Chapter Summaries

After uncovering the truth behind the Maxwell Wizard and the Historical Records War, Locke traced the mystery to a mural at Golden Crown Mountain and entered the world inside it. He found and ate fruit from the Star-Ring-Level Heaven-Piercing Jujube, then learned that its fruit supplied Spirit Macro for the Gluttony Potion.

• The Fischer Wizard blamed a supposed internal bug for Supernatural Purgatory’s instability and sent Locke away, while Locke offered Antoine a discounted Shift-and-Shadow Potion.
• Locke told Antoine that Daniel would compete for Special-Grade Funding next year, then headed to Golden Crown Mountain to investigate the plane coordinates he had recovered.
• Locke found a memorial weapon and spoke with Dean Gaia, who explained the White Dragon Rampage Mechanism and warned him that the era belonged to the old generation.
• Locke discovered that the world of the Demon King Werewolf was depicted in a mural, touched it, and was pulled into the painted world.
• Locke identified the Star-Ring-Level Heaven-Piercing Jujube, ate one of its fruit, and recognized it as a source of Spirit Macro used in the Gluttony Potion.

Locke retrieved the Heaven-Piercing Jujube from a mural world and discovered that he could wield it with the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow Spell Model, though it damaged the Golden Sacred Peach. He left to focus on his Special-Grade Funding application and preliminary Golden Incantation experiments to advance his Atavistic Evolution research.

• Locke failed to Mana Graft the Heaven-Piercing Jujube, but used his Great Magics to carry it out of the mural world.
• Locke fired the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow using the Heaven-Piercing Jujube, tearing a hole through the clouds above Golden Crown Mountain and drawing speculation from nearby Wizards.
• Wizard Daniel told Locke that Wizards were debating whether the mysterious spellcaster at the summit was a Star-Ring Wizard, and Locke teased him about being busy next year.
• Locke decided to postpone visiting the Realm of Dusk and Dawn and begin writing his Special-Grade Funding application using preliminary Golden Incantation experiments.
• Wizard Brandy praised Magic Plant Crystallization as the future of Magic Plant cultivation, while Locke continued down the mountain focused on Atavistic Evolution.

Locke agreed to Quinn Joel Wizard University’s purchase of his Air Pineapple Wizard Shoes and partnered with Witch Georgina to sell Blue Mulberry Silk Wizard Socks through the Augustus Shop Alliance. He then contacted Terence about the Silver-Clad Peach Garden and learned that Olaye had attacked it.

• Witch Scarlett told Locke that Queen Ella Grant had arranged a possible Quinn Joel University order worth tens of millions of Magic Stones, and Locke agreed to make two Abyss-ready Air Pineapple versions.
• Witch Scarlett revealed that she had become a Platinum Trader, while Locke decided against entering the magical glove market.
• Witch Georgina contacted Locke with Blue Mulberry Silk Wizard Socks developed to complement his Wizard’s Shoes, and he agreed to sell them through the Augustus Shop Alliance at a reduced price.
• Locke agreed to promote the socks for three months through Augustus, while clarifying that he would not guarantee sales or cover losses.
• Locke contacted Terence about the Silver-Clad Peach Garden, and Terence reported that the shop was leaderless and had suffered a malicious attack by Olaye.

Zeno confirmed that Crystallized Orchids could stabilize the Golden Trade Route and decided to prepare a research article and funding proposal. Meanwhile, Locke assessed Silver-Clad Peach Garden’s decline and proposed a joint project with Aladdin to develop a flying Magic Plant, leaving Terence with a plan to rally the remaining staff.

• Zeno tested a Crystallized Orchid on the Golden Trade Route and found that the Crystallized Magic Plant could survive there.
• Zeno resolved to organize his data, refute flaws in published research, and write an article to support an application for Special-Grade Funding.
• Terence told Locke that Olaye had poached Silver-Clad Peach Garden’s designers and described the alliance’s losses, obsolete products, and worsening talent drain.
• Locke told Terence to observe Olaye and conduct a self-audit of each shop’s finances.
• Locke proposed that Aladdin and Silver-Clad Peach Garden jointly develop his Second-Ring Flying Magic Plant, the Great Radiant Dragon Sparrow.
• Locke asked Terence to gather the remaining Breeders and designers to plan aerial weapon variants and install Attila Lightning Chain on the Great Radiant Dragon Sparrow.

