Chapter Summaries

The Starfield Sea recognized Locke’s challenge against the Swampfolk Club as the First Probus Truth Revelation Competition, with a Radiance Gem as its prize. While the club’s board members prepared to compete and conspired to steal research methods, Locke investigated how to give Cloud Rice Occult Significance and concluded that Abyssal power was the likely solution; he then agreed to work on Belinda’s Red Plum Fire Scythe before Tristan asked why his magic plants thrived in the Abyss.

• A Sun-Ring Wizard delivered four competition invitations to the Swampfolk Club’s board members and announced that the championship prize was the Radiance Gem.
• Grandet and Kent agreed to work with Belinda to steal Patrick’s and Locke’s approaches to giving Cloud Rice Occult Significance.
• Locke tested Cloud Rice in the Garden Spirit Mirror, found that it consumed surrounding vitality, and concluded that Abyssal magic-plant vitality might provide a solution without changing Cloud Rice’s structure.
• Belinda asked Locke to give her Snow King’s Red Plum Fire Scythe an Excellent Level Occult Significance, and Locke accepted the commission for fifteen million Magic Stones.
• Belinda discovered that Locke had deleted his Garden Spirit Mirror test records and decided to use her Swampfolk Club connections to attend the competition.
• Tristan Walden called Locke and asked why Locke’s Big Windmill Dragon Sparrow and other cultivated plants performed so well in the Abyss.

Quinn Joel’s urgent need for Abyss-adapted Magic Plants led Locke Augustine to sell Wizard Tristan Walden two hundred First-Ring sets for two hundred million Magic Stones. Locke then entered the transformed Sea King World, where Mountain-River Wanderer appeared to be hiding murderous intent.

• After Quinn Joel’s Magic Plants faltered in the frenzied elements of the Fourth Layer, Wizard Tristan Walden asked Locke how the Great Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow had remained effective, but Locke refused to reveal his cultivation methods.
• Locke bundled Abyss-adapted Magic Plants into First-Ring and Second-Ring sets, explained their combat benefits, and negotiated with Walden, who bought two hundred First-Ring sets for one million Magic Stones each.
• Locke considered ways to keep Quinn Joel as a customer, then activated a scroll to enter the Sea King World and investigate the changes there.
• Wizard Walden reflected on Locke’s role in reopening the Despair Valley Laboratory investigation, while White Frost Witch learned that Locke was leading the Golden Crown Mountain investigation and reacted angrily.
• Locke discovered that the Sea King World’s divine and mortal realms had merged and its Plane Principle had changed after the Persepolis God Clan’s intervention.
• Mountain-River Wanderer appeared to greet Locke, but Locke’s Demon Dragon intuition warned him that Mountain-River Wanderer intended to kill him.

Locke discovered that Gang Dingdi had seized the Sea King World’s Ancestral God authority and was exploiting its martial artists, while Mountain-River Wanderer begged him for help. After Gang Dingdi trapped them, Mountain-River Wanderer gave Locke the world’s rules, allowing Locke to escape with him and delay their pursuer with a potion.

• Mountain-River Wanderer attacked Locke, but Locke used the Ecological Niche Reversal Curse and Flower-King Sea Golden Sand to evade him and expose his weakened state.
• Locke learned that Gang Dingdi had become the Sea King World’s Ancestral God after the Persepolis God Clan used Mountain-River Wanderer’s power against him.
• Mountain-River Wanderer showed Locke that Gang Dingdi’s Ascension Tower harvested martial artists’ qi and fortune to help Gang Dingdi ascend into the Persepolis God Clan.
• The God of Craftsmen forged Gang Dingdi with the six other gods’ divinities, but Gang Dingdi remained incomplete because Mountain-River Wanderer still lived.
• Gang Dingdi found and trapped Locke and Mountain-River Wanderer, so Mountain-River Wanderer handed Locke the Sea King World’s rules of heaven and earth.
• Locke used the rules to break free, swapped Mountain-River Wanderer with the potion-laced Flower-King Sea Golden Sand, and escaped with Mountain-River Wanderer.

Locke escaped Gang Dingdi—Martial God with Mountain-River Wanderer, then studied the Ancestral God Treasure before returning to the Wizarding World. He joined the Probus Truth-Revelation Contest, where the contestants entered Probus Wizard’s memory and faced a search for a useful Abyssal Magic Plant within 17 days.

