Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 163 Fire Dragon Qilin and the Eastern Magic World

Lupin simply couldn't imagine what that scene would be like.

The wizards' rebellion against the Rappaport Act was actually caused by two Muggles!

The awakening of awareness of equal rights is also due to Muggles.

Purebloods and half-bloods have actually joined forces for a Muggle-born wizard...

Based on what he saw in the newspapers about the situation in America, he felt as if he were listening to a fairy tale!

But for some inexplicable reason, Lupin felt a hidden impulse within him.

That is the instinct of life to crave fairness and to resonate with the resistance against injustice!

He could almost picture before his eyes the Woolworth Building packed with people, the crowds shouting protests, and banners and ribbons everywhere—

The law can suppress nature, but one day it will awaken again!

He was very familiar with that feeling, just like last year when he and many other werewolves answered Vaughn's call and appeared in Diagon Alley!

Unfortunately, that initial impulse and hope were quickly extinguished by Vaughn's next words.

He heard the boy say coldly and listlessly, "...But ironically, the civil rights movement was successful, and the Rappaport Act was repealed less than two years later. The fate of the Wizarding Vanguard Movement, in fact, proved the Rappaport Act's correctness—they were betrayed by some Muggles and arrested by the Muggle government!"

"..."

Lupin's surging emotions, witnessing an epic moment, came to an abrupt end.

He never expected it to turn out this way.

His throat tightened, and after a few dry swallows, he finally managed a hoarse voice and asked, "Are all of these records from back then?"

"No." Vaughn shook his head. "These are all my speculations. My basis is that in 1967, the original Wizarding Vanguard Movement organizations suddenly disappeared one by one, and several young leaders of the Vanguard Movement who shone brightly in the civil rights movement have not been heard from since."

"In 1968, Muggle Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated."

"In the same year, the repealed Rappaport Act was reinstated..."

As Vaughn read out seemingly unrelated but actually deeply connected messages, Lupin's heart sank deeper and deeper.

After Vaughn finished speaking, he sighed and asked, "If we follow your logic, and consider the information you've provided... were those wizard vanguard organizations really betrayed by Muggles?"

clap clap!

In response to Lupin, Vaughn gave a soft clapping, and he seemed quite pleased.

"That's right, Remus. Don't blindly follow other people's conclusions. Try to extract the key points from the limited information and think about it from multiple perspectives."

"Well……"

Lupin was momentarily dazed. Vaughn's praise did not make him feel better; he still felt heavy-hearted.

Even after the short dinner ended, he was still lost in thought.

Instead of returning to his room, Vaughn went up to the deck, where he watched the moonlit sea and waited for the team that would transport the fire dragon.

Lupin stood beside him, hesitating for a long time before finally asking, "Mr. Chairman, what is the truth behind the reinstatement of the Rappaport Act? Is it Muggle, or...?"

"I don't know either, the Magical Congress didn't give a result back then," Vaughn said, then smiled slightly, "But hasn't America already told you the truth?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, newspapers he had read in the past period of time resurfaced from the depths of Lu Ping's memory.

The Magic Congress deliberately allowed the situation to deteriorate.

The resurgence of Salem.

In his daze, he seemed to see two dark hands that should not theoretically have any interaction, tacitly enveloping the sky above the continent whose outline was vaguely visible at the edge of his vision.

Having glimpsed for the first time the complexities and sordid aspects of politics, Lupin was speechless.

He recalled what Mundungus had said to him two weeks earlier:

"You've always lived in an ivory tower, Remus!"

The ship was moving slowly.

The distant land, like an insignificant landscape embedded on the horizon, receded slowly, parallel to the ship.

Further away, where the sun has set, a faint glimmer of light shines against the backdrop of darkness, shimmering behind the mountains.

He gradually became depressed.

While by Vaughn's side, Lupin was still thinking about the United States. After all, they would be setting foot on that land the next day. Although everyone in the delegation was mentally prepared for the dangers of the trip, their focus was still different.

For ordinary committee members, all they need to do is be vigilant and deal with potential dangers.

