776: You Are Not a One-Ring Wizard! You Are a Second Ring Wizard!
In an instant, Witch Stephania sensed a life-and-death crisis.
Simultaneously, the five witches beside her all took action, gathering around her. Bells were wrapped around the wrists of all six; these bells were currently vibrating violently, clearly a type of magic used to alert them to the level of danger.
This was the Ghost Saint Church's unique inherited magic: Ghost Holy Bells. Each bell represented the soul of a First-Class Wizard Apprentice who studied Ghost Studies.
Three bells could form a string. Without the need for complex alchemy, they could be turned into a bracelet through simple alchemical processing.
The sound emitted by the Ghost Holy Bells had multiple functions: it could disturb the minds of wizard enemies, possessed a certain mediumistic prophetic effect to judge the opponent's danger level, and could even be used in conjunction with a unique First Ring spell called the Ghost Shock Cannon.
What caused the faces of these Ghost Saint Church witches to change drastically was that the bells in their hands seemed about to shatter from shaking; they were vibrating frantically, each ring sounding like a death knell.
It was purely a sound of warning.
Urging them to leave quickly.
At this moment, some cunning Black Wizards immediately turned and fled. Everyone there had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood; their survival skills were top-tier.
Seeing that the situation wasn't right, they naturally had to run.
Regardless of the process, running away came first.
The six witches extended their right hands, shaking their bells to fire a Ghost Shock Cannon at Locke. It was a soul impact that directly attacked the enemy by burning soul energy.
However, in the next moment, a Magic Plant resembling a rapier appeared in Locke's hand.
He swung the pinellia. In an instant, layer upon layer of Spell Models were superimposed onto the pinellia. Immediately after, the bodies of the four witches in the Gasification Stage among the six before him turned into something like red-hot matches, cracking inch by inch.
At the same time, the Eternal Defense Fields of the female cult leader and the other Crystallized Wizard erupted in violent sparks. Unlike the four witches, their Eternal Defense Fields were defensive magic: Ghost Shields.
Under the horrified gazes of many Black Wizards, the four Gasification Stage witches turned into a sky full of sparks, rising into the air and dancing about like fireflies.
The four streaks of Flame Spirit Aura generated by their exploding bodies did more than just destroy their magic pressure, bodies, and souls, as well as the Eternal Defense Fields made with offensive magic—they also directly ignited their echoes.
The Crystallized Wizard tried to use the Ghost Studies First Ring Spell Model: Banshee's Wail. But as soon as she opened her mouth and burned her soul energy, her throat was destroyed by the rising heat of the flames, rendering her mute.
The entire ruins of Verdantia University, which had been covered in gray death energy, were now filled with the Aura of flaming fire. That summer magic descended like a beam of summer light coming from afar.
It dyed half the sky here with the glow of the setting sun.
The female cult leader, Stephanie, paled with fright.
"A Second Ring Wizard... it must be a Second Ring Wizard."
"Only a Second Ring Wizard possesses this kind of power. Who exactly are you?"
Locke looked at her in surprise. At that moment, a headpiece Stephanie wore—crafted from the arm of a Official Wizard—and the Hundred-Soul Necklace around her neck—made from a hundred Wizard Apprentices—both began to burn under the influence of this rising flame energy.
Locke had only lightly swung the pinellia and cast the Second Ring Spell Model: Single-Handed Support, yet with one strike, he had completely broken these six First Ring Wizards.
The only one whose body remained uninjured was the female cult leader herself.
'The results are somewhat beyond my expectations. First Ring Wizards, especially Crystallized Wizards, are at least the elite among the First Ring. I originally thought it would take three spells to achieve this effect.'
Locke thought with lightning speed: 'That's right. These First Ring Wizards are not like the First Ring Wizards of the Cloud Marsh. Without realizing it, my horizons have expanded.'
'The foundation of the Black Wizards in the Southeast Corner Region is simply too poor. These Official Wizards might be like high mountains in the eyes of apprentices, but in my eyes now, they are truly too weak.'
Locke shook his head slightly. These Black Wizards who acted like tyrants in the Southeast Corner Region were all like failing students in his current view.
'It's not just the root realm that supports my magic. The level of basic spells at Golden Crown Mountain and the understanding of magic—gained through my usual exchanges with Golden Crown Mountain wizards and reading their books—all serve to elevate me.'
Locke looked at the female cult leader and said, "Commendable. You actually managed to survive my attack."
With a pounding heart, the cult leader Stephanie discovered that her wizard robe was actually catching fire. This was a First Ring Crystallized-level Magic item passed down through the Ghost Saint Church called the Robe of a Hundred Grudges; many outstanding students of the academy had been consumed during its creation.
Yet, under the pressure of Locke's rising flame energy, this Magic item began to spontaneously combust.
