In the research institute corridor, Locke took out the Large Green Owl Banana from his astral ring. This magical plant only had a pair of banana leaves. The trunk portion had already atrophied, degenerating to a palm-sized section with many aerial roots resembling ginseng whiskers exposed outside, constantly absorbing energy from the air.

Locke sprinkled some high-grade nutrient solution on the roots of the Large Green Owl Banana. Magical plants often needed nutrient solution during combat to maintain their condition.

After all, magical plants were living organisms. Although mental power was grafted into his mana, they also needed some nutrients to nourish their functions.

Then Locke used Flight Mimicry: Bird of Prey. The pair of Large Green Owl Banana leaves on his back automatically sensed air flow changes and began adjusting their direction. The wings formed by the layered wide banana leaves transformed into raptor wings, propelling the airflow and allowing Locke to fly rapidly forward.

At the same time, Locke manipulated two tomb spirits. Using his increased basic movement speed, and the characteristic that tomb spirits also had increased basic movement speed when not parasitizing others, he continued manipulating the two tomb spirits to search for enemies ahead of him.

While flying, he held the magic painting map in his hand, observing his relative position on the map, avoiding countless enemies and magical traps.

About twenty minutes later, Locke passed through the research institute's tunnel and arrived in front of a corridor that looked ordinary but was actually filled with invisible curse magic traps.

This corridor had many hanging beast head decorations.

Those beast head decorations concealed powerful curse magic inside. Most insidiously, these curse spell patterns were hidden. An ordinary wizard seeing this would only think it was a normal corridor.

But when Locke read the Mordo language, he could accurately discover every magical trap hidden here.

"With my current magic level, trying to disarm the magical traps here is far too difficult, almost impossible," Locke said while flying in midair. "The only way is to use flying plant magic to leap over this corridor. Fortunately, when I was at Lilith's Cottage, I noticed this corridor and specifically spent half a day calculating the time needed to fly through it."

"If my prediction is correct, this corridor should be used by those black wizards to isolate some dangerous experimental subjects. I don't know what's actually behind this corridor. Senior Albert is really unlucky to have been randomly teleported here."

Locke thought for a moment, "With the basic speed of the Large Green Owl Banana, it's still not safe enough. But I've prepared a backup plan."

Locke took out a one-time low-grade magical item from his astral ring, a wind bead. This type of low-grade magical item had limited effects but was cheap, only costing 1 magic stone per bead.

But conveniently, it could create synergy with his rare magical plant, the Large Green Owl Banana.

After he crushed the wind element bead, a forward breeze immediately appeared in the research institute corridor. The leaves of the Large Green Owl Banana, which had already transformed into the night owl magical creature raptor, automatically fine-tuned their angle to adapt to this airflow change, adjusting their aerodynamic structure.

Then Locke built up power slightly in place, then suddenly flapped the wings mimicking a magical raptor. An invisible air wave appeared behind him, and he himself shot forward suddenly.

Locke himself became a blur, passing through this corridor.

At the same time, red light lit up in the eyes of all the beast heads in this corridor. Curse rays shot out from these inverted beast heads.

Each time Locke narrowly avoided these curse rays, but if he was hit even once, he would be immediately knocked down, and then all the curse rays would concentrate on him, cursing him to death in an instant.

However, as time passed, Locke's speed not only didn't decrease but became faster and faster.

He gradually began to pull away from these curse rays.

Three minutes later, with a large amount of sweat flowing down his forehead, Locke successfully passed through this long corridor.

Locke took out a bottle of Spirit Spring Soul Surge Potion and drank it, beginning to restore his mana.

Just now, to pass through this magical trap corridor, he had burned most of his mana in one go, which was why his speed got faster and faster, preventing those curse rays from keeping up with him at all.

Locke checked the Large Green Owl Banana on his back, confirming the banana was in good condition and hadn't suffered damage to its roots, stems, or leaves from the large influx of mana in a short time.

"The quality of this synthesized magical plant is good. If I could mass-produce it, I'd make a fortune."

"Breaking through to formal wizard requires accumulating a large amount of magical resources. This difficult problem could also be solved. The only prerequisite is being able to solve the difficulty of mass-producing a rare magical plant."

Locke flew in midair and began surveying his surroundings.