As the only vice president accompanying the delegation, Lu Ping felt that he could not act like an ordinary committee member. He hoped that he could do his best to understand the positions of the various forces within the United States.

On the one hand, you need to know yourself and your enemy. You can't have someone attacking right in front of you and you still not know who they are or why they are coming.

On the other hand, one should always be wary of others. Although the delegation was invited by Iphamoni, we cannot completely rely on their side of the story. They claim that they were targeted by other organizations for protecting students. Is that really true? Are there other reasons behind it?

However, the contradictions of a country, especially those that have dragged on for 200 years, are best left unthought; once you start thinking about them, you feel that all the clues are a tangled mess.

After thinking for a while, Lu Ping, whose head was spinning, began to reorganize his thoughts.

First, let's analyze it from the perspective of factions.

The current situation in the United States can be divided into four camps.

1. The Magic Congress, controlled by pure-bloods, is still nominally the only legitimate official institution in the United States, with its sphere of influence concentrated on the East Coast and a few neighboring states!

2. Various folk wizarding armies. This part is quite chaotic. Some are mainly composed of mixed-race individuals, while others are represented by wizards of Muggle origin, as well as various ambitious individuals and strange and eccentric characters.

3. The Purifiers: The Daily Prophet previously reported some sporadic information suggesting that the Purifiers, who had supposedly disappeared, had re-established an organization called the Third Salem and were active in various states across the United States.

The credibility of the related news is uncertain because the chaotic situation in the United States has greatly hindered the dissemination of news and information, making it difficult for outsiders to grasp the detailed situation inside the United States.

This is also the main reason why Akinbad led the federation delegation to North America—the federation wanted to understand what the current state of affairs is within the United States.

4. The Muggle government!

Lupin hesitated for a moment after recording this.

Vaughn's view is that the Muggle government may also be involved in this mess in the United States.

He wasn't sure if that was really the case.

Based on the information currently available, the Daily Prophet did report some news over the past year about American wizards being arrested by the Muggle government and subjected to human experiments.

But to be honest...

Muggles? Capturing wizards? Human experimentation?

Do not make jokes.

No wizard would believe it!

This is no longer the Middle Ages. The reasons why the witch hunt movement was able to develop in the Middle Ages were very complex.

One important reason is that the conditions for casting ancient magic were too demanding.

To successfully cast ancient magic, a large amount of casting materials and elaborate rituals are required.

Several famous cases from the Middle Ages document how wizards had their spellcasting materials stolen and their rituals disrupted by Muggles, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

Things are different now than they were then. Since the 17th century, the global magical community has been vigorously developing and promoting the modern spell system.

The convenient and quick spells greatly enhanced wizards' ability to protect themselves when facing Muggles!

While individual instances of Muggles persecuting wizards may still exist for various reasons, mass incidents are absolutely impossible to repeat!

Lupin shook his head.

Rather than considering the Muggle government as a separate force, he is more inclined to believe that the Muggle government may simply be a supporter of the Purgers.

He thought for a moment and then connected the third and fourth points with a line.

Finally, after a moment's hesitation, Lupin wrote down the name "Iphamoni" on the parchment.

Based on the information currently available, the Evamonis do not appear to be a separate faction. In the many divisions and conflicts that have led to the current situation in America, the Evamonis do not support any viewpoint. They are neither biased towards purebloods, nor towards mixed-races or Muggles.

They simply protected all the students who remained on campus to prevent them from being affected by the disaster from the outside world.

Lupin added a question mark after the name "Iphamoni".

He was learning to use the methods taught by Vaughn, trying to discard existing conclusions, and preparing to take some time to gather information, think independently, and raise questions.

Time passed quietly.

When the new moon rises over the western sea.

Lupin, still pondering and making corrections on the parchment, heard Vaughn say:

"They're here."

Lupin looked up and saw nothing on the moonlit sea.

That was only natural; how could a wizard just swagger onto a ship full of Muggles? He cast a spell on his eyes to see through invisibility.

Magical vision brings the brilliance of all things into view.