The Demon Dragon ordered the Black Sun Tower to investigate Golden Crown Mountain and went there himself after learning it had obstructed their efforts. Locke encouraged Alaric to reject the limits others had placed on him, then used data Alaric provided to adapt the Golden Incantation into a way to strengthen his Atavistic Evolution.

• The Demon Dragon learned that Golden Crown Mountain had interfered with the Black Sun Tower's investigation and decided to visit the academy himself.
• Locke contacted Alaric, who gave him a former apprentice's Cold Mountain Ruins data and confessed that he had been told his Golden Bloodline prevented him from becoming a Second-Ring Wizard.
• Locke told Alaric that becoming a Second-Ring Wizard required surpassing one's limits, prompting Alaric to reconsider his potential.
• The Sea Queen Throne received Locke's Shift-and-Shadow Potion and scheduled his third lesson for a month later, while privately considering whether to take him as a disciple.
• Locke used Alaric's data to test the Golden Incantation, discovered it could temporarily turn Green Dogtail Grass into Golden Dogtail Grass, and modified the spell to strengthen his Atavistic Evolution.

Locke refined Atavistic Evolution with the Golden Incantation and concluded that it could recover Plant Factors lost along evolutionary paths, giving the magic a new research purpose. During a Historical Reenactment, he disrupted a Mutated Dragon’s spell, but the dragon opened an Abyssal Gate and pulled Locke’s clone into it.

• Locke modified the Golden Incantation without Queen's Chessboard, then used it to evolve Green Dogtail Grass into a glowing plant that revealed hidden magical power.
• Locke reasoned that Atavistic Evolution could bring back Plant Factors discarded during evolution and added this research significance to his Special-Grade Funding application.
• Locke used the plant's Death Magic to enter a Historical Reenactment and returned to the scene of the Pale Giants and Ancient Golden Dragons.
• A Mutated Dragon attacked Locke with Saphirot's Grasp, but Locke used Synchronized Counterspell to interrupt it and drew the attention of the Pale Giants.
• The Mutated Dragon opened an Abyssal Gate, identified Locke as a Demon Dragon of the Black Sun Tower, and sent him falling into the abyss.

Alaric met a mysterious wizard tied to the Black Sun Tower, who gave him a sacrificial incense stick and discovered Locke’s evolved Demon Dragon Bloodline. Trapped on the Abyss’s 445th layer, Locke learned the Evil Chessboard Plane’s rules and tried to break them by destroying the battlefield.

• Alaric learned that Great Wizard Borgsuge’s forbidden research had been sealed and that Borgsuge was imprisoned in the dangerous Cold Mountain Ruins.
• A mysterious wizard froze time, searched Alaric’s memories, discovered Locke’s Second-Ring Demon Dragon Bloodline, and gave Alaric an incense stick to join the Black Sun Tower’s sphere of influence.
• Alaric warned Locke through Golden Lake Paradise, but Locke was trapped in his Ancient Tree Fruit Doppelgänger after the Mutated Dragon severed its connection to his other selves.
• Locke discovered he had landed on the Abyss’s 445th layer, the Evil Chessboard Plane, where demons had to win successive contests to move between chessboards.
• Locke crushed the Torture Demon and its followers, learned about the chessboard’s rules, then used the Heaven-Piercing Jujube to destroy both sides’ legions and split the continent apart.

Locke defeated two high-ranking demons on the Evil Chessboard, destabilized the plane, and escaped through a Hellfire portal to the Wizarding World with a Temporal Sequence Stele. He arrived in Droma’s laboratory just as Droma prepared to apply for Special-Grade Funding, and learned that Master Hao Brooks would judge the coming competition, prompting him to rush to submit his own application.

• Locke used the Tree of Prosperity, the Moon of Evolution, and Historical Reenactment to make the high-ranking Torture Demon and devil kill each other, then refined their corpses as the Evil Chessboard Plane tried to select them.
• The Evil Chessboard Plane copied its continents until they merged, and Locke refused the Abyss’s offer to make him a demon god.
• The Hell Demonfolk opened a portal to the Wizarding World for Locke, who stole a supply crate containing a Temporal Sequence Stele before escaping through the Hellfire gate.
• Locke’s arrival in Droma’s laboratory damaged Droma’s crystallized magic plant, but Locke explained that the Hell Demonfolk had teleported him there during an act of war.
• Droma told Locke that Master Patrick Finch and Master Hao Brooks would join the Special-Grade Funding panel, and Locke hurried to submit his application.

