Room of Requirement

[Project Launch: Horcrux Law Reverse Engineering]

[Step One: Core Element Analysis]

"Killing. The book says killing is an act of tearing the soul. That's inaccurate." In Lin Yuan's sea of consciousness, countless streams of information collided at high speed.

"From an energetic perspective, 'killing' itself doesn't tear the soul. What truly works is the extremely intense, targeted negative mental energy – hatred, anger, fear – that erupts from the caster during the act of killing. This energy, like an invisible 'Blade of the Divine Soul,' severs the target's life while simultaneously, due to immense backlash, carves a rift in the caster's own soul."

[Step Two: Container Selection and Sealing Ritual]

"The container must be an item possessing 'spirituality' or 'sturdiness.' This is because a fragmented soul piece is extremely unstable in its energy structure and will constantly dissipate. A good container acts like an 'energy stabilizer,' providing an 'anchor point' for the soul fragment to survive. As for the sealing spell... it's essentially a 'soul grafting' ritual. It forcibly 'stitches' that bleeding 'soul tissue,' stripped from the main body, onto the item serving as the container, forming a parasitic relationship."

[Step Three: Insight into the Essence at the Law Level]

Lin Yuan's Divine Soul penetrated the complex diagrams and obscure symbols, reaching their core essence.

"I understand... This isn't 'immortality' at all."

A flicker of realization, mixed with a hint of pity, flashed in his eyes.

"This is... 'backup'."

"Voldemort didn't make himself 'undying.' He merely performed multiple, crude 'cold backups' of his 'soul data'."

"Each time a Horcrux was made, it was a destructive cut to his main soul, the 'source file.' This caused his main soul to become smaller, more unstable, and increasingly incomplete. This is why his power waned, his sanity eroded, and his humanity vanished."

"And those so-called Horcruxes are just virus-infected, encrypted hard drives storing portions of his 'personality data.' They can exist, but they cannot 'grow,' cannot 'think,' and certainly cannot 'cultivate'."

"Once the main soul, the 'operating system,' completely collapses, these backed-up 'data disks,' even if activated, would merely be chaotic 'AI programs' filled with initial settings (hatred, desire for power). They are Voldemort, but no longer the complete Voldemort."

"This is a... dead end that severs one from The Great Way."

Lin Yuan slowly closed the book and let out a long sigh.

He had completely understood the secret to Voldemort's 'immortality.'

In his view, it was a tragic attempt filled with ingenious ideas but ultimately leading to the most foolish outcome due to the limitations of one's perspective.

"An excellent negative example for the 'Soul Information Theory.' It holds significant warning and reference value for my future path of Eternal Spirit."

Just as he completed this in-depth study, which could be considered a 'graduation thesis,' and prepared to leave.

"Creak—"

An extremely faint sound of a rotating door hinge, yet exceptionally clear in the dead silence of the library, came from the entrance of the Forbidden Section.

Lin Yuan's brow twitched slightly.

He didn't move. With a mere shift of his form, he dissolved silently into the deepest shadow cast by the row of massive bookshelves behind him, like wisps of mist.

The next moment, three small heads, shrouded in silver-grey cloaks, peeked cautiously through the gap in the door.

For Harry, Ron, and Hermione, cloaked in the Invisibility Cloak, this was an unprecedented adventure, a mixture of fear and excitement.

They moved like a clumsy, three-part conjoined Ghost, struggling through the silent corridor.

Every step was accompanied by suppressed breaths, the occasional clink of a kicked suit of armor, and Hermione's anxious whispers.

"Shh—Quietly!"

And above them, a shadow that had almost merged with the darkness floated silently on a beam.

Lin Yuan's gaze calmly watched the wriggling "Invisibility Cloak" below.

In his Divine Soul's vision, which saw through everything, this so-called "night excursion" was an amateurish stealth performance.

"The Invisibility Cloak can only block visual and low-level magical detection, but it cannot block sound, scent, or the emotional energy fluctuations caused by nervousness. In front of any moderately experienced assassin or high-level wizard, they would be as conspicuous as a bonfire in the night."

Lin Yuan watched them furtively pick the lock of the Forbidden Section – their technique so crude he couldn't bear to watch – and then plunge headfirst into that area filled with knowledge and danger.

He didn't follow. He simply waited, waiting for the next plot point to arrive.

As expected.

Less than ten minutes later.

"Meow—!"

A sharp, familiar cat's cry, like an alarm sounding in a silent theater, shattered the library's tranquility.

Immediately following was Filch's voice, filled with glee and malice.

"Got you! You filthy brats! Sneaking around in my territory! This time, even Dumbledore can't save you! I'll hang you upside down from the ceiling until your toes rot!"

"Crash—"

The sound of books falling to the floor.

"Run!" Harry's scream.

The mass of the Invisibility Cloak, like a startled giant balloon, rushed out of the Forbidden Section in a panic.

In the chaos, Harry seemed to trip over something. A thick ancient tome on the making of Dragon Hide gloves fell out from a gap in the Invisibility Cloak, making a loud "thump."

"I heard you! I heard where you are!" Filch's voice grew closer.

"Forget the book! Go!" Hermione's voice was choked with tears.

The footsteps of three people, their panting, and the clatter of armor being knocked against each other created a chaotic and panicked symphony in the empty corridor.

Lin Yuan's figure, like a weightless falling leaf, silently followed the "Invisibility Cloak" as it darted and weaved in the darkness.

He did not intervene.

"Stress response data under pressure is valuable information that is difficult to collect under normal circumstances."

He watched as Harry, in his panic, ran headfirst into a cold stone wall. Then, just as he thought he was about to break his head, a black wooden door he had never seen before, carved with intricate patterns, appeared out of nowhere in front of the wall.

The door opened for him automatically.

Harry scrambled inside, and the door behind him slammed shut with a "bang," completely shutting out Filch's curses and Mrs. Norris's meows.

And Lin Yuan, in the last thousandth of a second before the door closed, flickered and passed through it like a wisp of smoke.

The world behind the door was deathly silent.

Lin Yuan's brow furrowed slightly.

The moment his Divine Soul entered this room, it sensed a trace of unusual "strangeness."

He knew where this was.

The Room of Requirement. He had discovered it with his Spiritual Sense scan on his first day at Hogwarts.

But it wasn't until he actually entered the room that Lin Yuan realized just how bizarre it was.

On a physical level, this room did not exist on any of Hogwarts' architectural blueprints.

It was more like a spatial bubble forcibly squeezed into the dimension of reality.