908: Concepts for Summer Prosperity and Ancestral Evolution
Locke fell into contemplation. Throne Russell had only shown him the basic data of the Golden Curse just now; to obtain the subsequent data, he would likely need to reach some kind of agreement with him.
To gain something, one must give something up.
The key question was: was it truly necessary to get his hands on this Golden Curse?
Locke recalled the Golden Curse again. The main idea behind this curse was to utilize the characteristic of 'unchanging gold nature.' While other magical powers ebbed and flowed, constantly changing, the power of Gold Magic possessed constancy. By strengthening this [Gold Nature Constancy] trait, it was possible to summon the hidden Gold Magic power within Magic Plants.
The overall framework was complete and would certainly have an effect on Magic Plants.
The crux of the problem was that to strengthen this aspect of Gold Magic—Gold Nature Constancy—one needed to obtain the sun's trajectory in the Hui Ming Borderland over hundreds of years.
Furthermore, past data was useless; one needed the new trajectory from the most recent centuries.
Two trajectories appeared in Locke's mind: one was the past trajectory of the sun in the Hui Ming Borderland, and the other was its current trajectory.
When the two trajectories overlapped, that would be the moment eternal power descended, awakening the ancient Gold Magic.
It could also be understood as sacrificing future changes to strengthen past immutability.
So there were two key points: first, the sun's trajectory in the Hui Ming Borderland; second, it had to be the current sun's trajectory.
That meant data needed to be recollected.
As Locke thought, he suddenly frowned. The sun in his mind vanished, replaced by the land of the Hui Ming Borderland as he had seen it from the wizard airship, looking down upon the earth.
Locke looked at Throne Russell with a strange expression and asked, "Throne Lord, in the distant past, was the Hui Ming Borderland located on the sun?"
A flash of surprise appeared on Throne Russell's face.
"You can actually see that vision."
"I don't know. I am also a Third Ring Wizard who grew up within the last thousand years, and that period of history is far too distant. This vision... I can see it too, but I don't know if it's true or false, or rather, I don't know its specific meaning."
Locke lowered his head in thought. If the Wizard Land known as the Hui Ming Borderland wasn't on the ground, then its current position was not its ancient position at all.
At least, not entirely.
The more Locke thought about it, the more he felt that in ancient times, the Hui Ming Borderland likely wasn't on the sun but was still in the sky, because the current location of the Star Domain Sea was also the highest point in the entire Eastern Border Region.
Because it was too high and lacked the gradual increase in magic tide concentration gradients using Wizard Lands as steps—as envisioned by the Star Domain Sea—it was currently extremely difficult to reach the Star Domain Sea.
This wasn't just a matter of horizontal distance, but also vertical space.
Perhaps the Star Domain Sea and other Wizard Lands looked adjacent on a flat map, but in reality, on a three-dimensional map, the altitude difference between them was immense.
Then the former Hui Ming Borderland must have also been located at a very high position.
At that moment, a stone pillar suddenly fell from the sky onto the Corridor of the Past. Within this corridor composed of spirit macros, old spirit macros linked with each other to form a new spirit macro. That spirit macro then summoned a large number of gathering spirit macros, forming a special spirit macro stone pillar.
This stone pillar depicted a giant eye composed of a mass of mechanical gears behind it. Locke took an extra look at this pillar.
The stone pillar soon shattered inch by inch, revealing the golden pillar's radiance within, turning into a pillar of pure gold.
The mechanical gears within the pillar's mechanical eye continued to rotate.
Locke said, "Do new things related to the Hui Ming Borderland and Gold Magic also manifest within this Corridor of the Past?"
Throne Russell replied, "Indeed. But only things with sufficient qualification can manifest within this corridor."
"It seems the Alchemist genius classes in the Hui Ming Borderland have researched another special symbol that can represent Gold Magic."
Locke looked at Throne Russell, wanting to decline his invitation.
