Chapter 24
"Catch up with your old friend."
Li Mu stood up from the sofa and left, taking the Werewolf Wizard to the adjoining guest room, which had also been booked for a long stay.
Half an hour later, Lily arrived with Snape, dressed neatly.
Sitting opposite Li Mu, Lily fidgeted, unsure how to begin.
"I know what you're thinking..."'
Li Mu shook his head and refused. "First, you need to understand that bringing someone back to life is difficult. I can't casually pay the enormous price of resurrecting a stranger just because you ask. And you have nothing to offer that would tempt me. Snape is the youngest Magic Master, after all. His life is worth more than you can imagine."
At those words, Lily had nothing to say.
While catching up with Snape just now, she had already learned that Li Mu had no shortage of Gold Galleons.
No matter how she looked at it, she had nothing to trade for James's resurrection.
It seemed she could only take her time figuring out how to bring James back. For now, all she wanted was to see her son. He had lost his parents and become an orphan at such a young age. She had no idea how he had fared over the past ten years.
With her thoughts elsewhere, Lily thanked Li Mu for a while, then said goodbye.
Snape left with her. He didn't want to be away from Lily for even a moment.
"Poor Snape," the Werewolf Wizard murmured.
"What? You can tell too?" Li Mu asked in surprise.
"It's obvious." The Werewolf Wizard nodded. "If Lily didn't know James could be brought back, she might have been moved by Snape in time. But now she knows her master can resurrect James, so she won't give up on him. No matter how much Snape does, he'll earn her gratitude, but not her love."
"That doesn't serve my interests," Li Mu said, shaking his head.
He needed more than the Snape of today. He needed the Snape of the future, too.
Snape was talented. Leaving aside the Potions of this world, if given a few Kindling Tomes, he could master the pharmacology of other worlds with great skill and be a tremendous help. And if Li Mu eventually obtained a way to mass-produce Wizard kindling, Snape would be invaluable in brewing Wizard Potions.
Snape served him now, but there was a huge difference between genuine loyalty and forced compliance.
It was just like a job: people worked with very different enthusiasm when overtime came with a generous bonus.
So he needed to dangle a new carrot in front of Snape and let him see a chance to be with Lily.
Only Li Mu could offer him that hope. That was the only way to make Snape work tirelessly and do whatever it took to carry out his orders. Li Mu wasn't a heartless boss like Voldemort, who only knew how to threaten people with death to make them serve him.
With enough HuoZhong Source Power, Li Mu began to consider how to bring about Dumbledore's downfall.
First, he needed a way to prevent Apparition. Otherwise, even if he defeated Dumbledore, it would all be for nothing.
"Hogwarts."
The first thing Li Mu thought of was the school of magic, where humans couldn't Apparate.
With its long history, Hogwarts was a massive magical structure in its own right. Many hidden passageways and chambers lay within the castle, some unknown even to Headmaster Dumbledore. If Li Mu could lure Dumbledore inside one, he'd be trapped with no way out.
At first, Li Mu had also considered whether he could secretly draw Dumbledore away and capture Phoenix Fawkes first.
Then, after refining the phoenix bloodline and greatly increasing his strength, he could take on Dumbledore.
But Snape had told him outright that it wouldn't work. Dumbledore and Phoenix Fawkes could locate each other and Apparate to one another. If either of them was in trouble, the other could rush to help immediately. So the moment Li Mu caught Fawkes, Dumbledore would show up as well.
He had also considered having Snape stab Dumbledore in the back.
That would make killing Dumbledore much easier, but it would also leave Snape with a deep sense of guilt. After all, Dumbledore had treated Snape quite well. Dumbledore dying at Li Mu's hands was one thing; forcing Snape to help murder him was another.
So after thinking it over, Li Mu decided to face Dumbledore head-on.
It would be the best test of his current strength. He had the Nirvana talent, after all. Even if things went terribly wrong, he could use the Phoenix to be reborn. Besides, he didn't believe a fight to the death with Dumbledore would force him to use Nirvana.
Li Mu's mental consciousness entered the Phoenix. He went to the Supply Bay and selected some materials.
Using the Phoenix's built-in particle printer, he soon turned them into a massive birdcage.
He had completely mastered Hogwarts' magical library, which contained quite a few books on alchemy.
Setting aside his lack of practical experience, there were only a handful of people in the Wizarding World whose alchemy skills surpassed his. By combining various spells with alchemical enchantments, he soon finished enchanting the birdcage to restrict Apparition.
Though it could restrict Apparition, whether it could stop a phoenix from Apparating remained to be seen.
So Li Mu picked up the cage and aimed the Anchor of Fantasy at it, using Fantasy Conversion.
[Binding Birdcage: Spark Equipment] [Quality: Profound Grade Upper] [Attribute: Restricts Apparition below LV10] [Evaluation: No more worrying about losing your bird]
"LV10. Now we're set," Li Mu said, nodding in satisfaction.
As his knowledge of magic grew and he tested it with Snape, he had figured out roughly how skill levels corresponded to strength. Generally speaking, being able to cast spells at around LV5 already made someone very skilled. Even Dumbledore knew only a few spells at LV7. As for LV10, that was the limit of the entire world.
That level existed only in theory. Even Dumbledore probably knew just one or two LV9 spells.
So this Binding Birdcage would definitely be able to trap Phoenix Fawkes.
Putting the cage away, Li Mu hesitated, then converted five points of HuoZhong Source Power into Spark Energy, producing a full fifty thousand units. It was the most wasteful way to use HuoZhong Source Power, but he had no choice: the Phoenix's Spark Energy reserves had been depleted while hunting the Giant.
After using the Human Skin Mask to alter his face and take on a new identity, Li Mu brought the Werewolf Wizard to Diagon Alley.
Once Dumbledore was dead, no one in Britain's Wizarding World would be able to stop him.
So it was time to start recruiting. He had brought the Werewolf Wizard to Diagon Alley so he could start here, secretly winning over and buying the loyalty of down-on-their-luck Werewolf Wizards in the two gathering places for wizards: Diagon Alley and neighboring Knockturn Alley.
As for Li Mu himself, he went to Knockturn Alley.
Compared with the safe Diagon Alley, this place was far more dangerous, teeming with all sorts of people. Most of the goods the wizards passing through bought or sold were at least a little shady. The largest shop here, Borgin and Burkes, was his target this time.
This shop specialized in dangerous goods, and it also contained a secret passage leading to Hogwarts.
Thank you to my brother Twilight Melody for the 1,500 Gold Galleon tip, and to my four brothers Hongchen Zhong De Lianxin Zhe, Chao Qin Mo Chu, Lonely Burning Cloud, and Novel Special 008 for their 100 Gold Galleon tips.
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