Wizards May Be Powerful, but They're Not Very Bright / Uneasy Mind, Elemental Suppression

This is a mental illness. No matter how shrewd or composed a person is, or how well they can keep their emotions in check, they can never truly be at ease when faced with a mental illness.

Harry is Dumbledore's current obsession... perhaps even more serious than Voldemort's.

"I think you can discuss this issue with Professor Slughorn privately... I just want to get to the cave immediately."

Harry didn't... or rather, he simply couldn't be bothered to answer Albus Dumbledore's question.

Albus Dumbledore and his former Potions Professor, Horace Slughorn, were both extremely wary and indulgent towards Voldemort; and the rest of the professors and students at the entire school showered him with praise and compliments, yet not a single person seemed to notice or was willing to offer him proper guidance...

How exactly did Hogwarts instill values and morals in Voldemort? Did Harry really have to spell it out for him?

"Everyone, stand up. Let's find the entrance to the cave."

Without further delay, Harry, to everyone's astonishment, condensed the seawater in front of him into a small boat large enough to support the weight of everyone, and floated into the cliff crevice he had already discovered.

Chapter 517 The Wizard is Strong, But Not Smart

Frustrated...

For some reason, Harry felt inexplicably irritated as he manipulated the water flow into the crevice of the cliff.

Is it because of Dumbledore?

Harry wasn't sure if it was the environment that made him feel uneasy, or if Albus Dumbledore's earlier actions had upset him, but he definitely felt a voice inside him constantly warning him...

' Dumbledore shouldn't have come.'

However, unlike Harry, who grew increasingly agitated as they approached their destination, Dumbledore seemed quite enthusiastic at this moment, and was clearly very interested in Harry's elemental magic.

In his eyes, Harry was like a king who controlled the sea, and even the fiercest waves had to submit to him; the waves he manipulated could easily lift everyone up, and no matter how the currents and whirlpools changed, he could steadily carry everyone forward and finally reach the cave hidden in the cliff crevice.

"Incredible magic! I never imagined you, Harry, could detect Voldemort's magical traces and even control the waves so perfectly." Once his feet were firmly planted on solid ground in the dark cave, Dumbledore couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. "I thought we'd have to be soaking wet to get in."

"It's just a little manipulation of the water element, far from perfect control," Harry replied casually. "The perception provided by the water element helped me find this crack where magical fluctuations were hidden, and by slightly manipulating the water's flow, I could better take advantage of the waves. To put it bluntly, it's just a matter of adapting to the situation; after all, humans can never truly control nature."

"Well said." Dumbledore nodded approvingly. "By creating Horcrux and splitting his soul, Voldemort's actions violated the natural laws of birth, aging, sickness, and death. Therefore, he was destined to fail, and in the end, all he would gain was endless regret and pain!"

"Maybe..." Harry replied casually, not really wanting to continue Albus Dumbledore's line of thought.

Many people like to use terms like 'retribution' or 'karmic retribution' to describe the fate of those who commit numerous evils. But we are not fish; how can we know whether those people are actually enjoying themselves while committing evil and constantly harming others?

Therefore, instead of advocating for retribution or remedies, it's better to take preventative measures to minimize or even prevent tragedies from happening!

If you don't want to end up in the ICU on a ventilator, then get vaccinated beforehand!

"We've only reached the front hall; we haven't actually entered the cave yet." Seeing that Harry seemed uninterested in talking, Dumbledore lit his wand and began to examine the surroundings on his own.

"We need to find a way in. From now on, what will block our way will be Voldemort's traps, not natural obstacles..."

Dumbledore approached one of the cave walls, gently stroking it with his fingers, occasionally uttering a few words in a language the others couldn't understand; he walked around the cave wall from left to right, examining the rough surface as thoroughly as possible, and finally seemed to have made a discovery somewhere.

"Here... we can get in from here; the entrance is very well hidden."

Dumbledore took a few steps back and pointed his wand at the rock wall where his hand had just touched. A dazzling white light suddenly appeared there, outlining the shape of an archway.

But soon, the outline disappeared again, leaving only the rough, hard rock.

By the way, Harry had actually discovered the hidden door as well, and he had already determined its location long before Dumbledore began to examine it.

But he had to admit that Albus Dumbledore was indeed a highly skilled wizard, and he was still far inferior to him.

The damp environment of a sea cave is Harry's natural home turf. He can freely spread water elements throughout the cave to aid his perception, and all magical fluctuations are undetectable to him.

But Dumbledore actually found the entrance by simply touching it with his bare hands. This skill truly makes him worthy of the title of 'the greatest white wizard'.

"You go in this way, right? Regulus... is he inside?!"