• Gang Dingdi—Martial God trapped Locke and Mountain-River Wanderer, but Locke’s Nero No. 3 Potion created a duplicate that struck Gang Dingdi and let them escape into Helen’s witchcraft scroll.
• Locke translated the Ancestral God Treasure into Spirit Macros, discovered the Golden Bull Horn and Yellow Essence Clay Spirit Macros, and considered whether he could extract Sea King World’s World Spirit Macro.
• Locke left Mountain-River Wanderer to handle matters in the Wizarding World, while Gang Dingdi ordered Sea King World’s inhabitants to hunt for Mountain-River Wanderer and promised a Martial Immortal’s ascension to whoever killed him.
• Three days later, Locke arrived at the Probus Truth-Revelation Contest with Witch Belinda and the other contestants, and they entered Probus Wizard’s memory world.
• Probus Wizard showed the contestants an Abyssal Gate leading to the Mirror-Demon Plain and said they had to find a Magic Plant that could give Cloud Rice mystical meaning.
• Locke and Witch Belinda entered the Mirror-Demon Plain, saw the Hell Demonfolk fighting the Abyss Demons, and learned from the hourglass that they had 17 days to find the plant.

Locke and Bella pursued different approaches to finding the special Magic Plant while the other contestants raced to solve Wizard Probus's research problem. Kent's rushed Cloud Rice experiment created a Spiritual Breath Black Hole, and Locke rescued him with his Green Dragon's Grasp.

• Bella used a Portable Garden Spirit Mirror and the Goose-Eating Emperor form to search for special Magic Plants, while Locke carefully collected and examined specimens.
• Belinda protected Locke with her Tyrannosaurus Legion as the Demonfolk armies fought nearby.
• At the Despair Valley Laboratory, Kent forced apprentices to work without rest while he, Grandet, and Patrick tested Strange Stones for an activating spectrum.
• After five days, Kent claimed he had raised Cloud Rice's life level, but Probus's attempt to bestow occult significance turned it into a Spiritual Breath Black Hole that swallowed Kent.
• Bella tried to hold the black hole back but could not free Kent, so Locke used his Green Dragon's Grasp to pull him out and demanded the promised ten million Magic Stones.

Locke identified Abyss Stream Yellow Grass as the key to Wizard Probus’s research and took a specimen from the battlefield, while he and Belinda fought through the warring demon armies. At the Wangshan Valley Laboratory, Grandet discovered that the strange stones were connected to the Bannaladga God Clan, and Patrick revealed that he had manipulated Grandet and Kent to investigate them.

• Kent thanked Locke and Bella, warned Locke about capable wizards in Rain-Marsh, and vanished from the memory world.
• Locke deduced that Probus had used Potion research and a Shadow-Clone Potion formula to find the special Abyss Magic Plant, then located Abyss Stream Yellow Grass on the battlefield.
• Belinda led her summoned creatures into the battle between the Abyss Demonfolk and Hell Demonfolk while Locke used his Child of Chaos status to secure a path to the plant.
• Locke collected Abyss Stream Yellow Grass and left with Belinda, while a Third Ring demon chose not to interfere with him because of his connection to the Red Dragon Grand Duke.
• Grandet’s experiment with the strange stone erupted in golden lightning, revealing a Bannaladga God Clan presence and striking him with a bolt of divine Magic Pressure.
• Patrick admitted that he had fed Grandet and Kent information to manipulate them, identified the stones as incomplete divine stones of the Bannaladga God Clan, and asked Belinda whether she would betray Locke.

Grandet Wizard was attacked and gradually assimilated by a newborn member of the Bannaladga God Clan, while Bella Witch and Locke intervened to fight him. Locke countered the god-clan member’s world-restoring power with his Abyssal Black Sun and ended by asking to borrow the divine flame; the confrontation remained unresolved.

