Chapter 824: The Golden Navigation Route, Wizard Russell, and the Golden Bloodline

Golden Crown Mountain, Little Peach Mountain, the Ghost Gate, at the summit of the Infinite Mountain.

Locke flipped his right hand over to reveal a fingernail-sized black cube floating in his palm, rotating, each turn stirring a current of strange energy.

At this moment, many wizards were on the Infinite Mountain as well, either entering the near-void orbit from here or entering the void navigation routes.

Above the wizard world, special navigation routes constructed on the foundation of powerful golden magic, combined with spell-school and summoning-school magic, stretched across the sky. These routes could accelerate the void navigation speed of any flying craft in the great void.

After all, the great void was enormous. Its scale far exceeded the imagination of beings living within planes. Without following the navigation routes, relying on a void flyer to enter the great void would leave one doing little more than circling the near-void orbit.

Locke channeled his Grand Magic into the Void Magic Cube in his hand. The cube quickly shifted from black to jade green. He held it up and whispered a spell, and the cube began to transform. Magical sparks of flame swirled around it in rotation.

Then the cube changed from thumbnail size to basketball size, and from its normal cubic shape to an octahedral cube shape. It shot toward the void at high speed, plunging into one of the navigation routes and disappearing within it.

Locke had just used the incantation to give it the void plane coordinate. The cube would enter the void, find the target, and intercept a portion of that plane's planar force before returning.

Locke checked the virtual clock on the water hyacinth system.

A muscular man in a wizard robe beside him glanced at Locke and smiled, saying, "Your first time sending out a Void Magic Cube?"

"Without at least a week, your Void Magic Cube is unlikely to come back. And that is assuming the navigation route acceleration. Without the navigation routes, you would be waiting a hundred years or more for the cube to return."

"In the distant past, before ancient wizards built the navigation routes, they could only explore the void by sailing void warships. Back then they could only explore within a range of a hundred thousand world-scale units from the wizard world. But according to the modern age of magic's definition, that is only near-void exploration. It does not count as true void exploration."

Locke looked at him in surprise.

Within a hundred thousand world-scale units was still only near-void exploration?

Any data, once it reached the scale of void exploration, became extremely exaggerated, exaggerated to the point that even wizards like them found it difficult to believe.

Locke asked, "And you are?"

The muscular wizard laughed openly. "Surprised? I had the same expression when I first learned this. Hard to believe. The wisdom of our forebears could reach such heights. In past ages, wizards could only conduct near-void exploration and treated that process as planar exploration."

"That period of time lasted for a very long while. Until a genius suddenly stepped forward and told everyone, the infinite void is so vast. If we explore at this scale, we will forever be like frogs at the edge of a pond, only able to explore the soil along the pond's shore. He proposed the network route and navigation route plan."

"And then everyone entered the great void exploration era together."

The muscular wizard extended his hand to Locke. "So for those ancient people, what we have achieved today was beyond their imagination. Many so-called void explorations in old magical books are, by today's standards, nothing more than near-orbit exploration."

"I am Jorn Quis."

"A senior researcher at Golden Crown Mountain, three years your senior. My teacher is also Witch Yekaterina."

Locke shook his hand.

"Hello, Locke Augustine."

Jorn Quis showed an open and natural smile.

"I know. Quite a famous name."

"Champion of the Silent Chalice. An out-and-out breeding genius."

"I have seen the first pair of Second Circle pure magical plant wizard shoes you recently produced. Unprecedented."

Locke frowned and smiled ruefully.

"You flatter me. Wizard Jorn Quis, my project cannot even be used to apply for a Second Circle Tier 1 journal or a Second Circle-level grant project."

"How could it be called unprecedented?"

Wizard Jorn Quis gave a dry laugh and said, "No, on the contrary. I do not see it that way. I believe many truly talented people's plans cannot be measured by systematized frameworks. This also means that in the beginning, the value of these things does not reveal itself. I have studied in detail that great navigator who built the routes, who was also a very famous wizard traveler."

