Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems - Chapter 936

Chapter 931: Submitting an Application for Special Funding and Receiving It as a Timeline!

At this moment, both high-ranking demons reacted. In their eyes, a Beholder Lord or Beholder Elder was attacking them. The Beholder race had always been the weakest among the Abyss Demon races in terms of combat strength at the same level.

Therefore, the two high-ranking demons were not afraid at all.

The high-ranking Torture Demon was even unafraid of the challenge, raising a large sword in its right hand and slashing at Locke. The Torture Demon race was strong in terms of physical strength, and the high-ranking Torture Demon, as a second-ring creature, had reached an incredible level of physical composition.

Locke recalled a statement from an article he had casually read, namely that the difference between Abyss Demons and Hell Demons was that Hell Demons were like templates; whatever the devils who ruled Hell created, Hell Demons produced.

The Abyss is different; it’s chaotic and disordered, and the power it produces is unpredictable. The Torture Demons are a race skilled in melee combat; their physical density is incredibly high, giving them an advantage in both attack and defense. Their magical pressure stems from this.

The other demon, a Barto Hell Demon, had soul fire burning on his ram horns, and his body was covered in parchment scrolls and contracts—the result of his misdeeds across the various planes of the endless void. The

burning soul fire provided him with boundless power.

He wielded a mechanical greatsword, the soul fire seemingly powering it, causing the gears on the hilt to spin rapidly under the vapor of the soul fire.

He swung the soul sword at Locke.

Both demons had magical pressures slightly over ten thousand, around eleven thousand.

In other words, they were evenly matched.

Now, as the two attacked Locke simultaneously, just as the high-level torture demon and the high-level devil slashed at him, a golden tree appeared behind Locke. The spirits on the Tree of Prosperity transformed into golden phantom leaves, falling one by one forward. A Spring Prosperity Fruit hung from the tree. Locke reached out and plucked the fruit, instantly enveloped by the power of miracles.

The two high-level demons were stunned. A fruit?

The next moment, sixty Great Azure Leaf Dragon Sparrows appeared like sixty bluebirds. Locke had developed a habit of using Great Azure Leaf Dragon Sparrows in formation to attack others, so he had increased his usual ten Great Azure Leaf Dragon Sparrows to thirty.

Simultaneously and precisely controlling thirty was his limit, but because the magical plants replicated using Spring Prosperity were mirror images of the original versions, controlling the original magical plant was equivalent to controlling the others.

At this moment, thirty Great Azure Leaf Dragonbirds each coiled around a high-ranking demon, bypassing their swinging greatswords. They wrapped their tails around the demons’ arms and simultaneously unleashed their dragon might upon both demons. The

immense dragon might descended upon them, stunning both demons for a second with a mental shock.

It was a pity Locke hadn’t yet modified these Great Azure Leaf Dragonbirds with Attila’s Lightning Enchantment; otherwise, this instant would have caused even greater damage.

The two high-ranking demons were lifted up by the flock of Great Azure Leaf Dragonbirds and flown into the sky.

The next moment, the two high-ranking demons broke free from the mental shock of the collective dragon might. Enraged, they were about to retaliate, but Locke raised the Sky-Piercing Jujube in his hand and swept it towards the two high-ranking demons.

The enormous, towering jujube tree slammed heavily onto them. Its weight, enough to support a pillar of the world, equivalent to the weight of a small world, crashed down on the two. The high-level torture demon’s chest cracked with the sound of bones breaking, while the high-level hell demon fared even worse; Locke shattered its two ram horns, and the entire high-level demon was sent flying by a single blow!

The vampire demon behind Locke was stunned.

Was this still an Eye Demon? Had

the Eye Demon race become so terrifying?

How could the Eye Demon he had attached himself to simultaneously beat up both a high-level hell demon and a high-level abyss demon? What kind of being was he attached to?

The two high-level demons crawled up from the void, coughing. Their eyes were glazed over, having just been collectively beaten.

Where did this Eye Demon come from?

Were Eye Demons this powerful?

The high-level torture demon roared angrily, sending the large blue-leaf dragon sparrows flying.

Born from cruelty, this demon could not tolerate such humiliation. Like a locomotive, he charged towards Locke, discarding his weapon and roaring as he charged, intending to smash Locke into mincemeat.

After all, his physical strength was immense.

In a simple contest of strength, Locke had no chance!

