Chapter 830: The Four Seasons Turn, Powerful Life Magic! The Power Leaf!

The twelve ice plum wheels collided against the Blood Progenitor True Forms of the Second Circle wizards. In the next instant, the enormous bodies of these three blood demon gods were sent flying in all directions by the ice plum wheels.

The surrounding sea of blood was frozen, and the act of absorbing spiritual energy from the mundane people was halted.

At the same time, the three Second Circle wizards had not expected Locke to strike so boldly.

Even in the black wizard world, people so ferociously aggressive were relatively rare.

After all, the black wizard world was brutal. Everyone feared being injured and giving enemies a chance to exploit their weakness.

The three Second Circle wizards simultaneously recited spells. The blood that had fallen on the ground transformed into blood tentacles that reached toward Locke, but before these blood tentacles could touch Locke, they were pierced through by a jade-green spear formed from the Second Circle climbing fern.

The enormous blood tentacles dissolved into a downpour of blood raining in all directions, and the curse power hidden within the blood tentacles fell along with the rain.

Hussein's expression shifted slightly upon seeing this.

"Locke, be careful. These wizards are all experts in blood curse magic. This blood is flowing from their injured wounds, and just now they were trying to use the Sacred Blood Ritual Hand spell model on you. Anyone caught by the Sacred Blood Ritual Hand would have a massive curse injected into them. But the ritual hand was just now scattered by you. However, the blood within the Sacred Blood Ritual Hand contains powerful curse energy. If it dissolves into rain and falls on this city, in an instant, a large number of cursed vampires will be created."

"Then they can draw the blood from those vampires to restore their injuries and launch attacks on you."

The three blood race Second Circle wizards immediately began to laugh coldly, their eyes filled with mockery.

Using blood curses to summon more blood curses was the philosophy of the Pale Pilgrimage's Blood Demon Palace.

Locke glanced at Hussein. "No need to worry."

"Because it cannot happen."

The Great Glazed Wintergreen Plum in Locke's hand released its unique winter hibernation force, a force born from the combination of ice and snow magical power and the life magic of plants. This hibernation force was one of the components of true winter magic.

Instantly, those blood droplets falling like rain, before they could reach the city and land on the mundane people's faces, before they could fall on all the livestock in the city, were frozen into ice crystals.

Ice fragments fell upon the city from above, startling mundane people into closing their doors and windows.

What they did not know was that if this blood rain had not turned into ice fragments, had it fallen into the city, they would instantly have become pitiful sacrificial victims under the blood curse.

The three black wizards who had been sneering with cold mockery in their eyes now all had their expressions freeze. They had nearly exhausted all the life energy obtained from the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual to cast a Sacred Blood Ritual Hand with extreme magic runes incorporated.

Their original intention had been to counterattack Locke. When that failed, they shifted to trying to first massacre the million mundane people of the city below, then use the blood of a million mundane people as a sacrifice to curse Locke.

But who would have thought that with a single sweep of a plum branch toward the blood rain above, Locke turned all the blood into ice fragments.

Even more strangely, the curse energy that should have been active was silenced in an instant, as though ice truly could seal curse energy.

The three black wizards discovered in horror that strange ice fragments had also appeared on their wounds, sealing their undying power and preventing their bodies from self-regenerating.

What was this power?

Hussein also looked in surprise at the Wintergreen Plum in Locke's hand.

"Life magic has methods like this? In just an instant, all curse energy entered a sealed state. In other words, that magical plant has the ability to cause all manner of energy to enter a dormant state. Is this winter magic?"

The Four Seasons Magic was, strictly speaking, a very high-level form of life magic.

So black wizards rarely encountered it.

Hussein, because of his work at the law firm, had broader experience and knew more wizards. At this moment he could recognize the outline of what Locke was casting.

It was not a simulation of winter magic but seemed to be the embryonic form of true winter magic. He had not thought that in so short a time, Locke had progressed this far.

