Starting to Act

"Me?..." Li Mu frowned, a little unsure.

He had only just resolved his inner conflict, shifting his position from that of a 'spectator' to a 'participant' and 'changer.' He was prepared to face the 'butterfly effect' and see the plot completely distorted, but he didn't expect that the slightly altered 'main plot' would still find him.

The dueling opponent had become Pansy. Could this so-called duel still be a conspiracy? Should he participate or not? What role should he play in this event?

This 'Midnight Duel' event had changed after all, and no one could say what might happen along the way. If he didn't go, he would really be worried about his friends. As the Celestial Dynasty saying goes, 'A good friend will go to great lengths for you,' and at a crucial moment, he had to be there for his friends.

Harry's face lit up with a bright smile, and Ron seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"So, shall we meet in the Trophy Room tonight?"

"No." Li Mu rejected Harry's suggestion, thinking that if Harry and the others were to run from the Gryffindor Tower to the Trophy Room, they might be caught by Filch halfway there. "I'll come to the Gryffindor common room. I've learned an Invisibility Spell."

"That's great! You can come in. The password for this week is 'Vodka'," Ron told him.

After dinner, night quickly fell. The sky gradually darkened, and the entire Hogwarts, from the top of the tower to the depths of the earth, gradually became silent. The warm and comfortable Hufflepuff common room was almost silent. But Li Mu's ears were ringing. He felt as if time was ticking by his ears. He lay in bed, trying to rest, but the more he rested, the more restless he became.

He had a feeling that something might happen tonight. He couldn't tell if it was good or bad.

The other two people in the dormitory were already snoring, sleeping like two fat pigs.

The time was around 11:30 PM... It should be about time, right?... Estimating in his mind, Li Mu quietly got out of bed, tidied up his robes, and checked his wand.

With everything prepared, he began to move. He tiptoed out of the dormitory and quietly passed through the Hufflepuff boys' dormitory. Through the earthen walls, he listened to the faint snores coming from each bedroom, and only then did he feel a faint wave of sleepiness washing over him. He suddenly felt a little sad... Why wasn't he sleeping soundly in the middle of the night, but running off to duel?

But since he had already agreed, he had to muster his spirits to complete it, no matter how hard or tiring it was.

Crawling out of the Hufflepuff barrel entrance, Li Mu took out a yellow-skinned Cinnabar lacquered talisman from his robe pocket and stuck it on his forehead. Then, he formed a hand seal and chanted in his mouth: "The sky is clear, the earth is divine, the Supreme protects me, and I stand invisible. I follow the command of the Three Mountains and Nine Dukes, hide!"

The Invisibility Spell is a mid-to-high-level secret technique even in the Xuanmen Taoist system. To cast it, the invisibility talisman, hand seal, and incantation must be used in coordination. Even Li Mu, who had taken eight years of basic courses, was not sure about casting this spell—after all, for the Eastern Xuanmen's long path of cultivation, which often spans dozens or hundreds of years, eight years is really just laying the foundation.

But Li Mu didn't have any psychological barriers. Anyway, even if he was caught, it would only be a matter of deducting points and confinement, there was no danger. As for the collective sense of honor as a member of the badger house—sorry, in the face of personal pursuit and house honor, he decisively chose the former. After all, the level of points and the ownership of the house cup do not affect wages, performance, or living conditions, and even if the badger house doesn't deduct points, it's just the same every year...

It's better to be pragmatic sometimes.

With these thoughts, Li Mu had already climbed from the first floor to the eighth floor in one breath. Along the way, he didn't encounter any stairs that suddenly changed direction, didn't wake up the characters in the paintings along the way, and didn't even encounter any ghosts.

Next, after turning a corner, he arrived outside the Gryffindor common room. Hanging on the circular porch leading to the common room was the famous large painting, the portrait of the Fat Lady. Now, the Fat Lady's wide body was shrunk in the middle of the painting, squinting her eyes and snoring softly.

"Vodka," Li Mu said the password. He lowered his voice, but the syllables were still clearly transmitted to the Fat Lady's ears.

The Fat Lady in her sleep trembled, muttering almost like a dream: "Hmm, it's Vodka, not bad, not bad..."

She reflexively rotated the round door behind her open, and then opened her eyes, only to find that there was no one at the door at all... "Am I still sleepy?... " she muttered to herself, looking around in confusion, all that was there was a desolate emptiness.

Li Mu had quietly slipped through the crack in the door and entered the Gryffindor common room.

This was a circular room, filled with scarlet and gold that could be easily distinguished even in the dim light. Stepping into the room, a wave of warmth came over him. Li Mu stood at the door for a while before realizing that the warmth was not just a feeling, not from the warm colors in the room, but was real.

The warmth came from the wall directly opposite the circular doorway. A fireplace was carved into it, and the fire still had residual heat, looking like it had just been extinguished not long ago.

The Hogwarts students were at the time of growing up, and the school stipulated that they must sleep at 10:30. At this point, the students would all return to their dormitories. Even the seventh-year seniors would go to bed and rest at 9:30 in the evening—although no one would come to supervise the room check.

Who would stay in the common room until after eleven o'clock?

Li Mu sighed.

Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory, Ron stared wide-eyed at the bedroom ceiling for a long time. From time to time, he also turned his head to look at the adjacent bed curtains, which was Harry Potter's bed. He, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, as well as Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan lived in the same dormitory, and they had gone to bed very early.

But now, the other four beds were quiet, and even the sound of snoring was barely audible. But Ron knew that Harry was also unable to sleep. Although he tried his best not to make a sound, Harry had tossed and turned no less than thirty times since he lay down on the bed after nine o'clock. He had seen it all.

Finally, Harry whispered, "Hey, Ron, it's already half-past eleven."

Ron sat up with a start. "Let's go." He was also a little worried, "I wonder if Li Mu has arrived?"

Moonlight shone into the room through the gap between the curtains. Harry had also sat up, and in the moonlight, his thin figure turned into a silhouette in Ron's eyes.

"Let's go. He will come," Harry said.

They tiptoed out of bed, opened the door, walked out of the room, and went down the spiral staircase. Then, very quickly, they saw a blurry black shadow standing at the bottom of the stairs. Both of them were startled at first, but upon closer inspection, they found that the dark figure was so familiar that they recognized the person even though it was so dark all around.

"Li Mu?" Ron whispered in surprise, "You're already here?"

"Of course, thanks for the password." The black shadow was indeed Li Mu, who nodded and then reminded, "Are your wands ready?"

"Of course." Ron and Harry both drew their wands from their robes and waved them.

Ron then muttered, "Although I can't see what use it will be..."

His voice was very small, but the huge common room was silent, and the mutter was clearly audible.

"Alright, let's not say much at this time. Let's go," Harry said, shaking his head helplessly. Then he and Ron lifted their legs and continued down the stairs.

But Li Mu was still standing at the bottom of the stairs, not moving at all.

(End of this chapter)