A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 602 Life experience
Fleur pushed Charles along by the shoulder, turning away the moment that single strand of hair on his head started to turn.

As they walked, the two noticed that the surrounding fog was rapidly dissipating, revealing a clear stone path on the ground.

The two walked along the path, which led to a small white stone palace, ancient and elegant in style, which was out of place with its surroundings.

The palace doors were tightly shut, and a person stood outside.

"It's you?!" Charles jumped up, never expecting to see her here.

Furong looked at the woman in surprise. She was dressed in a snow-white robe, mature and intellectual, with golden hair that cascaded down to her calves. She was tall and well-proportioned. C++ was the best language in the world, and she seemed to be better than her in every way... by a little bit.

The "Queen" they met in the Merlin Cemetery years ago stood at the door, smiling at the two of them, and said softly, "Mother has been waiting for you for five hundred years."

"What?" Furong exclaimed in surprise, "Grandma is here, she... she's still alive?"

That was the most mysterious Veela from five hundred years ago, leaving behind legends in various parts of the world, and in France, she even appeared as Joan of Arc's teacher.

Furong never imagined that she was still alive.

The person at the door glanced at Charles and said, "Mother didn't die."

This answer left Furong completely bewildered.

Charles frowned slightly, but said nothing.

The palace gates opened, and they carefully followed the guide inside.

A white flame floated in the center of the hall behind the door, with countless starlight within it, slowly dancing as if it were alive.

Behind the flames are two exquisite statues, carved with lifelike detail, one male and one female.

When Fleur saw the male statue's face clearly, she gasped sharply, nearly dropping her wand.

“Impossible!” she murmured, her voice trembling with shock, before turning to look at Charles.

The male statue looks and looks a lot like Charles, only a bit older.

“Soul?” Charles stared at the flame and suddenly uttered a word.

"Yes." It was the flame that answered her, its voice resounding directly in her heart, "Surprised? Unexpected? Exciting?"

Charles, who was prepared, nodded thoughtfully.

Before she could ask any more questions, the soul said, "Hibiscus Delacour, go with Alice to the side hall. Although you did not pass the challenge, you have come this far and can see what I have prepared for everyone."

Furong was taken aback. The person who had guided her earlier gestured for her to follow.

She hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What about Charles?"

The soul replied, "I need to discuss some issues with him, which involve personal privacy."

Fleur opened her mouth, about to say something, when Charles said, "It's alright, your business is more important."

“Okay,” Hibiscus said, “Be careful.”

After she finished speaking, she followed Alice to the side hall.

"Hoo~" Charles took a deep breath and asked in Mandarin, "Who are you, or who are we?"

The soul asked with great interest, "Why do you think that?"

Charles smiled and replied, "I've studied Voldemort's Horcruxes. There's some kind of power connecting the soul fragments. They can not only transmit certain information but also pull on each other, preventing the soul from falling into the abyss of death."

“The soul can affect many kinds of magic, the most obvious being the Guardian Angel and Animagus transformation, and both of mine are unique.”

"When I was born, my soul was fragmented and I couldn't remember many things. Even after my soul was restored to one, there were still many missing parts."

"Therefore, I've always had a suspicion that there was something wrong with how I traveled through time, and that some fragments of my soul are somewhere else."

After she finished speaking, she waited quietly for the other party's response.

"The general direction is correct," the soul replied, "but there are some discrepancies in the details because our experience is somewhat outlandish."

"Years ago, while searching for my companions, I studied the despicable Horcrux out of curiosity, but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time."

"When my physical body aged and my soul departed, I found I couldn't leave, and that's when I realized your existence."

"At the time, I didn't know it was you. I thought it was some fragment I didn't know about, because we all thought you had already been annihilated in the self-destruction."

"I only became aware of your existence after a fragment of your soul was drawn to me and assimilated with me."