The reason was simple: although he hadn't fully decided on the direction for his special grant fund application, while using Gold Magic to strengthen Ancestral Evolution sounded good, it was ultimately like Magic Plant Crystallization Technology—something others had told him about, something that just sounded good.
So for him, there wasn't much difference between the two.
He was currently still thinking about how to refine Ancestral Evolution again, to create a more perfect version rather than the current one that felt so heavily pieced together.
And once he achieved that, it would surely bring great benefits to his Moon of Evolution and even his tree of prosperity.
As Locke thought, both the Moon of Evolution and the tree of prosperity appeared behind him.
Ancestral Evolution was an evolutionary mode that could rival Surging Evolution; it was just that its perfection in his hands wasn't enough yet!
If he could complete it, he might be able to forge his Ultimate Magic to a new height.
At the same time, evolution and prosperity were like the relationship between the vertical and horizontal axes.
The Spring Prosperity of the tree of prosperity was built upon using the first type of Mist's Power as a core to drive the rotation of the four seasons, making energy extremely prosperous. With each rotation, the energy did not decrease but instead showed an increase.
Within this cycle, a miraculous scene from the Three Caves World was inserted into the seasonal cycle to halt the cycle in spring, thereby creating Spring Prosperity—that is, eternal spring.
This was also the reason why his main body had failed when he directly used the power of the four seasons and Mist's Power to create the tree of prosperity in the Three Caves World.
Because back then, when he used Mist's Power to simulate the four seasons, he forgot that in some regions, the four seasons are not distinct, but rather dominated by a single season.
His Half-Body, however, had discovered this point: that he could not directly start from the four seasons as a whole to understand the truth of seasonal prosperity according to his own ideas.
Therefore, his Half-Body prepared to start from spring first. He combined the principle of the plane response system of the Three Caves World to create a miracle of spring, using a miraculous image to stop the seasonal cycle in spring and create eternal prosperity.
It wasn't about stopping the rotation of the four seasons forever in spring.
It was about presenting the generative power and prosperity attributes of the spring season at every moment of the cycle while maintaining the energy process of the four seasons.
This was originally difficult to achieve, but his Half-Body had spent over a thousand years thinking of using the completed logic of the book of deification from the Three Caves World to act as a miraculous singularity, achieving this goal.
If there were only a cycle of four seasons, how could it be called the tree of prosperity?
It was precisely the prosperous scene of 'no gods under heaven' from the Three Caves World that redefined the spring season, making it possible for every moment of the energy cycle to maintain the state of Spring Prosperity.
Of course, having only one season was irrational; this was merely a preliminary step in the pursuit of truly perfect four-season prosperity.
Due to its special planar characteristics, the Three-Cave Plane itself had only one season—spring. However, according to his Half-Body's investigation results, the total biological mass of plants on the Three-Cave Plane did not exceed that of plants in the distinct four-season regions of the Wizarding World just because of the eternal spring.
This showed that eternal spring was not true prosperity.
Locke closed his eyes. Countless past illusions of Gold Magic flowed around him. In this place, his Super Intuition ability seemed to be stimulated to the extreme.
His Super Intuition ability was a bloodline ability of the World-Ending Demon Dragon.
And at this moment, the root realm of the Golden School in the Hui Ming Borderland was so powerful, and he was standing on the Corridor of the Past; thus, Locke's Super Intuition was incredibly strong right now.
He immediately realized that completely finishing the Ancestral Evolution—which was on par with the Moon Cultivation Method—and unearthing the Summer Prosperity of the tree of prosperity would be the moment his Ultimate Magic underwent its second forging.
He would also become a Star Ring Wizard.
Therefore, the special grant should either start with Ancestral Evolution or with Summer Prosperity.
Furthermore, Ancestral Evolution seemed to have some connection with Summer Prosperity.
Just as Locke was about to explicitly refuse Throne Russell, the latter suddenly waved his hand. Immediately, the spirit macro of that mechanical eye on the golden pillar materialized and floated before Locke.
