Chapter 489: Clues Reconnected

When Harry stepped onto the land of London again, gazing at the old and depressed Diagon Alley, he felt a thick pessimism in his heart. However, he soon adjusted his mindset and, according to the plan, went to the Ministry of Magic first.

"Long time no see, Harry." Mr. Wei Silai received him in that familiar conference room. Sitting here together were civil servants of all sizes and the Senior Undersecretary, Severus.

"Long time no see, gentlemen." Harry greeted them and then went straight to the point. "I saw many things this time; it was truly very shocking. If we don't make some efforts, I'm afraid the future will be unimaginable."

"Please speak in detail." Arthur's expression also became much more solemn.

"First, it's the strength of the Celestial people. Their technology far exceeds our imagination, whether it's magic or Muggle technology." Harry placed the briefcase he had been carrying on the table. "For some reason, they are willing to share part of the technical principles of the floating city. We need to build our own floating city, or, if we are not up to the task, we can consider cooperating with the Magical Congress."

"Secondly, it's their attitude. They have decided to change the official diplomatic title from 【Celestial Empire】 to 【Ming Empire】, and their diplomatic stance will also be more inclined toward expansion." Harry recalled what he had seen and heard during this period. "Their nationalist consciousness is very strong, and they may exhibit xenophobia and militarism. This is a terrifying thing for countries in Asia. However, it's fortunate that it won't affect us on the other side of the continent."

"It doesn't matter; these things can be left for the Prime Minister to study." Arthur did not seem worried about this. "Then what are we going to do?"

"Build a floating city that belongs to us." Harry explained. "Perhaps they are preparing to use this to launch an arms race, consuming Yanayev's economy, or perhaps, there are some key difficulties in the technology he gave us, and Yanayev can hardly overcome them on his own? In short, their target is aimed at Yanayev."

"Due to cultural and historical differences, it's hard for us to guess their thoughts." Snape shook his head. "Just starting from our own interests, a floating city might be a thing worth doing."

Arthur opened the briefcase, browsed through the documents inside at a glance, and then said with some hesitation: "Are we really going to do this project? It looks like a huge expense, and many things seem to involve Muggle technology."

"A floating city, if it's the same as what I think, then this is a symbol." Snape picked up a page. "Those countries that do not possess a floating city will be judged as weak magical nations and lose their right to speak in the international community."

"And it can exert a more powerful role in the Muggle world," Harry said earnestly.

"This is not a matter that can be decided by our Ministry of Magic alone." Arthur put the documents back into the box. "We need to contact the Prime Minister."

The matter of Shuntian city ascending into the sky was also enough to cause considerable waves in the Muggle world. However, because the Western world's understanding of the Celestial Empire was extremely limited, this led to the emergence of two completely different factions. One faction simply attributed it to "mysterious Eastern technology," while the other denounced it as "lighting illusions to deceive the public."

Such comments led the Prime Minister to seem not to take this matter to heart. He pushed the Ministry of Magic's meeting invitation again and again, directly scheduling it for next Friday, which made the knowledgeable people in the entire Wizarding World feel somewhat helpless.

Thus, until Tuesday afternoon, when Harry was on a date with Zhang Qiu at a teahouse, she brought up another matter: "Since your Prime Minister is not in a hurry to deal with the floating city matter, I think we can continue to investigate the previous clues. Perhaps we should find an opportunity to visit the author of that book."

Harry had experienced too many shocks in his last few days in the Celestial Empire, so much so that he almost forgot his original intention for going there. At this moment, reminded by Zhang Qiu, he thought of this matter.

"Well said, but who is the author of that book, and where are they? We seem to need to ask Luo En." When they were sitting in Madam Puddifoot's Teahouse, Harry's mind was not entirely on that book.

"I did a simple investigation in the past two days. The author of this book was originally a writer who wrote science fiction and fantasy short stories, but recently suddenly started writing such a magical novel." Zhang Qiu roughly described the preliminary conclusions. "And later, he received strong support from Tang Nade, and this novel, which was evaluated as 'too dark, too adult-oriented,' was published smoothly in his publishing house."

