527: Pursuing the Void
Locke frowned. After careful thought, he said, "Breeding Science should be about researching an ecologically perfect theory..."
Locke realized that Breeding Science in the Yunze Wetland must be very advanced, so he chose the safest answer.
Because the ultimate goal of every Breeder is inevitably to create the best natural ecology within their cognitive range.
Aiming high would surely not be wrong.
Wizard Thomassen's expression improved slightly. "That is a good answer; it is indeed one of the primary goals of Botany, but the problem is, this answer is wrong in our classroom."
Wizard Thomassen shook his head slightly, appearing somewhat disappointed. "You wizards have been deeply influenced by the short-sighted thinking of the outside world."
Wizard Thomassen turned and wrote on the pitch-black wall with magic chalk: "We can use rhetorical questions to verify our thinking, thereby helping us gain correct reflection. The simplest rhetorical question: if Breeding Science cannot help us manufacture powerful weapons or provide magic plants with specific functions, would we stop researching every magic plant, classifying them, and investigating the reasons for their uniqueness?"
"If, after studying meteorology, it is discovered that the entire weather system is a chaotic system that cannot be predicted or precisely controlled, would we stop analyzing the trajectory of every whirlwind?"
"Therefore, what I want to tell you today is the habit of the Yunze Wetland."
Wizard Thomassen wrote two words on the wall—'Useless.'
Wizard Thomassen said in a low voice, "In the outside Wizard Land, because resources are scarce and there are few High-Ring Wizards, you are forced to constantly pursue the practicality of things, and this happens to lower your upper limit."
"Pursuing and thinking about practicality is certainly good, but the greatest practicality is uselessness."
Wizard Thomassen turned to the many wizards and said, "To put it bluntly, the High-Ring Wizards of the entire Golden Crown Mountain, and even the entire Yunze Wetland, are pursuing useless things."
"That is, the pursuit of basic disciplines."
"The biggest cognitive change you will experience coming to the Yunze Wetland is to stop the pursuit of practicality and the hatred of useless things. You must have come to Golden Crown Mountain to learn, so I will tell you directly: what you learn here will definitely be these useless things."
Wizard Thomassen turned and took out a pot of seven-colored flowers from his astral ring. "Once, a witch in an academy on our Golden Crown Mountain loved beauty very much, so she spent a lot of effort breeding a plum branch with seven colors of flowers."
"Then, she spent seven years specifically researching why a plum tree branch could obtain seven colors of flowers through grafting, carefully exploring the magic power pathways and related natural magic power metabolic products."
The wizards below the class were whispering.
Wizard Daniel whispered to Locke, "A plum branch with seven colors of flowers, does that have any meaning?"
"Could it be that this can enhance the performance of the magic plant?"
Before Locke could answer, Wizard Thomassen answered him directly. "There is no meaning. If you don't count ornamental value, then there is no meaning. Even if you count ornamental value, it is the kind of ornamental value that has no great practical use for a wizard."
"To be honest, this isn't even as practically ornamental as a seven-colored plum branch Magic Painting drawn by a Quick Painter. But as it happens, having no meaning is its greatest meaning."
Wizard Thomassen walked onto the podium, the topic gradually deepening. "Golden Crown Mountain... or rather, the path to exploring truth in the magic world, is the study of useless knowledge. Aside from discovering several mechanism pathways for the color mutation of magic plant branches and publishing several Association S-grade articles because of it, that witch's work had no other significant meaning."
Wizard Thomassen said, "For you outside wizards, spending seven years of your time on how to make a plum tree look more beautiful would seem like you've lost your mind."
"But later, this witch became a Third Ring Throne Wizard. Her name is Witch Yekaterina."
Locke widened his eyes in surprise.
Had his co-supervisor done such a thing when she was young?
Wizard Thomassen said, "Witch Yekaterina, through the process of researching this phenomenon, discovered the key point that allowed her to obtain the Youth Cadre Fund and become a Young Cadre during her Second Ring Wizard stage—the light element backflow mutation mechanism of plants."
"Thus, in her Second Ring stage, she bred a Royal Plum Tree Treant Guard. That was a famous Second Ring stage Treant, possessing seven types of attack magic."
"Furthermore, in her Third Ring stage, she published the epoch-making article 'Basic Principles of the Variant of Magic Power Resonance Cultivation Method—Rainbow Resonance Cultivation Method' in 'Misty Rain Yunze,' a top-tier journal where only Third Ring Wizards can publish. That article gave her the possibility of attaining the title of Throne Wizard."
The crowd clearly hadn't expected things to develop this way. That One-Ring Wizard who sounded like she was straying from the path was now a Third Ring Wizard and a Throne Wizard of Golden Crown Mountain.
