Chapter 574 The Seeds of Civilization and the Leaders of the Ancestors, the Manuscript Rejection Incident
In the dormitory, Locke pressed his left and right hands on the Golden Que Remaining Branch and the Little Diamond Jujube Hanging, and at the same time recited a spell to completely achieve a mana grafting relationship with the two.
Two powerful demonic plants rose up, with abnormal demonic pressure, strange and changeable, and complex spirituality, trying to resist Locke and achieve a mana grafting relationship with them.
But the spirituality of an ancient tree sapling suddenly appeared behind Locke. With the blessing of this spirituality, he used the magic pressure of 9100,
and increased his magic pressure to the limit value of the first ring through the beast panel, and then forcibly reached a mana grafting relationship with the two magic plants, and included the two magic plants into the distributed spiritual energy network.
Locke gasped softly. "As expected of the luxury magic plants in the first ring, it is indeed difficult to achieve a mana grafting relationship with them. I have the identity of a ferocious beast and an ancient tree of life sapling, but it is still so difficult. If it were an ordinary botany wizard, I estimate that it would take at least a year to put a soul mark on these two magic plants."
However, in this way, the two luxury magic plants have become Locke's right-hand man, like an arm and a finger.
At the same time, two powerful tree-like magic plants floated in the air, with Locke as the core, and began to build the spell model of Peach Arc Thorn Arrow.
A complex magic circle appeared at Locke's feet.
Tao Arc Thorn Arrow is actually a kind of semi-ritual magic. The reason why it is said to be semi is because in the era when it first appeared, there was no ritual magic at all.
Ritual magic is inspired by ancient magic such as Peach Arc Thorn Arrow.
Tao Arc Thorns needs to get in touch with the spirituality of the leaders of the ancient human tribes on this land who are struggling and overcoming obstacles, and borrow the power of the fire of civilization from them. Therefore, during the whole process, I must stay focused at all times, and I must not be distracted at all, and I must not have any negative emotions, otherwise I will be in danger when the magic backfires. 』
Lock thought. "Fortunately, Little Diamond Jujube has the ability to "substitute death", which is a core function that even the permanent defense field does not have. In this kind of magical backlash, the wizard's permanent defense field is like the shell of an egg, which can easily resist attacks from the outside. However, in this kind of self-backlash from the inside out, the effectiveness of the permanent defense field will be greatly reduced.
Of course, it cannot be useless.
At least the wizard won't be able to blow himself up so easily.
At this time, a mysterious magic circle appeared under Locke's feet. It was a magic circle with dozens of polygons nested together. At the same time, there were three patterns inside the magic circle, flames, knives, and seeds.
The remaining branches of the Golden Tower and the small diamond jujube hangings automatically fly into the magic circle, responsible for summoning the spirituality of the ancestors’ leaders and building a bridge connecting them.
During this process, Locke entered a state of extreme concentration. In this state, Locke even had a wrong perception of time.
But just when Locke wanted to analyze the principle and mechanism of this misperception, the next moment, magical backlash came one after another, like a violent river rushing through his body. The power of Mist and the heavy life equipment on his body appeared one after another with the help of the five-headed snake magic plant he carried with him.
Little Diamond Jujube hangs, and part of the fast-growing branches fell down.
The magic circle under his feet also disappeared.
Locke frowned. "I just subconsciously wanted to analyze it. That special state, this instinctive analysis, actually caused me to suffer magical backlash. But all wizards, when encountering unknown phenomena, will probably remember, analyze, or react slightly."
This leads to the fact that I am still thinking."
"Not only thinking, but also highly concentrated thinking, and the content of the thinking is also extremely complex."
There are two meditation methods that I have learned.
The ancient tree of life meditation method makes one's mana fluctuations resemble that of an ancient ancient tree of life, while the natural meditation method makes one's magic pressure fluctuations approach those of the great World Tree.
But Tao Arc Ji Ya requires herself not to think at all, and even focusing on thinking about the content is not allowed.
"Probably just clear your mind." Locke thought: "Let your brain not think about anything at all."
"No, it's not that simple. When I clear my mind and stop thinking, my spiritual level and magic pressure level will change accordingly, and I will enter a special state without any ripples."
Locke thought of the literature he had read about Tao Arc Thorns. "This is what the literature calls [Blank State]. At the time, I still didn't understand why stopping to think means a blank state, but now that I think about it, what it really means is that my spirituality enters a blank state, so that I can connect with the spirituality of the ancient ancestor leaders and borrow the power of the special civilizational fire from them."
