Chapter Summaries

After the Battle of New York, wizards and Muggles faced rising tensions as surviving Dark Wizards attacked civilians to provoke a war. Zhang Xiao stopped one attack and then visited Wu Jiayou, where he discovered that Wu had mistaken him for a deity and put up a statue of him.

• The Wizarding World counted more than thirty thousand dead, Amelia Susan Bones became Minister for Magic, and governments and the Church struggled to respond to the exposure of wizards.
• Zhang Xiao read the newspapers while protesters marched outside, then froze and reversed an explosion that struck the crowd.
• Zhang Xiao disarmed and restrained a Dark Wizard who had attacked the marchers, left the wizard for an arriving Auror, and stopped police bullets before Apparating away.
• Zhang Xiao visited Wu Jiayou's Feng Shui shop to fulfill his promise to the Wang Family, and Wu revealed that he had installed a statue of Zhang Xiao as the Third Prince.

Zhang Xiao returned the Golden Toad to the Wang Family, cleared away the aura it had absorbed, and left them after telling them to remove his statues. He resumed traveling around the world, but Dumbledore’s note gave his journey a new purpose: investigating suspicious places connected to Tom.

• Wu Jiayou mistook Zhang Xiao for a descended immortal, and Zhang Xiao warned him that China was safe and asked about the Wang Family.
• Zhang Xiao used Apparition to take Wu Jiayou to the Wang Family Manor, where the family had erected a statue of him to ward off Dark Wizards.
• Zhang Xiao returned the Golden Toad to Wang Guoguang, removed the lingering aura that had formed a ball of light, and told the family to take down his statues.
• Zhang Xiao left the manor, summoned the alchemical carriage, and traveled across landmarks and landscapes around the world.
• While camping and roasting fish from the Goblet of Fire’s second round, Zhang Xiao read Dumbledore’s request to investigate several suspicious locations linked to Tom.

Zhang Xiao investigated Dumbledore’s vague lead about Voldemort’s longtime hideout in Ireland, narrowing thousands of castles down to abandoned properties and searching them himself. By nightfall, he sensed something unusual at a castle on an island in a lake and realized he had found it.

• Zhang Xiao read the newspapers Rainwater brought and learned that tensions between wizards and Muggles were growing, while Umbridge was sentenced to the Dementor’s Kiss.
• Zhang Xiao traveled to Ireland to search for the ancient castle Dumbledore believed had once been Voldemort’s hideout.
• Zhang Xiao hired estate agent Gerard and used the Confundus Charm to obtain information on more than four hundred abandoned castles near water.
• Zhang Xiao raced from castle to castle, visiting hundreds in a single day.
• Zhang Xiao landed on an island in a lake, sensed something unusual about a nearby ancient castle, and realized he had found the hideout.

Zhang Xiao broke through Voldemort’s magical protections around McDermott Castle and entered the hidden, richly furnished home nested inside it. He explored the residence, found Tom’s notes and gifts, and ended at a familiar black-covered notebook on the study desk.

• Zhang Xiao examined the island and used his Dharma Eye to confirm that two skeletons were buried there.
• Zhang Xiao unleashed his talisman magic, shattered the castle’s layered protections, and opened a wooden door into a hidden lake and intact castle.
• Zhang Xiao entered the castle and admired its lavish furnishings, paintings, and decorations.
• Zhang Xiao searched the upper floor, collected the valuable porcelain, and discovered gifts, including one from Bellatrix Lestrange.
• Zhang Xiao entered the study, subdued a hostile dark-magic book, and spotted a familiar black-covered notebook on the desk.

Zhang Xiao read Voldemort’s diary and learned how he had pursued bodily transformation through snake magic and a special fire. The diary’s final clue led Zhang Xiao to suspect that Voldemort’s hidden laboratory was concealed inside a giant snake statue.

