Chapter 837: Atavistic Evolution, the Mountain-Crossing Dragon Naked Fern!

Cloud Marsh Wetlands, Quinn Jol District, Little Repose Mountain.

Little Repose Mountain possessed the third-ranked magical spring in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands, the Spring of Vitality. Benefiting from the life magic that emanated from the Spring of Vitality, Little Repose Mountain served as an important botanical research base in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands.

Locke had also come to understand, while learning the foundational knowledge of Spirit Breath studies, that the foundation of the Spring of Vitality was the various forms of Spirit Breath beneath that magical spring, most importantly the life Spirit Breath.

That was an exceptionally high-grade form of Spirit Breath.

By the same logic, whether it was Golden Crown Mountain, Bonifacius University, or Quinn Jol, the magical springs they possessed all had Spirit Breath running beneath them.

Spirit breath studies was not only important for botanical wizards and breeders. It was also deeply significant for earth wizards and ocean wizards.

At that moment, the staff member of the Small Breath Cup events committee office was a star ring wizard. He looked at Locke with a puzzled expression.

"Wizard Augustine, you withdrew five million magic stones early before. Are you short on funds again and looking for additional sponsorship?"

Clearly this star ring wizard had considerable experience in such matters.

The Small Breath Cup, as a Second Circle competition that had only recently been established, lacked serious prestige and therefore often took the initiative to offer funding in order to attract promising ordinary Second Circle wizards to participate.

Moreover, this star ring wizard, Nycrus, frequently encountered situations where seed contestants who had been sponsored by them ran out of funds and attempted to obtain further money from his side.

After all, research was very difficult to keep within budget.

Sometimes, one could burn through a great deal of money and produce nothing at all.

The key difficulty was that it was hard to judge whether one was just one step away, where giving up would mean all prior effort was wasted, or whether one had gone completely off course, in which case continuing to invest would be throwing good money after bad.

Wizard Nycrus had abundant experience dealing with wizards who came to the Small Breath Cup events committee office seeking additional funds. One could say that in the past ten years, only one wizard from Storm Spire had managed to persuade him and obtain funds from him.

Everyone else had been talked out of it by him.

Wizard Nycrus deliberately put on a pained expression and said to Locke, "Wizard Augustine, I am sorry, but our events committee has its own rules and regulations."

"We are unable to provide any additional supplementary funds."

"I am sorry to say."

Locke said, "Wizard Nycrus, you have misunderstood. I did not come to ask you for additional funds. I came to tell you that I have achieved a breakthrough success in using the Golden Foxtail Grass and the green foxtail grass to perform an atavistic reversal to Golden Spike Wheat."

Locke held up the atavistically evolved Golden Foxtail Grass in his hand for the wizard to see.

Wizard Nycrus was briefly taken aback, then glanced at the time.

"What, it is done? This quickly?"

Wizard Nycrus was himself a Second Circle breeder and naturally understood what a successful atavistic reversal to Golden Spike Wheat would mean.

First, Golden Spike Wheat was one of the iconic plants of the Twilight Border and had been extinct for many years.

Successfully performing an atavistic reversal to Golden Spike Wheat would be of tremendous significance, and would be an unequivocally positive development for the Small Breath Cup.

Because what the Small Breath Cup most urgently desired was reputation.

What could attract more attention than reaching across time to revive a Golden Spike Wheat that had been extinct for ages?

Second, if the Golden Spike Wheat could be successfully revived through atavistic methods, it would mean that Locke's atavistic techniques were already highly mature and could even support the publication of a top Tier 1 Second Circle journal paper.

Tier 2 should be a sure bet, though Tier 1 was harder to say.

The main issue was that sun ring wizards also published Second Circle journal papers, and Tier 1 was generally the domain of sun ring wizards.

A wizard who could publish a Second Circle Tier 1 journal paper while not yet a sun ring wizard was either a once-in-a-generation genius or backed by a team of extraordinary collective strength.

Wizard Nycrus looked at the Golden Foxtail Grass in Locke's hand, then suddenly recited a spell. A beam of magical radiance appeared within the holographic image.

A brilliant white light shone toward Locke.

But the light was bent, and the three hundred and sixty solar wheat awns of the Golden Foxtail Grass in Locke's hand released their radiance, warping that magical light and absorbing it into the magical plant's body.

Wizard Nycrus swallowed.

"This is the defining characteristic of Golden Spike Wheat, the Glorious Photon plant factor. The most important component of the golden phytogen group. Legend has it that Golden Spike Wheat could absorb the surrounding sunlight and all magical radiance, condensing it into the glorious photons of Golden Spike Wheat."

"This is the key gene of Golden Spike Wheat. The magical plant in your hand is Golden Spike Wheat."

Locke coughed once and reminded him, "Wizard Nycrus, that description is not quite accurate. This magical plant should still be lacking a number of the key plant factors that Golden Spike Wheat possessed."