Seeing that Dumbledore had found the entrance, Sirius impulsively squeezed forward, unable to contain his excitement and eager to find his brother immediately.

"No, we need to wait a moment." Dumbledore stopped Sirius, who stared intently at the rock wall for a while, but finally shook his head regretfully.

"As expected, this is really too low-level."

"Low-level?" Hermione asked, puzzled. "Does it refer to the magic Voldemort set up?"

"No... Voldemort's magic is profound, but his ideas are base." Dumbledore shook his head. "To enter this door, if I'm not mistaken, we need some blood. This is a restriction set by Voldemort; he wants those who enter to pay the price of weakening themselves. What a low-level idea."

At this moment, Dumbledore's tone was tinged with obvious contempt, as if he felt Voldemort had failed to meet his expectations. "Tom Riddle has once again failed to understand that there are many things far more terrible than physical harm."

"But surely this kind of harm can be avoided?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Sometimes it's unavoidable; we must deal with it according to the rules of magic."

Dumbledore spoke, he rolled up the sleeves of his robe, and a silver dagger appeared in his hand, much like the kind used for cutting materials in Potions Class.

"Headmaster, no!" Hermione cried out in alarm, trying to stop him. "Harry might have a way! And even if blood is used, it can't be yours!"

"That's right, we should use mine!" Sirius, who was nearby, reached out to snatch the dagger from Dumbledore's hand. "This is for finding Regulus, how can I let others bleed for me?!"

But despite their attempts to dissuade him and their scrambling, Dumbledore seemed determined. "No, it should be me. Hermione, Sirius, your blood is far more precious..."

Snap!!

However, just as the three were arguing, a glass test tube suddenly crashed into the stone wall behind Dumbledore and shattered into pieces.

The blood in the test tube seemed to be controlled, spreading across the stone wall in a way that defied the laws of gravity, quickly staining the stone wall a bright red.

In an instant, the white archway reappeared on the cave wall. The blood-stained stone wall was located at the center of the archway, disappearing along with the light from the archway, revealing the dark doorway behind it.

"Harry ..." The three of them instinctively turned around and saw that Harry was just about to retract his throwing motion. It was clear that he was the one who had just thrown the test tube filled with blood.

"I really don't understand, what's so unavoidable about this kind of injury?" Harry said impatiently as he approached the cave entrance. "This stone door's mechanism was set up by Voldemort, so when he comes back to check the Horcrux, does he have to stab himself and bleed himself out? And what kind of magical monitoring rules are these, so precise that they can distinguish whether the blood is frozen or freshly slaughtered?"

"And... after you encountered a problem, why did you insist on charging straight ahead? Are we being chased from behind? Is there no way back? There are so many people here. Even if I didn't carry any blood with me, couldn't any of us just go out and look for it?!"

It's nothing!

It's true that the higher a wizard's magic power, the more single-minded and irrational they are. Case closed.

Chapter 518 Unsettled Mind, Elemental Shield

After being rebuked by Harry, the three who had been arguing stopped and silently followed Harry into the depths of the archway.

Of course, Hermione didn't really care. She was trying to stop Albus Dumbledore anyway, and she had said from the beginning that she wanted to hear Harry's opinion, so she knew very well that Harry wasn't criticizing her.

Sirius's face showed a hint of embarrassment, and he began to blame himself. He knew that he had just made an impulsive mistake again, and he regretted why he always had to worry about his son.

As for Albus Dumbledore...

To be honest, the feelings he was having at that moment weren't really that important to Harry.

As a staunch materialist, even after witnessing Death firsthand, Harry's guiding principles remained the same: "Solve problems when they arise" and "never mix excessive reading comprehension into rational thinking."

On one hand, they keep belittling Voldemort, saying how rudimentary his traps were, but at the same time, they insist on bleeding themselves to death and doing whatever that devil wants. Isn't this behavior ridiculous?

Instead of trying to solve a trap with minimal effort, some people insist on analyzing what Voldemort's trap was trying to express. This is clearly a result of overworking elementary school Chinese literature.

Once inside the archway, a bizarre scene unfolded before them.

Before them stretched a vast Black Lake, which must have been the lake Kreacher had described to the others. The lake was so wide and boundless that the opposite shore was nowhere in sight.

Far away, probably in the center of the lake, a hazy green light flickered incessantly. Apart from that, all around was an impenetrable darkness, seemingly more oppressive and dense than any ordinary night.

"Regulus... he should be beneath this lake, all alone... in the darkness, beneath the icy water..."

When he got close enough, Sirius lost his earlier impulse. He lowered his voice and muttered to himself, and finally even knelt down by the lake with a 'thud,' covering his face in pain.

