Lin Zuo Moment

36 Hall Street.

"Lumos."

Voldemort murmured the incantation, and a glow rose from his wand.

The tip of his wand trembled. The glow detached from it, turned into a speck of light, and floated upward, joining the other specks that had been there for some time. They drifted about haphazardly in the air.

By now, more than twenty light sources of varying sizes hung overhead. They were all the result of Voldemort casting [Lumos].

It wasn't difficult to make the Illumination Charm detach from the wand and float in the air for a while.

All he had to do was increase his magical output when casting the spell. Alternatively, he could achieve the same effect without wasting magic if he had a deep enough understanding of the spell.

But Voldemort hadn't increased his magical output, nor did he have any profound understanding of the spell. Yet he had still managed it.

He owed it to the skill he had just acquired:

[Lin Zuo Moment].

It could effectively prolong the duration of magic and allow it to exist independently of the wand.

Voldemort defined it as having time-and-space properties.

"Pop."

One of the light sources went out. Voldemort immediately looked at his pocket watch. Both hands pointed downward:

18:30.

"Something that could originally last only about a minute has been extended by half an hour."

Voldemort murmured as he closed his pocket watch. "Thirty times the duration. The spatial range is within ten meters. I wonder if these time-and-space properties will grow stronger."

He waved his wand, and the lights in the air flew into it like a flock of birds returning to their nest. The feeling of having complete control brought a smile to Voldemort's face.

But as he lowered his head and looked at the iron cages on the floor, his smile gradually faded.

There was a spider, a mouse, a little white rabbit, a dog, and a cat in the five cages, respectively. The order reflected his feelings toward the animals, from dislike to fondness.

The spider, mouse, and little white rabbit were already dead, killed by Voldemort's Avada Kedavra. In fact, by the time he had pointed the Killing Curse at the little white rabbit, it had already taken considerable effort.

The dog and cat were still bouncing around in their cages.

It wasn't that Voldemort had kindly spared them. He simply couldn't cast the Killing Curse on either of them.

He couldn't even cast Cruciatus on the blue kitten.

He couldn't summon any malice or murderous intent. That was the drawback of [Lin Zuo Moment].

Voldemort returned to the coffee table behind him and wrote in his open notebook:

[Lin Zuo Moment] gives magic its unique time-and-space properties, but it also requires the soul to stake something in return. At this moment, Lin Zuo's soul and consciousness take complete control.

My soul is now the product of two souls combined: that of the transmigrator Lin Zuo and Voldemort's Soul Fragment. Their proportions are roughly nine to one.

When I am not using [Lin Zuo Moment], the negative emotions in the Dark Lord's Remnant Soul can help me use Dark Magic.

But when Lin Zuo's consciousness takes control, it is difficult for him, having come from a peaceful, law-abiding society, to sustain malicious intent for long and channel it into magic.

[Lin Zuo Moment] is suited to practicing and using magic, but not to war.

Hypothesis one:

[Lin Zuo Moment] came into being when my intentions turned toward goodness. Perhaps the thoughts that were completely opposed to Voldemort's Remnant Soul were the reason it emerged.

Hypothesis two:

The time-and-space properties may come from Lin Zuo's status as a transmigrator. But they do not enhance magic itself. Perhaps Lin Zuo's soul has no magical talent, or very little.

Hypothesis three:

[Dark Lord Moment] is bound to appear. It may require increasing the proportion of Voldemort's soul, or the moment may come when his thoughts oppose Lin Zuo's. For now, I cannot reach any definite conclusions.

Hypothesis four:

Magic with time-and-space properties might be enhanced through alchemy and made into magical objects that can counter curses. I should start working on this as soon as possible, to avoid exposing myself at Hogwarts.

Hypothesis five:

Try applying the time-and-space properties in combat. Attempt to develop a [Lin Zuo Moment] fighting style in preparation for...

"Ding-dong! Ding-dong!"

The doorbell suddenly rang. Voldemort stopped writing, tore out that page and the next few pages, burned them with fire, and threw them into the wastebasket.

"Click."

When he opened the door, Pochis was standing outside. Behind him, two bodyguards were pushing two beds, each carrying an unconscious person.

"Come in."

He stepped aside. The bodyguards pushed the beds into the living room, then left. Pochis stayed behind.

"This person is only a participant in the experiment. He hasn't committed any crime, so you can't kill him."

Pochis pointed to one of them, then indicated the other. "This one is guilty of heinous crimes and can be killed. He's also undocumented, and we've already agreed on a price."

Voldemort nodded. "Is the anesthetic dose enough?"

"General anesthesia. A very strong dose." Pochis hesitated after answering, as if he wanted to say something to dissuade him, but in the end, he chose to say nothing.

"Wait outside for half an hour. I'll be done soon."

After sending Pochis away, Voldemort immediately began casting magic on the two men.

"Soul Departure."

Green light struck the two men one after the other. He could control them perfectly. There was no problem.

"Cruciatus."

This was his first time using the spell on a human. The first test subject immediately let out a cry of agony. It seemed the anesthetic couldn't effectively block the spell.

At the same time, Voldemort could feel the man's suffering acutely. Guilt surged up in him, and the spell stopped—but its effects did not.

After thirty seconds of torment, the first test subject finally went still. His body still twitched from time to time, and Voldemort's heart was already full of guilt.

Frowning, he tried to steady himself and cast Cruciatus on the test subject guilty of heinous crimes...

"Pfft."

The Purple Sandalwood wand sounded as if it had let out a fart. Green light shot out, then turned into smoke that drifted in the air for a moment before slowly fading away.

"Just as I thought. When Lin Zuo's consciousness is in control, Dark Magic is basically off-limits to me."

Voldemort murmured, unwilling to give up. He tried again, but all it did was make his wand fart once more.

"Let's try the Killing Curse."

He waved his Purple Sandalwood wand again, but this time, it didn't even fart.

It wasn't that the wand had rejected the spell. Voldemort simply couldn't bring himself to feel murderous intent.

Killing someone really wasn't that simple.

He glanced at [Lin Zuo Moment], which was glowing steadily in the lower-left corner of his vision. He had gained a fairly clear understanding of the skill.

"I just don't know if desire also controls how to exit this skill."

After making this guess, he didn't immediately try it out. Instead, he called Pochis in and had him take the two men away. The experiment was over, and the test subjects had served their purpose.

Seeing that the two men still breathed and showed no sign of having been tortured, Pochis finally let out the breath he had been holding.

As expected, all rich people had strange habits they kept hidden... Thinking this, Pochis hurried out of 36 Hall Street.