The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 597 Bad News (Please subscribe, please bookmark, please vote)
At about seven o'clock the next morning, Ryan and Hermione finally got up from the bed yawning. After sleeping for more than ten hours, they finally adjusted to the time difference. After a simple packing and going to the hotel restaurant to have a buffet breakfast, the two of them came to Songjiangji again and used the Yunlu station there to go to Lichang'an.

Unlike the Tianchao Alchemist Academy located in the center of Lichang'an, the headquarters of the Tianchao Alchemist Federation is located on a small hill in the northeast corner of Lichang'an. After leaving Yunlu Station, the two walked north along Danfeng Street for seven or eight minutes and arrived at Danfeng Square, the largest square in Lichang'an.

The most eye-catching thing in the square is the six huge bronze men standing on both sides of the square. Each of these bronze men is about ten meters tall. As an alchemist, Ryan can feel that these bronze men are not just decorations, but also a kind of powerful magic puppets. They have extremely powerful magic and physical dual combat capabilities.

These bronze figures have a history of more than 2,000 years, but they still look very spectacular. They stand quietly on both sides of the square, and no matter how the outside world changes, they always stand still and quietly guard this place.

"The 12 bronze men of the First Emperor? This should represent the heritage of a magical world that has been passed down for thousands of years." Ryan stopped and looked carefully at these national treasures that he had heard of in his previous life for several minutes. He only continued to move forward after Hermione began to urge him.

After passing through the Danfeng Gate, which was guarded by fully armed Celestial wizards, Ryan finally walked into the headquarters of the Federation of Magic, which was surrounded by high red walls. Without the high walls blocking his view, Ryan realized that unlike the underground buildings of the British Ministry of Magic, the headquarters of the Federation of Magic in the Celestial Empire was built in a whole group of miniature palaces with traditional oriental classical style. He could see that buildings were built around a small hill, and the large palace with 9 rooms at the highest point should be the Hanyuan Hall, which was used as the meeting hall of the Federation of Magic.

Of course, Ryan and his team didn't need to go there today, and the hall would only be opened during major events or meetings. Following the signs, they bypassed the tall halls on the central axis and came to a small courtyard east of the Hanyuan Hall. When Ryan entered the door, he saw the three characters "Honglu Temple" written on the plaque.

"Honglu Temple? Why do we have to come to such a religious place?" Hermione asked curiously after seeing the words on the door plaque.

"Religious occasions? What religion?" Ryan was confused by this question, but he quickly understood and laughed. "In the Celestial Empire, not all places with the word 'temple' in their names are religious occasions. Especially for Celestial Empire wizards, they have inherited many ancient terms. For example, the Honglu Temple is equivalent to our International Magic Cooperation Department."

"Is that so?" Hermione smiled sheepishly. She had previously learned Mandarin using the memory transfer machine in Ryan's hand, so her grasp of the language was still not satisfactory in some areas.

After entering the gate of Honglu Temple, Ryan told the old Taoist priest in the reception room next to the gate his purpose. The old man with a white beard that could rival Dumbledore checked the hardcover black notebook in front of him and said, "Mr. Liang and Miss Granger from the UK? We do have an appointment for you. Turn left and go to the second room after entering the door. Li Zhubu is waiting for you there."

"Thank you." Ryan thanked the doorman of the Tianchao Alchemy Association and then came to the place he just pointed out. After entering the room, he found that there was not only Li Zhubu in the room, but also several alchemists who looked quite prestigious. After Ryan handed over the handwritten letter from Dumbledore, a middle-aged man in a navy blue Zhongshan suit took the letter and read it carefully from beginning to end, and then asked Ryan his own questions.

"Mr. Liang, from the information we have obtained, the current situation of the British wizarding world is very bad. So can you tell me what you think about the current situation of the British wizarding world?"

