Night had completely swallowed Hogwarts.
Moonlight draped itself across the ancient castle walls like a veil of silver. Dim candle flames flickered along the corridors, casting long shadows over the stone floors while the wind whispered through cracked windows like ancient secrets being shared in hushed tones.
Most of the portraits had already fallen asleep.
Occasionally, one would mutter nonsense in its dreams before rolling over and returning to its slumber.
The Great Hall rested in eerie silence beneath its darkened enchanted ceiling. Pale moonlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, scattering fractured colors across the floor like pieces of a dream.
The library sat quietly in darkness.
Classrooms stood empty.
Even the winding dungeon staircases felt colder than usual, accompanied only by the distant sound of dripping water echoing through the stone halls.
High atop the towers, banners snapped and fluttered violently beneath the midnight wind.
Then dawn arrived.
The first rays of sunlight slowly climbed over the distant mountains and spread across the surface of the Black Lake. Through the windows of the Slytherin dormitory, refracted sunlight painted the room in soft rainbow colors.
Most of the students were still asleep.
But movement suddenly came from Leo's bed.
His eyes slowly opened.
Silver hair stuck out in every direction, and sleep still lingered heavily on his face.
"Still sleepy..."
Leo yawned and stretched lazily before pulling a pocket watch from his robes.
6:46.
His expression instantly sharpened.
Last night.
The sea of stars.
The strange resonance.
He immediately began examining himself.
No injuries.
No damage.
Nothing physically abnormal.
Then—
Wait.
This feeling...
Leo suddenly froze.
It was completely different from the mental exhaustion he had experienced before.
This wasn't laziness.
Nor was it that strange desire to lie down and do absolutely nothing.
Realizing this, Leo immediately sat cross-legged on the bed and entered meditation.
The moment he did—
His consciousness descended once more into that vast sea of stars.
The endless silver-and-gold ocean stretched infinitely before him.
For a brief moment, Leo stood there in stunned silence.
This time, however, his attention was immediately drawn toward a single unique star floating within the endless galaxy.
The moment his consciousness touched it—
BOOM.
His awareness nearly shattered from shock.
Back in the dormitory, Leo's body trembled violently.
His eyes snapped open.
His heart pounded against his ribs like a war drum.
One hand clutched tightly at his robes while the other curled into a fist as he struggled to steady his breathing.
The image replayed over and over inside his mind.
The endless sea of stars.
That unique star.
And upon it—
A figure.
A tiny translucent figure that looked exactly like himself several years ago.
And inside that illusory body...
A partially condensed dantian.
Leo's pupils trembled violently.
"Yang Spirit...?"
His breathing became ragged.
"No... not yet..."
"But it's already starting..."
His entire body shook with excitement.
The Yang Spirit.
The legendary realm.
Even though it was only the earliest stage—even though it remained far from complete—it already possessed a tiny fragment of physical substance.
That alone was enough to drive Leo nearly insane with excitement.
He collapsed backward onto the bed and desperately tried calming himself.
Failed.
Completely failed.
Eventually, wanting to verify that everything was real, Leo entered the cave manor.
The teleportation array near the entrance glowed softly as he arrived.
The moment he appeared, he dropped onto the ground without caring in the slightest.
Then he immediately sat cross-legged once again.
This time, his consciousness directly entered the tiny Yang Spirit seated above the sea of stars.
The sensation was indescribable.
It felt like a child attempting to wield an enormous battle axe.
The power existed.
But controlling it was another matter entirely.
Even so, Leo could feel an overwhelming illusion of strength surging through him.
The sensation that he could split mountains and overturn seas with a wave of his hand.
Of course, he knew rationally that this feeling was merely an illusion caused by a sudden increase in power.
But compared to Voldemort?
That noseless lunatic suddenly seemed insignificant.
After all, according to the ancient cultivation texts, the legendary Yang Spirit realm possessed terrifying abilities capable of traversing the heavens themselves.
Even if he was nowhere near that level...
Flying probably wouldn't be impossible eventually.
Still, none of that mattered right now.
What Leo truly needed—
Was somewhere to vent his emotions.
Back within the cave manor, Leo slowly opened his eyes.
A frightening light flashed within them.
Then the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.
His expression became almost feral with excitement.
And finally—
He burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
The sound exploded throughout the cave manor like thunder.
Even the walls seemed to tremble beneath his laughter.
"I'm going to succeed!"
"Hahahaha!"
"I absolutely love the magical world!"
Leo laughed wildly without restraint.
His entire body shook as years of pressure, fear, exhaustion, longing, and uncertainty erupted all at once.
"It's working!"
"It's really working!"
Every word carried uncontrollable excitement.
At that moment, Leo felt as though the path he had desperately searched for throughout his entire life had finally begun opening before him.
Then suddenly—
His laughter stopped.
Silence descended instantly.
Leo blinked.
The manic excitement vanished as abruptly as it had arrived.
A moment later, he once again looked like the harmless and slightly peculiar eleven-year-old boy everyone knew.
"...My throat hurts."
Feeling somewhat guilty, he pulled a carton of milk from his spatial pouch and took a long drink.
After shouting that much, he genuinely felt thirsty.
Then his gaze swept across the rather barren cave manor.
A recliner.
A small table.
A tree.
A lake.
Some grass.
That was essentially everything.
Leo pushed up his glasses thoughtfully.
"Looks like I really need to learn some weather magic."
"And maybe plant a few things."
He considered sending Radish to Diagon Alley to purchase seeds and magical plants.
Then suddenly—
Leo froze.
"...Wait."
"...Where's Kuroshi?"
It had been two entire days since he had last seen the crow.
Leo immediately jumped to his feet.
"Kuroshi!"
"Where are you?!"
"If you don't come out right now, I'm only letting Radish go out next time!"
Silence.
Leo searched around the lake.
The tree.
The rooftops.
Nothing.
He even swept the entire area with his spiritual sense.
Still nothing.
Eventually, he entered the manor itself.
"Kuroshi!"
"Are you dead?!"
"Did you sneak into the girls' bathroom again?!"
"You stupid bird!"
He searched the bedrooms.
The kitchen.
The library.
Even the bathrooms.
Nothing.
Leo rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"That's impossible..."
Dumbledore undoubtedly possessed some level of control over Hogwarts itself. Kuroshi shouldn't have been capable of leaving the castle unnoticed.
Unless...
Leo suddenly remembered a famous detective's words.
"When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
His expression slowly changed.
"...Outside?"
He immediately checked his pocket watch.
Nearly an entire hour had passed since he entered the cave manor.
His face stiffened.
That was bad.
If someone noticed he had vanished for that long, things could become troublesome.
After all, ordinary people might not realize Kuroshi was an alchemical construct.
Dumbledore almost certainly would.
Especially considering that Dumbledore was one of Nicolas Flamel's closest friends.
Thinking about it now, Leo felt deeply grateful that he had crafted his glasses from Ambrose's leftover materials.
Without them, his enormous spiritual power would have run wild long ago.
Back during his magical awakening, his mental energy had behaved almost like a powerful telekinetic force, causing nearby objects to float uncontrollably.
At the time, his body had resembled a fragile glass bottle with a steel ball bouncing violently inside it.
One mistake and everything might have shattered.
Even now, remembering how recklessly he had used that power during the initial awakening made him feel uneasy.
Honestly...
He still wasn't entirely sure whether he had survived because of skill—
Or pure beginner's luck.
....
Join my P@treon and get 60+ advanced chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/0LordSilvere0 (Remove the *)
Free members get 2 chapters free.
Join Right Now