The three Second Circle black wizards' expressions changed drastically. They could only channel all the life energy they had previously obtained from the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual fully into their bodies to restore the bodies and souls that Locke had severely damaged in an instant.

Additionally, they discovered that Locke's winter magic had not only caused them injury but had put a portion of their power into a peculiar state.

Not exactly sealed.

Because it could still be drawn upon.

But while it could be drawn upon, the effectiveness was too weak. The same amount of magic pressure, and yet it was somehow less effective than before.

As though this portion of magic pressure had fallen asleep.

This was precisely a unique characteristic of winter magic: the rigidity effect.

A portion of their power had fallen into a stiff, rigid state.

"Slightly more durable than I expected. But this is the extent of it."

Locke looked at the three of them. He had just used the Lunar Cultivation Method to fully enhance his Great Glazed Wintergreen Plum in all directions.

His magic pressure had now reached over nineteen thousand one hundred, while theirs were only around fifteen thousand. His Grand Magic also exceeded theirs in energy dissipation rate, instantaneous magic pressure amplification, and energy compatibility across all parameters.

Furthermore, winter magic was a very high-level spell, so Locke had nearly slain all three in an instant. But the opponents, relying on vampires' undying ability, had managed to recover from near-death states. Only about one-tenth of their power had been made rigid by him.

The three blood race black wizards exchanged a glance. They could sense that because of Locke's winter magic, their magic pressure had effectively dropped by approximately seven hundred and fifty.

The magical power rigidified in them was approximately one-tenth of their full magical power.

Running the numbers, they immediately understood that the Great Glazed Wintergreen Plum was equivalent to having the ability to effectively reduce their magic pressure by half.

Who could endure that?

They had no idea whether, if struck by Locke's twelve ice plum wheels again, their magic pressure would be knocked below ten thousand.

The three black wizards each immediately struck at Locke, attempting a second counterattack. They separately recited spells and cast three blood race Second Circle curse magic spell models with extreme magic runes incorporated.

Two spell models were the blood race Second Circle curse magic, Crimson Blood Blade!

One spell model was the blood race Second Circle curse magic, Life Death Covenant!

This was the three black wizards' second coordinated assault. The Crimson Blood Blade used one's own forbidden undying power as the energy source, converting curse power that would normally require continuous effect into instantaneous damage attack force, launching attacks on enemies.

And if a wizard was struck by the Crimson Blood Blade, all the curse power that had accumulated in their body would burst out in an instant, converted from continuous damage into momentary instantaneous damage.

It could also attack from range, could be held as a blade for close combat, and could have curse magic attached to the blade for attacking others.

One could say it was a very well-suited fit for their blood race magic combat system.

One crescent-shaped blood blade after another, each the size of a mountain, swept toward Locke.

At the same time, one blood race demon god extended a blood whip from his left hand and lashed it toward Locke. The blood whip was a manifestation of curse power. Once it successfully broke through an enemy's soul defense, it could forcibly establish a blood connection with the enemy and hijack that connection, causing aberration.

In this way, however much injury one sustained, Locke would sustain the same, and vice versa.

Clearly the three had considerable combat experience. The Crimson Blood Blades were feints, with no hope of defeating Locke with those spells.

What they were truly gambling on was the Life Death Covenant connecting with Locke, allowing one of them to share damage with Locke. This being the case, the Second Circle blood race black wizards could restore their injuries through blood supplies and lower-level blood servants, and use the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual to sweep through their mid-scale plane a second time to restore their souls.

So the Life Death Covenant spell was advantageous for them and a disadvantage for Locke.

The three black wizards watched the blood whip concealed behind the blood blades shooting toward Locke, and looked on with hope at that magic, wishing for it to strike Locke.

The greatest advantage of the Life Death Covenant was that within the same grade, as long as the gap in magic pressure did not exceed ten thousand, it could basically produce an effect on the enemy.

Of course, the spell also had a weakness, which was that the distance between the caster and the one who had been cursed could not exceed one thousand meters.