"Atavistic evolution cannot fully revive a magical plant that existed in the past from within a complex and redundant phytogen group. This is not true Golden Spike Wheat. True Golden Spike Wheat is at minimum a moon ring level magical plant."

Wizard Nycrus said, "Possessing the Glorious Photon plant factor is enough to say that it is Golden Spike Wheat."

Locke saw that he was insisting on calling it Golden Spike Wheat and could not say much more.

It was obvious that for the Small Breath Cup, insisting that this Golden Foxtail Grass was Golden Spike Wheat carried significant benefits for them.

The key point was that true Golden Spike Wheat no longer existed anywhere, and there were not even specimens available, only records found in ancient texts from the past. So claiming that this Golden Foxtail Grass, which bore seventy percent resemblance to Golden Spike Wheat and shared the same Glorious Photon plant factor, was in fact Golden Spike Wheat, while a stretch, was not entirely unjustifiable.

It was just somewhat far-fetched.

The pained expression on Wizard Nycrus's face vanished at once, replaced by a smile of delight. He appeared to grow more amiable altogether.

"Wizard Locke, you truly are talented for your age. Worthy of being called a genius among breeders. You have actually reproduced the Golden Spike Wheat that has been extinct for so many years."

"Even so, you could simply enter the competition directly and start preparing to write and submit the relevant paper. Why did you contact me?"

Locke said, "Here is the thing. I am aware that some competitions have a mechanism for determining the champion in advance. I want to obtain the championship as soon as possible."

The smile on Wizard Nycrus's face did not fade much. He thought it over and said, "Determining the champion in advance, I see. I understand your intention."

As long as no one was talking to him about money, anything could be discussed.

What was more, the magical plant Locke had produced was of tremendous significance to the Small Breath Cup. If a project of this caliber were to win the championship, it would actually elevate the prestige of their competition.

A competition that casually awarded its championship to magical plant projects that were not up to standard would, no matter how famous it had once been, quickly become a joke.

On the other hand, if a competition's award-winning works were highly regarded, that would in turn increase the prestige of the competition itself.

And if a competition's prestige increased, it would draw in even more outstanding entries.

At the same time, the champion title of such a competition could be recognized by wizard universities.

At that moment, Wizard Nycrus said to Locke carefully, "Wizard Locke, I can understand that as a young Second Circle wizard, you must be eager to convert the completed project in your hands into a championship title and a published paper. But the Small Breath Cup's entry deadline is still half a year away, and we have never had any prior experience of concluding the competition early."

"So this request of yours is something I will need to discuss with the director. Please wait a moment."

Wizard Nycrus turned and left his desk. About five minutes later, he returned leading a wizard with a full beard. This moon ring wizard had a full beard of salt-and-pepper white covering his entire chin.

This moon ring wizard director walked in with a satisfied smile and looked at Locke and the Golden Spike Wheat he had on display.

Moon Ring Wizard Director Maupassant said to Locke, "Wizard Augustine, the Small Breath Cup has never had any prior experience of ending the competition early. You only need to wait half a year and then enter the competition. With this work, you will definitely win the championship. That is my word on it."

There was no question about it. As the director of this competition, Maupassant naturally knew the average standard of past champions.

The magical plant in Locke's hand, in terms of its completion, its significance, and its degree of innovation, had already completely surpassed the average standard of past champions of the Small Breath Cup.

Even if the standard of past Small Breath Cup champions had been rising steadily, it had not yet reached this level.

However, after their discussion just now, Maupassant and Nycrus still felt they had to account for the possibility, however slim.

What if, in that half-year period, another dark horse appeared and wanted to enter the competition? If they announced the results early, would that not be a significant loss for the Small Breath Cup?

And most importantly, the Small Breath Cup had never ended a competition early before.

Wizard Maupassant then said, "Of course, as long as Wizard Locke participates in our Small Breath Cup half a year from now, we will not only honor the five million magic stones previously agreed upon, but I will also personally take three hundred thousand magic stones from my private account to give to you."

This was the conclusion Wizard Maupassant had reached after careful deliberation.

No matter what, he needed Locke to do the work, and he naturally could not afford to offend him.

So, after carefully balancing the interests at play, he was willing to put up another three hundred thousand magic stones to keep Locke on side.

Wizard Maupassant had calculated internally that all Locke would need to do was wait half a year. He had only been in Golden Crown Mountain's Origin Academy for one year, and by the conventional wisdom, a typical senior researcher at his stage could hardly be considered pressed for time.

So the cost to Locke of waiting half a year, by ordinary reasoning, should not be much of a loss.

On top of that, he had already offered three hundred thousand magic stones as compensation for Locke's Golden Spike Wheat. Conventionally speaking, Locke would most likely agree to this.

Although Locke's work would increase the Small Breath Cup's prestige, Wizard Maupassant felt that regardless of circumstances, he could not simply break with the Small Breath Cup's established precedent over this.