• Zhang Xiao opened Voldemort’s diary and discovered that Voldemort had collected Slytherin’s legacy and believed the body limited a wizard’s power.
• Zhang Xiao read how Voldemort had experimented on captives and adapted the Blood Spell to transform himself into a half-human, half-snake creature.
• The diary unleashed curses and animated objects, but Zhang Xiao neutralized them with his magic.
• Zhang Xiao learned that Voldemort had sought a special fire in Nepal to fuse his body with a snake, and that an early experiment had left his face horribly disfigured.
• Zhang Xiao read that Voldemort had captured wizards and Muggles for experiments, then searched the room and identified a giant snake statue as the likely hiding place of his laboratory.

Zhang Xiao discovered Voldemort’s hidden underground dungeon and uncovered records linking his experiments to Slytherin and a mysterious secret in Greece. Dumbledore asked Zhang Xiao to continue investigating the looming crisis and suggested Egypt’s Pyramid as a place to explore the gods’ secrets.

• Zhang Xiao solved the snake-head mechanism and opened the hidden passage beneath the bookcase.
• Zhang Xiao found human and House-elf remains, along with Voldemort’s records of experiments and Slytherin’s research.
• Zhang Xiao read Voldemort’s notes about gaining power through bodily fusion and seeking secrets in Greece.
• Zhang Xiao met Dumbledore at Voldemort’s former residence and discussed the Church, Slytherin, and the world-ending crisis.
• Dumbledore agreed to give Zhang Xiao material about Slytherin’s movements and suggested Egypt’s Pyramid as a lead on the gods’ secrets.

Zhang Xiao met Bill in Cairo and secured permission from Gringotts to visit a pyramid. When Bill suggested the unexplored Pyramid X-1, the goblins outfitted them with elite supplies and prepared a flying carpet for their expedition.

• Zhang Xiao met Bill in a Cairo tavern, where Bill explained that they needed Gringotts' permission to enter a pyramid.
• Zhang Xiao and Bill rode enchanted camels across the desert to a market near the pyramid excavation sites.
• Bill explained how the Ministry's bidding rules had turned the camp into a marketplace for wizards and pyramid discoveries.
• Kreleg initially refused to let Zhang Xiao enter a pyramid, then eagerly granted permission after recognizing him.
• Bill suggested Pyramid X-1, which Gringotts had been unable to enter, and Kreleg supplied them with elite equipment and a flying carpet.

Zhang Xiao broke through Pyramid No. X-1’s defenses, transforming the Windless Land into a lush oasis and revealing an entrance marked with Egyptian gods. After Bill identified it as possibly Osiris’s pyramid, Zhang Xiao called in powerful allies before entering.

• Zhang Xiao unleashed his talisman scripts on the Windless Land, breaking its defenses and summoning rain that turned the desert into an oasis.
• Kreleg celebrated the apparent discovery of divine ruins and considered claiming their treasures, but Zhang Xiao called Bill over before he could act.
• Zhang Xiao and Bill searched through the new jungle and found a pyramid entrance carved with Osiris, Set, and Isis.
• Bill warned that the carvings and inscriptions suggested the pyramid belonged to Osiris and threatened intruders with eternal torment in the River Styx.
• Zhang Xiao contacted Nicolas Flamel and invited Dumbledore and Grindelwald into the call, then used a mirror to contact his parents before the expedition began.

Zhang Xiao, Bill, and the goblins entered a pyramid and explored its upper levels, discovering an illusion-filled replica of the pharaoh’s home. At the second level, they found rows of preserved people kneeling before a golden coffin, and Zhang Xiao realized they had once been alive.

• Zhang Xiao entered the pyramid with Bill and the goblins while Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Nicolas Flamel, and Zhang Xiao’s parents followed through their communication devices.
• Bill and the goblins opened the entrance using magical tools, and Zhang Xiao led the group through a dim passage to the first chamber.
• The group found a lavish replica of the pyramid’s owner’s residence, including food that Zhang Xiao and the others identified as an illusion.
• Bill led the group down a hidden staircase to the second level, where murals showed the pharaoh ruling and radiating light.
• Zhang Xiao, Bill, and the goblins entered a brightly lit hall and discovered a crowd kneeling before a golden coffin; Zhang Xiao said the figures had once been alive.

