893: Becoming a Garrison, The Reversal of Status
Witch Catherine asked Turazin, "The Tianhan River has burst its banks, causing over a dozen Wizard Lands in the Eastern Border Region to enter the eternal cold of Magic Winter. Who do you think is responsible for this?"
Turazin fell into deep thought.
"I don't know, Teacher, but I found many traces of water magic usage at the scene. Someone used water magic to destroy the riverbanks of the Tianhan River. I didn't find any evidence."
"But considering the benefits, the bursting of the Tianhan River affects Golden Crown Mountain and us the most, and our current greatest enemy is the Rose Council. So..."
Witch Catherine raised her eyebrows.
"Are you saying that Anna sent someone to do it?"
Turazin swallowed hard. He knew how terrifying this accusation was.
This was an accusation against a Throne Wizard.
But from his perspective, the struggle between the two Academic Lineages had almost reached the point of tearing off their masks, so it was quite normal for him to have such a suspicion.
Witch Catherine covered her mouth and chuckled.
"Turazin, you are still young. There are many things you cannot see through or understand. Even if everyone is a suspect, it could not possibly be Anna."
"The Magic Winter has descended, all things are hibernating, resources are shrinking, and every industry is in a downturn. This is not something Anna or I would be happy to see. You don't need to continue investigating in this direction. I am very certain that this matter has nothing to do with the Rose Throne."
Turazin bowed to Witch Catherine, "Thank you for your guidance, Teacher."
"But we should resolve the matter of the Tianhan River bursting as soon as possible."
"The Tianhan River bursting, regardless of who did it, has caused direct losses to the interests of Golden Crown Mountain and our Academic Lineage, shrinking our potential gains from winning the Three Kings Competition by half. If our projects there are affected as a result, then winning the Three Kings Competition will no longer be an advantage; instead, it will become a burden."
"Especially now, with the Cloud Marsh Council voting collectively to refuse help to the Tianjiang Riverbank twice."
Witch Catherine nodded and said, "They don't want to pay for this; they want others to pay. Nowadays, nobody has any extra money."
"However, you don't need to worry about this matter. The bursting of the Tianhan River cannot change the grand trend."
Turazin said, "Teacher is right."
Locke thought for a while and understood what judgment his teacher had made: that the Magic Winter would cause all things to decline, which contradicted the current Demon Ascension Plan of the Star Domain Sea.
Taking Four Seasons Magic as an example, the Magic Winter would gradually cause all Wizard Lands in the Eastern Border Region to be in winter, while the Star Domain Sea's Demon Ascension Plan hoped for all Wizard Lands to remain in summer.
That is, a state of energy rising.
Witch Catherine glanced at Locke, then said to Turazin, "The scale of the Demon Ascension Plan in the Star Domain Sea is far beyond your imagination. I can only guess a little."
"Regardless of who caused the Tianhan River to burst and what the purpose is, they are opposing the entire Star Domain Sea. So we don't need to worry about this matter."
"Turazin, you just need to go to the project on the Tianjiang Riverbank as soon as possible to ensure that no one interferes with the safety of our Golden Crown Mountain project there."
"But you cannot go directly."
Turazin fell into confusion.
Witch Catherine pointed out a point.
"The sealing magic at the Tianjiang Riverbank is a field that only a Third Ring Wizard can involve themselves in. If you went there to investigate privately and managed to find something, it certainly wasn't something you could have discovered on your own. It was a Third Ring Wizard using someone else's hand to tell you, and then wanting to use you to tell me."
"That Third Ring Wizard wants to drag me into the water, and perhaps drag more Throne Wizards in. He wants to muddy the waters."
A flash of panic crossed Turazin's face, followed by a hint of anger.
"They actually used me."
Turazin stood up from his seat, sighed, and bowed to Witch Catherine, "I'm sorry, Teacher. I actually brought you false information."
Witch Catherine waved her hand.
"If I could be misled by this false information of yours, that would truly be my fault. Since you could bring this false information to me, it means there is indeed a Third Ring Wizard laying out a plan at the Tianjiang Riverbank, and their purpose is unknown. But they were able to notice you, probably because the highest level at the Tianjiang Riverbank is only Star Ring."
"As a Sun Ring Great Wizard, your [Sun Corona Mana Layer] is like a lighthouse in the dark night. Your every word and action is under everyone's watch."
Witch Catherine pondered, "You need a cover, a reasonable reason for traveling. It just so happens that I have a headquarters of a Shop Alliance on the Tianjiang Riverbank. It is called [Silver Peach Garden]."
"This Shop Alliance has been losing money year after year, for ten years now. I recently just fired its administrative management and relevant staff."
Turazin asked, "Teacher, do you want me to go and preside over Silver Peach Garden?"
