Chapter 448: Beware of the School Bully

"Thank you, Headmaster Dumbledore. Actually I do like sweets quite a bit." Bai Lang looked at the cockroaches crawling in the bowl before him, grabbed one and bit it—indeed it was made of sugar, the shell a hard candy and the inside a sticky gummy, and it tasted pretty good. He also lifted the honey tea and took a sip, furrowing his brow, "Just a bit more sugar and it's perfect."

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose, a look of delight flashing across his face; with a simple gesture, a large spoonful of honey instantly appeared in Bai Lang's tea cup—he added a spoonful for himself as well, and the two of them sipped the viscous honey, satisfied. "Actually I also go by the name Ban Tian," Bai Lang thought about making a joke, but he didn't say it.

"Ban Tian?" Dumbledore replied. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry into your thoughts. Mr. Bai Lang, you must understand that when a person gets old, they sometimes can't fully control their power." Bai Lang curled his lip. "Just brag on, old honeybee." He wasn't at all afraid of Dumbledore probing his mind.

Divine Sense extraction isn't like opening someone's skull to scan; what you see is mostly what the person is thinking at that moment, and digging deeper… isn't that simple. Because Bai Lang had seen it in a novel, he also tried to find material on the subject in the library, and from an old fanfic he had read long ago he got a rough grasp of it.

Moreover, he is an Innate Expert, so his Divine Sense is naturally formidable; even now, trying to get at him isn't that easy, let alone the strongest White Wizard of the age. And Dumbledore has some nerve—how could he keep using Divine Sense extraction on a second‑year wizard? After Bai Lang ate a pile of cockroaches and finished his tea, Dumbledore finally explained why he had summoned him.

"Mr. Bai Lang, I invited you here to see if there's anything you need in your studies or daily life?" Dumbledore said with a smiling face. Bai Lang didn't grasp what he meant, "To unite the classmates, huh." Why does this old man sound just like a homeroom teacher back home? In any case, after some vague rambling, Dumbledore got to what seemed the point: "Your cat is indeed cute, but it's better not to let it hurt the other students."

Di'ao was spotted by Dumbledore? Bai Lang said he wasn't surprised at all; if it were in the Forbidden Forest, that would be one thing—Dumbledore has many things he doesn't know, but since Di'ao's nightly activities are outside the Forbidden Forest… even if Hagrid didn't report it, Dumbledore couldn't have missed it.

It seems Dumbledore's impression of Di'ao is fairly good; at least he believes that with Hagrid's and his own power, restraining such a beast should be doable. And the legitimate pet owner is also here, so Bai Lang handling Di'ao is no problem. After speaking, Dumbledore gestured that Bai Lang could leave.

Bai Lang nodded, gave a bow, and swaggered away. "So it was just routine business, probably a reminder not to cause trouble. Looks like I can't hit people anymore." He thought that as he walked down the stairs; next he had to go pet the cat—Di'ao has been growing faster lately, its fur sprouting rapidly, making its appearance ever more imposing.

This creature has a lion's face, a lion's mane, two thick horns twisted forward, a lion's body, and a tail that looks like a segmented scorpion with a spiked ball at the tip. Its bat wings are already well‑controlled, and when it soars through the sky… Bai Lang has to curb its desire to fly, simply to avoid being discovered.

Since Dumbledore visited Bai Lang, the guy has been holding back a bit—actually he never liked hitting people; whenever he does, there's a reason. Even beating a mischief ghost wouldn't faze Dumbledore, so as long as he stops pounding on classmates year after year, that's fine.

There's nothing else; to reverse petrification you have to wait for the mandrake to mature. Bai Lang has swapped pots for his own quiet mandrake several times—once he mixed up Neville Longbottom's plant, and the poor thing screamed wildly, struggling to the death, making Neville Longbottom sweat profusely and almost have his glove torn. Neville Longbottom's mandrake at first also shouted loudly, trying to break through Bai Lang's ear protection and cause him to foam and collapse, but with a flick of Bai Lang's finger the plant instantly fell silent and died.

Seamus Finnigan was the first to have his ear protection pierced by the now‑grown mandrake's scream, causing him to foam and collapse on the ground… Ron Weasley saw Bai Lang's method and tried to repeat it, becoming the second person to be knocked out by the roar, foaming. Both of them lost a person (i. e., were knocked out) but at least they didn't lose points.

They were sent to Mrs. Pomfrey, and recovered fairly quickly. When they emerged, Bai Lang was pulling Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan along, and Ron Weasley crowded over to listen to the so‑called "how to knock out a mandrake so it can be quietly repotted" tip. "Aim at this spot on the mandrake," Bai Lang pulled Neville Longbottom forward for a demonstration, pointing to the back of Neville Longbottom's head, "strike it with all your strength, or use a lighter force and flip your wand, hitting the handle against this spot. It's very effective; the plant collapses instantly."

"Will we kill the mandrake?" Neville Longbottom asked curiously. "Don't worry, they're just plants! Their vitality is strong; you didn't see the force they use when you pull them out and re‑insert them, right? I think it's not any smaller than yours, Neville Longbottom, so no need to worry—just go ahead and strike." Bai Lang said boastfully without shame.

The Quidditch match is about to start, this time Gryffindor versus Slytherin, and Slytherin just received the best broom on the market thanks to Draco Malfoy's father, so Gryffindor is under huge pressure, especially Harry. As usual, Bai Lang has no interest in Quidditch; he glanced at the sky, the miserable Scottish weather looking ready to rain, and thought, "Watching Quidditch from a cold, wet perch in the rain?" Bai Lang was uninterested; he'd rather stay in the warm public lounge by the fireplace reading some light books.

Neville Longbottom and the others know Bai Lang's habit; although they find it hard to believe a young wizard could dislike Quidditch, since Bai Lang shows it, they don't force him to go. So Bai Lang happily pulls out a book on Magical Creatures—recently wizards' ability to "create" new magical beasts has declined, and the newest so‑called creations are already over a hundred years old. Still, the book keeps being updated—after all, more and more magical creatures seem to be discovered.

Bai Lang happily fetched himself a large mug of hot cocoa, settled on the sofa in front of the fireplace, sipping the cocoa while reading, indifferent to events hundreds of meters away—though just a few minutes earlier he glanced out the window and sighed, "It's raining…"

About twenty minutes or half an hour later? Bai Lang didn't count. The soggy young wizards returned, "Harry Potter got hurt by that crazy rogue ball, but we won. Lockhart made Harry's bones disappear…" Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan's statements were all over the place.