But the moment this high-level torture demon stepped onto the ground, a historical reenactment spell scanned his body. He paused, nothing happened, and then charged at Locke like a bull, smashing even the mountain between them.

The high-level demon, however, had a glint in his eye. After untying the numerous Azure Leaf Dragon Sparrow tails binding him, he determined that Locke was the greatest threat and immediately decided to cooperate with the Abyss Demon.

He drew upon the soul flame energy from the maximum number of souls he had signed in his soul contracts, then infused the gear greatsword in his hand with hellfire. Empowered by the hellfire, the greatsword began a series of transformations.

The gear greatsword, through the rotation and shifting of mechanical gears, transformed into a dog!

The mechanical dog lunged at Locke, its jaws snapping at Locke’s head, intent on killing him.

The high-ranking demon commander looked at the mechanical dog in confusion as it leaped into the air, seemingly scanned by something.

Steam continuously spewed from the dog’s back as it accelerated, charging towards Locke.

Locke looked at the mechanical dog.

‘Hmm? The endless void truly holds many wondrous phenomena. The hellfire seems to possess the power to activate inanimate matter; the more soul power burned, the stronger its activation ability. He burned a massive amount of soul power at once, and his gear sword transformed into this gear dog.’

‘Could it be that the demonic hell follows the path of mechanical civilization? This is truly a hellish joke.’ Locke

knew that facing the combined attack of the two was his most dangerous moment.

Locke did not retreat a step.

After being used twice, the Sky-Supporting Jujube spell, due to its imperfections in its model, could no longer be used for a short time, shrinking to the size of a matchstick in his palm, like a tiny succulent.

An Evolutionary Moon appeared behind him, shining upon the Tree of Prosperity; the two formed a mutually supportive ecosystem, and Locke’s magical pressure suddenly intensified.

The moonlight of the Evolution Moon poured into the Tree of Prosperity, which then stretched out two massive hands, one pressing down on the mechanical dog’s head, and the other on the head of the charging High-Rank Torture Demon. The enormous Tree of

Prosperity was suddenly struck by a tremendous impact.

Under the illumination of the Evolution Moon, the Tree of Prosperity displayed what Locke and the wizard Edgar had only been able to achieve through their combined efforts during the Silent Holy Grail War.

The Tree of Prosperity’s roots dug into the earth, but its powerful arms gripped the two figures.

The next moment, it flung the mechanical dog away, then grabbed the most threatening High-Rank Torture Demon with both hands, lifted him from the ground, and threw him towards the high-ranking demon.

This process consumed a huge amount of Locke’s magic power.

At that instant, Locke suddenly stretched out his right hand, aiming at the two demons.

“Borrow a moment from the past.”

The twenty Historical Auras on his body resonated, and then two Historical Reappearances appeared. From the Historical Reappearance spell model emerged a mechanical dog and a High-Rank Torture Demon from the past.

Because these twenty historical auras enhanced his historical reenactment, he was able to collect the enemy’s negative energy particle field during battle and summon their past selves to attack him.

At this moment, the advanced torture demon charged and crashed into the devil, while the devil’s mechanical dog bit the advanced torture demon that had been severely injured by the Prosperity Treant.

The two most powerful killing moves of the two demon races struck the two of them respectively.

The next moment, the two demons were killed by each other at the same time.

They were both victors, but they were both dead, and both were losers.

Locke waved his hand, and instantly the Moon of Evolution and the Prosperity Treant disappeared, and the Great Azure Leaf Dragon Sparrow also automatically flew back to the Forest Sanctuary. At the same time, a bronze cauldron fell from mid-air!

He had just unleashed all his power and finally managed to kill the two of them at the same time with each other’s killing moves.

At this moment, Locke looked up at the sky and saw that the floating continent of the entire Evil Chessboard seemed to be reacting in some special way. The entire land was like data about to be deleted, in a state of half-illusion and half-real.

The light of victory, which should have belonged to the victor, failed to choose anyone.

Both were victors, yet neither was.

This caused a shift in the entire Evil Chessboard plane, forcing it to explain what had happened. The independent plane’s unique characteristics were a privilege of every plane joining the Endless Abyss.

On this point, the Evil Chessboard plane, a plane with the scale of a great world, could not back down.

It had to maintain its privileges within the Endless Abyss!