• Grandet Wizard’s Great Magic merged with the Titan King Divine Stone, birthing an infant King of Titans who began absorbing Grandet Wizard and demanded that they merge completely.
• Grandet Wizard fled through the laboratory, but the infant god-clan member pursued him, restored and transformed the corridors, and weakened him despite his attempts to resist.
• Council Head Patrick declined to fight, prioritizing the competition, while Bella Witch arrived and attacked the god-clan member.
• The god-clan member’s divine power tempted Bella Witch and then threatened her, but the Goose-Eating Emperor’s ancient laws helped her resist until she was badly injured.
• Locke arrived and used his Demon Dragon and Abyssal Black Sun power to destroy the god-clan member’s created world, preventing its restoration.
• Locke challenged Patrick’s priorities and asked the young divine being to lend him his divine flame as an ingredient for an elixir.

Locke defeated the young body of the King of Titans, rejected the Titan Divine Stone’s shortcut, and seized the Divine Flame needed for his Afterimage Potion. After confronting Patrick and learning more about Probus Wizard’s memories and the Death Ranch Society, Locke successfully refined the potion.

• Locke used his Bronze Cauldron, Magic Flame, and spells to weaken and defeat the young body of the King of Titans, who had attacked him after refusing to lend his Divine Flame.
• Locke rejected the Titan Divine Stone, and Probus Wizard caught it before it could reach Patrick; Locke then killed the young Titan and took the Divine Flame from his body.
• The Guiding God King appeared through an illusion, threatened Locke, Bella Witch, Grandet Wizard, and Patrick, and watched Locke destroy a second Titan Divine Stone before Locke shattered the illusion.
• Grandet Wizard thanked Locke and accepted their rivalry as fellow travelers, while Locke condemned Patrick for risking others to obtain experimental data; Patrick left with his students.
• Bella Witch thanked Locke but refused to change her research, and Locke learned that Probus Wizard’s memories connected White Frost Witch to the Death Ranch Society.
• Locke prepared the Afterimage Potion using the Divine Flame, endured the destructive Tribulation Fire, and captured the flame’s shadow in a potion bottle, completing the potion.

Locke used the Divine Flame and his own Potions theories to complete the Potions Reverse Refinement Method, refining away the god clan’s harmful forms within himself. As King Otto’s obsession disappeared and the Bronze Cauldron became Locke’s, he took the first step toward forging his own path, though Witch Catherine warned that his experiment would bring consequences.

• Locke refined the Shadow-Clone Potion into the Double-Body Potion, which fused a Magic Plant’s shadow with its body and doubled its Spiritual Breath.
• Locke let Patrick continue his research instead of claiming the competition victory, then went to the Despair Valley Laboratory to investigate an idea sparked by the Divine Flame.
• Wizard Probus warned Locke about the temptation of Pseudo Forging, while Locke resisted absorbing the Divine Flame and developed his own theory of Potions.
• Locke realized he could reverse-refine the harmful forms within himself, entered the Bronze Cauldron, and began the dangerous experiment despite Witch Belinda’s objections.
• Witch Catherine appeared through the Peachheart Curse, warned Locke about the ethical consequences, and allowed him to continue under the condition that he accept responsibility.
• Locke used the Zero Potion and Reduction into Emptiness to complete the Potions Reverse Refinement Method; King Otto’s obsession vanished, the Bronze Cauldron became Locke’s, and the Feathered Serpent Ancestral God celebrated the birth of an outstanding Potion wizard.

Locke perfected his Magic Potion Reverse-Refining Method, creating potions that let him become ancient Magic Creatures and refining his Great Magic through research. He then used his competition with Patrick to force Patrick to confront his past choice, while Starfield Sea began investigating the hidden Fifth-Ring successor drawn to the Eastern Sector.

• Locke refined his own useless forms into Zero Potion, discovered that the method could digest the Shadow Assassin Divine Pearl, and created Dragonform Potion and Catform Potion from his bloodlines.
• Belinda searched the potion room for Locke, while Starfield Sea’s Eternal Star Disc detected an ancient Fifth-Ring successor and the Truth Wizard ordered the researchers to identify and recruit him.
• Locke drank Catform Potion and transformed completely into a Three-Eyed Tiger-Eyed Cat, alarming Belinda’s summoned creatures before he later returned to human form.
• Locke reflected on Spirit Macros, Ritual Magic, and Sacrificial Magic, then learned from Belinda that Patrick had not finished his research and urged her to encourage him.
• Patrick finished researching Cloud Rice shortly before the deadline and went to Wizard Probus’s office, where he discovered Locke had already completed the task and Belinda had misled him.
• Witch Macedon recognized that Locke had delayed his own victory to confront Patrick directly, and she and the other Rain-Marsh prodigies watched to see who would win the contest.

