Chapter 822: The Pale Giant of Three Thousand Years Ago and the Secret of Golden Spike Wheat

By the time Locke soaked the mature Blue Foxtail for the fifth time in the diluted Yellow-Robe Mushroom extract, two days had passed.

When Locke carefully placed this magical plant into the magical field to cultivate, in an instant, the magical plant continuously absorbed light from its surroundings, and the entire tenth level fell into darkness.

Many wizards on the tenth level looked in Locke's direction.

Because just a moment ago, the Blue Foxtail that Locke had mutated with Yellow-Robe Mushroom extract had seized all the light in the area.

Locke's pupils contracted sharply, because as this Blue Foxtail absorbed all the light emitted by the magical lamps of the entire underground tenth level, the entire Blue Foxtail also turned completely golden.

"This may be a key plant factor of Golden Spike Wheat."

Locke said, "The Blue Foxtail's interior very likely still retains one critical factor of Golden Spike Wheat. So in the moment the Yellow-Robe Mushroom extract caused it to revert, this halfway-mutated magical plant seized all the light in the area."

Locke raised his right hand and found something surprising.

"The luminescence of my own magical power can also be seized?"

He looked around and saw that every wizard on the underground tenth level was wearing an expression of astonishment.

Because the magical luminescence that constantly enveloped their bodies was being seized by this Blue Foxtail.

In that moment, something of the ancient grandeur of the Twilight Border seemed to be resurrecting itself.

But the next moment, the entirely golden Blue Foxtail was suddenly tinged with blue. The Blue Foxtail seemed to lose control in an instant, like an endlessly extending blue dog's tail, and lashed violently toward Locke.

Boom.

Locke had not anticipated this sudden development. The life force field and permanent defensive force field shell clashed violently with the Blue Foxtail whip, sending spell sparks flying.

Because he had elevated this magical plant close to the Second Circle, reaching the First Circle limit, the loss of control at this moment and the sudden attack on him was comparable to a wizard in the soul decline period attacking him with a spell model, just with a lower damage conversion efficiency.

The moment the Blue Foxtail whip struck him, all the fine needle-like conical spike clusters on it, the part that resembled a dog's tail, were covered in bristles. These bristles had turned almost entirely blue and shot toward Locke.

Clang.

Bristles comparable in hardness to Time Gold Crystal drove straight at his pupils.

Crack.

The permanent defensive force field shell clashed with the bristles, which snapped and broke, while the force field shell merely rippled and soon returned to calm.

Locke was fairly exasperated.

If he had not been a Second Circle wizard but only a First Circle wizard, he would have become a one-eyed man just now.

What had happened?

Locke looked at the Blue Foxtail, which had turned completely blue and was rapidly dying. He walked over, but in the next moment, the Blue Foxtail that had collapsed on the ground suddenly reared up, and two Blue Foxtail leaves like propeller blades swung toward him like a cutting weapon.

Locke frowned. The permanent defensive force field and life force field on his body surface automatically spread outward, forming a dome force field that enveloped him for protection.

The blades cut against the force field and shattered quite harmlessly.

Team Leader Cis's voice came through shortly.

"Locke, what is happening? Has someone attacked you?"

Locke hesitated for a moment.

"No. The experiment lost control."

Team Leader Cis said, "Doing basic research on plant drought resistance mechanisms, and it sounds like a battle?"

Witch Mason and the other two came over from the tenth level's location.

Locke's face flushed slightly, knowing Team Leader Cis was teasing him.

Locke said, "Group leader, do not worry. It is fine."

He looked at the Blue Foxtail on the ground, his tiger's eye on his forehead opening wide to carefully observe the magical plant that had suddenly lost control.

Something was wrong.

There was a problem.

Locke looked at the Blue Foxtail collapsed on the ground, dying.

Even now using the tiger's eye he could not detect any obvious anomaly, but Locke thought back to the magical plant trait just now that had been able to seize all the light from an entire floor's laboratory. That would have required the combination of multiple magical plant factors.

At least three or more.

That was a special magical plant factor that could even seize the magical luminescence from wizards' bodies.

Consistent with the characteristics of the Second Circle magical plant Golden Spike Wheat.

'According to the Star Domain Sea library materials Witch Sophia gave me, Golden Spike Wheat was originally a powerful magical plant that, when fully mature, was a sun ring magical plant. During its developmental stages it would gradually develop from a Second Circle magical plant to star ring and moon ring levels.'

