At the judges' seats, the Third Circle wizard from the Rose Council commented, "Who would have thought that the Hydra magical plant could still function for a period of time without anyone controlling it? That young one Yennefer completely miscalculated."

"The Hydra magical plant's evaluation needs to be raised further."

"This kind of magical plant has very strong practical utility." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The four Third Circle wizards all nodded, expressing their approval.

Wizard John said, "Alright, the champion, runner-up, and third place can pretty much be decided now. We can let the Machine Soul escape. If this continues, the Machine Soul might actually be destroyed."

"That would be problematic."

"Who would have thought that this Cloud Marsh Cup championship would be obtained by a wizard funded by the Land of Six Towers. The wizards from the two Third Circle wizard research groups can only obtain runner-up and third place. This is something none of us anticipated before."

Dean Richie shook his head slightly. "But the competition quality of this Cloud Marsh Cup has been extremely high. After this one, I estimate that for a very long period, we won't be able to recreate the prosperity of this Cloud Marsh Cup."

"Any of the top three placed elsewhere would be previous champions, even exceeding standards. Even that fourth place has the average standard of previous champions."

"The Ancient Life Tree, Luna Laurel Treant... and the Hydra magical plant. Having these three magical plants appear in the Cloud Marsh Cup isn't the participants' honor but the Cloud Marsh Cup's honor."

"These three wizards will all become very excellent breeders in the future."

Witch Yekaterina pointed at the dome screen, and immediately the entire steel fortress plummeted directly toward Cloud Lake. "Let's have the Machine Soul escape first. We didn't anticipate that a wizard would be able to break through the imitation permanent defensive force field."

"Hm?"

All five Third Circle wizards froze because on the dome screen, that steel fortress suddenly separated three parts of itself, and each part used rocket propellers to accelerate the separated portions away from the steel fortress's main body.

This forced Wizard Edgar, Witch Diana, and Locke to all be left above Cloud Lake, only able to watch as the steel fortress's main body pursued into Cloud Lake and disappeared without a trace.

That steel fortress directly dove deep into Cloud Lake, completely vanishing without a trace, unlike before when it wandered on the cloud sea's surface, attracting participants to attack it.

But in the next moment, Locke did something...

He used the archaeology spell History Pointer, gathering the surrounding negative energy particle field. Then he used the History Pointer to point in a specific direction, immediately canceled the magic to see the result, and then immediately rushed into Cloud Lake below, directly pursuing.

At the judges' seats, all one hundred and thirty judges seeing this scene were scared stiff.

Because previously, Locke had already demonstrated the ability to crack the imitation permanent defensive force field. The consequence of Locke pursuing could very likely result in the complete destruction of the Revenge Machine Soul and the Mekani people.

Most critically, that entire scene had just been seen by paying audiences, and was still being broadcast live.

Although the Cloud Marsh Cup had many inside dealings, this was after all a paid commercial competition, so they at least couldn't let the vast audience discover anything wrong.

But now Locke had already pursued, and the steel fortress's final trump card had been cracked. In the eyes of the vast paying audience, wouldn't this Cloud Marsh Cup be able to completely terminate the Mekani people?

If the so-called Mekani people harassing specific shores of Cloud Marsh Wetland disappeared, would the Cloud Marsh Cup still hold a next edition?

On what grounds would they hold the next edition?

The Third Circle wizard from the Rose Council stood up. "This little brat, what's going on? He's actually also an archaeologist."

Witch Yekaterina's extended finger paused in midair. The corner of her mouth curved up. "This way... is quite interesting."

Wizard Richie had already begun wiping the sweat on his forehead. Looking at the paying audience's cheering comments continuously pouring out from the True Sight Orb system, he was already thinking about what to do. "This is bad. A broadcast accident has occurred."

"Quickly cut off the broadcast. Say it's due to technical issues that caused force majeure, and the broadcast is temporarily interrupted."

"Right, say that our system has never entered below Cloud Lake before, so we can't broadcast it."

Witch Yekaterina said, "Dean Richie, you don't need to be so serious about this."

Dean Richie wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. "Quite a few Third Circle wizard friends I know have placed bets on the Cloud Marsh Cup. The Cloud Marsh Cup involves too much. How can there be accidents?"

"The Cloud Marsh Cup has long become a regularly held large-scale competition event for our Cloud Marsh Wetland."

...

Below Cloud Lake, Locke used the History Pointer to lock onto the steel fortress's direction, directly diving headfirst into it.

He jumped onto the city of the steel fortress and followed this steel fortress as it rushed through the Cloud Lake region, entering the bottomless pit below Cloud Lake.

Here was complete darkness.

There was no light at all, only the lights shot out by the steel fortress.

In that light, there were many civilizations and magical creatures actually living on the walls of this bottomless pit. Locke even saw some simple stone houses.

However, those houses were empty inside, with only some bloodstains.

He didn't know what had happened in the past, or what people would gather here.

Locke instantly felt an enormous pressure pressing toward him. He froze for a moment because below Cloud Lake was actually a magic-absorbing land.

"No wonder the Mekani people can roam freely below Cloud Lake. Above Cloud Lake is a natural heavy magic land, while below is a magic-absorbing land. Countless magical tides are all absorbed by something beneath that bottomless pit."

Nine layers of permanent defensive force field manifested on Locke's body. "Fortunately, I have nine permanent defensive force fields on me."

Locke raised his right hand, rapidly summoning the Hydra main body into the area below Cloud Lake. A large mass of chains completely coiled around him, with nine crocodile heads floating behind him.

With the protection of nine layers of permanent defensive force field, the mana in Locke's body wouldn't be absorbed by the mysterious force below Cloud Lake.

However, with each step he took, the permanent defensive force field would sway.

"What exactly is deep in this bottomless pit below Cloud Lake?"

Locke gritted his teeth. "Ordinary wizards would have a hard time just entering here. Although this suction force won't compete with wizards for the mana in their bodies, it's enough that wizards without permanent defensive force fields, using a bit of mana here would lose that bit, completely unable to replenish mana from the outside world."

"Moreover, spell power is suppressed to the minimum."

"Only because I have nine layers of permanent defensive force field can I barely counter that suction force, barely recovering some mana from the outside world in this harsh environment."

"Creatures living here are either like the Mekani people, not completely dependent on magical energy to survive, or they're special lifeforms that have developed some kind of resistance in their bodies that can protect part of their internal mana under this suction force."

"Otherwise, they simply couldn't find a way to replenish mana in this kind of environment."

At the same time, inside the steel fortress, the Machine Soul projected an image through a magic crystal. She was actually a little girl wearing a pink dress.

This little girl Machine Soul nervously kept sending messages to the Cloud Marsh Wetland higher-ups. "I can't keep up the act, I can't keep up the act. Your person directly rushed into Cloud Lake and caught up with me."

"I'm about to be killed by him."

"Quickly make him stop."

"What, there's still a live broadcast? It hasn't been cut off yet? You want me to continue acting? I can't keep up the act. That wizard has a means to track me. Even if I split the city again and throw him out, he'll definitely catch up."

The little girl Machine Soul panicked greatly, threatening the Cloud Marsh Wetland higher-ups. "I'm going to sell off all the shares I previously purchased in your Cloud Marsh Wetland's shop alliance. If I die, I'll immediately dump the shares at low prices and make your stock price plummet!"

"Scared now, right? Quickly find someone to save me."