Treasure in the Box, a Universal Solvent / Hollow Tree Crown, Gathering Wind into a Core

Unfortunately, what good is liking it if you don't have Universal Solvent on hand? In fact, you've never even seen what Universal Solvent looks like. Faced with the abundant wind element here, you can only stare blankly.

'Hey kid, feeling down now?'

Unfortunately, Harry couldn't see it. When this feeling of disappointment entered his consciousness, Rowena, who resided in his mind, quietly revealed a faint smile.

At this moment, Harry was completely unaware that there's a saying in China: "What comes without effort"...

"Huh? Could that be... Helena's... No way?!"

Regretting his inability to obtain the Elemental Power, Harry paced around the tree hollow, feeling both frustrated and envious. Suddenly, he noticed some dark red bloodstains on the ground and the weathered tabletop.

The bloodstains were already covered in dust, but the color was still clearly visible. Harry initially thought he was wrong, because human blood could not possibly dry and remain for thousands of years; it should have decomposed and faded long ago.

But the sudden, sharp pain in his mind made him realize... this was Helena's blood!

At that moment, he seemed to see scenes from the past...

The girl stole her mother's important Ravenclaw's Diadem and, after many twists and turns, somehow ended up here.

She hid in fear, but was eventually found by the people her mother sent.

The man loved her deeply, but he had a violent temper. Ultimately, because his love was unrequited, he plunged a dagger into her chest.

The dagger drew her blood, staining her clothes crimson. The blood splattered inside the tree hollow and also onto the man, turning him into a 'blood man' from that moment on...

Harry didn't know whether Helena's body had completely disappeared or had been collected by Voldemort, but her blood still remained here.

' Harry, collect these bloodstains; they're very important.' Rowena's words suddenly appeared in the diary.

"Collecting blood?" Harry frowned deeply. "Rowena, you've been urging me to find this tree so urgently, is it just for this blood?!"

There's something wrong with Rowena!

Harry had always thought that Rowena insisted on having Harry find the Hollow Tree so that she could personally pay her respects to her daughter; but when Harry learned that the Hollow Tree was an elemental realm, he felt that Rowena had come to verify this.

But just now, Harry discovered her deeper purpose... she actually came to retrieve the blood Helena had left here!

Helena is indeed very special. She is attracted to the hollow trees of the Elemental Lands, and her blood can remain for thousands of years... and Rowena knows all of this!

So... who exactly is Helena Ravenclaw?!

'Please, Harry, just do me a favor, okay...' As if sensing Harry's suspicion, Rowena began writing incessantly in her diary, her words filled with pleading.

' Helena... she is indeed very special, and very important to me! But I can't tell you about her right now, because I'm worried that if I do, you won't be able to change her fate, or even that her existence will be completely wiped out! So, I'm really sorry...'

"Fine, if you don't want to talk about it, there's no point in asking." Harry shrugged helplessly, took out his knife, and scraped off the blood-stained ground and tabletop. "Once we get Helena's blood, we can leave, right?"

'Um... actually, you could try staying here to craft Wind Elemental Heart...'

"What did you say?!"

Upon seeing the words in the diary, Harry's hand trembled in surprise...

Chapter 548 Treasure in the Box, Universal Solvent

Rowena actually wants him to create the Wind Elemental Heart here?

Harry really didn't understand where this woman got her confidence from. Did she really think she was Salazar Slytherin?

"Salazar isn't as powerful as you think. The main reason he could create the Water Elemental Heart is because he has mastered the Universal Solvent," Rowena encouraged in her diary. "But even if he can create the Water Elemental Heart, he can't use it himself, so his understanding of elemental magic isn't necessarily much better than yours."

"This... I'd be a fool to believe that."

Harry knew perfectly well that Rowena's words were just that—words. He could take them with a grain of salt; to actually believe them would be a huge joke.

Are you kidding me? He's one of the Four Founders of Hogwarts. Do you think his knowledge is less than that of a mere kid like me?

The reason Rowena said that was probably to tell herself... the key to everything lies in the Universal Solvent.

The problem is, where can I find Universal Solvent...?

The witch, Limbo, seemed to sense Harry's predicament, but more likely, she had already planned everything.

Just as the boy was frowning in worry, a word quietly appeared in his diary.

'Pendant box.'

"Slytherin's Locket?" Harry quickly pulled out the box he had always kept. "Rowena, you mean...this box contains Universal Solvent?!"

He carefully examined the gold pendant box in his hand, finding it hard to believe that such an important item could be hidden inside.

'I'm almost certain that it contains Universal Solvent,' Rowena explained in her diary. 'This locket was Salazar's most prized possession; he always carried it with him and later passed it down as a family heirloom. Besides the box's own considerable value, what it contains must also be extremely important.'