He smiled and said, "I still remember that in the past, when I first became your apprentice, this Shop Alliance was a cash cow under your command. How did it end up losing money for ten consecutive years recently? That shouldn't be. This Shop Alliance used to be comparable to Golden Peach Garden and Otherworld Peach Garden."
Witch Catherine said, "To be honest... I don't know either."
"I simply don't have the time to manage that Shop Alliance. Given my limited energy allocation, I gave up on it and entrusted it to a Wizard Manager to act as an agent. But you and I both know that entrusting it to a Wizard Manager and hardly paying attention to it means that even if this Shop Alliance just stays in place, it would already be quite good."
Witch Catherine said, "Silver Peach Garden is stubborn and has a large foundation, so although it lost all its Third Ring business, I remember it still retains a lot of say in Second Ring business."
Turazin nodded repeatedly.
Witch Catherine changed the subject.
"But I am not asking you to take it over. Locke..."
Under Turazin's surprised gaze, Locke stepped forward.
Turazin sat in his chair and turned his head to look at Locke, his eyes full of surprise.
"Junior Brother... Teacher, do you want Junior Brother to help you turn that Shop Alliance from loss to profit?"
Witch Catherine said, "Turazin, although you are a Sun Ring Great Wizard, you are a martial fighter, an explorer, and a Plant Hunter. Your Breeding Science, to be honest, is very average. Your talent and level in Botany are both quite good."
"But Silver Peach Garden is a Breeder's shop, specializing in selling individual weapon-grade breeding works."
"If you were to manage it, you would lack management ability, resource integration ability, and even professional ability. Therefore, Locke is more suitable for this role. Of course, I have a few other better candidates. But I think young people should be given some opportunities."
Witch Catherine looked at Locke and said, "I was originally hesitating between you and Zeno. However, after I saw that article you published on Cloud Marsh, I made up my mind. Besides, Zeno has been at the station for a long time, so it is better to let him focus more on preparing for the special grant."
"However, Locke, you can also refuse. I know that for you, you are also seriously preparing for the special grant."
"Do you want to refuse?"
Locke took the information about Silver Peach Garden handed to him by Witch Catherine and discovered that this Silver Peach Garden was a Magic Plant retail shop based on various storefronts, currently mainly focusing on the apprentice level and First Ring market.
Or rather, it had been living off its past glory.
Locke flipped through the account book and found that this Shop Alliance had been losing money since ten years ago. People had been sent and changed in the middle, but it did not stop this loss-making trend.
Even because a lot of storefronts were sold off, this Shop Alliance became more and more decadent, and the rate of asset depreciation became faster and faster. To this day, the sales revenue of this Shop Alliance only has 50 million magic stones of annual net profit.
Locke's brow twitched. He immediately noticed the abnormality of this Shop Alliance. First, it moved away from the Cloud Marsh Wetland, away from the sight of the Red Dragon Witch, and entered the Tianjiang Riverbank.
This point was very strange, and then there was the inexplicably shrinking store revenue every year, which had fallen to a pitifully poor level over the past ten years.
This was definitely not normal.
I am afraid that the internal corruption of this Shop Alliance is also very serious, because according to the information here, once upon a time, Silver Peach Garden was a famous Magic Plant shop, but now this old-brand Magic Plant shop has declined continuously and is no longer a force to be reckoned with.
Locke suddenly gave a wry smile. He had previously secretly mocked Solas Lightfoot and Meileqi Magic Step for being old, but now he had to personally take over an even older and more declined Shop Alliance than their two shops.
Locke said to Witch Catherine, "Teacher, I am willing."
Locke knew that only by taking on more tasks within this Academic Lineage could he get more distribution of benefits. After all, the special grant could still be obtained by strength, but the sub-projects of the key single project relied on Witch Catherine's personal will; she gave it to whomever she wanted.
And looking at his teacher's meaning, she might think that a Second Ring Wizard could not specifically help her with the key single project, and the so-called sub-project was entirely an act of sharing benefits.
So if he wanted to get the key single project, he had to rely on working for his cooperative mentor.
Fortunately, he could at least see a little progress bar.
Because within this team, he was clearly moving towards the core step by step.
Moreover, because of the True Dragon bloodline, he was regarded as a direct candidate from the beginning.
The only problem was that because he clearly did not want to stop at Golden Crown Mountain, he could not obtain unique secret methods like the inheritance magic of the Twelve Magic Peaches or the Six Ultimate Magic Rices of Golden Crown Mountain.
Besides these unique inheritance magics, Golden Crown Mountain should also have unique inheritance magics in Bloodline Studies and the Kinetic School.
The magic from the Power School had nothing to do with him, and the Supernatural Purgatory of the Kinetic School was said to be a very good opportunity, a nice special inheritance Wizard Secret Realm, but it had nothing to do with him.
