After Locke left the Louis Underground Research Institute, he returned to the White Dragon Tower's laboratory and held a group meeting with another project team.

With the Plutarch family's equipment and funding, plus massive production resources supporting him, Locke could completely control the progress of two project teams just by attending group meetings and reviewing materials. There was no need to go to the front lines.

He could control the overall situation and set the direction, while the specific operations could be handed over to those wizards.

The time saved this way could be used for meditation, studying plant magic, and Locke also needed to set aside a certain amount of time to read Grand Wizard Sulla's case files.

After all, he was a potion master invited by the Plutarch family and the Philade family. He still needed to do a bit of his actual job.

After another month passed, Locke also obtained an entire wizard team from an undervalued botany research group at White Dragon Magic Gem University. Locke had them develop supporting spells for Golden Eye Grass, Shadow Eye Grass, and Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow.

He didn't need them to develop from scratch, because he couldn't wait that many years, and they didn't have that ability either.

They only needed to fine-tune the spell models of the original general reconnaissance plant magic [Eye of Plants and Trees] and other types of botany magic [Photosynthesis] and [Wall of Plants and Trees] to adapt to Golden Eye Grass and Shadow Eye Grass, forming dedicated supporting spells for these two magical plants.

Similarly, using the existing First Circle plant flight magic [Banana Wings] and First Circle plant flight magic [Plant Mimicry: Horned Eagle], they could develop a set of spell models that could fully utilize [Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow].

As for the specific direction and rhythm control, that was personally commanded by Locke.

With so many actual project experiences, Locke was becoming increasingly skilled at formulating overall research plans and research details for project teams.

In fact, using this method, the efficiency far exceeded doing it himself. That would instead limit his perspective.

The three project teams currently in his hands all received renewed funding allocations from the Plutarch family. The total liquid magic stone funds for the three project teams was approximately around one million five hundred thousand.

Looking at this accounting, Locke frowned. The Plutarch family's support for him even far exceeded the Philade family's.

Alicia's support for him even exceeded Wizard Anthony's.

Although he wasn't entirely clear why.

"This money is essentially the Plutarch family's investment in the three projects. I can of course use it myself, but I truly want to develop these projects, so I can't possibly misappropriate it privately. Unless the projects can save some money at the end, then I don't need to be so honest about returning it. I can completely keep it myself or distribute it to the wizards in the project teams." In the study of his villa suite in the White Dragon Tower, Locke fiddled with bills on the desk.

"However, I still need to prevent wizards in the three project teams from secretly intercepting some magic stones. Although small embezzlement is somewhat reasonable, they at least need to get things done for me."

Locke carefully examined every expenditure of the three project teams recently and nodded slightly. "Recently there haven't been any issues. After completing these three projects, this huge sum should be spent about right."

Every project he wanted to develop indeed required massive funding investment. Otherwise, it would be impossible to produce results in a short time.

Of course, most wizards often spent several times the enormous funding and ended up obtaining nothing.

After all, no one could guarantee they would definitely be able to develop certain things. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

So Locke spent this money with a clear conscience.

Developing these three projects could not only further improve his combat ability but also add quite a bit to his résumé.

However, Locke also noticed that Alicia's support for him had reached its limit.

After all, this was a total of one million five hundred thousand magic stones in subsidies.

Especially in the current situation.

Even Alicia, because she gave him three major projects in a short time, was attacked by quite a few people in the Plutarch family. Some people were even pressuring her to withdraw her support for him.

Some people in the Plutarch family mistakenly believed this was just Alicia seeking personal gain for herself.

After all, this kind of thing was relatively common in the Plutarch family and the Land of Six Towers.

So those family wizards, under normal circumstances, wouldn't believe he truly wanted to develop three major projects. They only thought he was using project work as a pretext to help Alicia embezzle money.

However, he was too lazy to care about this kind of thing.

You can't explain ice to summer insects. Talking wouldn't get through to them. Just ignore them.

In any case, due to his reputation as an Eye Demon Wizard, that group of people didn't dare to cause trouble in front of him.

