Chapter 469: Dealing with Voldemort Is More Interesting

Bai Lang slipped back to the dormitory; Professor McGonagall had just dispersed the celebration, telling everyone to hurry back to sleep. He had only been sleeping alone in his dorm for a short while when he immediately opened his eyes, "Someone?!"

Bai Lang rolled out of bed without changing his nightclothes, grabbed his wand and silently pushed open the door—he didn't need to light a lamp; just by the sound and the aura he could determine the situation. A stranger's aura was at Harry Potter's location; when Bai Lang reached Harry Potter's bedroom, he saw a man so thin he looked like a skeleton, holding a knife. Just as Bai Lang was about to act, Ron Weasley's and Harry's screams made the man rush out.

"Should we stop this guy?" Bai Lang considered the question; if he blocked him, Sirius Black would be doomed—before proving his innocence, he would be executed by a Dementor. The deliberation was fleeting; in the blink of an eye Bai Lang decided, his hand hooked onto a wall relief, he pushed off the ground and instantly performed a triangular leap, turning upside down to grab the ceiling relief.

Sirius Black didn't notice Bai Lang at all; he fled at speed. Only after Sirius had run off did Bai Lang land silently, and by then Harry and the others were already shouting and charging out. The incident alarmed everyone; Professor McGonagall sternly rebuked Sir Cadogan at the doorway, but Sir Cadogan claimed he hadn't seen Sirius Black. Harry's relationship with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger returned to normal, and they planned to sneak out at night to see Hai Ge.

"Can I go call Dio?" Hermione Granger asked Bai Lang. "As long as it's willing to respond, you can call it whatever you like, Hermione Granger." Bai Lang replied, preparing to go to another part of the Forbidden Forest to practice Tiger Form True Meaning—martial arts never end; although his power was limited now, further study of the True Meaning would eventually manifest in Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist.

Bai Lang didn't pay much attention to what happened afterward; while wandering the Forbidden Forest he occasionally saw a big black dog—undoubtedly Sirius Black. Since he never intended to befriend Black, he simply pretended the dog didn't exist, carefully avoiding its gaze to do his own business—after all, idle is idle, and he could also collect some loans in the Forbidden Forest.

For example, pulling a unicorn's tail hair, grinding some of its horn into powder; of course the simplest is to kill an eight‑eyed spider to collect venom. This year Bai Lang didn't want trouble, so his misdeeds were few—Centaur clearly no longer dared to interfere with his activities in the Forbidden Forest. Ever since Bai Lang rolled on the spot and turned into a fierce tiger, his triangular leap easily dodged the Centaurs' arrows when they tried to pin him to the ground, the Centaurs decided they couldn't intervene.

Moreover, aside from killing the eight‑eyed spiders that cause ecological disasters in the Forbidden Forest, Bai Lang didn't harm other creatures—harassing unicorns is merely a 'humiliation'; besides, a terrifying monster often followed him in the Forbidden Forest—likely a Manticore Scorpion‑tailed Lion named Dio. Centaur were even less likely to disturb Bai Lang—apart from a few odd species among them, most Centaur simply didn't want to approach wizards.

Later, regarding the trip to Hogsmeade and such, Bai Lang didn't pay special attention to the trio; he kept his own pace—from buying sweets to retrieving large items ordered from a magic shop. Speaking of which, the workshop he built outside the house inside his bag was already looking decent—the workshop's house was also a small house bought from a magic shop with an expansion charm; despite its shabby single‑person hut appearance, the interior space was not small once the door was opened.

Inside, Bai Lang had already set up furnaces—both magical furnaces and petrifying‑gas furnaces, as well as an air hammer and wire cutter, all purchased during the holiday, along with some metal materials he acquired. "Forging is also a form of martial practice; if I'm not careful I'll eventually have to forge my own weapon," he thought. In this world, when a weapon needs magical enchantment, it's usually done with silver or inlaid gems.

