Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 781

Chapter 778 The Giant of the Underworld and the Iron Tree of the Underworld!

Within the River Styx, waves surged, countless consciousnesses churning within; a single drop of Styx water represented countless consciousnesses.

And in this main section of the River Styx, there existed an iron tree.

Who planted it?

Locke stared at the iron tree, lost in thought.

The River Styx was so mysterious, a dangerous and perilous region even for a second-ring wizard, yet who planted such a magical plant here?

What was the purpose of this magical plant?

Locke saw countless imaginary roots emerging from the base of the magical plant. These roots spread towards the riverbed of the River Styx, taking root within it, seemingly entering the imaginary sea of the River Styx.

That was the ‘possibility’ of the River Styx.

These imaginary roots were completely different from any imaginary roots Locke had seen before; they seemed more complete, more developed. These imaginary roots were like pale brain neurons.

The surface of these imaginary roots was densely covered with root hairs, each root hair bearing a spiritual bubble.

At this moment, without the suppression of the River Styx, these spiritual bubbles began to burst one by one, and streams of spiritual light rose up, transforming into spiritual clouds. These clouds gathered together, and soon, a phantom spiritual realm resembling the [Root Realm] gradually appeared.

Locke, witnessing this, fell into deep thought.

Even with his astonishment, he had to admit that the special realm formed by the convergence of spiritual energy after the spiritual bubbles burst seemed to be the Root Realm.

The two were too similar.

“Many spell models are originally based on the physical form of magical plants, or the structure or mechanism of their natural magical energy components,”

Locke mused.

“The Witch Victoria once said that only third-circle wizards can condense a Root Realm, gathering the magical power of second-circle and first-circle wizards to form it. The main power supporting the Root Realm is the Great Magic of the second-circle wizards.”

“Perhaps she didn’t tell me that the prototype of the Root Realm is a special realm modeled after a high-level Imaginary Root, or perhaps the Root Realm is simply the ‘fruit’ harvested from a high-level Imaginary Root?”

“Of course, it’s also possible that this isn’t a ‘Root Realm’ at all.”

Locke looked at the magical plant in the River Styx and pondered, “The water of the River Styx is incredibly heavy; a second-circle wizard couldn’t possibly move it an inch, at least not in my view.”

“If it weren’t for the Crimson Deep Court’s diversion of the Huai River into the sea, I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to discover the true nature of that iron tree. So it seems that the branch of this iron tree that protrudes above the water is used to reduce the learning difficulty and casting conditions of the Ghostly Arts of the Ghostly Holy Church.”

“And the other parts of the iron tree are likely used for other things. But what are they for?”

Locke fell into deep thought. “I must seize this opportunity.”

“This undoubtedly hides a huge secret; it could be a major project.”

Locke’s eyes gleamed. If he could grasp this opportunity, perhaps this discovery could become the subject of his top-tier funded project.

His application would then have a clear direction.

Moreover, if the Ghostly Holy Cult could use this magical plant to turn it into their central server for Ghostly Magic, then as a legitimate breeder and botanical wizard, couldn’t he also utilize this magical plant?

Locke pondered, “Most likely, this magical plant was planted first, and then the founder of the Ghostly Holy Cult arrived here. Then, he used the part of the magical plant that was above the water to inscribe runes, creating a public server.”

Locke felt a sense of awe.

Who could plant a magical plant in such a terrifying Styx River?

Locke first tried to harvest the nascent special realm from the Imaginary Root. Since it was a kind of ‘fruit,’ the ‘fruit’ produced by the Imaginary Root could be harvested.

Locke first used his telekinesis to try and capture the special realm, then attempted to store it in his astral ring. However, his telekinesis passed right through the realm, making it impossible to harvest, and the astral ring also failed to contain it.

Locke frowned, then took out a second-ring sea gold sand plant. Enveloped in the spell model of “A Lone Tree Cannot Support,” the sea gold sand transformed into a fern spear and shot towards the special realm. But for some reason, even the powerful second-ring botanical magic passed directly through the realm, making it impossible to collect.

Next, Locke tried three more methods, but nothing could touch the special realm.

Locke said, “It’s like seeing the fruit but not having the right sickle to harvest it.”

“This thing is probably impossible for me to harvest right now.”

Locke’s expression was displeased; after all, the treasure was right in front of him, yet he couldn’t take it.

“Wait a minute,”

Locke realized.