Therefore, it did one thing: it attempted to choose two high-ranking demons and reignite the battle.

The evil light, formed from the plane’s power, tried to choose the two demons, but Locke had just placed their corpses into his bronze cauldron.

The Evil Chessboard plane made a final effort—

to use the evil light to choose the two corpses, perhaps even attempting something like resurrection. But the problem was, Locke directly…refined the two demon corpses, intending to refine them into a zero-cost potion on the spot!

Locke, desperate to save his clone, had gone mad.

He didn’t care about the consequences; he just wanted to disrupt things first!

At this moment, the dimensional power of the Evil Chessboard Plane completely missed its target.

In that instant, the Evil Chessboard Plane went into chaos, and thus began to continuously copy the continent beneath Locke’s feet. Locke saw that this continent was directly copied into a second one, and it was exactly the same as the plane he had broken in two.

Then, the two continents began to copy into four continents, the four continents began to copy into eight continents, the eight continents copied into sixteen continents…

The speed was extremely fast, because the Evil Chessboard Plane Plane seemed to want to solve this problem quickly, and as a great world, it possessed extremely powerful forces, so powerful that copying a few continents was as easy as drinking water or eating.

This sub-plane under the Endless Abyss was inherently quite flawed.

Now that Locke had discovered its flaws, in less than half an hour, nearly ten thousand continents had been copied.

The next minute, ten thousand continents became twenty thousand continents.

Another minute passed, twenty thousand continents became forty thousand continents.

Then another minute passed, forty thousand continents became eighty thousand continents.

Locke calculated that after 20 seconds, the 80,000 continents had become 160,000 continents.

In other words, the Evil Chessboard considered this a small problem to have become a much larger one, and thus injected dimensional power, resulting in an increased replication speed.

“Truly a Great World,”

Locke said. “The power of this plane is outrageous; even a second-ring wizard is but a drop in the ocean compared to it. However, the logical flaw I found is correct. The Abyss is inherently chaotic, and it seems there are quite a few flaws in the plane here.”

At this moment, the continents were being replicated more and more, and the vampire demon behind him was completely dumbfounded.

Because the continents were being replicated so much, the gaps in the Dark Abyss space separating the chessboard continents were being filled by the continuously replicating continents, closing in until there were no gaps left.

It became a single continent.

The high-ranking members of both sides of the demon race were stunned, and the ordinary demons had no idea what was happening.

What was going on?

Several third-ring fire demons on the Abyss demon side discussed among themselves.

“It seems like a beholder is behind this. He seems to have exploited a loophole in this world, creating chaos. If this continues, we’ll all be crushed to death by these continents.”

“He’s smashed the chessboard. We were about to lose, but this beholder helped us turn the tide.”

“How come that beholder seems even smarter than the Abyss Wolf Demon? Isn’t the Wolf Demon the smartest race in the Abyss now? Should we change our strategist?”

Meanwhile, the high-ranking demon commanders discussed for a while.

“That’s not a beholder at all! Are all those Abyss demons blind? Isn’t he humanoid? He’s a wizard!”

“Wizards are truly ruthless. We wasted so much time with those demons, and he just arrived and paralyzed level 445.”

One of the high-ranking demon commanders’ expressions changed.

“We don’t have much soul power left; we were about to lose.”

“Who knew we’d run into such a madman? Those activating the teleportation array, be careful not to let that wizard enter our Bathor Hell!”

a demon commander suggested. “Open a separate teleportation array for him to the wizarding world! That way he won’t get entangled with us!”

“I reckon he’ll definitely come with us into Hell. Since Hell has nine levels, and this is the 445th level of the Abyss, leaving from Hell will be easier for him than leaving from the Abyss. Following us into Hell will give him a better chance of escape.”

At this moment, Locke looked towards the direction of the demon legion. Because he had disrupted the evil chessboard plane, causing the planes to merge seamlessly, he no longer needed to follow any rules and could directly go to the demon legion’s headquarters.

Locke watched the demon legion members setting up the teleportation array.

His eyes brightened slightly; indeed, disrupting the situation made it easier to find a turning point.

If there was no opportunity, create one!

He had previously guessed that since the demons could suddenly appear deep in the Abyss, they must have mastered teleportation technology. Therefore, he only needed to leave with them.

Even if the destination is Hell, it doesn’t matter.

The reason is that Hell only has nine levels!