What seemed like useless research during the First Ring stage ultimately became the starting point for Witch Yekaterina to discover the light element backflow mutation mechanism of magic plants and the Rainbow Resonance Cultivation Method.
The wizards showed thoughtful expressions.
Wizard Thomassen continued, "Researching those seemingly most ordinary magic plants, or the weather, or some common plant traits or meteorological phenomena, and clarifying their mechanism pathways may seem like a waste of time, like useless knowledge, but it is the greatest usefulness."
Wizard Thomassen said, "So, you have to attend this course on your first day of joining, because there are many projects within the True Knowledge Institute that are different from the experiments you've done before; they are all seemingly useless tasks."
"Moreover, for a long time, you will absolutely not find the slightest bit of use in them. Aside from writing articles, they will have no other use."
"These are basic disciplines that would not receive attention in other Wizard Lands. For a Wizard Land with scarce resources that needs rapid progress in a short time, pursuing these things would not improve their situation in the slightest."
"But we, the Yunze Wetland, need to stand in the future."
Wizard Thomassen said, "That is why the article system is necessary. Otherwise, all wizards could just set aside articles and directly do practical projects. If a project is completed, everyone can naturally see its level. But the problem is that much knowledge and many articles are useless, yet they are the foundation of those truly useful projects."
Wizard Thomassen said, "Therefore, in this classroom, what kind of discipline is Botany? It is a theory that researches the mechanism pathways behind unknown phenomena appearing in magic plants. What kind of discipline is meteorology? It is a theory that researches the formation mechanisms of weather phenomena."
"Botany is not for making weapons, nor is it for agriculture; it is a theory for researching nature. And meteorology is not for ensuring favorable weather, but a theory for wizards to explore the mysteries of the sky."
Wizard Thomassen said, "That's all for today. Class dismissed. I hope the wizards newly joining Golden Crown Mountain are mentally prepared. Golden Crown Mountain is different from what you think. What we do here is ethereal, and what we play with are things that are not useful at all."
"If we only talk about practicality, many One-Ring Wizards here are even inferior to the wizards in your original Wizard Lands in terms of comprehensive ability and practical engineering development."
"If the pursuit of practicality set you on the path of exploring truth, then the pursuit of the illusory will allow you to go further and deeper on that path."
Thomassen said, "Practicality and nothingness are two sides of the same coin. Pursuing practicality and pursuing nothingness are both beneficial to us. This... even involves the path you will take after becoming Second Ring Wizards."
"However, let's not mention that for now. There's no need to explain the specific details in advance. Once you become Second Ring Wizards, you will naturally understand how significant today's class is for you. The reason there are so few Second Ring Wizards in other Wizard Lands, besides the lack of resources, is also due to their flawed perspective."
Thomassen said, "Today's class is essentially laying the foundation for you to become Second Ring Wizards."
All the wizards in the entire classroom fell into deep thought.
Locke blinked, wondering why the Second Ring Wizard Thomassen would say that the content of this class was actually related to Second Ring Wizards.
Locke and Wizard Daniel left the classroom. Wizard Daniel murmured to himself, "Useless knowledge? Pursuing the illusory?"
"I already felt that after becoming a Maximist, the things researched by the Mind School were too ethereal, which is why I studied meteorology. But after coming to the Yunze Wetland, we are expected to adapt again, as everything we learn is the study of nothingness."
Wizard Daniel covered his forehead, looking confused. "This is really making things difficult for me."
"Pursuing nothingness? In our Fission Mausoleum Plain, if I wanted to try that, forget becoming a Formal Wizard, I'm afraid I would have been eliminated during the First-Class Wizard Apprentice stage. If you don't produce results, you don't earn money; if you don't earn money, you have no resources. Those who can pursue nothingness must be those with extremely abundant resources and no lack of money."
Wizard Daniel sighed.
Locke nodded slightly. "However, this is the Yunze Wetland, after all. Every Wizard Land has its own rules; we just need to follow the local customs."
The two returned to their staff dormitory on the third floor of the castle.
Although called a staff dormitory, it was actually two large adjacent houses with rooms partitioned inside. The area was enormous, and it was even equipped with five standard forest elf servants.
In short, the living conditions for One-Ring Wizards in the Yunze Wetland were quite good.
Moreover, because of the advanced magic technology in the Yunze Wetland, Locke felt that living here was even more convenient than in the Six Towers Land.
After a night passed, Locke sat on his bed. After a night of meditation, he found that his magic pressure had increased by another 10.