“This place has already been visited by other wizards. If it were so easy to take away this special realm, the wizard who used a branch of the Styx Iron Tree would have already taken it.”

“How could it be my turn?”

“After all, the ‘fruit’ of this Imaginary Root seems extremely difficult to cultivate, requiring a long time to accumulate, not something that can be cultivated overnight.”

Locke then used the moonlight of the Evolution Moon to try to nurture the demonic plant, to see if he could incorporate it into his Evolution Moon. However, his moonlight shining on the demonic plant was like rain entering a desert, boundless rain being swallowed by boundless desert.

No matter how much ‘rain’ fell or how much moonlight was sprinkled, it had no effect whatsoever.

On the contrary, Locke discovered with a grim expression that the lunar essence he sprinkled on the demonic plant was being devoured by it, and he couldn’t retrieve it.

Yet, the demonic plant itself remained unchanged.

Locke frowned. “As expected, the fact that this demonic plant can grow in the River Styx means it either coexists harmoniously with the river or its normal defensive power surpasses the constant corrosive force it would experience while in the river.”

“Either way, it demonstrates the extraordinary nature of this demonic plant. It’s difficult to utilize.”

Locke quickly flew towards the plant, took out an ordinary grafting knife, and wanted to inscribe botanical runes on it. Some powerful tree runes might be a breakthrough to understand and utilize the plant’s power.

But the next moment, the grafting knife shattered upon impact with the iron tree.

Locke frowned. “Even the bark can’t be damaged in the slightest?”

“How did the founding wizard of the Ghostly Holy Cult leave his mark on this demonic plant?”

Locke took out the second-circle magical artifact grafting knife, [Spirit Vein Stitcher], given to him by his third senior sister, the witch Fiona. The moment the [Spirit Vein Stitcher] touched the iron tree’s bark, sparks of magic flew from its surface.

Locke felt that if he used even a little force, this second-circle magical artifact would likely be destroyed, so he didn’t dare to use too much force.

“This… this demonic plant’s normal defensive power… could it be that it’s stronger than my offensive magic?”

“Should I really try to inscribe my magical runes on its bark with offensive magic? No, that’s pointless. The damage caused by offensive magic cannot be precisely controlled, and magical rune enchanting is inherently an art that pursues precision and delicacy.”

Locke used the “Lone Tree Cannot Support” technique, riding the demonic dragon Rose to the sky, where he saw eight runes on the topmost branch. He ran his fingers over the eight runes, using archaeological magic to collect information from the negative energy particle fields on the runes to determine their age.

“It was left behind approximately five hundred years ago.”

“This wizard was most likely the founding wizard of the Ghostly Cult. There was severe magical pressure interference, making it impossible to determine whether it was a solar or lunar ring, but his magical pressure level was still within the second ring. He must have been using an extremely powerful form of necromancy at the time.”

Locke suddenly grabbed at the air.

“Got it!”

He pulled back sharply, then threw it beside him. He then cast [Historical Reenactment], and a phantom historical projection appeared beside him.

A wizard, his face obscured, dressed in an intricately patterned robe with a white bone hand symbol on his back, stood before the iron tree, raising his right hand. His necromancy seemed to be supported by an exceptionally powerful force, lifting his

immense magic high.

A black ghost fire appeared at his fingertips, and he then traced lines in the air, which automatically combined into a document.

The document was neither brocade nor silk.

He said, “Please affix your seal, Grand Chancellor; please affix your seal, Auditorium; please affix your seal, Central Minister; please affix your seal, Duke; please affix your seal, His Majesty! Please affix your seal, Overwatch Council!”

“Please issue the decree, Your Majesty!”

The next moment, six phantom seals fell simultaneously.

A cold, merciless voice rang out. “In the name of the Pale Lord, permission granted.”

Immediately, the document flew directly to the branch of the iron tree, creating a massive magical conflict.

Once the magical light subsided, four words appeared on the iron tree branch:

Illusion Shattered, Historical Recreation Spell Model Ended.

Because the magical pressure involved was too great and of too high quality, Locke could only utilize this negative energy particle field information once before it shattered, making it impossible to recreate using Historical Recreation.

However, after reading this information, Locke confirmed two points.

First, the founder of the Ghostly Holy Church five hundred years ago was likely a Moon Ring Wizard or a Sun Ring Wizard, but he possessed special magic that could obtain the Pale Lord’s seal, seemingly a special necromancy within the Pale Pilgrimage system.