He saw a shadowy patch appear in the deep waters below the cruise ship, with several colorful orbs of light rushing toward the surface.

That was the wizard's inspiration.

"Remus, disperse the Muggles on the deck."

"Vaughn instructed."

Lupin nodded: "Yes, Mr. Chairman."

A spell light shone behind them, and the bustling crowd gradually dispersed.

Perhaps startled by the spell, several Federation wizards walked against the flow of the dispersing crowd in the distance. When they saw Vaughn and Lupin, they stopped but did not leave. Instead, they watched from a distance.

Vaughn ignored them and walked towards the ship's railing, facing the sea breeze.

The few clusters of magical light belonging to the wizards underwater quickly rose to the surface.

They paused for a moment, as if trying to identify each other, and then flew over shortly afterward.

"Mr. Vaughn Weasley?"

There were four wizards dressed identically, shrouded in black robes, so that even their genders were indistinguishable. The leader, riding on a broom, glanced at Vaughn's red hair, bowed slightly, and asked.

"It's me. Did you bring the things?"

The man nodded: "I only brought six: Welsh Green Dragon, Heshidri Black Dragon, Australian White-eyed Dragon, and Chinese Fireball Dragon. Due to the tightening of the supply chain, they haven't arrived yet."

"Tsk!"

Lupin, having just returned after driving away the Muggles, heard Vaughn let out an impatient sound:

"Those three heads in front, are they because of Fudge?"

The leading black-robed wizard nodded slightly: "Yes, Fudge somehow found out we were acquiring fire dragons and tried to sabotage us... But please rest assured, we have resolved this issue and will send the remaining fire dragons as soon as possible."

Vaughn didn't say anything more, but asked, "It's understandable that the Green Dragon, Black Dragon, and Eggshell Dragon are found within the Commonwealth and would be affected by Fudge, but what about the Fireball Dragon?"

"There have been some changes in East Asia. The quadrennial Qilin Festival is approaching. To prevent illegal poaching and smuggling of Qilin, they have been cracking down hard recently, especially on valuable and magical creatures like fire dragons. All kinds of procedures are being strictly checked, so it will take some time."

"The Qilin Gathering?"

"Yes, over there they call it... luo, tian, ta, jio?"

Upon hearing the black-robed man's awkward pinyin, Vaughn paused for a moment before finally retrieving the corresponding four characters from his distant memory:

The Grand Ritual of Luo Tian!

The magical community in that East Asian country is more mysterious than the magical community in Africa. They developed their own philosophical theories around magic very early on. The core of that philosophy, the idea of ​​seclusion and the desire to break away from secularization, predates the introduction of the International Federation of Societies' Secrecy Act by nearly 2000 years.

Of course, they don't call it magic there, but rather "qi".

Those who practice Qi are not wizards or magicians; they are called Qi practitioners.

So, from another perspective, those Qi practitioners were the most thorough wizards in the world in enforcing the Secret Law, and they didn't even want to meet with their international counterparts.

This has resulted in very little international knowledge about them.

Over the years, other countries have only known that the East Asian country holds a grand event called "Luotian Dajiao" every four years.

This grand event is somewhat similar to elections in European countries, but their elections are not based on votes from wizards and the public; instead, they are chosen by a magical creature.

Qilin!

The purest-hearted beings in the world!

It can also see through the complexities of human nature, see the brilliance of human nature obscured by layers of filth, and select the people with the purest and most precious character.

East Asian Qi practitioners believe that only those chosen by the Qilin can lead them.

Therefore, the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony is actually a grand gathering where Qi cultivators ask the Qilin to select a leader.

Vaughn sighed helplessly, "How long will it take?"

"It will be soon. I will go back and urge the clerk stationed there to process it as soon as possible. Please rest assured that we purchased the Fireball Dragon through legal channels as you requested, and all the paperwork is complete. There will be no accidents."

Such comfort did not alleviate Vaughn's inner turmoil.

However, when something like this happens, you really can't blame them.

Vaughn tilted his head, gesturing to Lupin: "Go and get the briefcase."

