Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 177 The Mind Trojan Horse

That magic wasn't particularly powerful, nor was it abundant, yet it was incredibly resilient.

It extends countless fine threads, slowly but irresistibly penetrating every corner of his will, constantly digging deeper until it reaches the very bottom of his consciousness.

At the same time, it seemed to be rearranging his will according to some kind of rule, flattening and reshaping the core of his memories and emotions, and solidifying it into a completely different and unfamiliar form.

Gradually, he felt himself losing control of himself.

He felt as if a huge net had enveloped him from the inside out.

In the final moments before he fell into a deep sleep, he understood.

It was a seed.

It is taking root and sprouting deep within his soul.

……

Horcruxes are among the most powerful magical items known.

Its most prominent characteristic is its stability and indestructibility.

Murphy has had the diary for nearly three years, and his research on Horcruxes has gone further than most wizards.

In his view, the powerful defensive capabilities of Horcruxes are actually an external manifestation of their extremely stable internal magical structure.

In theory, a Horcrux is simply a container for storing fragments of a soul.

However, no mental spells can penetrate the Horcrux's defenses to affect the soul fragments inside.

Its protective power against soul fragments is extremely comprehensive and formidable.

To directly use a spell on a Horcrux to alter the nature of its soul fragments is no less difficult than physically destroying it with a spell.

However, the most powerful fortresses are breached from within.

Murphy first implanted the Seed of the Mind into Albert Lencowyn's soul, and then used him as bait to lure Tom into it. Through Lencowyn, this "Trojan horse," Murphy was able to bypass the Horcrux's external defense mechanisms and implant the Seed of the Mind in the diary.

This Seed of the Soul was also specially developed by Murphy.

First, he combined the transformation application mechanism of the "Moga Werewolf" and left an interface in the Seed of the Mind for him to interact with.

Secondly, he allowed this seed of the soul to penetrate into the very core of the diary consciousness, gaining access to the highest level of diary knowledge.

Thus, the diary at this moment is like a mobile phone with root access controlled by a Trojan virus. Murphy can control any of its five senses, manipulate its emotions and reason, add goals, values, and beliefs to it at will, or disrupt its logic and guide its will in any direction he wants.

The diary has become a complete puppet.

……

In the basement, Murphy emerged from the darkness and checked Albert Lencoon's breath.

He is dead; Tom has completely absorbed his magic and life.

But Tom is still in the diary, and has not appeared.

He was sealed off by the seed of the soul.

Murphy approached the diary and began searching the inside of the Horcrux.

He saw Tom's memories.

He saw how, at the orphanage, he had mentally hanged the pet rabbit of a Muggle child with whom he had argued, and how he stared at a chubby boy who had insulted him until the boy twisted his leg.

He saw Tom gradually become more skilled at using this method of "punishment," and he also saw his initial panic at discovering that the other person had been hurt gradually turn into pride in realizing that he was different from others.

Aloofness, repression, and a hidden anger and self-admiration.

This is Tom Riddle as a child.

Then there's Dumbledore.

Memories of the orphanage are sharp, cold, angry, and bleak, but memories of Dumbledore are filled with a kind of dreamlike warmth.

Even now, he can still feel Tom's excitement at confirming that he truly possesses a talent that ordinary people don't have, and his joy at being able to escape the orphanage, a place that doesn't accept him.

And... a peculiar feeling of kinship towards the first adult "kind" he encountered?

Murphy raised an eyebrow, surprised that Tom would perceive the meeting this way.

But it's understandable, after all, he was just an eleven-year-old boy who had long been deprived of love.

Then, he saw the changes in him when he was in school, from novel exploration to the slowly expanding ambition after gradually mastering the rules.

Then he saw the entire process of how the diary was made.

To his surprise, he discovered that the diary was not originally a Horcrux. Tom used extremely advanced Legilimency and several complex mind spells to weave his memories into a "textual portrait" using the diary as a medium.

His approach to creating the diary was actually the same as that of wizards when creating "portraits".

Before becoming a Horcrux, the diary was itself a transcendent magical creation capable of independent thought and possessing a portion of its own personality, which is quite different from other Horcruxes that are merely containers for soul fragments.

It wasn't until later, after he decided to create Horcruxes, that he added the soul fragments to the diary, making it what it is today.

Murphy unearthed a few more spells that Tom had treasured from these memories, spells that he hadn't shown before, but they were all insignificant, as Murphy didn't lack any powerful spells at the moment.

However, the memory weaving involved in making the diary itself, and the steps involved in infusing souls into Horcruxes, are more valuable for reference.

After studying it for a while, Murphy sent a message to the diary through the Seed of the Mind's interface.

Then they retreated back into the darkness and observed.

A ghostly figure floated down from the diary and stood on the ground. His body gradually became clearer from its semi-transparent appearance; it was 16-year-old Tom Riddle.

But his eyes were tightly closed, as if he had not yet woken up from a dream.

With a thought from Murphy, 16-year-old Tom began to shrink little by little, his age receding and becoming younger and younger. Before long, he became an eleven or twelve-year-old boy.

Then, Tom's face gradually changed, becoming more and more like the Muggle boy "Lucas Brettson" that Lencow had transformed into.

In no time, Tom was indistinguishable from the kneeling body. He lowered his head, walked forward, and his translucent body slowly disappeared into the corpse.

On Lucas's forehead, where Murphy released the Seed of the Mind, a small light appeared, and on Tom's forehead, a similar light, like a seed, also appeared. The two positions gradually overlapped, and finally, the Seed of the Mind, like a nail, nailed Tom and Lucas's bodies together.

The light faded, and for a long while, the basement was silent.

Then, Lucas moved, swaying as he stood up, took off his ill-fitting adult clothes, and took out some children's clothes from a drawer next to the table and put them on.

He tucked the notebook on the table under his arm and finally took out a worn-out eraser from the drawer.

Suddenly his body twisted and he vanished from the basement in an instant.

……

Reed Children's Home, London.

Late at night, a few hours earlier, someone broke into the room and took away Lucas Tom Brettson, who was still asleep. Now, his single room is empty.

But then, with a distortion of space, a blond-haired boy appeared in the room.

He placed the diary on the table, then went back to his bed and lay down.

……

The next morning, Lucas suddenly opened his eyes.

He looked around blankly for a while, and finally spotted the notebook on the table.

He stepped forward.

Then, a line of text gradually appeared on the diary.

"My name is Lucas Tom Brettson. On August 26, 1991, I woke up in the orphanage as usual. Nothing was different today, except that I was a little dizzy and seemed to have forgotten many things."

"In the morning, Mrs. Cornan, the headmistress, told me that a couple wanted to adopt me."

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(End of this chapter)