He flew forward about two hundred meters. At this point, the true face behind this magical trap corridor was exposed before him.

Locke looked at the isolation rooms covered by magic on both sides of the corridor, his expression becoming serious. "This... Blood Curse Court, these lunatics are even more insane than I thought."

"So the so-called special project experiment is actually this kind of thing."

In the advanced isolation rooms covered by magical barriers on both sides of the corridor were all kinds of wizard apprentices, from third-class wizard apprentices to second-class wizard apprentices to first-class wizard apprentices. Some were black wizard apprentices, while others were white wizard apprentices captured from the battlefield.

These wizard apprentices all bore traces of severe magical modification.

They should be the masterwork of senior curse master Rashid Tariel.

Moreover, their faces and hands all showed traces of infection from microscopic curse creatures like plague cores and curse worms.

Locke even saw in some isolation rooms culture fluid containers that Rashid Tariel specifically used to preserve specific microscopic curse creatures.

Flying in midair, he looked down and saw at the bottom of this corridor was a deep green strong acid river, leaving him nowhere to land. This was probably also a special device for sealing these experimental subjects and experimental materials.

Fortunately, he could fly.

Locke landed in front of an isolation room filled with many person-height culture tanks and read the diagrams on the culture tanks in this isolation room. "Using microscopic organisms invisible to the naked eye (microscopic domain organisms slightly larger than mana structure components and bloodline factors) for modification, transforming them into microscopic curse creatures, and then attempting to spread blood curses..."

"The biggest problem with curse magic is that it requires a transmission medium. Ordinary curse magic needs to spread curse magic through physical contact and forms of injury."

Locke understood. "But plague cores and curse worms modified from microscopic organisms can simultaneously satisfy the forms of contact and injury to enemies during the transmission process. Moreover, these two possess the ability to replicate and rapidly reproduce themselves in a short time, as well as strong adaptability to various potions."

"The prototypes of these microscopic curse creatures should be those curse creatures in Blood Raven Wasteland."

"And formal wizards can already begin researching the microscopic domain. So Blood Curse Court has begun attempting to use the easy transmission and strong adaptability of microscopic curse creatures to spread their blood curse magic."

"The transmission ability of blood curse magic is inherently conceptual chain transmission. If combined with the transmission ability and adaptability of microscopic organisms, then..."

Locke raised his eyebrows, "No wonder this is Blood Curse Court's special research project. Once completed, it could indeed change the course of wizard warfare."

"However, Blood Curse Court's luck seems somewhat poor. For my teacher Witch Sophia to leave Lilith's Cottage, she must kill Rashid Tariel, which will definitely destroy this special research project."

"They schemed painstakingly, but in the end it's all futile."

Locke looked at these plague cores and curse worms modified by curse magic preserved in the isolation rooms before him. Suddenly an uncontrollable thought emerged in his mind.

"If I used these microscopic curse creatures modified by curse magic to cultivate my Jade Iris Lichen, what would happen?"

"Jade Iris Lichen has super strong adaptability. Perhaps it could continue evolving because of this."

"But the prerequisite is that these microscopic curse creatures need to have the ability to infect plants." Locke searched around and frowned. "What's going on? Not a single microscopic curse creature in these isolation rooms can infect magical plants. There's a curse worm modified from magical fungi in a common magical plant fungal disease, but it's been modified to be castrated of its ability to infect plants."

"Did Rashid Tariel do this to prevent breeders from using these microscopic curse creatures?"

Locke was somewhat unwilling. He had just found a good research direction, but in the blink of an eye could only be forced to abandon it. So he continued searching for usable microscopic curse creatures.

"These microscopic curse creatures all seem to be failed modifications. The successful products, or microscopic curse creatures close to success, are probably still in the research institute's core laboratory. This is just a garbage recycling station for failed products."

Locke thought, 'Maybe if I enter the core laboratory, there will be the microscopic curse creatures I need.'

Locke continued flying forward. He saw that some white wizard apprentices in the isolation rooms were clearly students from his Lilith's Cottage.

Some students tried to seek help from Locke but Locke could only frown and helplessly leave, because these people were infected with too many microscopic curse creatures that could infect human bodies. Once released, the large number of microscopic curse creatures might instantly infect him.