"And the fact is, except for those hardcore readers who deeply love magical novels and have started to get tired of the idealized narrative of traditional fantasy, most other people don't really care for this work. That is to say, it's acclaimed but not popular. In other words, from a commercial perspective, I think Tang Nade's investment in this book is a complete failure." Zhang Qiu crossed her hands, revealing a solemn expression. "But if you don't look at it from a commercial perspective, there is no sign indicating that Tang Nade is a hardcore reader of fantasy novels, so this is a very intriguing matter."

"Is it very intriguing?" Harry was somewhat puzzled. "What if it's just a failed investment?"

"This is exactly what's intriguing." Zhang Qiu leaned forward and said in a very low volume. "Tang Nade's investments in the Muggle world have never failed. I even suspect he secretly divines the trend of the US stock market."

"Can divination do this?" Harry was startled.

"Usually, it shouldn't be able to. Divination cannot act on matters in the Muggle world because the great power of Death cannot reach the Muggle world." When Zhang Qiu said this, she suddenly laughed. "By the way, do you know why your Zi Huang Shi Wang lost to the unknown Chi Qi?"

Bad memories flooded back, and Harry's expression was very complex.

"It's because the transformer of Chi Qi is a Muggle, and the power of fate has no effect on him." Zhang Qiu said very earnestly. "Therefore, divination cannot affect the Muggle world. Given that the old Mr. Martin is a Muggle, I feel that Xuanjun and Tang Nade have no way to read the content of his novel through divination."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. If they digressed to think about the Celestial people possessing technology that allows Muggles to transform, that would not be surprising, because the technical manual of the floating city mentioned a high-level magic storage technology—pre-storing spells in alchemical artifacts with fixed incantations. This can be used to make the foundation of the floating city, and can also make transformation props for Muggles. Of course, here, this technology is usually used by the Wei Silai twins to make little prank products.

If they pull their thoughts back to this point, indeed, Mr. Martin's writing cannot be read by divination. And besides that, there is Tang Nade's magical experience of never having lost in his investment career. The general thinking is to guess that the two of them have mastered some kind of special divination technique that exceeds common sense.

Before Harry could speak, Zhang Qiu had already given her conjecture: "I have a bold idea. Could they be time travelers?"

"Ah?" Harry admitted that he had not thought in this direction. Perhaps it was because he himself did not do anything to change history during time travel, which led to his understanding of time travel being somewhat one-sided.

"Master has said more than once that if you change history, you create a parallel world." Zhang Qiu said earnestly. "And parallel worlds happen to be a research direction he is very interested in. He felt very sorry about our move to freeze time. Based on this point, I guess he is a time traveler who changed history. I think it's very possible."

"Because you also noticed that the development of Great Ming is far more rapid than any other country in the world, and we actually don't possess any institutional or cultural advantages. Our system has always been in exploration and reform, and our culture does not encourage the emergence of new technology. So, when we have investigated this novel clearly, I think it's also time to overturn the hypothesis of lost civilization archaeology and turn to verify the time travel hypothesis."

"But from another perspective, I think the theory of lost civilization archaeology also has arguments that are hard to overturn, including the Kamen Rider system, because it is truly too advanced compared to existing wizard technology." Harry said. "If you consider it from political, military, and technological aspects, looking at the current situation of the Ming Empire, although it is advanced, the degree of its lead over countries around the world is far from as high as the lead of the Kamen Rider system over wizard spells."

"That is, if we assume that the development of human society in various aspects is relatively balanced." Harry gestured. "Looking at it from other aspects, if Xuanjun is a time traveler, the point in time when he started traveling certainly wouldn't exceed the present by too much. But if you look at it from the Rider system, he seems to be a traveler who appeared from a very, very long time in the future."

"Hmm... indeed." Zhang Qiu nodded. "And there is the story of the Destiny Organization and Kaslana. It's hard for me to imagine two completely unrelated people saying the same thing in unison. Unless we conjecture that the future Death is more crazy, and wizards formed the Destiny Organization to resist him, and this process of resistance made the development of magic far exceed the Muggle world..."

"We still need more investigation." Harry concluded. "And I have another line of thought, which is to investigate Tang Nade."

"What?"

"Your Master is already an experienced and deep-thinking person. The only flaw he revealed is a novel he wrote under a pen name when he was young." Harry said. "But Tang Nade is different. He is young and vigorous, and his actions have left more traces. I think if we can figure out Tang Nade's situation, perhaps we can make a more accurate speculation about Xuanjun's origin." ===== CHAPTER 490 =====