Time's Backlash

Kent, in southern England.

Skylar, Sha'erfu, and Winky appeared outside the gate of an abandoned, dilapidated old house in the suburbs. Looking around, there was no one in sight for miles around.

According to the scroll, the House of Selwyn's greatest secret is hidden here.

The old house's dilapidated gate was open. Finding no magical traps, the group entered the house and conducted a brief search, but found nothing.

"Is it hidden by the Fidelius Charm?" Sha'erfu asked.

"It shouldn't be," Skylar answered with absolute certainty. "If it were something as important as the Fidelius Charm,' I wouldn't have missed this part when I was going through Selwyn's memories."

"Although this is the core heritage of the House of Selwyn, Selwyn doesn't seem to have put much effort into managing it. Instead, he's more interested in building connections and expanding his influence within the Ministry of Magic." Skylar paused for a moment before continuing, "The reason for this might be due to the instigation and influence of his wife, which is related to her identity as a spy for the Shadow of the Magic Dragon."

"Don't let your guard down. Although his mind isn't on this, as an ancient Pure-blood families, such an important secret stronghold wouldn't be without any concealment or defensive magic," Skylar said seriously.

Winky pointed to an old-fashioned rotary telephone with a slightly yellowed casing hanging on the wall and asked, "What's that?"

Skylar frowned. Although the old house looked no different from an ordinary Muggle house on the outside, the structure, decoration, and arrangement of things inside were clearly in the style of wizards.

Finding a rotary dial telephone in a wizard's house is undoubtedly a very strange thing.

Skylar examined the phone, missing its receiver and not connected, for a while before saying, "This is a Muggle... phone. It functions similarly to our Two-Way Mirror, but unlike the Two-Way Mirror, it can't connect across space anytime, anywhere. Instead, it needs a connection to a network system via a wire. Strange—"

"What's strange about it?" Sha'erfu sniffed lightly. "I don't sense any magic in this thing."

"Yes, that's true. I can't sense any trace of magic either..." Skylar said softly, "But I see fine alchemical marks on its bottom. If you're not careful, you could easily mistake them for scratches."

"Are you sure?" Sha'erfu asked suspiciously. "If it's alchemy, why isn't it imbued with any magic?"

"There's a possibility," Skylar said gravely, "That this thing is still not activated. The way to activate it is to use this dial to enter the correct password."

"Ah... this..." Sha'erfu looked somewhat bewildered. There were 10 numbers on the dial, and countless possible combinations. If they were to try them all, they didn't know how long they would waste here. She said somewhat angrily, "Can't we just storm into the House of Selwyn, control them all with the Imperius Curse, and force them to reveal the password?"

"Sha'erfu," Skylar smiled, "Don't always think of using brutal methods like the Imperius Curse to solve problems. We are wizards; we should try to use our brains to solve problems."

Sha'erfu turned her head and gave a defiant snort, but chose to remain silent. In her heart, she thought, "The only way I can think of is to use the Imperius Curse to get the password."

Skylar picked up the phone and said, "Hey, look here, the first few digits are clearly frequently used. The dial is also made of brass, and the patina in the grooves for the numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 is much less than that of the other numbers."

Skylar said, word by word, "This means the password lies among these four numbers."

"So, should we try combining these four numbers one by one now?" Sha'erfu, frowning.

"How could that be?" Skylar chuckled. "Let's go! Maybe the clues will come up as we walk."

Seeing the dilapidated state of the house, Skylar changed his initial assumption.

He had initially guessed that Mr. Selwyn only knew of the place but did not possess the key to enter the Land of Inheritance. This was not unprecedented among Pure-blood families. Some ancient great families, in order to avoid the emergence of an incompetent patriarch who would lead the family to decline or even extinction, would take preventative measures, such as dividing some important inheritances and entrusting them to the family elders to restrict the power of the patriarch.

Now, he felt that wasn't the case at all. Judging from the state of the dial telephone, it hadn't been used for a long time—which could only mean that no one from the entire House of Selwyn had entered the Land of Inheritance for a very long time, meaning—

This tradition has actually been lost.

This dilapidated old house, which has been in disrepair for many years, is clearly the residence of a wizard, and the wizard living here is likely the last Secret Keeper.

If that's the case, the clue to the password is very likely in this dilapidated old house!

"Aquila! Aslan!" Skylar shouted coldly, and the phantom images of two summoned beasts immediately appeared around Skylar.

"I need to cast Time Retracing spell, and I need your help!" Skylar said.

"Skylar, time magic is a very profound and forbidden field. Although Ravenclaw is proficient in spatial magic, he still has deep reservations about time magic," Aquila said.

"It's pretty much the same here," Aslan said loudly. "Although Gryffindor is proficient in illusion magic, it's always just a fictional scene, not true time travel. As far as I know, no wizard in history has ever dared to touch the forbidden realm of time magic."

"Actually..." Skylar's eyes gleamed with a strange light, and he said in a deep voice, "I have a Time-Turner. What I really want to know is whether you have a way to avoid the backlash that comes with using the Time-Turner."

Currently, the Time-Turner is limited to rewinding time by a maximum of five hours. This is because the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic conducted an experiment in 1899, sending the Unspeakable Eloise Minthambul back to 1402. When the Ministry of Magic forcibly recalled her using the Time-Turner, she was physically five centuries older and died after being admitted to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Aquila and Aslan remained silent for a long time. Time and causality should not be manipulated. Even though they had followed the four most powerful wizards of the tenth century, they had not had much interaction with time magic.

"Theoretically, it's impossible to avoid the backlash of the power of time on a normal wizard..." Aquila said slowly, "But you can't be considered a normal wizard..."

"First, you possess a spiritual power that ordinary wizards lack, and you've even broken free of mental shackles to achieve the level of projecting your spiritual energy outwards; your body has also been transformed by Lord Hufflepuff's Source of Life, brimming with vitality far exceeding that of ordinary people..." Aquila said, "These two points alone place you on a higher Qidian than the Four Founders of Hogwarts..."

"Aquila," Skylar said, "You may not know, but I later acquired the Pure Blood of Slytherin and the Heart of Valor of Gryffindor. Although I don't yet know what benefit these two new powers will bring me at present, it's clear that their existence is not meaningless."

In Skylar's view, the most important of the inherited powers left to him by the Four Founders were the Crystal of Wisdom and the Source of Life. These two greatly enhanced Skylar's spiritual power and vitality. The Pure Blood, on the other hand, showed no use at the moment, and the Heart of Valor simply allowed him to master a profound technique.

"Roar--" Aslan said, "Don't underestimate these two forces. Although the Four Founders have never directly fought each other, Gryffindor once mentioned to me that he is confident he can defeat Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw in actual combat. Lord Slytherin is his most feared opponent."

"I agree with that stupid lion," Aquila said. "Judging from that old Slytherin's character, Pure Blood is supposed to be used to activate bloodline power. However, since you've already activated your own bloodline to a very rare level on your own, the power of Pure Blood won't give you much benefit in a short time. In my opinion, you might need some external stimulation to accelerate the release of Pure Blood."

Skylar nodded, indicating that he understood, and then asked, "Then what about the Heart of Valor? Does it simply exist as a prerequisite for the profound Soaring Battle Intent?"