Locke returned to his residence. He sat on the sofa and first opened the academy's custom magical plant competition ranking. "Third place is the Gear Iron Brambles from Green Sprout Workshop. These Gear Iron Brambles improved the automatic response speed by 0.3 seconds, greatly increasing the practical value of Gear Iron Brambles in combat."

"Indeed, Gear Iron Brambles is Lilith's Cottage's most mature apprentice-level defensive magical plant. In terms of non-defensive curse magic, even Perseus Eye Lichen can't compare with Gear Iron Brambles."

"But such a magical plant can only rank third."

"This is beyond my expectations."

Locke looked at the second place on the list. "Second place is the Curse-Reversing Snake Willow developed by breeder Gina Heck of Vine Language Workshop, who led a six-person first-class wizard apprentice team."

Locke paused, then remembered that this wizard Gina should be a student of Wizard Halen Vera.

This project also obtained cooperation from a large wizard organization outside Lilith's Cottage. Or rather, part of the original experimental data for this project itself was provided to Gina by that large wizard organization, Four Seasons Garden.

In the award list introduction, there was a brief description of this off-campus collaborative project's background.

It was Halen Vera who, leveraging his influence and under the premise of the wizard war, applied to the White Wizard Association to have Four Seasons Garden provide some advantageous projects to jointly research and explore with Lilith's Cottage students, to demonstrate the White Wizard Association's support for Lilith's Cottage.

And naturally, such a good opportunity was provided by Halen Vera to his own student.

Therefore, this witch named Gina was able to emerge as a dark horse this time, actually overtaking Green Sprout Workshop in the custom magical plant competition, which had consistently been the champion of similar competitions for years.

Locke read the specific effects of the Curse-Reversing Snake Willow and its general cultivation approach. "The Curse-Reversing Snake Willow can transfer curses on oneself to the snake willow, and that part of the willow will quickly wither. After withering, it's equivalent to making the curse effect disappear."

"In other words, it forcibly converts all curse effects into withering of part of the Curse-Reversing Snake Willow." Locke said, "Hmm, this is one of Four Seasons Garden's traditional strong projects."

"They are indeed skilled at cultivating scapegoat-type defensive magical plants."

"Was it cultivated using Whomping Willow and Black Shield Brambles, using grafting breeding method and Mana Co-frequency Cultivation Method? No wonder it could surpass Gear Iron Brambles this time and rank second."

Locke saw that the competition committee's judges believed that the Curse-Reversing Snake Willow's practical combat effects and the past combat records of the original magical plant Black Shield Brambles were both excellent.

It was comparable to Gear Iron Brambles but the Curse-Reversing Snake Willow won in innovation.

And this was precisely what Green Sprout Workshop and Gear Iron Brambles lacked.

Locke smiled slightly. Clearly some judges on the competition committee were dissatisfied that Green Sprout Workshop kept using the same magical plant repeatedly to claim competition prize money, so they deliberately mocked Green Sprout Workshop in their evaluation, hoping they would change their approach.

But this probably wouldn't have much effect.

Locke looked at first place on the rankings, his pupils immediately contracting. "First place, Perseus Eye Lichen Shield."

"Developer, individual, Breeder Locke Augustine."

Although Locke had anticipated this, seeing his work defeat all the breeders in the academy and win the championship still made him feel slightly excited.

After Locke calmed down, he looked at the evaluation.

These evaluations often clearly showed the judges' attitudes and the key reasons why he could win the championship.

Locke looked at the evaluation of his work, which read, 'In fact, all of us judges find it hard to believe that this work is actually from an individual breeder rather than from any of Lilith's Cottage's traditional workshops.'

'This defensive magical plant performed very well in practical combat testing. In terms of defending against curse magic, it cannot be called excellent, it can only be called perfect, even possessing partial ability to defend against First Circle blood curses.'

'This defensive magical plant is perfect in both innovation and functionality. Its original magical plant was not a traditional defensive magical plant, but the work's publisher personally participated in actual combat three months ago, using this magical plant to break through a siege in black wizard territory, even counter-killing dozens of black wizards with remarkable combat achievements. Moreover, from post-event verification, the wizards who used this defensive magical plant at the time all gave it high evaluations, achieving astonishingly impressive results in actual combat.'

'And the combat squad that previously endorsed this magical plant also confirmed this defensive magical plant's complete victory combat record in another small-scale conflict. Therefore, the committee has determined that this is a defensive magical plant that comprehensively crushes Blood Curse Court's current apprentice-stage curse magic system, demonstrating Lilith's Cottage's absolute superiority in the field of breeding studies.'

'This work even has the qualification to receive individual rewards and certification badges from the association after publishing its cultivation method.'

'In summary, the committee has determined this defensive magical plant to be the champion of this competition and will award a large-scale academy procurement contract order.'

'At the same time, an additional reward of 500 contribution points and 3,000 magic stones as the highest-level academy fund excellent project subsidy will be granted.'

Locke raised his eyebrows. He had just recently fallen into an economic crisis, but unexpectedly, winning first place in one competition directly gave him 3,000 magic stones and a large-scale procurement contract.

This way, he immediately resolved his economic crisis and would even become wealthy.

Locke put down the letter in his hand and opened another letter sent from the association.

"Winning the championship in the academy's competition, I wonder what the ranking result is for the breeder competition. As long as I can rank in the top ten, that would be pretty good."

Locke opened the second letter.

He opened the ranking table in the letter, starting to look from thirtieth place, searching from bottom to top for his name and his work's name.

After searching for a while, Locke saw the name of the Jade Iris Lichen that participated in this competition in first place on the ranking table.

He actually won first place!

This was somewhat beyond his expectations. Winning first place in the academy's competition was understandable, but winning first in the breeder competition across the entire southeastern quadrant was something Locke had never imagined.

After all, that kind of competition had a bunch of old veterans.

What had happened?

What made the association's competition committee group list his magical plant as first place?

Some of those breeders who remained at the first-class wizard apprentice stage had even participated in competitions for hundreds of years, attending dozens of competitions, accumulating a pile of cunning experience.

In his situation, it should be very difficult to win first place.

In fact, everyone's consensus was also that, in this kind of competition, the most formidable ones were often not first place, but those breeders who had only participated a few times yet had relatively high rankings.

Locke quickly looked at the evaluation. "The reason this work was evaluated as first place..."