Chapter 178

That magic power was not particularly strong, and the quantity was not large, yet it was unimaginably tenacious.

It extended countless fine threads, slowly but unstoppably penetrating into every corner of his will, constantly digging deeper, until the very bottom of his consciousness.

At the same time, it seemed to follow some kind of rule, rearranging his will, flattening and reshaping his memory and emotional core, condensing them into another strange appearance.

Gradually, he felt that he was losing control over himself.

He felt that a huge net had enveloped him from the inside out.

In the final instant of falling into a deep sleep, he understood.

That was a seed.

It was taking root and sprouting deep within his soul.

……

A Horcrux is one of the most powerful magical objects known.

One of its most prominent characteristics is its stability and difficulty to destroy.

Murphy had obtained the diary for nearly three years, and his research on Horcruxes had gone further than the vast majority of wizards.

In his view, the powerful defensive capability of a Horcrux is actually an external manifestation of the extremely stable magical structure inside it.

Theoretically, a Horcrux is just a container for storing a soul fragment.

But, using any mental-type spells cannot penetrate the Horcrux's defense to influence the soul fragment inside it.

Its protective power for the soul fragment is extremely comprehensive and formidable.

Wanting to directly use spells on a Horcrux to tamper with the nature of its soul fragment is no less difficult than physically destroying it through spells.

However, the strongest fortresses are all breached from within.

Murphy first planted the Seed of Soul into Albert Runcorn's soul, then used him as bait to let Tom actively consume him; through this "Trojan horse" of Runcorn, Murphy was able to bypass the Horcrux's external defense mechanism and plant the Seed of Soul inside the diary.

And this Seed of Soul was also specially developed by Murphy.

First, he combined the application transformation mechanism of the "Moga Werewolf" to leave an interface in the Seed of Soul for interacting with himself.

Secondly, he let this Seed of Soul penetrate into the very core area of the diary's consciousness, obtaining the highest authority of the diary.

Thus, the diary at this moment was like a mobile phone with root authority controlled by a Trojan virus; Murphy could control any of its five senses, manipulate its emotions and reason, add goals, values, and beliefs to it at will, or disrupt its logic, guiding its will in any direction he wanted.

The diary had completely and thoroughly become a puppet.

……

In the basement, Murphy walked out of the darkness and touched Albert Runcorn's nose to check for breath.

He was already dead; Tom had completely absorbed his magic power and life.

But Tom was still in the diary and had not appeared.

He was sealed by the Seed of Soul.

Murphy came before the diary and began to search the interior of this Horcrux.

He saw Tom's memories.

He saw that when he was at the orphanage, he used his mind alone to hang the pet rabbit of a Muggle child who had argued with him, and saw him staring at a little fat boy who had cursed at him, until the other party twisted his leg.

He saw Tom gradually becoming proficient in using this means of "punishment," and also saw his transition from the initial panic when he truly discovered that the other party had been harmed, to the pride of realizing that he was different.

Aloof, repressed, and the anger and narcissism hidden deep in his heart.

This was Tom Riddle during his childhood.

Then there was Dumbledore.

The memories of the orphanage were sharp, cold, angry, and gray, but the memories about Dumbledore were filled with a certain dreamlike warmth.

Even at this moment, he could feel from this memory the excitement Tom felt when he confirmed that he truly possessed a talent that ordinary people did not, and the joy of being able to get rid of the orphanage, a place that did not accept him.

And... a strange feeling of admiration for the first adult "of his own kind" he had ever seen?

Murphy raised an eyebrow; he didn't expect that from Tom's perspective, this meeting would feel like this.

But it was understandable; after all, he was just an eleven-year-old boy who had been long deprived of love at the time.

Then, he saw his changes when he was at school, from novel exploration to the ambition that gradually expanded after he mastered the rules.

Then he saw the entire production process of the diary.

He was surprised to find that the diary was not a Horcrux at the beginning; Tom used extremely advanced Legilimency and several complex mental spells to weave his memories into a "text version portrait" using the diary as a carrier.

His idea for making the diary was actually the same as the idea wizards used to make "portraits."

Before becoming a Horcrux, the diary itself was already an extraordinary magical creation that could think independently and possessed part of his personality, which was completely different from other Horcruxes that were just simple containers for soul fragments.

It wasn't until later, after he decided to make a Horcrux, that he added the soul fragment into the diary, making it look the way it does now.

Murphy dug out several spells treasured by Tom from these memories; he hadn't shown them before, but they were all irrelevant; Murphy was not lacking in any powerful spells right now.

It was the memory weaving of the diary production itself, and the steps of injecting the soul into the Horcrux production that had more reference value.

After studying for a while, Murphy sent a message to the diary through the interface of the Seed of Soul.

Then he retreated back into the darkness and observed.

A ghost-like figure floated down from the diary and stood on the ground; his body gradually became clear from a translucent state; it was exactly 16-year-old Tom Riddle.

But he kept his eyes tightly closed, as if he hadn't woken up from his dream yet.

Murphy's heart moved, and 16-year-old Tom began to shrink little by little, his age also regressing, getting smaller and smaller; in a short while, he turned into a boy of eleven or twelve.

Then, little Tom's face also gradually changed, becoming more and more like the Muggle boy "Lucas Brightson" that Runcorn had turned into.

In a short while, Tom was no different from the body kneeling on the ground; he lowered his head, walked forward, and his translucent body slowly merged into that corpse.

At the forehead of "Lucas," the position where Murphy released the Seed of Soul lit up with a point of light, and Tom's forehead similarly lit up with a light like a seed; the positions of the two gradually overlapped, and finally, that Seed of Soul nailed Tom and Lucas's body together like a nail.

The light dissipated, and for a long while, the basement was silent.

Then, Lucas moved; he stood up shakily, took off the adult clothes that didn't fit him at all, and took out some children's clothes from the drawer next to the table to put on.

He tucked the notebook on the table under his arm, and finally took out a worn-out eraser from the drawer.

Suddenly his body twisted, and he disappeared from the basement in an instant.

……

London, Reed Children's Welfare Home.

Late at night, a few hours ago, someone sneaked in here and took away Lucas Tom Brightson, who was still asleep; at this moment, his single room was empty.

But with a distortion of space, a boy with golden hair appeared in the room.

He put the diary on the table, and then went back to the bedside to lie down.

……

Early the next morning, "Lucas" suddenly opened his eyes.

He looked around blankly for a while, and finally discovered the notebook placed on the table.

He walked forward.

He saw a line of text gradually appearing on the diary.

"My name is Lucas Tom Brightson. August 26, 1991, I woke up in the orphanage as usual. Today is no different, except that my head is a bit dizzy, as if I have forgotten many things."

"In the morning, the director, Mrs. Cole, told me that a couple wants to adopt me."

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(End of chapter)