Although the hope of leaving is slim, it’s still better than this ridiculous abyss. And if the rules of Hell are different from the abyss, perhaps the situation where his consciousness is currently compressed into a body by the power of the abyss will change.

So, no matter what, he has to try.

Locke was surprised to find that the demons of Hell didn’t stop him from approaching.

Hmm?

At this moment, his attraction to the abyss seemed to have reached its peak. Endless abyssal power was converging towards him, and some of his actions seemed to resonate with the chaotic nature of the abyss.

The abyss kept trying to suggest to him that he was the child of chaos.

He was chaos itself.

He possessed powerful chaotic power.

If he nodded, the next moment, countless chaotic forces would surge towards him, demonizing him into a high-level demon.

Countless abyssal forces converged towards him.

The endless abyss kept extending invitations to Locke, almost going mad.

Locke’s actions had earned him the full attention of the abyss’s world will, which had resolved to make him a demon god.

But Locke refused.

“What a joke!”

Locke was terrified, remembering the high-level torture demon from earlier.

“The power of the Abyss really does make people lose their intelligence. No one wants to stay here and go crazy with these brainless idiots. Besides, staying here would mean switching power systems. That’s too much of a loss. And while the Abyss hasn’t lied before, it’s inherently chaotic. Expecting it to deliver on its promises is like expecting to win the lottery every day.”

Locke watched as the hellish demons used their soul fire to infuse dozens of enormous mechanical snakes around them. These snakes were made of complex gears, which clicked and clacked as they turned and meshed. Hellfire, like steam, propelled the gears, pistons, and eccentric shafts…

The snakes’ eyes emitted hellfire.

Then, these mechanical snakes began to rotate around the hellish demons.

They spun faster and faster, and because the 445th plane had completely collapsed, the abyssal demons were now eager to leave. Many scattered abyssal demons had already escaped to the 446th plane through the dimensional portals.

The planes below the 444th plane were not affected by those high-ranking demons.

Locke saw that the hellish mechanical snakes that were frantically spinning and crawling around the demon legion seemed to have opened up some kind of other-dimensional power, and an even more evil world opened up at the center of their rotation.

“Hmm? The path behind that little snake isn’t to the hellish world, but to the wizarding world.”

Locke looked at a mechanical snake as tall as a person among the dozens of other mechanical snakes. That mechanical snake was circling a center, leaving behind hellfire in its wake, although the fire circles it created were relatively small.

In the sea of fire, Locke vaguely saw a being with horns on its head and wearing a crown, who gestured for him to leave.

‘Is the commander behind this demon legion asking him to leave?’ Locke

was somewhat surprised, because according to his original plan, he would probably need to venture into Hell, and then, with some effort, consider it a transfer to return to the Wizarding World.

He hadn’t expected the Hell demons, worthy of their reputation as Orderly Demons, to have directly opened a door to the Wizarding World for him.

Wait a minute.

Locke instantly realized that the demons had likely made recent technological advancements, their civilization having leaped forward; they had actually mastered teleportation technology that allowed them to travel to any region at any time—this was truly astonishing.

At least in the information he had previously encountered, there was no mention of the Hell demon legions in the Endless Void possessing this level of technology.

All he knew was that Hell was essentially a unified legion commanded by several high-ranking demons.

However, due to infighting among these high-ranking demons, this disciplined and terrifying legion had been largely inactive for a long time.

Locke recalled reading in a popular science book on archaeology that, according to archaeological wizards, the early Hell civilization had invaded the wizarding world. The decline of the Imperial Age was suspected to be related to this invasion, as the various relics left by the Hell Legion in the wizarding world appeared around the end of the Imperial Age and the beginning of the Age of Stars. Furthermore

, the Hell Legion appeared quite frequently in the early part of the Age of Stars.

This was because the void coordinates of the Hell Legion were not very far from those of the wizarding world.

Unlike the vast void distance between the Abyss and the wizarding world, Hell was physically quite close to the wizarding world.

However, starting from the middle of the Age of Stars, the Hell Legion suddenly disappeared from the wizarding world.

Some archaeologists speculate that if the Hell Legion had suddenly invaded during the Dark Ages, the weakest period in the Wizarding World, the Wizarding World might not even exist.

But why did the Hell Legion disappear from the middle of the Age of Stars in the Wizarding World?

The reason is simple.