"Let the little boy The Diamond Jujube Diao and the Golden Que Remains carry the power of the fire of civilization, so they can use spells that exceed the highest theoretical damage value of one ring - Peach Arc Thorn Arrow! "
If the war lance of the Ancient War Tree can achieve the highest limit of damage output in one level when the magic pressure conditions are met, then Peach Arc Thorn Arrow can break this upper limit.
The reason is very simple. This magic has a second-level characteristic, which can spiritually connect with the leaders of the ancestors and achieve damage that ordinary first-level wizards cannot do by relying on their own magic pressure.
Furthermore, if Locke's Peach Arc Thorn Arrow is successfully constructed, he can use the Golden Que Relic Branch and the Small Diamond Jujube Hanging. These two magic plants themselves can also borrow the spirituality of the Fire Elemental Emperor and the Phoenix, as well as the second-level treasure, the diamond spirituality inside the Diamond Wizard Stone.
That is to say, the damage of Peach Arc Thorn Arrow will reach an incredible level.
But the most important thing is that Locke realized that the real role of this magic is not to fight against others.
In ancient times, wizards learned in advance special spells to break through obstacles in order to break through the second-level wizards.
This function may later be considered by wizards to have been completely replaced by ritual magic, so this may be the reason why no one learns Peach Arc Thorns.
But Witch Ekaterina believes that she still needs to learn the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow, and can obtain something different from learning ritual magic.
Of course, Witch Ekaterina is already very old in a strict sense, and Locke can’t figure out whether she has a filter for Tao Arc Thorns, or whether she really believes that Tao Arc Spines has unique advantages.
In any case, most of the one-ring crystal wizards in this era - especially those outside Yunze Wetland, do not understand the true function of ritual magic.
Hence, it is possible that many wizards do not realize the role of Peach Arc Thorns.
Locke said: "It is better to follow the study plan arranged by the wizard of the throne for me. This is the right way." Yes, now they have arranged for me to learn the Peach Arc Thorns and let me learn the prerequisites for advanced meditation methods. "
Locke said: "That's so thoughtful. Sure enough, I came to Golden Mian Mountain and followed Lady Yekaterina. Wu's judgment is correct. I don't know if other researchers from Golden Crown Mountain are treated the same way. It should be the same - Witch Ekaterina spent a long time helping Witch Mason sign the contract with the ancient sky fantasy world. "
"It seems that it is one of Witch Ekaterina's responsibilities to mentor the cooperative wizards and help them move towards the second ring. This is the same as me helping Williams and Gregor become official wizards."
Locke studied the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow for a while, constantly putting himself into a special state that could meet the learning requirements of the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow.
In the continuous connection with the spirituality of unknown existence, Locke seemed to see that on the ancient vast land, each ancestor held a torch in his left hand and a hatchet in his right hand, slashing and burning, spreading the fire of civilization.
It was a time when humans had not yet discovered magic, and it was also a time when a seed had just sprouted from the ground and had the greatest future.
Locke was connected to his spirituality. In this special state, his understanding of botanical magic began to increase inexplicably.
Under the illumination of the fire of civilization, even the existing knowledge in the mind began to be automatically reconstructed, and new knowledge was constantly introduced and new knowledge emerged.
However, ten minutes later, the magic circle collapsed.
"Three hours," Locke said: "To complete this magic for the first time, you need to maintain at least three hours of magic circle ritual, that is, to enter, without any thoughts in your mind, and your spirituality will enter a blank state for three hours."
"Furthermore, I also discovered another thing - the reason why the spirituality enters a blank state is for The spiritual connection with the ancient existence, but when you enter the blank state, it is easy for others to take advantage of it. "
"It will be troublesome if you encounter dream monsters or disc creatures. However, fortunately, there are the spiritual powers of the Little Diamond Jujube Diao, the Forest Sanctuary, the saplings of the Ancient Tree of Life, and the remaining branches of the Golden Tower. These spiritual powers can prevent things from taking advantage of the situation."
“Furthermore, I can learn from the magic circle of ritual magic.” Locke’s current thinking has been strengthened by the fire of civilization, making it clearer and following a kind of intuition. "Ritual magic is made up of many parts. Each part is the result of many years of research by high-level wizards on the other side of the Star Territory Sea. Those research results are incorporated into the wizards' magic hierarchy system."
