Silence filled the dormitory.
Regulus pulled the heavy bed curtains shut and cast spells for soundproofing and anti-prying, isolating himself from everything outside—the praise, the gossip, the wariness, the calculations, and the fanatical warmth lingering in Bella's letter.
He sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, and let his consciousness sink into the depths.
The basic magic circulation followed its familiar path, gently washing over and nourishing his entire body, continuously strengthening every inch of skin, muscle, tendon, and bone.
Immediately after, in the upper layers of his consciousness, his mental power began to condense and weave.
The three stars of Orion's Belt lit up one by one in the darkness of his sea of consciousness, moving with a slow, imperceptible, yet real momentum.
The Star-track Guided Meditation began to operate, and his complex thoughts were smoothed over by the grand imagery.
Once his state of mind had completely calmed, Regulus attempted to light the fourth star.
As things were developing beyond expectations, he needed to quicken his pace.
Synchronizing three stars was only the beginning; it was merely the threshold for the Star-track Guided Meditation.
He projected his consciousness toward the brilliant right shoulder of Orion, that red supergiant known as Betelgeuse, which emitted a dark red aura.
This required incorporating this new point into the entire dynamic system while maintaining the dynamic model of the three stars.
Betelgeuse had its own trajectory; its relative position and movement relationship with the three stars of the Belt formed the foundation of Orion's upper body structure.
The difficulty increased sharply.
Simulating this kind of stellar momentum was a hundred times more difficult than constructing a static model.
It required precise calculations, powerful spatial imagination, and absolute magic control.
He had to maintain the precise relative positions of the light points in his mind simultaneously.
At the same time, he had to make each point move slowly with a tendency that was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, yet conformed to the laws of celestial motion.
It was like simultaneously controlling multiple light points in his mind that followed different complex functional trajectories, while ensuring that the overall shape they formed remained intact.
This required intense mental concentration and non-stop calculation.
A slight distraction would cause the momentum of a point to go wrong, leading the dynamic balance of the entire model to be disrupted or even collapse.
That slowness, instead of reducing the difficulty, brought a greater mental burden because of its inevitable existence and long-term maintenance.
Simulating this extremely slow motion, which was nearly static, required absolute patience, precision, and continuous regulation.
Regulus first tried to precisely locate Betelgeuse's current position in his consciousness.
A light point lit up—a dark red one, slightly larger than the three stars of the Belt—appearing to the upper right of the Belt.
Next was endowing it with momentum.
Betelgeuse's self-motion data was different from that of the Belt's stars, and even its direction of movement differed slightly.
Regulus had to split a portion of his mind specifically to calculate and maintain Betelgeuse's movement trend, while also coordinating its dynamic geometric relationship with the three stars of the Belt.
Distance, angle, and direction were all slowly changing as they each moved.
When he added Betelgeuse's momentum, the originally stable three-star model was immediately disturbed. The trajectories of the three light points showed undue disorder, and the entire dynamic structure became precarious.
He stopped immediately, retreated to maintaining only the three stars, and after stabilizing again, tried once more with great caution.
This time, he first added Betelgeuse as a static point, stabilizing its relative static position with the three stars.
Then, extremely slowly and subtly, he began to inject the calculated momentum into it, while simultaneously fine-tuning the momentum of the three stars to adapt to this new variable and seek a new dynamic equilibrium.
This was an extremely exhausting process of mental effort and calculation.
He felt his spirit like a taut bowstring, and a subtle throbbing pain came from his temples.
Maintaining a dynamic model of four stars consumed far more mental energy than three, increasing almost exponentially.
Time passed in silent confrontation and adjustment.
After an unknown amount of time, it was as if an invisible gear finally clicked into place with a "click."
The dark red light of Betelgeuse was finally no longer an abrupt addition.
It achieved a kind of coordination with the movement trend of the Belt stars, and the simple quadrilateral structure formed by the four stars began to move synchronously in the void of his consciousness with a harmonious and unified rhythm.
