Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 852

Chapter 848 The Southern Gold’s Appeal and Reactivation: The Feathered Serpent Pavilion’s Heavenly Ladder

After some thought, Locke decided to accept the friend request.

Soon, the other party sent him a message with a detailed introduction to the Southern Gold journal. Locke read it briefly and found that it was a journal established only ten years ago, currently only having a second-ring section, no first-ring section.

Moreover, although it was a journal about gold magic, according to Locke’s observation, it wasn’t just talking about gold magic, but was constantly shifting towards necromancy.

This left Locke speechless.

Soon, the other party sent him a message—’Hello, I am Solanas Mortes Moon Ring Wizard from the End Gardens. It’s a pleasure to contact such an excellent archaeologist as you, with in-depth research on gold magic. Our Southern Gold is committed to helping young talents achieve higher status and greater academic achievements.’

‘We, Southern Gold, hope to cooperate with you. We noticed that you recently participated in the Little Rest Cup and the Gold Cup, and you should have many articles to publish, so we invite you to publish your articles in our Southern Gold.’ “

Out of support for young people and the support of the White Wizards’ Association of Southern Wizarding Capital for our work, the chances of your articles on archaeology and gold magic being accepted by our journal, *Southern Gold*, will be significantly lower.”

Locke was taken aback, because he hadn’t expected the Moon Ring Archmage to directly invite him.

He was even more surprised that the Archmage would explicitly state that his submission to *Southern Gold* would have a higher chance of acceptance,

using this method to entice him to submit.

“It seems the Holy Wizards’ Court of Southern Wizarding Capital is relatively weak, and the White Wizards’ Association, like the Six Towers, is controlled by certain groups. Otherwise, this Moon Ring Archmage would never dare to send me this kind of content on our first meeting,” Locke

pondered.

Sometimes, the reason for speaking vaguely is because one cannot judge the other party’s position, so as not to give them an opportunity to seize on one’s words.

Therefore, when speaking, one can only be ambiguous.

The fact that this Grand Wizard of the Moon Ring was so direct suggested that either all wizards in the Southern Wizarding Capital were naive and straightforward, or they were simply fearless.

The latter seemed more likely.

Soon, this wizard, Solanas Mortes, sent him a message: “Of course, this won’t affect the academic honor of our *Southern Gold* journal at all. You can take a look at the list of contributors to our recently accepted articles; you’ll find a high degree of overlap with *The Boundary*.”

“Because only young talents we favor receive the privilege of a reduced acceptance threshold. And these people already possess the ability to publish in journals of the same level; they’ve all been selected.”

Locke glanced at the two lists sent, his lips twitching slightly.

Good heavens, this wasn’t just a high degree of overlap; one might think *Southern Gold* and *The Boundary* were from the same company.

One list for *The Boundary*, one for *Southern Gold*, right?

Locke never expected that there was such a thing as journal plagiarism.

Locke replied, “I’m honored to receive the invitation from *Southern Gold*. However, I’ve recently set my goals, and I’ll submit suitable articles to *Southern Gold* in the future.”

After weighing the options, Locke still didn’t decide to make *Southern Gold* his first choice.

It was simple.

If he had any articles related to golden magical plants, why wouldn’t he publish them in *Southern Gold*, the most reputable journal, instead of the highly authoritative *Intersection of All Things*?

Besides, he already possessed the skill to lower the acceptance threshold for *Intersection of All Things*.

However, he couldn’t be too certain.

He might consider publishing in *Southern Gold* in the future; after all, it’s a Zone 1 journal, and if he had suitable articles later, he could certainly submit them there.

For an ordinary second-circle wizard, publishing in a Zone 1 journal was a significant boost to his qualifications.

Wizard Solanas Mortes seemed to have sensed that Locke was considering *Southern Gold* as a backup plan, so after Locke’s reply, he didn’t send any further messages for a long time.

Locke waited a while, and seeing that he hadn’t received another message, he summoned three second-class wizard apprentice waiters from the Witch’s Kitchen, asking them to carry his three crystallized wizard friends into the quiet room of the Witch’s Kitchen to rest.

After arranging everything, Locke walked to the entrance of the Witch’s Kitchen, when suddenly a snowflake fell from above his head.

Locke stretched out his palm, and the snowflake landed quietly on his hand.

He looked up and saw that it was snowing heavily.

What was going on?

Wasn’t it spring?

At this moment, some wizard customers in the Witch’s Kitchen were whispering among themselves.

