On the first floor of the Dragon Blood Market Castle, inside the largest magical plant shop in the Dragon Blood Market, Golden Peach Garden, Locke walked among the powerful magical plants and breeder equipment displayed on the shelves.

"Four Elements Ring, very rare, not just a matter of price."

"That's the latest invention from Dragon Fall Land. It hasn't had time to be sold in other wizard lands yet."

A First Circle liquefaction stage botany wizard walked in front of Locke. His gaze flowed between lotus flower boxes, and he suddenly stopped in front of a shelf, picking up four lotus flower boxes. He opened the boxes and took out four magic rings from them.

The style of the four rings looked very simple.

They were wrapped in powerful elemental forces.

This trader took out one of the fire element rings, then personally placed it on Locke's left index finger. He clicked his tongue in wonder and said, "Many people think these magic tools are just magic tools, but I always believe these magic tools have their own thoughts. Perhaps it's because I don't understand alchemy and enchantment studies, so I have mysterious associations. But be careful using these magic rings..."

"They're very dangerous."

"Looks like a good fit. Each ring is two hundred thousand magic stones, a total of eight hundred thousand magic stones."

Locke painfully took out eighty magic crystal cards and exchanged them for the four elemental rings from the other party.

This way, he had spent a total of nine hundred thousand magic stones in the past few days.

If it weren't for the loan he had taken out, he wouldn't even have been able to pay.

Of the 1.7 million magic stones he currently had on hand, including the loan, a large portion didn't actually fully belong to him.

Five hundred thousand was the loan, five hundred thousand was project funding, and seven hundred thousand was his personal savings.

Now, after all this spending, his savings had only four hundred thousand left, the loan was completely used up, and the project funding still had four hundred thousand remaining.

So, he currently had eight hundred thousand magic stones in savings.

Locke thought to himself, 'Money really doesn't last long.'

Locke adjusted the order of rings on his hand, wearing the Druid's Ring on his thumb, then wearing the four elemental rings on his left hand's remaining fingers respectively. At the same time, he wore the Scorpion Woman's Ring on his right thumb, the White Dragon Ring on his right ring finger, and the astral ring on his right index finger.

The Three Elements Shield Ring could only be thrown into the astral ring to gather dust.

Locke, afraid he might buy more things, hurriedly left Golden Peach Garden with quick steps.

He returned to his dormitory and immediately opened the Druid's Ring, walked inside, then took out a polygonal Life Tree seed from his hand. He walked to the center position of the Forest Sanctuary, then gently dug out a bit of soil in the ground, and placed the Ancient Life Tree seed inside.

But the Ancient Life Tree seed suddenly floated up from that soil pit, flashing with green magical radiance.

Locke was stunned for a moment, then understood. "Is there not enough energy?"

Suddenly, four huge light spheres appeared in the sky of the demiplane space inside the Druid's Ring, representing wind, water, fire, and earth respectively.

First, the flames transformed into a fireball, replacing the sun's reflected light from the main material plane in this world, becoming the sun here. Then the water transformed into an ice sphere, becoming the moon here.

Next, the earth elemental light sphere sank into the ground, and then the wind elemental light sphere merged its form into the high altitude of the demiplane.

The four great elemental sources of wind, water, fire, and earth were the fundamental forces of the world. The simultaneous action of the four great forces even made the demiplane more similar to a real world.

Locke looked at the Ancient Life Tree seed and discovered that this seed was closer to the soil ground, but there was still about a finger's height distance, never completely falling.

"Still not enough? According to reason, the Four Elements Ring can make the space inside the Druid's Ring more like the real world."

Locke thought of something and placed all the remaining Moss Wood Marrow he had brought from the Land of Six Towers from his astral ring into the soil pit.

Ten pieces of Moss Wood Marrow released magical radiance in the soil pit.

Among these were some that Senior Brother Anthony had given him, and some that Alicia had given him. After these Moss Wood Marrow melted, they transformed into magnificent life energy, causing the soil ground to be enveloped in a layer of life magic radiance, with powerful natural force surging forth.

These Moss Wood Marrow had been buried underground for ten thousand years, going through countless ages of incubation before being nurtured into crystals.

At this moment, all this energy burst out completely.

Thus, the Ancient Life Tree seed that had originally been floating on the soil surface finally fell peacefully and entered the soil.

In just a moment, a green sprout emerged from the ground, lush and verdant, a seedling with two tender leaves and a green bud.

Essentially, the Ancient Life Tree was fundamentally a Third Circle magical plant, which meant he now possessed the seedling of his first Third Circle magical plant.

