The seventh floor of the castle where the Origin Academy was located, which was the top floor area.

Locke and Wizard Kelt walked up, and as soon as they entered the seventh floor, it was as if they had entered an alien space. The walls and ceiling were covered everywhere with flowing lava and scalding unknown stones.

Moreover, this place was filled with high temperatures. It didn't seem like the seventh floor of the Origin Academy at all, but rather like the depths of the core of some non-life plane.

It was a forbidden zone where ordinary life could not possibly stay for long.

The surfaces of Locke and Wizard Kelt's bodies were immediately covered with a layer of permanent defensive field, and the two walked on the lava surface with normal expressions.

Wizard Kelt explained to Locke, "This is Yekaterina's Throne's territory. It's planted full of magical plants that must be cultivated with lava and flames, so the temperature is very high."

Locke indicated that this was indeed the case. At the same time, he scanned around and discovered that just the castle corridors were planted full of many First Circle lava-cultivated magical plants, half of which were flower-type magical plants and half green-leaf-type magical plants.

Generally, lava-cultivated magical plants were all First Circle level and above.

And everything Locke saw was indeed all First Circle magical plants, such as Red Rock Calla Lilies, Black Magic Deep Red Roses, Cold Orange Flame Lilies, Bird's Nest Fern Dragon Willows, and so on.

Each magical plant was both powerful and... shared a common trait, which was being extremely beautiful.

The branches and leaves of these magical plants had all been pruned, and the orientation of the flowers had also been carefully arranged.

Wizard Kelt said in a low voice, "These magical plants are all works that the Throne made with her own hands. The Throne believes that power and beauty coexist, that pursuing beauty is pursuing power, and is also pursuing truth. She is a very meticulous wizard. She has always been a wizard with very high standards."

The Second Circle Wizard Wizard Kelt wiped the sweat from his forehead. He seemed extremely nervous, and his speech was somewhat repetitive.

Locke glanced at him and cautiously said nothing.

For some reason, Wizard Kelt's fear of Witch Yekaterina had actually reached this degree.

This was Locke's first time coming to the seventh floor of the Origin Academy. Walking along the way, he noticed that the corridor alone had cultivated at least 31 varieties of First Circle level red rose magical plants, including Black Magic, War Glory, Super Carola, Black Talia's Wedding Dress...

This showed Witch Yekaterina's love for red roses.

At the same time, some lava-cultivated peach magical plants were also planted in the corridor, such as Burning Heart Witch Peaches, Molten Branch Longevity Peaches, Fire Eye Observation Peaches, and so on.

After all, Golden Crown Mountain was most famous for peach magical plants, so as a Throne wizard of Golden Crown Mountain, Witch Yekaterina's research into peach magical plants must also be very in-depth.

Locke used his Life Force Field to protect himself. In fact, with so many rose magical plants, just the overflowing rose fragrance alone had dozens of varieties containing different natural magical power structure components.

And rose-family magical plants most easily affected people's mental state and personality. They naturally possessed large amounts of Enchantment School and Illusion School spell-like natural magical power structure components. This was a direction that rose-family magical plants had chosen during their evolution process to protect themselves.

So Locke could only use his Life Force Field to protect himself and prevent falling into the emotional vortex formed by this rose fragrance.

"This is..." At the front of the corridor, Locke saw a Second Circle level red rose magical plant, and he had just happened to read about it a few days ago in a book at Golden Crown Mountain's free library.

It was a Second Circle red rose magical plant that grew in the depths of the Abyss, on the fifty-seventh layer plane, Doomsday Molten Lake. Its appearance was strange and terrifying, with spiral-layered petals. The outer three petals had serrated edges like an emperor's crown, and its overall color was red with a terrifying and majestic black.

Its name was the Second Circle magical plant Red Demon God!

Locke sensed the world-destroying magical power emanating from the Red Demon God. Second Circle magical plants and First Circle magical plants were said to have an essential difference. Locke was about to walk forward and touch it with his right hand to explore the difference between Second Circle and First Circle magical plants.

Suddenly, magical power surged from the depths of his soul.

A flash of clarity passed through Locke's eyes. He promptly used Myst's Power to protect himself, finally breaking free from the Red Demon God's desire entanglement.

'Right, how could I forget? The book said that for First Circle wizards, the Red Demon God is extremely dangerous.' Cold sweat ran down Locke's back.

'The Red Demon God comes with Second Circle level Enchantment School spells that automatically trigger the desires in the hearts of nearby people. Each person's desires are different. The deeper the desire, the deeper they fall.'

'Once my palm touches the surface of the Red Demon God, in the next instant, my body along with my soul would be burned until nothing remained.'

