Hogwarts starts with stealing power.

Harry woke up again to find himself in a place that was both strange and familiar.

In the past, when he dreamed, he was never able to immediately realize that it was a dream.

But this time was different. As soon as he opened his eyes, he sensed that it was another dream.

But this dream is very different from the previous ones. In the previous dreams, "he" was in a first-person perspective, always fighting and conquering everywhere.

In the dream, the wizards used very sophisticated magic, and Harry, through constant exposure, also picked up some learning tips.

But this time was different. He looked at the dazzling array of books around him and then at the surrounding decorations, his brows furrowing slightly.

"This place looks so familiar... I feel like I've been here before..."

While I was thinking, a door suddenly opened in the dimly lit room, and someone walked in by the light of a kerosene lamp.

Harry felt his breathing become incredibly calm, but his heart was beating a little fast. He quickly found a place to hide and even cast an invisibility spell on himself.

Harry had been watching the newcomer closely, and by the light of the kerosene lamp, he could make out the person's identity and was taken aback.

It turned out to be Ms. Pince, the librarian.

Ms. Pings had a sallow complexion, sharp cheekbones, and a long, thin neck. From a distance, she looked as thin as a bird of prey and was often referred to as "Vulture" by her students in private.

Her dark gray hair, as white as withered grass, was tightly bound with a bone hairpin and styled into a high, rounded bun. Stray hairs fell loosely on both sides of her forehead, like spider webs clinging to her temples.

Harry didn't go to the library very often, but he was very impressed with Mrs. Pince.

But what impressed me most was not her harsh face, her always-wearing faded black robe, or her rigid and unreasonable demeanor, but rather her eyes.

Even though her eyes were old, sunken, and her pupils were cloudy brown, every little wizard who borrowed books from the library would never forget her eyes that "pierced people's hearts like lasers."

It is said that Mrs. Pince was extremely obsessive about protecting the forbidden books in the library. Even though the truly useful forbidden books in the library had been moved to other places in various ways, a number of high-quality books that had not been corrupted by the ravings of evil gods were still left behind.

Years ago, a student stole several valuable books, and Mrs. Pince was reprimanded by the headmaster at the time. Since then, she has been very concerned about the safety of books.

Harry felt that every young wizard who came to the library to borrow books was considered a thief by Mrs. Pince, and whether they stayed to look at the books or borrowed them to read in their dormitories, they would be scrutinized by her several times.

Because he felt uncomfortable being watched by Mrs. Pince, Harry rarely went to the library, except for important times like final exams.

In contrast, Hermione and Mrs. Pince had a pretty good relationship.

Last semester, Hermione wrote a "Proposal for Regulating Borrowing" and handed it to Mrs. Pince, which contained her understanding of borrowing books.

Mrs. Pince kept it as a treasure and did not hand it over to the school; the library remained as it was.

Harry lowered his breathing even further when he saw Mrs. Pince walk into the library to patrol.

"Am I dreaming of my first time in the library? But why should I hide? And Mrs. Pince looks so young now."

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, my immediate "self" began to move.

After Mrs. Pince finished her patrol, she ran off to another place, clutching a book tightly in her hand.

The library doors were closed, and the scene fell silent, with the moon hanging high in the sky outside the window.

The night was deep, and the library was even darker than it had appeared at first.

Harry saw himself extend his wand, waving it to activate "Fluorescent Blink," and using the faint light from the wand to quietly read the book.

Harry was forced to follow a first-person perspective and read the profound content of the books.

Soul magic, splitting, Horcruxes, immortality...

These profound contents could easily bewitch a wizard with a weak mind, making him addicted to them.

Harry would normally be affected in dreams, but it's unclear whether the red liquid on the ring, which had already run out of power, still retained some of its strength, or whether the Radiant Candles outside were burning fiercely.

Harry didn't sense any seductive or tempting whispers in his dream.

Even though his magical talent had improved a lot in his dreams these past few days, this kind of advanced knowledge about the soul was still too profound for him.

Harry devoured the book but didn't learn any useful spells from it; instead, he became increasingly sleepy as he read.

In this dream, Harry felt his consciousness growing heavier and heavier until he finally closed his eyes.

