The Divine Joy Flower seed began to pulse weakly, rhythmic like a heartbeat. Simultaneously, its originally faint life force began slowly reviving.
Seeing this, Ciel couldn't help but widen his eyes. He hadn't expected to actually guess correctly. The method Divine Joy Flowers used to identify gods wasn't magic power, appearance, or aura—it was this unheard-of Authority.
Since he had gained lightning will from natural lightning and been branded with traces of God-King Authority, the Divine Joy Flower truly recognised him as a god—even as the King of Gods.
This plant, when facing non-divine beings, wouldn't thrive no matter how carefully tended or how many rare materials were used. But once recognised as divine, even a single glance could invigorate it tremendously—let alone commands from this "God-King".
Though ages had passed since the Olympian era, the Divine Joy Flower still strove to please the God-King with all its might.
His face showed joy. At this rate, this Divine Joy Flower seed wouldn't take long to germinate and bloom.
He repeatedly encouraged the Divine Joy Flower, making it even more invigorated. The God-King's encouragement—what glory!
But the next moment, his spirit that had been approaching the mental eye to trigger God-King Authority finally reached its limit under mountain-like pressure. With a dizzy, spinning sensation, he nearly collapsed. His head transmitted waves of splitting pain—like being torn apart.
His spirit hurriedly retreated from that lightning-shaped scar representing God-King Authority. Just then, the previously invigorated Divine Joy Flower seed suddenly sensed something extremely confusing.
Where was the God-King? Why couldn't it feel that supreme authority anymore? Had the King passed away?!
Instantly, the seed's growth momentum stopped abruptly. He even felt wisps of death aura beginning to brew within it.
His smile instantly stiffened. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed out more strength from his spirit, forcing himself to approach God-King Authority one more step while speaking to the Divine Joy Flower:
"I am the God-King, destined to suppress all worldly enemies. I cannot constantly remain in this world. I hope when we next meet, you shall bloom most brilliantly to welcome my triumphant return."
Only then did the death aura pervading the seed stop abruptly, replaced by unprecedented pulsing.
A divine oracle! This was the God-King's oracle commanding it to welcome his return! What supreme honour!
The Divine Joy Flower seed was deeply moved, wishing to immediately drag its weakened body into bloom. Even after his vision darkened moments later and he could no longer invoke God-King Authority, the seed's vitality merely slowed its growth—not reverting to its previous near-death state.
He finally relaxed, then his vision filled with stars as his head truly felt ready to explode. Every nerve seemed pierced by red-hot steel needles. This agony prevented even screaming—he could only curl on the ground, waiting for spiritual recovery and pain to fade.
Two or three hours later, he finally stood up pale-faced, still shaken by the ordeal. Close call—a few more seconds might have truly damaged his mind under that pressure. Mental matters even Legendary Life couldn't repair.
Fortunately, his frequent pain endurance and deep Occlumency mastery provided far superior mental control than ordinary people, sparing him permanent aftereffects.
But this warned him that now his body was extremely powerful—as long as the brain or heart wasn't completely destroyed, everything regenerated. But his spirit, though far stronger than ordinary people, remained too weak compared to his body. Many things he was encountering, especially mythical-level items, seemed to require spiritual strength. He must prioritise spiritual enhancement. The Alihotsy should be nearly mature.
He then took out his Portkey. After spinning dizzily, he arrived at Sprout Island from the Sprout estate.
The previous storm had passed. Though protective magic provided some defence against nature's power, it could only do so much. Many low-lying areas still showed considerable pooled water.
Fortunately, the underwater volcano beneath Sprout Island continuously transmitted heat upward, rapidly evaporating soil moisture. The trolls used their massive hands to scoop away water near fields, avoiding overly wet soil affecting crop yields.
After all, these were lands the King had entrusted them to cultivate, related to filling their bellies. Even the most simple-minded trolls, having experienced prolonged Forbidden Forest hardships, understood how precious their current lives were and cherished them greatly.
Seeing him arrive, the trolls showed worshipful, fanatical expressions, "Groonk! Groonk!"
He had gradually adapted to their address, waving at them while walking toward the Alihotsy fields. Currently, with water vapour constantly evaporating under heat, the fields were filled with steaming warmth like a giant natural sauna.
Alihotsy loved precisely this humid heat. When he looked, he found his worries about storm-damaged quality completely unfounded—their condition exceeded expectations. Each reward orb was quite full; even the bronze lustre on the reward information had deepened slightly.
This brought joy to his face. Probably two or three days until maturity. Looking at this, the spiritual enhancement they provided might exceed his estimates by one or two levels. This Alihotsy batch's quality was probably excellent even in the magical world. With most Alihotsy plantations suffering reduced production and quality from storms, this year's batch should sell for higher prices than usual.
Of course, he wouldn't merely satisfy himself with such small profits. Such high-quality Alihotsy, after purification processing, would taste absolutely exquisite. Pure-blood nobles willing to pay heavily for slight taste improvements would gladly offer even higher prices.
This way, future resource needs would be much more convenient without constantly owing the Malfoy family favours.
Additionally, current Sprout Island barely sufficed for trolls migrated from the Forbidden Forest, but he wanted to elevate Demeter's Ritual Magic to an epic level before Divine Joy Flower maturation. This might let the flower's reward directly elevate ritual magic from Epic to Legendary—saving enormous time while giving him herbology mastery comparable to masters two or three years early.
