Regulus Black had a rather dangerous idea.
A fatal blow directed at all carbon-based life, from which even wizards would not be exempt.
What compound is lethal to almost all carbon-based organisms and can be quickly generated on the spot using Transfiguration?
Cyanide.
Whether it's hydrogen cyanide gas or cyanide ions, both are highly toxic, rapidly inhibiting cellular respiration with an extremely small lethal dose and very fast onset.
The air contains nitrogen and carbon elements, and water vapor provides hydrogen.
Theoretically, if one's magic control was heaven-defying enough, they could instantaneously and precisely capture nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen atoms from the surrounding environment.
And forcibly combine them into hydrogen cyanide molecules, delivering them directly into the target's respiratory system… This would require more than just control over molecular arrangement; it would be a delusion of atomic-level manipulation, along with real-time element identification and synthesis path calculation capabilities comparable to a supercomputer.
For now, it was nothing short of a fantasy.
But in the wizarding world, the thing least lacking is miracles that turn the impossible into the possible.
At the very least, this direction pointed toward the heights Transfiguration could reach in extreme circumstances.
It would no longer be a combat aid but would become the most secretive and lethal weapon.
If hit, a skilled wizard might be able to perform effective self-rescue, but a clumsy one would almost certainly die.
Of course, that was extremely far off, perhaps even forever unattainable.
However, one could work toward it.
Hermes Mulciber managed to crawl up from the floor, leaning against a bedpost with his head down, not daring to look at Regulus Black again.
The arrogance in his heart was completely shattered, replaced by deep wariness and fear, as well as a trace of twisted curiosity about that unknown power that even he himself hadn't noticed.
The confidence he had originally imagined of turning the tables with Dark Arts seemed so laughable at this moment.
He needed to reassess everything, including himself, and… how to face this terrifying roommate.
Quiet returned to the dormitory. A faint smile played at the corners of Regulus Black's mouth as he picked up a new piece of graphite and began a new round of practice…
While Transfiguration's exploration of the essence of matter was fascinating, Regulus Black knew it required years of accumulation and could not be achieved overnight.
Currently, he needed more immediate and critical defensive capabilities to deal with the increasingly imminent and great threat: Lord Voldemort.
Occlumency was the first priority.
The original book mentioned that Severus Snape relied on this method to serve as a spy by the side of the Legilimency master, Lord Voldemort, without being detected.
Mastering Occlumency not only effectively defends against Legilimency but might even be effective against Imperio.
It was an indispensable survival skill when facing Lord Voldemort.
However, Occlumency alone was not enough.
He thought of passive magic—spells that could remain active without being consciously cast or could trigger automatically to protect the wizard.
Hogwarts' regular curriculum rarely taught these; they were often regarded as advanced or obscure magical arts, scattered within the heritage of ancient families or certain advanced magical texts.
And Occlumency was the most core passive mental defense among them.
For Regulus Black, entering the Restricted Section without permission was a matter of either zero times or countless times.
Tonight, a Wednesday night before Halloween, the castle was exceptionally quiet, and he decided to sneak in again.
The process was familiar and easy.
He didn't stay too long. With a clear goal and relying on his powerful mental scanning-style reading, he quickly browsed and memorized the core information of relevant books.
He saw several titles:
*Fortress of the Mind: Essentials of the Art of Mental Defense*
*Ancient Protective Rituals and Eternal Magical Inscriptions*
*The Essence of Magic: On the Shaping and Disguise of Personal Magic*
*An Introduction to Dark Arts Detection and Countermeasures*
*Soul Resilience: On Resisting Subjugation and Beguilement*
*The Hidden Path: Tracking, Counter-Tracking, and Magical Mists*
Hogwarts' collection of books was simply unfathomable, and it also outlined a vast field of knowledge for him to explore in the future.
Back in the dormitory, Regulus Black immediately began practicing Occlumency.
According to the book's description, the core of Occlumency lay in strictly controlling the leakage of thoughts and emotions, and constructing a complex and false, or solidified, mental labyrinth deep within the consciousness to confuse intruders.
Practice was divided into several levels.
First was the basic barrier: concentrating the mind to build a simple wall on the periphery of consciousness to prevent surface thoughts from wandering and being read at will.
Second was the organization and partitioning of thoughts: classifying different memories, knowledge, and emotions, and storing them in different "rooms."
Then came the generation of false memories or thoughts: actively creating some seemingly reasonable but irrelevant or misleading thought fragments, and automatically pushing these decoys to the intruder when attacked.
Finally, deep solidification and automatic defense: training the defensive mechanism into an instinct, so that even without active maintenance, the subconscious would automatically run the basic barrier and decoy deployment.
Only the deepest and most core thoughts would be strictly protected, with extremely complex access paths.
With Regulus Black's powerful mental and soul stability, which had long since surpassed his peers and even many adult wizards due to constant tempering through Star-track Guided Meditation, starting Occlumency was almost seamless.
He quickly mastered the construction of the basic barrier, and his partitioned thought management was also well-organized.
However, he felt that to reach a level capable of completely deceiving a Legilimency master like Lord Voldemort, he might still need more practice and the honing of higher-level techniques.
But the door had already opened for him; the rest was mostly a matter of time and situational adaptation.
He even had a thought: could he use the dynamic model of Star-track Guided Meditation as a core for a special mental labyrinth?
Hiding the most important secrets within the constantly running and computationally complex variations of the astral model.
Even if an intruder broke through the outer defenses, facing this vast, borderless, and constantly moving starry sky—which required extremely high computational power just to understand—they would likely be left dizzy and disoriented, unable to find any truly useful information.
Over the next two days, while consolidating his Occlumency, he also began trying to delve into other passive magic.
He understood the prototype of a Constant Shield Charm as the shaping of one's own magic, allowing magic to form an extremely thin but evenly distributed protective layer on the body's surface.
This required continuous and subconscious magical fine-tuning, which was very taxing on attention and could currently only be maintained for a short time.
Danger sense was combined with his already keen magical perception; he began to consciously train himself to notice even the slightest malice directed at him in the environment.
Learning and mastering each type of passive magic was not easy.
They didn't seek instantaneous explosive power but required a wizard to have extremely subtle control over their own magic and mind, as well as long-term, gradual transformation.
But the benefits were also obvious.
Once successful, they would truly integrate into instinct, becoming armor and radar that worked 24 hours a day, providing early warning before danger arrived.
They would automatically provide the first layer of buffer during an attack and protect the deepest secrets when being pried into.
For him, who needed to maneuver within the dark faction, the importance of these abilities was no less than any powerful offensive magic…
Friday afternoon, Potions class ended early.
Regulus Black headed to the library as usual, but in a secluded corridor connecting the dungeons to the main staircase, he heard familiar shouting and jeering.
It was James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin, who seemed to be trying to dissuade them but with little effect.
They had Severus Snape surrounded.
Snape's robes had been splashed with some kind of slimy potion residue that was continuously emitting a strange odor, and his hair was soaking wet.
His face was so dark it could practically drip ink, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, but facing the four of them—especially with James and Sirius flanking him on both sides—he appeared isolated and helpless.
"Look who it is? Dear Snivellus is doing his potion experiments again? Planning to create a new stench attack this time?" James laughed loudly.
"Let me go, Potter," Snape's voice was hoarse and full of resentment, as if squeezed through his teeth.
"Let go? We're just kindly helping you clean that unidentified object off your robes. It's really filthy, just like you."
Sirius leaned lazily against the wall, a smile full of rebellion and mischievous pleasure on his face.
Regulus Black stopped in his tracks, not stepping forward immediately, but just watching quietly.
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