“It’s happening again. There must be a problem along the Tianjiang River near the Three Swamps. Could it be that the Tianjiang River is in trouble again?”

“It’s hard to say. Judging from the looks of it, the Tianjiang River’s flood season is approaching, causing the elements in several nearby wizarding lands to become unbalanced, resulting in the chaos of the seasons and heavy snow falling in all directions.”

At this moment, a third sun appeared in the sky, and Locke clearly felt the magical tide in the air become even stronger.

Moreover, this time it wasn’t just a matter of the magic tide concentration gradient increasing by one level; it increased by at least two or three levels.

Locke noticed that after the magic tide concentration gradient rose, all the root realms floating above the magic tide in the Cloud Marsh Wetland also rose accordingly.

With the rise of the various root realms, the ultimate magic of the wizards attached to those root realms also increased.

Locke even sensed that his own magical power was increasing out of thin air.

Even though he hadn’t changed at all, he seemed to have been strengthened again.

Locke looked at the three suns in the sky and felt as if the sun was shining brightly on him, three heavenly fires constantly scattering sunlight onto the earth.

The Starfield Sea’s magic ascension plan had taken another step forward!

But the next moment, what had been just a few drifting snowflakes suddenly fell like an avalanche.

A wizard in the witch’s kitchen, clearly from out of town, seemingly from the Tianjiang River, suddenly changed his expression and stood up abruptly.

“The magical tide concentration is rising far too fast. There must be something wrong with the magically sealed dikes along the Tianjiang River. The Tianjiang River has collapsed; the [Tianjiang Flood] is coming.”

Many wizards began to whisper among themselves.

“Is the Demon Winter coming again?”

“Oh no, the last Demonic Winter was a hundred years ago. The young people these days have no idea how terrifying it is.”

“If Demonic Winter comes, won’t we have to search for [Firewood] again?”

Locke consulted the data through the Water Hyacinth System and discovered that the Heavenly River is the most powerful magical river in the world, extremely complex, and its existence cannot be explained by a single cause.

Its constituent forces are incredibly complex, each section of the river is different, it can be said to encompass everything.

The Heavenly River runs through the Eastern, Central, and Western Boundaries, a magical river shared by all three.

The Heavenly River has seven major tributaries and three lakes, with Cloud Lake being the largest.

Among the seven major tributaries is the [Heavenly Cold River], located in the Wizarding Lands along the Heavenly River.

The Heavenly Cold River is extremely cold, possessing very complex ice elemental magical power within, making it a river of ice elemental water.

This river of ice elemental magical energy is usually relatively stable, but if an accident occurs, it may burst its banks.

Ten thousand years ago, during a wizarding war, the weaker side attempted to turn the tide by breaching the banks of the Frost River. However, their plan backfired, and the destruction of the riverbanks caused the Frost River to change course, initiating a ten-thousand-year history of recurring floods in what was once a perfectly stable tributary of the Frost River.

Even after magically sealing the river to create levees, financial constraints prevented a complete eradication of the problem.

With each subsequent increase in the sealing magic, the levees rose higher, and the Frost River has remained stable for a century. Many wizards believed the problem was solved and no longer needed to unseal the river or dredge its course.

But who could have imagined that today, the third rise in the overall magical tidal concentration gradient of the fifty-three wizarding lands in the Eastern Boundary Sea would cause the Frost River to breach its banks for the first time in a century?

Snowflakes fluttered in the sky. The collapse of the Tianhan River would trigger a chain reaction.

The entire Eastern Boundary would likely suffer a massive snow disaster.

Spring would turn into a harsh winter.

Food supplies would dwindle, and various other aspects of life would be affected.

The Tianhan River had another name—the Jingzhao River—representing its boundless magical energy.

As long as the Tianhan River’s banks remained unrepaired, this endless snow disaster would engulf most of the Eastern Boundary and continue to spread, even reaching other regions.

In the witch’s kitchen, a wizard slapped his forehead.

“Oh no! My recent research topic was tropical magical creatures, the Flame Whirlwind Snail. Those snails have extremely high temperature requirements. What am I going to do now? The Tianhan River has collapsed; my snails will likely die overnight.”

Someone suggested, “Build a greenhouse?”

The summoning wizard looked on with grief and indignation.

“Where would I get the money?”

“Do you expect me to borrow money from the bank for a few snails?!”

“I have to change my research topic. I finally managed to cultivate five Flame Whirlwind Snails and was about to continue my research, and now, everything’s wiped out. Damn snow disaster, damn Tianjiang Riverbank, damn Starfield Sea.”