"A wizard of the incantation school who defined an era."

"When he first proposed the network routes and navigation routes, those projects in other wizards' eyes had far less significance and prestige than other talented works of that era. Because the earliest network routes and navigation routes did not employ any profound foundational knowledge."

Locke understood that the reason his Second Circle wizard shoes could not be used to apply for vertical grants or to write high-quality journals was precisely the insufficient foundational research behind them.

The foundational research portions, if extracted and published, would probably only yield a few Second Circle Tier 3 or Tier 4 articles.

Wizard Jorn Quis said, "But the key point is having the idea that others cannot have and doing what others cannot do. A Second Circle pure magical plant wizard shoe that can be mass-produced is something no breeder has ever done before. Even if Second Circle-level pure magical plant wizard shoes have existed before, no one has ever truly mass-produced them."

Wizard Jorn Quis said, "Wizard Locke Augustine, I greatly admire this idea of yours. I see in you a force that could shift the era, even though that force is still relatively modest at the moment."

"But it is a possibility."

Locke looked at Jorn Quis with puzzlement.

He found that Jorn Quis seemed to admire him, his eyes practically shining when looking at him.

What was going on?

He had not expected that among the seven Second Circle wizards of the Origin Academy who were most likely to compete with him for the special-grade grant next year, there was actually an admirer of his?

Jorn Quis said, "Oh, right, let me introduce myself. I am a researcher in Group One. The research content of our Group One centers mainly on navigation route breeding studies."

"Meaning that even on these ethereal navigation routes, people deliberately plant certain magical plants, and some wild magical plants also grow there on their own."

"Our Group One's research is to study the effects of these magical plants growing on the navigation routes on the routes themselves. Some effects are positive, but there are undeniably some magical plants with negative effects as well."

Locke nodded. No wonder Jorn Quis knew the history of the navigation routes so well. This was what Group One researched.

Locke recalled that the research content of Group One, Group Two, Group Three, and Group Six bore no relation to one another whatsoever.

He could not figure out what Witch Yekaterina's Ten-Person Plan was actually researching.

But in any case, the combined research content of these groups should constitute Witch Yekaterina's Ten-Person Plan.

Locke looked up at the navigation routes. "Magical plants actually still grow on something as ethereal as those navigation routes in the void?"

Jorn Quis laughed heartily. "That is precisely what I find so remarkable about magical plants."

"Though the navigation routes are not exactly ethereal. The foundation of the navigation routes is golden magic. Golden magic has the property of gold immutability, so using golden magic to construct the navigation routes is most fitting. As a result, the navigation routes in the void have been around for tens of thousands of years now, but with maintenance and repairs, they are still usable."

Wizard Jorn Quis said to Locke, "Wizard Locke Augustine, I greatly admire the wizard shoes you have made. Before you produced Second Circle pure magical plant wizard shoes, I could only buy the expensive Blue Band and Solas Light Foot wizard shoes. But after you came along, I have more choices."

"I have great faith in you and your Second Circle wizard shoes. Keep at it, and you may have unexpected gains."

Locke smiled at him. "Thank you."

Jorn Quis said, "I hope you will produce more wizard shoe products. For void explorers, a good pair of wizard shoes is too important."

He stood up and said, "All right, I need to get busy. Good luck to you, Wizard Locke."

"I will be waiting for your second, better pure magical plant wizard shoe. I am now a loyal customer of your Augustus Wizard Shoes."

Locke said a brief farewell to him as well and then left the Ghost Gate and the Infinite Mountain.

Locke sat atop the Rainbow Sparrow. "I did not expect there to be a senior researcher in the Origin Academy who was impressed by my wizard shoes and held a friendly attitude toward me because of it."

"Wizard Jorn Quis. This person seems relatively easy to get along with."

Wizard Gakula, Wizard Jorn Quis, Brandy, Wizard Zhuoma, and it seemed there were still three rivals he had not met.