'Later this magical plant began to be lost.'

'The Twilight Border had a whole heap of lost things. That magical plant's loss of control just now was very abnormal. It had clearly recovered that one critical plant factor of Golden Spike Wheat, but at the very moment of recovery, it suddenly lost control and began attacking me.'

Locke looked at the sunlight magical monocle that Witch Mason was wearing, then said directly to her, "Mason, could I borrow that monocle for a moment?"

Witch Mason was taken aback, but without overthinking it, she immediately removed the monocle from her person and handed it to Locke, saying, "Boss Locke, here you go."

Locke took the monocle and looked at the dying Blue Foxtail. The dog tail-shaped inflorescence of the magical plant was still moving weakly on the soil floor.

As though it still wanted to attack Locke as he approached.

Locke used the grafting knife to cut open the stem of the magical plant, then bent down and adjusted the magnification of the sunlight magical monocle. He first looked at the cells inside the wounded cut of the magical plant.

Then Locke examined all the cells of the magical plant.

Sure enough, he found that the various cells of this magical plant were releasing some kind of special signal.

Locke frowned.

"As expected, an unexpected mechanism has occurred. Hmm? These signals... why do they look so much like a negative energy particle field?"

What kind of magic was based on a negative energy particle field?

What Locke could think of was undead magic.

Could it be that when the Golden Spike Wheat of the Twilight Border disappeared en masse back then, it had something to do with certain undead magic?

An ordinary breeder, even upon discovering this anomaly, would be helpless at this stage in the short term, having done no research on undead magic.

But at this moment, Locke extended his five fingers. A special negative energy particle field appeared on each finger, and a legendary history tome appeared behind him.

The negative energy particle fields combined into a spell model.

Historical Reenactment!

He was still an archaeologist.

"As long as it is a negative energy particle field, I can read it. Let me see exactly what this thing is!"

Locke extended his five fingers and pressed them against the Blue Foxtail.

"Borrowing a day from five hundred years in the past. Let me see the historical truth from the past."

The Blue Foxtail immediately released a magical luminescence.

In an instant, Locke entered the past model he had constructed.

The next moment, Locke opened his eyes. He found himself standing in a field of Golden Spike Wheat.

"This is... the Twilight Border, is it not? No, this is not the current Twilight Border."

Locke looked up at the sky, and saw that hanging above the Twilight Border was an incomparably enormous sun, as though forged from gold, vast and mighty.

This was the Twilight Border of the past, at its most glorious peak, when Golden Spike Wheat had not yet disappeared.

Locke looked at his own body, his pupils contracting sharply.

Because he was not in human form either, but was maintaining the true dragon form of a three-headed golden dragon.

At the same time, the earth beneath was producing a kind of rumbling, like continuous earthquakes. Locke looked into the distance and saw a giant appearing far away, a giant whose head reached the sky and whose feet were planted on the ground.

But this giant's body was that of an enormous skeleton.

White bones served as his cloak, skeletons composed his battle robe, white bones assembled into his crown, and the giant held two palaces aloft, one in each hand.

One palace was built from piled white bones, and the other was crafted from obsidian.

Both palaces bore plaques, but the distance was too great to read them clearly.

The white bone giant's upper and lower jaw bones kept closing, producing a distinctive sound that seemed to be a spell, and this caused countless undead creatures to surge toward the Twilight Border, surrounding this wheat field.

Behind the white bone giant who held two palaces aloft with both hands followed a massive undead army far exceeding the scale of any undead catastrophe.

"This is..."

At this moment, Locke's clone left his dormitory's small laboratory, used Lone Tree Cannot Form a Forest to maneuver the Magical Dragon Rose like a meteor, flew toward Golden Crown Mountain's library, and found Wizard Akman.

Locke tossed Wizard Akman a pair of Great Blood Wave wizard shoes he had made.

Wizard Akman was delighted at the find.

"This is exactly the size of my feet. Locke, I never told you the size of my feet."

Locke said, "Pure magical plant wizard shoes inherently have the ability to automatically adapt to the size of a wizard's feet. That is not difficult for me. Akman, these are wizard shoes I made for you. Try them on."

Wizard Akman looked at Locke with a satisfied smile and said, "Locke, thank you."

"You were thoughtful."

"No one has ever cared about the problem of troll wizards' shoes before."

Wizard Akman said to Locke, "Locke, is there something you want to know?"