Throne Russell said, "There are some things I want to confirm once more. Additionally, before you make a choice, you need to have a deeper understanding of Gold Magic."
"This golden construct may help you recognize Gold Magic more easily."
Throne Russell softly chanted an incantation. Instantly, a massive amount of Gold Magic aura converged into that eye-demon construct. Laws constructed from Gold Magic entered the construct, turning into golden threads that assisted in the materialization of this golden eye-demon construct.
Not far away, the golden three-headed dog silently stood up and moved away from its original position.
The three-headed dog glanced sideways at Throne Russell and thought, 'Lord Russell... is indeed the same as before.'
At this moment, after being strengthened by some kind of Golden Holy Magic, that golden eye-demon construct was instantly enhanced from its original spirit macro state into an actual physical substance.
Countless gears inside this construct rotated, and it immediately shot a [Golden Gaze] at Locke, which was modified from the Second Ring Spell Model [Greater Petrification Curse].
Locke immediately summoned a Golden Eye Grass to block his front, but in the next instant, that eye grass actually turned into a piece of gold after being hit by that gaze.
Locke looked at Throne Russell.
Throne Russell smiled and said, "Rest assured, all battles that occur on the Corridor of the Past are merely battles within the spirit macros. They do not hold true in reality. You are in no mortal danger, and there will be no loss of wealth. I am the Chief Justice of the Hui Ming Borderland; I know the law."
"I do not do things that break the law."
Locke immediately felt relieved. He also had a mind to test the depth of that eye-demon golden construct. Instantly, a Four-Winged Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow appeared behind him, circling the golden eye-demon construct. The mechanical gears inside the golden eye-demon rotated, continuously firing [Golden Gaze Curses] outward.
A Golden Gaze rotated in place; the moment it touched the Corridor of the Past, it turned all objects on this corridor into gold.
"Hmm? This is..."
As Locke circled the construct, he prepared to wait for the moment it recovered energy or stopped its attack to find an opportunity to counterattack.
This so-called new symbol of the Hui Ming Borderland, another research product of the Alchemist genius classes—he also had the desire to exchange blows with it.
Because fighting such a construct was equivalent to understanding its structure, and understanding its structure was understanding the designers' thought processes.
By clashing his own thoughts against these ideas, he could accumulate his own knowledge.
Locke was momentarily stunned. As he circled the construct, he suddenly realized a problem: the unique nature of Gold Magic results in the unchanging gold nature.
Normally, the energy output of an object fluctuates, but the constructs created by Gold Magic... do not.
Multiple waveforms appeared in Locke's mind once more. He saw them overlapping, their peaks and troughs aligning to cancel each other out, transforming into eternity.
Gold Magic possesses the characteristic of a continuous and stable output.
"Eternal Defense Field... this is a characteristic of the Eternal Defense Field. These constructs contain extremely sophisticated Gold Magic, and they also possess the eternal characteristic."
Locke suddenly realized that the technology of the Eternal Defense Field used by a First-Ring Wizard naturally incorporates some core elements of Gold Magic.
In other words, all wizards have already accepted the gift of Gold Magic by the time they become a First-Ring Wizard.
'Bang~'
The Four-Winged Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow behind Locke was struck on one corner, and immediately, starting from that corner, the entire Great Green Leaf Dragon Finch began turning into gold.
'This is bad.'
Locke was instantly knocked down.
The gear structure inside the Beholder Golden Construct immediately began to rotate and shift, fine-tuning the Golden Gaze Spell Model and creating a variation of it.
That pillar-like Golden Gaze was instantly modified into countless scattered Golden Gaze rays that locked onto his aura and attacked him.
In the next moment, Locke pulled the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow out of his astral ring.
As he was falling, he suddenly soared upward, evading all the gaze attacks.
