One month later, in a conference room 10 kilometers from the White Dragon Tower.

Locke manipulated the Illusion School projection screen with his fingers, addressing three First Circle wizards and forty-five wizard apprentices, "After everyone's two weeks of hard work, we've finally completed the project proposal."

"Currently, we just need to send the materials and project proposal to the Cloud Marsh Cup competition committee."

Witch Barbara, Wizard Tacitus, and Wizard Montgomery all showed smiles.

A month ago, Wizard Montgomery had proposed that they could use a special parasitic magical plant called Rust Bead Flower that parasitized on parasitic magical plants to solve the problem of the Chain Magic Vine storing magical pressure.

The original Chain Magic Vine, although it could parasitize on permanent defensive fields, could only obtain brief magical power from the permanent defensive fields, while Rust Bead Flower could solve the problem of magical pressure storage.

Although even with this, they were still far from their envisioned large-scale tactical magical plant that connected multiple wizards' permanent defensive fields, at least taking this step proved that their research group could continue with this project.

Montgomery smiled and said, "I'll personally deliver the project proposal to the White Wizard Association's Hurricane Eye Array Magic Gate today."

"Thanks to Lord Locke, if he hadn't provided so much high-quality preliminary experimental data, we couldn't possibly have written a project proposal that far exceeds the level wizards of our Land of Six Towers should have within just one month."

The project proposal didn't just require writing about the research topic, budget plans, and so on, but also needed to provide certain preliminary experiments to prove that the entire project plan wasn't a castle in the air, much less empty boasting.

And Locke had preliminary experimental data on hand.

That data was from experiments done by Witch Sophia and the others in the Star Domain Sea using the Star Sea Scholars' laboratory.

Of course, within this month, Locke had already applied to the Plutarch family for a special-grade research project laboratory located at the White Dragon Tower, and had spent half a month there doing some basic data.

Locke said to Montgomery, "This is also everyone's credit. After all, the preliminary experimental data in the project proposal was produced by the entire research group working overtime."

"Needless to say, that project proposal far exceeds the level the Land of Six Towers should have. We're currently located in the Land of Six Towers, so our level can represent the upper limit of the Land of Six Towers' level."

Locke's words excited all three First Circle wizards in the conference room.

These past days, they had heard enough from the Land of Six Towers saying that their entire research group was just a money-collecting tool.

Almost everyone believed that this research group was just a tool for Alicia to collect her private funds.

Now it seemed their research group finally had a chance to put an end to such foolish talk.

Wizard Tacitus said to Montgomery, "Wizard Montgomery, when you deliver the project proposal, you must be careful, and then more careful."

"Caution is always right. There are too many people in the Land of Six Towers who don't want us to produce results."

Montgomery nodded. "Of course."

Witch Barbara asked Locke, "Then what do we do next? Do we wait for the competition results?"

Locke shook his head. "No need to wait for the competition results. Immediately proceed to the next step and try to create this magical plant."

"There's no reason this project proposal won't pass the first round of competition. So we need to prepare for the second round with all our strength."

"I need you to use the three major cultivation methods and magical resonance cultivation method to cultivate as many vine subspecies as possible, then we'll build a 'sword mound' in the laboratory. I'll use the finite element cultivation method to gather all the magical vines and assemble the finished product."

Locke said, "During this process, I'll help you."

Facing the pressure of producing results, all three First Circle wizards showed serious expressions, without the happiness they had when they had just written an excellent project proposal.

The project proposal, when it came down to it, was just planning and envisioning the future. Since it was envisioning the future, there was plenty of room for imagination, and they didn't actually have to make it, so everyone was relatively relaxed during that stage.

But Locke wanted them to actually create the magical plant from the project proposal that was perfectly incredible and had a complexity level that far exceeded all research in the Land of Six Towers, and they had to do it within the competition's one-year requirement.

Immediately, a heavy mountain pressed down on the hearts of all three First Circle wizards.

Were they qualified?

Even Montgomery, who was the most confident, felt somewhat nervous at this moment. "Lord Locke, should we prepare a Plan B? We can work on two plans simultaneously. If we can't complete this project research, we can still switch to Plan B."

Montgomery smiled bitterly. "My confidence in us isn't actually very high."

