Locke summoned the Sea Gold Sand tree fern before him. The Sea Gold Sand tree fern was a pseudowood tree fern, so its body size had a height that ordinary fern magical plants didn't possess—two meters tall.

Its appearance had changed somewhat, transforming from a green spiral staircase into a shape resembling a green pagoda.

It still had compound feather leaves. The edges of the triangular feather leaves were all golden spore powder. Only the area of the triangular feather leaves had become larger, and the tree fern's height had also become taller. This meant this Sea Gold Sand could produce more spore gold powder per unit time.

The power of tree ferns would be much stronger than ordinary ferns.

The Shining Sea Gold Sand also emitted a faint golden glow all over. This was the natural luminescence that appeared after golden magic was enhanced, representing that this Sea Gold Sand possessed very powerful golden magic power.

Locke reached out to summon it. As a magical plant with golden magic attributes, it took almost no effort. Locke established a connection with it, formed a mana grafting relationship, and incorporated it into his distributed psionic network.

Locke softly chanted an incantation, using the Golden Sand Torrent spell model. Immediately, this Shining Sea Gold Sand transformed from a green pagoda into a golden-green pagoda, becoming a golden sand torrent shooting skyward, sweeping forward like countless condensed blades.

Its scale was more than twice what it was before.

"Shining Sea Gold Sand can actually better unleash the power of my Scorching Gold Sand Flow series spells." Locke felt the Shining Sea Gold Sand that obeyed his commands like his own limbs. With a thought, those golden sand blades shooting forward transformed into a storm, enveloping the entire ecological garden. Yet due to Locke's control over his spells, it caused no damage to this premium laboratory's ecological garden.

This was First Circle botanical magic: Flowing Gold Sand Waterfall.

At the same time, Locke used the sixth spell in the Scorching Gold Sand Flow series. He reached forward and grabbed. Those golden sand storms automatically condensed into a giant golden hand made of golden sand, as large as a house, then slapped toward empty air in the ecological garden.

Before Locke even let this golden sand palm land, the ground had already been compressed by the magical pressure produced by this golden magic into a palm print.

This was First Circle botanical magic: Flowing Gold Great Hand.

The Fire Pearl Tomato Flower worn on Locke's right index finger automatically activated Flame Bright Spirit Energy. Flames of light wheels attached to that Flowing Gold Great Hand.

Transforming the original golden great hand into a red-gold great hand, with scorching temperature and distorted air.

Locke looked at this scene with satisfaction. The last two spells of Scorching Gold Sand Flow were the most powerful spells in the entire series. They could even be used up to the First Circle crystallization stage. Only the learning process was quite complex. He had never been able to completely master them.

Only recently, after obtaining the Immortal Dragon Scale, did he learn this Flowing Gold Great Hand.

That mysterious dragon bloodline with golden attributes could enhance his understanding of golden magic and bring talent bonuses that even First Circle wizards couldn't replicate.

Locke then tried chanting the seventh spell's incantation. That Flowing Gold Great Hand transformed into a finger. That finger was still red-gold colored, enhanced by Flame Bright Spirit Energy.

That was the seventh spell of Scorching Gold Sand Flow—First Circle botanical magic: Flowing Gold One Finger.

Golden magic had the characteristics of being difficult to destroy and difficult to affect. Flowing Gold One Finger pushed this characteristic to the extreme. The golden finger attacked enemies. The golden nature remained unchanged, so it couldn't be easily changed in state or destroyed by defensive magic. Once it poked an enemy's body, the heavy magical pressure would concentrate at one point, completely destroying the enemy's body.

Flowing Gold Great Hand was only a ranged attack. Flowing Gold One Finger had higher casting difficulty and higher requirements for magical pressure usage. Even with Locke's current magical pressure, he couldn't use Flowing Gold One Finger too many times.

Locke calculated mentally. His normal magical pressure was only enough to use Flowing Gold One Finger twice. Adding abyssal energy, he could use it three times.

Using the Ferocious Beast panel, he should be able to stack the total usage times to six times, or barely seven times.

Flowing Gold One Finger was the most difficult to learn in the Scorching Gold Sand Flow series of spells. Even if some wizards had already become Second Circle wizards during the learning process, yet still hadn't learned this last spell of Scorching Gold Sand Flow.

That was perfectly normal.

Without the Immortal Dragon Scale, Locke couldn't master this last spell either.

"With Flowing Gold One Finger, I have a super high output spell in attack magic. I won't be at a disadvantage in combat anymore."

Locke thought.

He stored this Shining Sea Gold Sand in his astral ring, then turned to leave the premium laboratory and went to Feathered Serpent Pavilion before midnight.