The speed of the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow far exceeded that of the Four-Winged Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow. Consequently, the Golden Gaze rays could not keep up with Locke's speed; they collided with each other and were completely annihilated in the air.
The major gears inside the eye of the Beholder Golden Construct rotated, and it immediately changed the structure of the Golden Gaze Spell Model. After fine-tuning, the Golden Gaze split into even smaller ray-type attacks, locking onto Locke's aura and continuously striking at him.
'I see. This beholder-shaped construct is essentially a special kind of golem. It's likely some kind of war machine, probably at least a tactical-grade weapon of the Second Ring.'
'It possesses the power to instantly suppress enemies on the battlefield and turn the tide. This golem has two unique features. First, the entire golem is an Innate Magic Eye that can lock onto an enemy's aura, analyze their movement trajectory, and actively modify its internal Spell Models based on the enemy's state.'
'I suspect it has many functional modules inside, allowing it to adjust them according to different situations to actively modify its primary attack method, the [Golden Gaze Curse].'
'The second feature is that it is an eternal construct. Although I don't know how it's achieved, it should be something Gold Magic is capable of.'
Locke took out the Araceae Magic Plant, Pinellia, recited an incantation, and used Summer Grass Bewilderment. A spark of spell fire appeared and rolled toward the Beholder Golden Construct.
The Beholder Golden Construct immediately adjusted its Spell Model, and a beam of Golden Gaze pierced through the spark, turning it into gold.
But in the next instant, Locke appeared behind the beholder construct, holding a stalk of second-ring sea golden sand. The second-ring sea golden sand transformed into a Flowing Gold Fern Spear, ready to pierce it.
At this critical moment, the beholder actually rotated on the spot through the movement of its internal gears, shifting the direction of its pupil to look directly at Locke.
"Hmm? This beholder's combat mode is extremely flexible."
"Is the Hui Ming Borderland planning to develop further into alchemy?"
A massive pillar of Golden Gaze erupted from the pupil of the golden beholder, attacking Locke.
It had already anticipated that Locke would suddenly appear behind it for a sneak attack and had set a trap in advance, waiting for the moment Locke appeared to strike him with the golden rays.
Just as the Gold Magic was about to hit Locke, the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow on his back suddenly erupted with dragon fire. He instantly shifted to the left at high speed, dodging the strike.
Throne Russell nodded slightly upon seeing this; the movement speed of the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow was indeed very fast.
This speed even exceeded the adaptation capabilities of the Beholder Golden Construct.
As a result, no matter how the Beholder Golden Construct swapped its modules, it could not keep up with Locke.
Through the meshing and rotation of its internal gears, the Beholder Golden Construct looked at Locke and launched a new round of attacks. At that same moment, Locke's pupils also dilated suddenly.
Within this Corridor of the Past, his talent for Gold Magic seemed to have been elevated to an incredible level.
The Gold Magic previously displayed by the Beholder Golden Construct automatically surfaced in his mind, beyond his control.
'Could the construct's Spell Model be open-source? That's it; an open-source Spell Model likely requires the fewest alchemy modules to build. To hide a Spell Model, one would need to include many misleading elements. As a pure construct, the beholder needs Alchemists to refine the corresponding Magic items in advance and organize them into modules to function.'
'For cost considerations, this Golden Gaze Curse would only be open-source.'
Locke immediately chanted the incantation. While flying, he also recited the spell for the Golden Gaze Curse. His left eye instantly transformed into a golden eye, and a beam of Golden Gaze erupted from it, clashing with the Golden Gaze of the Beholder Golden Construct.
The two sides remained in a stalemate for a while.
But in the end, the vision of the Beholder Golden Construct proved superior.
Seeing this, Throne Russell finally confirmed one thing.
"This fellow truly has the ability to learn on the fly and possesses a photographic memory. The level of the golden bloodline in his body is even higher than I thought. It's simply incredible; his talent in Gold Magic is even a step above mine when I was young."
