Chapter 942
Patrick: What do you mean by that?
Chapter 942 Patrick: What do you mean by that?
At this moment, the last external judge, the famous three-ring prophet, Hao Brooks, also arrived at the judges' table, which meant that the defense could officially begin.
Locke glanced at the wizard Edgar in the audience, who nodded to him from his seat.
Locke then nodded in response.
Meanwhile, Locke turned his attention to the Catherine the Witch.
This was the first time my cooperating wizard mentor had come to watch my defense of the grant application project at the True Knowledge Institute.
The seats that were supposed to be hers were empty the first three times.
Was it because the special grant was unusual? Locke scratched her head, but the main participants in a special grant were basically her students, so it really wouldn't be right for her not to come.
The Green Dragon Throne rose to announce the start of the debate and invited Antoine to the stage for the first time.
After she called Antoine's name twice, no one came up on stage. So the Green Dragon Throne announced expressionlessly, "Ten minutes will count down from now on. If Antoine does not appear, his defense will be considered complete."
Clearly, if he were to miss this defense, his application for the special grant would certainly not pass the department's internal review.
Time passed by, minute by minute.
Locke looked up at the alchemical clock on the ceiling of the conference room. Ten minutes passed quickly. The alchemical clock monitored the changes in time at the particle level, so its accuracy was extremely high.
It seems Antoine won't be returning for the time being. I heard he's trapped in the collapsed World Ruins. Many wizards in the Senate even thought he could make it back in time for his defense, but it seems they were just wishful thinking.
Many of the senatorial faction wizards present turned and left immediately.
Since Antoine would not participate in the defense, the defense successfully turned into an internal academic struggle between factions within the academic committee.
No, it should be called an internal competition within the Catherine witches' academic lineage, since the Institute of True Knowledge was under the control of Catherine witches.
This grand defense session turned into a one-man show by the academics of Catherine the Witch.
Many wizards understood that Catherine the Witch had achieved a certain level of control over Mount Golden Crown.
It's likely that she will wield considerable influence at Jinmian Mountain over the next twenty years.
A high-ring wizard can influence the entire wizarding university through their students.
Ten minutes passed, and the moderator of the defense, a Star Ring Wizard, walked onto the stage and announced that Antoine had automatically abstained from the contest.
Next, the Green Dragon Witch announced that several more wizards should come forward to answer questions.
Those who went up were basically wizards who were researching crystallized magical plants. They either chose to crystallize second-circle magical plants or explored combining traditional breeding methods with crystallization to enhance traditional breeding methods with crystallization technology.
A second-circle wizard, a senior researcher at the True Knowledge Institute, said, "The research topic I want to do is to develop a grafting cultivation method based on the crystallization of magical plants. The five basic cultivation methods plus the spiritual energy cultivation method are powerful tools for us breeders to change magical plants, but they are all too traditional. Now I want to transform the grafting cultivation method among the five basic cultivation methods into an advanced grafting cultivation method—crystallization grafting."
"This is of great significance; I don't need to elaborate on the importance of crystallization technology..."
This second-circle wizard spoke eloquently.
The thirty second-ring wizards from Mount Golden Crown, who were on the judging panel behind the judges' seats, all nodded in agreement.
Although only five judges can score the wizards participating in the defense, the average of the scores given by the five judges is the final score that the wizard receives.
The player with the highest score wins.
However, these review panels are only responsible for asking questions and brainstorming during the defense process. Essentially, the five judges don't need to say much during the entire process; they only need to score. Of course, they can ask questions if they want. But under normal circumstances, these high-ring wizards rarely do this.
Of the thirty second-ring wizards, some had lunar rings, some had star rings, but none had solar rings.
Because Sun Ring wizards are special among Second Ring wizards, the judging panel usually selects wizards below Moon Ring. In principle, they will not invite Sun Ring wizards, who should be seated on the judging panel.
At this moment, many of the second-ring wizards in the review panel nodded in approval of the senior researcher.
Crystallization magic plant technology has indeed become an important and popular research direction in Yunze Wetland. The fact that this second-ring wizard wants to use the support provided by the special grant to explore whether the traditional five basic grafting methods can be integrated into crystallization technology is indeed a very meaningful research direction, and it can also capture the hot topic.
A Star Ring Wizard suddenly spoke up and asked, "So, Valentinian, what research methods are you using? Are these just castles in the air, or are you confident in your abilities?"