Locke defeated Wizard Patrick in the Cloud Rice competition by exposing how Divine Clan power polluted Patrick’s crop and prevented it from receiving Excellent Level Occult Significance. After Locke confronted Wizard Probus about his fused Great Magic and suspected wicked heart, Probus expelled everyone from the Memory World, and the Swampfolk Club publicly admitted defeat while hinting that another Star-Ring Wizard genius would act next.

• Witch Macedon said she would fight Locke if Patrick lost, arguing that Rain-Marsh wizards needed their confidence protected, while Wizard Alexander warned that challenging Locke could trigger a dangerous struggle.
• Wizard Patrick presented Cloud Rice strengthened with Divine Clan power, but Wizard Probus declared Locke the winner because Patrick’s crop could not receive Excellent Level Occult Significance.
• Locke used Wizard Probus’s Evolution Garden to grow both grains into plants, showing that Locke’s purer Cloud Rice had far greater Magic Pressure and that Patrick’s Divine Clan power had distorted his results.
• Locke explained that Patrick had overlooked the effects of Divine Clan power and had lost his chance to learn how to counter them; Belinda then revealed that Locke had completed his research a week earlier, leaving Patrick shaken.
• Locke accused Wizard Probus of possessing deep wickedness and explained that Evolution Garden combined three Great Magics; Probus erupted in anger and expelled Locke and the others from the Memory World.
• Grandet Wizard rang a bell to announce that the Swampfolk Club had lost and accepted the wager, while suggesting that a Star-Ring Wizard genius would take action next.

After defeating the Swampfolk Club, Locke gained support for his competition and investigation into what happened sixty years ago, while Star-Ring Wizards Thomas and Edith revealed their identities and received research leads from him. The White Wizard Association challenged Locke at Wizard Town, but Hassan crashed into the scene, giving Locke a Contract Master just as the confrontation threatened to escalate.

• Bella Witch and Akes Wizard discussed Locke's victory, and Akes said that supporting Golden Crown Mountain's competition served his family's interests.
• Locke received Academy Head Franklin's approval to continue the competition, and Grandet Wizard, Kent Wizard, Bella Witch, and other former Swampfolk Club members offered to join his Competition Committee.
• At the victory banquet, Thomas revealed that he was Ant Fern Wizard Thomas, and Edith revealed that she was the High Elf Edith Huntington; Locke gave each of them a research project based on Probus Wizard's work.
• Grandet proposed forming a cross-land club with Locke, but Locke left the banquet after a Second-Ring Wizard brought him news from outside Wizard Town.
• Wizard Killian Barnes of the White Wizard Association accused Locke of cooperating with Black Wizards and threatened an investigation, while Belinda confronted him and summoned her Ancient Tyrannosaurus legion.
• A fiery meteor struck nearby, and Hassan emerged from the crater; Locke greeted him and said he needed the Contract Master from the Mithril Law Office.

Hassan returned as a newly advanced Star-Ring Wizard, carrying the Lightning Archdemon’s inheritance and a risky theory for fusing his body, Permanent Defense Field, and Great Magic. As Kilian challenged Locke’s right to hold the competition, Hassan defended him, and a growing crowd of allies arrived just as tensions threatened to turn violent.

• Hassan told Locke that the Lightning Archdemon had taken his heart and ordered him to obtain the Abyss Queen’s energy, while Hassan chose to pursue dangerous inheritances to break free of the Progenitor Wizard’s control.
• Locke explained that the Abyss Queen was inside the Despair Valley Laboratory and invited Hassan to enter through the competition, so Hassan offered to represent Locke against Kilian’s objections.
• Kilian questioned the competition’s legality and safety, but Hassan disputed his claims, and Grandet arrived with a committee of Star-Ring Wizards to manage security.
• After Hou Congyin challenged Kilian’s inspection plans, Fire Hawk Wizard attacked him and was knocked away, prompting Kilian to prepare a show of force.
• Appian arrived with an extravagant convoy and announced that he had qualified for the competition, then Edgar appeared and declared that he would win the championship too.