At this time, those Black Wizards who had turned to flee were all shocked to find that, at some point, blood bats had appeared in the sky one after another. These blood bats clustered together to form a blood cloud in the heavens, giving them no chance to leave.
These people all glared furiously at the Blood Lord.
But the Blood Lord was also bewildered.
Because the thing blocking everyone's departure was their Blood Curse Court's [Decimation Blood Curse].
One person executed out of ten.
This Blood Curse was originally used by the Blood Curse Court to prevent people from deserting. Among ten deserters, one must die; that person would be simultaneously attacked by the power of the curse and the magic pressure of the remaining nine, making death inevitable.
To make those under the curse realize this, the hearts of these ten people would even be linked to each other, forming a thread of blood.
This was why this group of Black Wizards was not running away.
The decimation would continuously kill individuals among them, and once that person was killed, the survivors would be regrouped with nine others to be killed again.
In this way, as long as someone chose to flee, deaths would continue to occur.
In fact, there were some stubborn Black Wizards who still wanted to gamble on their luck, and everyone saw the result.
Under this ingenious Blood Curse, those Black Wizards who chose to flee died as thoroughly as possible.
They died one after another.
After one wizard died, the blood threads on the chests of the other nine wizards connected to his heart would snap, but soon, the chests of the remaining nine wizards would reconnect with another wizard's heart.
No matter what Spell Models those Black Wizards used, what Magic items they employed, or what magic potions they drank, it was all useless!
With their half-baked, shallow Spell Models, they simply could not break Hussein's Decimation Blood Curse!
What made the Blood Lord's eyelids twitch violently was his realization that the Spell Model of this Blood Curse seemed even more ingenious and powerful than the magic researched by his Blood Curse Court's Curse Formula Research Institute.
At the very least, he couldn't achieve using a single Blood Curse to chain-lock so many Black Wizards, with one curse following immediately after another.
Who exactly were they?
At this moment, the flesh on Hussein's face was shifting. He had previously relied on the Vampire's amazing control over the body to change his appearance and alter his soul's Aura.
That was the Curse Master Second Ring Spell Model: Aura State Change.
[Aura] is an external attribute of spirituality, and this attribute is extremely important for curses.
Changing the Aura could potentially change the target of the curse.
In fact, many seemingly amazing effects of First Ring Blood Curses were built upon Aura capture. As long as one saw through this point, they could decipher the principles of many First Ring Blood Curses.
The folding of advanced curse formulas was merely to better capture [Aura]. Therefore, in Hussein's current view, the biggest difference between many Blood Curses lay simply in the different transmission media.
The difference between the Blood Curse Court's Blood Curses and other branches of Ghost Studies was that they possessed a unique set of folding methods. This set of basic folding methods formed a Blood Curse primarily based on capturing bloodline Auras.
And that was the core of the Blood Curse system.
At this moment, Hussein revealed his true face, snapped the neck of a Crystallized Wizard from the Bone Cult, sucked his blood dry, and extinguished his soul flame.
At this time, the people from the Blood Curse Court were suddenly astonished.
"It's Hussein! It's actually Hussein!"
The Blood Lord's eyes widened.
"It's you, you traitor!"
And at this moment, the Blood Lord looked at Locke. He remembered; because Witch Sophia of Lilith's Cottage had once killed one of his Blood Curse Court's wizard mentors, he had once ordered the pursuit of Witch Sophia and her only student.
And now, he remembered that the powerful and terrifying wizard before him was actually that First Ring Wizard from Lilith's Cottage: Locke Augustine.
The Blood Lord said in a low voice, "You two left the Southeast Corner Region only four or five years ago. How could you have grown so quickly?"
"What level of wizards are you now? Peak First Ring? Or the soul decline period..."
Meanwhile, within the Blood Curse Court, Wizard Stanley had finally, after all these years, repaired his body using grafting magic and completed his lower half—the part of his body that Locke had once sliced off with a Black Lock Sword Bamboo, an Apprentice-level Magic Plant.
And his missing arm had been shattered by Witch Sophia's use of a Magic Plant hair-pin through elemental infusion damage.
Wizard Stanley would never forget the harm Sophia had attempted to inflict on him in the past.
Over these four years, whenever he thought of this, he would fall into a deep rage, believing that his lack of progress—and even regression—over these five years was all caused by Sophia and her student.
He harbored a deep grudge against them, but now that his enemies were right in front of him, he fell into hesitation, alarm, and unease.
Because he didn't know exactly how high Locke's magic pressure was!
Just now, with a single strike, Locke had directly killed four witches and heavily injured two Crystallized Wizards!
Wizard Stanley was now plunged into alarm and unease, because the gap between Locke and himself was simply too vast.
But it had only been four years.
To think there would be such a massive gap.
That gap was even larger than the one between an apprentice and a Official Wizard.
It can't be...