"People thrive on change, trees die when transplanted. We need to think ahead about the worst possibility."

The four First Circle wizards discussed above, while the wizard apprentices below listened in confusion. They weren't formal wizards and had extremely limited knowledge, so they had no idea what specifically was happening.

They only knew that they should do whatever Locke and the others asked them to do. This was a very good project, a very good opportunity. The days they spent here were ten thousand times better than before, so naturally they didn't want to leave the research group.

Locke looked at Montgomery strangely. "No need. Working on two plans simultaneously seems good, allowing us to switch from Plan A to Plan B, but it actually disperses our attention. We already have insufficient manpower and inadequate resources."

Locke retrieved a subspecies from his astral ring, a level 8 synthesized item he had synthesized using the Synthesis Cube, but unfortunately it still hadn't reached the requirements of the completed project.

This Chain Magic Vine parasitized by Rust Bead Flower resembled a rusted chain. It automatically fell to the ground and formed one concentric circle after another on the floor, wrapping around Locke and protecting him.

"This is the first Chain Magic Vine subspecies I cultivated, a First Circle magical plant. As an individual magical plant, it might be pretty good, but unfortunately it still doesn't meet the requirements of a tactical magical plant."

Locke explained, "Next, we need to cultivate more Chain Magic Vine subspecies, and finally use the finite element cultivation method to complete it."

If it were another wizard using Locke's approach, it might be somewhat risky, because research rarely produced results, and whether results could be achieved and when were both uncertain.

Moreover, this approach wasn't necessarily correct or efficient.

But the problem was that the Synthesis Cube and the finite element cultivation method were naturally suitable. He could first use synthesis to create a large number of subspecies, then use the finite element cultivation method to cultivate the mature form.

During this process, large amounts of data were needed, and that's when Locke would need to use the three First Circle wizard collaborators and the forty-five wizard apprentice students.

Those students could do large amounts of simple, repetitive cultivation work.

The three wizards and himself would continuously modify their approach during the cultivation process, seeking the most likely possibility of obtaining magical plants with the characteristics they wanted.

Montgomery and the others all trembled.

Witch Barbara exclaimed, "Boss Locke? It's only been a month, and we still have to count the time we spent writing the project proposal. You've already cultivated a subspecies? That's way too fast."

Witch Barbara tried to approach Locke, and immediately the Chain Magic Vine seemed to sense something, raised its head, and followed her movements dangerously.

"Hmm? This magical plant can defend itself? Really interesting. Boss, you're truly a genius. It's just a pity this magical plant can't utilize permanent defensive fields."

Witch Barbara used a universal bloodline spell, invoking multiple bloodlines within her body. Then with a point of her finger, a blood flame burned on the surface of the Chain Magic Vine. This subspecies vine rapidly weakened and became dispirited.

Witch Barbara snapped her fingers, the blood flame disappeared, and the Chain Magic Vine quickly absorbed energy from the air, recovering itself and becoming lively again.

"The completion level is this high? This is already a mature First Circle magical plant."

"It has very high defensive capability. When my magical energy collided with it, although it had no operator and couldn't resist, it was never completely subdued by my magical power. Hiss, a magical plant work with such high completion in just one month? This could be written as a separate paper."

Witch Barbara quickly realized, "Worthy of being the boss. Now I'm confident."

Montgomery, as a genius breeder, now showed genuine admiration.

Although he had discussed breeding studies with Locke and hadn't seen how genius Locke's thinking was, in front of the Chain Magic Vine subspecies that Locke had independently cultivated, he quickly recognized how powerful Locke's ability to transform ideas into results was.

"I'm convinced. Boss is the strangest genius I've ever seen. His thinking is step-wise."

"But with Boss here, I'm truly confident about completing this project."

Montgomery said, "I've rarely admired a wizard, but now I'm completely convinced by Boss Locke."

Tacitus put away the surprised expression on his face and then smiled. "Worthy of Lord Locke. When we do the finite element cultivation method subspecies, we don't necessarily need to pursue First Circle magical plants. Apprentice-level magical plants are also fine."

"Let's start today."

Because Locke had demonstrated his abilities, the entire research group became full of energy.

Even those students had more smiles on their faces, feeling that the research group's wizard mentors were very reliable.