However, the special Bloodline Studies magic inheritance of Golden Crown Mountain had something to do with him.
Working for the Academic Lineage could at least yield tangible benefits.
Witch Catherine revealed a satisfied smile.
"Not bad, rising to the challenge and not fearing hardship. Locke, ordinary benefits can be obtained by simply going with the flow, but huge benefits require going against the current to achieve. You will receive your due rewards at the [Silver Peach Garden]. I believe that this time you go to the Silver Peach Garden, you should gain many things."
Locke thought for a moment. He currently possessed two Ultimate Magic spells, so as long as he consumed another clone potion, he could obtain a second clone.
Once he had a second clone, he would be able to work hard for 72 hours a day.
By then, he could just send this clone to the Silver Peach Garden on the Tianjiang Riverbank.
After all, he was already a Second Ring Great Wizard; if he still only worked hard for 48 hours a day, it would be too slack.
Witch Catherine said casually, "By the way, you have been getting quite close to that little girl, Witch Rosetta, lately? Then you should know that she recently went to the Tianjiang Riverbank."
Wizard Turazin was stunned for a moment upon hearing about Witch Rosetta.
"Rose? I met her once before at Junior Brother's celebration banquet for advancing to the Second Ring. I didn't have a deep impression of her at the time, but it seems she recently won the championship for the [Red Holy Grail] and the [Purple Holy Grail]."
"Oh, Junior Brother, the Red Holy Grail is one of the competitions in the Seven-Colored Cup held by the Garden Alliance over in the Yuze Marsh. There aren't any large wizard universities in the Yuze Marsh, so they used a very novel wizard university model where major medium-sized wizard universities united to form a large Garden Alliance."
"The major institutions became part of this large Garden Alliance."
"The Seven-Colored Cup is the most prestigious competition promoted by this large Garden Alliance. There are currently eight colors in the Seven-Colored Cup, and each color of the holy grail represents a type of competition. The Red Holy Grail is a breeding competition, and the Purple Holy Grail is a Magic Weaver competition."
"She recently won the dual-colored holy grails in the Yuze Marsh in succession and is very famous."
"What is she doing going to the Tianjiang Riverbank? The Tianjiang Riverbank is humid, the relative humidity in the air is too high, and water elemental particles are dense. The magic textiles from the Magic Weavers of the Cloud Marsh don't sell very well there; on the contrary, magic umbrellas sell quite well there."
"Oh, right. The Rose Throne has several industries that also want to expand toward the Tianjiang Riverbank, and among them seem to be some shops related to Magic Plant breeding."
Witch Catherine didn't actually know such detailed things, so she didn't interject.
After all, those were the industries of the Rose Throne's Academic Lineage, and they were details of the least important industries. Other than a wizard like Turazin, who had temporarily become the person in charge of the Red Dragon Lineage, other wizards basically wouldn't count the persistently loss-making and obscure industries among those assets.
Moreover, the equity behind many Shop Alliances was complex.
There was long since no direct correspondence.
Locke immediately smiled bitterly in his heart, not expecting that he couldn't avoid this Witch Rosetta no matter where he went.
The gravitational pull of the Academic Lineage war was so great; he and Witch Rosetta seemed to have a hidden niche competition, and he didn't know why they always clashed.
It looked as if whoever lost would have to step aside for the other.
This might be because the niches of the two of them within this Academic Lineage were similar, so he and Witch Rosetta could cooperate but also easily clash, having unavoidable conflicts of interest between them.
Wizard Turazin encouraged Locke, "Don't be afraid. This time is different. I remember now, the Rose Throne has a Shop Alliance on the Tianjiang Riverbank called the Olaye Shop Alliance. It is a new shop that has been established for less than five years, losing money every year, and requiring extra money to subsidize it every year. Compared to the Silver Peach Garden, that Olaye Shop Alliance is just an emerging Shop Alliance that hasn't found its footing yet, a small Shop Alliance that could go bankrupt at any time."
Wizard Turazin smiled at Locke, "Junior Brother, this time it seems you and Witch Rosetta have swapped offense and defense. You are now the representative of an established Shop Alliance, while she is the representative of an emerging Shop Alliance."
"This time you can hold the high ground and wait at your ease, unlike when your Augustus was struggling with those two established Shop Alliances."
Locke raised his eyebrows.
That was just a nice way of putting it.
To put it another way, it was finally his turn to take over an old, dying Shop Alliance, while she held an emerging Shop Alliance starting from scratch.
In other words, this time Witch Rosetta became the chaser, and he was the defender.
Locke said to Witch Catherine, "I understand, Teacher. I started out selling Magic Plant weapons, so I have confidence in this industry."
Witch Catherine nodded and said, "That's good. You have already condensed your second Ultimate Magic, so take this."
Witch Catherine handed him a magic book. Locke saw that the name of the magic book was Twin Forging Method.