"yes!"

With a loud pop, Lupin disappeared, only to return shortly afterward with a suitcase.

The handover of the fire dragons was naturally handled by Lupin. Vaughn beckoned, leading the black-robed man to the side:

What is the actual situation in America?

As he spoke, he noticed that the wizards from the Federation, who had been observing from afar, were approaching.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Akinbad.

This tall, dark-skinned old wizard had a unique racial advantage in the dark, and Vaughn almost didn't notice him.

Meeting Vaughn's gaze, Akinbad grinned, his gleaming white teeth seemingly floating in mid-air: "You haven't been up to any illegal activities, have you?"

The man in black glanced at Vaughn, who was not about to speak, and replied, "Legal transaction, all the paperwork is verifiable. Mr. Akinbad, would you like to inspect it?"

"No need for that, I trust President Weasley!"

Akinbad walked over with a grin. "I think I just overheard you guys talking about the situation in America? Would you mind if I listened in?"

Vaughn gave a half-smile: "If I said I minded, would you leave?"

"Don't be so stingy! Look, you've used me and the delegation as a shield all the way here, and I haven't said a word. Now that you have access to some intelligence about America, sharing it with me as compensation isn't too much to ask, is it?"

"...You truly are an old friend of Albus!"

"Thanks, young people are all about saving face. Once you get old, you'll realize that those empty titles are useless." Akinbad, who was being subtly mocked by Vaughn, didn't care at all.

"Children, continue your conversation. I'll only listen to what you're willing to let me hear."

The man in black glanced at Vaughn, and seeing him nod slightly, he said, "The information you've requested is too much and too complex. Where do you intend to begin?"

Without hesitation, Vaughn said, "Tell me about Isabella Rozier's whereabouts first."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Weasley, we haven't found her."

The man in black robes immediately delivered bad news, but it wasn't all bad. He continued, "We went to the address you provided for the mail, but it's been completely destroyed, just ruins. There are traces of magic everywhere, suggesting that a large number of wizards raided the place. The good news is that we found two survivors hiding in a nearby village. According to them, your friend, Ms. Rozier, escaped."

"Based on the clues they provided, we conducted a follow-up investigation and have now confirmed that she is still alive and has not left the United States. We speculate that she may be trying to smuggle herself into Canada via Minnesota, but the plan may not go smoothly."

"The day before yesterday, we went to Minnesota to track down a family member and rescued a wizard who said the border was full of Purifiers..."

"The Purgers?"

Akinbad, who had been listening quietly, began to speak in a heavy voice.

The darkness prevented Vaughn and the man in black from seeing his expression, but they could imagine he was frowning.

Seeing that Vaughn did not object, the man in black replied, "Yes, Mr. Akimbard, the Purifier is not some fabricated rumor from the Daily Prophet. It, and the Third Salem, do exist."

"..."

Akinbad seemed shocked by the news. He paused for a moment, then asked, "Have you met them? What's their organizational structure like? How large is it?"

"You'll see for yourself... Mr. Weasley?"

The man in black drew his wand, looked at Vaughn questioningly, and when Vaughn nodded in approval, he pressed the wand to his forehead.

It was clear that he wasn't very skilled at memory magic, and the act of retrieving memories was causing him pain, to the point that his hands were trembling.

Fortunately, he still managed to finish it.

The man in black handed Vaughn the silver thread hanging from the tip of his staff. It was as light and fragile as a wisp of smoke, as if it would dissipate with a gust of wind.

Akinbad opened his mouth, about to say something.

Then Vaughn snapped his fingers, and a mist emanated from his robes, quickly spreading out and enveloping the three of them.

Then, the wisp of silver thread drifted down, was captured by Vaughn's magic, and merged into the mist.

Before long, a memory scene simulated by a hallucination appeared before the three of them.

The opening scene of my memory was explosive.

The main subject in the first-person perspective is likely hidden in a corner, surrounded by old-style apartment buildings common in major American cities, with an apartment building at the center of the view.

It must have been late at night, the sky was dark.