It was just that the Ancient Life Tree required especially enormous amounts of energy, even among Third Circle magical plants it was considered very demanding. That's why Isisdar back then had only been a First Circle crystallization level nightmare.

Even though it had polluted large areas in the Emerald Dream and obtained massive amounts of energy, killing at least five cleaners from the Jungle Hand.

This was enough to see how enormous the resources needed to grow the Ancient Life Tree would be.

Thinking of this, Locke suddenly rubbed his brow in distress. Thinking carefully, he seemed to have raised a super money-devouring beast.

However, he could stop the resource input at any time. It was just that facing a magical plant with an adult form at the Third Circle level, he had no reason or justification to stop the investment.

The Ancient Life Tree seed was absolutely a treasure among treasures.

If not for the Emerald Dream conscripting him, he might not have had the opportunity to touch this kind of treasure.

Looking at it this way, Edgar, who had used Living Treants during the Cloud Marsh Cup back then, was indeed a genius among geniuses.

At the same time, large amounts of energy were absorbed into the Ancient Life Tree seedling, but the seedling showed no changes, only maintaining apprentice-level magical pressure.

This was because there wasn't enough energy. The energy he had invested could only make the Ancient Life Tree sprout, but couldn't support its continued growth.

But even so, within his 1,500-acre Druid's Ring, in the 100-acre Forest Sanctuary, the 671 trees and 71 First Circle magical plant trees...

First Circle magical plants... Golden Apple Trees, Cloud Sea Fog Pines, Blue Ginkgo Trees, Winter Summer Giant Woods, Scorched Earth Holly, Water Green Beech trees, and six hundred Two-Ball Plane Trees all expressed welcome and submission to the Ancient Life Tree seedling.

The Ancient Life Tree was naturally a superior magical plant!

And the Ancient Life Tree expressed submission to him. With the Ancient Life Tree seedling present, although the overall power within his Forest Sanctuary hadn't increased much, the degree of power integration had become much higher.

Locke placed his palm on the Ancient Life Tree's surface. Perhaps because of the special agreement with the Emerald Dream, he didn't spend much effort completing the magical power grafting with this Ancient Life Tree. He didn't even need the most basic magical plant subduing stage.

It was as if... this Ancient Life Tree was born for him.

"Isisdar indeed said that to thank me, it gave me part of its reincarnation. And another part of it went to reincarnate. That is to say, this new Ancient Life Tree seedling before me is indeed... born for me."

"Exists for me."

Locke, through the Ancient Life Tree seedling, raised the power integration degree of the Forest Sanctuary by at least one level.

The three First Circle magical plant Golden Apple Trees were lush and verdant, bearing golden apples. Locke walked over, picked a golden apple, and put it in his mouth.

Golden apples were a special magical plant fruit that, after eating, could restore some youth. If a mortal ate it, they could extend their life and increase their lifespan by about ten years, and they would absolutely not age before death, maintaining eternal youth.

After all, death didn't equal aging.

The Cloud Sea Fog Pines were surrounded by swirling mist. The soil around the Blue Ginkgo Trees was covered with a layer of frost. The six Scorched Earth Holly trees were lush and verdant, silently guarding the forest, becoming the silent forest guardians.

Locke then looked at the Winter Summer Giant Woods and Water Green Beech trees. The Water Green Beech trees were full of vitality. These fifty Water Green Beech trees only increased the total biological mass of the Forest Sanctuary. Their powerful life force was their greatest advantage, so they had no other special functions.

The Water Green Beech trees were the backbone force of the forest.

And the six Winter Summer Giant Woods were enormous in size, extremely prominent in the forest, not only tall but also thick. Even twenty people forming a circle and embracing together couldn't hug them.

The surface of the Winter Summer Giant Woods was a mixed color of blue and red. At the same time, they were relatively simple overall, with only one giant wood trunk, tree roots, and two branch forks, with a few tree leaves on them respectively.

Locke took out the Golden Rune Knife. Because of the Ancient Life Tree seedling, his forest's maturity had become higher, so he could do two things he had been unable to do before.

First, inscribe the combined defensive magic runes of Life Heavy Armor, possessing Lady Myst's second special permanent defensive field, Life Heavy Armor.

Second, expand his Forest Sanctuary again.

Wizard Lewis, the former dean of Lilith's Cottage, had said that forests also had ages, and an adult forest was just a beginning.

And Locke wanted his already established Forest Sanctuary to continue growing and approach being an ancient forest.

This would have at least three major benefits.

First, it would actually increase his power. The more powerful the Forest Sanctuary, although his magical pressure couldn't continue to increase due to soul limits, it would become very solid.