To elevate Demeter's Ritual Magic required massive faith power. Current troll-provided faith was truly too little—more troll populations needed migration. Moreover, from his previous experience, stronger individuals generated richer faith power through reverence.
Previously, Dumbledore's and several professors' momentary faith during Forbidden Forest trials directly elevated Demeter's Ritual Magic to Diamond level. If trolls' strength continued improving, naturally generated faith power would surge.
Quirrell's thesis explained how: feeding abundant Mimbulus mimbletonia, preferably configured as Memory Potions, might awaken portions of inherited memories in troll bloodlines, triggering bloodline atavism.
He estimated if this path proved viable, though most trolls wouldn't reach Troll Priest Siris's level, physical strength should greatly increase while mastering some bloodline magical abilities—not only providing more faith power but making trolls themselves formidable forces.
By the final battle, his troll army might sweep the entire Hogwarts battlefield!
Thinking this, anticipation showed on his face. But everything depended on Alihotsy harvest. Still two or three days. Can't just wait around.
Feeling the incoming heat waves, he suddenly remembered something, eyes brightening. Aunt's birthday gift—that revived Ember Fern spore. Its optimal cultivation environment was near volcanoes. The underground caverns beneath Sprout Island, where he'd discovered it, were perfect for replanting.
He removed that Ember Fern spore. Under sunlight, it sparkled with crystalline, gem-like lustre—truly unlike a plant, more like a rare worldly gem. No wonder historically, Ember Ferns were frantically sought by pure-blood nobles. This thing was indeed magnificent.
After admiring it briefly, he focused more on its provided rewards: Platinum-level Fire Enhancement. Gold-level Charm Enhancement. Plus Iron-level Gubraithian Fire insight.
All helpful rewards, especially the last—Gubraithian Fire. Though not ancient magic, few wizards throughout the magical world could master it. The most famous Gubraithian Fire user was Dumbledore himself.
Rumours said Dumbledore's most stunning magic, called Fiendfyre's Path, might closely relate to Gubraithian Fire. This alone made his gaze burn with intensity—this was Dumbledore's signature magic!
He didn't believe wizards like Dumbledore truly couldn't master ancient magic. Perhaps obtaining lightning for ancient weather magic was difficult, but other ancient magics like shadow magic—if Dumbledore wished, he could definitely learn them.
He chose otherwise, perhaps because in Dumbledore's hands, Fiendfyre's Path was no less powerful than any ancient magic—even stronger!
But besides Dumbledore, no wizard in the magical world could master Fiendfyre's Path again. Perhaps he, through Ember Fern, had some chance.
Thinking this, despite having witnessed countless wondrous magics, he couldn't suppress his heart's throbbing. After all, this was one of the most stunning magics from the Harry Potter universe!
After deep breathing to calm his emotions, he hurriedly carried the Ember Fern spore back to the underground cavern where he'd discovered it, carefully examining each soil patch. Because Ember Ferns, besides loving hot environments, required one essential nutrient during growth—various gem components.
The more gem components absorbed, the more crystalline and higher quality Ember Ferns became. Insufficient intake caused dull colouring, slow growth, or death—especially during initial spore growth when concentrated gem components in soil mattered most.
He carefully rubbed cavern soil, distinguishing components while seeking the richest gem concentration area. Surprisingly, after circling around, the most suitable planting location was precisely where the original Ember Fern had rooted—gem component concentration far exceeded other areas.
After pondering, he understood. Perhaps because that lifeless Ember Fern mother plant accumulated many gem components during growth. After losing vitality, these components returned to soil, causing this area's exceptionally high gem content. If a spore naturally fell, it could easily root and form new plants. The cycle of life continuing through death—nature's perfect design.
After slight reflection, he planted the Ember Fern spore in this soil. With his current herbology mastery, though Ember Fern spore handling wasn't simple, he completed everything with minor effort.
The spore planted in soil had already begun absorbing gem nutrients, its originally faint reward orb slowly brightening and expanding. He nodded slightly.
Generally, Ember Ferns needed about five years of absorbing sufficient gem components to enter maturity. This spore, thanks to the mother plant's soil-left gift, would complete the process in roughly two years based on current progress—saving nearly half the time.
Though still somewhat slow for him, this was unavoidable unless manually grinding various gems to powder and mixing into soil to further increase gem content, further accelerating growth—possibly even improving the plant's expression. But this process would destroy hundreds of gems to save perhaps one year at most.
Though ordinary gems in the magical world didn't hold the same value as in the non-magical world, they were definitely not common goods—many magical fields required gems. Just to save an ornamental plant one year's growth time by expending hundreds of gems—even ancient pure-blood families wouldn't do something so cost-ineffective.
After all, pure-blood family money didn't come easily. No one kept an alchemist around. Even if they did, given true alchemists' rarity and status, having them refine gems to accelerate Ember Fern growth? Preposterous!
He shook his head. Pure-blood families lacked such resources—he'd have to honestly wait two years. Fortunately, two years wasn't too long.
Just as he turned to leave the underground cavern, his gaze swept past Siris's dwelling—a massive workbench piled with various ores collected from Sprout Island and nearby waters, plus dense alchemical array patterns. Some ores showed refining traces with gleaming silver and gold light. Others had crystallised colourful, gem-like formations.
The next moment, his footsteps suddenly halted as a thought surfaced. Wait—using ground gem powder to enhance Ember Fern growth speed and appearance—pure-blood families can't afford such luxury. Probably only a true alchemist abandoning other project time could provide such nourishment. Even the Malfoy family couldn't have such conditions. But I—do!