Once beyond one thousand meters, the curse would automatically fail.

So of the three, only one chose to incorporate an extreme magic rune into this spell model.

After all, the Crimson Blood Blade had a wider range of application.

Hussein, while somewhat worried about Locke, glanced at him, but seeing Locke had no intention of asking him to join in, he did not enter the battle.

Locke looked at the three people's combined magical assault. "A trick beneath contempt."

He took out a second magical plant in his left hand, which was none other than his summer magical plant, the aroid family magical plant, Pinellia!

The aroid family contained a number of magical plants with special abilities to heat the surrounding temperature.

The Pinellia swung forward, the Summer Grass Mars Bewilderment spell model appeared at its tip, transforming into a spell spark. This spell spark absorbed all the blood blades by the spark's gravity and then forcibly drew in even the blood whip.

Then all the energy was reflected back, striking the three of them.

Because Pinellia was a summer magical plant possessing the flame ascent force, the three magical attacks were not simply reflected back. The force of the three spells combined with the Summer Grass Mars Bewilderment's own magical power all boiled and activated together, and because of the flame ascent began continuously rising upward.

Boom.

Energy exploded from the three people's throats and moved toward their heads. A blazing magical force appeared on each of their bodies and shot skyward. The three of them transformed into three pillars of fire on the spot.

The entire imperial capital's ordinary people could all see three massive fire tornadoes rising into the sky.

Then they turned into flaming clouds, their energy dissipating in the heavens.

For some unknown reason, these ordinary people felt the oppressiveness and discomfort they had been feeling had lifted.

Inside the imperial palace, the emperor and the Eternal Glory Hall's second-class wizard apprentice also felt their physical states greatly improve, their whole bodies filled with a cool and refreshing feeling.

At the edge of the battlefield, Hussein placed his fingers beside his right eye. A knife scar above his right eye suddenly split open, flowing blood saturated with curse power that formed a blood monocle over his right eye.

Hussein observed Locke's power. "Just as I thought, it seems that in these past few months, his research into the Four Seasons Magic has gone even deeper. Is it because he recently worked on a few projects?"

"The magic pressure of the several Second Circle wizards and the magical power they had dispersed into the air were drawn by that summer magical plant's magical power, causing the energy to boil as though it had been ignited, transformed into an upward-rising wisp of light smoke."

"That Summer Grass Mars Bewilderment just now is more powerful than what I saw a few months ago. It appeared to reflect the energy back, but it actually used the flame ascent force's property of making magic and energy boil upward to guide it back to the casters themselves, causing the casters' own magical power to fall into chaos."

"A true case of picking up a rock to smash one's own foot."

"The ordinary people around them should be feeling lighter, I imagine. After all, the magic pressure that had been covering the imperial capital has all been ignited by Locke's life magic and turned into upward-rising light smoke."

"With the magic pressure gone, naturally those ordinary people feel relieved."

Hussein was, after all, a genius, and his thoughts went further.

"Life magic is intimately connected with the health of all living beings' bodies. The Four Seasons Magic appears to be, at its essence, the different states of life energy."

The three Second Circle black wizards walked out from the three pillars of fire. They were now tattered all over, all severely injured.

The three exchanged a glance and all sensed that Locke's power was crushing them.

This was a force they could not resist even working together.

All three immediately made the decision. They could not keep fighting.

Run!

If they did not run now, they might lose even the ability to escape.

At this moment, all three of them drew on the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual and again exhausted their mid-scale worlds, launching the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual a second time in a short period within their worlds to intercept life energy and restore their injuries.

But doing this was tantamount to drawing on their Grand Magic's power in advance, entering a stage of borrowing to repay borrowing.

The intrinsic value of their own assets would decrease, so the magic pressure of all three fell by five hundred each.

From fifteen thousand down to fourteen thousand five hundred.

At this point the three exchanged another glance and exchanged rapid words.

