After leaving the research group, in the afternoon, Locke went to one of Director Alicia's offices located on the 20-kilometer level of the White Dragon Tower.

The office space was extremely spacious, and the furnishings were also extraordinarily luxurious. They all seemed to be things left over from Grand Wizard Sulla's time. Many items in the office were magical artifacts that could be used immediately once a soul imprint was imprinted on them.

Moreover, there seemed to be a special Abjuration School array inside this office. Bloodline energy had materialized here into a kind of red spirit thread that could be seen with the naked eye.

Just by breathing a few breaths of air here, Locke discovered that some kind of true dragon bloodline within his body was rapidly growing, and the dragon language runes hidden beneath his skin were accelerating and becoming more complex.

'Worthy of being the office of the leader of the bloodline essence masters' headquarters.' Locke glanced around at the office furnishings. There were many magical gems here. By placing these magical gems in specific positions, combined with the unique ritual magic power of First Circle crystallization wizards, an array could be set up here that condensed bloodline power and greatly benefited bloodline wizards.

No wonder Alicia's magical pressure had been advancing by leaps and bounds recently. Being in this office was equivalent to enjoying the best resources in the Land of Six Towers. Her magical power would naturally increase rapidly every day, currently having reached 3500. At this rate of improvement, she would probably only need about a year to reach the liquefaction stage.

Of course, this was also partly due to Mammon's Powder that he and Alicia had cooperatively improved.

Alicia sat in the office chair, holding the bloodline studies spell model that Grand Wizard Sulla had given to Locke in her hand, "Hmm? This is a spell model made by us bloodline essence masters, and the quality is quite high. The spell model has been fine-tuned very reasonably."

Alicia even marveled at the blood-red bead floating on her thumb, smiling, "This spell model isn't just reasonably fine-tuned, it's also very compatible with your soul aura."

"And with your magical power nature. The wizard who gave you this blood bead has reached a level of mastery in bloodline studies that has reached perfection. It's truly admirable. Without years of accumulated experience and constant learning and improvement, it would be absolutely impossible to make a universal bloodline studies spell model to such a perfect degree."

Locke asked doubtfully, "Alicia, what I want to ask is whether this rune has any other problems... for instance, whether it contains something that would create weaknesses for me."

Alicia suddenly understood. "So that's what you're worried about, Locke. But a wizard who can create such an artistic spell model should have basic character and wouldn't do such a thing, right?"

"Let's set that aside. This bloodline spell model is carried in a drop of concentrated blood from a Kolmodo Beast. The Kolmodo Beast is an underground magical creature of the lizard type in the Land of Six Towers, often used for transporting high-grade magical ore. Its blood undergoes dozens of processing steps to become a drop of True Blood that can carry universal bloodline spell models."

"This is one of the core knowledge assets of our Land of Six Towers, and also the most important thing for bloodline essence masters. The universal bloodline magic and special bloodline magic of bloodline essence masters are all carried in this True Blood."

"Most importantly, making such a drop of True Blood is extremely troublesome, and the information it can carry is extremely limited, so it's basically impossible to tamper with a drop of True Blood. And the drop of True Blood you have is so perfect, it's even more impossible."

Alicia frowned, seemingly thinking about how to make an analogy to help Locke understand this bloodline studies product. "Creating a problematic True Blood would be like trying to mix some unknown liquid into a bottle of wizard wine while still keeping the True Blood itself perfectly intact. This is really too difficult. Unless you encounter inferior True Blood, otherwise for bloodline essence masters, they can tell at a glance whether there's a problem."

Locke nodded. "So you mean that one drop of True Blood can't be tampered with, and it would only be possible with multiple drops of True Blood?"

Alicia thought seriously for a moment, "Locke, I can't be certain. The Land of Six Towers doesn't teach such courses. Only those black wizards are good at doing such things, right?"

"However, what you said does have that possibility."

Alicia returned the True Blood to Locke. "However, there's only one drop of True Blood here. Even if you use it, nothing will happen. Based on my knowledge, there's no problem with this."

"If you're interested in this kind of thing... perhaps I can make them for you in the future. Although I can also make this most basic First Circle universal bloodline magic of bloodline studies, what I make definitely won't be as perfect as this True Blood."

Locke nodded. After thinking for a moment, he took the drop of True Blood and dripped it onto his skin. Since he had already confirmed that one drop of True Blood absolutely wouldn't have problems, he could use it with peace of mind.

As soon as this drop of True Blood came into contact with the skin on his arm, it was immediately absorbed by the pores on his arm skin. In just a moment, this drop of True Blood was completely absorbed by his arm skin.

