Group Six leader Kelt was drinking wizard wine with Group Three leader [Witch Esther]. The wizard wine from Rain Marsh Swampland, the capital of wine, made one feel sweet and refreshed upon drinking it.

Wizard wine was an invention of potion masters. Over 70% of Rain Marsh Swampland's area was marshland, but this also developed a rich wine brewing culture. Advanced breeding studies and advanced potion studies, combined with the special geographical environment, created the wizard world's most developed wine brewing discipline.

Wizard Kelt savored the beautiful taste of the wine, but at this moment Witch Esther suddenly held up her Wish Lingzhi and said to Wizard Kelt, "Little Kelt, do you know that your Group Six's Locke has published his works on the Arthas platform?"

Wizard Kelt was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Oh, right, today is the September 1st True Love Festival created by the Rose Council. What's wrong, Esther, have you set your sights on some male wizard? Are you going to buy a magic bouquet too?"

Esther looked at him coldly, "Keep running your mouth and I won't be polite to you. Forget it, see for yourself."

"Locke's work, Five-Headed Hydra, has reached fifth place on today's total sales ranking! The Five-Headed Hydra magical plant is a vine-type defensive magical plant, not even a magic bouquet."

Wizard Kelt saw the scene Esther showed him and instantly sobered up. Second Circle wizards could see the First Circle interface and Second Circle interface of the Arthas Plantation Shop Alliance's cooperator interface.

At this time, in the First Circle interface, Locke's Five-Headed Hydra magical plant was prominently ranked fifth on the homepage's total sales ranking.

Wizard Kelt's drunkenness instantly cleared, and he quickly calculated the profits. "Tens of millions in sales? The benefits Locke can obtain are at least two million, possibly three million."

"Good heavens, as a First Circle wizard, just by selling such a work, he can earn ten Origin Academy third-tier funds, or six Origin Academy Tier 2 funds?"

Although horizontal income had to be ten times vertical income to be equivalent in amount, because vertical income didn't just represent money, but also equipment usage privileges, relevant status, the difficulty of applying for future funds, and credentials.

But the money earned horizontally was real and tangible.

At this moment, Wizard Kelt smiled bitterly. "This guy can even earn more money than me, a Second Circle wizard."

"However, if it's Locke, it's normal for him to earn this much money. He's a talent, having him in my Group Six is like adding wings to a tiger. Ah, thanks to the Throne Lord's trust in me, that's why such a great talent was assigned to my group."

Wizard Kelt became smug.

Witch Esther looked at him coldly. "Don't just rush to be smug. Locke is indeed a talent, the problem is you're this talent's direct supervisor."

Wizard Kelt's expression changed slightly. He quickly took out his Lingzhi magical plant from his astral ring, opened the communication interface, and saw that his contact interface showed a bombardment of messages from various Golden Crown Mountain Council of Elders leaders.

Although no Third Circle wizards had intervened in this matter so far, the message bombardment all came from Second Circle sun ring wizards, or moon ring wizards, these extremely powerful existences among Second Circle wizards. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Among them was one of the three vice ministers of the Council of Elders's Student Affairs Department, a Second Circle wizard, a sun ring wizard, who directly asked him, 'Kelt, your team member privately cooperated with Arthas, do you know about this? Now wizards from the Rose Council have come to ask me if this is Golden Crown Mountain's intention.'

'They suspect we're deliberately causing trouble, destroying the Rose Council's tens of millions in promotional investment for True Love Festival, as well as the deep accumulation of past generations. They're asking me if I can bear this responsibility, do you know about these things?'

'Reply to me quickly! Kelt!'

Kelt's expression changed. "This is like poking a hornet's nest. Have the Council of Elders people gone crazy? They're all crazily sending me messages."

Esther took a sip of wizard wine, then pointed at the ranking list with her finger and said, "It's not that the Council of Elders people have gone crazy, it's that the Rose Council people are about to go crazy. Look at the ranking list. True Love Festival isn't just a holiday for the Rose Council to make money, but also a holiday to promote their Rose Flower Language studies."

"This time alone, the advertising fees they spent on Arthas are in the tens of millions. Some products seem to sell well, but actually it's tens of millions in, tens of millions out. The money just passes through like flowing water, all used to buy advertisements."

"But this time there are four on the ranking list that aren't magic bouquet works. Especially little Locke's work, which is already in fifth place. If it kills its way into the top three, I estimate right now it would be the Rose Council's Third Circle wizards personally coming to our door."

Esther said, "If it were just little Locke's work alone on the ranking list, that would be one thing, it would just be an individual case. But now, there are four people on the list at once, it looks like our four forces united and are deliberately causing trouble. Especially little Locke and Bonifacius's Diana, both are currently under the Throne Lord."

