Chapter 332: The Most Painful Punishment

Felix stared at the altar, such a big statue, right in front of his eyes, in a very short time decayed, broken into pieces, and then swept by the invisible wind into fine sand, and finally, nothing remained.

Is it because of the breath he blew?

Surely not, Felix thought in his mind, that's too absurd, the statue of Herpo should be similar to the corpses of those basilisks that he had seen before, also in a sealed state, for an unknown period of time, at least a thousand years, no, two thousand years, right?

He thought very carefully, Herpo the Foul was very active in the ancient Greek period, earlier than the era of the four founders of Hogwarts, and when the four giants rose to power, Herpo has disappeared for hundreds of years.

For them, Herpo already belongs to the part of the legend - only to know for his infamy, never seen in person. Perhaps their parents might even have scared them using Herpo's evil reputation when they became naughty during their childhood.

Felix grinned, amused by this sudden thought. It is a fact that the legends were once kids too, but few people associate them that way, preferring to think that legends were legends to begin with.

Felix put aside this idea and became serious, thinking very seriously about the Horcrux.

That's right, the Horcrux. For him, the only attraction of Horcrux to him is the possibility of studying the soul, but unfortunately, even though he has mastered the method of making Horcrux, he knows very little about the field of soul.

He had not even touched the fur of it.

He thought of the book, Advanced Dark Magic Unveiled, in which there were not only one kind of magic related to soulcraft, but it is, without a doubt, the most evil of them all. Evil not only because of the need for murder, but also because of the need to split the soul.

Let the complete and flawless soul become incomplete, this is an act against nature, and you will have to pay an extremely heavy price, this is clearly mentioned in the book, as for what price, the book does not say, and Felix has no way to know.

...

Hermione just came in and got a fright, it turned out there are more Basilisks other than the two that blocked the door, there's a large nest, she has Bubble-Head Charm cast on her head, as she carefully bypassed the Basilisks carcasses, not letting them touch her, and then arrived in front of the professor, just in time to hear the professor mention the Horcrux.

She felt surprised, did the professor find the Dark Lord's fourth Horcrux? On second thought No! because he also mentioned a person's name earlier - Herpo, she also promptly recognized the significance of the name Herpo.

Herpo the Foul, the famous ancient Greek dark wizard, is one of the sources of many existing dark magics and invented many sinister curses and dark magics, the most famous of which is Horcrux! In addition to that, he was also a parseltongue and discovered the method of hatching Basilisk artificially.

Could it be that they had mistakenly entered the place where Herpo hid his Horcrux?

Just as she wanted to ask, the professor sighed and blew a breath, then the sturdy-looking statue in front of him disintegrated and turned into flying ash, and when she even walked over, even the ash disappeared, as if everything was an illusion of hers.

"Professor?" Hermione cocked her head and looked at Felix, who had been silent since a while ago.

Felix looked at her and said calmly, "Nothing, just some emotions."

"You destroyed Herpo's Horcrux?"

"Well, it has nothing to do with me, it was destroyed a long time ago, we just found out this fact."

Hermione blinked, using her limited knowledge about Horcrux in an attempt to analyse the situation, she first glanced at the rest of the people, Clammy and three others just came in as they smacked their lips at the corpse of the Basilisks blocking the front, Goblin Gonuk ... she could not spot him, probably blocked by the Basilisks.

So she asked in a whisper, "Professor, if the Horcrux is destroyed, what about Herpo's main soul?"

Felix rolled his eyes, that is an interesting question, the purpose of the Horcrux is to split the soul apart and hide a part of it in some object outside the body. That way, even if the body is attacked or destroyed, it can't die because there is still a part of the soul left in the world, undamaged.

But this is for the case where the wizard dies accidentally while the Horcrux survives, what if both happen at the same time by accident?

Is there a possibility that Herpo invented the method of making Horcrux and succeeded in making the first one, but before he could study how to recover his physical body, he ended up passing away due to an accident or simply died of old age ...

This speculation is not without a chance, the reason why Herpo is revered or hated by those who come after him is because he creatively invented a lot of dark magic, so is it possible that, before him, no one has studied the way to restore the flesh after the death?

