Intelligence Sharing

"Regardless," Liu Tao coughed lightly and continued, "Zhang He did ask me to deliver a message to you—a few years ago, during the Western Hunan Zombie riots, he, several powerful families in China, and I were all indebted to you. It's just that this time he really isn't suited to get involved in this mess. I hope you can understand..."

Dumbledore let out a long sigh. "Of course I'm disappointed, but I can understand it. On the bright side, at least our old friend is still alive and well, which is really rare at our age..."

"Yes, who can argue with that?" Liu Tao smiled, but his eyes glanced meaningfully at the Scamander brothers and the Potter family. "At our age, we have more responsibilities and constraints. In order to think about the future of the family, we have to give up some freedom. It's hard to be as carefree as we were when we were young."

"Alright, enough of the small talk," Liu Tao said, gently stroking the yin-yang fish ring on his left index finger. The ring emitted a faint glow and then began to spin. "I came here this time, certainly to answer your call, but I also have a mission."

"What? Even you..." Dumbledore didn't know how to continue.

"Don't misunderstand, my relationship with them—" Liu Tao's eyes quickly swept across the room, a slight smile playing on his lips, "Is different. I don't need anything from you, nor do I want any exchange of benefits. It's purely—based on my guess, the mission I'm talking about is probably related to your purpose in launching the Phoenix Summoning Order."

"You mean..." Dumbledore was not relieved by Liu Tao's explanation; on the contrary, he felt that what Liu Tao was about to say was the most important thing.

"Do you remember the Zombie rampage secretly instigated by several black wizard families in Western Hunan five years ago?"

As mentioned earlier, China Zombie, like Europe Vampire, Egypt Mummy, and Africa and South America Zombie, belong to the category of the Living Dead. Among them, China Zombie are the most mysterious. Zombie are also known as Flying Zombie and are generally created by a group of black wizards called "Corpse Raiser." They are covered in white hair, have blood-red eyes like cinnabar, and sharp teeth protruding from their lips. Their bodies not only do not decay but are also as hard as copper and iron. It is said that the highest-level Zombie can even transform into demons and beasts.

Because Zombie are corpses with nascent consciousness that are transformed by special Dark Arts rituals, the practice of creating and raising Zombie in the Chinese wizarding world is called "defying the heavens with magic," which is a top-level taboo, similar to the taboo level of Horcrux in Europe.

Therefore, very few wizards knew about this kind of Dark Arts, let alone had the courage to face the persecution of the entire Chinese wizarding community.

Another point is that, similar to the process of creating Horcrux, the process of creating Zombie requires a lengthy and complex Dark Arts ritual— Horcrux require cruel killing to split the soul with the power of killing; while creating Zombie requires an extremely yin and fierce corpse-raising ground.

The requirements for the corpse-raising ritual are extremely strict, and many corpse-raising sites have been uncovered thanks to the vigorous crackdown by the China Ministry of Magic and the Zhang and Liu families over the years.

Unfortunately, the Yan Family, a medium-sized family in Western Hunan, suddenly obtained information about a new corpse-raising site through some unknown channel. They then secretly contacted four or five other families who were already dissatisfied with the China Ministry of Magic and joined forces with the Yan family, intending to refine and raise thousands of Zombie, Flying Zombie, and Corpse Hou in order to overthrow the entire Chinese wizarding world.

Fortunately, this corpse-raising site was accidentally discovered by Zhang He, who was wandering around. The old man Zhang He used the Zhang Family's secret "Paper Transfiguration" to scatter hundreds of paper pieces all over the sky. Each paper piece transformed into the appearance of a heavenly soldier or general, becoming a fearless and iron-blooded army that fought a great battle with the "Corpse Raiser".

Later, the riots escalated, and almost all the Pure-blood families in China participated, with even Dumbledore from Great Britain coming from afar to help them.

The riot finally ended when Dumbledore, Liu Tao, and Zhang He joined forces to kill the bandit leader.

It was later discovered that this group of black magicians seemed to have received guidance from a mysterious master in Indonesia, and also had an unclear relationship with the Underground Necromancer Guild in Transylvania.

Although the bandit leader was successfully killed and all the black wizards involved in the incident were imprisoned in a prison called "Demon-Suppressing Well" by the China Ministry of Magic, it is said that many escaped, including the Yan Family from Western Hunan.

"Hmm. I remember..." Dumbledore nodded, signaling Liu Tao to continue.

"Although we ultimately defeated the entire Black Wizarding Clan, a few managed to escape, including Yan Feng..."

"Yan Feng? The black wizard who presided over the corpse-raising ritual?" Dumbledore frowned slightly. Among that group of black wizards, Yan Feng was not the most powerful, but he was the most crucial figure. It could be said that without his corpse-raising method, this group of black wizards would be less of a threat to the masses than the Death Eaters, the Shadow of the Magic Dragon, or even the "Cobra" of the Middle East.

"Yes, that's him..." Liu Tao said gravely, "Over the years, the China Ministry of Magic and our major families have spared no effort in hunting him down, but he remains at large..."

"Next, I will explain my mission here," Liu Tao said in a deep voice. "According to reports from the spies sent out by the China Ministry of Magic, Yan Feng and his cronies have actually fled abroad and are hiding in the Underground Necromancer Guild Transylvania. My mission is to arrest him and bring him back to China for trial."

Dumbledore's brow furrowed even deeper, and he said slowly, "You mean...?"

"I've been paying some attention to the situation in Great Britain. I know that since the Quidditch World Cup this year, Great Britain has been anything but peaceful, and various undercurrents have begun to surface..." Liu Tao gave Dumbledore a deep look and said, "I think your decision to issue the Phoenix Summoning Order must be related to this... the Death Eaters, the Shadow of the Magic Dragon... and the Knights of Walpurgis, right?"

Dumbledore nodded, a glint of light in his eyes. "Indeed, it seems I was right. Intelligence agencies from various countries have taken notice of the situation in Great Britain, and these mysterious underground organizations..."

"Now, let's talk about how my mission relates to the situation in Great Britain. According to the intelligence we've received—" Liu Tao said in a very serious tone, "After Yan Feng joined the Underground Necromancer Guild, it seems that with the Underground Necromancer Guild's help, he has actually managed to restart the corpse-raising business. And then—last week's latest intelligence shows that he has recently made contact with Walpurgis..."