The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 368: Lake of Darkness
When they reached the door, Mr. Weasley, unfamiliar with the place, tripped over the large umbrella stand made of one of the troll's broken legs, and ended up grabbing the two velvet curtains full of wormholes and pulling them open.

"Oh, shit—" Sirius hadn't finished when a horrible, deafening, blood-curdling scream came from a portrait behind a curtain.

"You beast! You slut! You filthy and sinful bastard! You bastard, you freak, you ugly bastard, get out of here! How dare you defile my ancestral home—"

"Shut up!" Sirius grabbed the curtain, "You horrible old witch, you killed Regulus. I found him and I'm going to take him home now."

"What, my child, Regulus, is dead?" The old lady's face turned pale and she showed a sad expression. Every portrait in the wizarding world has its own incomplete consciousness after it is painted, and many of them are slowly instilled by these portrait prototypes. This portrait of Sirius' mother should have been painted before her death. In addition to a set of pure-blood concepts, the rest is dissatisfaction with her eldest son Sirius and nostalgia for her missing younger son. So after learning the news of Regulus' death, this portrait immediately showed a sad feeling.

"Yes, it's all your fault, my dear mother. It was you who caused him to die." After saying that, Sirius pulled the curtain shut forcefully. However, this time the woman in the portrait did not roar as usual, but sat there blankly.

In silence, four people and a house elf walked out of the mansion. Then Kreacher led them one by one to a large cave. After releasing a lantern grass and holding it in his hand, Ryan could see a pool of water at one end of the cave. A stone staircase extended from the water. The surrounding air was silent and cold, with a fishy smell. This meant that this place should be by the sea.

"This is it." Kreacher's somewhat deep voice came over. "The door that needs blood is right in front, but unfortunately there is a strange magic inside. Kreacher's Apparition can't accurately locate the space inside, so he can only come out from there, but can't go in from the outside. Kreacher has no way to complete the master's order--" He was about to knock his head on the stone ground. Fortunately, Sirius stopped him.

"That's enough, so stop." He walked to the rock wall that Kreacher pointed out and pointed his wand at the rock in that place. Suddenly, the outline of an arch appeared there, emitting a dazzling white light, as if there was a strong light behind the crack. "It should be here."

After that, he took out the wizard blood he had bought earlier and poured it on the outline of the arch. Perhaps Sirius used too much force, and the entire surface of the rock was covered with shiny, dark red blood beads.

After the rock wall absorbed the blood, the outline of the arch did not disappear as before. The blood-stained rock in the arch suddenly disappeared, revealing a doorway, which seemed to be endless darkness.

"Go ahead!" Sirius raised the lantern grass that Ryan had given him in one hand, held up his wand in the other and led the way in. The others followed him in with the same posture, keeping alert. Only Ryan didn't hold his wand, but he held a thick stack of yellow paper talismans in his hand.

Under the illumination of the light in their hands, they saw a very strange scene: they were standing on the shore of a large black lake. The lake was extremely wide and boundless, and the other side of the lake could not be seen in the distance. The cave they were in was very high, and they could not see the top of the cave even if they looked up. In the distance, as if in the center of the lake, there was a hazy, green light flashing, reflected in the dead lake water below.

What was even more bizarre was that, apart from the light sources in their hands and the green light in the distance, the surroundings were completely dark. Even the lantern grass, which was specially used to dispel darkness, could not illuminate very far. This meant that the darkness here was most likely caused by some kind of magic rather than a natural product.

"Let's go forward," Sirius said softly, "be careful not to step into the water. Let's get a little closer and let Ryan walk in the middle."

After adjusting the formation, they stepped on the narrow rocks by the lake and began to walk around the lake shore. Finally, they came to a shore. This shore was no different from other places, it was just as dark and cold. But Kreacher still recognized this place, and under his guidance, several people dragged out the boat that Voldemort had hidden here.

"We have to go to the island, where Regulus was dragged into the water. It will be easier to find him there. Not to mention that the lake here is too narrow for us to use our magic. But this thing only allows one wizard to cross the lake, what should we do?" Lupin asked.

"Just let me pass." Sirius said impulsively, but was stopped by Ryan. "We'd better act together. After all, this place is too strange. It's not a good idea to act separately." Ryan stood by the boat and made a few gestures, then looked at the runes that appeared on the boat and said, "And I have a way to get us all through."

After this sentence attracted everyone's attention, Ryan explained, "I just checked the boat and found that the restrictions were not based on weight or soul, but on magic. That is to say, the designer of this mechanism only limits the magic power equivalent to that of an adult wizard to cross his lake."

Ryan smiled and said, "I have a way to block the magic power of wizards." He took out a few bracelets with rune stones hanging on them and said, "Just put them on."

Except for Sirius, several people put on the bracelets. Then they squeezed into the boat in the way Indians take public transportation. After everyone got on board, the boat set off immediately. Everything was automatic, as if there was an invisible rope pulling it towards the green light in the middle of the lake.

The lake was calm and the water was clear. As we approached the island, bodies began to appear on the bottom of the water. At first, there were only a few scattered bodies, but then there were more and more bodies. In the end, we could even see bodies as white as marble piled up on the bottom of the lake.

"Merlin, how many people did he kill?" Mr. Weasley groaned after seeing the corpses.

A few minutes later, the boat gently bumped into something and stopped. With the light of his hand, Ryan found that they had come to a smooth rock island in the middle of the lake.

The island was actually made of a whole piece of black rock, about 100 to 200 square meters, and very flat on top. There was only a stone basin in the middle, and the green light came from the potion inside.

"Okay, let me arrange it, and we can start it after it's arranged." Ryan said after several people stepped onto the island. Then he used the dagger in his hand to carve lines on the rocky ground and filled them with a golden powder.

Ten minutes later, as the last stroke was made, the entire island turned into a large magic circle, and everyone present felt that the magic circle was filled with vitality and light that was incompatible with the surrounding environment.

Ryan then took out seven or eight jars of sunlight crystals from his waist bag and said to the people next to him, "When I activate the magic circle later, you can evenly sprinkle the golden crystals in these jars into the surrounding water, and these corpses will climb up by themselves. When they touch my magic circle, they will be directly refined."

Ryan then gave the yellow paper talisman to Arthur and Lupin. "But this magic circle has its limits. If there are a lot of Inferi piled up, please throw this thing to where they are densely packed. This magic item can slow down and weaken them." The two men nodded after taking the paper talisman.

Ryan took out a few more paper charms and handed them to Sirius and Kreacher. "When you see Regulus, take one of the paper charms in your hand and stick it on him, then you can bring him in." Sirius and the others nodded seriously.

"Okay, 3, 2, 1 start!" After completing all the preparations, Ryan activated the magic circle.

(End of this chapter)