Showdown with Dumbledore (Seeking Votes and Follow-ups)

"Did you find it?" Li Mu asked.

"There's a secret chamber deep underground. Fawkes found a basilisk shed skin inside," Dumbledore replied after communicating with Fawkes.

"I'll go first," Li Mu said, immediately diving into the pipe.

Dumbledore, who had been planning to notify the other professors to prepare, frowned and reluctantly followed. It wasn't that he was worried about not being able to handle a basilisk himself, but he felt that the appearance of a basilisk shouldn't be kept from the other professors.

However, Snape had already gone down, so he could only follow.

After passing through the long pipe to the depths underground, Fawkes the phoenix had already flown ahead of Li Mu.

The basilisk seemed to have gone out to forage and was not in the underground chamber at the moment.

Li Mu turned to look at the pipe exit. Dumbledore was still inside and hadn't come out yet.

He waved his wand, and Raging Flames appeared at the tip. He cast Incendio using Raging Flames, sending flames rushing into the pipe.

Li Mu turned and pointed his wand at Fawkes, having already locked onto Fawkes to cast the Imperius Curse.

Completely taken by surprise by the betrayal, Fawkes's consciousness was immediately controlled by the Imperius Curse. Although the phoenix's inherent resistance to magic allowed it to break free quickly, Li Mu had already thrown it into the Binding Birdcage during that brief moment of lost consciousness.

Because of Fawkes's resistance, Li Mu couldn't put the birdcage into his soul-bound Phoenix.

Just as he was preparing to petrify or stun Fawkes, the Raging Flames in the pipe was dispelled by Dumbledore using the counter-curse for Raging Flames.

Dumbledore burst out of the pipe, protected by the Iron Skin Charm. He had expected to be attacked by a powerful dark wizard lurking in the shadows, but instead, he saw Snape holding Fawkes captive. The Snape he knew would never do such a thing.

Li Mu set the birdcage aside and took out a bottle of Polyjuice Potion, drinking it to change his appearance.

Dumbledore's heart sank. So, the Snape he had been interacting with was an imposter.

Through their four-eyed gaze, he had already cast Legilimency.

However, he couldn't see a single memory. The mysterious Eastern wizard before him possessed powerful Legilimency Defense, completely resisting Legilimency's attempt to read his memories. He could only vaguely sense the killing intent this mysterious wizard held towards him.

Li Mu flicked his wand, unleashing a large wave of Raging Flames that swept towards Dumbledore.

All Spells End!

Dumbledore waved his wand. All Spells End, which could terminate almost all curses, merged with the Iron Skin Charm on his body. All the Raging Flames that approached him were dispelled into magic the moment they touched the Iron Skin Charm.

"A near-absolute defense at the curse level."

Li Mu marveled.

"State your origin, and I won't send you to Azkaban."

Dumbledore warned sternly.

"I've already destroyed Azkaban. How can you send me there?"

Li Mu shook his head and chuckled.

With another flick of his wand, the reappearing Infernal Flame transformed into a Fire Phoenix, directly bombarding the underground chamber.

The chamber was located deep beneath Hogwarts. If it collapsed entirely, Hogwarts would face significant problems.

After their brief exchange, Dumbledore concluded that the mysterious wizard's strength was merely at the professor level.

This was not enough to pose a fatal threat to him. Thus, Dumbledore parried Li Mu's subsequent Killing Curse while still having the energy to continuously use his All-Ending Curse to forcefully disperse the scattering Infernal Flames and Black Phoenixes.

However, in less than a minute, Dumbledore felt something was wrong.

Infernal Flame was a high-level dark magic. Summoning it required a vast amount of magical power, no less than what he expended using the All-Ending Curse. Yet, in this past minute, the mysterious wizard had been continuously creating Infernal Flames. Such an immense total magical power was completely inconsistent with the strength he had displayed.

"Are you draining my magic?"

Dumbledore asked incredulously.

He could no longer afford to protect Hogwarts. The wand in his hand pointed towards the nearby basilisk shed skin.

The basilisk shed skin was directly transformed into a living basilisk by a Polymorph Spell. Although it lacked the basilisk's deadly gaze that caused instant death upon eye contact, it possessed all the formidable power a basilisk should have. It charged towards Li Mu, enduring the Infernal Flame and becoming an Infernal Serpent.

Apparition was impossible in the chamber. Dumbledore immediately cast an Illusionary Body Curse on himself.

Frostfire Roses appeared in Li Mu's left hand, and two Frostfire Armor-Piercing Bullets were fired simultaneously.

The Infernal Serpent's head was frozen by the first Frostfire Armor-Piercing Bullet and then shattered and burned by the second. If it were a real basilisk, it would have been dead by now. However, the imitation created by the Polymorph Spell continued to charge towards Li Mu.

At this very moment, Dumbledore appeared not far behind Li Mu, his wand emitting a red fiery glow.

With the Infernal Serpent in front and a Sleeping Charm coming from behind, even the Iron Skin Charm could only block one.

Facing this perilous situation, Li Mu gathered all his magical power into his wand, pointing it at the Infernal Serpent.

Thunderous Explosion!

The power of the Explosion Curse directly impacted the Infernal Serpent. The entire Infernal Serpent instantly detonated like a bomb within the underground chamber. The entire Hogwarts castle trembled at this moment, and the confined chamber was devastated by the shockwave of the Infernal Flame.

The All-Ending Curse could block Infernal Flame, but it could not block the physical impact of the Explosion Curse.

Dumbledore cast several Iron Skin Charms in succession before the shockwave from the exploding Inferno Serpent pushed him to the wall at the edge of the secret chamber.

However, the mysterious Wizard in front of him, who bore the brunt of the Explosion Curse, had barely moved from his spot.

All the damage was blocked by a Super Iron Skin Charm on the mysterious Wizard. He even had enough energy to cast a regular Iron Skin Charm on the birdcage holding Fawkes and control the Inferno Serpent to avoid the cage.

The Super Iron Skin Charm was difficult to cast, usually requiring multiple Wizards to combine their efforts.

Although Dumbledore had the ability to cast it alone, a Super Iron Skin Charm that couldn't be cast instantly was less effective than a regular Iron Skin Charm.

If there had been even a slight mistake in his consecutive instant casts of the Iron Skin Charm, he would have been blown to death by the explosive blast.

Brushing past death, Dumbledore's killing intent was finally ignited.

"He's completely unharmed."

Li Mu licked his dry, cracked lips, baked by the flames, and trembled with excitement.

Dumbledore disappeared again, and Li Mu also cast the Illusionary Body Curse and vanished.

Both sides were invisible, secretly using tracking spells to find each other. Neither cast the spell to reveal their human form, as doing so would cause a significant magical fluctuation, revealing themselves to the enemy while breaking the opponent's Illusionary Body Curse.

Instead, the more covert tracking spell allowed them to maintain invisibility while searching for the enemy.

"Found you."

Li Mu found Dumbledore first. He could seize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

But just as he was about to act, he hesitated.

His tracking spell was at most LV6. Dumbledore's Illusionary Body Curse, unless it was below LV6, wouldn't be so easily detected by him. But if Dumbledore's Illusionary Body Curse was below LV6, why would he rashly choose a strategy of invisibility against an enemy?

Unless this was a trap, and Dumbledore's Illusionary Body Curse was deliberately weakened, despite being above LV6, to let him discover it.

Since that was the case, he might as well play along.

PS: Thanks to [Joke Artifact] and [Lan Feng Zi Yun 11] for their 500 reward, and thanks to [Hongchen Zhong De Lianxin Zhe] and [Suan La Tu Dou Si ty] for their 100 reward.