521: Arrival at Golden Crown Mountain and Meeting a Colleague
Golden Crown Mountain is a natural concentration point for magic; it is essentially four volcanoes. These four volcanoes are constantly emitting rolling thick smoke, with magma churning inside. Some volcanoes are dormant, while others are still active.
Special underground magic tide can erupt from the volcanoes, raising the magic tide gradient around the four volcanoes by several notches.
The main peak of Golden Crown Mountain connects the sky and the earth; its summit seems to be directly under the sun, forever shrouded in golden radiance.
This mountain truly deserves to be the number one volcano among the nine mountains of Cloud Marsh!
For some reason, Golden Crown Mountain is not actually very high, and the height of the sun relative to the ground in all surrounding areas is normal.
However, only at the summit of Golden Crown Mountain does the sun appear to be right above it, forming a breathtaking scene.
The sun seems to have transformed into a halo of light behind this great mountain, and the entire Golden Crown Mountain radiates holy and majestic light and heat, beaming out to the earth.
In other words, Golden Crown Mountain itself erupts geothermal energy; it is not an ordinary volcano, but one that can erupt underground geothermal magic tide and can also connect to the fire of the sun.
Heavenly fire and earthly fire are linked together by a mountain, turning into pure magic power that nourishes all living things around the mountain.
Therefore, the area around Golden Crown Mountain is a vast forest region, and that forest is composed of patches of magic plant.
Locke had never seen such a dense forest of high-level magic plant; everywhere were One-Ring Magic Plant, and there were even second ring magic plant. In the deeper parts of the forest, there were also some terrifying auras, which seemed to be even higher-level magic plant.
"No wonder Golden Crown Mountain Academy is the top academy in Cloud Marsh." Locke finally understood; Golden Crown Mountain itself is a great magic creation. Locke couldn't even grasp why the spatial structure of Golden Crown Mountain was like this.
When Locke used the spirituality Vision that all wizards possess, he could see that Golden Crown Mountain itself was a huge pillar of flame connecting the sky and the earth.
The surface of Golden Crown Mountain itself is a top-tier magic plant ecological forest, with twenty-two gardens inside, corresponding to the twenty-two schools at the headquarters.
Inside the gardens are towering ancient castles.
Outside the twenty-two gardens are a large number of plantations, bloodline processing factories, construction sites for Constructors, Magic Painting galleries, wizard commercial streets, wizard markets, gyro kinetic power stations, and so on.
There are also wild magic plant forests.
What caught Locke's attention was that there were vast patches of finished peach-type magic plant gardens on Golden Crown Mountain. "The cultivation of peach-type plants on Golden Crown Mountain is famous in the Three Ze Lands, and even in the Eastern Border Region."
On the wizard airship, Locke also saw many cultivation techniques he had never seen in the Southeast Corner Region or the Six Towers Land—soilless cultivation magic field, magic field in magma pools, and magic field carved out of rocks.
There were even magic field on clouds. Even on the crown of a huge banyan tree that was 10 acres in size in a forest, there could be magic field. The most common ones were actually the soil-based magic field.
Around Golden Crown Mountain, everything in nature seems to be able to be a magic field!
This exquisite cultivation technique was an eye-opener for Locke. These were knowledge that one could not come into contact with in other Wizard Land without coming to Golden Crown Mountain.
A wizard beside Locke, seeing this scene, also had flickering eyes. "As expected of Golden Crown Mountain, this is too advanced."
"You see, those pumpkin heads flying and floating above the magic field are actually light energy distribution systems. They can absorb the surrounding light and distribute it precisely to different magic field. Wizards can freely control those little sun-like glowing pumpkins, placing them on their own magic field, or swiping them away with their fingers."
"The surrounding clouds can be manipulated manually or automatically, with those black rain clouds watering the magic field."
"Look, the tornadoes staying at the foot of the mountain and the waist of the mountain, are they frozen? But as long as a wizard of Golden Crown Mountain swipes their finger, those tornadoes will move."
"Besides tornadoes, hurricanes, breezes, strong winds, and light winds, these are all solid-state weather that can be used by wizards at will."
"Whether it is windy or raining, as long as the wizards here move their hands, they can manipulate it instantly, as simple as drawing on a piece of white paper."