But based on the materials he had read, for him, the biggest rivals in next year's competition were Brandy and Zhuoma in the first tier. Both of them were wizards about to conclude their stations. They had accumulated the most, had been Second Circle wizards the longest, and were the two who could invest resources without reservation for next year's special-grade grant application.

Among the remaining, the most threatening was this Wizard Jorn Quis.

Locke had previously seen his record and knew he was also a breeding genius with several impressive breeding projects to his name. He had expected him to be a formidable rival or at least to hold some hostility toward him.

Yet unexpectedly, after their chance encounter at Little Peach Mountain, the other party turned out to hold him in high regard.

Locke thought, "I recall there is also a breeder named Zeno. He is actually also a strong rival. According to the materials my senior gave me, this Breeder Zeno has studied under our teacher and learned the light element inverted mutation cultivation method."

He had previously heard from a Second Circle wizard teacher at Golden Crown Mountain that the rainbow co-frequency cultivation method had been key to Witch Yekaterina becoming a Throne Wizard, while the light element inverted mutation cultivation method was the prerequisite content of the Third Circle-stage rainbow co-frequency cultivation method.

In other words, Witch Yekaterina was intentionally teaching this ordinary Origin Academy researcher named Zeno, a Second Circle wizard, her rainbow co-frequency cultivation method.

It was just that he had never actually encountered this person and did not know what kind of personality they had.

Locke thought of Brandy and Wizard Zhuoma from earlier and frowned, because these two had not left him a great impression.

But unexpectedly, Wizard Jorn Quis was quite different from what he had imagined.

After sending off the Void Magic Cube, he first went to the library to look up breeders in the Twilight Border's Golden Dynasty who were currently researching Golden Foxtail Grass and Blue Foxtail.

Very quickly, with Wizard Akman's help, he found the person, a Third Circle Throne, Wizard Russell.

This Wizard Russell was a Throne Wizard of the Golden Dynasty, holding a position of great importance, and was a member of the direct royal family of the Golden Dynasty.

Wizard Akman said to Locke, "You want to write to him and inquire about his research? This Wizard Russell is not easy to deal with."

Wizard Akman wore a difficult expression.

"I have heard before that within the Golden Dynasty he is famous for being dismissive of wizards who do not have Golden Dynasty bloodlines. He has a fiery temper and is a well-known advocate of racial discrimination."

"I would estimate that if you ask him, he will not answer you."

Locke looked at one of his works on Golden Foxtail Grass and his expression turned strange. "But the magical book he published acknowledges a whole group of his students. He listed the names of those who worked for him on the book's foreword."

Wizard Akman said, "Take a closer look. They are all wizards with Golden Dynasty bloodlines, what are called golden nobles."

"If you do not have Golden Dynasty bloodlines, see what attitude he shows."

"Oh, right. You may not know what the golden bloodline is. That is not the bloodline descendants of some great wizard, but rather those who naturally possess powerful golden magic power within their bloodlines can all be called golden bloodlines, and in the Twilight Border they are granted noble seats."

"The Twilight Border has a very strong reverence for golden magic. They believe only golden magic can bring the wizard world a future."

Locke looked at the foreword without looking up and asked, "One question. What is the status of golden dragons in the Twilight Border?"

Wizard Akman froze. "Golden dragons? Oh, you do not know? Golden dragons hold a special status in the Twilight Border. They were once the symbol of the Golden Dynasty, though they are now extinct."

"They were the ducal bloodline of the Golden Dynasty."

"The Golden Dynasty's ducal bloodline is considered to have been guests of the Golden Dynasty. That is to say, the golden dragon race was once honored guests in the Twilight Border. The golden griffin is the same."

Locke gave a slight nod.

He pointed at the foreword and said, "I did not expect to see a familiar name here. This Wizard Russell has a student named Alaric. I met him during the Cloud Marsh Cup. He even invited me to visit the Twilight Border at the time."

"Perhaps I can contact Wizard Russell through him."

Wizard Akman blinked.

"You really know how to seize opportunities. This works? You can give it a try."