The thought passed in an instant, and Theodore's steps slowed slightly.
Hermione and the others all glanced at him curiously.
"Theodore, what's wrong?"
Theodore showed them a rather peculiar smile.
"Nothing."
"It's just that the moment I returned to Hogwarts, I suddenly felt as though something good was about to happen."
Harry and the others looked at one another, all of them plainly confused.
They had only just gotten back.
How had Theodore already decided that something good would happen?
And wasn't Divination only supposed to become an elective in third year?
But then again—
this was Theodore.
Which meant it all somehow made sense.
At that moment, Ron raised the earlier topic again.
"Theodore, before, you said there might be a greater crisis in the magical world."
"Something even more serious than You-Know-Who."
Harry and Hermione's expressions instantly became serious too.
They had long since developed the feeling that Voldemort might already have returned and be trying to rise again.
Otherwise, why would Hogwarts have suffered so many strange incidents?
But now Theodore was saying Voldemort might not even be the greatest danger?
The satisfaction they had previously felt over their recent growth instantly vanished, replaced by a heavy sense of urgency.
Hermione looked exactly like someone who had just spotted an exam approaching far sooner than expected. Her voice even sharpened.
"Then we need to prepare even more!"
Harry nodded gravely.
"That's right."
"If the crisis hasn't come yet, then that means we still have time to get stronger."
"Theodore—we want to help you too."
Theodore's lips curved slightly.
At last, he made up his mind.
Methods like the Eight-Nine Mystical Art were absolutely not something he could reveal now.
And besides, the requirements for such arts were far too high. Harry, Hermione, and the others could not meet them in any case.
But the simplified cultivation method attached to the Flying Tiger Battle Manual was another matter entirely. It had originally been created for training the soldiers of the Flying Tiger Army, and ease of entry had been one of its main purposes.
Its upper limit was not especially high.
But it was still more than enough for Harry and the others to cultivate for a good long while.
And compared to other things, the ingredients required to refine the Flying Tiger Pill were also relatively easy to find.
If Harry and the others really could succeed in this—
then perhaps they might even reach the level of the young Dumbledore or the young Voldemort.
Then another thought rose in Theodore's mind.
In the primordial world, founding sects and establishing teachings was something many great powers had done.
Even Yuanshi, Daode, and Tongtian, the three saints themselves, had all passed down orthodox lineages.
Saints were nearly omniscient and omnipotent. They would never do something meaningless.
As Theodore thought further, he recalled that Hongjun too had once made a truly grand gesture.
Back then, Hongjun had preached the Dao in the Purple Heaven Palace. So many famous saints and quasi-saints had once sat there and listened to him. All of them had called Hongjun "Teacher."
By that logic, almost all of the primordial world's greatest powers could be regarded as Hongjun's disciples.
And from that very point onward, the Heavenly Dao seemed to have risen to overwhelming prominence.
Even after Houtu transformed herself into reincarnation and aligned with the Earthly Dao—so that Heaven and Earth should, in principle, have stood as equals—
the Earthly Dao had still always been suppressed beneath the Heavenly Dao.
Houtu's influence barely extended beyond the underworld, and she herself remained hidden deep within reincarnation year after year.
Could that, too, have been connected to the preaching in the Purple Heaven Palace?
A thread of realization formed faintly in Theodore's mind.
"Preaching the Dao. Founding sects."
"Since saints—and even Hongjun himself—were so keen on doing such things, there must have been some benefit to it."
"For example—destiny."
"Destiny vast as an ocean without shore."
He could not yet say for certain.
But he was six or seven parts convinced.
Then, as his thoughts spun onward, Theodore suddenly remembered the Four Founders of the magical world establishing Hogwarts a thousand years ago.
Even after Godric Gryffindor encountered those twisted horrors and was reduced to surviving as the giant squid, he had still chosen to remain hidden beneath the Black Lake at Hogwarts.
Ravenclaw too had never truly left Hogwarts, instead enduring there by relying on the diadem.
Perhaps those acts were not unrelated.
And if that was so—
then what if Theodore founded the first immortal sect in this world?
At once, expectation and heat rose in his eyes.