"Furthermore, Universal Solvent can only be stored in containers made of pure elements, and the gold used to make Salazar's locket was the purest gold refined using ancient alchemy. Its essence is actually a highly solidified single element, which perfectly meets the storage requirements of Universal Solvent."

"But... even if all of this is true, is it possible that there's still Universal Solvent in this box now?"

Harry can accept that Slytherin's Locket contains Universal Solvent, but from the era of the Four Founders to the present day, over a thousand years, countless descendants of Slytherin must have opened this locket, right?

Even Voldemort, Harry didn't believe it; after getting the locket, he immediately turned it into Horcrux without studying it at all.

Logically speaking, even if the locket really contained Universal Solvent, it should have been used up by now.

'That Voldemort definitely opened the locket and examined it, but that's precisely why I'm certain there's likely a tiny bit of the Universal Solvent still inside. Because... his magic is unique, and he even invented a one-of-a-kind flight spell!'

"Is that so?!"

In the following period, Harry received a meticulous Alchemy Class from Rowena, which also introduced him to another major branch of ancient alchemy besides the Sorcerer's Stone — the Universal Solvent.

The Universal Solvent, which ancient alchemists called 'Azot', could dissolve any substance into the first element and was revered as a panacea by countless alchemists.

It is said that even the most complex alchemical process can be solved by adding just a tiny drop of Universal Solvent, with effects even better than the Sorcerer's Stone.

Incidentally, the Sorcerer's Stone wasn't entirely without cost during alchemy, but Rowena wasn't willing to elaborate on what exactly it consumed, only telling Harry to go back and ask Nicolas Flamel.

"Didn't your teacher refer to the Book of Abraham when creating the Philosopher's Stone? Why don't you ask him if he'd be willing to give you that book? Then you'll know... what the Philosopher's Stone really is."

Returning to the topic of the Universal Solvent, this special elixir is considered to be formless and intangible, usually invisible to the naked eye, and its slightest fluctuations can only be detected with the help of Elemental Power.

After elemental magic disappeared, modern wizards who could not control Elemental Power were even less likely to see it.

Just like now.

"Open!"

Opening the locket is simple; you just need to give it a command in Parseltongue. Voldemort and other descendants of Slytherin all opened it this way.

But like Harry, all they saw was an empty box, completely devoid of anything inside.

However, Harry now knows how to see the Universal Solvent with his own eyes.

He silently chanted "Clear Mirror Still Water" in his mind, gathering the Elemental Power in his eyes, adjusting them to a state where he could deflect directional spells with his gaze. After that... he saw!

It was a thin, pale silver layer of special liquid gathered at the bottom of the box, probably only a few drops. It looked a lot like mercury, but with a more lustrous sheen.

The liquid inside the box continuously emitted a mysterious fluctuation, as if it were constantly flowing. Harry curiously turned the locket over, only to find that it was completely unaffected by gravity and remained attached to the bottom of the box.

That makes sense. Something this magical shouldn't have any accidental spills.

A single, tiny drop could sustain a complex ancient alchemy process... If Rowena is right, then Salazar Slytherin was undoubtedly the wealthiest man a thousand years ago.

Hmm... I heard he left behind a magic wand?

Ancient alchemy reveals the connections and transformations of all things in the universe. If we use a human analogy, then the Universal Solvent represents the human spirit, the most fundamental energy of all things. Voldemort may have inadvertently incorporated the universal Universal Solvent into his magic through contact, making his magic so different from that of ordinary people.

Rowena's later explanation drew Harry's attention to some very important details that he had previously overlooked.

For example, Voldemort's true magical power lies not in how many Sirius he could distribute his total magical power into, but in the fact that even though he was only a remnant of his soul, his magical power was still enough to easily defeat 99% of the wizards in the world.

In addition, there's his unique flying magic, which isn't something that just anyone with genius could invent!

To fly entirely relying on one's own magic without any external assistance is not something that can be achieved simply by using a profound spell. It also requires the ability to consistently release magic from all parts of the body at will without the need for a wand.

As is widely known, this type of magical release is often extremely dangerous and would be considered by most people as a rebellious and suicidal act...

Otherwise, why would Andros's book have been relegated to the Restricted Section?

Chapter 549 Hollow Tree Top, Gathering Wind as its Core

In simple terms, the principles of modern magic systems can be summarized as using magic to distort reality.

Wizards use their emotions to amplify magic, thereby achieving magical effects that 'distort reality,' such as setting fires, spraying water, Transfiguration.

These 'distortions' often feel irreversible, such as Apparition.

However, more often than not, when the magic cast by wizards dissipates, the distorted 'reality' returns to normal, the most obvious example of which is Transfiguration.

As is well known, human emotions are the most difficult to control, which means that when wizards cast spells, their magical power is also unstable and becomes extremely chaotic once it leaves their bodies.