"Therefore, I sent Alice—whom you named Artemis—to find you. After discovering that you had gone to the hot cave in England and placed a fragment of mine inside, your soul was indeed able to merge perfectly with that fragment. In the end, I was certain that it was you."

Charles found this odd and couldn't understand some of the content, so he asked, "Why do you think this part of me is gone?"

The soul said, "This has to start from the beginning." "In our first life, after we died, we were transported to a world, which you can think of as the first floor of a building."

"At first, after we time-traveled, we lived a shameless life with our wives; that was the second floor."

"Later, an accident happened. We perished together with the enemy while protecting our home. At the time, they couldn't find any trace of the second floor, so they assumed it had been completely destroyed."

“They took the remaining first floor and reincarnated it in a dead infant. That is me, the second floor that I rebuilt on the first floor.”

"But I eventually died too, and that's a very, very long story."

"When I came into this world, I was reincarnated as a Veela. You should have heard the legends surrounding this incident."

Charles nodded after hearing this and said, "I see. It seems that the fragments of my floor came to this world, then came together through interaction, and finally I was resurrected."

The soul said, "That should be it."

Charles finally understood, and asked curiously, "So what do you plan to do? Will you merge me with it?"

She felt a little nervous, wondering what she should do if the other party intended to do that.

The soul said, "If you are satisfied with your current body, I can merge with you, and then you will be the strongest person in the world."

"What do you mean?" Charles asked incredulously, an answer she had never expected.

The soul said dejectedly, "As the saying goes, appearance reflects the heart, and the soul has a strong influence on external appearance."

"When I came into this world, I was accidentally reincarnated as a Veela. I was still injured at the time, but under the influence of the world's will, I was transformed into the shape of a Veela."

“There is a fundamental difference between you and me. If we were to merge, my image would definitely dominate. Then you wouldn’t just be a woman because of the Transfiguration Charm, but a real woman.”

Charles immediately said, "Then let's forget about it."

She then asked curiously, "What happens after I die?"

The soul said, "Who knows?"

"Because you have a physical body, you are firmly anchored to this world."

"Once your physical body is gone, who knows if it will be you and me merging again, or if you will just disappear like that, or if you will travel through time with me again."

"Although I have studied the soul to some extent, I have only scratched the surface. We'll talk about it when the time comes."

Charles looked skeptical.

The soul noticed her hesitation and said, "If I swallow you, I'll have to go to work to keep my body alive. Do you like going to work?"

Charles shook his head naturally. If the old man's inheritance was enough for him to squander for a lifetime, he wouldn't need to run so many companies.

“It sounds amazing,” she said. “If I told anyone, no one would believe me.”

That's about it for her. We can talk about the details later when she has time.

"What did you leave for Veela?" Charles asked curiously.

“It’s nothing,” the soul said. “One is the Intelligent Life Instrumentality Project, which aims to increase the strength of the soul and thus the overall lifespan. It’s like an advanced version of Nicolas Flamel’s Philosopher’s Stone, but it’s not the end.”

"The other one is long-distance spatial teleportation, which greatly reduces side effects, but I think you can figure it out if you study it carefully."

"These two items are for future space travel and are not needed now."

Charles gasped. No wonder the Veela could only acquire these two technologies after a powerful individual emerged who could protect them. Who wouldn't be envious?

"By the way, what kind of being is Alice?"

He could tell that Alice wasn't human, so he asked out of curiosity.

“A puppet controlled by a simulated soul,” the soul said. “I can control it remotely and run errands for you. Back when Joan of Arc was burned, it even helped me get some crude oil from the Middle East to refine into gasoline to pour on the firewood.”

Charles's lips twitched, and he said, "Didn't Joan of Arc turn against you?"

“No,” the soul said, “we get along very well.”

Once the conversation started, it continued in this manner.

Charles wasn't sure if this was just casual conversation between the two of them or a monologue.

After a long while, Furong returned from the side hall, her face full of disbelief.

"You can go back now," the spirit said. "Come visit us again sometime."

(End of this chapter)