Rodna There was no reply for a long time, and the wind in the badge was very loud, mixed with the sound of some kind of metal collision.
After a while, Rodna's voice came from the badge, and his tone was a little more serious than usual.
"Ouroboros..." He repeated the word slowly, "Where did you hear that name?"
Lin Ze briefly explained what Black family had noted.
Rodna It was quiet for a while and the wind stopped. It must have been in a different place.
"The organization Ouroboros is not a modern thing. When my father was in Cleansweep Europe mainland in the 1940s, he tracked down a batch of ancient alchemy items that flowed to the black market. The last clue was found in the hands of an organization called Ouroboros."
"He thought it was just a smuggling gang at the time. After investigating for half a year, he found that the water was much deeper than expected, so he stopped."
"Is there a time when your father will stop?"
"The things involved in Ouroboros's organization were too ancient. His ambition at the time was not there, so he did not explore it in depth."
Lin Ze leaned on the back of the chair and tapped the edge of the table slowly with his fingers.
"I heard that the organization Ouroboros has a warehouse by the seaside of Cornwall. I plan to go and have a look."
"Then take care of yourself."
Rodna's tone suddenly became very cautious, "The last thing my father found out that year was that the core members of Ouroboros never showed their true colors to others. They called themselves "snake people." These people probably know Ancient Magic creatures better than anyone else in the world."
"Okay, let's not talk anymore. I still have some things to do here. Anyway, be careful." Rodna took the initiative to disconnect from Lin Ze before he could speak, and the badge also dimmed.
After the badge dimmed, Lin Ze sat on the chair for a long time.
There is a key sentence in Rodna's evaluation of Ouroboros.
"Understand Ancient Magic creatures better than anyone else"
Why does an organization that smuggles ancient alchemy items need to be proficient in Ancient Magic biology?
Unless the things they handle are themselves related to Magical Creatures?
Lin Ze opened the list given by Carl and read it again.
The three appliances that required magic power to be fed, he had previously regarded as common features of Dark Magic items, but the sentence "regularly fed with wizard magic power" in Black family's notes was very specific. What was the difference between this and feeding a living creature?
He decided to take a look at Cornwall first.
Before setting off, he asked Ben to compile a briefing report on the progress of all the cases Group Three currently has in hand and report it to Crouch.
Then he asked Patricia to single out all the approval records involving the import and export of alchemical materials by Department of Commerce in the past three years, focusing on those whose consignees were at Cornwall.
The reply from Patricia arrived that afternoon, along with a short list:
Cornwall St Ives town, the consignee is "Klein Trading Company", the import category is "rare ore samples", the frequency is about once every quarter.
Lin Ze wrote down the name of the company on the list, and then set off to Cornwall.
St Ives is a seaside town with a few rows of dusty stone houses squeezed under the cliff. There are more than a dozen fishing boats parked in the port.
Lin Ze walked along the coastline for half an hour. The address in Black family's notes was behind an abandoned quarry in the north of the town.
The entire warehouse is made of granite, low and solid, but the cracks in the stones are filled with sea dianthus.
The lock on the iron door is new, but there are many scratches around the keyhole, and it looks like someone is opening and closing it frequently.
Lin Ze went around to the side of the warehouse and went in in no hurry.
He first applied Disillusionment Charm to himself.
He found a boarded-up window on the back wall of the warehouse. The boards were poorly nailed, and he opened it with Charms.
The window leads to a utility room filled with old ropes and broken fishing nets.
Coming out of the utility room is a corridor with two doors on each side. At the end of the corridor is a staircase going down.
The iron door to the basement was half open, and the space behind the door was divided into several small rooms.
Lin Ze counted at least six small rooms, four of which had locks, iron sheets nailed to the door panels, and runes engraved on the iron sheets.
Lin Ze unlocked the door and pushed the door in. There was a wooden bed inside, with only a dirty blanket on the bed and a bucket in the corner.
There were a few old clothes scattered on the ground, the materials were very ordinary.
After Lin Ze exits the first small room, continue to use "Alohomora" to open the door of the next room. The situation inside is similar to the first room, but the difference is that there is a person lying on the bed.
A thin man, wearing magic shackles on his hands and feet, sat up suddenly when he heard the door and shrank into the corner.
He looked miserable, his body was very thin, his cheekbones were protruding, and his eye sockets were sunken. His eyes stared at Lin Ze with a slowly wary look.
"Don't be afraid, Ministry of Magic." Lin Ze squatted down and directly used Dragon Power to twist off the shackles.
The man moved his wrist, his voice was so hoarse that he couldn't speak. Lin Ze handed the kettle over. He took a few sips before squeezing out a few words: "Another one?"
"Why another one?"
"You can't lie to me. Some people said they were here to save me before, but in the end they moved me here from another place, took blood every few days, and then poured medicine into me." The man gasped and stared at Lin Ze fiercely.
Lin Ze shook his head and ignored him. Instead, he walked out of the room and opened all the remaining locked doors.
Two more people were found inside, and they were in similar situations. They were both being held here as "consumables."
One of them turned out to be Muggle. He had no idea about the existence of Wizarding World. When asked, he didn't know anything. He only knew that every few days, a man in a gray robe would come to draw his blood and give him an injection after the draw.
Lin Ze thought for a while and decided to wait here.
He asked the three men to hide in the innermost room first, leaving water and some dry food for them, and then he found a corner to squat where he could see the main entrance of the warehouse.
The next morning, there was movement outside the warehouse.
A black carriage stopped outside the quarry, and three people got out.
The leader was wearing a gray robe with a low hood, carrying a box in his hand, and was followed by two followers.
The man in gray robe pushed open the iron door of the warehouse and walked in. He saw his suitcase in his left hand, his right hand close to his side, and his right foot dragging the ground slightly when walking.
Lin Ze waited for the three people to enter the basement before following them from behind.
The man in gray robe opened the door of the first small room and was stunned for a moment when he found that it was empty.
The two followers behind him were about to turn around when Lin Ze walked out of the shadows at the top of the stairs.
"Petrificus Totalus"
The two followers stayed where they were.
The man in gray robe reacted very quickly, threw the box on the ground, and pulled out a short staff from under his robe with his right hand.
Lin Ze didn't give him a chance to fight back. He knocked the short staff away with a "Disarming Charm" and then stepped forward and punched him in the chest, slamming him against the wall.