Locke used the archaeological spell model, Ancient Pointer, utilizing the characteristics of Rust Death particles to once again locate the research facility hidden by Illusion School magical locks. He opened the magical lock and entered.

Upon entering the research facility, Locke, regardless of whether anyone was present, first used [Summon Tomb Spirit] to scan the negative energy particle field throughout the entire research facility interior, ensuring that no one had entered or approached the research facility during this time.

After confirming everything, Locke came to the constant temperature cultivation room in the core area of the research facility. At this moment, the six Scorched Earth Holly plants, sensing the return of their forest lord, immediately swayed their branches and leaves like gentle dancers, greeting Locke.

Locke inspected the various circulation systems within the constant temperature cultivation room. They were still operating well, so there was no need to worry that the forest embryo would be damaged because the circulation systems hadn't been fully established.

Locke stroked the bark of one of the Scorched Earth Holly trees. There was a unique sensation, as if he were looking at himself from a third-party perspective.

Because of the permanent defensive field, this forest was himself. But the problem was that at this moment, he was touching himself. The permanent defensive field acted as a connecting point, linking this forest with his soul.

In a sense, at this moment, his soul was this forest's soul.

Therefore, when Locke closed his eyes, he could indeed overlook this entire forest.

Thus, Locke at this moment had a strange sensation of being inside himself, touching himself. "According to Dean Lewis's explanation, a forest is also a kind of life form, another type of complex-structured organism. Therefore, if I want to continue strengthening my permanent defensive field, I can achieve this by increasing the total biomass of this forest."

"Whether a forest is thriving depends on its total biomass."

"The higher the total biomass, the more powerful the forest."

During this time, Locke had learned quite a bit of First Circle stage botanical knowledge. In the library, he could exchange contribution points for a lot of knowledge related to First Circle botany, so his knowledge was currently increasing rapidly.

In First Circle stage botany, there was a very important term, [Total Biomass].

In an ecosystem, the more massive the total biomass, the higher its strength and integrity.

Similarly, the power limit of botanical spell models was also largely restricted by this total biomass.

Take Sea Gold Sand for example. As the king of magical plants, Sea Gold Sand's total biomass could rival who knows how many acres of ordinary forest.

The spore gold powder it secreted every moment guaranteed the power floor of his botanical spells.

The increase in a forest's total biomass was usually related to the forest's age. Therefore, Dean Lewis boldly used the dragon lifespan cycle division to divide the forest's lifespan cycle.

In essence, Dean Lewis elevated the forest to the level of giant dragons.

Locke took out one hundred Two-Ball Plane Trees from his astral ring. The roots of these Two-Ball Plane Trees all carried soil balls and had undergone root pruning treatment a month in advance. They had been completely adjusted to a state suitable for transplanting.

Plants themselves were not easy to move. Even though magical plants had stronger vitality, this was still the case. So transplanting Two-Ball Plane Trees required preparations a month in advance.

With the help of Halen Vera's network connections, Locke had brought over massive manpower and had already arranged these matters a month in advance.

Locke commanded the ten still-operating dwarf-model golems in the constant temperature room to use iron shovels to dig one hundred holes in the ground. Locke had already calculated the diameter of these holes.

The size of the holes and soil balls would affect the survival rate after transplanting.

"Six trees are definitely not enough for the forest to take shape. For a woodland to become a community, there must be at least thirty trees, and the species cannot be singular. Single tree species will attract diseases." Locke recalled the ecology-related knowledge he had learned during this time.

"So I need to increase the number of trees to 106. This will make this magical plant forest truly live up to its name. Unfortunately, I haven't yet obtained a Druid's Ring. Otherwise, I could seriously plan and enhance this forest and conduct ecological experiments."

Locke commanded the golems to plant the plane trees one by one. At the same time, he sensed that the underground tree roots of the Scorched Earth Holly had already begun to form connections with the roots of the one hundred plane trees.

The roots of the Scorched Earth Holly hosted many fungi. Among them was one called Holly Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus. This was a magical fungus that could extend outward from the root parts of the Scorched Earth Holly, forming magical mycorrhizae.

In other words, it was a symbiotic mycorrhiza belonging to the roots of the Scorched Earth Holly.

These mycorrhizae would connect with the roots of other plants underground within a radius of several thousand meters.

This way, they could form a Mycorrhizal Network.