Feathered Serpent Pavilion was 24 hours. Today he was going to refine the King's Secret Brew that Leonius needed.

Second floor of Feathered Serpent Pavilion, potion room. Locke said to Leonius, "I'm somewhat sorry. It was agreed that I'd prepare it for you two days later. Who knew that once I got busy with an experiment, in the blink of an eye, half a month had passed."

Leonius shrugged. "It's fine. This is very normal. Every wizard is very busy. I often encounter this kind of thing. You only made me wait half a month, which is already good."

Leonius said, "Last time, to wait for a famous potion master to help, I was stood up for a whole year. After I waited a year, my potion was finally prepared. During this process, he said every day that he'd prepare it tomorrow..."

Leonius said regretfully, "We black wizard lands don't have many potion masters, so we have limited people we can find. Aside from archaeologists, other non-combat-related wizard professions are hard to develop in our black wizard lands."

Locke nodded, then took out Primordial Fire from his astral ring. During this half month, he had already reviewed the Furnace Potion formula several times and found some simple practice materials to practice.

At this moment, using Primordial Fire to prepare potions naturally came easily.

Locke summoned five crucibles, using Primordial Fire while making them float. At the same time, Primordial Fire continuously changed, from wood elemental magic flame to gold elemental magic flame, changing seventeen times consecutively in a short time.

This was the difficulty in refining Furnace Potion.

At the same time, Locke added Furnace Potion's primary and secondary materials, then put in auxiliary materials to suppress toxicity, finally adding edge materials.

An hour later, Locke mixed the liquids from five crucibles together. Inside the crucible appeared a pot of potion liquid slowly flowing like magma.

Locke poured this pot of liquid into a Time Gold Crystal potion bottle, then followed the same procedure, spending another two hours to prepare two bottles of Furnace Potion.

Locke pushed open the potion room door and rubbed his temples. Preparing three bottles of quite difficult Furnace Potion consumed quite a bit of his mental energy. For this kind of potion, without consuming potions to replenish energy, he could prepare at most three bottles a day, and it would still affect doing other things.

After all, time wasn't the problem. The biggest problem was actually energy.

Locke drank a bottle of energy potion, letting the fatigue he felt recede somewhat.

Leonius came forward. He picked up three bottles of Furnace Potion. Without any hesitation, he directly drank one bottle. The clothes on his body instantly all burned up, as if wearing a fire coat. That was phoenix fire.

At the same time, on his chest were crack-like red skin patterns. That was magical energy rippling on his chest.

Locke's guess was correct. Leonius sought him out wanting Furnace Potion for some bloodline in his body.

Locke sat on a stool beside the round table, waiting for him.

These black wizards all had a habit—once they obtained something, they would immediately use it on themselves.

This had become their long-formed habit.

Half an hour later, delight flashed through Leonius's eyes. "Furnace Potion can indeed accelerate the formation of the phoenix bloodline in my body."

Leonius maintained the flame cloak covering his skin surface. Due to phoenix bloodline transformation, he seemed to possess the characteristic of ignoring high temperatures.

Leonius said to Locke, "Thank you, Professor Augustine."

"Actually, potion studies has many areas that can complement our archaeology. Many ancient bloodlines we excavate need potion studies methods to assist in formation. Unfortunately, due to the prejudice between black wizards and white wizards, most potion masters won't cooperate with us and don't dare cooperate with us. Those potion masters who do cooperate with us only want to extract benefits from us."

"Those difficult matters, things requiring careful communication with them, cannot be required of them."

Locke nodded slightly. "Alright, Leonius. According to our agreement, you should give me half the historical documents in your Fairy Book."

Leonius smiled. "Of course."

He opened his right hand. A Fairy Book automatically floated on his hand. "These are the historical documents I collected over the past two hundred years. My archaeology talent isn't as good as Warwick's, and I'm not as diligent and hardworking as Warwick, so my efficiency in collecting historical documents is much lower than his."

The Fairy Book shot out a magical energy. Inside that magical energy was carried large amounts of negative energy particle field historical document information. After this historical document information was infused into the Book of Dragons that Locke simultaneously summoned.

The Book of Dragons automatically turned pages and underwent intense changes.

Three minutes later, the Book of Dragons suddenly closed. The Book of Dragons emitted magical pressure equivalent to First Circle liquefaction stage.

"Historical documents are the food of [Suzerain] books." Locke looked at the Book of Dragons beside him.

With half the historical documents Leonius possessed given to him, even without obtaining the remaining two-thirds of historical documents from Warwick, his [Suzerain] book still reached First Circle liquefaction stage.

With the [Suzerain] book reaching this level, his archaeology would progress extremely rapidly. Locke was confident he could elevate his understanding of Mordo language to the corresponding level within six months.