The Grand Commander, who was originally at the top of the Hell Legion—the Demon Grand Commander—suddenly disappeared.

Locke, manipulating the Demon Dragon Rose, arrived before the small mechanical snake that the Demon Legion had left for him. At this moment, a wisp of soul fire fell towards Locke, and in mid-air, the hellfire condensed into a red six-pointed star, which landed in Locke’s hand.

“This is… a record…”

“A record of this scene…”

Locke held the hellish six-pointed star in his palm and immediately realized that this was an item from Hell used to store images, given to him by the high-ranking Demon Commander, who knew he hadn’t brought his advanced True Sight Crystal Ball, so that he could bring this scene back to the Wizarding World and incorporate it into his writing.

Locke surmised that if he submitted this to the second-ring, first-district journal of the Siming Waters Wizarding Land, a region in the Eastern Boundary that frequently clashed with Hell, it might get accepted.

Of course, this might require a bit of luck, since he had never had a manuscript accepted in Siming Waters.

Therefore, he didn’t have any hidden trust benefits there.

Thus, he would most likely only get one accepted journal in the second-ring, second-district. After all, he only had these scenes, no data collection. You can’t cook without rice; with just this, he couldn’t write anything brilliant.

“The Hell Demons are truly Hell Demons; they’re so good at bribing people.”

“Knowing I wanted to write an article, they even gave me crucial data, making me feel embarrassed to even try.”

Locke nodded at the high-ranking third-ring demon in the flames not far away.

The high-ranking demon said, “I’ve heard that people in your world love trading. People in our world love trading too. Wizard, this commander is very grateful for your sudden appearance and help. This Hell Hexagram is a gift from me, and I’ll help you leave the Abyss.”

“It’s an equal exchange.”

Locke, hands behind his back, looked at the convoy protected by the demons amidst the flames. The convoy was filled with life-sized cubes of stone, each face seemingly covered in runes.

It seemed to be a special way for the demons of Hell to transport supplies.

Locke realized that these must be some kind of treasure, something the demons of Hell risked everything to venture into the deepest abyss to retrieve.

Locke looked at the ring of fire the demons had prepared for him.

‘Hell is also eyeing the Wizarding World. Now that Hell’s civilization has advanced, mastering teleportation technology that’s considered extravagant even in the void, they’ve essentially traded muskets for cannons. I reckon they’ll attack the Wizarding World someday.’ “

The methods they used in the abyss this time could very well become the weapons they use to attack the wizarding world next time,”

Locke pondered. “Therefore…”

“If I don’t steal their supplies, it’ll be an injustice. No choice, if I don’t go to hell, who will? Looks like I have to go after them today!”

Locke threw the empty bottle of potion into the sea of fire, confirming that the bottle could safely pass through the flames and truly enter the wizarding world.

This wasn’t a trap set by the demons.

The next moment, his figure suddenly began to disintegrate like an ink painting, the afterimage of Ling Hong appearing as a wisp of green smoke drifting from Locke’s body.

At the same time, a demon from hell cried out in panic, “A box of supplies is missing!”

“That vicious wizard did it!”

Locke picked up a stone block from the supply wagon and ran, his figure weaving through the demon army, who frantically attacked Locke.

But they only hit Ling Hong’s clone, missing their target.

The demons from hell were enraged.

“He ran towards the direction of the Abyss Demons.”

“No, that’s an illusion, you’re mistaken. He’s already entered the Hellfire portal…”

At this moment, Locke’s true form jumped directly into the portal. He looked back and saw that the high-ranking third-ring demon’s Hellfire had summoned a mechanical dinosaur that lunged at him. The mechanical dinosaur was like a cosmic steel fortress, its movement causing the heavens and earth to tremble, accompanied by the thunderous sound of mechanical bearings meshing.

Only because he jumped into the Hellfire portal in time did the mechanical dinosaur miss its target.

A demon commander looked at the supreme commander and said, “Damn it, that wizard escaped with one of our Hell’s Time Stones. We already gave him benefits, but he still stole a Hell treasure. That damned wizard, thankfully we didn’t let him into Hell. Commander, our earlier judgment was correct.”

“Commander, now another Time Stone has fallen into the hands of the Nightmare Legion, what should we do?”

The high-ranking demon commander looked at the group of Abyss Demons not far away, still glaring at them, seemingly thinking that they, the Hell Demons, had just persecuted a Beholder among the Abyss Demons.