Locke stopped in time. Fortunately, he was still ten meters away from the Red Demon God. He looked at the corridor behind the Red Demon God. Most of the magical plants planted in that corridor were Second Circle magical plants.

According to legend, Second Circle magical plants had essential differences from First Circle magical plants, which was why Second Circle magical plants possessed such enormous magical pressure phenomena, and even had mental power strong enough to interfere with the will of First Circle crystallization wizards.

This was not something he could research at present.

Wizard Kelt hurriedly strode over. He had been thinking about how to speak when he met Witch Yekaterina later, so he hadn't noticed in time that Locke had walked in the wrong direction.

"Locke, don't wander around on the Throne's territory. The corridor ahead is dangerous even for me."

"What is a backyard garden for a Third Circle wizard is a terrifying place for us, even if... it itself harbors no malice."

Wizard Kelt led Locke away from that corridor and retreated to the entrance of a conference room.

Wizard Kelt glanced at Locke's Myst's Power. "Your permanent defensive field... seems very unique. How does it have Second Circle characteristics?"

"No wonder you got so close to the Red Demon God just now without having your desires triggered. That thing is considered quite dangerous even among Second Circle magical plants. It's just that the Throne likes this type of magical plant, so she places these plants that would cause large-scale ecological disasters if left outside in her own castle for appreciation."

At this moment, Locke also greatly admired the great power of high-circle wizards.

For example, transforming an entire floor of the castle into a special magical tide concentration gradient environment and planting it full of powerful magical plants, this kind of behavior was something he couldn't... understand.

Because he didn't know how it was done.

How could the sixth floor of the castle and the seventh floor of the castle differ so greatly that they seemed like two different worlds, yet coexist peacefully?

How could so many dangerous magical plants be turned into office decorations?

Wizard Kelt straightened his clothing, then gritted his teeth, "Locke, we're about to see the Throne."

"Be careful with your words."

The next moment, he pushed open the conference room door and walked in. This was still a conference room with an overall black-red volcanic style, but it was relatively more normal inside. There was no lava, nor too many aggressive magical plants, only a few Molten Branch Longevity Peaches, Fire Eye Observation Peaches, and Dragon Eye Monstera as decorations.

Witch Yekaterina was sitting in a chair behind her desk, feeding birdseed to a bird in her birdcage, about the size of a palm, which looked like just an ordinary magical bird.

Yekaterina wore a luxurious radiant gold gilded robe with a simple lord's crown inlaid with eleven rubies on her head. That seemed to be a powerful high-circle magical artifact.

Witch Yekaterina looked amiably at Wizard Kelt, "You're here, Kelt. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Then she looked at Locke, "And Locke, I heard that Wizard Hao Brooks from Quinn Jol University gave you a very high evaluation this time, believing that you have the prospects to definitely become a Second Circle wizard."

Witch Yekaterina smiled, "This is very good."

"From the beginning, I believed you could do it."

"Now, as expected, you have not disappointed my expectations of you. I called you here this time to fulfill the promise I made to you before, to help you choose to contract with a special plane. I can give you several choices, but the specifics will be up to you to pick."

"It's all up to you."

Witch Yekaterina said, "Theoretically speaking, a wizard can sign contracts with multiple special planes, but in practical terms, it's best not to. Because signing more than one special plane has very low cost-effectiveness, doesn't provide much improvement, and instead increases many unnecessary spells."

"When using ritual magic, always remember one thing, sometimes what you gain is not proportional to what you pay."

Locke bowed to Witch Yekaterina, saying, "Thank you, teacher. I understand."

Witch Yekaterina suddenly put down the birdseed in her hand, walked over, and came to Locke's side. Kelt glanced over from the corner of his eye, nearly frightened to death.

Witch Yekaterina suddenly reached out, grabbed Locke's collar, and personally straightened it for him. "That's right now."

"I'm sorry, Locke. I have a bit of OCD. From the moment I started talking to you, I've been wanting to mention that your collar was a bit crooked."

"Of course, it might just be that I'm overly sensitive to parallel lines." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Ordinary people probably couldn't tell it wasn't aligned."

Locke said, "It's fine, teacher."

Witch Yekaterina gently invited Locke and Wizard Kelt to sit down at a small tea table in the center of the conference room.

Locke looked at Wizard Kelt with confusion, really not understanding why he was so afraid of Witch Yekaterina.

After sitting down, Wizard Kelt said to Witch Yekaterina, "Throne, I need to report to you..."

Witch Yekaterina said, "You don't need to say it, because I already know."

"Zevin Watts and Alexei Patterson, these two ordinary Origin Academy researchers fabricated experimental data and used the falsified experimental data to submit papers and apply for projects."

"This matter is due to your poor management."