Archaeology was ultimately a discipline most requiring practice and hands-on work.

Locke flipped through the Book of Dragons and found that the historical documents Leonius collected leaned differently from the historical documents contained in Warwick's Demon God Book. The historical documents in Warwick's Demon God Book were quite balanced, while Leonius was more interested in information related to the outer plane Fairy Wilderness and also quite interested in various ancient tombs.

Locke glanced at Leonius. This little old man was showing a harmless smile, looking just like an honest person.

But after seeing the historical document information he collected, Locke kept one eye open. This little old man Leonius seemed to be a tomb raider.

Thinking carefully, when he first met him, wasn't he wearing a just-unearthed 'artifact'!

Locke opened his right hand, fingers pointing upward, moving slightly. Immediately, the Book of Dragons folded itself, transforming into a paper dragon, a lifelike red dragon. This paper dragon emitted a magical radiance.

Locke chanted an incantation, then said, "From the past five hundred years, borrow a ferryman!"

Immediately, the negative energy particle field gathered like countless chains, transforming into a person-height black eggshell. Then the eggshell suddenly shattered. A ferryman whose entire body was like black ink appeared. At the same time, at his feet was a black ark.

This already belonged to the relatively profound First Circle magic in the Wizard King's Grimoire. Previously, Locke had been unable to learn it due to the Suzerain book's low level.

This was First Circle archaeology magic: Summon, Styx Ferryman.

This was supported by large amounts of historical documents, summoning a historical shadow of a real Styx ferryman. It didn't actually exist.

Only during the spell effect's duration would this Styx ferryman believe he truly existed.

At this time, this Styx ferryman looked at Locke. "One underworld gold coin."

"I can take you to where you want to go."

Locke frowned. He didn't know what the hell underworld gold coins were, but the Wizard King's Grimoire that Warwick traded with him should have it written.

Leonius threw an underworld gold coin to him.

"Here."

"How can you just directly summon the Styx ferryman? Although the Styx ferryman is our archaeology wizards' best transportation tool, if after summoning you don't pay one underworld gold coin, the ferryman will turn against us and actively attack us."

Leonius said, "First Circle archaeologists are only users of historical documents, so they still need to follow the rules within these historical documents."

Locke caught the underworld gold coin, then handed it to the Styx ferryman.

After the Styx ferryman saw the gold coin in Locke's hand, he immediately showed greedy eyes. He took the gold coin, then said, "Where do you want to go?"

Locke recalled the Styx ferryman's rules. The real ferryman could naturally take them through most areas where the Styx flowed, but this was just a historical projection of a Styx ferryman. Moreover, the wizard world had no places where the Styx passed through. At least he currently didn't know where any existed.

This ferryman's historical projection actually didn't have any great supernatural powers, but it would be a very useful transportation tool.

Locke said, "Take me around. Let me see your speed."

Locke jumped onto the ark behind the Styx ferryman's historical projection. The ferryman didn't stop him, only raised an oar, preparing to leave.

At that time, Leonius also jumped onto the ark and threw an underworld gold coin to the Styx ferryman summoned by Locke. "This spell model for summoning the Styx ferryman is really useful. When I used to run away, I liked using this spell."

"Moreover, it can also carry people. Only, each person who boards requires paying one underworld gold coin. It's a bit expensive."

"The ferryman's boat automatically enters [Spirit Realm] state, so as long as we board the ferryman's boat, we enter a state other wizards cannot observe with the naked eye. At the same time, the ferryman boat's speed isn't slow either. The crossing speed is very fast."

"It's just that flexibility is somewhat insufficient. Straight-line speed is very fast, very suitable for escaping and medium-short term travel. But in combat, due to flexibility and defense issues, the effect is limited and it's easy to be targeted."

"Of course, because of the spirit realm invisibility ability's existence, as long as enemies don't understand it, it's still quite difficult to deal with."

Locke also wanted to test the power of this Styx ferryman. "How are underworld gold coins obtained?"

Leonius immediately said, "Underworld gold coins are currency from the underworld. Do you know the Styx? The Styx Plane is part of the underworld. The underworld is a super-large-scale unique special plane in the endless void."

"The underworld is where many souls go after death."

"There are many more secrets about the underworld. Not all souls go there. These secrets between life and death even conflict with each other in various ways, seeming full of contradictions. But in any case, underworld gold coins come from the underworld and are hard currency in the underworld."

"We archaeologists can trade with underworld beings and Styx Plane beings to obtain underworld gold coins. The contact information for those underworld creatures is easy to obtain. The grimoire in your hand should record it. There are several First Circle minor spells that can contact them."

Leonius said, "Satisfy some of their small requests, and they may actively trade underworld gold coins with you."