"Although wizards still have a lot of secret knowledge, which they only let their students learn, and even the students have to keep it a secret. But on the higher-level wizards side, it seems that many wizards are pursuing it, so that their research results can be included in the wizards' power hierarchy system."
"Therefore, we young wizards can even enjoy the benefits brought by the research results of those high-level wizards. And this fire of civilization seems to have a great bonus on my thinking. It does not make me smarter, but it makes my ability to find key points more acute."
Locke suspected that this was one of the main reasons why Witch Ekaterina allowed herself to learn the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow.
At this time, it was already the afternoon of the second day.
Locke decided to pause for a while. Moreover, he was continuously suffering from magical backlash and was physically and mentally exhausted. The Little Diamond Jujube Diao also needed a certain amount of time and magical energy to self-restore the lost fast-growing branches.
He first returned to the public laboratory, communicated with Mason Witch and others about the progress of his project, and found that the interaction pathway mechanism between 26 kinds of pineapple-type magic plants and the fertility of magical creatures had been analyzed.
At the same time, the analysis of six natural unknown magic power structures has been completed, and the fund's money has basically been spent.
Locke discussed with them the experimental procedure of No. 2 Overlord Element, and they did the rest of the trivial experiments, while he went to the Feathered Serpent Pavilion to borrow the Queen's chessboard for use.
Hence, Locke found Gregory and Williams and asked them about their progress in improving magic pressure and their preparations for the competition, as well as Williams' status in the school team of the potion relay competition.
At the work station, Williams smiled at Locke and said, "Thank you, instructor, for your concern. I am very good in the school team. The wizard who leads the school team thinks I performed very well." I will be asked to represent our Golden Mian Mountain in the potion relay race on the day of the sports festival. "
The potion relay race is not about refining potions, but a group of six first-class wizard apprentice potion master assistants. During the competition, they are asked to choose a bottle to drink from among many unlabeled potions. However, these potions are mixed with a batch of poison.
So, the so-called potion relay race is a competition that tests the potion master's eyesight. Of course, there are also evil methods, such as resisting poison and forcibly making up for the lack of one's own identification ability.
The Sports Festival of Jinmian Mountain is not only an internal festival, but also invites most wizard organizations in nearby Jinmian Mountain to invite their wizard apprentices and even official wizards to participate in sports competitions.
So-called sports competitions are basically closely linked to business and politics in Yunze Wetland.
By holding an annual sports festival, Jinmian Mountain can strengthen the cohesion between students and official wizards within the college, and also allow some wizards to take the opportunity to do projects in it. It can also attract nearby small and medium-sized wizard organizations to demonstrate the dominance of Jinmian Mountain!
Essentially, this is a collective activity of Golden Mian Mountain against the major wizard colleges nearby.
Even, when Jinmianshan wants to target a wizard college, it can boycott the wizard college in disguise by not inviting it to participate.
Of course, for Jinmian Mountain, holding a sports festival seems to receive special sponsorship from the headquarters of the White Wizard Association. The headquarters of the White Wizard Association is always happy to see this kind of thing happen.
Similarly, those small wizard organizations are likely to associate participating in the sports festival competition with obtaining specific resources, or obtaining better enrollment resources.
Therefore, after Locke learned about the information about the Golden Crown Mountain Sports Festival, he realized why when Williams joined a school team, ordinary second-level wizards came to complain to Witch Ekaterina.
It is actually because the Sports Festival is a far more meaningful and important festival than the True Love Festival, which is only for business.
Behind this festival, it even involves the allocation of resources in the wizard's secret realm, as well as the resource allocation issue among the top management of the academy.
Sports is a variant of war, where major wizarding colleges compete for dominance over a region's resources.
Black wizards need to obtain resources through war and destruction, while white wizards are always avoiding unnecessary destruction and hope to get richer and richer through war, so they found a new war situation - sports.
Even, the major wizarding colleges that hold sports competitions and participate in this alternative war may make a little money.
In essence, the original Yunze Cup competition was also a form of "war".
It's just that the wizards passed their war on to the Mekanians and Suleas, two subordinate civilized races.
Locke nodded to Gregor and Williams. "That's good. Just work hard. There will be fewer things on my side recently, until I pass the second-class fund and get the first-class fund."
