Locke looked at Grand Wizard Sulla and said, "Grand Wizard Sulla, as long as I help you, you'll help me compete in tournaments? I wonder if this promise still counts now? After all, you can currently only provide five hundred thousand magic stones to fund my construction of the project for you in the Mage Saint Hall city."

Facing Locke's questioning, the smile on Grand Wizard Sulla's face became more sincere as he said, "Of course it counts."

"Even if I don't come forward personally, I can still manage to fund your tournament participation and have the Land of Six Towers participate in this year's fifteenth Cloud Marsh Wetland Combat Magical Plant Competition, the Cloud Marsh Cup."

"I can have Alicia do all of this."

Alicia was somewhat flustered. Such a major decision was completely beyond what her prestige in the Land of Six Towers could support. "Grandfather, I..."

Grand Wizard Sulla smiled and said, "I've collected quite a bit of dirt on the older generation of the Plutarch family, especially those two crystallization-stage old wizards."

"Alicia, with this dirt, you can persuade those old fellows to work for you."

"Alicia, you can secretly come to me in the future. Now that you've discovered my plan, this is even better. I can guide you and help you gradually increase your prestige in the Land of Six Towers."

"Locke, as long as I hand over the dirt on those old fellows to Alicia, she can help you apply for the opportunity to participate in competitions, the funding, and the participants. Not only that, with the dirt I have, Alicia's support for you will increase. You can also get more projects."

"Both participating in competitions and investing in projects can go through official accounts."

Grand Wizard Sulla seemed to have made a decision and began to seriously trade with Locke, proactively making even greater concessions.

Locke nodded slightly. If it was like this, then this trade was relatively worthwhile for him.

He would help Grand Wizard Sulla complete the project on the Mage Saint Hall city' side. In return, the Plutarch family, as his financial backer, would help him obtain more quality projects and participate in some valuable competitions.

Actually, in this process, as long as he could do the projects well, it wouldn't just be a simple transaction between himself and Grand Wizard Sulla.

But rather, he and Alicia would grow together.

Because as long as he continuously won competitions, as the apparent financial backer, Alicia's prestige in the Land of Six Towers would gradually increase.

Essentially, this was a mutually beneficial matter.

It's just that Grand Wizard Sulla and Alicia couldn't possibly realize this point yet.

And this point also ensured that Locke didn't need to worry about Grand Wizard Sulla suddenly going back on his word.

Locke said, "Good, then our deal is made."

Grand Wizard Sulla's lips curved up, revealing a satisfied smile. He pointed at the resource vault inside this wizard tower and said, "By the way, you and Alicia can also freely use these resource vaults. Inside are quite a few magical creatures and magical plants unique to this plane."

"Just right, these magical creatures can be studied by Alicia, and the magical plants can be studied by you."

"After you leave this plane, Alicia will procure the needed materials and gradually launder those five hundred thousand magic stones through some methods into research funding for Locke."

"I can teach you all of this in detail later, Alicia. This is also what you should do as the ruler of the Land of Six Towers."

Grand Wizard Sulla said some things to Alicia, mainly about how to study people's hearts, how to operate funds, and how to control family industries.

Meanwhile, Locke was happy to have some peace. In the Land of Six Towers, he only wanted to be a simple junior instructor, compete in some tournaments, obtain some resources, and use it as a stepping stone for applying for teaching positions. So he had no interest in participating in the conspiracies and such of the Land of Six Towers.

These matters had little to do with him. Or rather, if he dared to show interest, he would probably arouse Grand Wizard Sulla's strong wariness.

Locke glanced at Grand Wizard Sulla. Who knew whether what Grand Wizard Sulla was saying to Alicia now was a test of his character.

It was better for him to maintain the image of a simple researcher as much as possible.

For this type of old fox who had held power for years, how could he allow others to pry into his domain?

In the future, when acting within the Plutarch family, it was better to be more cautious.

Knowing that the rulers of the Plutarch family had always been secretly manipulating the entire family and the Land of Six Towers, Locke now even regretted some of his previous behaviors, which had been somewhat rash.

In the future, when he went to other wizard lands, he should be even more careful.

A strong dragon doesn't suppress a local snake. Who knew what kind of whirlpool of conspiracy this wizard land truly contained.

At this moment, Grand Wizard Sulla secretly glanced at Locke, then was satisfied to see that Locke showed no interest at all in what he and Alicia were discussing, and wasn't even listening.

This made Grand Wizard Sulla even more at ease with Locke.

Grand Wizard Sulla suddenly smiled at Locke and pointed at Locke's left hand, saying, "Dear Locke, actually sometimes when I see you, I feel like you're my grandson."

"How I wish I could have an outstanding grandson like you."

