at least knew of her.
Locke sighed, sat in front of her, and said, "Stand up."
"It's me, Locke Augustine. Patty, don't you remember me?"
Patty was just about to stand up when she froze in place upon hearing this familiar yet distant name.
This was a name she had thought she would hardly have any chance to hear again in this lifetime.
"Locke Augustine..."
Only then did Patty dare to look closely at Locke, and she could still vaguely recognize the face of her former classmate.
They had once studied together for two years at Aurelian Academy on Corfu Island. At first, she had always been the one tutoring Locke, but after three months, Locke had overtaken her.
That was the first time she had felt the sensation of being crushed by someone's talent.
Patty looked at Locke in astonishment and said, "Locke... it's actually you..."
"Could it be, Locke, that you've become a powerful First-Class Wizard Apprentice? You survived that great Black Wizard surprise attack a year ago?"
Patty was both surprised and happy, yet also fearful and confused.
"It's too dangerous here. Our academy has already been occupied by those Black Wizards. The Dean ordered us to break into pieces and flee in all directions, waiting for the signal to assemble for a counter-attack."
"Locke, if you aren't a Official Wizard, how could you kill Grem Stein?"
"Are you doing well at Lilith's Cottage? Did you run into Corden?"
Patty asked, "Locke, how is it over at Lilith's Cottage now? Could it be that you've brought reinforcements from the Official Wizard lords over at Lilith's Cottage?"