"Go handle these two people, dismiss them and make them compensate."

Locke looked at Wizard Kelt with surprise.

He hadn't expected such things to be happening within Group Six.

Wizard Kelt's body shook. He looked at Witch Yekaterina somewhat puzzled, saying, "But this is the first time I'm reporting this matter to you. Before this, you haven't come to our Group Six for almost a year..."

Wizard Kelt seemed to think of something, his face turning pale.

Witch Yekaterina glanced at him, saying, "There's a young witch in the ordinary Origin Academy, Mason. I've recently been guiding her in choosing her special plane, and through my exchanges with her, I learned about many things in Group Six."

"So I know about these matters. Including all matters concerning you."

Witch Yekaterina looked at Locke and said gently, "These are materials on special planes. Based on your situation, I've made three choices for you. Each choice is actually very suitable for you."

"But I suggest you choose either the Ancient Sky Phantom Realm plane or the Emerald Dream plane. These two are most suitable for you."

"Choose one of them."

Wizard Kelt's mouth was dry. He wanted to say something, so he hurriedly spoke, "Throne, there were some misunderstandings between Wizard Locke and me before, but I didn't expect him to be so outstanding. Your judgment is truly excellent. It's like this..."

Witch Yekaterina looked at him, saying, "The tickets to the Mira Sisters' concert were given to Locke by Mason at my instruction."

One sentence, and Wizard Kelt completely lost anything he wanted to say.

The topic was terminated.

Because this meant that Yekaterina knew everything that happened in Group Six.

Witch Yekaterina had never been to Group Six, yet she had eyes and ears throughout Group Six.

She knew everything.

But no matter what Kelt had done, Witch Yekaterina indeed had not interfered even once during the past year.

Witch Yekaterina said to Wizard Kelt, "You should understand my style of doing things."

Wizard Kelt's face was pale, and he gave a bitter smile. "So I only have one last chance left? If I still don't grasp it, then I can only leave Golden Crown Mountain or be transferred to an unimportant position."

Wizard Kelt suddenly crushed the watch in his hand, then said to Witch Yekaterina, "Throne, I understand. From today on, I will never again run amok in Group Six or arbitrarily vent my negative emotions. I will be more attentive to Group Six and will never let data fabrication happen again."

"I was too anxious before, so I would rather believe that those two people's breakthrough discovery was real and didn't verify it thoroughly. This is indeed my responsibility. It's a mistake I made because of too much psychological pressure, but in the end, it is indeed my responsibility."

Wizard Kelt made eye contact with Locke, gave him a bitter smile, and used his eyes to hint to Locke that Witch Yekaterina was not easy to get along with.

And once she directly interfered with your behavior, it meant her tolerance for you was exhausted.

Laissez-faire was Witch Yekaterina's greatest respect for a wizard, and once she intervened, it represented a loss of trust.

Wizard Kelt understood that this summons was his final warning.

Witch Yekaterina looked at Locke, saying, "Are you adjusting well to life in Cloud Marsh Wetland and my research group? Your performance this time was very good, as good as I expected. You haven't disappointed me at all."

From Witch Yekaterina's attitude, Locke perceived that she seemed to have estimated his abilities through the Cloud Marsh Cup, which meant that all his current performance in Group Six of Cloud Marsh Wetland... might have always been within Witch Yekaterina's predictions.

That's why Witch Yekaterina had said she knew he could do it.

In other words, all his performance in this Origin Academy defense was probably within her expectations.

In an instant, Locke even felt an enormous pressure.

That kind of pressure wasn't because of fearing danger or seeing something dangerous, but another kind of pressure.

At this moment, Locke even felt empathy with Wizard Kelt.

Locke said, "Teacher, I'm living very well. Life in Cloud Marsh Wetland is even more convenient than I thought."

Witch Yekaterina nodded. "That's good. Then you should work hard and seize the opportunities."

"Oh right, there's something I need to ask you. I've looked at your experimental data. Your data is very good, all done by yourself. I can tell this. But there's a question. In the relevant section on the Big Black Diamond Bromeliad in your paper, you actually included some scattered data that wasn't particularly favorable to your conclusions. Why didn't you delete that data?"

"That data clearly shows it was only affected because your assistant's operational procedures were incorrect. The general direction definitely has no problems."

Locke was stunned. "Teacher, shouldn't all the real data be included?"

This was a habit Witch Sophia had instilled in him when teaching him.

Wizard Kelt was also stunned and looked at Locke with surprise, asking, "You didn't modify your experimental data at all?"

"You just put all your experimental data up like that?"

Locke felt uncomfortable being stared at by Wizard Kelt and even started doubting himself. "Is there something wrong with that? It won't affect my passing the project application anyway."