Some metals are considered magick‑affine, while others are thought to reject magic—the former are almost all precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, though a few cheaper ones like mercury and tin exist; the latter are mainly lead. Steel is regarded as neutral—neither magick‑affine nor repelling—worse than copper but better than lead. After returning to Hogwarts, Bai Lang entered his bag and began attempting to forge weapons.

Naturally he used Neville Longbottom to practice, a standard hand half‑sword—at Neville Longbottom's strength, a weight of about three kilograms is just right for the future. Isn't a Gryffindor relic essentially a sword? What Bai Lang is forging now is similar. The material is certainly Muggle high‑carbon steel—considering cost and performance, spring steel is a good choice. As for forging technique, Bai Lang has indeed seen the blacksmiths of his own world and has also watched many weapon‑forging videos in the modern world.

So he was confident he could become an excellent blacksmith—until he forged that piece of steel into a long slab he couldn't identify… "It's ruined… damn, making a sword blank is really hard!" Bai Lang muttered, realizing that watching others carry a load effortlessly didn't reveal the many subtleties until he tried himself. Just watching master sword‑forgers won't make you a true master.

Bai Lang had always mocked the contestants who couldn't even pass the first round, and then he was delighted to discover that he himself was a piece of trash even a dog wouldn't eat… At least they could produce a blade‑shaped iron piece with an edge; Bai Lang's result was an iron bar he himself couldn't describe. What else to do? Keep practicing—after all the material isn't expensive, the magical furnace's efficiency is decent, so heat it up.

While Bai Lang was forging, the students gradually returned. He could only take it slow; blacksmithing is a technical craft, after all it requires practice. "It's the same principle—nothing else but skill through practice," Bai Lang thought. From then on, whenever he had a spare moment he dove into the space inside his bag to forge, and with his wit and physical strength, he quickly got the hang of it.

Whether it was the trio or anyone else, aside from daily training with Neville Longbottom, Bai Lang focused solely on his studies and weapon forging—must admit, blacksmithing is addictive… Bai Lang can now forge iron bars resembling a hand half‑sword, though the surface inevitably has highs and lows due to uneven hammer strikes, but overall the prototype of a longsword has taken shape.

Hagrid has been in a bad mood lately; his inquiry apparently failed completely, and that monster is slated to be beheaded. But that won't happen until June or at least after the Quidditch final. Since Draco Malfoy and Potter clashed at Hogsmeade—of course Potter sneaked there in violation of school rules—after the incident Harry escaped Professor Snape's punishment, but the Malfoy‑Potter relationship plummeted to the negative extreme.

Before the match, Slytherin students tried daily to block Potter, and some kept attempting surprise attacks on Gryffindor players; because of this, Wood had to call on Bai Lang. "Lang En, I hope you can protect Harry at other times; at least before the match we can't let Harry and his fire‑crossbow get into trouble."

"If it's only before the match, no problem, Wood. From now on I'll stay with Harry; no one will be able to hurt you." Bai Lang agreed. While he guarded Harry, Goyle and Crabbe never appeared, and the senior Slytherin students hardly came over— they all knew Bai Lang's skill and didn't want to be sent to the infirmary by him. Using lethal magic at school? Paying the price of expulsion for a Quidditch match is something Slytherin students would never do.

On the day the match began, aside from Bai Lang as usual, almost all Gryffindor students were under great pressure, especially Harry Potter and his friends; Bai Lang felt they were on the brink of collapsing. Fortunately his escort duty ended once he delivered them to the locker room, so after completing the task he headed straight to the common room without looking back—he still wouldn't watch the Quidditch match, as he had no interest in it.

He returned to forging; this time he intended to actually make a hand half‑sword. "I've already used it well." He placed a spring‑steel plate into the furnace to heat it, then removed it once it glowed red and folded and hammered it. This is folded Damascus steel; the pattern will be very beautiful. Bai Lang forged the sword's shape, after shaping the blade he annealed it, then heated it to over eight hundred degrees for oil quenching, and after tempering he took it for fine grinding.