Witch Catherine said, "This is a Ultimate Magic forging method I designed specifically for you, using one power system as the core to forge two Ultimate Magic spells simultaneously. As long as your power system can explain both of your Ultimate Magic spells at the same time, the forging progress of your two Ultimate Magic spells will be completely synchronized."
"Take it back and study it carefully. Your Senior Brother Turazin and I still have important matters to discuss."
Locke nodded and immediately bowed to the two, saying, "Then, I will take my leave, Teacher, Senior Brother."
When Locke left the office and closed the office door, he seemed to hear Witch Catherine saying something about [Magic Plant Crystallization Technology]...
Locke's pupils constricted slightly. This technological route had actually already entered his Teacher's view?
However, Locke was not someone who liked to eavesdrop, so he closed the door.
Witch Catherine glanced at the closed door, then continued to look at Wizard Turazin and communicated with him.
After Locke closed the office door, he left directly. Information like this was something one should fear eavesdropping on; the worst thing in all matters was hearing only half of it.
Since Teacher Yekaterina didn't want to tell him this information, it was best if he hadn't heard a single word, or if he had heard it, he should pretend he hadn't.
Otherwise, hearing only half of a piece of information was very dangerous.
Locke took the information on the Silver Peach Garden, preparing to go back and study it. At the same time, he picked up the Ganoderma Magic Plant and found that Witch Catherine had sent him the location of the Peach Garden, as well as indicating that she had already issued an order, and the Silver Peach Garden had already received the news that he had received her appointment.
Because the Silver Peach Garden belonged to Witch Catherine's personal property, she did not need to consult with the board of shareholders or the board of directors and could appoint him directly.
When Locke returned to the underground laboratory of the Group 2 Dune Plane, he also received a notification from the Sea Queen Throne.
On the water gourd system, the Sea Queen Throne sent him a message.
'Locke, next Wednesday, I will give a lecture at the Root Crown Court. The first class will mainly be about the clone potion. Prepare yourself; you are required to prepare at least three Two-Chirp Cicada spirit macros.'
Locke currently had a rubbing of the Two-Chirp Cicada spirit macro imprint on hand, so he didn't need to buy three spirit macros.
A spirit macro imprint was a product of many Two-Chirp Cicada spirit macros gathered together, possessing a certain degree of stability and could be used multiple times, whereas a single spirit macro usually became useless after being used once.
At the same time, the green leaf dragon wings of the Magic Dragon Rose behind him vibrated as he flew through this Dune Plane. Previously, the fragile ecology of the Dune Plane had almost been completely wiped out, but now, with Wizard Sith paying out of his own pocket and using a large amount of money, the ecology of the Dune Plane had been maintained to a certain extent.
Huge golem robots for purifying heavy elemental particles floated in the sky. They were performing missions over the Plane, purifying the massive heavy elemental particle pollution left in the air of this world due to Zalan Bailey's previous reckless measures.
And the massive oases that Zalan Bailey had created in this world, having lost the support of his "draining the pond to catch the fish" strategy, soon turned back into yellow sand.
Facts proved that Zalan Bailey's reckless strategy back then only caused harm and had no benefit at all to the Dune Plane.
Group 2 underground laboratory.
Locke arrived at the location where he had grafted the Four-Winged Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow and the Magic Dragon Rose. He saw the two Magic Plants before him, which had barely completed the grafting under the assistance of the wizard formation of the Group 2 Research Institute, and were maintained by relying on the verdant spirit breath and the assistance of various wizard formations daily.
It was as if he was providing intensive care to a person every day to maintain their vitality.
Locke had currently spent about ten million magic stones on this Magic Plant.
Witch Mason turned around and saw Locke walking over. She immediately smiled and said, "Team Leader, the vital signs of this plant are currently stable, please rest assured."
Locke nodded.
Currently, this Magic Plant had been forcibly grafted. Under his potent grafting healing Spell Model, the spirituality of the rootstock and the branches had fused, allowing that Four-Winged Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow to obtain the plant essence converted from bloodline essence by the Rose Throne.
However, this conversely caused the Four-Winged Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow to experience a certain degree of degeneration.
But that didn't matter. Because his initial purpose was to have it obtain the magic dragon essence.
What he wanted was to be able to use Ancestral Evolution on it.
The Moon of Evolution behind Locke flickered in and out of existence.
However, before using the Moon of Evolution on it to trigger Ancestral Evolution, he still had to do one thing. That was to first simulate it on the Queen's Chessboard.
Because once it failed, all his ten million magic stones would go down the drain.
Locke realized at this moment that if he rashly carried out Ancestral Evolution, it would be too risky.
He must first use the Queen's Chessboard to simulate a relatively accurate result before carrying out Ancestral Evolution, only then could he complete his flying magic plant work!