The wizard Valentinian smiled confidently.
"I've prepared experiments on various advanced grafting methods, including cleft grafting, grafting, and budding. I plan to use the Red Holly, which has the strongest vitality and requires the least resources among the second-ring and first-ring magical plants, to explore which grafting method is most suitable for combining with crystallized magical plants. I can also use the Frost Mirror and the Queen's Chessboard to analyze the characteristics of crystallized magical plants after using various grafting methods..."
The Star Ring Wizard nodded.
But another Star Ring Wizard suddenly spoke up: "But I think you have a problem with cost control. It seems you plan to use the Queen's Chessboard once for each type of magical plant you graft."
Valentinian paused for a moment.
"Sir, is this not acceptable?"
Master Partridge Finch, seated on the five judges' panel, smiled slightly and said, "With this kind of usage, the special grant you will soon be exhausted, and you won't be able to finish this research."
Valentinian swallowed hard, knowing that while he was writing the application and bragging, he had made a slight oversight in cost control.
Of course, this was mainly because he felt somewhat disoriented when rushing to finish the cost control part.
After all, he hadn't even completed the first step of what he was talking about, yet he was asked to handle the final cost control steps. So, it was natural for his fabrication to be distorted.
That is, problems arise in the details.
Right now, Partridge Fincher's sudden reminder to him is essentially a helping hand, making him realize where the review panel's dissatisfaction lies.
Next, the wizard Valentinian tried to downplay the key points of his research plan and avoided answering detailed questions about cost control.
It was clear that the wizards on the commentary panel were somewhat speechless at his behavior, but considering how excellent and popular Valentinian's research topic was, they actually held back quite a bit in their comments.
After all, although his research methods were not perfect in the eyes of many second-circle wizards, his ideas were not clear enough, and his cost control was extremely disastrous. Simply put, the second half was basically written in a daze. This was probably because Valentinian was forced to do his research.
Therefore, he made do with many things.
However, sometimes choosing a good topic is enough to win. After all, this is only a special grant. In principle, the wizard does not necessarily have to produce a result. So as long as the topic is good and the judges can be convinced, the grant can be obtained.
In this world, there are wizards who are particularly good at choosing topics but not at finishing them, and there are also those whose topics start strong but end weakly.
It's good to be someone who can see things through to the end; that's a rare quality.
After finishing his defense, the wizard Valentinian breathed a slight sigh of relief. Although many of his points had raised some objections, the overall presentation was acceptable. While the judges were critical, they also nodded in approval of his research direction.
To reiterate, as long as we stay on the research path of magical plant crystallization technology, this choice is ultimately the right one.
Even if he doesn't get the top-tier funding this time, he can still use this project to participate in other competitions or apply for specific funding.
It's much better than choosing an obscure topic, where failure would leave you with nothing but trouble.
The wizard Valentinian exhaled a breath of stale air. Although the five judges, apart from Master Patrick, the other four third-ring wizards were all expressionless, they only occasionally picked up their magic quills to jot something down, which could be an evaluation of his performance, or they could simply be dealing with other matters.
It was a bit cold, but it wasn't a problem.
Because at the special grant defense meetings held in the academy last year, the year before last, and the year before that, these wizards of the third ring and above were almost equally indifferent. Basically, the questions were asked by the review panel composed of second ring wizards, while the third ring wizards just took notes and gave scores.
They wouldn't have made any special statement anyway.
The wizard Valentinian reassured himself that it wasn't a big problem; he had performed quite well.
I imagine the third-ring wizards wouldn't rate him too low.
He glanced at the audience out of the corner of his eye. At that moment, the witch Catherine seemed to be handling some business with her head down, holding a magical plant called Ganoderma lucidum. However, most of the audience applauded for him.
The Blue Dragon Throne frowned and suddenly asked a question.
"Valentinian, you say you want to perform grafting between crystallized magical plants, but explain to me the mechanism by which grafting between crystallized cambium layers can still occur after the outer skin of the cambium layer of a magical plant has been crystallized?"
The wizard Valentinian was stunned, because his research was only half done, done in a hurry and in a rush.
He seemed to have a mental block, stammering and vaguely fabricating several untenable theories, making many of the audience members around him feel embarrassed for him.
However, the wizard Valentinian managed to fool them in the end.
Although his answer was reluctant and he seemed completely unprepared for the question.
But he managed to smooth things over. Half an hour later, when the wizard Valentinian stepped down from the stage, he touched his back and found it was covered in sweat.