Although he had Bear Spirit Jade Bile Detoxification Potion, there was no need to gamble.

His current main task was still to find Albert as quickly as possible.

As long as Witch Sophia killed Rashid Tariel, all the people here could be rescued along the way, if necessary.

For now, the big picture was most important. Besides, he had no personal relationship with those inside these isolation rooms and didn't know them at all.

Locke flew into midair and suddenly froze. In a high-grade isolation room ahead, there was actually a formal wizard!

Locke had originally thought it was an illusion, but he repeatedly sensed that ahead was a formal wizard with vast magic pressure.

Locke flew over and saw that formal wizard sitting on an exquisite chair. Unlike other isolation rooms, this isolation room had some simple furniture, and this formal wizard also wore relatively neat and refined clothing.

This was a formal wizard with the appearance of a young woman.

She looked even younger than Witch Sophia. Of course, Locke didn't really believe this was her age. Wizards had too many methods to maintain their youthful appearance.

From this person's soul aura, she was perhaps over two hundred years old.

And Witch Sophia's true age, even now, hadn't exceeded thirty.

Everything below this formal wizard's neck was completely stone. She seemed to have been afflicted with some extremely powerful curse. Only her head was still flesh.

She also had some traces of being parasitized by microscopic curse creatures, just not severely.

"No way, Rashid Tariel actually captured a female formal wizard as his experimental subject." Locke's expression changed subtly.

This demonstrated Rashid Tariel's power on one hand, and on the other showed that this Curse Ritual Research Institute was very important to Blood Curse Court.

Its importance far exceeded ordinary Curse Ritual Research Institutes.

Locke carefully examined the emblem on this First Circle witch's clothing and said in surprise, "Crow’s Nest Brigade?"

"This seems to be a small wizard organization that Kode joined at the time."

"That wizard organization seems to have only one formal wizard. If that wizard academy's formal wizard has been captured, then Kode..."

Kode was the first-level talent wizard seedling who had formed a secret society with Patty and himself on the Corfu Continent.

Back then, he had even learned magic one step ahead of him.

In the first half year of learning magic, his progress in learning magic was faster than his own.

The First Circle witch from Crow’s Nest Brigade seemed to hear Locke's voice. She wearily opened her eyes, then looked at Locke in surprise.

"White wizard?"

"You're a wizard from Lilith's Cottage?"

"How is this possible? You actually managed to pass through Rashid Tariel's sight and come here. Is this another trick to attack my mental defenses?"

The First Circle witch seemed somewhat unable to confirm Locke's identity. Between believing and not believing, she looked at Locke with scrutinizing and suspicious eyes.

Locke hesitated, then performed a simple courtesy to her. "Lady Formal Wizard, you don't seem to be a formal wizard from Blood Curse Court."

"Are you a wizard from Crow’s Nest Brigade? I have a friend named Kode. May I ask where he currently is? Is he still safe?"

The First Circle witch from Crow’s Nest Brigade slightly narrowed her eyes, "Kode? That's the young fellow who newly joined the brigade."

"He should have been killed by Blood Curse Court's people, or captured. I don't know."

The First Circle witch looked at Locke suspiciously. "I was captured because of greed, wanting to steal Rashid Tariel's treasures. As a result, he had planted a petrification blood curse on the treasure that curses anyone who touches it."

"Sigh, in the end I fell into his hands. No matter who you are, you should flee quickly. Rashid Tariel... he's not an ordinary wizard. He's a First Circle wizard at the materialization stage. His accumulation in curse magic far exceeds my imagination."

"Too terrifying..."

"Young man, while you still have the ability to escape, flee with all your might. I hope you can escape."

"If you can escape, could you help me search for the survivors of Crow’s Nest Brigade? Although right now I don't have anything to trade with you..."

After exchanging a few words with her and confirming he had no way to help her lift the First Circle level petrification blood curse, Locke decided not to continue the conversation. The most urgent matter was to find Albert as quickly as possible.

Locke softly recited an incantation. The Large Green Owl Banana mimicking a raptor on his back suddenly flapped, stirring the airflow and shooting forward.

This Curse Ritual Research Institute was even more dangerous than he had thought. He hoped his teacher truly had the ability to kill Rashid Tariel with certainty.