Second, the continuously growing Forest Sanctuary would help him explore the boundaries of the Second Circle.

Third, the continuous growth of the Forest Sanctuary could enhance his understanding of botany magic and nature. It also represented his understanding of this world.

Previously, he hadn't rushed to expand the forest because he had just transplanted over sixty First Circle magical plants in, and the forest needed to adapt. Otherwise, rashly increasing the total biological mass without maintaining the cycle could easily cause ecological collapse, which would be counterproductive.

But now with the Ancient Life Tree seedling, Locke detected that his forest's capacity had currently increased by at least two times, and could increase further in the future.

That meant he could continuously transplant new First Circle magical plants into this Forest Sanctuary.

Locke took out a magic book from his astral ring. To perfect the Forest Sanctuary and perfect Dean Lewis's envisioned Forest Alliance, Locke usually borrowed quite a bit of material to read. "At the moment a wizard becomes Second Circle, the soul limit breaks through again, so through the increase of external magical pressure, plus the increase of body magical pressure, the permanent defensive field can also be passively improved."

"But I'm different. A large part of my permanent defensive field is actually not in my soul's magical pressure structure level, but in the Forest Sanctuary. Therefore, after I become a Second Circle wizard, I actually still need the Forest Sanctuary to grow synchronously. But this isn't a difficult problem. In this world, there are plenty of First Circle and Second Circle magical plants."

"Moreover, the Ancient Life Tree is a Third Circle magical plant seedling. It's just that I don't have the resources and magical power to help it become a Third Circle magical plant."

"Theoretically, the total magical pressure of my Forest Sanctuary will always be dozens of times higher than mine, bringing me enormous advantages."

Locke said, "I'm afraid Dean Lewis's original materials for the Forest Sanctuary all came from research on Myst's Power, or even... from Lady Myst's manuscripts. I'm becoming more and more curious about the fate of such a powerful witch. Why, after reviewing all the materials, can I still not find Lady Myst's ending?"

"Is she still alive now?"

Although Lady Myst was just an ancient person who, for anyone, should have died long ago.

But Locke couldn't help thinking, if she were still alive now... she would be far beyond what could be explained by a Fourth Circle wizard.

Locke inscribed the spell rune arrays of Oak Belt and Oak Crown on the surface of the Winter Summer Giant Wood. As he finished the last stroke.

'Crack~' came a sound.

The ancient relic Golden Grafting Knife from the Golden Dynasty suddenly shattered.

Locke looked at the broken knife in his hand and sighed slightly. At the moment of inscription, he immediately sensed something was wrong. As his Forest Sanctuary became powerful and he had inscribed too many permanent defensive fields, the difficulty of inscription had become increasingly greater.

This was probably because the entire Forest Sanctuary was his permanent defensive field, and as it became powerful, the inscription difficulty would naturally increase.

Just now, each rune he inscribed was equivalent to bearing powerful magical pressure. All that magical pressure pressed on a grafting knife, and this ancient relic could no longer hold on and directly broke.

He had also been taking chances, using his own magical pressure to support it on one side while continuing to use it on the other. Who knew that when completing the last stroke, this grafting knife would break.

Locke directly used the broken knife to continue inscribing, refining the last rune to prevent inscription errors in the last rune due to the sudden break.

As he continued inscribing, the grafting knife finally couldn't support itself completely and suddenly shattered.

Locke looked at the destruction of this meeting gift Halen Vera had given him and sighed slightly. "No choice. If I want to inscribe runes on the Forest Sanctuary in the future, I'll need to purchase better equipment."

"Moreover, the magical plants in my Forest Sanctuary can still double."

"Even if I use all Water Green Beech trees... that's still a huge sum of money, at least four hundred thousand magic stones, or even more."

Water Green Beech trees were the most suitable for filling because other various special First Circle magical plants, especially those leaning toward combat or defense, were actually inferior to Water Green Beech trees for making the forest more powerful.

Combat-type First Circle magical plant trees, or First Circle magical plant trees with special functions, were like a viper's fangs or a tiger's claws. Then pure First Circle magical plant trees like Water Green Beech were the viper and tiger themselves.

Those were the most suitable magical plants to form the forest's body strength!

"Another sum of money. The Forest Sanctuary really costs too much. I hope my Hydra and Five-Headed Hydra sell like hotcakes on September 1st, otherwise I'll really be broke to death. I'm finally starting to understand Wizard Griffin's pain... the pain of poverty." Locke thought with a headache, "However, Oak Belt and Oak Crown..."

"I've completed them. Then, now I can try using all three permanent defensive magics of Life Heavy Armor simultaneously!"