Zhang Xiao and his companions explored the pyramid’s levels, uncovering a sequence that suggested Osiris had designed it as a path of reincarnation. They entered the final chamber, where a crushing pressure and absolute darkness trapped them as the entrance sealed shut.

• Zhang Xiao discovered that the moving corpses were controlled by beetles, then used talismans to confuse them and collected some beetles for Nicolas Flamel to study.
• Zhang Xiao identified the pyramid’s levels as scenes from Osiris’s life, leading his father to suggest that the structure resembled a reincarnation path.
• The group explored levels depicting Osiris’s death, rule, birth, wedding, accession, and youth, overcoming illusions and animated guards along the way.
• Zhang Xiao reassured Bill as they approached the pyramid’s final level.
• The group entered a pitch-black chamber, where an immense pressure forced Bill and the goblins down and the door closed behind them.

Zhang Xiao endured a crushing darkness in the Pyramid, inferred that heaven and earth had to be separated, and split the darkness and ceiling with a powerful axe strike. He found the Deathly Hallows symbol on a crumbling door, and after his grandfather divined that he was safe, he prepared to enter.

• The darkness crushed the goblins and strained Bill, but Zhang Xiao cast Lumos and used Strengthening Talismans to ease their suffering.
• Bill recounted the myth of Geb and Nut embracing, and Zhang Xiao suspected their union caused the pressure and darkness.
• Zhang Xiao transformed his Wand into an axe and split the darkness and ceiling with a brilliant strike, revealing the night sky and leaving a vast fissure.
• Zhang Xiao found the Deathly Hallows emblem on a huge door, prompting Grindelwald, Dumbledore, and Nicolas Flamel to debate the symbol's ancient origins.
• As the door's carvings began to crumble, Zhang Xiao gave Bill his Communicator and learned Bill had seen the same emblem in temples and Pyramids connected to Anubis.
• Zhang Chengdao relayed his grandfather's divination that Zhang Xiao could safely enter, and Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Nicolas Flamel decided they might travel to the Pyramid.

Zhang Xiao entered the black desert beyond the Pyramid and discovered a ruined temple filled with the remains of an ancient battle. He restrained the revived wolf-headed corpse of Anubis after it cried out for Zeus, then flew toward an even grander building in the distance.

• Bill recited the inscription on the door, opening a portal that Zhang Xiao entered while Bill stayed behind.
• Zhang Xiao explored the vast black desert, found the River Styx and an invisible boundary, and discovered that the sand had been magically solidified.
• Zhang Xiao reached a ruined temple and found thousands of skeletons, then saw a giant wolf-headed corpse seated on a Golden Throne.
• The corpse revived, but Zhang Xiao restrained it with talisman magic; it cried out the name Zeus before its eyes went dark.
• Zhang Xiao considered whether Anubis had been an Animagus, manifested partial peregrine falcon wings, and flew toward a larger building.

Zhang Xiao discovered Isis pinned to Osiris’s statue, then found Osiris’s corpse and witnessed a recorded account of the Olympian gods attacking the Egyptian Ennead. Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Nicolas Flamel, and Bill examined the pyramid’s ruined entrance and learned they would have to wait outside for Zhang Xiao.

• Zhang Xiao flew through the battlefield ruins, found Isis impaled by a golden spear behind Osiris’s statue, and continued toward Osiris’s temple.
• Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Nicolas Flamel arrived at Bill and Kreleg’s oasis, where Bill showed them the fissure Zhang Xiao had cut through the pyramid.
• The group descended by Flying Carpet and examined the opened door marked with the Deathly Hallows; Dumbledore concluded that the entrance had destroyed itself after one use.
• Zhang Xiao found Osiris’s corpse on the floor beneath his throne and saw a gemstone project Osiris’s final message.
• Osiris’s message revealed that Zeus and the Olympian gods had attacked the Underworld, killed Anubis, and slain Osiris after he had hidden there.
• Osiris cursed Zeus and the Olympian gods, declaring that the suffering they inflicted on his family and allies would one day be visited upon them.