"Unfortunately, he has already constructed two other types of Ultimate Magic; it's impossible for him to change course now. If I had met him earlier, I could have guided him onto the right path."
"Now, his talent in Gold Magic can be considered wasted."
After realizing this, Throne Russell immediately gave up the plan to trade for Locke from the Red Dragon Throne at any cost.
Of course, if he could trade for Locke at a slightly higher price, he would still do it.
Locke threw out the second-ring sea golden sand in his hand. The sea golden sand instantly turned into thunder fire and landed on the body of the Beholder Golden Construct.
'Bang~'
The Beholder Golden Construct was knocked over, and a large number of mechanical gear parts went flying.
However, in the next moment, the internal structure of the Beholder Golden Construct rotated. Even while being knocked over, it used a planetary gear system to rotate its pupil and aim at Locke, who was flying toward it.
A beam of Golden Gaze surged forward.
In the next instant, Locke summoned a stalk of Golden Eye Grass. Surprisingly, this Golden Eye Grass did not immediately turn into gold after being illuminated by the Golden Gaze.
Locke touched the Golden Eye Grass with his finger, and it actually reflected the magic back!
Golden Eye Grass has the ability to reflect energy-based attacks.
The Beholder Golden Construct was originally a Second Ring-level construct, and its Golden Gaze should have been impossible to reflect. However, once Locke learned the Spell Model for Golden Gaze, it became possible to intercept and retain part of its energy and reflect it back.
'Bang~'
An enhanced beam of Golden Gaze was reflected back.
The Beholder Golden Construct was hit right in the center and was instantly heavily damaged. Countless parts flew out, and as a bolt of thunder fire descended, the second-ring sea golden sand completely destroyed it.
Throne Russell had a strange expression. According to the Alchemist genius classes, the Beholder Golden Construct was designed to maintain critical suppression and battlefield dominance even under attack by five Second Ring Wizards of the same level.
It was intended to be a new super product on the Hui Ming Borderland's export list.
The Corridor of the Past also recognized the Beholder Golden Construct as one of the symbols of Gold Magic in the Hui Ming Borderland.
Yet, it was defeated by Locke in such a humiliating fashion.
This was primarily because Locke's talent for Gold Magic was simply too high; he had actually used a One-Ring Magic Plant to reflect that Golden Gaze.
One could only imagine the expressions on the faces of the wizards from the Alchemist genius classes if they were to see this.
Throne Russell looked at Locke. 'As expected, choosing him for the Golden Curse project was the right decision.'
Locke looked at the Golden Eye Grass in his hand, which had completely turned into gold, and fell into deep thought.
In the moment of battle just now, although his Golden Eye Grass was still turned to gold, before the transformation... the Golden Eye Grass had actually been strengthened.
Gold Magic can strengthen Magic Plants.
The tree of prosperity appeared in Locke's mind. The tree of prosperity itself was a magic tree designed by his Half-Body over a thousand years, using Gold Magic as a skeletal support.
[Support] is one of the characteristics of Gold Magic.
Locke suddenly recalled the Gold Magic that Throne Russell had used previously. That Golden Curse primarily utilized the unchanging gold nature, similar to the Beholder Golden Construct he had just fought.
Locke immediately realized its feasibility.
The battle with that beholder construct had made him realize the potential that Gold Magic could develop.
Through the recent combat, he already had an idea.
Locke looked at Throne Russell and said, "Throne Lord, I will take on this project."
Throne Russell showed a satisfied smile.
"I knew that a genius like you wouldn't make a decision without seeing and trying it for yourself. After all, the more talented a wizard is, the more they trust their own judgment."
"This crystal ball contains all the key experimental data from seven of my students, but it is still missing at least fifty-five years of solar trajectory data from the Hui Ming Borderland."
"You will need to find a way to resolve this yourself."
Throne Russell said, "I believe you will certainly find a way. After all, you, who completed the preliminary Ancestral Evolution of golden ear wheat, are the expert in this field."