Locke asked, "I would like to ask about a white bone giant who holds palaces aloft and can stand between heaven and earth. Every sound it makes causes a chain reaction in planar force, and every step it takes feels as though death is closing in on you."

Wizard Akman tapped his large head with his thick blue fingers.

"This thing you are describing actually rings a bell. I remember now. The personal guard of the Pale Sovereign, the Pale Giants."

"Yes, that is what you are describing. Those Pale Giants are all reforged from titan deity races of other worlds. Titans are deity-race lifeforms born from portions of planar hearts, who inherently possess some of the privileges of gods. And the Pale Sovereign once reforged a group of powerful titans into his personal guard, known as the Pale Giant Knight Corps."

"These Pale Giants generally appear holding the magical artifact palaces crafted by the Pale Sovereign. Those palaces are themselves the highest-level undead magical artifacts. However, the Pale Giants have not appeared in the wizard world for a very long time. You must have seen them in some book, yes?"

Locke was momentarily taken aback, then nodded.

Because calling it a book was not wrong.

It was just that what he had read was not a magical book or a magical tome, but rather the book of negative energy particle fields.

Wizard Akman said, "Under normal circumstances, the Pale Giant Knight Corps only appears when the Pale Pilgrimage launches the Pale Calamity. The Pale Giants hold those various undead palaces aloft, as though holding a rhizosphere with one hand."

Locke immediately sensed the significance of this statement.

Because the rhizosphere of the Cloud Marsh Wetlands could not possibly be held aloft by an ordinary Second Circle wizard.

It was the rhizosphere that held up wizards, not wizards who held up the rhizosphere.

But in essence, a Pale Giant held a rhizosphere in one hand, and the rhizosphere then held up those undead creatures.

Locke said, "Double elevation?"

Wizard Akman's eyes brightened. "It is much easier to talk with intelligent people. Would you like to read about double elevation? Oh, right. The Second Circle free section has absolutely no such materials. That is Third Circle-level material. In the Second Circle section, materials on this are among the most expensive paid resources."

"Double elevation, elevating the same rhizosphere or another rhizosphere on top of one rhizosphere. That is something at minimum a sun ring wizard can accomplish."

"Would you like to understand it?"

Locke said quickly, "No need. But Akman, when was the most recent time the Pale Pilgrimage sent Pale Giants into the wizard world?"

Wizard Akman said, "If the materials I have read are correct, then it was three thousand years ago. In these three thousand years, the Pale Pilgrimage has maintained a low-intensity level of activity within the wizard world. This is probably because the White Wizard Association has been growing increasingly dominant, and the Pale Pilgrimage's main area of activity has shifted from the wizard world to the various colonial worlds."

Locke asked, "When did the Twilight Border lose its status as a leader wizard territory?"

Wizard Akman said, "Golden Crown Mountain has not done much research in this area. At minimum ten thousand years ago, and quite possibly fifteen thousand years ago."

"I do not know the specifics."

Locke asked, "Did the Twilight Border ever come into conflict with the Pale Pilgrimage?"

Wizard Akman began to think.

"Why do you ask that? These two things have absolutely nothing in common. The Pale Pilgrimage's main area of activity is the eastern territory, with its base being the Cloud Marsh Wetlands. They were formed ten thousand years ago by death mages who were marginalized by the White Wizard Association."

"They are wizards at the margins of society."

"And the Twilight Border's peak was at minimum ten thousand years ago."

"Wizard Locke, the Twilight Border and the Pale Pilgrimage are completely the products of two different eras. The two should have no intersection whatsoever."

Locke's expression shifted slightly. He calmly asked, "Does the library have any illustrated guides or detailed descriptions of the Pale Giants? I would like to see them with my own eyes."

Wizard Akman recited a spell and a magical book flew automatically into his hand.

"Yes. Take a look."

Locke looked at the illustrations in his hand.

That was right.

That was a Pale Giant.

Wizard Akman said, "Incidentally, the Pale Sovereigns have all been wizards who appeared within the last ten thousand years. And the first Pale Giants also appeared within this ten-thousand-year period. Locke, the Pale Giants and the Twilight Border's peak are two existences that could absolutely never have made contact."

A strange look appeared in Locke's eyes.

Then why would a Pale Giant appear in the negative energy field hidden within the plant factor sequence of that Blue Foxtail?

He had only meant to enter the Small Breath Cup competition, and yet here he was, potentially sitting on the material for a Tier 1 archaeology journal article.