"This is the work of the Second Ring Weather Master of Cloud Marsh, an all-weather weather manipulation system!"
This wizard's tone was excited, as if on a pilgrimage, "This is the paradise of Breeders, Golden Crown Mountain."
"See those gyros as big as houses?"
The wizard airship that Locke was riding was not a direct flight; there were some stopovers and stations in the middle.
Because the man-made network of cross-spatial structures covers Cloud Marsh, transportation here is convenient, so this wizard airship had stops at quite a few Wizard Land along the way.
Locke remembered that the wizard sitting next to him seemed to be from the Fission Mausoleum Plain Wizard Land.
Just didn't know what he came here for.
At this moment, this wizard was looking at the gyro power station of Golden Crown Mountain, his eyes glowing. "I had heard before that the Kinetic School of Cloud Marsh was very powerful, but I didn't expect it to be true."
"Look, every time that large gyro turns, all the vibration energy is recycled, converted into magic energy, and then distributed to the light energy system, irrigation system, and the refining array workshops in the alchemy workshops."
Locke saw him chattering endlessly and speaking to him, so he said: "This wizard from the Fission Mausoleum Plain, what brings you to Cloud Marsh?"
The wizard turned to look at Locke and smiled embarrassedly: "Ah, sorry, I was a bit excited. After all, as a Weather Master, I can't come into contact with these things in the Fission Mausoleum Plain. The weather studies field of Cloud Marsh is the best."
"I am Daniel Brooke. From the 'Painted Green Mountain Cult' of the Fission Mausoleum Plain. However, that is just a medium-sized local wizard organization, you must have never heard of it."
"I came to Golden Crown Mountain in Cloud Marsh to join the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge of Golden Crown Mountain." Daniel smiled confidently, revealing white teeth, "I am the champion of the 'Three Ze Cup' in Cloud Marsh."
"As a competition reward, I joined the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge of Golden Crown Mountain."
Locke asked suspiciously: "Three Ze Cup?"
Daniel nodded and said: "Yes, the Three Ze Cup is the largest First Ring level Weather Master competition in the Eastern Border Region. The scene is very large, and I won the championship."
"There were six rounds of competition in total, each one more intense than the last, and the final round even required transforming a semi-Plane with a completely destroyed ecological climate. The final round was really too difficult, but even our work is not as good as this weather manipulation system of Golden Crown Mountain. This system is truly too exquisite."
"As a Weather Master, seeing this system, my mood is like a pilgrimage."
Seeing that the wizard airship was about to arrive at Golden Crown Mountain, Daniel put down his book and began to actively converse with Locke. He was enthusiastic and very talkative, but spoke steadily, not rushing or panicking each time he spoke, but thinking for a while to confirm what he said was correct before speaking again.
He was cheerful but also steady, a type of wizard personality Locke had never seen before. He carried the unique style and aesthetics of a wizard from the Fission Mausoleum Plain.
Indeed, as Sophia the Witch said, every Wizard Land has its own style and aesthetics.
The Southeast Corner Region is balance, while the Six Towers Land is extremely conservative, the Three Ze Lands pursue the beauty of exquisiteness, the Star Domain Sea is inclusive of everything, and the Spiral Basin is extremely enterprising, seizing every opportunity.
The Fission Mausoleum Plain also has its own collective aesthetic style, which somewhat influences the wizards from this Wizard Land.
And through chatting with Daniel, the Fission Mausoleum Plain described by him was a Wizard Land with an eight-thousand-year history of magic copper mining.
Most of the magic copper mines come from the Fission Mausoleum Plain.
The field of Alchemists who study raw materials in the Fission Mausoleum Plain is very powerful.
This is different from the alchemy field that the Dragonfall Land, the source of most high-quality Magic item, is good at.
The Fission Mausoleum Plain is good at material development, as well as the manufacture of bronze Magic item, brass Magic item, and red copper Magic item, while the Dragonfall Land is good at developing Golem Studies and Magic item studies.
The Three Ze Lands is good at the small field of Textile Studies in alchemy, and many magic clothes and magic cloaks come from the Three Ze Lands.
In addition to the prosperity of alchemy, the Fission Mausoleum Plain also has a prosperous Mind School.