"Speaking of which, three of these four people are Cloud Marsh Cup top three. I estimate the wizards in Bonifacius University's Cloud Marsh Cup competition committee office are happily celebrating in their office right now."

This matter was a small blow to the Rose Council, but for Bonifacius University, it was a matter that greatly increased the gold content of the competition their university hosted.

Esther accessed Bonifacius University's forum on the water hyacinth network and indeed saw that many wizards, even wizard apprentices, were discussing this matter, constantly praising the three Cloud Marsh Cup contestants to the heavens.

"What are you going to do, Wizard Kelt?" Esther had an expression of watching a good show. "Will you tough it out yourself, or push little Locke out and let him explain to the Council of Elders's Student Affairs Department wizards himself?"

Wizard Kelt immediately screenshot all the bombardment of messages that the Student Affairs Department's sun ring wizard had sent him and forwarded them to Throne Yekaterina.

Thirty seconds later, Witch Yekaterina sent back a '?' mark.

Wizard Kelt smiled at Esther, "I'm choosing neither. I'll just forward the messages the Student Affairs Department vice minister sent me to the Throne Lord. They don't dare approach the Throne Lord, they only dare approach an ordinary Second Circle wizard like me."

"But the Throne Lord is quite attentive to Locke, so I'll just let the Throne Lord handle this matter."

Esther looked at Kelt in surprise. "Little Kelt, you actually dare to approach the Throne Lord now. It seems the Throne Lord is still too easy to talk to. You were almost persuaded to leave your position by the higher-ups before. The Throne Lord gave you the opportunity to stay, and after that, you seemed very afraid of the academy's higher-ups."

Wizard Kelt smiled and said helplessly, "I've rebounded from rock bottom. Besides, now Locke is my trump card. As his direct supervisor, I definitely can't let the academy's complicated struggles affect him."

Soon, the aggressive tone of the Council of Elders's Student Affairs Department sun ring wizard suddenly softened, and he sent a message to Kelt, 'Wizard Kelt, I just wanted to ask you whether Golden Crown Mountain is at fault, or if it's purely coincidence, to decide my attitude toward the Rose Council's wizards.'

'Why did you have to send my messages to Throne Yekaterina?'

'This matter doesn't need a Third Circle wizard to handle it. You completely misunderstood me. Please help me explain to the Throne Lord.'

Wizard Kelt sent a helpless expression, then sent a sweating anxiously expression, and indicated, 'Minister, I'm just an ordinary Second Circle wizard. This matter has already exceeded my authority to handle. You'd better explain to the Throne Lord yourself.'

Kelt immediately closed his message interface, and at the same time saw that the vice minister of the Academic Affairs Department had sent him a message.

The Academic Affairs Department's vice minister said to Kelt, "A wizard under you named Locke Augustine has a magical plant that topped the Arthas 24-hour sales ranking for True Love Festival. We've decided to reward him with a Water Jade Peach."

"Although it's just an Arthas ranking list, his actions demonstrate Golden Crown Mountain's breeding studies level as a high-efficiency agricultural district. It deserves encouragement."

"Therefore, the Academic Affairs Department is preparing to give him special rewards."

Kelt and Esther weren't surprised by this, because most of the Academic Affairs Department wizards were from their Academic Committee, so the Academic Affairs Department belonged to the Academic Committee faction and would naturally favor them.

Among Golden Crown Mountain's local three major forces, the Executive Patrol Group maintained neutrality toward this matter, completely ignoring it.

Because ultimately, this matter was just a horizontal project.

It didn't count as the fundamental interests of the three factions.

After Kelt replied to the Academic Affairs Department's vice minister, he sent Locke a congratulatory message.

Seeing this, Esther thought for a moment, hesitating whether to congratulate Witch Diana who was undergoing joint training in her group, but after thinking about it, she still didn't do so.

Because there was no need.

First, Witch Diana had just come to their group. As a Second Circle sun ring wizard, she had no need to curry favor with her.

Second, Witch Diana wasn't from their university either, just undergoing joint training.

Most importantly, as Group Three leader, Esther was a sun ring wizard who had already established herself firmly at Golden Crown Mountain. Her status and strength were far higher than an ordinary Second Circle wizard like Kelt.

Therefore, she had no need to do something that lowered her status.

She was different from Kelt. She didn't need a wizard talent to do projects so she could stay at Golden Crown Mountain.

Every Second Circle wizard was the future of First Circle wizards, so naturally they needed to maintain an attitude toward First Circle wizards.

This was also to make First Circle wizards maintain respect for truth and magic.

At the same time, in Bonifacius University's Cloud Marsh Cup competition committee office, Director Morrison was beaming with joy, conversing with a Mekani's machine soul through a Second Circle magical artifact, a spatial magic mirror before him.