When he woke up again, it was already the morning of the second day.

"Harry, are you alright?"

Not long after Harry woke up, Ron, who was supporting his head with his hand, swayed and almost fell to the ground, suddenly waking up with a start.

Looking around, he realized that it was already bright outside the window.

Before they knew it, they had spent the night.

Ron first looked at Harry and, finding him already awake, quickly asked him what was wrong.

After asking the question, he looked around at the glowing candles.

They lit more than a dozen candles, but now all of them have burned out completely, leaving not a trace.

Harry stretched, sat up in bed, felt pretty good, and said:

"I'm fine. I had a very vague dream last night, and I don't even know what I dreamed about when I woke up."

The dreams he had before were actually quite similar to today's dream, except that he could still clearly remember the scenes in the dream for a day or two after the previous dream.

But when I woke up today, I forgot it all.

Harry thought to himself that he seemed to be dreaming of his past life when he was studying at Hogwarts and secretly reading forbidden books, almost getting caught by Mrs. Pince.

Ron and Harry's voices woke a groggy Mikel. Mikel asked Harry a few questions about his health, and after learning that he was alright, he asked:

"Are you still going to participate in the assessment today?"

Harry thought for a moment and said, "I still have some Radiant Candles on me. I had a nightmare yesterday, but it didn't bother me much. I guess the Radiant Candles were the reason."

"I'll discuss it with Professor McGonagall when she returns. Let's get through this period using the Shining Candles, and I'll continue participating in the assessments as usual."

Mikel and Ron thought about it for a while and also thought it was feasible.

After all, only Professor McGonagall truly understands Harry's physical condition. Now that Professor McGonagall is not around, approaching other professors without proper knowledge could lead to unforeseen circumstances.

You know, many people outside are watching Harry and want to make a fuss about him. If people with ill intentions find out that Harry has nightmares every day, who knows how much they'll write about it, and maybe even start conspiracy theories.

Everything remaining the same is actually the best approach.

Mikel said, "I also need to speak with Professor McGonagall. We'll go see her together when she returns." Meanwhile, in a town in the world of the evil god.

The group of wizards who had infiltrated the town were on the verge of running out of supplies.

The laws of the evil god's world are very special. The people and plants here have been distorted. Wizards dare not eat food from the evil god's world, for fear of accidentally being poisoned.

They came here only to complete a mission, not because they actually wanted to become a member of the evil god's world.

Because of the special nature of the laws, they cannot use the seamless retractable rings and can only carry backpacks.

At this moment, the backpack, which was stuffed full of dry food, was almost empty.

A wizard looked out from the narrow window and saw that the people here still worked diligently, and even in the towns, many people were growing food.

The crops grown here are somewhat different from the plants that grow in the wild; they don't look so strange. This is the staple food for humans in the world of evil gods.

"We're running low on food. If we stay here any longer, we have to find a way to get some edible food."

"Who knows if eating food from the world of evil gods will cause infection? I won't eat it. I'd rather go to the wilderness than eat their food."

"Food in the wild is more dangerous. Let's retreat first and explore again after we collect food."

This squad also has a captain.

The wizards discussed amongst themselves, and finally turned their attention to the captain.

The captain pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice, "The food can last for two more days. We'll wait in town for a day. If we still haven't seen the first rays of sunlight by tomorrow, we'll leave the town and head to the settlement established by the wizards in the wilderness to replenish our supplies."

Fate has been kind to them.

Shortly after they made their decision, the town was blessed with rare sunshine.

When humans in the world of evil gods see the sun, they can't help but scream. Everyone quickly retreats into their houses as if avoiding a plague god, blocking the doors and windows tightly to prevent any sunlight from leaking in.

The wizard seized the opportunity and acted swiftly.

During the few days they hid in the town, they weren't completely inactive; they had already scouted out the town center.

Taking advantage of the daylight, they quickly arrived at the very center of town, passing by the dwellings of several deformed people along the way.

They feared that the mutants would detect the scent on them that didn't fit the world of the evil gods, and that if the mutants rushed out to fight them, they would be in great danger and be surrounded.