Locke learned that Witch Catherine had ties to Baator Hell, exchanged Hell teleportation research for five Wizard Secret Realm entries, and received advice about his upcoming special-grade funding defense. Meanwhile, the Rose Witch sent Witch Esther after the Demon Dragon Wizard, who arrived in the modern Wizarding World and condemned its dependence on money; Locke returned to the Three-Cave Plane and began planning to develop powerful Forest Rangers.

• Witch Catherine removed traces of devil and Abyssal power from Locke, rejected the greater devil commander's demand for the Temporal Sequence Stele, and destroyed his phantom.
• Locke gave Witch Catherine the Hell Hexagram research and traded a Second-Ring Secret Realm opportunity for five First-Ring entries, then received military supply requirements and advice about special-grade funding.
• Witch Zeno refused to soften his criticism of Patrick Finch's crystallized magic-plant research, and Witch Catherine gave him a Peachheart Curse and assigned him a visit to the Heaven River Coast.
• The Rose Witch sent Witch Esther to the Golden Crown Mountain District with a Dragon Soul Potion, intending to exploit the Demon Dragon Wizard's arrival and obtain an ancient dragon soul.
• The Demon Dragon Wizard arrived at the Seven-Color Nursery, rejected offers of employment and paid transportation, and denounced the modern wizards as slaves to money.
• Locke returned to the Three-Cave Plane, reunited with Orian, discovered that Orian's son Julian showed wizardly talent, and said he wanted the world to produce people capable of reaching his level.

Locke established the Golden Tree in the Three Caverns World, prepared the Rangers to enter the Emerald Dream and fight nightmares, and began accelerating the world’s time to develop it into a Ranger stronghold. Orion chose to remain and lead his people, while sending his son Julian with Locke to the wizard world; Locke then gave Orion a Leaf of Knowledge and laid out plans to expand the Rangers’ power system as he prepared to advance to Stellar Ring.

• Locke planted a Golden Tree that connected the Three Caverns World to his grand magic and the Emerald Dream, then blessed it so Rangers could enter and battle nightmares.
• Orion accepted his family’s duty to lead the coming prosperity, but chose to send his ten-year-old son Julian away with Locke to become a wizard.
• Locke opened a planar passage through the Golden Tree, and Julian said goodbye to Orion before passing through to the wizard world.
• Locke planted the Chronology Stele, accelerating the Three Caverns World so that one day in the wizard world equaled one hundred years there.
• Orion saw the nightmares in the Emerald Dream and felt his power begin to grow, but Locke stopped him from entering before he was strong enough.
• Locke gave Orion a Leaf of Knowledge containing an apprentice-level flight spell model and instructed him to help expand the Rangers’ collection of Leaves of Power.

Locke developed the Leaves of Power in the Three-Cave World while investigating Crystal Nightmares, and the Rose Witch advanced to Star-Ring Wizard and prepared to attack the Silver-Clad Peach Garden. A century later, Orian reflected on his bond with nature as a Corn Nightmare appeared, leaving him ready for what might be his final battle.

• Locke discovered that Crystal Nightmares carried Huan-Element Heavy Particles and sent a huge Nightmare retreating after Orian struck it with his new Leaf of Power, Woodland Wing Slash.
• The Rose Witch revealed her Spider-Silk Cultivation Method, then ordered her assistants to buy Silver-Clad Peach Garden shops and launch Copper Dart Flying Rose against its Peach Dart Branch.
• Over a hundred years in the Three-Cave World, Locke synthesized three First-Ring Crystallization Spell Models from 331 Leaves of Power and designated the Crystal Nightmare as the Forest Rangers' nemesis.
• Orian explained to Locke why he had refused to create an organization above the city-state alliance, saying it would violate nature and invite oppression.
• A Second-Ring Corn Nightmare appeared behind the Golden Tree and taunted the elderly Orian, who took up his battle-axe and called it perhaps his final fight.

Julian began his studies at Golden Crown Mountain, where Gregor warned him about the Wizarding World’s dangers and dwindling student support. His status as Locke Augustine’s student drew the attention of apprentices and a lecturer, leaving Julian anxious that he had embarrassed his teacher.