He raised his right hand.

“It’s alright, it’s just a Timestone. Timestones have the special effect of accelerating time. If a wizard gets his hands on it, he’ll definitely use it. Let that wizard use it. As long as we don’t pursue it further, he’ll use it directly without leaving any future trouble. That wizard is very close to becoming a Star Ring Wizard; what he needs most right now is to accelerate time.”

“Now transport these Timestones to Bathor Hell.”

“Our only enemy now is the Abyss. Don’t cause trouble.”

Under his command, the demon army began to move and began to retreat in an orderly manner.

As representatives of the Order side, the Demon Legion obeyed orders without question, and even their retreat was a spectacular sight.

…

At Golden Crown Mountain, in Zhuoma’s personal laboratory, he looked at a tall, crystallized palm tree. This was the first time he had successfully crystallized a second-ring magical plant in his own lab.

Although Zhuoma was resentful that Brandy had won the Rose Council project, and knew that his own work was inherently inferior to Brandy’s well-developed project,

he couldn’t possibly give up now that he had come this far. He

couldn’t delay his departure any longer this year!

He had to give it his all for this last chance. With this crystallized palm tree, he could at least write a decent application, ensuring he had a chance.

Even if he failed to secure the top-tier grant, he could still use this project to apply for a second-ring grant, since the first application for a second-ring grant was usually easier for a second-ring wizard.

Zhuoma gritted her teeth at the thought of Zeno, Brandy, and Locke Augustine. And that annoying, arrogant Antoine was just as repulsive; he’d been a good-for-nothing before, but suddenly he wasn’t.

Didn’t these people realize that simply standing next to someone could inflict a psychological attack?

Zhuoma recalled how she had successfully ousted a wizard last year, forcing him to leave Golden Crown Mountain.

A smile crept onto her lips. This year, she had intended to use the same method against Locke Augustine. Once Locke Augustine was in their circle, she would have plenty of ways to deal with that wizard.

Unfortunately, Locke Augustine hadn’t taken the bait.

It was as if he didn’t need any circles at all, completely abandoning them, leaving Zhuoma with no way to attack him.

Now, with the application due soon, there seemed to be no need to oust him. Besides, she’d heard he hadn’t kept up with the magical plant crystallization research, which was tantamount to him crippling himself… there was no need for him to interfere

.

Just as the sorceress Zhuoma was lost in thought, a bolt of hellfire suddenly appeared above her laboratory. The simple defensive array inside the laboratory reacted automatically, forming a series of three-dimensional defensive barriers in mid-air. But the next moment, the hellfire, like a meteor, smashed through these defensive arrays and then fell straight towards the crystallized palm tree.

In an instant, the crystallized palm tree suddenly bent into an abnormal arc. Then, before Locke could react, and before Zhuoma could even open her mouth wide, the crystallized palm tree suddenly snapped open with a ‘crack,’ revealing countless barbs.

The sorceress Zhuoma froze on the spot.

“Ah! My magical plant!”

The crystallization device, specially designed for crystallizing magical plants, was also invaded by hellfire energy, and the crystallization rays emitted from its nozzles turned into something resembling hellfire rays.

The ray of energy struck a cube-shaped stone floating in front of Locke, directly illuminating a hand-like pattern in its center. Upon receiving the hellish energy, the hand immediately clenched inwards, then rotated half a circle to the right, followed by a full rotation to the left, and then, with a click, rotated half a circle to the right again.

With a snap,

the seemingly solid stone opened, revealing its interior: a stone tablet resembling a necklace or pendant. The tablet’s appearance caused everything around it to age rapidly.

The wizard Zhuoma stared, stunned, at her broken, crystallized magical plant, her gaze involuntarily drawn to the stone tablet.

She immediately realized it wasn’t an ordinary magical artifact, but a special tablet with the unique ability to accelerate the flow of time. As the time-accelerating tablet accelerated, dust fell from its surface.

It seemed like a consumable item, like chalk.

A fierce greed flashed in Droma’s eyes. He was about to reach for the stone tablet when Locke reached out and grabbed his left wrist.

Locke crawled out of the lingering smoke from the extinguished hellfire.

He realized this teleportation method wasn’t perfect.

The teleportation process itself involved an exceptionally powerful impact; if he were just an ordinary ‘demon,’ he might lose limbs or even be reduced to a pile of minced meat.