"This is bad. If things continue like this, all three of us will die at this Golden Crown Mountain researcher's hands. This person is too ferociously aggressive and his magic is too sharp. One person is suppressing all three of us. Every time our magic is used, it gets sent back at us."

"At this critical moment, we must give everything we have and help each other. If we do not do this, we will all die. I propose that one of us offers their blood to the other two, and the other two activate their Grand Magic World-Stealing Celestial Ritual to absorb their energy and enhance the two people's physical capabilities, then the two of them carry the one while escaping."

"Excellent idea! This is the most appropriate solution to our current predicament. Mutual assistance means everyone survives together."

After settling this among themselves, all three immediately turned and fled without a backward glance, with absolutely no intention of having one sacrifice their blood to strengthen the other two's blood curse magic.

What a joke.

The one who was drained would be finished.

If two were strengthened and one weakened, the two would only need to leave the one being drained behind, and would they not be able to successfully escape and get away from that ferocious white wizard's clutches?

All three were black wizards who had grown accustomed to seeing the ugliness of human nature in the Pale Pilgrimage. At this moment they naturally would not be so foolish as to trust their lives to their companions honoring any moral code and coming to their rescue.

Their companion's death, not their own.

As they ran, the three exchanged glances at one another. As long as they could run faster than their companions, they could let the one who fell behind draw that Eye Demon Wizard's attention.

So all three rapidly came to the same conclusion. Their true enemies were not Locke but the companions running alongside them.

Two of the black wizards immediately turned on the one they had identified as the weakest among them, the one with the lowest magic pressure and the most physically weakened, the one who had always been the weakest. They recited spells toward him, raining curses down on him and forcing him to remain in place.

The blood race demon god struggled within blood tentacles while furiously cursing the two companions.

"Damn you both. You two bastards."

He looked at Hussein. "Hussein, you are a blood race wizard too. After that white wizard kills me, he will come for you. You and I had better join forces!"

Hussein looked at him coldly, knowing this was nothing more than desperate gabbling from a cornered animal, the kind of trick that appealed to a shared narrative.

There was no way he would be swayed by such a trick.

Locke looked at the three of them. "No need to run."

At this moment, a large quantity of climbing fern spores erupted from the three people's bodies simultaneously. The spores began converting into gametes.

Botanical Second Circle Magic: Alternation of Generations!

These spores were from his Second Circle climbing fern, which he had covertly dispersed in the air earlier and had parasitically attached to all three during the battle while they were unaware.

The climbing fern's spores rapidly alternated between sporophyte and gametophyte, with the alternating characteristics corresponding respectively to Pinellia's summer attribute and the Great Glazed Wintergreen Plum's winter attribute.

This caused the Blood Progenitor True Forms of the three Second Circle black wizards to begin entering a seasonal transition.

Hussein glanced at Locke and immediately understood his plan.

The effect of this magic was actually not going to be very dramatic, because Locke had only used some infertile spores from his Second Circle climbing fern. Even with alternation of generations and seasonal changes occurring, they would not have much practical effect.

But Locke was using this move to directly force a head-on collision between his Grand Magic and their three Grand Magics simultaneously, that is, a direct clash of magic pressure against magic pressure. This would create the conditions for a World War.

Because their Blood Progenitor True Forms would certainly want to interrupt the seasonal changes occurring in their bodies, to prevent Locke from directly interfering with the four seasons of the planes behind them, thereby using seasonal changes to reduce their power.

Hussein immediately understood Locke's plan.

"Using the World War to expand your forest? Since you helped me once, let me help you in return."

Hussein cut his right index finger. Three drops of blood fell downward, instantly transforming each into a blood tentacle.

Sacred Blood Ritual Hand!

Three blood tentacles each coiled around the bodies of the three black wizards, simultaneously injecting curse power into the three of them and weakening all three of their magic pressures.

All three black wizards roared furiously.

"Hussein, you are also a descendant of the Progenitor Wizard! Why are you helping an outsider who uses life magic?"

Hussein laughed coldly. These three people's attitudes had turned remarkably fast.