At the same time, Locke saw on the grey mist slate that Witch Yekaterina indicated he could go to the Group Six laboratory at six this morning; she had already informed the group leader wizard.
Meanwhile, Witch Yekaterina told him that because choosing an Advanced Meditation Technique was related to his advancement to a Second Ring Wizard, she couldn't let him choose casually.
Therefore, she planned to have him wait until next month. During her group meeting, she would set aside an hour specifically to guide him in choosing an Advanced Meditation Technique.
Locke had no objection to this.
In any case, he hadn't even reached the First Ring Crystallization Stage yet. Choosing an Advanced Meditation Technique early had no practical meaning for him.
Furthermore, if he chose wrongly, it would be very troublesome. Having a Throne Wizard select it for him would be more reliable.
...
The next day, at six in the morning, Locke was energetic after half a night of meditation and immediately headed to the laboratory. On the way, he encountered Wizard Daniel, who was constantly yawning.
Locke looked at his sleepy state with confusion.
Wizard Daniel waved his hand at him. "Don't worry. It's mainly because in my Fission Mausoleum Plain, I never went back at two in the morning and started normal work at six. So I need a little time to adapt... to this fast pace."
"Dammit, I only slept for four hours; I'm not quite used to it. Locke, you look like you're in good spirits? What did you do last night?"
Locke said, "I meditated for half the night."
Wizard Daniel: "..."
Wizard Daniel was silent for a moment, looked carefully at Locke, and whispered a complaint, "For a moment, I thought you were a native wizard of this region, to have adapted to their crazy schedule so quickly."
"I still need more time to adapt."
Locke hesitated for a moment and said, "Daniel, you're going the wrong way. I remember the meteorology laboratories are all on the left, while I should be going to the right."
In the corridor, Wizard Daniel nodded and raised his hand. "Thanks."
Locke, meanwhile, walked down the corridor on the right. He found the target location and pushed open the laboratory door, immediately seeing a vast garden behind it.
The garden was filled with the fragrance of flowers and the singing of birds. There were various large-scale Breeding Science devices, and one magic field after another.
There were many wizards at the First Ring Crystallization Stage, as well as Second Ring Wizards, conducting experiments around the magic fields.
At that moment, a middle-aged Second Ring Wizard walked over with a frown. He wore a modified wizard robe and a jacket with many large pockets filled with magic plant seeds, and he had fluorescent moss bracers on his wrists.
The middle-aged wizard picked up a Magic item gold watch in his hand and checked the time, his frown deepening. "You're late. Throne Yekaterina told me you would arrive at six, but it is now 6:01 and 3 seconds. You are a full minute late!"
"Plus three seconds."
Locke was incredibly shocked. He hadn't expected a Second Ring Wizard to be standing at the entrance of the True Knowledge Institute's public Breeding Science laboratory, holding a Magic item clock, waiting for him and telling him he was one minute and three seconds late.
The middle-aged wizard looked at Locke and frowned. "Although you are a wizard recommended by Throne Yekaterina, and I am a group leader under this Throne, logically I should be satisfied with you, but now I have two major dissatisfactions with you."
"The first major dissatisfaction: on the first day, you are a minute late. What do you plan to do in the future?"
"The second major dissatisfaction: you are only a One-Ring Wizard at the Liquefaction Stage, not the Crystallization Stage. This lowers the average magic level of our group. I should say, my main dissatisfaction with you stems from this."
Locke ignored the Second Ring Wizard's nitpicking and asked, "Wait a moment, Lord Second Ring Wizard, I remember the contract with the True Knowledge Institute stipulated that I could conduct independent research projects, so I personally shouldn't affect Group Six..."
The Second Ring Wizard frowned so deeply that it looked like his brow could crush a fly. "Now I have three major dissatisfactions with you. The third major dissatisfaction: you seem to have no sense of collective identity."
"Working alone is such a waste of time. If you cooperate with others, it would be beneficial for everyone."
"My name is Celtic." Wizard Celtic pursed his lips. As an ordinary Second Ring, he didn't dare disobey Throne Yekaterina's orders and knew how much she valued the young man before him. Thus, even with three major dissatisfactions with Locke, he could only watch him join the group.
"Within the laboratory, personnel are divided into four categories. The first category is researchers like you. The second category is Chair Mages of Golden Crown Mountain like us. The third category is these jointly trained First-Class Wizard Apprentice students; some of them might become your students in the future."
"Finally, there is the Lord of the Throne."
"I am the group leader here, considered a middle supervisor, while you are a junior supervisor, and the Lord of the Throne is the senior supervisor."
"Researcher Augustine, I hope I won't have more dissatisfactions with you after this."