At this time, the small boat under their feet, supported by the ferryman's oar, rapidly rowed forward.

Then they, the ferryman, and the entire small boat all entered the spirit realm, thus in a half-ethereal + visual invisibility state. They ignored the wall before them, passing through it. All the way through obstacles, traveling on White Dragon Street.

At that time, extremely high-precision Abjuration School magic traps emitted warning sounds. But the wizards on White Dragon Street all fell into confusion because their naked eyes couldn't see Locke and Leonius, so they didn't know why the magic traps were issuing warning sounds.

Seeing this scene, Locke immediately reacted. This was fundamentally an escape god-skill!

With this spell model, First Circle liquefaction stage and above archaeology wizards wanting to run away was truly too convenient.

As for why archaeology wizards needed this kind of escape god-skill, the reason wasn't actually hard to guess.

Locke even noticed that when this ferryman boat passed through some magical defenses, due to spirit realm etherealization, it could actually directly pass through.

Only some advanced Abjuration School formations would block it out.

Locke tested the ferryman boat's speed and found this boat's straight-line speed was extremely fast, only slightly slower than his Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow. Although when turning it would be extremely inflexible, with speed suddenly slowing.

But the problem was, the ferryman boat could enter spirit realm etherealization state. Generally speaking, there wasn't much need to turn around.

His Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow was itself the top-tier flying magical plant among First Circle magical plants, so coordinating with his Plant Mimicry: Green Dragon, its flight speed was still above the ferryman's. This was very normal.

But the ferryman's advantage lay in low consumption of his mana, while also having built-in spirit realm etherealization.

After Locke and Leonius played for a while, he ordered the ferryman to cross White Dragon Tower, trying to directly take the boat and leave White Dragon Tower.

The two people and the boat together passed through White Dragon Tower's outer wall.

"I just wanted to try. It actually works." Locke was stunned for a moment because the ferryman boat actually directly passed through the outermost layer of White Dragon Tower's wall. "If that's the case, this is indeed a good magic for escaping. Wait... something seems wrong."

Locke frowned. After they passed through White Dragon Tower's wall, they didn't appear outside White Dragon Tower as expected, flying in midair.

They entered a dark space.

In this space, looking up was darkness. Looking down was an endless abyss.

In the darkness, countless elements were continuously undergoing fission reactions. Powerful energy wantonly surged in the space, even reaching the point of distorting space, causing space to have a tendency toward slight fracture.

Seeing this scene, Locke fell into deep thought.

Sweat covered Leonius's forehead. "The six signal towers of the Land of Six Towers are all world miracles created by ancient wizards stained with ancient blood. They couldn't possibly be directly crossed by a First Circle spell."

"However, I also wanted to try before, so I didn't stop you. Now it seems we've messed up. Where is this?"

Leonius looked at the terrible elemental fission happening in the dark depths and involuntarily used his permanent defensive force field [Fairy King's Blessing].

A crystalline green magic shield enveloped his body surface.

Locke also immediately deployed his Life Force Field.

Around that ongoing elemental fission, even though they collectively entered spirit realm etherealization state, at this moment they felt as if constantly bearing enormous magical pressure, their bodies encountering enormous pressure.

Every moment here, every cell in their bodies was bearing what could be called terrifying radiation pressure.

"This should be where the Land of Six Towers' Elemental Fission Pool is located." Locke said, "We crossed part of the Land of Six Towers' barrier but didn't completely cross through, so we entered this hidden space."

Archaeology spell models were indeed the magic best at exploring secrets. Didn't they just explore the location of the Elemental Fission Pool?

Only Locke felt the terrible power from elemental fission. The space here was distorted, turning into ring-shaped states, intersecting with each other. Some spaces were divided by this elemental fission gravity into shapes like Chinese knots.

"The gravity inside the Elemental Fission Pool is too strong." Locke judged, "The ferryman boat under our feet has been locked by fission gravity and is heading toward the depths of the Elemental Fission Pool, about to become fission raw material in the Elemental Fission Pool."

"Hard to believe, this is a power scale far exceeding First Circle wizards. Even the total magical pressure of the Second Circle wizards I've seen before, compared to this, is like a mayfly trying to shake a tree."

They were now like having one foot on the gas pedal to the edge of a black hole.

Leonius's face paled. "So what do we do now?"

Locke looked at the ring in his hand. The White Dragon Ring emitted magical radiance. "It's fine. I have authority."

"In White Dragon Tower, I'm unlikely to have anything happen to me."

"I possess priority control of this ancient miracle."

The next moment, a huge external force spewed from the depths of the Elemental Fission Pool. This external force pushed the ferryman boat under the two people's feet and directly pushed them out.