"Sirius, you should stay away from there," Dumbledore said softly, stepping forward. "I understand your grief, but this lake is too dangerous. It's teeming with Inferi. We'd better not touch it at all."

"I... I understand..."

Sirius nodded in a hoarse voice and slowly retreated with Dumbledore. Hermione, seeing this, rushed over to comfort him anxiously.

Harry watched silently from the side, but didn't say anything.

For someone like Sirius, suppressing his impulses time and time again must be incredibly painful, but in this situation, he has no choice but to endure it.

Life is often like this: many people want to live a life of pleasure and adventure, but in the end, it is often these same people who end up crashing and burning.

"Let's keep going," Dumbledore said, pointing to the hazy green light ahead. "That should be where Voldemort keeps his Horcrux. Kreacher's orders were to lead us there, and he should be waiting for us there now."

Honestly, if you hadn't interfered, we would already be here by now.

Following behind Dumbledore through the dark cave, Harry's restlessness grew stronger.

He had a feeling that something was going to happen on this trip, but he couldn't figure out why he had this feeling.

Logically speaking, Harry should have already learned about all the mechanisms in this Horcrux cave through Kreacher.

Moreover, just in case, he had previously used Legilimency on Kreacher several times, repeatedly comparing Kreacher Voldemort Regulus.

So Harry couldn't think of anything that could be beyond his control, yet he remained restless.

"Ha, we've found it!" Suddenly, Dumbledore stopped in his tracks, nearly causing the restless Sirius behind him to bump into him.

Arrive?

Harry was stunned. He hadn't sensed anything at all, yet Dumbledore had already found the mechanism?

At this moment, Dumbledore seemed to be answering Harry's question with actions. He stretched out one hand and moved it in the air as if trying to find and grasp something invisible.

"Hehe!"

A few seconds later, Dumbledore laughed excitedly. He clasped his hands together as if he had grabbed a rope, and slowly walked to the lakeside, gently tapping his clenched fist with his wand.

Immediately afterwards, a thick green copper chain emerged from the lake and quickly darted into Dumbledore's fist.

Seeing Dumbledore tapped the chains with his wand again, and the entire chain began to coil up on the ground like a venomous snake.

The clanging sound echoed continuously in the cave, and something that had been hidden in the Black Lake was dragged up by chains.

It was a small boat with a very shallow draft. Like a ghost, it emitted a greenish glow along with its chains as it slowly approached the group, yet it did not create even the slightest ripple on the water.

He actually found it?

Harry's pupils dilated as if in an earthquake; he knew, of course, that there was a ship here, and he knew that Albus Dumbledore could locate it through magical traces, but the problem was...

Why didn't I sense anything at all?

Yes, Harry is certainly not as good as Albus Dumbledore at searching for traces of magic, but there's no way he wouldn't even have any sense of water elementals!

At that moment, Harry finally understood the reason for his unease since entering the cave!

The lake in front of him could completely shield him from elemental magic!

No matter how he flicked his fingers, or even with all his Elemental Power, trying to control the Black Lake, the water remained completely still, refusing to ripple even for Harry.

He also tried to create water elemental himself and dissolve it into the lake, but they were like oil and water forcibly mixed together, completely unable to mix... In the end, Harry could only manipulate the small amount of water elemental he had separated himself.

I can't even control this lake?!

Is it Voldemort...? No, absolutely not!

Whether it's Harry's understanding of Voldemort from the documents or the memories of Voldemort that he possesses, it all clearly shows that... Voldemort simply couldn't have such abilities!

That guy might possess immense magical power, wielding countless advanced spells, even capable of creating Horcrux and inscribing Runes magic circles, but no matter how powerful he is, the essence of his magic is still the modern system...

Harry's elemental magic is even more ancient Runes. How could Voldemort possibly have created a lake that could shield him from water elemental control?!

Could it be that... someone else has tampered with this lake?

(P. S. Sigh, actually, I was quite frustrated writing the first few hundred chapters of Sanmiao. The protagonist was Harry, Voldemort was so blatantly obvious, which made my own main storyline feel fragmented...)

Chapter 519 Old Voldy and Albus Dumbledore, who understands whom?

On the dark, deep lakeshore, Harry gazed into the black water, lost in thought, while the other three were gathered around the small boat.

"Headmaster, this is incredible! How did you know it was there?" Hermione asked, looking at the small boat in amazement.

"It's a trace left by magic," Dumbledore, pulling the small boat closer to the group. "Sometimes these traces can be very obvious. I taught Tom Riddle and know his style well."

"But... is this ship safe?" Thinking of the countless Inferi underwater, Hermione thought it best to reconsider.