Sometimes, a fearsome reputation could instead bring him awe and save him considerable trouble. In any case, quite a few people within the Plutarch family of the Land of Six Towers, after inquiring about his battle achievements, seemed to no longer dare make any underhanded moves in private.

Locke got up from the study and ordered Claudia, who had entered the Plutarch family with him, to make a trip to White Dragon Magic University's finance office. "Claudia, go to the finance office to process reimbursements."

"This is the bill I've organized. The three projects must be clearly distinguished."

Claudia bowed to Locke. During this time, she had watched Locke stir up storms even in the Plutarch family, the most prestigious family in the Land of Six Towers. Therefore, she had become even more respectful toward Locke, even transforming into personal worship of him.

"Lord Locke, there's a problem. That finance office director keeps finding various reasons to make things difficult for me. Sometimes he says the bill format I sent over is wrong, sometimes he says the equipment purchase records aren't detailed enough. It's probably because I'm not a Plutarch family wizard. I'm worried that when I go this time, he'll make things difficult for me again."

Locke glanced at Claudia and said, "Not anymore."

"That finance office administrative director wasn't making things difficult for you, but for me, because his wife is a relative of Erik Plutarch's wife. But there's no problem now."

"Because I went to Erik's office yesterday and resolved this issue. They don't dare make things difficult for you now."

Locke said briefly.

He always could grasp the key to problems. Since the key to the problem was Erik, and Erik was so weak, the only weapon that could possibly threaten him was his access to the White Dragon Tower's Elemental Well energy.

But now, as he had obtained the White Dragon Tower permission ring Alicia gave him, this was also no longer possible.

His current combat ability had already reached the level of liquefaction wizards.

And crystallization wizards were top-level combat power in the Land of Six Towers. Erik couldn't command Plutarch family old-generation wizards at this level.

Those were the neutral elders of the Plutarch family.

Unless the Plutarch family faced an extinction crisis, they wouldn't easily take sides between Alicia and Erik.

And he was currently viewed as Alicia's person. His every move represented Alicia's will in the Plutarch family. So even though Erik was a core member of the Plutarch family, he couldn't mobilize the family's resources to deal with him.

Yesterday he just had a friendly exchange with the other party, and the other party immediately apologized to him and said it must be that the finance office director had misunderstood him.

Since that one million five hundred thousand magic stones were all funds from the Plutarch family, plus some funds from the association, the money and accounts were managed separately. His side was responsible for the usage direction and flow of the money, while the bill part was managed by the finance office's administrative personnel.

His three project teams first used their own money to purchase needed equipment and resources, then went to the finance office to report expenses and receive funds.

Therefore, trying to get money from the finance office's administrative personnel was an extremely difficult matter, requiring many procedures.

After all, this money was given to the projects, not handed to him directly.

Locke said to Claudia, "Help me tell that finance office director to make the process as fast as possible. If it can be done in a day, do it in a day."

"Everything must be expedited."

"I don't want to visit Erik's office and his home every day either. Of course, if they're happy to host me, then I wouldn't mind."

Claudia showed a smile and bowed slightly to Locke. "Erik despises Miss Alicia but fears you. I believe that this time when I go to process reimbursements, there shouldn't be any problems."

Admiring light flowed through Claudia's eyes. In her view, Locke had a fierce aura that wizards of the Land of Six Towers lacked.

The wizards of the Land of Six Towers had enjoyed peace for so long. They had numerous rules and liked to dig pits in various small details to scheme against people. But Locke used force to break cleverness, filling in all those so-called pits for you.

This wasn't just about being powerful.

More importantly, Locke had risen from the bottom of an outside wizard land, fighting his way up. He could be said to be deeply versed in the ways of struggle.

The aura on him of having experienced true war was something those family wizards of the Land of Six Towers had never seen.

And war was enough to make a person undergo a kind of mental transformation from the inside out.