Felix went along with this conjecture to deduce, Herpo because of the existence of the Horcrux his main soul is indestructible, so he has always wandered, but he could not find a good way to resurrect, so for an unknown number of years, the Horcrux also decayed over a long period of time, then what will be awaiting Herpo?

Will he simply perish, or will he continue to wander somewhere in this world, no better than the most humble wandering ghost?

"I don't know," Felix answered Hermione's question, "maybe death is more rewarding for him."

Hermione could not understand for a moment and wanted to continue to ask questions, but she soon realized the key, after the loss of the Horcrux, the only remaining choice the main soul has is; either dissipating, or lingering like Voldemort, or successfully got resurrected.

The first two remain unknown, but the third possibility is extremely unlikely because later generations have never found the traces of his presence again - which is actually quite unusual, if Herpo resurrected with the help of the Horcrux, he has no reason to hide.

And the remaining two possibilities, according to the professor's answer, 'maybe death is more rewarding for him', which is referring to the dissipation of the main soul at the end, but if there is no ... like Voldemort, wandering in the world for thousands of years?

She shuddered, the world's most painful punishment is just this, right?

"Little girl, move aside."

A voice said, Hermione startled as her body trembled, she jumped to the side, found the goblin Gonuk is looking flatly at the sidewall of the altar relief, she lowered her head, noticing the goblin at some point carrying a silver knife, is he trying to pry the gemstones from the relief.

Gonuk managed to get his hands on a ruby, he released a soft breath, as he wiped it with his sleeve, and said greedily: "Ancient gem, I smell the smell of heavy history, it is more precious than any of my collection, it has the weight of time!"

Hermione blinked, she felt that this statement should just be a kind of rhetorical expression, similar to the words of Trelawney and Refitin, but nevertheless, she asked curiously, "Mr. Gonuk, What do you see? Can I take a look?"

"No! Everything here is mine! no, no, no...it's Gringotts." He said seriously.

Felix smiled, "Miss Granger, pick one or two of whatever you like, as a souvenir."

The goblin looked at him viciously, only to have Felix pull out a letter of invitation from the Gringotts and raise it towards him, and he instantly became as sluggish as a deflated ball.

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"What's wrong?" Hermione asked puzzled.

Clammy came over and said with a smile: "Professor Hap is an expert invited by the Gringotts, naturally there is a payment. Gonuk realized this, so it ..." she made a heartbreaking gesture towards Hermione, who giggled.

But Hermione was just curious, no idea of taking it for herself, she had very little interest in gems, so she went around in a circle to survey the pattern on the altar - on the top remained the group of wizards she came with, they either identifying gems, or sitting upright in awe, or writing with their heads down, and next to these wizards, there were always all kinds of trinkets, gems, wands, vials, hourglasses.

She also wanted to take a closer look, but as a result, where ever she went, the Goblin followed her, and she finally got bored, so she ran off to the hallway in a huff and read the runes left on the slate with the professor.

Felix is recording the ancient magic on the top of the slate before Hermione is more interested in the story told on the slate, only after knowing that the master of the dark room is Herpo, she naturally understands that it is all a lie, an elaborate hoax woven by Herpo.

But why did he do it?

Hermione tried to understand Herpo's intentions, she had read a lot of ancient wizards' journals from Felix's collection, not unfamiliar with their mentality, and Herpo's approach made her extremely puzzled.

Thinking for a while, she thought of two directions, one is that Herpo wanted to lure in highly intelligent wizards, trick them into the dark room, and sacrifice them for some unspeakable sorcery, such as holding a resurrection ritual, but unfortunately, he waited for a thousand years in vain.

In the other direction, it was a blindfold set aside by Herpo. He never intended to let people leave alive after knowing this place. And everything that was laid out before was for this purpose--

The hiding place of the Horcrux was placed under the pyramid, and the secret of the Horcrux was concealed with the help of the Pharaoh's tomb, making it difficult for outsiders to discover. This is the first layer of protection.

