The Suspense Finally Killed Him

On the first floor, in a dim little room, there was only a shabby wardrobe and a small iron bed, leaving it bare and empty.

In the dark corner by the bed, Tom sat on a gray blanket, staring intently at his right hand.

A little green snake was coiled around his right hand.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."

Tom kept making sounds like a snake.

The little snake seemed to understand him and nodded with an almost human expression.

After a while, the little snake crawled down from Tom's hand, slipped out through the narrow window, and quickly disappeared.

"Weide... what exactly is the secret behind your strength? I'll have the answer soon... What you can do, I can do too!"

Tom stared in the direction the little snake had vanished and silently clenched his fist.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Thud!"

A gray rat fell stiffly from the windowsill.

Li Weide picked up a green stick beside him and poked it. It felt as though he were poking a rock.

After thinking for a moment, Li Weide made another simple gesture with his hand.

"Finite Incantatem!"

"Squeak!"

The Gray Mouse, which had become as hard as stone, came back to life. It sprang up from the floor and fled like mad.

However, there was hardly any furniture in the room, leaving the Gray Mouse nowhere to hide. It could only keep charging toward the half-meter-high windowsill.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Squeak!"

"Finite Incantatem!"

"Squeak..."

After being put through this more than ten times, the Gray Mouse stopped running.

It merely lay on its back in the corner, playing dead.

Li Weide ignored the rat and continued flipping through the Spellbook in his hands.

Sure enough, practicing this kind of offensive spell was much more effective with a living target.

What Li Weide could not understand, though, was how he had managed to successfully use such a fairly difficult spell through Nonverbal Spellcasting after only practicing it a dozen times, no matter how talented he was.

Wasn't that learning speed a little too fast?

Moreover, when he had faced Tom's attack that day, Li Weide had found that Tom's magical attack had landed on him like a light breeze...

It was not merely harmless—it did not even have enough force to serve as a fan...

According to the book, there was only one explanation for this: the gap between their magical strength was too great. It had little to do with practice.

That should not have been possible. Tom was the future Dark Lord; his talent had to be extraordinary.

Even if Li Weide was more gifted than him at the same age, he should not have been so much stronger that he could utterly crush him.

In the section of the Spellbook that explained the principles of magic, Li Weide finally found the answer.

...As wizards grew older, the strength of their magic would steadily increase, reaching a theoretical limit after adulthood. If they neglected practice, or for other reasons no longer wished to use magic, their magical strength would decline and could even disappear... Research indicated that the strength of a wizard's magic was also connected to the strength of the soul...

After reading that, Li Weide remembered something: he was not actually the same age as Tom.

In truth, after transmigrating here, only his physical age had become younger. His actual age was already that of an adult! That meant the strength of his soul was likely still that of an adult as well.

From this, Li Weide formed an initial hypothesis: the magical strength he possessed now had already reached the level of an adult wizard!

When he fought the underage Tom, no matter how gifted Tom was, it was still an adult fighting a child... It was hard not to crush him.

Then... can my magical strength continue to grow naturally? If it can't, is there some way to break through this bottleneck?

Li Weide was not in a hurry over that question. As the youngest biologist of his time, breaking through the limits of the human body had been his main field of research before he transmigrated.

Only now, the object of his research had changed from ordinary humans to wizards...

Tom absentmindedly flipped through the book in his hands, but his eyes never settled on its pages.

In fact, the little snake he had sent out had still not returned, leaving him restless.

He knew very well that whenever Li Weide closed his door, it was time for his secret practice.

Tom had sent a little snake to spy on him, intending to wait for it to return and tell him what it had seen. Then he might be able to glimpse the secret behind Li Weide's growing strength.

But now, the little snake that should have returned long ago was nowhere to be seen...

Another hour passed, and Tom finally could not wait any longer. After taking a deep breath, he walked toward Li Weide's room.

Li Weide's room was on the second floor.

As soon as Tom went upstairs, he saw Li Weide's door.

But the door was actually left ajar! As though it were waiting for someone...

Tom barely suppressed his nervous imagination and slowly pushed the door open.

Li Weide was lightly poking a gray rat on the floor with a green stick.

But... Tom suddenly felt that stick looked rather familiar?

Li Weide turned around and saw Tom peeking in from the doorway. A gentle smile appeared on his face.

Merit Points were here...

"Tom, you're here! I was just about to tell you—I discovered a very interesting use for our special abilities."

Only when Li Weide stood up did Tom understand why the stick in his hand had seemed so familiar...

It was unmistakably a little snake that had somehow become rigid as a stick!

The heart Tom had been holding in suspense finally died...

"Ding! It has been detected that the host has caused a slight change in the future Dark Lord's life trajectory. The host is rewarded with 100 Merit Points!"

Li Weide:?

Hogwarts.

The roaring fireplace made the circular Headmaster's Office warm as spring.

"Armando, I happen to be going to London. Leave these two children to me." Dumbledore waved the two letters in his hand.

"Oh, of course, no problem..." Dippet sat behind his large desk, stroking his somewhat messy white beard as his cloudy eyes turned toward Dumbledore. "Has it been confirmed? Has he truly come to London?"

"Not yet. There are only signs pointing in that direction. But... you know, I cannot take lightly any news involving him... Especially when this information comes from such a reliable source." Dumbledore carefully slipped the two envelopes into his coat pocket.

"Mm... Scamander wrote to tell you, didn't he? It seems he never graduated normally from Hogwarts back then..." Dippet asked somewhat absentmindedly.

"Yes... but I assure you, Armando, Newt is absolutely trustworthy. And his abilities have indeed been proven beyond doubt." Dumbledore spoke with a serious expression.

"Mr. Scamander has indeed proven his abilities and his position through his actions. I do not mean to say that I distrust him. I have always trusted your eye for people. So... there is a high chance that man really has gone to London. Have you made your preparations, then?"

Dumbledore took a deep breath. "Of course. I have long been prepared to face him. It is only that, over these past years, his movements have become very secretive, and he has never appeared before me again."

"Good. I am glad you have finally made your choice... If you need help, just tell me. I may be old, but I am not so useless that I cannot still wield a wand..."

"I will, Armando... And thank you very much for your understanding and help over the years."

"Enough with the sentimentality. Even without my help, you would have done very well. Go on, go to London, and settle all this once and for all... Of course, once it is over, do not forget to deliver the admission letters to those two children. They are both at the same Muggle Orphanage, and a professor needs to explain the situation in person."