After discovering a recording of the Greek gods and the bodies of Egyptian gods in the Underworld, Zhang Xiao returned to camp and told Dumbledore and the others what he had found. Nicolas Flamel explained that ancient magic had been much stronger, and Dumbledore described how mastery of detection spells could let a wizard see spells directly.

• Zhang Xiao examined the frozen figures of Zeus, Athena, Ares, Hades, and Poseidon, then vanished from the Underworld and returned to the camp.
• Zhang Xiao told Dumbledore, Bill, Grindelwald, and Nicolas Flamel about the Underworld, the River Styx, the dead Egyptian gods, and Osiris's recording; Dumbledore kept Kreleg and the goblin from hearing the account.
• Nicolas Flamel explained that ancient wizards had wielded more powerful magic, though they relied on arrays and incense to cast it.
• Dumbledore described how skilled wizards could move beyond incantations and use magic through thought and will, limited chiefly by stamina.
• Dumbledore explained that deep familiarity with detection spells could let wizards see spells directly, and Grindelwald confirmed that Bill was beginning to develop this ability.

Zhang Xiao learned that a Magical Eye could reveal spells and help wizards combine them freely, while Nicolas Flamel explained how standardized incantations shaped the way magic worked. Dumbledore revealed that he had seen the magic network, a hazy and incomplete structure underlying the standardized system.

• Zhang Xiao realized that his Dharma Eye revealed truth rather than identifying spells, unlike the Magical Eye Dumbledore described.
• Dumbledore explained composite magic, and Grindelwald and Nicolas Flamel admitted that they had not advanced beyond its earlier limits.
• Nicolas Flamel told Zhang Xiao and Bill that standardized incantations had fixed wizards' understanding of magic and that potions and alchemy had become standardized in step with them.
• Nicolas Flamel explained that magic unified potion ingredients, then said wizards' beliefs could shape what magic became.
• Dumbledore recalled seeing Tom's spell-built net at the Gaunt Shack and revealed that he called the underlying structure the magic network.

Dumbledore explained that the developing magic network could let Muggles use magic through wands, but he warned that the Church was the wizards’ enemy. The group staged a supernatural spectacle above the Church’s Brussels headquarters, where Zhang Xiao appeared as an angel and prepared to confront it as Longinus.

• Dumbledore told Zhang Xiao that wizards’ shared understanding of the Standard Book of Spells System formed a magic network, and Zhang worried that wizards could become dependent on it.
• Dumbledore revealed his plan to make magic accessible to Muggles through wands, then declared that the Church was the wizards’ enemy.
• Dumbledore, Zhang Xiao, Grindelwald, and Nicolas Flamel found the Church’s headquarters in Brussels and reconsidered attacking it because the building held importance for Muggles.
• Zhang Xiao proposed a plan, and Grindelwald used Celestial Magic while Nicolas Flamel broadcast sacred music and Dumbledore protected the area.
• Zhang Xiao descended from the clouds disguised as an angel, and the crowd identified his wand-turned-spear as Longinus.

Zhang Xiao posed as an angel and used magic, scripture, and spectacle to turn the Church’s followers against its senior clergy. After the Church was thrown into chaos, he planned to travel to Greece and learned that the ancient gods had been powerful wizards whose abilities depended on faith.