He would naturally not have his position shaken in any way by this garbage.

Hussein said to Locke, "You previously reduced their magic pressure twice in succession, and on top of that they launched the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual twice themselves in a short period, their Grand Magic having fallen into decline."

"And now I have cursed them once more. The difficulty of forcing a World War with them will be reduced, and winning will be considerably easier."

Locke turned back and gave Hussein an 'OK' gesture, then looked at the three black wizards as his Four Seasons magical power clashed with their Blood Progenitor True Forms, the two sides contesting in raw magic pressure. Very quickly this became a direct magic pressure showdown between three Grand Magics and Locke's own Moon of Evolution Grand Magic.

At this point, the mid-scale worlds behind the three began to appear.

The three were actually sharing a single mid-scale world.

Locke was briefly taken aback, but quickly understood. A slightly larger mid-scale world could indeed simultaneously support multiple wizards in constructing Grand Magics.

If anything, this was the normal situation.

The Louis Plane from before had only one Second Circle wizard and only one Burial Ground had been constructed because Wizard Morgan had been a genius among black wizards in his youth, only to have his path blocked by someone else's scheming and his ability destroyed.

At this moment, the three black wizards' expressions changed dramatically.

"This is bad. He has opened the World War."

"But he is alone, with a single Grand Magic. Is he really that confident he can simultaneously suppress all three of us?"

Locke stepped forward, heaven and earth shifted, and the Moon of Evolution's moonlight shot directly into the world behind the three of them, the Heidelberg Plane.

A full moon appeared in this plane.

The Heidelberg Plane was a standard mid-scale living plane whose civilization had stalled in a feudal era, with feudal manors everywhere, individual kingdoms, and a holy order of light that claimed to have received a divine oracle from the God of Light and established itself in the mortal world.

The ordinary people of this world had no supernatural abilities whatsoever, just the most ordinary of nobles and kings.

Only within this world were three vampire clans hiding, disguised as nobles, parasitically embedded within human society, engaged in a battle of wits with the holy order for hundreds of years, while gradually developing large numbers of vampire apostles who had been converted.

Locke scanned the world. His main body was blocked outside this world's crystal wall system, but he noted that most of the world's power figures were essentially all vampires.

These vampires wore human skin and secretly ruled the mundane people, while covertly performing the World-Stealing Ritual for the three Second Circle black wizards.

And the two recent consecutive World-Stealing Ritual performances in short succession had placed the countries of this plane under pressure. Because so many mundane people had died, the entire plane's social structure had already begun to collapse.

The moment Locke's Moon of Evolution entered this plane, its moonlight drew in a large number of ordinary plants as an ecological community.

"Hmm? Only ordinary plants, no magical plants?"

Locke's gaze swept over the entire plane.

"There should be three ritual centers. Where are they?"

He could see that the edge of the Heidelberg Plane had a blood river flowing through it.

It appeared that the three blood race wizards' actions in constructing their Grand Magic here had also drawn the blood river plane's power into this world, causing the blood river to flow through this world.

Locke's gaze fell on the highest mountain in this world, the Mountain of Light.

"I see. This holy order is actually the location where the three black wizards secretly hold the World-Stealing Celestial Ritual. All three ritual centers are on a single mountain. The three of them have operated in this world for many years and have invested their primary resources in this holy order."

The core of a World War lay in the direct clash of Grand Magics.

Locke's moonlight fell upon his ecological community. "Going by the same approach as that World War last time. First, grant the resistant ordinary people of this world the power of the Ranger."

The Ranger system Locke constructed this time was more complete.

Because his Ranger system had been developing in the Louis Plane for a period of time already and had been continuously developing under his disciple Nicholas Shaw.

"The more and higher the quality of the trees and leafed plants blessed by my moonlight, meaning my ecological community, the more power I can give the Rangers."

One after another, leaves containing a special power appeared among the treetops in the Heidelberg Plane's trees.

Locke called these leaves the Power Leaves.