As February arrives, the weather remains cold, but snowfall has decreased significantly, replaced by frequent rain.
Hagrid finally recovered and returned to his Care of Magical Creatures.
The good news is that he stopped messing around with those Blast-Ended Skrewt and, like Professor Grubbly-Plank, started introducing his students to Unicorn.
This move greatly increased the students' goodwill towards him.
Incidentally, Morris can now get close to Unicorn, provided he has the Undead Unicorn cover him with an illusion to conceal its presence.
The second Sunday of February.
As usual, Morris went to Black Lake after breakfast.
This time, he saw Krum again on the shore.
Good morning, Krum.
"Hello."
The two greeted each other, and Krum jumped into the lake without hesitation to begin his winter swimming training.
Morris then returned to his Ship in a Bottle.
As soon as they entered the living room, the Skull Champion greeted them. It was dressed in a well-fitting black robe with several decorative silver chains around its waist—a new outfit Morris had recently given it, making it look more human than before.
Now, the Champion's role has become the ship's security guard and steward.
Morris finished his daily Meditation on the sofa, took a bottle of Coke from the refrigerator next to him, opened it, and walked towards the large room that had previously been used for the advancement ritual.
"Hiss-
Bubbles surged as he took a large gulp and pushed open the door.
The room, which was previously empty, now contains many more items.
Twelve Gate of Two Realms magic arrays were neatly arranged on the ground, with white mist continuously emanating from their centers.
The twelve skeleton workers each stood beside a magic circle, gathering the white mist until it transformed into Gap Energy Crystal.
Morris leaned against the doorframe, sipping his cola as he watched the scene unfold.
This is what he's been busy with lately.
He discovered that only skeleton workers who had reached the third tier could use Energy Gathering.
Of the fifty skeletons, only these twelve have successfully advanced.
The rest, perhaps due to issues with the raw materials, were fragmented during the advancement process.
Morris still feels a pang of regret when he recalls those failed attempts, considering how much of his time and energy those skeleton workers had consumed.
But there's nothing we can do about it.
At least he confirmed one thing: the advancement ritual was not 100% guaranteed to succeed.
At this moment, one of the skeleton workers finished gathering the Gap Energy Crystal in his hand and placed it in the corner.
There, several rows of jars containing energy crystals were already piled up.
"Good."
Morris looked around the room and nodded in satisfaction.
After placing the jar, the skeleton worker turned around, the blue flames in its eye sockets flickering, and walked up to Morris, awaiting instructions.
"Never mind me, keep working." Morris waved his hand.
The skeleton worker immediately returned to his workstation and continued creating Gap Energy Crystal.
It has been working continuously for 240 hours.
Morris stepped forward and put the jars containing the Gap Energy Crystal into his robe one by one.
After doing all this, he turned and walked out of the room, through the hallway, and back into the living room.
Yanhua drifted in through the window, bringing today's newspaper. Guantou lay lazily on the sofa, reading a book.
I don't know when it happened, but Guantou developed a reading habit.
This surprised Morris greatly.
At this time of day, it usually does something silly, like tugging at the Yanhua ' feathers, and then gets beaten up.
That's more in line with its design, isn't it?
Morris walked over, looked down, and saw that Guantou was reading a book he had placed on the bookshelf called "The Complete Book of Housework Magic".
"Can you understand it?" he asked.
The Guantou food slammed the book shut, revealing a disdainful expression.
The little pouch around its neck flashed, and the wand flew out from it, landing steadily in its mouth.
Then it pointed to the muddy footprint Morris had left at the door when he came in from outside.
Meow~
A beam of light shot out, and the muddy footprints vanished instantly, leaving the floor sparkling clean.
... sharp."
Now Morris finally understood why his living room was still tidy despite not having cleaned for a long time.
The Guantou shook its head smugly.
Morris smiled slightly.
"Let's go, you two, it's time to get down to business." He beckoned to his two pets, "It's time for your advancement ceremony."
"Aww-"
The Guantou ran excitedly to Morris's feet.
It has been waiting for this day for a long time.
Since the previous room had become the workshop of the skeleton workers, Morris used the Undetectable Extension Charm to create a new empty room next to it as a dedicated ritual room.
This room is a bit smaller than the original, but it's still sufficient.
Morris pushed open the door to the ceremonial room, and Guantou hopped in after him, while Yanhua stood quietly on his shoulder.
After setting up the magic circle, he turned to him and asked, "Which of you two wants to go first?"
The Yanhua let out a cry, took off, and landed in the center of the magic circle.
The ceremony begins.
"The world of the living has not forgotten you, and the peaceful rest of death is not your final chapter."
After nearly two hundred Gap Energy Crystal were introduced, the Yanhua ' absorption rate of the black mist within the magic array slowed down.
Then.
"Bang!"
With a muffled thud, the Yanhua exploded without warning, turning into tiny black specks of light.
"!"
The Guantou trembled with fright, frozen in place, staring in terror at the center of the magic circle.
Its buddy... exploded!?
However, Morris only frowned slightly; his expression was tense, but not flustered.
He could still feel that Magic Power Link with the Yanhua.
This means that the Yanhua are most likely still "alive".
Sure enough, the next second, those black specks of light mixed with the mist, forming a swirling vortex.
Wings, head, tail... the body of the Yanhua slowly takes shape within it.
Finally, the Yanhua reappeared in the center of the magic circle.
At this moment, it had changed its appearance and no longer resembled an ordinary owl.
Each of its feathers was pure black, like an abyss, seemingly capable of swallowing all the surrounding light; even the flames in its eye sockets had turned into a mixture of blue and black.
So that's how it is!
Morris suddenly realized.
He had probably guessed the pattern of change in fourth-tier undead creatures, which was the reconstruction of their bodies.
This applies to both Undead Unicorn and Yanhua.
The Undead Unicorn grew flesh and blood, while the Yanhua went even further, abandoning their original bodies and taking on a new one.
Morris stretched out his arm, Yanhua immediately understood, flapping their wings and landing steadily on it.
"What's changed?" Morris asked, slightly surprised.
He can barely feel the weight of the Yanhua now.