It was a success.
The four-star dynamic model was preliminary constructed.
Regulus maintained this state, carefully experiencing the changes.
The consumption of mental power was indeed massive, but a deeper sense of tranquility and a faint feeling of fulfillment from his soul being expanded also came at the same time.
After lighting the fourth star, the layering and stability of the entire meditation state seemed to have improved another notch, and his perception of the free-floating magic in the surrounding environment also seemed a bit sharper.
He slowly withdrew from the deep meditation state and glanced at the magical timer by his bed.
From the start of trying to light the fourth star to its preliminary success and stabilization, the entire process had taken nearly two hours.
And this was just the time required to add one star based on having already mastered the three-star dynamic model.
It was foreseeable that as the number of stars included in the model increased, the dynamic relationships between them would become increasingly complex.
For every new star added and integrated into the overall dynamic system, the time, calculation power, and mental load required would increase at an alarming rate.
But it was also foreseeable that as the depth of meditation increased, his spirit would become tougher and more vigorous under continuous high-intensity tempering, and his calculation ability and spatial imagination would also improve.
This would, in turn, gradually speed up the process of lighting subsequent stars; it was a spiral process, difficult and slow in the early stages, but accelerating in the later stages due to the solid foundation.
However, the greatest challenge was not lighting more stars, but solidification.
Dynamics was the essence of this method, and also its greatest difficulty.
He had to re-calculate, re-construct, and re-maintain this dynamic model every time he meditated; it was impossible to form an instinctive magic pathway like solidifying a meditation pattern.
To make this dynamic star orbit model reach the solidified realm of "occurring spontaneously whether walking, sitting, or lying down" was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Solidification usually meant being fixed and unchanging, yet what he was trying to solidify was a system in eternal motion.
This required the base layer of his spirit to form an active structure capable of automatically processing complex dynamic changes and automatically fine-tuning synchronization.
Although the road ahead was long, the light was visible to the naked eye.
Regulus closed his eyes again, not continuing to challenge the fifth star.
Tonight's success with the fourth star was already a breakthrough; he needed to consolidate it, making this four-star dynamic model more stable and more natural.
The extension of the star orbits proceeded quietly in these breaths, calculations, and synchronizations…
The news of Regulus crushing the fifth-year Alge Travers exploded like cold water dropped into boiling oil within Slytherin and even the entire Hogwarts pure-blood circle.
Slytherin prized power, but also the wisdom to use it. When the two combined and were displayed in such a dramatic fashion, the shock it brought was immense.
Overnight, Regulus's status within Slytherin underwent a subtle yet fundamental change.
The gaze of the upperclassmen toward him was no longer the casual look given to a promising junior, but held more respect and even a hint of wariness.
No one said stupid things anymore. Those young pure-blood wizards who had been somewhat distant from the Black family due to family stances or the Sirius incident began to look at this young heir with new eyes.
"The Black family might really be rising this time," a seventh-year whispered to a companion at breakfast.
"Think about it, the power he displayed and his casual attitude toward the Dark Arts—that really suits the taste of certain people."
"What matters is strength," his companion replied seriously. "He's only in his first year and can play with a fifth-year Travers like a toy. What about when he graduates?"
"Lord Voldemort is at the height of his power now. If the Black family produces such a ruthless character, their future status…"
Similar conversations took place in many corners.
Pragmatism was one of the survival rules of Slytherin. When the scales of power began to tilt significantly, adjusting one's posture and re-evaluating relationships was inevitable.
The owl post became exceptionally busy over the next few days.
Many Slytherin students, especially upperclassmen with close family ties, wrote home detailing the duel and the powerful strength Regulus Black displayed, which far exceeded his age.
Thursday morning, just after Transfiguration class ended, Regulus was stopped by a seventh-year senior.
"Black, Professor Slughorn would like you to come to his office," the senior said politely, even with a hint of imperceptible fawning.
Regulus nodded, packed his things, and headed toward the dungeons.
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