After all, this town is a town in the world of evil gods, and the humans and evil gods here reject anything from the magical world.

Fortunately, the aquatic artifacts they carried proved very useful. The group of wizards successfully passed through the freaks' dwelling and arrived at an open area in the center, where they quietly buried the golden feather that Dumbledore had given them in the ground.

The golden feather is clearly a high-level artifact that cannot appear directly in the world of the evil god, as it would likely cause spatial fluctuations and attract the attention of the evil god.

So the feather was placed in a specially made silver box, and it was this same box that was buried in the ground.

After completing all this, all the wizards breathed a sigh of relief and moved on to the next task.

This task was carried out relatively easily. The golden feather had already been buried, giving them confidence that Dumbledore could appear in the world of evil gods through the golden feather.

If they were truly in danger, the great Dumbledore would never stand idly by and watch them die.

The reason this task is considered easy is that the altar in town is very easy to find and quite conspicuous; it's located right next to the junkyard.

For some reason, after the evil god took control of the town, he did not destroy the altar. Instead, he turned the location of the altar into a garbage dump, seemingly trying to pollute the altar by dumping all sorts of filth there.

But what harmful substances are produced by human beings through eating, drinking, and excretion?
This little bit of trash won't pollute the altar at all. If the altar could be removed by such means, then the evil god would have thought of other simpler methods instead of dumping trash into it day after day, year after year.

The captain looked up at the sky, his expression grave: "We need to speed up. A large patch of dark clouds is approaching, and the sun may very well disappear."

Once the sunlight disappears, the people from the evil god's world will emerge, and they will surely encounter danger.

Upon arriving at the junkyard, the stench was overwhelming. The wizard, prepared for this, cast a powerful head-bubbling spell on himself.

This level of stench could be relieved with a low-level Bubble Spell, but unfortunately, this is a world of evil gods where magic is weak. Only high-level spells can have any effect; low-level spells simply cannot be generated.

The landfill was huge, and there was a lot of garbage inside, but the altar was also huge.

Even though it was completely covered in garbage, the outline of a large cauldron was still faintly visible, so the wizard quickly found the altar.

This is the altar being lit.

The act of igniting here is not simply about lighting a small flame; ordinary flames have no effect on the power of the evil god.

The so-called "ignition" is to provide energy to the altar, allowing it to generate flames on its own, and then use the power of the flames to cleanse the town of the evil spirits.

To put it simply, the key is not the flames, but the ability to activate the remaining power within the altar.

The key point comes back to us: the reason the altar stopped burning was simply because it lacked energy.

Research by the wizarding world has shown that high-grade magic stones can provide energy to altars, as can various magical plants and artifacts with light attributes.

Each wizard carried relatively little food because their backpacks were used to store high-level magic stones.

As darkness fell and the sunlight was gradually obscured by shadows, the wizards quickened their pace, dumping the magic stones from their backpacks into the garbage heap above the altar.

We can only force it in now; there's no time to delve into the altar for research.

Soon, the world was plunged into darkness, and the people of the evil god's world began to emerge again.

At this moment, all the wizards stopped what they were doing and quickly hid in the garbage heap, each wearing a strange aquatic plant hanging around their necks.

Ordinary humans from the world of evil gods come to work at the junkyard and ignore the wizards.

In their minds, these wizards were "one of their own".

The wizards thought they had escaped this calamity, but suddenly a high-level mutant appeared in the junkyard.

This mutated human keenly sensed a change in the energy fluctuations of the junkyard, noticing a peculiar aura emanating from it, and thus came to investigate.

Upon closer inspection, they immediately discovered the wizard hiding in the garbage dump.

The mutated man said with a grim expression, "Who are you! You are not from this world, and the aura emanating from you disgusts me!"

The wizard's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly cast a spell: "Guardian of Light!"

A dazzling halo appeared, causing the people in the world of evil gods to instinctively retreat, as they inherently hated this power.

A corner of the light of protection shone on the altar, acting as a catalyst to accelerate its activation.

Suddenly, a muffled "hum" echoed from afar. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound, and the next second, all the trash above the altar burst into flames, transforming into a bright fire. (End of Chapter)