Locke furrowed his brow. Waiting half a year was unacceptable to him.

Why?

Because for him, the moment this project was concluded, he could immediately receive a special reward from Golden Crown Mountain.

Beyond that, he had far too many projects on hand. As soon as one was finished, he needed to move directly to the next.

He was different from other wizards. If he simply waited half a year, it would absolutely be a loss for him.

But Locke did not show any urgency. He remained calm and composed as he said to Wizard Maupassant and Wizard Nycrus, "You two are likely thinking that a dark horse may still appear. It is essentially a matter of not having enough confidence in my work."

"But I am confident I can persuade both of you to let me claim the championship of the Fifth Small Breath Cup early."

Locke said, "Both of you are superior breeders, so I will not say much more. I am going to use atavistic evolution to evolve a magical plant right now."

Wizard Nycrus started to say something but held back.

At that moment, Wizard Maupassant stopped Nycrus with a glance and looked at Locke with amusement in his eyes. "Go ahead."

Wizard Nycrus immediately understood what the director was thinking.

The prestige of the Small Breath Cup was not only tied to the standard of the championship work, but also to the caliber of the past champions themselves.

The better a champion went on to develop, the more significant it was for a competition like the Small Breath Cup, which lacked sufficient established prestige.

But Wizard Nycrus was thinking.

'Atavistic evolution of a second magical plant? If he can do that, then the atavistic technique this breeder Locke Augustine used to revive the Golden Spike Wheat is already quite mature and possesses general applicability. That would be a meaning of an entirely different order.'

'But can he really do it?'

'Even reviving the Golden Spike Wheat required that many resources before it could be accomplished. Could the atavistic reversal of another magical plant really be done this quickly?'

Locke took an ordinary climbing fern from his star-realm ring. This climbing fern was not even a tree fern.

Originally, this atavistic evolution technique of his was insufficient for performing a direct atavistic reversal of a magical plant without fully complete research data.

Setting other factors aside, the phytogen sequencing of a magical plant alone was something he would need to carry out in advance before an atavistic reversal could proceed.

Because before using the yellow mushroom extract to perform atavistic evolution, one needed to know the general sequence of plant factors within the phytogen. Only then could any suspicious plant factors be excised in their early stages before they underwent harmful changes.

Furthermore, even with those conditions met, insufficient foundational research data made it difficult to carry out a complete atavistic evolution.

The combination of yellow mushroom extract and the golden lantern vine was designed for use on the foxtail grass family to achieve atavistic reversal toward Golden Spike Wheat.

Whether the golden lantern vine could complete parasitism with other magical plants was still unknown, and the degree to which the yellow mushroom extract could disrupt the suppressive factor expression mechanism of other magical plants also remained uncertain.

But Locke had an exceptionally superior catalyst at his disposal, the Zero Potion.

The blank spirituality within the Zero Potion could be injected into the phytogen of a magical plant undergoing atavistic evolution, temporarily compensating for the absence of one phytogen set and thereby reducing the damage the magical plant sustained when the golden lantern vine absorbed its phytogen.

Because the blank spirituality could attach to the phytogen and stabilize the atavistic evolution process, reducing the yellow mushroom extract's destructive effect on the magical plant's plant factors, it could also stabilize the effects of the yellow mushroom extract.

So one dose of the Zero Potion could assist in the atavistic evolution of one magical plant.

This was the foundation of Locke's confidence in performing an atavistic reversal on an ordinary climbing fern in front of two breeders of higher magical rank than himself.

And as it happened, he had just recently obtained three more doses of the Zero Potion.

Locke placed the climbing fern into the magical field before him. At the same time, two objects resembling enchanted blades flew out from his hand, one silver and one gold.

The silver one carried the yellow mushroom extract in the Firetree Silver Blossom Curse, and the gold one was a golden lantern vine driven by the Lone Tree Cannot Form a Forest technique.

The two enchanted blades spun in his hand like a pair of throwing knives, simultaneously orbiting the climbing fern in elegant, precise arcs and modifying its plant factors.

At the same time, Locke used the Lunar Cultivation Method to deliver a dose of the Zero Potion into the climbing fern.

At that moment, both Director Maupassant and Wizard Nycrus watched the climbing fern in the magical field before Locke with full curiosity.

What exactly would happen?

Speaking of which, the climbing fern was itself an ancient magical plant, and it seemed its ancestor was an even older fern-type magical plant, though what exactly it was seemed to have very little research associated with it.

After all, it was just a First Circle magical plant. It would not attract any special attention from wizards.

At that moment, the climbing fern seedling, nourished by Locke's magic and the Zero Potion, grew at a rapid pace. Leaf after leaf fell away, and certain climbing stems began to grow extraordinarily thick.

It was as though it were a mountain-crossing dragon.

Even Locke blinked in some surprise.

"A Mountain-Crossing Dragon Naked Fern?"