After Locke sent Claudia away, he changed into clean wizard robes, left his room, and headed toward the Elemental Pool area of the First Circle wizard region within the White Dragon Magic Gem University campus in the White Dragon Tower.

Locke produced an application form stamped with a magic seal, opened the door to Elemental Pool Room No. 1, and used his White Dragon Ring to activate all the magic locks in this elemental pool room. He activated the magic array from inside and opened the magic lock to prevent anyone from entering.

After doing all this, Locke removed his clothes and walked naked into the empty elemental pool.

Immediately after, a huge rumbling sound came from below the elemental pool. Then the ten white dragon heads of the elemental pool showed crimson eyes, and then the white dragon mouths sprayed out liquefied magical energy.

Soon, azure blue magical energy gathered in this pool and continuously bubbled. Every bubble that burst released astonishing magical energy into the air.

This elemental pool was directly connected to the White Dragon Tower's energy core, the Elemental Fission Well.

Therefore, the liquid magical energy in this elemental pool could quickly fill the pool, raising the magical tide concentration gradient of this room by several orders of magnitude.

And in this kind of environment, liquefying one's magical power and breaking through the shackles of gaseous to liquid would be much simpler.

Locke drew on the surrounding magical energy, feeling that even breathing was pure magical energy.

"The wizards of the Land of Six Towers are truly blessed with advantages. If they properly utilize these resources, the number of their Second Circle wizards will definitely far exceed the southeastern quadrant."

"The function of this Elemental Well inside the White Dragon Tower is truly too great."

On the surface of the liquid magical energy in the azure elemental pool appeared ritual magic array patterns.

This was an auxiliary ritual array for completely stabilizing magical power in a liquid state. Locke had obtained it from the Plutarch family's library.

This array was divided into two parts. On the left was a sun pattern, on the right was a moon pattern, and in the middle was a scale. Around the three patterns were six circles, within which were inscribed six different ancient magical texts.

This ritual array was called the Sun and Moon Balance Ritual Array.

It was a type of magic array developed in the wizard world to help First Circle vaporization stage wizards more easily become liquefaction wizards.

However, to use this Sun and Moon Ritual Array, one's magical power absolutely must exceed 6000, and mental willpower must be strengthened to a certain degree before one could barely use this ritual magic.

After all, ritual magic could be considered a privilege of crystallization stage wizards, and this artificially simplified array was invented by a Third Circle wizard of the wizard world, specifically to simplify advancement difficulty and allow early contact with ritual magic.

At that moment, Locke took out from his astral ring, prepared in advance and purchased from shops in the White Dragon Tower, crystal balls containing noon sunlight at twelve o'clock and full moonlight captured by weather mages using magic binding.

Then he took out a brass scale. Immediately the crystal balls shattered, and the light sources stored within automatically flew out. Under the binding of ritual magic, they automatically landed on the scale.

The sunlight side of the scale was clearly heavier than the moonlight, and immediately the brass scale tipped to one side.

Locke's magical power, which had already reached 6000, was in turmoil and vibrated continuously. On the surface of the liquid magical energy in the elemental pool, small magical vortices appeared one after another.

But just as it was about to reach maximum chaos, suddenly, the moonlight side of the brass scale gained weight from the ritual's power. The scale gradually returned to balance, becoming horizontal.

Thus, the chaos in Locke's magical power began to disappear. And he took advantage of when the ritual's power completely subdued his magical power and extracted all the chaos within. He began continuously compressing his magical power, compressing the mist-like magical power into liquid magical power.

About a day later, in the elemental pool, all the magical power around Locke's body had been completely transformed into liquid, becoming droplets surrounding Locke's body.

The moment Locke opened his eyes, those droplets exploded in an instant. Immediately after, the magical energy water in the elemental pool also exploded together, raising a water column.

Locke sensed the strengthening of his willpower and opened his eyes. "My current willpower is more than twice as strong as in the vaporization stage. It's said that when a liquefaction wizard stage's willpower strength reaches a certain level and crosses a certain threshold, the power of all spells can increase by ten percent out of thin air."