“Cough cough cough…”

A puff of black smoke escaped Locke’s throat, finally easing the pain.

“Troublesome. This is too uncomfortable. Droma, what are you trying to do?”

Droma immediately withdrew her hand, her eyes wide as she watched Locke place the suspended stone tablet into the stone box and close it again.

Because the entire process required hellfire energy, Locke directly manipulated the crystallizer, which was tainted by hellfire and whose energy had been mutated, to complete the entire operation.

Only then did Droma realize what was happening.

“How did you suddenly appear in my laboratory?”

Wizard Zhuoma asked aggressively. “This violates the Wizarding Law and the internal management principles of Golden Crown Mountain. You also damaged my equipment. I spent a month developing this magical plant…”

“You need to pay for it!”

“In addition, you need to go to the Academic Affairs Department.”

“This is a serious violation of the law.”

Wizard Zhuoma’s heart skipped a beat, and malice flashed in her eyes. She had the illusion that she had finally caught Locke red-handed.

Wizard Zhuoma couldn’t tell whether she was angry, excited, or both.

But her heart was pounding. She quickly realized that this time Locke really had something on her.

She could manipulate the costs of crystallizing the magical plant and repairing the equipment.

Moreover, Locke might miss this year’s special independent application because of this.

Or rather, he would definitely miss it.

Locke looked at Wizard Zhuoma. He never expected that all his troubles would lead him to a laboratory on Golden Crown Mountain, and specifically Wizard Zhuoma’s laboratory.

Judging from his expression, he wasn’t going to let this go easily.

Locke carefully recalled the wizarding laws, but to be honest, according to them, in his situation… he hadn’t actually broken the law, nor did he need to pay any compensation.

Essentially, he had been thrown here by the enemy.

He had no way of knowing where he landed.

Even if he were to pay compensation, they wouldn’t be able to find him.

If this were an internal conflict between wizards, he might still bear some responsibility, at least having to compensate Droma with basic funds. But the problem was… he had been teleported here by the Hell Demons.

Fighting the Hell Demons and Abyss Demons was tantamount to waging war against the enemies of wizarding civilization.

And the damage in war is incalculable and doesn’t follow ordinary rules.

At this moment, Locke took out the Ganoderma Spirit Plant and explained to Droma,

“Teacher Ekaterina wants to see me immediately. I was teleported here by the Hell Demons; it seems they haven’t given up.”

Locke patted Droma on the shoulder.

“This is an act of war, there’s nothing we can do.”

Droma was stunned.

What an act of war!

Droma remembered the flames from earlier and immediately realized that Locke might indeed have been attacked by the demons. But if that were the case, it truly was an act of war, with special immunity; Locke would not only be without fault but would actually have merit.

The wizard Zhuoma deeply regretted dismantling part of the defensive magic array in the laboratory assigned to her by the academy in an effort to save money, and then selling it.

This was why the laboratory was so vulnerable.

Zhuoma even felt guilty; if the academy discovered that she had dismantled the defensive magic array and sold it for magic stones…

Zhuoma’s expression changed repeatedly. The only way to hide it was to swallow the loss, not tell anyone, and pretend it hadn’t happened.

Locke, fearing Zhuoma would pressure him to repay the money, changed the subject, saying, “Wizard Zhuoma, have you submitted your application? Hmm… I remember that performance at the special grant application defense is very important, so besides writing a good application, you also need to study the judges’ preferences and improve your defense performance…”

Zhuoma gritted her teeth.

“Augustine, I don’t need you to remind me.”

“By the way, there are five experts on the judging panel this time, two of whom are invited from outside. One of them is Master Patrick Finch, and the other is Master Hao Brooks from Quinnjoll.”

Locke frowned.

He hadn’t expected that one of them would be the initiator of the crystallization technology. How did this guy manage to get into the expert judging panel of Golden Crown Mountain?

The wizard Zhuoma looked up and said, “They were personally invited by the higher-ups of the Academic Committee. Master Hao Brooks is said to have been invited by the Senate.”

Locke realized that the competition for this upcoming internal special grant would likely be far fiercer than he had imagined.

The Senate and the Academic Committee were fighting again in this place.

Locke quickly left the laboratory.

He needed to submit his application immediately.

This fierce competition was finally coming to an end. Who would win?

(End of Chapter)