So whether it's a wand or a spell, they are essentially auxiliary products developed to meet the needs of wizards for stable spellcasting... But today, they have almost become necessities for casting magic.

Of course, in the process of the development of modern magic after the extinction of elemental magic, there were also people who wanted to change this situation.

For example, Salazar Slytherin spent his time studying the elements of nature, hoping to allow wizards to regain control of the elemental magic that had been completely extinct.

Then there's Andros, who doesn't understand the elements like Salazar, but he came up with a way to go all the way: to stabilize his outward magic through extreme control of his emotions.

Fortunately, both forms of inquiry ultimately yielded results in Harry's case.

Following Salazar's path, Harry successfully mastered the Elemental Power, allowing him to freely project and manipulate magic with the addition of water, thus casting a series of spells such as water balloons, water arrows, and water prisons. In conjunction with the Obscurus, he could even become completely Elementalization.

When he walks the path of Andros, he can amplify or weaken his specific emotions as needed. He can release magic with just his voice and eyes to influence those around him, and he can even summon a gigantic Patronus when his emotions are highly active.

Harry couldn't judge which path was better or worse; he could only say that one represented the past and the other the future.

But whether in the past or the future, there probably won't be any modern wizards who can continue on this path like him.

Hmm... if Voldemort isn't killed by him in the future, he might go even further.

Perhaps he received guidance from Salazar, or perhaps he figured it out himself, but in any case, Voldemort came into contact with the Universal Solvent, and his magic was mutated as a result... Regardless of whether he had a physical body or not, and no matter how twisted his emotions became, his magic could exist in the most stable form and could be released at will.

His flying magic also relied on this stable magic power. He could have released a simple flying spell—the kind that solidifies into Flying Broomstick —but Voldemort was able to reliably release the spell from all parts of his body, thus successfully transforming himself into a human-shaped Flying Broomstick.

Rowena even told Harry that if Voldemort wanted to share his magic with others, his Death Eater might also be able to master this superior form of flight.

Harry agreed, after all, that strange man from before, he ended up successfully flying, didn't he?

'The difference between Voldemort and you is that he wasn't Obscurial, so he couldn't fuse with the elements like you. In the end, his only power was magic. Now that you have the Universal Solvent, you can try to create the Wind Elemental Heart yourself, which would allow you to master another elemental power.'

"It sounds very tempting, but how exactly should I do it? And can one person fuse two elemental hearts? Won't it cause some kind of interference or other accident?"

Harry was certainly tempted by Rowena's suggestion, but since it was something no one had tried before, he had to consider it carefully.

Especially the near-death experience of fusing with the Water Elemental Heart mind.

Elemental magic is tempting, but if you risk your life for it, it's definitely not worth it.

However, his worries seemed to be completely unfounded in Rowena's eyes.

'Elemental magic is indeed a power that no one can control, but that's only true in modern times. In ancient times, much earlier than our era, it was simply the most common power. Think about it, ancient alchemists, without Universal Solvent, had to rely solely on their own power to create things, right? I estimate that back then, there were many who controlled three or even four elements, and someone like you was probably everywhere.'

"You... I'll take that as you trying to comfort me." Harry's eyes twitched helplessly as he looked at the glaring words in the diary.

So, I'm only good enough to be the tallest among the short; if I revert to my ancestral traits, I'm nothing at all.

Sometime in ancient times, elemental magic mysteriously disappeared, and since then, the constitution of wizards has changed, making them unable to contain any natural elements.

The so-called Heart of the Elements created by Salazar actually alters the constitution of modern wizards, allowing their bodies to re-accommodate elemental power after absorbing it.

This is why Harry noticed a further change in his eyes after absorbing the Water Elemental Heart; it must have been that the water element, while altering his physique, also improved his vision.

After figuring all this out, Harry couldn't help but sigh... the Ouroboros in his mind was indeed a rather bizarre thing.

It actually managed to reincarnate with its altered physique from its previous life!

When Harry was 11 years old, he could hear Voice of Magic when he first entered Diagon Alley; after looking into the Mirror of Erised, his eyesight also began to improve... These should all be things that only happen after merging with the Water Elemental Heart, but they all happened to him ahead of time.

Now, he has gone even further than he ever was, because he is about to master the Elemental Power!

"Rowena, tell me what to do?" he earnestly asked the strategist in his mind, having made up his mind completely!

'You don't need to do anything special. Just take the locket to the area where the wind element is most active, infuse it with magic, and wait for the Universal Solvent to condense the magic and wind element into a heart.'

The solution Rowena proposed in her diary was simple, but it should work, after all...

' Salazar couldn't see the Universal Solvent, nor could he control any elements. What other way could he have to create the Water Elemental Heart besides relying on time?'

All done~

After finalizing the plan with Rowena, Harry transformed into an eagle and flew to the top of the hollow tree's canopy, finding the most comfortable branch to land in human form.