An idea was hovering in Wizard Stanley's mind.
But he suppressed this idea with all his might; it was impossible.
It had only been a bit more than four years.
How could it be possible?
At the same time, among the group of Official Wizards from the Ghost Saint Church, Witch Veltani let out a scream of terror, looking at Locke not far away, her whole body trembling.
After the Eye Demon Wizard became a One-Ring Wizard, the first witch he killed was her sister, Witch Brittany.
She had only been able to escape with the help of Leader Stephanie.
Every time she thought of Locke's ferocious appearance as he wielded that mushroom Magic Plant back then, she would fall into a state of immense fear; she didn't dare harbor any resentment, at most showing off her prestige in front of those Black Wizard Apprentices by cursing Locke a bit.
At this moment, Witch Veltani saw Locke appear before her again, and he was even more powerful than before, causing her entire body to shake with fright.
Hussein gave a thunderous roar, his body continuously expanding. Since his Eternal Defense Field was the [Vampire Transformation Blood Curse], his Permanent Defense Field shell had been completed even earlier than Locke's.
He seemed like an Abyssal Demon God standing tall in the world, surrounded by mountains of corpses and seas of blood, along with blood-colored magic. Amidst the boundless blood qi, this Demon God of Blood strolled leisurely, capable of suppressing all the demons and ghosts in this world.
Hussein had no intention of letting the wizards of the Blood Curse Court go; he grabbed a Official Wizard from the Blood Curse Court and began chewing him in his mouth.
His ferocity terrified the group of Black Wizards from the Southeast Corner Region.
On the other side, Female Leader Stephanie looked at Locke with a dazed expression and then asked incredulously, "Are you that kid I almost drowned in the River Styx back then?"
"How is that possible? Who exactly are you?"
"Four years ago, you were just a weak, ordinary One-Ring Wizard. How could you become such a powerful wizard in such a short time?"
Female Leader Stephanie was both shocked and enraged, feeling as if Locke had challenged her common sense. As she chanted an incantation, Ghost Death-Eater Insects, looking like long white ribbons, appeared around her and immediately lunged toward Locke.
Locke didn't even bother to move, simply standing where he was.
Before those insects could get close to Locke, they were infected by the Rising Flame Power of Magic Plant pinellia, catching fire one by one and turning into ribbons of flame.
At the edge of the Forbidden Forest near the ruins of Verdantia University, a figure with a pair of large feet appeared once again.
Female Leader Stephanie summoned a Ghost Spirit Infant, but before the summoned creature could fully stabilize its soul body, it was incinerated by the intense Rising Flame Power.
The entire surroundings seemed to have completely turned into summer.
Even though it was midnight, it looked as if the evening sky was set ablaze.
Female Leader Stephanie swallowed hard. Only now did she accept that the little wizard she could have easily crushed with a single spell back then had now grown into an existence possessing terrifying magic.
The Female Leader looked at Locke with a gaze of incomprehension; this rate of growth was something a wizard remaining in the Southeast Corner Region could not fathom.
The Female Leader immediately gave up her resistance and said to Locke, "Wait, Lord Augustine."
"You are already so powerful, so why bother killing me? Whatever you want, as long as I have it, I can give it to you."
At this point, Locke smiled. "Child's play."
He reached out and grabbed a black silk thread, which was wriggling like a worm between his index finger and thumb.
At the end of this black silk thread was a Ghost Firefly, which was in an invisible state.
It clearly used the power of Ritual Magic, existing in a dual state between plane power and a biological organism. If one weren't a Second Ring Wizard with eyes that could directly see plane power, then only a First Ring Crystallization Wizard with a special Spell Model to enhance perception would have a slight chance of seeing this insect.
"Back then, in my understanding, I was cursed by you after killing your Official Wizard, and then suddenly pulled into the River Styx by you. So that's how it was; when I was hunting the two witches, Veltani and Brittany, these kinds of insects hidden in their souls... flew out and scattered into the air of that underground Research Institute."
"As time passed, the number of these insects increased, gradually entering my soul, and then you pulled my consciousness into the River Styx."
"Of course, since I killed Witch Brittany, the insect hidden in her soul definitely flew out and entered my own soul."
Locke deliberately forced this Female Leader of the Ghost Saint Church to perform that Ritual Magic from back then once more to save her life, and then he saw through the cause and effect of what had happened.
The Ritual Magic he encountered back then was far less miraculous than it had seemed.
It was full of little tricks.
Like performing magic tricks, it was wonderful before the principle was understood, but once the principle was perceived, the impression changed.
Locke followed the black line composed of wraith spirituality and grabbed the translucent soul insect.
"I see. This insect is the core of your Ritual Magic, and by engraving the necessary rituals into the scepter in your hand—which symbolizes the authority of the Ghost Saint Church—you've minimized the time needed to activate the Ritual Magic."