...

Inside the Historical Reenactment.

Locke's main body precisely controlled the ancient language.

The Pale Giant standing at the horizon seemed to be charging toward the Golden Spike Wheat field, while he, having transformed into a golden dragon, found other golden dragons appearing around him.

The golden dragons seemed to be discussing something.

"We cannot keep running. No matter how we flee, they still catch up. Their persecution of us will never stop. The Twilight Border took us in, but now even the Twilight Border has been caught up in this."

"Golden Spike Wheat nourished by golden dragon blood and cultivated by the Twilight Border's Golden Breeder. As long as the wheat field still exists, our people can continue to be protected."

"No. This is... Golden Spike Wheat is degenerating. Impossible. This is the Golden Breeder's work. Unless someone has betrayed us, why would Golden Spike Wheat betray us?"

"We cannot flee. The Twilight Border is the leader wizard territory of the eastern region. There is no room left for us to retreat."

Suddenly, in this reproduced history, all the golden dragons looked at Locke.

"A three-headed golden dragon? Among the dragon race, the more heads, the closer the bloodline to the primordial dragon."

"How can a three-headed golden dragon exist?"

Among the group of golden dragons there was one abnormal dragon of deep bronze-gold color who looked at Locke with greedy eyes.

"If I drink the blood of a three-headed golden dragon, could even my mixed bloodline be purified?"

The next moment, a sun ring aberrant dragon looked at Locke with a malicious expression and suddenly opened its draconic maw, lunging to bite Locke.

Locke sensed that this Second Circle-level Historical Reenactment spell model was losing control.

The special undead energy hidden within the Blue Foxtail, the same energy that had caused Golden Spike Wheat to degenerate, had apparently invaded his Historical Reenactment spell model in return, causing this spell model to have a natural flaw, and allowing an entity that should never have appeared to be mixed into the spell model.

This was the inherent risk of the Historical Reenactment spell model.

No magic could be entirely without risk.

He immediately broke off this spell model in the instant before Historical Reenactment fully lost control and he might have perished in this negative energy particle field.

"Farewell."

Locke's figure was instantly pulled out of the three-headed golden dragon's body. His soul took human form and flew skyward.

The sun ring-level aberrant dragon was furious. It stomped the empty shell Locke had left behind into dust and shouted at the sky, "Do not think to escape."

"Give me your bloodline!"

'This is bad. Complete loss of control.'

Locke sensed that the Historical Reenactment illusion before him had completely slipped from his Legendary History Tome's control.

Under normal circumstances, an archaeological wizard could not possibly lose control of a spell model this easily.

It must have been the special undead energy that had caused Golden Spike Wheat to degenerate intervening, which caused the loss of control to occur with extraordinary speed. The aberrant dragon before him was also in essence a product evolved from that energy's intervention, and was not an entity originally belonging to this negative energy particle field.

The sun ring-level aberrant dragon suddenly erupted in fury, swept aside with its tail the golden dragons trying to stop it and protect Locke, then extended a claw toward the sky and recited an ancient draconic magic incantation.

Locke found that a golden cloud appeared in the sky above his head.

And within that golden cloud appeared a golden palm with five fingers.

That golden palm descended from the sky.

This golden magic had a distinctive characteristic, which was that it made no attempt to conceal its own spell model structure, like a game with its source code left open for all to see.

The great golden palm seemed capable of intercepting souls. Locke was struck by it and felt as though he were standing upon it, and the next moment, heaven and earth reversed. When he opened his eyes, he found that all physical laws around him seemed to have completely inverted.

Sky was ground, ground was sky, head was foot, foot was head.

All things overturned.

This was the sun ring-level golden magic: Sephiroth's Grasp!

Locke looked down and saw greed flowing in the eyes of the sun ring-level aberrant dragon.

"I knew from the start something was off about you. A human who possesses the power of a true dragon. Ha ha ha. Eating you would greatly benefit my bloodline."

Locke's expression shifted. Within Sephiroth's Grasp, all things were inverted, so all of his power was reversed, making him completely unable to use his strength.

Wait.

Locke realized that this magic could not invert his Grand Magic or his permanent defensive force field shell, apparently because both of these magics were rooted in that World Tree leaf.

At the same time, the distant Pale Giant suddenly reached an arm toward this direction. "Sinful dragon. From the past, the present, the future, you should never have existed."