This was a special ecology possessed by all plants, belonging to a type of distributed intelligence evolution. It was in the same direction of intelligent evolution as the insect swarm he had seen in the illusion.

But the symbiotic fungus of Scorched Earth Holly, Holly Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus, would strengthen this Mycorrhizal Network to the extreme.

Scorched Earth Holly could share its nutrition, mana, some natural magic structure components, and even some information with other plants connected to the Mycorrhizal Network. It could also obtain mana, nutrition, and natural magic structure components from other plants in the Mycorrhizal Network.

Locke saw that now the one hundred Two-Ball Plane Trees were enveloped in a layer of green light. This was Scorched Earth Holly sharing mana, giving these plane trees vitality, helping them quickly pass through the weakness period during transplanting and immediately join this forest family.

The Mycorrhizal Network was the forest's true brain. The forest's true brain was in the underground root soil layer.

Within the Mycorrhizal Network, all plants could engage in simple communication based on instinct.

As Scorched Earth Holly used the Mycorrhizal Network to incorporate the one hundred plane trees, neural virtual tentacles of the distributed psionic network also appeared behind Locke. These tentacles connected with the plane trees one by one, completely incorporating them into his forest.

His forest was currently maintained by three things. The first was the Mycorrhizal Network that every forest naturally possessed.

The second was forming a mana grafting relationship between these magical plants and himself.

The third was incorporating them into his distributed psionic network.

That is, using the three methods of forest, swarm, and plant wizard to unite the entire forest together, forming the possibility of the Forest Sanctuary.

Five hundred years ago, Wizard Lewis was stuck at this step precisely because he lacked the distributed psionic network. He couldn't create a closer connection between wizard and magical plants, so naturally couldn't complete the Forest Sanctuary magic.

As the forest expanded to 106 tree-type magical plants, the Forest Sanctuary magic strengthened by three parts out of nowhere, allowing Locke to notice that his permanent defensive field had strengthened somewhat.

Although one hundred plane trees weren't much, and could be called insignificant compared to First Circle magical plants, their existence precisely filled the blank gaps in the forest, allowing the forest to truly become a forest.

Therefore, the Forest Sanctuary magic strengthened out of nowhere.

And the six Scorched Earth Holly plants, as kings of magical plants, could suppress these Two-Ball Plane Trees.

Locke suddenly thought, if he continued strengthening like this, would two situations occur?

First, could he use two types of permanent defensive fields simultaneously in battle?

Second, would his permanent defensive field, because the forest's magical pressure exceeded his own magical pressure, result in an external magical pressure source situation?

That is, could he, by relying on the Forest Sanctuary, obtain magical pressure far exceeding what his own magical pressure could possess, like Abyss energy?

Locke quickly calculated and discovered this was originally the planned developmental change of the Forest Sanctuary.

As long as he made certain fine adjustments to the spell model of the Forest Sanctuary, it could be achieved.

He didn't even need to make fine adjustments within his own soul. He could make fine adjustments on the six Scorched Earth Holly plants.

He just needed to further strengthen the forest ecology itself to achieve this.

Locke revealed a thoughtful expression. "Forest Sanctuary isn't an ordinary permanent defensive field. It's the product of Wizard Lewis attempting to break through to Second Circle wizard. In other words, hidden inside Forest Sanctuary is the key to breaking through to Second Circle wizard. I just haven't realized this yet."

"Let's continue strengthening the Forest Sanctuary first. After increasing the total biomass, this is now a forest worthy of the name."

"Then, I'll enter the true forest cultivation stage and plant the forest's symbiotic magical plants!"

Trees were indeed the core of the forest, but inside the forest there would also be other types of magical plants. Those all belonged to the symbiotic magical plants of the trees.

The existence of symbiotic magical plants was to make the forest more thriving and form a stable cycle.

A newborn forest didn't need to plant a bunch of miscellaneous plants. For example, he also wanted to plant the Corrupt Soil Taro King that he could already mass-produce inside the forest.

If he planted Corrupt Soil Taro King inside, he could definitely strengthen his forest.

But this thing was a luxury item within the ecosystem. Its existence consumed ecosystem resources, whereas symbiotic magical plants were meant to maintain resource circulation within the ecosystem.

Therefore, Locke only prepared to plant Jade Iris Lichen and the three types of magical vines he had cultivated inside.