He exhaled a breath of stale air.
"Special grants are really hard to come by."
"My qualifications are only average. If it weren't for the research on crystallized magical plants, I probably wouldn't even have a single paper in the second section. I only have one paper in the second section, and qualifications are also an important factor in the overall evaluation score."
Ultimately, the essence of this defense is not to evaluate whose research is more impressive, but to evaluate whose research is more meaningful and has a better chance of being realized with limited funding and time.
After all, it would be ridiculous if a wizard made a boast that was completely impossible to achieve.
Therefore, at this moment, both the review panel composed of second-ring wizards and the five judges had some doubts and were worried that the project proposals submitted by these wizards were simply impossible to complete.
Moreover, based on historical experience, unfortunately, this may be a product of certain realities.
Because for a large number of project applications, even the applicants themselves never thought they could complete the project.
Therefore, for the review panel and judges, past qualifications, how many articles you have published, how many projects you have worked on, and what championships you have won are very important guarantees!
In the audience, the wizard from Mysterious Heaven remained expressionless, while the throne wizard from Starfield Sea nodded with a smile.
"In the years I've been away from Yunze Wetland, quite a few interesting things have happened here. Will there be even more interesting things to come?"
The Sea Queen took a sip of the wizard's wine, then tossed the bottle aside. With her legs crossed, her platinum gold high heels nearly kicked the wizard to her right.
The wizard was somewhat angry but dared not speak out, though he regretted sitting in such a prominent position.
Neptune stared at the defense with bleary eyes.
Meanwhile, the reporters from Yunze Wetland newspapers, sitting in the highest seats at the back of the audience, were frantically using the Illusion School's alchemy equipment to record these scenes.
One of the largest newspapers in Yunze Wetland is the Frog Newspaper. At this moment, a Star Ring Wizard editor-in-chief of the Frog Newspaper said, "A large number of high-ring wizards from Star Domain Sea, Mysterious Heaven, and Yunze Wetland have gathered here. This means it can't just be a simple special grant. Although I don't know exactly what happened..."
He said to the first-ring wizard journalists beside him, “We need to record this historic moment immediately. My gut feeling—well, I’m just a wizard journalist from the Illusion school, but I think my gut feeling is pretty accurate—I think something incredible must have happened here today, something we don’t know about.”
"Hmm? You're asking me what's so extraordinary? If everyone knew what was so extraordinary, what would be the point of us reporters? Anyway, let's record this footage first, so we can use it when the extraordinary thing actually happens!"
The first-ring wizard reporters nodded in agreement.
After the wizard Valentinian, the wizard Droma went up.
To be honest, Droma's experiments were even more inadequate. She was probably too eager to eliminate her competitors and was always up to no good, so she didn't put much effort into her research. As a result, her application was rather unsatisfactory, and her defense was a complete disaster.
The third-ring wizards didn't ask him any questions, but the second-ring wizards' critique panel bombarded him with a series of questions, throwing the wizard Droma into disarray.
Zhuoma the witch was now somewhat regretful, realizing she shouldn't have been so scheming.
In retrospect, he really did a terrible job as a villain.
Those geniuses were no match for him. He couldn't even get past the judging panel composed of second-ring wizards. Even with the magic plant crystallization technology, he still failed to seize the opportunity.
After coming down, the sorceress Zhuoma sighed deeply and sat back down in her seat as a participant in the defense.
However, since the wizard Zhuoma also followed the route of magical plant crystallization technology, the judges were still kind to him. Some second-ring wizards even thought that his project had its merits and that he could polish it up again next year before participating in the competition.
Or, you could do a similar project, put the project out for sale first, and then recoup the costs incurred from the preliminary experimental data of that project.
But when the applicant from the deacon group participated in the defense, the second-ring review panel really went all out. This wizard chose a fire magic spell model for research, but even the research method was problematic. Almost none of the wizards on the second-ring review panel were optimistic about him.
For half an hour, the second-ring witch named Kurt Panberry was completely numb from all the criticism, and in the end, she didn't even answer the questions seriously.
Kurt Panbelle replied blankly, "Ah... how to dispel this fire spell model..."
A Star Ring Wizard impatiently interrupted her, saying, "Alright, you can leave now. That's not even the question I asked. It's a complete mess. With this level of preparation... don't come here again and embarrass yourself."
Several wizards in the audience chuckled softly, while others sympathized with the witch.