Several wizards dressed in robes, who appeared to be security personnel, patrolled back and forth outside the apartment.

"This memory comes from a survivor, a wild wizard, who, like the wizards in the video, was employed by an illegal safe house to provide security services. The others were the visible lookouts, while he was the hidden lookout, which is why he survived... and because of this, he witnessed the entire Third Salem raid on the safe house!"

"That's what the man in the black robe explained."

At the same time, the peaceful memories that the three of them had been looking at began to change.

The battle broke out suddenly!

It was a fireball falling from the sky!

At first, it seemed like a relatively bright star, but soon, in the eyes of the survivor who provided the memory, it rapidly magnified and drew closer.

call--

The fireball plummeted downwards, trailing a long, fiery tail.

The wizards guarding outside the apartment immediately noticed something amiss. They drew their wands, but before they could even utter a spell, all sorts of magical spells suddenly appeared from the darkness all around them.

Red light, electric current, flying arrows...

Those people were instantly engulfed, so without any resistance or warning, the huge fireball crashed into the roof and disappeared!

For a split second, the memory was so quiet it was as if nothing had happened.

But the next second, the eight-story apartment building, from the top floor to the fourth floor, constructed of Muggle-style reinforced concrete, suddenly bulged, like a mud bubble rising from a swamp.

Then—

boom!

Explosion, a loud bang.

The flames expanded violently, illuminating the night sky.

The terrifying destructive force instantly tore the upper part of the apartment building to shreds, killing countless people in their sleep.

Smoke billowed and swirled, mixed with the deafening crashes of crumbling walls and debris hitting those below.

The wizards who lived on the lower floors and narrowly escaped the attack awoke, amidst screams, coughs, and fleeting flashes of magical light.

But that's all their "luck" has to offer.

From the survivors' memories, the three saw one wizard after another, dressed in black robes, "walking" out of the night.

Ten, twenty, thirty...

In an instant, a dense swarm of black-robed wizards surrounded the apartment building, which was almost reduced to ruins. One of them then fired a luminous spell into the air.

The battle started again.

Countless magical rays of light, so close together and of mixed colors that they were almost indistinguishable, spewed from the tips of the black-robed wizards' staffs and disappeared into the smoke and ruins.

It was a one-sided massacre!

The light from the Ironclad Curse flickered like a dense array of flashlights in the smoke; some quickly went out, while the more powerful ones didn't last more than a few breaths.

Those people rushed out in despair.

But they were quickly defeated by disarming spells, stunning spells... and patches of pale green light!

The black-robed wizards were like cold, ruthless life-harvesting machines, advancing and retreating with measured steps, methodically intercepting, dividing, surrounding, and pursuing their prey.

Short, mournful cries echoed through the night sky, quickly followed by silence.

The battle ended in no time!

The last image of the recurring memory is of black-robed wizards riding brooms and flying carpets, hovering above the city. Small teams, like busy bees, break away from the main group to clean up the battlefield and dispose of the corpses, while more teams, carrying something, slowly fly over the Muggle buildings.

The memory ends.

The mist enveloping the three gradually dissipated.

However, none of the three spoke for a moment.

After a long pause, Akinbad finally exhaled in a hoarse voice, "Those people don't seem like wizards!"

"I think so too." The man in black robes agreed. "Although it's not a good evaluation and it sounds like he's belittling himself, everyone knows that because spells require emotion, wizards are all very emotional people. That's a nice way of putting it. To put it bluntly, wizards are all quite emotional."

"After I got my hands on this memory, I watched it many times. I don't know if you noticed, but they didn't say a word, didn't communicate, didn't chat, and didn't even make any unnecessary movements... This is incredible for a wizard, it's like..."

The man in black robes seemed to be at a loss for words and paused for a moment.

Vaughn waved his hand, and the mist and illusions reappeared.

He looked up at the black-robed wizards in the image, stroked his chin, and continued, "They're like Muggle machines, obeying orders without question, and behaving in a rigid, formulaic way."

"Yes, that's exactly what I meant, the machine!"