• Gregor enrolled Julian at Golden Crown Mountain, confirmed his Wood and Light Element Child aptitudes, and warned him to guard his money and avoid contracts.
• Gregor explained that Julian’s benefits would shrink each year unless he advanced, then questioned Julian about the limits of helping others and argued for equivalent exchange.
• Gregor brought Julian to the Third-Class Wizard Apprentice classroom, where students learned he was Locke Augustine’s direct student and competed to befriend him.
• Julian declined the students’ invitations and sat apart, but a Vaporization Wizard called on him and asked what Locke Augustine was to him.
• After Julian said Locke was his teacher, the lecturer threatened to report the disturbance to Locke while privately hoping to make a connection with him, leaving Julian worried he had caused trouble.

Orian entered the Emerald Dream to seek a Second-Ring Leaf of Power, while Locke sensed an imminent threat from a nearby Black Sun Tower Wizard. After Orian nearly died defeating a Teosinte Corn Nightmare, Locke froze him to preserve his life and began questioning the purpose of the Rose Council’s experiments.

• Orian rejected the city-state lords’ plans to establish a kingdom, entered the Emerald Dream, and declared that the strongest Forest Ranger would inherit his position.
• Locke’s Demon Dragon Bloodline warned him of mortal danger, while the Demon Dragon Wizard used a bell to stir the bloodline and planned to create a clone to attack Golden Crown Mountain.
• Orian fought through withered-tree Nightmares and battled a Teosinte Corn Nightmare with Spell Models Locke’s power helped him evolve.
• Orian’s final arrow killed the Teosinte Corn Nightmare, but he collapsed with a mortal wound after admitting that age had exhausted him.
• Locke froze Orian with the Great Glazed Winter Green Plum to prolong his life and questioned why the Rose Council had used regenerating Teosinte Corn in its crystallization experiments.

Locke killed Teosinte Corn Nightmare after it attacked and nearly killed his student, then used its seed to begin cultivating Teosinte Corn for an Atavistic Evolution experiment. A year later, the corn had sprouted, while Locke remained close to becoming a Star-Ring Wizard and sensed an unexplained unease.

• Teosinte Corn Nightmare regenerated in the Emerald Dream, but Locke pierced it repeatedly with his Heaven-Piercing Jujube until its revivals ran out and it was destroyed.
• Locke obtained a breedable Teosinte Corn seed and decided to use it for an Atavistic Evolution experiment, hoping to learn how it related to the extinct Big Spring Cannon Corn.
• Locke returned to the Three-Cave World, where Forest Rangers paused their dispute over establishing a kingdom and continued recruiting and developing the Leaf of Power System.
• Locke planted the seed beside the Golden Tree and poured Life Spiritual Breath over it.
• A year later, the Teosinte Corn sprouted, and Locke wondered why he felt compelled to conduct the experiment as his nascent Star Ring appeared behind him.

After two centuries in the Three-Cave World, Locke completed his power system’s Second-Ring Leaves of Power but hesitated to advance civilization into a kingdom and condense the Fruit of Summer. He left to prepare for his Special-Grade Funding defense, with only five days remaining.

• One hundred years after Orian’s era, Gerant Nika celebrated uniting the Forest Rangers and completing the Second-Ring Nemesis Path: Leaf of Power, while his two disciples argued over whether to establish a kingdom or preserve the existing order.
• Gerant Nika prayed to the Golden Tree for guidance about his successor, but Locke, watching from the crowd, remained uncertain whether to advance the civilization and pursue the Star Ring.
• Locke spoke with the orphan Lenny, whose view of the gathered Forest Rangers gave Locke pause, then reviewed his Second-Ring spells and the Great Magic Runes he had forged.
• Locke decided not to take the next step before his Special-Grade Funding defense and left Orian City-State.
• At the former Underworld, Locke inspected the Big Spring Cannon Corn he had cultivated and considered how the quality of time differed between a medium-scale world and the Wizarding World.

Antoine stayed behind in a collapsing world ruin while searching for the Super-Planet Plane, and Edgar prepared to attend Golden Crown Mountain’s Special-Grade Funding defense. In the Three-Cave World, Locke completed a recreation of the Big Spring Cannon Corn, then ended his Saint incarnation as the world returned to its normal flow of time.

• Antoine activated a fluctuation analyzer in the trembling ruin while Jax and Vera fled, and he announced that he might have found the Super-Planet Plane.
• Jax and Vera feared Antoine had died when the ruin collapsed, and they discussed his ambitions and the dangers of competing with Magic Plant Crystallization research.
• Madam Candice praised Edgar’s potential and urged him to attend the Special-Grade Funding defense, where Locke would also be present.
• Edgar agreed to go after learning Locke would attend, despite having wanted to begin his research immediately.
• Locke completed his recreation of the Big Spring Cannon Corn after a hundred years of research in the Three-Cave World.
• Locke watched the Temporal Sequence Stele shatter as time returned to normal, then collapsed his Saint incarnation and returned the Plane Power to the Three-Cave World.