After all, everyone saw that the witch initially tried to salvage the situation, but after being relentlessly attacked by the commentary team for half an hour, her brain simply shut down.
Kurt Panbelle could only see the wizards on the commentary panel opening and closing their mouths, but she couldn't hear what they were saying.
She didn't dare let the wizards on the review panel repeat their questions.
When Kurt Panbelle turned and left the stage, there were tears in her eyes; she seemed particularly aggrieved.
Kurt Panbelle returned to her seat, where her good friend seemed to be comforting her.
Locke heard her say dejectedly, "It's okay, I'll be leaving the station this year anyway. I'm just here to try, but if I don't pass, that's fine. Because of the magic plant crystallization technology, this year is already hellishly difficult. Even though I wanted to temporarily elevate the significance and value of the research project, it only made me lose my composure. I shouldn't have performed this badly."
Next up were the two wizards from the Evocation School specializing in wind magic. They were researching absolute defense within wind magic. Their defenses were quite commendable, with no major issues. One of them was even questioned by the Green Dragon Witch, but his answers were generally passable.
The biggest problem for the two is that they cannot prove that their research project is better than the magic plant crystallization technology.
This put them at a great disadvantage.
In addition, their performance was rather mediocre, so the review panel composed of all the second-ring wizards did not rate them very highly.
The audience members present could also see the bias of the commentary team of wizards. These commentary wizards seemed to think that the magic plant crystallization technology was a huge popular route, so they highly praised it, while they were somewhat indifferent to wizards who went away from this route.
Locke looked at the two wizards; their problems were, in fact, his own problems as well.
Even if you perform exceptionally well, it can be very troublesome if you are considered to have lost in the topic selection aspect.
Of course, the review panel is just that—a review panel. To put it bluntly, the review panel only has the right to ask questions.
Of the four wizards who remained silent at this debate, Master Gapatrick Finch was the one who truly held the power of decision.
Moreover, since Master Patrick Finch will definitely side with the Magic Plant Crystallization route, I can only win this defense by performing even better.
Of course, there was no need for him to complain, because the person was invited by the academic committee faction, specifically to ensure that wizards from the Red Dragon lineage could receive top-tier funding.
In other words, it's a tactic used by people on our side.
I was caught in the crossfire.
At this moment, the academic committee and even their own teachers are actually quite optimistic about the magic plant crystallization technology route. Although they don't know their true attitude towards this technology, they obviously value the fact that this technology makes it easier to obtain projects!
Locke continued to delve deeper into the research significance, trying to figure out how to emphasize the research significance of atavism in a way that would better attract the attention of the five judges—no, four judges, one of whom he could ignore.
At this moment, Brandy beside Locke appeared very confident and no longer anxious.
He was clearly eager to try, but unfortunately he drew the last place, three places lower than Locke.
Locke, on the other hand, defended his thesis in front of Brandy and two other senior researchers who were also studying the crystallization route of magical plants.
At this moment, the Blue Dragon Throne stood up and said, "Next, Zeno Honoran."
Zeno stood up from his seat and walked onto the stage under the watchful eyes of the audience, the wizards of Mysterious Heaven and Starfield Sea.
At this moment, the four third-ring wizard judges remained expressionless, only writing something on a piece of paper.
The second-ring wizards in the commentary panel all nodded in agreement.
“Zenor Wizard has two Zone 1 papers. His qualifications are quite good.”
"Indeed, I have read one of his articles in Zone 1, which is related to the restoration of the Golden Route. He has very original ideas in this area. Is this project also related to the cultivation of magical plants for the restoration of the Golden Route?"
Zeno began his defense. Because he was well-prepared, had chosen the right topic, had a clear research method, and a clear line of thought, he finished quickly and no one raised any objections.
Zeno concluded, "Therefore, in summary, crystallized magical plants have little vitality, so they can be used as materials to fill and repair the Golden Waterway. Due to their special properties, they can even be planted directly on the Golden Waterway for immediate repair. I think this is very promising, considering that the loss of function in some areas of the Golden Waterway has caused many unnecessary losses to the commercial trade of our Yunze Wetland."
Upon hearing this, the Second Ring Road review panel fell silent.
They looked at Zeno with the same eyes one would give a fool or a madman. Some looked at Zeno with suspicion, wondering if he was deliberately making sensational statements to attract attention for his research.
Master Patrick simply laughed.
What do you mean by that?
(End of this chapter)