Locke hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he should leave immediately and exit the Forbidden Forest, or first complete his permanent defensive field, Forest Sanctuary. After a moment's hesitation, he chose to complete his First Circle defensive magic within the research institute first.

Currently, his First Circle defensive magic was still in an incomplete state. Forest Sanctuary required an external spell repository to display its full power.

"The interior of this research institute is actually quite good," Locke's eyes brightened slightly. The location of this research institute was extremely well hidden. The institute also had First Circle level magical protection, and was even sealed by illusion school maze lock magic. Ordinary wizards would never be able to find this place.

If he hadn't happened to obtain the location information about this place from the Everdusk Court, he would never have been able to find this location in a swamp wasteland by happening upon a foothold rock.

Therefore, he could place his Forest Sanctuary here first before purchasing the Druid's Ring.

Conveniently, there were various living magical plants throughout this research institute. He could use those magical plants to temporarily assemble the most basic, simple Forest Sanctuary. However, before doing so, it would be better to handle some small troubles first.

A brilliant blue magical radiance appeared in Locke's eyes, "Come out. How much longer are you going to keep watching from the side?"

"Wizard Lewis."

Immediately, a square crystal in a corner of the central control room released brilliant blue magical radiance.

The lantern grass beside the crystal swayed slightly, and a phantom appeared next to the crystal.

This was the image of a middle-aged person wearing white wizard robes, with a small, delicate focus technique monocle over his left eye, and on his forehead was a scar left by necromancy magic that could not disappear.

That scar was emitting gray magical pressure outward. Even though more than five hundred years had passed, even though the current Lewis was just a phantom relying on the crystal matrix and lantern grass, this magical pressure still existed.

From that magical pressure, Locke detected that the other party was at least a wound left by a formal wizard with crystallized mental power.

Wizard Lewis sighed softly, "This student, oh no, this colleague, you've misunderstood."

"I didn't intentionally spy on you. Rather, it's because I'm merely a sinner of Lilith's Cottage. Five hundred years ago, Lilith's Cottage was already on the path to becoming the top wizard academy in the southeastern quadrant."

"But because of me, Lilith's Cottage came under strict surveillance by the association. I don't know if the special attention and restrictions have been lifted now, or whether Lilith's Cottage has recovered its vitality."

"Moreover, I'm just a ghost relying on lantern grass and a soul-locking crystal matrix. I don't even count as the soul of the original wizard Lewis, but merely fragments of his soul mixed with some intentions, combined with the memory storage principle of lantern grass, to produce this byproduct."

"Therefore, I truly have no face to appear before you."

"I just didn't expect that after becoming a formal wizard, you would be able to notice my existence."

The phantom of Wizard Lewis looked at the permanent defensive field circling around Locke's body, his eyes shining, "But to personally witness the magic that Foucault and I envisioned being realized in your hands, this is truly wonderful."

"This magic was jointly completed by me, Wizard Foucault, and you. Wizard Foucault was the proposer, I was the developer, and you are the completer."

"This magic has spanned three formal wizards, and has finally been born today!"

Locke cast a wary gaze at him. After all, this was a formal wizard with crystallized mental power, whose strength was unfathomable. Just the time he had remained in this laboratory exceeded five hundred years. Who knew what contingencies he might have left behind here?

The Omen Mandrake Vines hadn't reacted, but the key issue was, who knew whether these apprentice-level vines could have any effect on a formal wizard's phantom?

Wizard Lewis noticed that the gaze Locke directed at him was still filled with wariness, and he smiled bitterly, "Excellent junior of the academy, are you this cautious? That's good. Maintaining this kind of vigilance is a good thing."

"Indeed, there are quite a few First Circle wizard tombs that secretly contain contingencies for their resurrection. Those First Circle wizards were all masters proficient in necromancy school magic."

"But I'm not. This crystal matrix was just something I purchased at Chimera Trading Market. Moreover, time was too tight back then. At most, I left behind a contingency to hide the research institute. As for the rest, I couldn't manage it."

The square crystal released radiance again, and three spell models were projected into mid-air.

The phantom of Wizard Lewis said, "Look, these are the three spell models inside this crystal of mine, and currently only one spell model is functioning. The only telekinesis curse spell model that allowed me to interfere with reality has been damaged with the passage of time."

Locke quickly scanned the three First Circle magic spell models. He recognized that two of them were in a damaged state, with incomplete spell models.

The only normal one was the necromancy school First Circle magic [Ghost Image Retention Curse].

It left a person's thoughts in the form of a ghost within some carrier but to be honest, it was hard to say whether this magic actually left that person behind, or only left behind a portion of the thoughts that person wanted to leave behind.

The other party had likely used the lantern grass and crystal matrix to preserve this phantom containing Wizard Lewis's thoughts until now.

The main function of the Ghost Image Retention Curse was to try to extend the time certain thoughts of a wizard could remain, allowing them to be preserved for posterity.

This was a common method wizards used to try to leave their thoughts in this world.

For Wizard Lewis to think of using this method in his final moments five hundred years ago was indeed quite reasonable.

Locke relaxed his vigilance somewhat, "Since that's the case, then I thank you, Wizard Lewis. This magic of yours helped me become a formal wizard."

Wizard Lewis shook his head slightly, "No, to be precise, I should be thanking you."

"Without you, this magic would forever remain sealed in discarded papers in a cold, dark laboratory."

"Back then, to complete this magic, I captured more than one First Circle wizard. To make the experiment more successful, I conducted human experiments on at least ten or more plant studies formal wizards... Sigh, those truly were mad days."

"But I don't regret it. If I had to do it again, I would still make the same choice."

"The pursuit of truth should be reckless!"

A trace of madness flashed through Wizard Lewis's eyes.

Locke, who had already somewhat let down his guard against this phantom, was left speechless after hearing him say this.

No wonder the White Wizard Association had used thunderous means to suppress Lilith's Cottage over five hundred years ago and stop this research project.

This was truly too extreme.

Wizard Lewis smiled bitterly, residual madness flickering in his eyes, but his gaze toward Locke was filled with gratification, "Now that you, this successor, have completed for me the magic I painstakingly devoted everything to, it is I who should thank you."

"Within this research institute, there are still quite a few usable magical plant remnants. I'll give you the coordinate addresses."

"You can use them to construct your Forest Sanctuary."