Edgar arrived at Locke’s competition with his Beast-Tamer Ancient Tree and challenged Locke’s standing, while Hassan debated Edgar’s belief that being number one could guide others. Locke set the Probus Truth-Revelation Competition for one month later, accepted Kilian’s Golden Bull Horn, and learned that masked wizards planned to stop the contest from growing.

• Edgar demonstrated that his Beast-Tamer Ancient Tree let wizards communicate with many Second-Ring creatures and claimed he was the finest Breeder in the Star Ring.
• Edgar boasted that he had published three papers in Thunder Marsh and challenged Locke, while Kilian ordered his squad to investigate cautiously and treat the gathered wizards with respect.
• Edgar asked Locke to delay the competition so Georgina and other powerful wizards could enter, and Locke agreed to hold it in one month.
• Edgar explained that he pursued first place to give others a standard to follow, while Hassan argued that competitions could reward fame-seekers and fail to identify the strongest.
• Hassan and Edgar agreed to compete, and Edgar said he would claim first place and seek Wizard Probus’s memories as the prize.
• Kilian lent Locke a Golden Bull Horn to summon the Demon-Hunting Squad, while masked wizards decided to stop the contest and one witch offered to contact Locke Augustine.

Locke received the Golden Bull Horn, a magical artifact that raised his magic pressure, and prepared for the next competition while investigating Wizard Probus and developing his magical plants. Meanwhile, Witch Macedon was recruited to deliver a Super Magic Bloodline Potion to the Death God Elective Society, and Locke discovered water spelling Rose’s name in his laboratory.

• Witch Belinda explained the Golden Bull Horn’s origins and limits, and Locke invited Hassan to stay with the Maupassant Family while Wizard Appian declined to enter Wizard Town.
• Wizard Appian recalled a precognitive dream in which Abyss Demonfolk devastated Wizard Town, but he did not warn Locke because he could not tell whether the dream would come true.
• Locke asked Elk Witch and Lion Wizard to investigate White Frost Witch and Wizard Probus, then used the Bitter King Bottle to give Snow King’s Fire Plum the Flying Flower Occult Significance.
• Sword Dragon Throne approved Witch Macedon’s leave to compete and gave her two Super Magic Bloodline Potion tubes, ordering her to deliver one to the Death God Elective Society near Despair Valley.
• Locke hired the red-robed witch, Miss Mormodis, for fifteen million Magic Stones to develop complementary magical plants with him.
• Locke found water on his laboratory floor spelling Rose’s name and wondered whether the Death God Elective Society was responsible.

Locke investigated a mysterious apparition resembling Rose Witch and learned that a Sun-Ring form of the Throne of Good and Evil had entered him through his Supreme Meditation Method. As Locke, Edgar, and Mormodis developed a shared magic-plant Jungle, Wizard Probus left Despair Valley and the White Frost Witch decapitated him, but he immediately reattached his head.

• Locke encountered a lifeless woman with Rose Witch's face amid supernatural flooding, seized her through their causal link, and later found no evidence of a curse.
• The Throne of Good and Evil explained that his Sun-Ring Wizard form had entered Locke through the Supreme Meditation Method, then refused to answer Locke's questions and vanished.
• Locke resolved to investigate the apparition and the form himself while waiting for Witch Catherine and continuing the competition preparations.
• Locke, Edgar, and Mormodis synchronized the Spiritual Breath of two First-Ring magic plants, creating a makeshift Jungle and inspiring new cultivation methods.
• Wizard Probus left Despair Valley with the White Frost Witch, who severed his head and accused him of ruining her life, but Probus picked up his head and reattached it.

Wizard Probus returned from the dead and nearly completed an Abyssal King-Making Ritual as he attacked the White Frost Witch, but the Wizarding World's Plane Principle pinned him down. Locke and Witch Macedon intervened to prevent the White Frost Witch from killing Probus, while Star-Ring Wizards surrounded her.