"So, you need to make good use of this free time and make entries for the competition as soon as possible."
"Gregor, this is a new topic I gave you. Williams, after observing your work, I found some flaws in your work, so I specially found a list of books for you."
"You two follow my topic and suggestions. By reading the book list provided, you can discover for yourself the flaws in the breeding work you two are currently designing. This will be more efficient than me telling you the flaws directly. "
"You can also learn it."
Williams said in surprise: "Thank you, teacher. Your teaching method seems to be different from other formal wizards."
Locke thought of Sophia Witch. Sophia Witch rarely taught him anything directly, but only gave herself questions and provided book lists.
Locke said: "I just used a teaching method that is more friendly to smart people."
Gregor said somewhat unconfidently: "Teacher? I am also a smart person?"
Williams glared at him.
Locke said: "Okay, you go ahead."
Locke left the public breeder's laboratory, but did not go to the Feathered Serpent Pavilion immediately. Instead, he went to his staff dormitory first and found Schneider, who was temporarily living in his staff dormitory and was writing an article for himself.
Schneider lowered his head guiltily, not daring to look directly at Locke. "I'm sorry, Lord Augustine."
"I have been working on it for a month, and recently only one article about the action mechanism pathway of the Big Yellow Duck Pineapple and one about the mechanism of action of the Big Black Diamond Bromeliad entered the second zone journal "Environment and Plants"
"The other two articles were rejected."
Locke frowned, not expecting such a thing to happen.
I asked Schneider to write articles. I was interested in communication, and then I gave the first and second articles to Gregor and Williams respectively.
Even though they don’t know it themselves.
The main thing is that it is only a second-district journal. If I give a second-district journal to my colleagues and friends, others may fall out with me.
Even Daniel would probably feel uncomfortable if he found an extra second zone and first creature on his body for no apparent reason.
Besides, if you name yourself casually and attract the attention of the ethics review committee and academic committee, that will be troublesome.
Gregor and Williams actually did at least some chores in their many experiments.
Hence, it is not a big problem to give them a name.
Locke asked Schneider to get the rejection letters.
After reading a bunch of rejection letters sent to his residence by the editors of journals, Locke finally understood what had happened.
This has nothing to do with Schneider's ability to organize data and write articles, nor does it have anything to do with the quality of the key experimental data he did.
The problem lies with yourself.
To be precise, it is because I am the corresponding author.
I have submitted articles before, and the corresponding author’s name was Yekaterina Witch, so I didn’t notice this problem at all before.
"Because I am only a researcher at Zhenzhiyuan and do not have a senior faculty position, so when I was the corresponding author, the three review wizards responsible for reviewing the manuscript had some seniority bias."
Journal review is, after all, a job that cannot use too many resources to do repetitive verification for you. It would be good to find a few colleagues to take a look.
So, in this case, in order to ensure the quality of the journal, the reviewer will inevitably adopt some a priori ideas.
For example, if Gaohuan Wizard is the corresponding author of an article, the quality must be guaranteed, and the data falsification is unlikely.
Although these ideas are unfair to young first-level wizards, they are indeed based on some objective reasons.
Of course, there are some non-objective reasons. It may be that the academic status of young first-level wizards is low, and they can be used to make way for some articles with the names of corresponding authors of second-level wizards and third-level wizards.
I used Witch Ekaterina as the corresponding author of my article before, which is equivalent to borrowing part of Witch Ekaterina’s academic status and identity.
Hence, when submitting to major journals, you can be seen by the review editors at the first time, and get the serious treatment and trust of the peer review wizards invited by the editors.
But when you are the corresponding author, the situation is completely different.
So it happens that you have submitted four articles to the second area, but can only pass two of them, because your academic status is currently relatively low.
As for two of my articles that were approved, it was probably because I was lucky and happened to meet three review wizards who did not have much respect for their qualifications, so I passed them.
Among them, the Big Yellow Duck and Pineapple are related to the new natural magical structural components inside the Big Yellow Duck and Crown Pineapple that I published in "Green Grass Cloud" in District 1. Therefore, because the article related to Big Yellow Duck and Pineapple was endorsed by a journal in District 1, the editor, editor-in-chief, and the three review wizards had more reason and confidence to let my related article pass a journal in District 2.
"Environment and Plants" is also the top journal of botany in Yunze Wetland District 2, so the whole set of review mechanisms will be relatively fair.