Chapter 369

A dried corpse that had already grown a significant amount of flesh and blood crawled up from the pottery coffin; in its two eye sockets, there was only one intact eye, and that eye stared fixedly at Harry.

"My heir, what, what have you done?"

Harry ignored him, instead casting a resentful glance at Murphy. Suddenly, the hexagram array on the ground lit up, and Slytherin's body, which had only crawled halfway out, instantly stiffened.

In Murphy's magical vision, the color of the magic belonging to Voldemort in his head suddenly expanded, extending countless fine threads.

Those threads twisted and grew, reaching toward Slytherin's magic like the tentacles of an octopus, as if roots growing in soil, drilling into Slytherin's magic, gradually segmenting it and gripping it tightly.

"Magic parasitism..." Slytherin spat out in a hoarse voice with difficulty.

Since Slytherin had already awakened, Voldemort no longer had the time to deal with Murphy and immediately activated the hexagram array.

He didn't even have time to summon the Basilisk; anyway, since Lucas was already missing, today's seven-in-one plan was clearly not going to work, so he would first fuse with the most important one, Slytherin.

Slytherin's magical color was already approaching the extreme purple of the Mother, and his magical level was higher than Voldemort's; he should not have been controlled by Voldemort.

But his body had been made into a Horcrux, and when he followed the passage back to this time, Voldemort's soul fragment had already been embedded in his soul, just like an external parasite mistaken by the immune system for one of its own organs; his magic was actually unable to identify the other's magic and destroy it.

Yet the other party, under the influence of the hexagram array, had placed him in the position of a sacrifice and could launch an offensive against him.

Slytherin discovered with horror that his own magic was being assimilated by Voldemort.

Murphy only glanced at the situation between Voldemort and Slytherin and paid no further attention; his focus was not here, but rather he was concentrating his energy on searching for the Mother.

Voldemort's plan was a completely unexpected development, and the other party did not have an absolute conflict of interest with him at this moment. Murphy had not forgotten that his fundamental goal in coming to the school was to kill the Mother; that fleeting sensation just now was the first time he had discovered the Mother's tracks since entering the school, and he had to determine its location first.

Compared to this, Voldemort's priority was even lower.

However, there was nothing resembling a portrait in this hall. Where could the Mother be hiding?

Under magical vision, the magical colors of Voldemort and the students filled the entire hall. If one looked closely, the magical channels of hundreds of students were like an opened chrysanthemum, their magic all connected to the center of the flower—that is, the hexagram array.

The magic of hundreds of people was mixed together, the magical colors incomparably bright and gorgeous, already exceeding Murphy's ability to distinguish.

However, the moment he looked over, the corner of his eye seemed to catch a faint wisp of extreme purple—not the large mass on Slytherin's side, but in another location, an extremely tiny color block.

Although it was very inconspicuous among the countless blue, green, and yellow magical colors, like a single pixel among hundreds of thousands, Murphy still detected that trace of anomaly.

Extreme purple, a magical hue close to ultraviolet.

That was a magical level far exceeding that of ordinary students, something that should not have appeared there.

Even Voldemort did not have such a magical color; it was somewhat similar to Slytherin's magical color, yet still different.

Focusing his gaze, under optical vision, he saw that ultraviolet-colored thing.

Slytherin's locket.

So that was it!

The locket was a Horcrux, but a small photo could be placed inside the locket.

The Mother was actually hiding in the locket!

Heaven knows how this guy managed to hide in there!

However, just as Murphy discovered the Mother's location, the tiny speck of extreme purple in the locket suddenly expanded, and the Mother's phantom crawled out of the locket, even giving Voldemort a fright.

That ghostly phantom lowered its eyes, its hands opened slightly, and it chanted a spell as if singing, "Traveler of the other world, Morgan's ship, please take away the oath-breaking thief..."

Take your sister!

Murphy flashed to the side of the locket and reached out to grab it, but the hexagram array emitted surging magic, repelling him like a tide and pushing him outward.

He extended his finger, and a spell shot from his fingertip, striking the locket. The spell was weakened by more than half by the array's magic, and although the locket did not suffer any damage, it was still flipped open by the power of the spell.

A small portrait was placed inside.

This guy is really good at hiding!

If it hadn't revealed a flaw itself, it would have been very difficult to find it under the cover of the chaotic magic.

But since he had found it, Murphy naturally could not let it go.

He pulled out a specially made wand. The core structure of this wand had been specially customized, so Murphy did not need to perform magical frequency modulation himself; as long as his magic passed through this wand, it could generate a magical frequency targeting the Mother.

Before coming to Hogwarts, he had already made this preparation.

But before Murphy could aim the wand at the locket, Voldemort thought he was going to act against his Horcrux and immediately launched a magical shockwave. Murphy had to distract himself to cast an Armor Charm to defend.

Just like that, for a brief moment, an unexpected change occurred.

Slytherin, trapped by the hexagram array, struggled violently, wailing with a hoarse throat: "It's coming... It's coming..."

Accompanied by thick fog, the shadow of a large lake suddenly appeared in mid-air.

The lake drew closer and closer, and one could gradually hear the splashing of water. A large black ship drifted from the lake, and a black, long-haired shadow stood at the bow.

Suddenly, the large ship launched a chain. The front end of the chain was a huge iron arrow with barbs. The next instant, the iron arrow actually drilled out from Slytherin's pottery coffin, piercing through his upper body from behind in one go.

"No, no!"

Slytherin roared, but the chain instantly pulled taut, and with a violent tug backward, a transparent figure was ripped out from that body that was half-withered and half-flesh.

Less than a minute after crawling out of the spirit world, this former wizard tycoon's experience voucher for the living world had expired.

Moreover, because he was connected to Voldemort by the hexagram array, Voldemort and his Horcrux were also dragged down toward the abyss passage behind the pottery coffin.

Murphy was also startled by the black ship's chain.

Pulling a soul directly into the spirit world—isn't that equivalent to an Avada?

What the hell is this thing?

"Soul Anchor!" At this moment, Dumbledore and Grindelwald finally found a way in. Seeing the scene before them, both were taken aback, but Dumbledore still recognized the chain.

This thing was exactly the same as the spell he had used to imprison Grindelwald.

Soul Anchor?

Acting on the soul?

In mid-air, Voldemort was also struggling desperately, but he was surprised to find that he could not break the connection with Slytherin and could only let the iron chain drag him toward the black ship like a string of potatoes.

Voldemort instinctively felt a sense of fear; at this moment, he felt he was closer to true death than ever before.

Even those students whose magic had been channeled into the hexagram array seemed to be being pulled by those lines of magic; pale blue shadows appeared on their bodies, and their souls were being torn away from their bodies.

"We must destroy this magic array. No matter how many avatars or fragments a soul has, the Soul Anchor will take them all away, but these students are only connected to Voldemort through magical ties." Dumbledore said, "Destroying this array can break their connection."

(End of chapter)