And the black fog and curse in the hallway is the second layer of protection, if the wizard who mistakenly entered this place is slightly less capable, he is likely to die in the black fog for no reason, and be digested by the black fog clean, you know, Mr. Goblin said that the black fog is corrosive!

Even if a wizard succeeds in breaking through the black fog, there is a third layer of protection, which is the temptation of ancient magic on the stone slab, he/she will think he/she has broken into a strict senior's inheritance, and not only he/she will not reveal the news to the outside world, but will also attempt to break the invisible curse alone again and again.

Even if he succeeded in breaking through these levels, what was waiting for him in the end, was a nest of Basilisks, according to Hermione's guess, even if a wizard is more powerful, he/she can not resist the attack of dozens of Basilisks at the same time, right?

"If that's the case, then Herpo is too scary just to be known as Herpo the Foul." Hermione muttered in a small voice.

"What?" Felix inquired.

"No." Hermione immediately shook her head and followed the professor's line of sight, surveying the runic sequence above.

Felix said gently, "I don't have time to instruct you at now, but you can try to understand it a little. You know what I mean, right? Just the core ones, see which one you feel most comfortable with, and maybe it will be your second ancient magic."

Hermione nodded and excitedly tried them out one by one. The first ancient magic, she did not understand the core runes, so she gave up ...

The second, signifying 'twist', she tried outlining the core and sub-core runes, and the air in her hand seemed to twist, but after a few tries, it still didn't work.

She kept moving her position until she reached the second to last one, and Hermione's eyes lit up. Core rune - flame, sub-core runes, all of which she knew! She also knew most of the remaining Peripheral Runes.

This is it. She had a strong feeling in her heart.

Hermione carefully sketched the runes in the air, with the experience of learning illumination, she knew the most basic operation of ancient magic - core runes as a stable and joining agent, sub-core runes to determine the external characteristics and properties of magic, peripheral runes to build and refine the complete magic.

Hermione first outlined the flame rune, let it keep switching between rune symbols and flames, then reverted it to ancient magic and continued to outline the sub-core runes.

After a small period of time, Hermione wiped her sweat and stopped. Covering a yawn with her hand, she decided to rest for a while.

Felix had finished recording the sequence of all the runes on the slab, and a docile black lightning bolt flashed between his fingers, but this sight was only a flash, and he put away his magic and said to Hermione with satisfaction, "Let's go out, they're already waiting outside."

They walked out of the pyramid and returned to the tent camp, the goblin is exhausted enough to collapse into a chair, constantly complaining that his knife is cracked, but no one sympathized with him, "Because you won't let us help." Clammy said as she made herself a small glass of ice water.

She gulped a big sip as her brow furrowed, then stretched a little before she exhaled a long breath.

The others were also relaxed, coming out of such a dangerous place is enough for them to celebrate. Faisal and Rahman immediately decided to take time off and go watch the Quidditch World Cup.

Felix, who is also a little tired, took off his Basilisk skin cloak and took out a silver pocket watch, as he popped open the lid gently, a Niffler came out of it and stood in his hand, yelling at Felix continuously, counting his crimes and then pointing her butt at him.

"It's my fault," Felix said with a smirk, his mood instantly changed for the better. He took out a golden galleon, gently touched the shoulder of Niffler Valen, she smelled a charming smell, her head turned a little, glimpsed the golden glint, she then immediately snatched the golden galleon, stuffed it into her pocket, and patted Felix's finger with satisfaction.

Hermione stared wide-eyed at the little guy, "Professor, this is Niffler?"

"Well, I raise her, you can call her Valen." Felix said as caressed her pink beak with his finger, Niffler ignored him, as she glanced left and right and probed around.

Hermione took out the small locket with a temperature control function and waved it in front of her eyes, Niffler Valen who looked around immediately jumped down into Hermione's arms and reached for the small locket with her short hands.

When Niffler appeared, the goblin Gonuk immediately widened his eyes, covering his side pocket, and shouted in terror: "Take that little devil away, take it away!"

His scream caught the attention of Niffler, whose head poked out of Hermione's arms and her bright little black eyes stared at Goblin Gonuk.

Do you have any treasures?

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