Avada Kedavra!!!

Quirrell's body trembled uncontrollably; his cowardly soul was utterly incapable of resisting his master's will.

He yanked his wand from beneath his cloak and pointed it at the unnervingly calm figure.

"No--!" Firenze roared, recognizing the casting stance.

"Ryan! Dodge!" Harry, having just recovered a sliver of consciousness from the searing pain, his vision blurred, instinctively yelled.

From Quirrell's mouth, the unforgivable curse representing ultimate fear was uttered:

"Avada Kedavra!!!"

A thick, dazzling beam of emerald green light, condensed to its absolute limit, like an arrow of death from the underworld, tore through the darkness of the Forbidden Forest. Carrying the invincible law of death, it instantly blasted towards Lin Yuan's chest!

Under Hermione and Harry's despairing gazes, and in Firenze's shocked eyes, the green light struck Lin Yuan squarely, without any suspense.

There was no explosion.

No scream.

Not even being sent flying.

The terrifying green light, capable of instantly killing any life, vanished as silently as a drop of water merging into the boundless ocean the moment it touched Lin Yuan's body.

Lin Yuan's body merely swayed slightly.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Quirrell's expression shifted instantly from the ferocity of casting to incomprehensible horror.

His worldview was shattered at that very moment.

"No... impossible... this is impossible!!!"

Voldemort's remnant soul in his mind let out an even more terrified scream.

He understood magic better than Quirrell, and he knew what this meant!

The Killing Curse was a pure soul attack, the embodiment of the law of death. It could not be blocked or defended against physically!

The only thing that could make it fail was... only a more fundamental soul power that surpassed it!

And at this moment, within Lin Yuan's "inner vision" world, a secret upheaval was unfolding.

The instant the green light shot into his body, his Soul Power instinctively activated.

That sea of divine soul welcomed its first true "external enemy."

Under Lin Yuan's analysis, the Avada Kedavra curse was instantly broken down into two parts:

First, the pure "will to kill" and "malice" contained within it from the caster. This was the "key" that drove the curse's effectiveness.

Second, the vast and pure "Magic Power" that formed the curse itself. This was the curse's "warhead."

When that immense "malice" surged into Lin Yuan's sea of divine soul, it was like pouring a bottle of highly toxic ink into an endless ocean.

Without even stirring a ripple, that bit of "malice" was instantly diluted, purified, and dispelled into nothingness, as if it had never existed.

Lin Yuan's divine soul, which transcended the understanding of this world, was so pure and vast in its essence that Voldemort's impure malice appeared ridiculous and insignificant.

The "key" had failed.

What remained was the "warhead" that had lost its fuse—a vast, pure, but directionless surge of unowned Magic Power.

For a cultivator who desperately needed to convert external energy into his own Spiritual Energy, this was simply...

A gift from the heavens.

Lin Yuan felt an icy, boundless torrent of energy wash over his limbs and bones.

This energy was being rapidly "digested" by his cultivation technique, refining the fragments of laws within it, and then converting the pure energy into wisps of refined Spiritual Energy that flowed into his dantian.

A brand new, never-before-experienced thought struck his mind like a true bolt of lightning.

"So that's how it is... so that's how it is!"

"The magic of this world is essentially a crude method of using mental power (malice) as an 'instruction' to drive Magic Power (energy) and thereby leverage the 'laws' of the world!"

"The Avada Kedavra curse is using 'killing intent' to leverage the 'law of death'!"

"As long as my divine soul is strong enough, strong enough to ignore the caster's 'instruction,' then any curse directed at me will lose its imparted 'meaning' and revert to its most fundamental state of energy..."

"And all this energy can be... absorbed by me!"

The realization at this moment was far more profound than a month of meditation in the Room of Requirement or reading the entire library.

He had found it!

He had found the most fundamental and efficient way to completely convert this world's "magic system" into his own Spiritual Energy!

As long as someone cast a spell at him, they were essentially "giving him experience points" and "refilling his mana bar"!

Upon understanding this, an unprecedented sense of clarity and relief coursed through his entire divine soul. However, this was immediately followed by the immense mental strain of processing the vast energy and forcibly analyzing the "law of death."

Lin Yuan grunted, his vision went black, and his body swayed. Finally unable to stand, he slowly fell forward.

To the outside world, it appeared as though Lin Yuan had withstood an Avada Kedavra curse, stood unharmed for several seconds, and then collapsed as if from exhaustion.

To Quirrell and Voldemort, this scene was a miracle, and even more so, a divine punishment.

"Monster... he's a monster!!"

Quirrell's sanity was completely devoured by fear. He let out a scream that was barely human, no longer caring about his master's orders, nor the unicorn on the ground. He scrambled away, turned, and with unprecedented speed, like a madman, plunged into the depths of the dark forest, disappearing without a trace.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

In the forest clearing, only the stunned Hermione remained, along with Harry, who had just recovered from the intense pain and shock, his face full of disbelief, and the Centaur Firenze, who was also in a state of immense shock.

Together, they had witnessed a miracle that overturned the common sense of the entire magical world.

A first-year student had taken a Killing Curse head-on with his physical body, and... he had survived.

"R-Ryan..." Harry scrambled over, his trembling hands reaching out to help up the unconscious Lin Yuan.

Hogwarts' hospital always carried a scent of disinfectant so clean it was almost pungent, mixed with the strangely sweet and bitter aroma of boiling herbs.

Sunlight streamed through the tall, narrow Gothic windows, casting long, quiet pools of light on the polished floor. Tiny dust motes floated in the air, dancing slowly in the beams.

Lin Yuan's consciousness slowly surfaced from such a peaceful place, returning to his body.

He didn't open his eyes immediately, instead sinking his Divine Soul into his body.

He immediately "saw" the scene after the great battle.

His meridians were unharmed.

After being violently scoured by that immense Magic Power, they were not only undamaged but had passively undergone a high-intensity "tempering," becoming tougher and wider than before.

If his meridians had been country lanes before, they were now at least the equivalent of a royal road capable of accommodating two horses abreast.

Within his Dantian sea of qi, the spiritual energy that had been a thin, almost non-existent layer was now a visible wisp.

Though still pitifully scarce, for a "stowaway" in a place where Spiritual Energy was depleted, it was no less than finding a spring in the desert.