All this took at least a month; Bai Lang could only manage a few folds so far.

Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup.

Not long after, Hai Ge's hippogriff Buckbeak was about to have its head cut off—Bai Lang knew Harry and the others would go to rescue the creature, but even if they failed he was already prepared—having summoned a hyena, it would be easy to bite through the iron chain and free Buckbeak. In the end, Buckbeak was rescued by Harry Potter, and Bai Lang was well aware of that.

His prized sword was also nearly finished polishing, taking longer than he expected—he inserted Dio's mane hair into the hilt and fashioned the handle from wood of the whipping willow, which forced him to snap a branch of the whipping willow in half. Bai Lang performed a few sword flourishes, "It's truly light, yet the blade is hard enough and sharp enough for that kid Neville Longbottom to use." With enough strength and skill, a single slash could cut a water‑snake as thick as a bucket.

As long as Neville Longbottom doesn't get the sword stuck in a bone.

When Bai Lang handed the sword to Neville Longbottom, the kid seemed a bit apprehensive but still took the prized blade. "I don't know if putting this thing under your bed will get it confiscated by Professor McGonagall." Bai Lang said, "But once the term ends she'll return it to you. Practice well, Neville Longbottom."

Soon after, a rumor spread—Sirius Black had been framed, and the real culprit was a fellow called Xiao Aixing Peter, but Harry Potter's trio solved another case—Lu Ping resigned because he was a werewolf. Still, Bai Lang's exam results mattered more; he once again lucked his way through and advanced to fourth year.

That year, Bai Lang didn't cause much trouble, but during the holidays he decided to go east to offload his goods, perhaps to acquire some exotic minerals—so he could forge weapons for himself, which was also fun.

This year marks the Quidditch World Cup; Bai Lang bought a massive chunk of meteoric iron from the Far East and decided to forge himself an iron hammer—having magical enchantment on the surface is enough for him, so the core can be lead. That is, a lead‑core iron hammer; otherwise it would be too light, though gold could serve as a core? Bai Lang thought gold too pricey, so he could make it hollow and fill it with mercury.

Bai Lang was uncertain about lead versus mercury, so in the end he decided to forge one of each to see which felt better. His bone wand, in terms of durability, certainly can't match metal weapons, so it's still good for protection. Of course there are also various weapons—from steel spears to long knives, and even the heavy "Zao Yang Spear," which Bai Lang wanted to test his craftsmanship on.

The holiday passed with his intensive forging work, and one day he received a notice from the owl Bubo, "I'm almost forgetting what Diagon Alley looks like, almost forgetting Hogwarts—my eyes only see furnace light, my ears only hear the clink." Bai Lang thought, and when he headed to Diagon Alley he sensed something off; after buying a copy of the Prophet he discovered that during the Quidditch World Cup the supposedly vanished Death Eaters had resurfaced, firing Dark Marks, tormenting Muggles, and then disappearing again under Ministry pursuit.

"By the way, Voldemort is set to return this year. Looks like it's time to smash his snake head," Bai Lang muttered, and headed to Gringotts, "Deposit." He said to the goblin behind the counter. Goblins must love hearing that. Bai Lang once again rode a carriage to his own vault; when the goblins opened the door, he saw dazzling golden light—the goblins had neatly stacked his money using the most radiant method to showcase gold.

Tens of thousands of Galleons… and Bai Lang turned his bag upside down, and Galleons poured down like a downpour—Dio's mane hair, unicorn tail hair, and their horn powder fetched higher prices than eight‑eyed giant spider venom. It seems the Far East lacks these materials, and Bai Lang saw them being put to new uses. Unicorn material can be used for purification, a very potent purifying potion ingredient in the Far East. As for Dio's mane hair and horn powder, the Far East seems to have extracted their deterrent and suppressive effects, which can also inflict massive damage on 'darkness.'

"Same as always, help me stack the gold coins neatly," Bai Lang said, this time doubling his vault's holdings. In the wizarding world, he was already considered well above the middle‑class wealthy.