The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 7 Prophecy of Immortality

Moriarty took out the Ice Moon Necklace from the system space and held it in his hand. The mithril chain felt excellent, like a clear spring flowing in his hand.

The snow-white crescent pendant gleamed with white light, and Moriarty heard a voice from the depths of his heart, a call for him to wear the necklace.

Moriarty neither put on the necklace nor responded to the system; he held the necklace tightly in his hand.

Moriarty planned to investigate the secrets behind this trophy when he returned to China, but for now, it seems that the Ice Moon Necklace is closely related to water elemental magic.

This prompted Moriarty to change his plans. He summoned Luke and asked Luke to take him to the castle dungeon.

Ingo's face turned pale, while Lockhart said excitedly, "Young master wants to interrogate that dwarf dark wizard? Let me do it. Although I don't know Legilimency, I've seen the interrogation process at least a hundred times."

But when Lockhart saw that the dungeon was actually a huge pit filled with countless venomous snakes, his expression turned the same as Ingo's.

Moriarty nodded in satisfaction; this display would be better at breaking down the Japanese wizard's psychological defenses.

He used a levitation spell to suspend the Japanese sorcerer, along with the ice coffin that had frozen him, above the pit.

Moriarty gave the snakes a command, and countless snakes crawled onto the ice coffin, melting it in no time.

Upon waking, the Japanese sorcerer discovered his body and face covered in slippery, venomous snakes and let out a piercing scream.

He was seriously injured and now he is also frightened.

The Japanese sorcerer, half-dead with fright, was in a daze when he suddenly heard a cold, stern voice: "Name?"

The Japanese sorcerer saw Moriarty's cold gaze through the dozen or so snake tails, knowing that Moriarty was interrogating him, and subconsciously swallowed.

The snakes sensed something amiss in his throat, raised their heads to meet the Japanese shaman's eyes, and before he could let out a second howl, one of the snakes flicked its tongue and licked his face.

This scene reminded the Japanese sorcerer of the fear of being dominated by the twelve ice serpents, and he answered tremblingly, "Tsukamura Kureno."

Moriarty continued, asking in Japanese, "What are you going to China for?"

Tsukamura Konno kept his lips tightly pressed together until a small venomous snake tried to slither into his ear, at which point he quickly said, "Do the mission."

"What mission?"

Tsukamura Keno remained defiant, but his gaze toward Moriarty was filled with malice.

Moriarty extended the hand holding the Ice Moon Necklace in front of him, coldly saying, "Tell me its secret!"

Upon seeing the Ice Moon Necklace, the hatred in Tsukamura Kureno's eyes was replaced by surprise, and then his eyes became lifeless as he let the poisonous snake crawl across his face.

Seeing that Tsukamura Kureno was clearly prepared to stick to his guns, Moriarty sneered and gave the snakes the order to "play with them as you please, but don't kill them."

To prevent Tsukamura Kurenai from biting off his tongue and committing suicide, Moriarty cast a freezing spell on his mouth.

Moriarty intends to imprison Tsukamura Kurenai in the dungeon for three days.

After leaving the dungeon, Moriarty said to Lockhart, "Come with me, let's talk about the details of the new book launch."

Upon arriving in the hall, Moriarty said first, "Go and negotiate with the Foley family, demanding a 60/40 split of profits."

"You're six, they're four, the reason being that you're the one who knows the most about the descendants of Slytherin, while the Foley family, including the British wizarding world, knows nothing about the descendants of Slytherin."

"I will dedicate all the money I earn to the young master," Lockhart said, as if presenting a treasure.

"Listen to me quietly!" Moriarty glared at him, and Lockhart immediately sat up straight.

"Besides what I've written for you, add Slytherin Castle to the novel." Moriarty pointed to the vault and the walls, indicating to Lockhart to add these. Lockhart nodded in understanding.

"On the other hand, British wizards have always been very interested in Salazar's whereabouts after leaving Hogwarts, and they focus on this aspect in their writing. There are also these... mentioned in passing, leaving suspense."

The two talked for an afternoon and finalized many details, including the novel's content and the book launch.

It wasn't until Luke came over to remind him that the seafood dinner was ready that Moriarty realized it was already dusk.

Lockhart, however, acted like a true wizard, saying he would take advantage of the mealtime to talk to the Foley family and finalize the cooperation as soon as possible.

Before leaving, Moriarty had Luke put ten gold bars into the suitcase that had already been prepared for Lockhart.

"Take this money and get things going. You can contact Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily Prophet. I'm sure she won't miss this big story," Moriarty said meaningfully.

Lockhart was deeply moved and vowed to get the job done.

After dinner, Moriarty found a brand-new bedroom and continued to list his plans.

This plan was Moriarty's academic year plan, and now two more spells that he had to master had been added to the list: Legilimency and Occlumency.

If Moriarty had Legilimency, the interrogation of Tsukamura Kurenai wouldn't have been so tedious.

However, Legilimency is an extremely profound spell that Moriarty cannot learn in a short time, and the spell costs 7000 points in the shop, which Moriarty does not have.

Therefore, Moriarty put learning Legilimency on his agenda, firmly believing that it would greatly help his future plans.

The other magical brain-sealing technique is even more worth learning.

Moriarty will definitely be enrolling at Hogwarts in a few months, and he doesn't want his secret to be exposed by others.