But there was also a liquefied wizard in the Witch’s Kitchen, who stood up excitedly.

“Haven’t you all noticed that it’s become easier for us to advance?”

“Before, I thought I would need another twenty or thirty years to become a crystallized wizard. But now, I’m so close to becoming a crystallized wizard.”

Locke glanced at the Witch’s Kitchen. The Starfield Sea’s magic ascension plan had already caused a lot of chaos. Some were sad, some were happy, some gained benefits, and some lost benefits.

But no matter what, the Starfield Sea didn’t seem to be changing its plans.

Locke looked at the Ganoderma lucidum plant and found that the Cloud Marsh Council had issued an emergency proposal—should they fund the repair of the Tianhan River along the Tianjiang Riverbank?

Over two hundred votes were cast instantly next to the options of providing funding and rejecting funding, and the number was still growing.

Locke thought for a moment and chose to vote for “provide funding.”

The reason was simple.

The project along the Tianjiang River had recently been secured by Golden Crown Mountain, apparently through its internal academic committee, and the one primarily responsible for it… happened to be his own academic lineage.

That is, the academic lineage of the Red Dragon Throne.

Therefore, the lineage most affected by the collapse of the Tianhan River was likely his own.

In other words, he had been caught in the crossfire.

This was an undeserved disaster,

Locke thought.

Meanwhile, at the Rose Council, Hades Sun Ring Wizard, who was in charge, immediately looked displeased upon discovering the breach of the Tianhan River, a tributary of the Tianjiang River. He and the Rose Council had some properties and assets along the Tianjiang River.

Now, these assets were about to depreciate.

Wait…

Hades Wizard suddenly smiled.

“However, most of the projects along the Tianjiang River are currently located at Golden Crown Mountain. Hahaha… Although we also suffered considerable losses, I only lost the equivalent of 100, while Golden Crown Mountain lost 300.”

He laughed for a while, then stopped, shaking his head slightly.

“What a foolish self-comforting thought I have. As a Sun Ring Wizard or White Wizard, it’s truly inappropriate for me to have such a foolish idea. Even if it’s only a loss of one point of property, it’s still unacceptable.”

“Ideally, we should not lose a single point of property, and only my enemies should lose property.”

“Therefore, we still need to fund the restoration of the Tianhan River along the Tianjiang River. The breach of the Tianhan River’s banks is no joke. The Calamity of the Demon Winter will summon those beings from beyond the heavens who are eager to cause trouble in the wizarding world. Those Dark Wizards, those Disc Creatures.”

“It must be resolved as soon as possible.”

…

Locke’s clone was about to return to his dormitory. He was planning to visit the long-missed Feathered Serpent Pavilion recently.

Because he had complete information on becoming a Second Ring Breeder, and the unique inheritance of the witch Catherine.

But he didn’t have any Second Ring inheritance related to potions, those truly high-quality inheritances.

Locke had previously asked people to search for magical inheritances, but they only found some subpar, low-quality ones.

Therefore, he planned to go to the Feathered Serpent Pavilion to see if they could offer him any help.

And if necessary, he could restart the Ladder of Truth test.

He wondered what connection the Feathered Serpent Pavilion’s Ladder of Truth had with the Ladder of Truth.

Just as Locke was about to leave, Solanas Mortes Moonring Wizard from the Southern Gold Society suddenly messaged him.

‘Perhaps our Southern Gold Society could commission an article from you.’

‘Wizard Augustine, you seem to be searching for inheritances related to second-circle archaeology. Our Southern Wizarding Capital has a copy of the Black and White Tome.’

Locke, who had been nonchalant, suddenly became serious.

There were only a thousand copies of the Black and White Tome, not counting those lost in history.

But this person said that the Southern Gold Society could access one?

Was it true?

A trap?

Locke sent a message.

‘Could I borrow the Black and White Tome once?’

Solanas Mortes Moonring Wizard replied immediately.

“That black and white grimoire is the private property of the White Wizards’ Association’s public library in the Southern Wizarding Capital, which is also the library of the Wizarding Capital. It cannot be borrowed according to regulations. However, we have a special agreement with that library and can obtain a small number of rubbings from it.” “

That library is actually managed by a wizarding university. Our White Wizards’ Association in the Southern Wizarding Capital is somewhat special. The predecessor of this White Wizards’ Association was a very large, multi-functional wizarding university.”

“Wizard Augustine, as long as you submit your work to us, I can try my best to get you that rubbing.”

Locke narrowed his eyes.

(End of Chapter)