Locke's body was enveloped in a scarlet bloodline magical power. Then he sensed that this drop of True Blood spreading within his body had penetrated deep into the bloodline essence deep within his body, and the bloodline essence deep within his body regathered in the form of bloodline factors, combining with his original bloodline essence.

It became an externally-loaded bloodline factor.

"I see, True Blood is this kind of thing. It grants me some kind of universal spellcasting ability in the form of an externally-loaded bloodline factor, storing the spell model information in the bloodline factors within my bloodline essence, rather than in the sea of consciousness." Locke understood.

What made him feel most at ease was that he could sense that he could control this drop of True Blood to leave his body at any time.

Alicia thought for a moment, "You could say that, after all, Locke, you're not a bloodline studies wizard. But when it comes down to it, this understanding is somewhat biased."

"If this universal bloodline spell model were used by a bloodline essence master, there would still be corresponding spell model stars in the sea of consciousness. It's just that you're only using the True Blood as equipment, equivalent to your spell pool simply having one more spell slot, so a spell model star hasn't manifested in your sea of consciousness."

Locke nodded. "This was given to me by Grand Wizard Sulla."

Alicia was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth and laughed. "I was just guessing which bloodline essence master's work it was. In the Land of Six Towers, wizards who can create such outstanding True Blood can be counted on one hand."

"Hmm... you and my grandfather are really too alike." Alicia said, "In the past, my grandfather also received a bottle of potion from a potion master friend that could reduce bloodline pollution side effects, but he not only didn't take it immediately, he actually found me and had me check whether there were any problems with the potion."

"He was obviously very good friends with that potion master, yet he was still so guarded." Alicia let out crisp laughter like silver bells. "You two are exactly the same in this respect."

"You're obviously in a cooperative relationship now."

"However, it's normal for you to be careful. My grandfather is very good at getting a hold on people's weaknesses."

Locke changed the topic, "By the way, Alicia, when I came to your office, I heard an argument happening inside your office, and I saw Erik walking out from your office. Are you alright?"

"What does he want to do now?"

When Alicia brought up this matter, worry appeared on her brow. "Erik has decided that my having you participate in the Cloud Marsh Cup is just to collect money, so he also wants to obtain family financial support to participate in the Golden Cup competition held at the Twilight Border."

"The Golden Cup is the bloodline transformation competition over at the border area."

"Erik thinks that since I can use the Cloud Marsh Cup to collect money, he can too."

"He thinks my money-collecting method is very novel. He hadn't reacted before, but now that he has, naturally he wants a share of the profits."

Alicia said, "The Golden Cup requires that participants must use bloodlines with golden magical attributes for transformation. The Land of Six Towers has never done any research on golden bloodlines at all."

"I think he probably won't even pass the first round of the main competition."

Locke said casually, "Now that you're the acting family head, you can reject him using the reason that the quality of the application he submitted is too low."

"This isn't difficult."

Alicia's face showed bitterness. "No, this time the application he submitted has pretty good quality. At least I can't find any critical flaws that would allow me to reject it immediately. So having no choice, I could only let him participate and agreed to give him funding of seven hundred thousand magic stones."

"At least in terms of procedure, I can't pick out any errors."

Locke looked at Alicia strangely. "That's not right. Erik's ghostwriters have all been pulled into my research group by me. He shouldn't have ghostwriters to help him write articles anymore. How could he possibly write such an application?"

Alicia said, "I've heard about this. I heard Erik spent money to find some marginal wizards among the family wizards, as well as some civilian wizards. This batch of wizards doesn't have very high abilities. So Erik came up with a new method, plagiarism."

Alicia explained to Locke, "Which is being an academic tailor."

"There are quite a few such people in the Land of Six Towers. They go around looking at excellent articles written by wizards in the Land of Six Towers and even outside the Land of Six Towers, see what good viewpoints those excellent articles have, and immediately cut out these things and put them in their own articles."

"Even some that have just been published, or haven't been published yet and are about to be published, they can immediately copy the excellent parts, then modify them slightly."

"By copying here and there like this, they can piece together an article that can just barely pass. Since he just wants to collect money anyway, naturally he only needs to write a project proposal. As for whether it can be completed afterward, that's not his concern."

Alicia said, "Look, this is his project proposal. He even plagiarized parts of your article's viewpoints. Hmm, specifically the elemental backflow principle of Diamond Succulent that you wrote during your time in the Land of Six Towers. He really managed to copy it over. He also wants to create a golden bloodline with elemental self-backflow."