Specifically, the study of maxims within the Mind School is prosperous.
And as it happens, Wizard Daniel's main profession is Weather Master, and his secondary profession is Proverb Master.
Wizard Daniel, upon hearing Locke say that he was also coming to join the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge at Golden Crown Mountain, revealed a look of surprise. He scanned Locke up and down and said, "There are only two wizards entering the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge at Golden Crown Mountain this year, and it turns out one of them is you. What a coincidence that we ended up on the same wizard airship."
"Your cooperating mentor is Witch Yekaterina, while mine is Wizard Feodor. He is a Third Ring Wizard and also a Throne Wizard in the field of Weather Master."
"Then we can consider ourselves colleagues." Wizard Daniel said with a smile, "Every inch of land on Golden Crown Mountain is worth its weight in gold. Outside wizards have a hard time finding even cheap rental housing in the wizard activity area, so I suspect the dormitories the academy arranges for us will be together."
"I didn't expect such a coincidence."
"However..." Wizard Daniel's expression became strange. He spoke his mind directly, not wishing to hide his thoughts. "Although it is said that to enter the True Knowledge Institute, one only needs to reach the Liquefaction Stage before the age of fifty, even for an ordinary True Knowledge Institute, one basically needs to reach the First Ring Crystallization Wizard stage to be able to join, let alone the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge in the Cloud Marsh. I didn't expect that you, a First Ring Liquefaction Stage wizard, would actually be able to join."
"I remember that this year, a First Ring Crystallization Wizard from their own school wanted to join the Hall of Advanced True Knowledge at Golden Crown Mountain, but was directly rejected. His spot was likely taken by you."
Wizard Daniel looked at Locke with an appreciative gaze. "I reckon you must be very outstanding; otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible to achieve such a thing."
Locke said, "It's alright."
Locke said, "I am very curious about the methods of you Proverb Masters. I haven't seen a wizard of the Mind School before."
Wizard Daniel summoned a brass book, upon which lines of text appeared.
This copper book seemed to be the mainstream communication method in the Fission Mausoleum Plain.
After replying to the message, Wizard Daniel snapped his fingers, causing the copper book to vanish, and then smiled apologetically at Locke. "It was a Wizard Seed student of mine from the Tuqingshan Cult contacting me."
"I previously gave him special permissions, allowing him to use our Wizard Land's communication system to contact us and ask me questions."
"I have a good relationship with him, so I spent a bit more effort on him." Wizard Daniel looked at Locke and said, "Back to the main topic, Colleague Locke, have you never seen the methods of a Proverb Master before?"
"As colleagues who have just met, I can demonstrate the Spell Model of Proverb Studies to you."
Wizard Daniel smiled and took out a magic quill from his astral ring. What was worth noting to Locke was that this quill was not an ordinary goose quill.
The main body of the quill emitted a faint reddish glow, appearing like a mass of misty flames, with electric sparks flickering within the flames.
Locke was slightly surprised. "Is this... made from the tail feather of a Thunder-Fire Gryphon?"
The Thunder-Fire Gryphon is a masterpiece of the biological breeding sub-field of the Summoning School. It is a super magic creature created by crossbreeding a Thunderbird, a Gryphon, and a Fire Cat. However, it is infertile and requires experienced magic creature Breeders to continuously crossbreed and create it in order to produce the corresponding First Ring magic creature, the Thunder-Fire Gryphon, on the market.
But the Thunder-Fire Gryphon is a First Ring Crystallization Stage magic creature. Since this quill was made from its tail feather, it is priceless.
Ten thousand Magic Stones would definitely not be enough to buy it; the price of this quill is likely around fifty thousand Magic Stones.
For a First Ring Wizard, it belongs to the category of genuine luxury goods.
Wizard Daniel nodded. "Good eye, colleague."
"This is indeed made from the tail feather of a Thunder-Fire Gryphon."
Wizard Daniel took out a First-Class Apprentice level Snake-tailed Yellow Lion from his astral ring. As soon as the lion was taken out of the astral ring, it let out a howl, tucked its tail, and wanted to run away. However, Wizard Daniel held the magic quill between his thumb and middle finger, chanted a spell, and then used a special azure ink to write the character [Stop] on the forehead of the Snake-tailed Yellow Lion.