Grand Wizard Sulla said, "I can find a way to help you remove that Destined Death magic on your left hand."

"Here, take this."

Grand Wizard Sulla took out a black scorpion ring magic tool from the astral ring worn on his avatar's hand. "You wear this ring on your right hand, and the Destined Death magic will be temporarily shielded. As long as you wear it continuously for half a year, that divination magic won't be able to lock onto you and will permanently disappear from you."

"I'm temporarily lending you this magic tool. Remember to return it to me in half a year." Grand Wizard Sulla added a sentence. "It's not that I'm stingy, but this magic tool needs to rely on our family's Scorpion Woman bloodline as an energy supplement. You don't have the Scorpion Woman bloodline, so it's useless for you to keep it."

Locke took the ring, inspected it briefly, confirmed there were no problems, and wore it on the index finger of his right hand.

The moment he put on this ring, the cyan mark on the back of his left hand automatically disappeared. "Even you have no way to immediately remove this magic?"

Grand Wizard Sulla said helplessly, "I can roughly guess who the black wizard that cast this magic is. She's a First Circle crystallization-stage wizard who can use ritual magic. This Destined Death magic was enhanced by her ritual magic, so it's difficult to remove."

"Ritual magic is a privilege of crystallization-stage wizards. Only wizards who have truly reached the crystallization stage can use ritual magic. Even if one temporarily reaches the magic pressure level of a crystallization wizard through some special methods, it won't work. This involves a special issue."

Grand Wizard Sulla said, "The demons in this world were created by another black wizard. I originally couldn't understand why that black wizard would target this world at the same time as me, but thinking about it now, the black wizard who first targeted me was probably not him, but the Divination School black wizard plotting against you."

"Those Divination School wizards always like to hide in the back and hurt people with dark arrows, never daring to stand out directly and face-to-face."

Grand Wizard Sulla waved his hand, and immediately a magic alloy door of a room in the corridor opened, revealing ten demons of different levels imprisoned in the room. "This world has no dark element fundamental particles, so many spells of the Necromancy School are affected. And that black wizard is an old enemy of mine from the past, with an irreconcilable hatred between us."

"These demons were created by him by modifying necromancy magic according to this world's rules."

"Locke, Alicia, can you two see his general approach?"

Alicia shook her head slightly.

But Locke looked at the ten imprisoned demons in that laboratory and stated his guess. "Probably using earth element particles as death energy, and using the deaths of a large number of lives to pollute a piece of ley line, forcibly combining earth element fundamental particles with death."

"But the ability of earth element particles to combine with death is naturally inferior to that of dark element particles with death. So even so, the power of his necromancy magic has still suffered great losses."

"I've killed a demon before, so I can roughly guess what technology was used."

"These demons are essentially earth element creatures twisted by death power."

Locke said, "If I'm not mistaken, the opponent should be a black wizard from the Necromancy School's prosthetic synthesis magic sub-direction."

Grand Wizard Sulla turned his head to look at Locke in surprise. "It seems you're even more outstanding than I expected."

"You actually guessed correctly. The opponent is a prosthetic master from the Spiral Basin wizard land, Black Wizard Academy, Neher University."

Grand Wizard Sulla said, "I know my old friend's talents too well. He once only needed one spell to create an army of death monsters using the simplest materials."

"Those demons are his masterpiece. And as long as we kill the demons, the demon qi of those demons, which is actually twisted ley line energy, will conduct back through the earth to a certain location in this plane. There, an ultimate demon is being nurtured."

"My old friend used a method that their prosthetic masters use to become Second Circle wizards, nurturing an ultimate demon creature there, wanting to compete with me on the speed of advancement in this world."

"However, from the current situation, I should be one step ahead of him." Grand Wizard Sulla fell into a certain memory and was rarely in a trance for a moment. "I know him too well."

"Recently, he will definitely launch an attack on the Mage Saint Hall city at all costs. This recent attack was just a prelude."

From Grand Wizard Sulla's words, Locke keenly detected two points.

First, wizards of different schools used different methods to advance to Second Circle wizard using that special resource from medium-scale worlds.

Second, Grand Wizard Sulla seemed to have a very complicated relationship with the black wizard behind the current demon race, not just an enemy relationship.

If it was simply an enemy relationship, then when Grand Wizard Sulla mentioned that wizard, he should be gritting his teeth. Even if he had deep schemes, he should at least be deeply secretive about it.

But his eyes wouldn't reveal such complex emotions, sighing at how unpredictable fate was.

Locke thought for a moment. Forget it, these matters had nothing to do with him.

He just needed to find a way to extract from this old fox Grand Wizard Sulla the secret of utilizing medium-scale worlds' special resources.

Then, he would use the Plutarch family's funding to add more achievements to his resume.