Looking at the academic year plan on the list, Moriarty was in high spirits. The elemental magic provided by the system and the magic in the Harry Potter world complemented each other perfectly.

If he can master it all, he might become a God of Magic ahead of time without needing the system's rewards!

However, Moriarty had a lot to do before he could begin his studies.

For example, organizing the Parseltongue left by Salazar, compiling the Runes, Ancient Latin, and Ancient Greek left by Salazar, and adjusting the teleportation array in front of the castle gate.

Most importantly, remove the house-elves' movement restrictions so Luke can leave the castle to buy ingredients outside.

Moriarty didn't want to eat seafood for every meal; who knew what strange and magical creatures might roam the lake behind the castle?

Three days later, Slytherin Castle was completely transformed, retaining its characteristics as a battle fortress while adding many elements of a noble manor style.

On the fourth day, it was the day that Gilderoy Lockhart released his latest novel.

Luke went to the Transcendental Clothing Store in Diagon Alley early in the morning to order a wizard's robe for Moriarty, while Moriarty went into the dungeon.

Tsukamura Keno had lost a lot of weight; her already short stature seemed to have shrunk.

Being toyed with by a venomous snake was nothing short of torture for him. His pupils were dilated as he looked at Moriarty and murmured, "Kill me...kill me..."

Moriarty waved his staff. "Clear water like a spring."

Tsukamura Kureno, having been soaked, looked a bit more refreshed. Moriarty said, "It's still the same question: the secret of the Ice Moon Necklace."

"I... belong to a dark wizarding organization, the Crow Clan," Tsukamura Kureno said in a barely audible voice. "Six months ago, we received a mission to bring back the Ice Moon Necklace from Eastern Tibet. Other than that, I know nothing."

Is that all?

Moriarty's doubts only increased instead of being resolved, but Tsukamura Keno didn't seem to be lying.

So Moriarty changed his approach, asking, "Does your Japanese magical world have any unusual prophecies, myths, or leaders of dark wizards?"

Tsukamura Kureno opened his eyes wide and said mysteriously, "In our Japan... there has always been a prophecy, the prophecy of immortality."

"That's it?" Moriarty raised an eyebrow, and a venomous snake flicked its tongue at Tsukamura Kureno again.

Tsukamura Keno shook his head weakly: "That's it. We all know it's a prophecy about immortality, but nobody knows the specifics."

Moriarty's face darkened. The trail had ended there, and the magical world of Japan was becoming more and more like a murky pool of water.

Seeing that Moriarty was dissatisfied with his answer, and fearing that he would continue to be tormented by the venomous snake, Tsukamura Kureno said in a tearful voice, "Please—I really told you everything I know, that's all I know! I can even tell you about the dark wizard organization in Japan and the secret dark magic of our Pangya Society. Please, just kill me."

An hour later, Moriarty uncovered everything Tsukamura Kerono knew and ordered the snake to devour him.

Back in the hall, Moriarty took out the Ice Moon Necklace and examined it closely. The voice was calling to Moriarty to put on the necklace again.

Unlike last time, the Ice Moon Necklace emitted a faint coolness, which made Moriarty feel extremely comfortable.

His brain was working at lightning speed, and all kinds of information seemed to be automatically categorized, turning from messy to orderly.

Moriarty easily came up with the idea: "Through my family's heritage, I used ice magic to enhance my water elemental magic, successfully unsealing the water elemental magic and gaining the Ice Moon Necklace's approval."

In other words, water elemental magic can unseal the Ice Moon Necklace!

The immortal phoenix egg I found in the underground chamber can unlock my fire element magic.

If we classify the Ice Moon Necklace and the Undying Phoenix Egg as the same peculiar magical item, then we can assume that the key to unlocking the water element magic of the Ice Moon Necklace lies in the ownership of the Ice Moon Necklace!

Perhaps this is the real reason why Pang Ya wanted to obtain the Ice Moon Necklace!

Just as I possess the immortal phoenix egg and have unlocked fire elemental magic, those who issue missions to the Crow Clan, or dark wizard organizations, want to use the Ice Moon Necklace to unlock water elemental magic.

The specific reason is unknown, but what is certain is that the Ice Moon Necklace and the Undying Phoenix Egg can both unseal the magic of the two elements of water and fire, and the magic of the two elements of water and fire can also activate the right to use or own the Ice Moon Necklace and the Undying Phoenix Egg.

Theoretically, this makes sense, but I still can't find a connection between the Ice Moon Necklace and the prophecy of immortality. Perhaps I'm overthinking it, or maybe it really is just a prophecy?

Moriarty wrote down all his conjectures about the Ice Moon Necklace in a notebook. The appearance of the Ice Moon Necklace and the Japanese Black Wizard showed him a different magical world.

Just then, Luke returned. As soon as he entered the castle, he banged his head against the wall: "Luke is a bad house-elf! Luke didn't make a wizard's robe for the young master!"

Ingo chuckled coldly, drawing a glare from Luke: "Luke saw Lockhart in Diagon Alley! He was surrounded by a huge crowd. Diagon Alley is full of wizards now, and Luke was pushed out of Diagon Alley!"

"Alright, Luke, this isn't your fault." Moriarty smirked. The more people there were at Lockhart's, the more popular the novel was. "But you need to be careful from now on. I need the Daily Prophet's first edition!"

(End of this chapter)