He turned to Hermione and the others.
"Tonight. Midnight. Come to the Room of Requirement."
"I'm going to teach you a different kind of magic."
…
After Hermione and the others left, all of them with excitement written plainly across their faces, a smile rose at Theodore's mouth too.
In the primordial world, his current cultivation meant nothing worth mentioning.
But in the magical world?
Here, he was already someone fit to establish a school of his own.
An old ancestor founding a sect.
With that thought, Theodore went directly to the Room of Requirement.
The moment he stepped inside, with a single thought of his own, a landscape of ancient elegance and overflowing Dao-rhyme appeared around him, like a blessed immortal land.
If Theodore had seen something like this earlier in his journey, he would certainly have praised it. To perform such a transformation in the magical world truly was astonishing.
But now, to someone who carried the Eight-Nine Mystical Art, this sort of change was no longer difficult to understand.
What Transfiguration could do, the Eight-Nine Mystical Art could also do.
And what Transfiguration could not do—
as Theodore's cultivation continued deepening, the Eight-Nine Mystical Art had already begun to reach.
For example—
breaking through Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.
Theodore raised a hand.
The power of the Origin Sea surged out of him and then transformed entirely into wood-attributed spiritual energy.
In the next instant, the Eight-Nine Mystical Art began to move.
"If there are halls and towers, and an immortal blessed ground…"
"Then how can there be no mountain grove?"
He pointed casually.
At once, the mysteries of transformation unfolded. From the soil near the halls and pavilions, bamboo shoots and green sprouts broke through the earth and flourished into lush abundance.
Next, the power of the Origin Sea turned again, this time becoming water-attributed spiritual energy.
"If there are forests, how can there be no streams? No mist?"
Then countless droplets of water gathered and fell from the air, becoming a stream flowing through the Room of Requirement itself.
The water murmured softly, and mist rose from it, so that the immortal cave-dwelling became wrapped in drifting cloud and curling vapor.
Theodore pointed again.
"And if there are no birds, no beasts, no cries of insects…"
"Then a portion of the charm is still missing."
The Eight-Nine Mystical Art moved once more, and within the newly formed woodland there appeared birds and beasts of many kinds. Birdsong and insect-chatter at once filled the air, until the Room of Requirement truly seemed to have transformed into the dwelling-place of immortals.
Only then did Theodore nod in satisfaction.
At last, his gaze fell upon the gates of this blessed ground.
The couplet pillars at either side still lay blank, waiting for words.
After thinking for a moment, Theodore suddenly folded his fingers together like a sword.
A ringing sword-force carved strokes onto the pillars in silver-hooked, iron-drawn script.
The words read:
Lingtai Fangcun MountainSlanting Moon, Three-Star Cave
A faint smile rose to Theodore's lips.
And at that exact moment, thunder suddenly exploded across the skies over Hogwarts.
A feeling rose within Theodore's heart.
Then he saw that within ten miles of Hogwarts, heavenly flowers began to fall in profusion while golden lotuses emerged from the earth.
Immediately afterward, a vast surge of destiny and immense merit descended onto Theodore at the same time.
The destiny was even richer than the destiny he had received earlier from Voldemort.
The merit was greater than the merit he had gained from establishing the very first law within the underworld.
At first Theodore was simply stunned.
Then wild delight burst across his face.
"Could this be…"
"The benefit of founding a sect in the magical world?!"
At that same time, dim text rose quietly across the System screen.
[You think of the wrath of all the saints that you have incurred. Once the great tribulation truly opens, your hope of survival will likely be slim.]
[If you continue cultivating only the orthodoxies passed down by the saints, then without overwhelming merit and without primordial purple qi, at most you can only be like the ancestor of the Blood Sea, Lu Ya Daoren, or Patriarch Kunpeng—stuck forever at the peak of quasi-sainthood, unable to prove sainthood.]
[And even if you did become a saint, before Hongjun's wrath and Pangu's might, you would still be struck down effortlessly.]
[If you wish to survive within the tribulation, you must create a new law!]
[Your heart stirs. A flash of inspiration suddenly arises within it.]
[…]
[You have created the Mythic Great Luo Method!]
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