"I must say, this idea, combined with parts of other articles he copied, really allowed him to piece together an article that, without careful examination, has no apparent problems. Now quite a few wizards in the family have even been deceived by him, thinking he really wants to participate in the Golden Cup."

"But from his tone just now, I could tell that he doesn't even plan to pass the first round of competition. Getting seven hundred thousand magic stones is enough for him. If he doesn't write the project proposal seriously, then it's simply writing a few articles and forging some data. Naturally it won't cost much money, and the rest of the money is all his."

"He originally wanted to apply for two million in family subsidies. I had a hard time compressing it down to seven hundred thousand. If you hadn't been about to enter my office just now, I'm afraid he would have continued pestering me."

Locke nodded.

Alicia said, "No matter how I told him, he doesn't believe that you're not going to collect money, but are seriously competing to increase your credentials. Just now in my office, he thought your project proposal most likely won't even pass the first round of the main competition. He thinks you're also an academic tailor."

Alicia said with distress, "I hope seven hundred thousand magic stones can fill his stomach, and he won't continue to find me to increase new investments. This time his procedures were all fine. I couldn't refuse him without reason. This time he even deceived some family wizards."

"I really don't know how Grandfather managed to suppress him when he was here."

Locke shook his head slightly. "Academic tailors think everyone else is an academic tailor. That's not strange."

"However, his project proposal might be able to deceive wizards in the Land of Six Towers, but taking it out to participate in the Twilight Border competition, that truly won't even pass the first round."

"I've already submitted my project proposal to the Cloud Marsh Cup competition committee. I think the results will come out within a week. Then Erik will know whether I'm seriously competing or not."

"If he wants you to increase investment, first let him produce some actual results, then we'll talk."

Alicia nodded trustingly, "Yes, I definitely believe you."

Next, Alicia chatted with Locke for a while about the Hive Mind Potion problem. She was indeed mediocre in bloodline studies, far inferior to Grand Wizard Sulla's level, mainly because she herself didn't like bloodline studies.

But Alicia's level in potion studies was truly impressive, and it was advancing with each passing day. In discussions with Locke, she even accelerated her progress.

With Alicia as an external brain cheat, Locke quickly figured out many problems in configuring the Hive Mind Potion, and noticed that because many core materials for the Hive Mind Potion were psionic creatures, ice-attribute magical flames had to be used first to freeze their mental psionic energy.

Otherwise, even if psionic creatures died, they could still use psionic energy to interfere with reality for a period of time after death.

Psionic energy belonged to a field studied by the Enchantment School. Enchantment School magic all had similar characteristics.

So using ice element magical flames to freeze the thoughts of potion materials once was a key point in refining the Hive Mind Potion.

Locke also discussed with Alicia the matter of improving the unicorn rhinoceros bloodline potion. Locke had synthesized fifteen versions of the unicorn rhinoceros bloodline potion and actively told Alicia about the three best formula variations among them. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Alicia's eyes sparkled brightly. She looked at Locke as if looking at her kindred spirit. "Locke, every time I discuss potion studies with you, I gain new insights. Chatting with you is truly too pleasant."

"Adding unicorn horn powder to strengthen the unicorn rhinoceros bloodline transformation potion, this is indeed worth trying. And as you said, we can replace the original wind element magical flame with thunder element magical flame to accelerate the reaction speed of the natural magical power structural components inside the potion."

Alicia had extraordinary intuition for potion studies. "The formula modified this way can indeed improve the effect by at least thirty percent."

"If I can improve the bloodline positioning accuracy this much, I should be able to advance to liquefaction wizard within half a year, right?"

Alicia said to Locke, "Having such an excellent friend like you is really good. Perhaps we should open an Augustus series specialty potion shop as soon as possible. Then I'll be the manager."

"I'll have a good experience being a real potion master."

After thinking for a moment, Alicia said, "Let's open a joint-stock shop. You, me, and the Plutarch family will each hold a portion of shares. This way, the Plutarch family can pay for the upfront investment capital."

"I have another idea. This shop that we two open together can all use a merit-based selection method. We'll use the work opportunities our shop provides to give excellent potion studies wizards in the Land of Six Towers an opportunity."

"I think this is very meaningful."

Locke looked at Alicia, whose eyes were sparkling, and sighed inwardly. Power really did change people. Half a year ago, Alicia wasn't like this, but after she had been in charge of the Plutarch family for half a year, even her personality had undergone some slight changes.

Naturally Locke had no objections. This was also beneficial to him, and he didn't need to invest too much attention. He could just sit and collect money. "Sure."

"You and I provide technology and knowledge, and the Plutarch family provides capital."