Locke prepared for his Special-Grade Funding defense, reviewed rival applications, and learned how political tactics could disrupt applicants. On the way to the Truth Institute, he effortlessly solved Master Patrick Finch’s Black Sky Moth challenge, while Finch revealed his intentions toward Brandy and Zeno.

• Locke recovered with the Origin Breath Potion and reviewed the eleven Special-Grade Funding applications Wizard Trajan brought him, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of his rivals.
• Wizard Trajan warned Locke that opponents sometimes sent people to unsettle applicants before their defenses and accompanied him to the Truth Institute.
• Master Patrick Finch challenged Locke to remove a Black Sky Moth larva parasitizing a Golden Apple, and Locke used the Moon of Evolution to expel and kill it instantly.
• Finch admitted that he had wanted to see Locke’s Great Magic rather than obstruct his defense, and he said he hoped Brandy would succeed.
• Finch said he planned to break Zeno’s backbone during the defense because Zeno had reported him and caused Cloud Marsh’s editors to revoke his published papers.

Locke attended the defense for Golden Crown Mountain’s Special-Grade Funding Grant, where judges and spectators gathered in unusual numbers. The arrival of High-Ring Wizards Valeria Kenway and Eric Ende turned the event into a tense display of interest in the young participants, and the chapter ended just before the defense began.

• Wizard Trajan warned Locke that the Truth Institute was a shura field and urged him to face the defense with an ordinary state of mind.
• Locke entered the conference room and took a participant’s seat as the judges and participants, including Brandy Wizard, gathered.
• Patrick Finch praised Brandy Wizard for publishing a paper in a top journal but did not shake his hand.
• Valeria Kenway arrived from the Starfield Sea and spoke about the young wizards’ prospects, prompting Eric Ende from Mysterious Heaven to challenge his motives.
• The Sea Queen Throne took a seat in the front row and pretended not to recognize Locke, while a clone of Witch Catherine moved from the first row to the third.
• The defense was about to begin as the crowd grew around the two visiting High-Ring Wizards.

Lock watched the Special-Grade Funding defenses unfold as applicants were questioned about their research plans, while he considered how to make his Atavistic Evolution project stand out. Zeno Honoran finished a polished defense by proposing that Crystallized Magic Plants could repair the Golden Trade Route, leaving the commentary panel stunned and Master Patrick laughing.

• Antoine failed to appear within the ten-minute countdown and forfeited his defense, leaving the event as a contest among Witch Catherine's academic lineage.
• Valentinian defended his Crystallized Grafting project, but Master Patrick and the commentary panel exposed gaps in his cost control and research plan.
• Droma, Kute Panbaili, and two Wind Magic researchers struggled to impress the commentary panel, while Lock worried that his Atavistic Evolution topic would lose out to Magic-Plant Crystallization research.
• Lock considered how to emphasize Atavistic Evolution's significance as Brandy waited for his turn to defend.
• Zeno Honoran presented his proposal to use vitality-free Crystallized Magic Plants to restore the Golden Trade Route, prompting Master Patrick to ask, "What do you mean by that?"

Wizard Zeno was mocked by the review panel after accusing Grandmaster Patrick Finch’s Crystallized Magic Plant research of relying on a flawed definition of life. Locke Augustine then defended his Atavistic Evolution project, but after the panel condemned his claim that it could create a “perfect” Magic Plant, he challenged their assumptions and prepared to demonstrate his research.

• Zeno insisted that Crystallized Magic Plants were nonliving and argued that Throne Demosthenes’s definition of life was flawed, but the review panel ridiculed his claims and let him finish his defense.
• Zeno left the stage shaken and doubting his research, while another of Witch Catherine’s students gave a more conventional defense that the panel received favorably.
• Locke Augustine presented his applied Atavistic Evolution research and argued that it could recover lost Plant Factors, reduce evolutionary errors, and produce more powerful Magic Plants.
• A Star-Ring Wizard and other panel members condemned Locke’s mention of a “perfect” Magic Plant, citing an old disaster and insisting that evolution reduced possibilities.
• Locke rebuked the panel for judging by authority and emotion, called the thirty Second-Ring Wizards old and decrepit, and took out a sprig of Sea Golden Sand to demonstrate an evolution that increased possibilities.