"In this way, a Ritual Magic can be activated in less than half a minute."
This was also the original origin of the magic wand.
In the Cloud Marsh, the earliest wands were originally used to reduce the cost for a Crystallized Wizard to use Ritual Magic and to shorten the time required to activate it.
Witch Stephania had essentially made a primitive version of a magic wand herself.
Of course, it was also possible that it was a primitive version of a wand passed down through the Ghost Saint Church.
Witch Stephania's expression turned ugly; her final trump card, the chained magic attack of the Ghost Saint Church's Inheritance Staff and the Ghost Firefly, had actually been seen through by Locke.
Then she was truly out of options.
But just as Witch Stephania was at her wits' end, Locke, under her horrified gaze, actually placed the thread of the Ghost Firefly—which he had originally dodged—onto his own shoulder.
Thus, the interrupted Ritual Magic was activated once again.
Locke intended to test the principles of this Spell Model and see if it could help him solve the imaginary root cost problem, so he used the most efficient method.
Trying it personally.
'Team Leader Kelt hyped me up for ages, getting me full of motivation.'
Locke thought, 'It's just a clone anyway, and it's only a Ritual Magic performed by a Crystallized Witch. I have to experience it personally to get a glimpse of the truth.'
At the same time, to pull the consciousness of a Second Ring Wizard's clone into the River Styx, the required magic pressure and number of Ghost Fireflies were extremely high.
Witch Stephania was forced to activate the hidden measures she had left in the souls of many Official Wizards of the Ghost Saint Church. Those Black Wizards felt their bodies heating up, and then their souls spontaneously combusted as Ghost Fireflies flew out one after another.
With just this one move, the Ghost Saint Church's Official Wizards suffered heavy casualties, with at least a quarter of them having their souls spontaneously combust.
All to charge the Ghost Fireflies.
It wasn't that the Female Leader was being selfish by taking such measures; it was simply how the Ghost Saint Church's Ghost Magic system was designed.
Once the Ritual Magic began to operate, to pay the price for pulling the opponent's consciousness into the River Styx, the corresponding number of Ghost Fireflies had to be provided!
These Ghost Fireflies contained a trace of River Styx power.
Their power was immense.
Locke opened his eyes, his expression turning strange. At this moment, both his main body at Golden Crown Mountain and his clone in the Southeast Corner Region stood up.
The main body said, "As I expected, it indeed didn't affect my main body. However, this spell did cause the part of the consciousness inside my clone to enter the River Styx."
"This mechanism is indeed very interesting. Pulling the consciousness body into the River Styx and then influencing the body carrying that consciousness. My clone experienced a chilly sensation as if it were being soaked in the River Styx."
Locke's main body was in the Research Institute on the Dune Plane.
Wizard Sith, passing by, looked on with gratification.
"Locke's clone said it was going back to visit family, but in the end, it still went back to find projects and ideas. Now that's what I call dedicated."
He said to a regular Crystallized Wizard from the True Knowledge Institute who had just joined the station behind him, "Did you see that? This is the standard of our Golden Crown Mountain."
"This Second Ring Wizard is a Senior Researcher here. But after becoming a Second Ring Wizard, not only has he not slacked off, he even works forty-eight hours a day!"
"Time is life. Research is a matter of input-output ratio; the more time you put in, the more returns you get. As long as you can stay in the laboratory for 168 hours a week, you can definitely apply for Third-Class project funds, Second-Class project funds..."
The eyes of the newly arrived Crystallized Wizard glowed with emotion and passion.
"Researcher Augustine is truly working too hard."
In the Southeast Corner Region, Hussein turned his head to look at Locke with a strange expression.
"Locke is pushing himself too hard; even I wouldn't want to be headstrong enough to take Ritual Magic head-on."
"With such a friend, it seems I need to push myself even harder."
"This Academic Lineage left by the Progenitor Wizard in the Southeast Corner Region must either be controlled by me or destroyed. Damn Progenitor Wizard, his inheritance was actually a trap!"
At this time, the consciousness of Locke's clone successfully merged into the River Styx, and he once again felt that icy suffocating sensation.
Countless water ghosts in the River Styx grabbed his legs, trying to pull him down into the deep river.
Suddenly, Locke's body vanished, transforming into a bright moon—a full moon floating within the River Styx!
In an instant, Witch Stephania felt the crushing weight of the Second Ring magic pressure on her soul. Her expression changed drastically, her face full of despair, and her eyes filled with immense horror.
"You are not a wizard in a soul decline period."
"You are not a One-Ring Wizard."
"You are a Second Ring Wizard."
For a moment, all the Black Wizards present fell silent.
The Blood Lord also seemed to have thought of something, looking at Hussein in terror.
At this moment, this group of Black Wizards finally realized the meaning of genius, and the meaning of terror!