• Zhang Xiao appeared above the Church’s building, denounced its members as heretics, and used Dumbledore’s magic to mark them with rings of flame.
• The senior clergy called Zhang Xiao a demon and attacked him, but his display of citywide light broke the lower-ranking members’ remaining faith in their leaders.
• Zhang Xiao and Dumbledore pinned the unrepentant senior clergy with a magical spear while Grindelwald attacked them with Fiendfyre; Zhang Xiao then urged the kneeling followers to free prisoners and atone.
• Zhang Xiao watched the Church members storm the building, then explained his strategy to Grindelwald and Dumbledore through Chinese military sayings.
• Zhang Xiao told Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel he planned to go to Greece and asked about Atlantis and the gods.
• Nicolas Flamel explained that the gods had been powerful wizards who gained abilities through their followers’ faith, and said polytheism could not match monotheism.

Nicolas Flamel explained how faith may have created and eventually destroyed the gods of antiquity, while Zhang Xiao’s plan helped expose the Church leadership’s crimes. After searching Atlantis and the deep ocean for clues, Zhang reached Mount Olympus to investigate the mysterious Divine Mountain.

• Nicolas Flamel told Zhang Xiao that ancient gods gained power through faith and suggested that monotheistic gods eventually went mad and died as belief and internal religious conflicts overwhelmed them.
• Zhang Xiao watched the Demon Hunters break into the Church’s underground facility, where they discovered imprisoned children and chained women, exposing the Church leadership’s crimes to the Muggle soldiers.
• Dumbledore reassured Zhang Xiao that Dudley Dursley was living in Hong Kong with Petunia and said Fawkes would deliver research materials about Greek ruins.
• Zhang Xiao searched Atlantis and the deep ocean for ancient clues but found nothing useful, then Apparated to Greece.
• Atop Mount Olympus, Zhang Xiao read Dumbledore’s account of Rolando, a wizard who had claimed to see the Divine Mountain, and began investigating the powerful concealment magic Dumbledore had detected.

Zhang Xiao discovered the distant, magically concealed palace of the Greek gods from Mount Olympus and received Dumbledore’s advice on finding its entrance. In Athens, his search for ancient festivals led him to Professor Vervidakis, who privately asked whether Zhang Xiao was a wizard.

• Zhang Xiao used his Dharma Eye to spot a palace floating beyond the reach of ordinary magical detection and realized he needed to find the proper way inside.
• Zhang Xiao summoned Fawkes, who delivered a note from Dumbledore advising him to investigate ancient Greek rituals and festivals for clues to the entrance.
• Zhang Xiao met the musician Thales in an Athens marketplace and asked him about festivals connected to all the Greek gods.
• Thales took Zhang Xiao to the University of Athens, where Professor Vervidakis welcomed him and discussed Greek and Chinese culture.
• After Zhang Xiao asked about festivals that might involve the gods granting rewards or receiving visitors at Olympus, Vervidakis dismissed Thales and quietly asked Zhang Xiao whether he was a wizard.

Zhang Xiao and Professor Vervidakis identified the ancient Olympic Games as a possible route into the Greek gods’ divine realm and recreated the sacred flame ceremony. After Zhang Xiao sent House-elves to carry the flame across the ancient city-states, he led Vervidakis toward Mount Olympus to wait for the gates to open.

• Vervidakis guessed Zhang Xiao was a wizard, and Zhang Xiao admitted he was both a wizard and a Daoist.
• Zhang Xiao promised to take Vervidakis into the divine realm if they found a way in, and Vervidakis helped him research ancient Greek festivals.
• Vervidakis proposed the Olympic Games as the likeliest path, citing the victors’ sacred olive wreaths, palm branches, and audience with Zeus.
• At the Temple of Zeus, Zhang Xiao transfigured a rock into an altar and created an eternally burning blue Gubraithian Fire.
• After Vervidakis recalled that the legendary Olympic flame was also blue, Zhang Xiao summoned Rainwater and sent House-elves carrying torches toward the ancient Greek city-states.
• Vervidakis connected the House-elves to the Gnome People of Greek mythology, and Zhang Xiao led him toward Mount Olympus.