Instantly, the Snake-tailed Yellow Lion squatted in place and stopped moving.
Seeing this scene, Locke immediately understood that the lion's mind had been suppressed by the [Stop] character on its forehead, which was why it was completely unable to move.
Wizard Daniel said, "Look, this is the method of a Proverb Master, a branch of our Mind School. We can use written characters to influence others' minds and suppress others' minds. Of course, these characters have actually undergone special modifications. Look at the edges of this'Stop' character; aren't there many extra patterns? That is actually the Spell Model of my Mind School spell."
"Spells of the Mind School are quite special. When using them, one needs to transform mana in a specific way and mix in a certain amount of spiritual power."
Locke nodded slightly. Psionic energy and Dragon Might are actually both mixtures of mana and spiritual power in different proportions.
Both are branches of the Mind School's power.
Wizard Daniel said, "A Proverb Master, on the other hand, needs to first mix mana and spiritual power in a certain proportion to convert it into [Thought Energy]. Therefore, before using a Proverb spell, one must first possess [Thought Energy]..."
Wizard Daniel used white ink to wipe away the [Stop] character on the lion's forehead, then dipped the magic quill into the azure ink and wrote [Fear]. Instantly, the Snake-tailed Yellow Lion collapsed limply to the ground, unable to move again.
Locke nodded slightly; he had truly gained a lot of knowledge this time.
As expected of Golden Crown Mountain; he had encountered things he had never encountered before even before entering.
Locke used his spiritual vision to observe the changes in the lion's spirituality, thereby indirectly understanding the state of its mind.
Undoubtedly, as a sub-field of the Mind School, the Proverb Studies Spell Model is more refined than his own Mind School's Dragon Might, but it also means that its range is not as powerful as his Dragon Might.
Moreover, Locke noticed that this Proverb Studies Spell Model is extremely intricate. In same-level combat, it would be very difficult to execute, and on wizards with stronger mana than oneself, it would likely be difficult to have any effect.
But for wizards with weaker mana than oneself, the suppression effect is immense.
It is a god-tier tool for crushing weaker opponents.
This point is actually different from his own Dragon Might. Even when facing entities with stronger mana than himself, his Dragon Might can still function, playing a role in weakening the opponent's power output.
Of course, this is only relative.
Locke predicted that if one's mind were affected by this kind of Proverb Studies spell once, it would be very troublesome. He guessed there would be a series of follow-up combos; it belongs to the type where one cannot have their defense broken, but once the defense is broken, it becomes very troublesome.
This is different from the curse magic of a Curse Master. Curse magic is also a tool for crushing weaker opponents, but as long as a wizard is not at the end of their rope, they cannot have their magic resistance comprehensively lowered because of a single curse. However, this thing called mental resistance is very easy to lose entirely with one careless move.
The operating principle of this Proverb Spell Model is different from the operating principle of spells like the Enchantment School's Strong Human Charm, which change others' cognitive states to indirectly influence others' minds.
The Proverb Spell Model's influence on the mind is more direct, more effective, and more powerful. Enchantment School spells can only pry into others' minds when there is a huge gap; otherwise, they can only make minor changes.
Whereas the Mind School's Spell Models will have an effect on minds of the same level.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. All magic of the Mind School remains consistent in its essence, basically taking the mind and consciousness as the core and the main object of research.
For the Enchantment School, the mind is just an unimportant field. The Enchantment School will not fall into idealistic research, but only treats consciousness as a derivative of the human material body for research.
What the Enchantment School studies is how to change the state of things through incantations, magic arrays, and rituals, along with magic runes, as well as using runes to inscribe objects to assist in creating Magic items.
Locke thought, "Looking at it this way, the Enchantment School's influence on consciousness is external, while the Mind School's influence on the mind is internal."
"The two look similar, but because of their internal principles, they are worlds apart, and their applicable ranges are also different."
Wizard Daniel put away the magic quill and the Snake-tailed Yellow Lion, and said to Locke with a smile, "I've embarrassed myself. How about it? The mind magic of our Fission Mausoleum Plain is quite interesting, right?"
"By the way, where are you from? Hmm? The wizard airship has landed."
"I must hurry to report. Let's chat again next time if we have the chance."