• Wizard Probus revived with the Three-Wrath Foxtail Bamboo and attacked the White Frost Witch as his Magic Pressure rose toward Sun-Ring levels and the Abyss Queen invited him to ascend.
• Locke learned from the Throne of Good and Evil that Probus, Edgar, and a nearby witch were on a dangerous path, while Witch Macedon arrived and discovered the extraordinary magical bloodline potion had given her access to the Warlock System.
• Locke transformed into an Abyssal Dragon and tried to stop Probus, but the Wizarding World's mountains of Null, Void, and Pseudo Forging crushed Probus to his knees before the White Frost Witch could freeze him.
• Locke stopped the White Frost Witch from striking Probus by binding her to a third magical plant, disrupting her Jungle, while Witch Macedon stabbed her from behind.
• Grandet Wizard led Star-Ring Wizards, including Kent and Bella Witch, in surrounding the wounded White Frost Witch as she prepared to fight them.

The White Frost Witch escaped after Locke and the Star-Ring Wizards joined forces against her, then reported her failure to a Death God Elective Society elder. Locke and Witch Macedon recognized each other’s strengths but clashed over the competition, setting off a Dao Strife and leaving Locke to propose a test for the new entrants.

• The White Frost Witch froze the Star-Ring Wizards’ Great Magic, but Locke transformed into an Abyssal Demon Dragon and joined Gelang, Kent, Bella, and others in fighting her.
• Witch Macedon, Edgar, and the other wizards joined the battle, but the White Frost Witch used her Jungle to overpower their spells and escape with a warning for Locke, Macedon, and Edgar.
• The White Frost Witch told a masked elder of the Death God Elective Society that she had failed to destroy Wizard Probus’s Echo Body, and the elder revealed that her unstable Great Magic had been weakened by flawed theories.
• Locke studied Witch Macedon’s achievements, praised her research, and refused her request to cancel the competition, while they debated its effects on weaker wizards and their differing principles.
• Locke and Witch Macedon’s Great Magics locked into a Void Forging-level Dao Strife, and they agreed to face each other in the competition final.
• Gelang objected to Edgar entering in the third round, so Locke proposed a test for new entrants and invited anyone to take it.

Locke presented seven flawed Garden Grotto-Heaven models as the Probus Truth Revelation Competition’s third-round challenge, using Probus’s Great Magic to refine them and inviting wizards to find and correct an error. Away from the competition, Mormodis revealed her identity and past deception, then discussed the history of Wizard Probus and White Frost Witch, including a mysterious teaching award White Frost Witch had received.

• Locke displayed seven incomplete Garden Grotto-Heaven models and made finding and correcting one error the challenge for entering the third round.
• Locke used Probus’s Great Magic, Evolution Garden, to remove obvious errors from the models, then left his Tree of Prosperity on display so interested wizards could study and revise them.
• Mormodis admitted that she had helped White Frost Witch and Probus’s enemies, explained that she was a Moon-Ring Witch and Potion Master, and described how an Incarnation Potion had given her a second identity.
• Mormodis explained that she had initially tried to undermine Locke but grew sincere through their work together, and she suspected White Frost Witch had been responsible for the earlier mission against Probus.
• Mormodis told Locke about the New Era Guide title White Frost Witch had received for work in the Seven Mountains Region, though she could not explain how White Frost Witch had earned it.

Locke persuaded Mormodis to stay and help investigate the events surrounding White Frost Witch and Wizard Probus, then became the Sea Queen Throne’s fourth personal disciple. After sealing away the Throne of Good and Evil’s form, Locke received the Death God Elder Ring and impersonated an elder to collect a rare potion from Witch Macedon.

• Locke convinced Mormodis that uncovering the truth about White Frost Witch’s conflict with Wizard Probus could help her senior apprentice sister, and Mormodis agreed to stay while continuing her own investigations.
• Locke worked on a Garden Grotto-Heaven design but made no breakthrough while the Throne of Good and Evil watched him.
• The Sea Queen Throne made Locke her fourth personal disciple and gave him potions that sealed the Throne of Good and Evil’s form in a scorpion tattoo.
• The Sea Queen Throne lent Locke the Death God Elder Ring and ordered him to collect a potion from Witch Macedon in her place.
• Locke met Witch Macedon, accepted the Super Magic Bloodline Potion while disguised as a Third-Ring elder, and warned her not to grab him again.