At this moment, Director Morrison burst into laughter.

The machine soul little girl looked at him in confusion. "Lord Morrison, why are you so happy?"

Morrison's eyes crinkled with his smile. "Do you still remember Edgar David, Witch Diana, and Locke Augustine? These three people's works topped the Arthas 24-hour sales ranking list on the Rose Council's True Love Festival. I imagine the Rose Council academy's mid and high-level leadership must be very shocked and angry right now."

"I need to quickly contact people. This is the best publicity for our Cloud Marsh Cup commercial competition. We need to quickly take advantage of this dramatic development to promote our Cloud Marsh Cup and create the rumor that the Cloud Marsh Cup runner-up, champion, and third place joined forces to dominate the rankings."

"The news headline will be called 'Cloud Marsh Cup's Three Gods Dominate the Rankings!'"

"Good, this name is simply too good!"

Director Morrison was a man of his word. He immediately contacted the chief editor of [Frog Press], one of Cloud Marsh Wetland's largest news agencies, and proactively sent the hot topics, key points, and relevant information to them.

They were already old friends.

He also attached transfers of 5 magic crystal cards from Fairy Bank as a gift.

The other party immediately sent him an 'OK' expression.

The machine soul little girl's eyes rolled. She immediately recalled those three wizards who possessed Second Circle characteristics. She pursed her lips and recalled somewhat painfully that memory of being chased by Locke, when she had almost been caught.

The machine soul little girl thought for a moment, and taking advantage of Director Morrison's good mood, tentatively asked, "Then, Lord Morrison, regarding my application for new alchemical chips, can you agree? It only requires about one million magic stones to complete my computational power upgrade..."

When Director Morrison heard about money, he immediately shuddered and reacted, frowning. "What do you need so much money for? One million magic stones could buy a hundred ordinary First Circle magical artifacts. Although the power is a bit small, you could also buy about five to six crystallization stage First Circle magical artifacts."

"You want so many magic stones... it's not about the money, but also if your computational power is enhanced, your combat power will increase too much and affect future Cloud Marsh Cup competitions. How about this, I'll approve 300,000 magic stones for you. This is the limit. Take this money and go play."

The Cloud Marsh Cup competition committee had its own competition fund. After all, this was a profitable commercial competition, which was why Director Morrison could be so generous with money. It wasn't his money anyway.

Spending 300,000 on the machine soul was also using the wool from the sheep's back.

The machine soul little girl sighed. "This is way too stingy."

...

Golden Crown Mountain, inside the dormitory, Locke saw Witch Scarlett send him a congratulatory message, "Congratulations. Although I had some expectations before, I didn't expect Five-Headed Hydra's sales could be this good."

"You earned a total of 6.5 million magic stones!"

"What an exaggerated amount. However, after my team and I worked hard to stimulate and fully exploit the potential, plus I purchased some traffic for you, I estimate Hydra and Five-Headed Hydra's sales should have reached their limit for now. Next, they probably won't be able to earn much money."

This was related to Locke's marketing strategy and Arthas's marketing policies.

In any case, this day had indeed forced out the potential of both products in the Golden Crown Mountain district and part of Cloud Marsh Wetland's potential in one go. Because of this, Locke was able to earn the enormous sum of 6.5 million magic stones in one day!

And with this batch of magic stones, Locke began thinking about where to rent the Queen's Chessboard.

Even if the Queen's Chessboard was a Third Circle magical artifact, as long as he had money, he could still rent this equipment outside Golden Crown Mountain, use it to complete origin force level analysis, publish research related to Type 2 Tyrant Element, and conduct certain research on Tyrant Elements himself.

At the same time, Locke also needed to continue purchasing First Circle magical plants to fill his Forest Sanctuary.

The Forest Sanctuary's assimilation of trees required a certain amount of time, so the earlier he transplanted more trees, the better.

Some things became stronger the more ancient they were, and the Forest Sanctuary happened to be that kind of thing!

Additionally, with these things, he could confidently go learn Peach Bow Thorn Arrows, and even investigate information about medium-scale planes and above.

After all, to advance to Second Circle wizard, he still needed a medium-scale plane!

"Besides this, with this money, I no longer need to wait a month. This month I can conclude my Tier 2 Origin Academy funding project and apply to the academy for a Tier 1 Origin Academy funding project." Locke said, "Money truly is an accelerator for everything."

"With money, the Big Yellow Duck Crown Bromeliads in my hands can also be cultivated in batches and sold to those lightning studies wizards, letting them buy them back for related research. Unfortunately, thunderbirds and lightning bees don't have any particularly large industries, so the economic value of Big Yellow Duck Crown Bromeliads isn't very great. They can only be considered mosquito meat."