Like a royal decree, this allowed him to shake the iron tree, leaving four magical rune words on it, creating the five-hundred-year history and prosperity of the Ghostly Holy Church’s ghostly studies.

Second, Locke confirmed his previous conjecture through this archaeological evidence.

Indeed, this tree appeared first.

The Pale Pilgrims were merely using this tree.

Locke fell into deep thought. The current problem was, how could he utilize this magical plant?

‘This magical plant appeared in the River Styx, which inherently has the function of gathering numerous consciousnesses. And this magical plant is located within the River Styx. If I could choose a suitable magical plant to graft onto this one…’

Locke’s heart stirred.

“Then I might be able to realize my idea of an imaginary root server.”

Although this was still just a prototype, as long as he achieved this step, his original idea, which only existed in his mind, would become a real prototype.

At this moment, a rare opportunity had presented itself. The water level in some areas of the River Styx had dropped, and he had to seize this opportunity, which was likely the only one in the near future, to complete the graft.

As long as he could complete the magical plant graft, he would essentially leave an interface on this River Styx Iron Tree. Even if the water level of the River Styx recovered and submerged the iron tree again, he could still use the grafted magical plant belonging to his own ecosystem to indirectly utilize the iron tree and further explore it.

But the problem now was, he couldn’t even break through its defenses, so how could he complete the graft?

He didn’t have any imperial decree!

Locke frowned. To make matters worse, he looked up and saw a giant standing in the sky above the River Styx. The giant was so tall and large, seemingly far away,

that Locke couldn’t make out its features.

The giant seemed to be looking down at him, its voice booming.

‘Addison, Kruger, you two are in charge of section 7265 of the River Styx. Why is the water level rising in this section, even flooding the surrounding areas?’

‘Very well, let me calm the waters here.’

The giant stretched out its enormous hand.

At that moment, Locke realized that perhaps in the giant’s eyes, both he and the Crimson Deep Court were merely wisps of consciousness within the River Styx’s channels.

No different.

The enormous hand descended from the gray clouds, a terrifying magical pressure enveloping him, even causing the Moon of Evolution to sink. This immense pressure also suppressed the ceaseless flow of the River Styx and parted the Crimson Abyss from the River Styx.

Locke felt the immense pressure and knew that if he didn’t act, the waters of the River Styx here would be suppressed, the water level would return, and he would no longer have such a good opportunity to study this Styx Iron Tree in the short term. Locke

gritted his teeth.

Wait a minute, the progenitor wizard of the Ghostly Holy Cult has the Great Lord’s decree, but he also has the Beast Panel!

At this moment, Locke’s eyes flashed with a fierce light, and primordial runes appeared in the tiger eye on his forehead.

The Beast Panel greatly enhanced Locke’s magic, instantly raising the magical pressure of his Moon of Evolution from 16,000 to 19,000.

The Beast Panel could increase his magical pressure by 3,000 points out of thin air!

Using a Greater Spell would amplify the magical pressure of his clone, but this would prevent his main body from directly using Greater Spells.

Since he only had one Greater Spell, only one main body could use it at a time,

unless he possessed two .

At that moment, Locke also performed a ritual incantation, offering two oak leaves as a sacrifice.

Then, Locke borrowed power from the Emerald Dream.

The Emerald Dream’s power was earned through completing quests, and could be overdrawn to a certain extent, but repaid later in the Emerald Sleep.

Therefore, Locke directly overdrawn all the remaining power the Emerald Dream could provide.

He then applied the resulting mana and the plant enlargement mechanism to the Second Ring Fern Spear.

Holding the Fern Spear, Locke intended to use it as a grafting tool to forcibly cut a V-shaped incision in the ironwood tree and plant his Shadow Fern there!

The Time-Shadow Fern is the core of his own Evolution Month’s ecological community, possessing numerous mature imaginary roots, unlike the second-ring magical plants he cultivated, which only have one imaginary root.

He currently possesses only four magical plants suitable for grafting: one Dragon Rose, one Time-Shadow Fern, one Golden Peach Tree, and one Pinellia ternata!

The Golden Peach Tree needs to be paired with the Peach Arch Thorn Arrow, while the Demonic Dragon Rose is deeply related to its own Demonic Dragon bloodline, and the Half Summer is related to the succession of generations. Therefore, only the Time Shadow Fern is most suitable to be grafted onto the branch of that Underworld Iron Tree!

(End of this chapter)