One after another blue streaks appeared in the Golden Spike Wheat field, blue fields spreading across the mountains and plains, and the magical plants were undergoing severe degeneration.

The degenerated magical plant wheat field seemed to make that sun ring-level aberrant dragon very uncomfortable.

And the Pale Giant and that golden dragon clashed with each other, which gave Locke an opportunity.

'Why did the Pale Giant suddenly help me? No, it is not helping me. It is afraid that this aberrant dragon will eat me, absorb my bloodline, and gain in strength.'

'Or rather, the forces behind this giant and the forces behind this aberrant dragon must be two different factions. This Historical Reenactment scene appears to be a war between the golden dragon race and the Pale Giants, two factions. But in the background there must actually be three factions hidden.'

From this bizarre turn of events, Locke analyzed that there were definitely three forces at work here. Otherwise this strange situation could not have arisen.

Locke reacted quickly, rapidly checking which of his own powers had not been affected and which had all been inverted.

Then he readjusted the Historical Reenactment spell model, forcibly took control of it, and terminated the spell.

Within Sephiroth's Grasp, Locke summoned the Magical Dragon Rose and flew rapidly through the golden hand, seeking any opportunity to escape.

In the end, he forced his way out through the gaps between the golden hand's fingers.

In that moment, Locke's consciousness passed through the bizarre Historical Reenactment spell model and returned to reality.

Cough, cough, cough...

Locke coughed up some fresh blood. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and found that it had turned a faint golden color.

He looked at the Blue Foxtail on the magical field.

It had fully withered.

'Damned stupid dragon.'

Locke frowned.

"I recall that golden magic should be Sephiroth's Grasp. I read about it in a book before. An extremely powerful golden magic belonging to a secret inheritance. However, I just now managed to memorize the rough form of that spell model."

Mainly because it had been recorded through the archaeological spell.

Witch Mason, Barret, and Freya walked over.

Witch Freya said to Locke, "Group leader, are you all right? We saw you walk into a magical luminescence just now, and when you came out again you seemed to have been injured?"

Wizard Barret looked at the withered magical plant, then at Locke, and inwardly marveled at the wonders of archaeological magic.

Locke shook his head.

"I am fine. The experiment just had a slight accident."

The atavistic Blue Foxtail had produced something entirely beyond his expectations.

The degeneration of Golden Spike Wheat into Blue Foxtail did not appear to be a natural occurrence, but a deliberate one.

Locke thought, "Plans cannot keep up with changes. Things have gotten complicated."

"Inside the Blue Foxtail lies a mechanism that suppresses the expression of Golden Spike Wheat's plant factors. The Yellow-Robe Mushroom extract can break part of this mechanism but not all of it. Do I have to approach this through Golden Foxtail Grass instead?"

Golden Foxtail Grass was a Second Circle magical plant.

Previously, for experimental convenience and cost reasons, he had planned to start with Blue Foxtail.

But now it appeared that plan was unworkable.

'I have an agreement with the Small Breath Cup events committee office. So this project must be completed within three months and entered in this year's Small Breath Cup.'

Locke's expression changed slightly. There was nothing to be done about it. Research was always like this, always full of unexpected developments.

Locke thought, 'But thinking about it from the other direction, why did Blue Foxtail evolve into Golden Foxtail Grass in a later evolutionary stage? What happened in between? Perhaps if I figure this out, I can successfully complete the atavistic evolution.'

Locke said to Witch Mason, "You three go ahead with the bromeliad magical plant project you have on hand."

They still needed to select useful air bromeliad magical plant varieties for him, which was very important and related to his future wizard shoe development, as well as their own First Circle grant projects.

Locke said, "Do not worry. I can solve the problem on my side."

Witch Mason nodded. "All right, Locke. Oh, and Locke, a Second Circle wizard named Zhuoma came looking for you earlier. He seems to want to meet you."

Locke looked at Witch Mason.

Zhuoma? Was that the petty character Brandy had described, who liked to secretly destroy others' experimental results and managed to force someone out of their station?

Though that was only one side of Brandy's account and could not necessarily be taken entirely at face value.

Locke gave a slight nod.

"Did he say what it was about?"

Witch Mason said, "He did. He wants you to specifically design a pair of Second Circle wizard shoes for him."

"A strange request, is it not."

Locke nodded.

"Not too strange. Though I am a breeder, I have been doing a great deal of research on pure magical plant wizard shoes recently."