"Of course, but I think with my qualifications and experience I may not be able to analyze it thoroughly. I can only make some simple judgments based on my personal experience." Ryan said to the old man in a navy blue Zhongshan suit. The badge on his chest showed that the old man's surname was Wang.

"That's enough. In fact, we need this kind of first-hand information from the British magic world. Because of race and a series of other reasons, we have very few people in the whole of Europe. A lot of information can only be obtained through other people's narration, and this information is basically some distorted or deleted second-hand information. This makes us not have an accurate and complete understanding of the current situation of the British magic world." Another young man in a black Zhongshan suit said next to him. His badge told Ryan that he was Li Zhubu. "In this case, then I will talk about it casually." Ryan looked at the officials of the Tianchao Alchemy Federation sitting here and said, "I personally feel that the current situation of the British magic world is very bad, or it is now on the verge of a war. And this war will be a long and comprehensive war that may sweep across the whole of Britain and even the whole of Europe."

Ryan didn't think that the Chinese Empire couldn't see this obvious trend, so he spoke out about it. At the same time, he didn't forget to fight for himself and Dumbledore. "Of course, I think that although Voldemort's side has a greater advantage now, their goals and their war potential are not as good as our headmaster Dumbledore's side, so I believe that we will be the ones who win this war in the end."

"Speaking of war goals, we do dislike the racially discriminatory slogans put forward by your fellow named Voldemort. If they win, things will get very bad." The middle-aged Taoist priest surnamed Wang said, and the other Taoist priests nodded in support of his point of view. "But the problem now is that Voldemort's war potential is not as small as you think."

"But those who stand on Voldemort's side are all pure-blood wizards, and their numbers are not large. Although there are some foreign Death Eaters now, I don't believe that too many people can be recruited by Voldemort." Ryan frowned. He had a bad premonition.

"Unfortunately, that's not the case." Li Zhubu shook his head. "Have you ever thought about what would happen if Voldemort had enough money to hire people? Because of the problems in Eastern and Southern Europe in the past few years, there are countless poor wizards there. I believe that as long as Voldemort has money, he can hire enough desperate people."

"But they don't have any money!" Hermione, who was standing behind Ryan, said in confusion, "I've investigated those pure-blood families before, and they do have a lot of wealth, but most of it is real estate, magic props or knowledge that they can't give to others. There's not much gold that can really be used to hire people."

"That's the theory, Miss Granger. It was true even 24 hours ago," said Li Zhubu. "But according to the intelligence we intercepted, Gringotts in the United States passed a secret decree last night, allowing British wizards to borrow money in the United States without restrictions. At the same time, the wealth used as collateral still belongs to the borrower before the repayment date."

"What are the American wizards going to do?" Ryan frowned. He knew that due to the previous Rappaport Law, many American wizards tended to support pure-blood wizards and opposed contact with non-magic people. So it was normal for them to lean towards Voldemort.

However, the promulgation of this law that obviously favors one side still caught Ryan by surprise, because it was very strange to bet on one side before the war broke out, especially for a powerful force like the Magical Congress of the United States.

"I think the Americans may want to make this war more brutal," said Li Zhubu. "For a long time, Britain has been the core of the European and even Western magic world. Even the American magic world was formed by imitating the British magic world. However, after a long period of development, the American wizarding world has developed into a powerful force that is no less powerful than the British wizarding world. We believe that American wizards hope that this war can completely destroy the British wizarding world so that they can replace the British wizarding world's position in the world."

"For that group of American wizards, if they succeed, they will become the true leaders of the Western wizarding world and inherit the essence of the British wizarding world. Even if they fail, they can slow down the development of the British wizarding world and gain a lot of wealth, so it was inevitable that Gringotts in the United States passed this decree yesterday." The Taoist priest surnamed Wang added.

"This is terrible." Ryan and Hermione looked at each other, and saw an anxious look in each other's eyes. They had to tell Headmaster Dumbledore the news and ask him to prepare in advance.

(End of this chapter)