Like Vaughn, Akinbad, after reviewing the footage again, pondered and asked, "Is this the only memory? Is there any further evidence?"

"There are too few survivors, and even fewer who have seen the Purifiers alive. You've all seen it; these guys are ruthless, sparing no wizard within their sight... they don't even leave their corpses behind!"

The man in the black robe spoke in a solemn tone.

Akinbad didn't ask any more questions, and said to Vaughn, "Could you make a copy of this memory for me?"

"No!" Vaughn refused outright.

Akinbad didn't seem surprised; the question was just a trial run, and it was clear that Vaughn Weasley wasn't someone easy to talk to.

Fortunately, the people he dealt with were generally not easy to talk to, so he skillfully said, "I can exchange it for something else."

"Oh? What?"

"I plan to disembark in Boston, and the delegation can come along. I can then provide you with some more protection."

"How long is the period of time you're referring to?"

"Up to New York, you can work with us to investigate the current situation in America, and we will share intelligence."

Akinbad is not as rough as he appears. He is actually very good at analyzing the root of existing problems and then using this to propose cooperation that is hard to refuse.

Just like at the last WAC conference, he used unanimous approval to entice Dumbledore and Amelia to agree to his debate with Vaughn.

Akinbad certainly understood that Vaughn and the WAC delegation, having dared to come to America, were already prepared for an attack.

But then again, if you're even slightly sensible, nobody likes being in danger.

Battles aren't like dinner parties; people can die!

Sure enough, after making his suggestion, he looked up at Vaughn, who was in the illusion, pondered for a moment, nodded, and reached into the mist to grab a few times.

Before long, a wisp of crystal-clear silver thread took shape in his palm.

"Amazing memory magic," Akinbad exclaimed.

This is a sincere compliment.

Even he, an 80-year-old wizard, could not replicate a memory as easily as Vaughn by simply "pinching" it with his bare hands.

That memory even seemed to have a physical form, lying in Vaughn's palm.

Akinbad admitted he couldn't do it.

He drew his wand and wrapped the silver thread Vaughn had given him around the tip. Memories outside the mental world are fragile, and only a wand can preserve them temporarily.

The deal was done, and Akinbad was in a good mood.

But when he saw the memory of the mist manifesting once again, with those black-robed wizards who obeyed his orders without question, he had to suppress his pleasure.

"Terrifying discipline, terrifying execution... Although I know very well that the Purifiers cannot be completely eradicated, I never imagined they would develop such a powerful force. How do you think they did it?"

"...There is too little information; it's unclear at the moment."

Vaughn brushed his fingers through the mist, and those memory images, under his manipulation, were broken down "frame by frame" like cut video files.

This creates a series of seemingly chaotic scenes, but makes it easier to observe the details.

But as he said, there is currently too little information available for reference, and he is unable to make any accurate judgment.

Only when a layer of gloom rises in one's heart.

Muggle government... the Purifiers...

With a wave of his hand, he dispersed the mist, absorbing the memory into his mind. Vaughn nodded to the man in black, signaling him to continue: "Have you made any speculations about Isabella's current whereabouts?"

"Yes, she definitely won't go to the Minnesota border again. There are two possibilities for where she goes. One is to detour and continue north. There are many borders between the United States and Canada, and there are always blind spots that the purges can't reach."

"Another possibility relates to you. The establishment of WAC and the news that you are leading a delegation to the United States have been reported in several newspapers. If Ms. Rozier's situation is not particularly difficult and her access to information is not particularly limited, she will certainly have seen it in the newspapers."

According to their team's speculation, this is the most likely possibility.

As soon as Isabella Rozier sees the news of Vaughn's arrival in America in the newspaper, she will definitely rush to join him.

Upon hearing this, Vaughn glanced at Akinbad.

A "benevolent" smile appeared on the old wizard's dark face: "We can hold a press conference after we disembark in Boston."

snort!

Old man, so clever!

Vaughn knew very well that the other party was being so nice to him now mainly because he hoped that he could continue to cooperate with him—the existence of the Purifier probably made the old wizard feel very insecure!

(End of this chapter)