Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 449 Rice: The Hunt Begins

Thanks to Rice's teachings, Astoria was definitely one of the contestants who hated the Secret Order the most. Coupled with the arrogant attitude of the person in front of her, she could hardly suppress the murderous intent in her heart.

"Very good eyes, I like them." The young monk from the Secret Order naturally noticed the change in Astoria's eyes. Instead of being angry, he seemed even happier.

"I saw you hunt the black dragon just now. I must say, you are definitely on the right path." The young monk expressed his approval of Astoria's performance.

This only enraged Astoria even more: Who do you think you are?! You dare to instruct me?!

The young monk paid no heed to Astoria's emotional shifts, continuing, "Blood, about one-thirteenth of a person's weight—what an interesting number! The divine forces have already shown us the importance of blood. Blood carries life; whoever controls the blood controls life and death—"

At this point, he lightly patted his forehead, as if he had suddenly realized something.

"Oh! Did I forget to introduce myself? My mistake, you can call me [Capricorn]."

Astoria narrowed her eyes. She had heard Rice mention this code name before, and she also knew that the Secret Order had once sent Capricorn to lead two other monks to invade Hogwarts.

Of course, they are all dead.

"What bad luck, to have a dead person's name." Astoria mocked Capricorn without hesitation, instantly making the other's face turn extremely ugly.

After a few seconds, he said in a muffled voice, "Grandfather's matter... was just an accident."

"Grandfather?" Astoria raised an eyebrow. It turned out that the young man before her was the grandson of the Secret Order monks who had invaded Hogwarts in the past. No wonder he was so eager to inherit the name of Capricorn. However, since the Secret Order allowed him to inherit this title, it meant that his strength had reached a considerable level—at least he had fused with a divine relic.

Upon learning that the girl in front of him actually knew about his grandfather's affairs, Capricorn's feelings underwent a subtle change.

What he wants now is more than just the dragon heart in Astoria's hands.

His face turned crimson, and he exuded a dangerous aura.

The knights around him felt a sudden surge of emotion, an urge to bow down to the young man before them.

Astoria was no exception, but she slightly stirred the blood in her body, making it flow faster, and forcibly dispelled this strange sense of worship.

"Step back. This conflict is not something you can interfere with." Astoria glanced at the knights around her and sternly told them to step back, while also influencing them with her power to manipulate blood.

The knights then snapped out of their strange state and scattered to both sides as if facing a formidable enemy.

Capricorn sneered: "It's better to let them stay here and serve as your ammunition depot. Blind kindness will only get you killed."

As he spoke, tiny scales gradually appeared on his face.

Astoria wasn't going to fall for his tricks. She felt that if these knights lingered any longer, they would be completely controlled by the monk before her and become his human shields.

"What an ugly thing." The wand slid into her hand, and Astoria launched an attack spell at Capricorn without hesitation, while trying to interfere with the opponent with her blood domain as the spell was cast.

Capricorn easily dodged Astoria's magical attack with a sidestep. He even had the mind to mock, "You have the ability to manipulate blood, don't you? A very powerful ability. Unfortunately for you, my counter is comprehensive, because I have a drop of divine blood fused within me!"

Astoria sighed inwardly, then waved her free hand behind her. The black dragon that had been lying stiffly on the ground immediately stood up, its flesh swelling up again—Astoria was injecting the dragon blood hidden in the soil back into the black dragon's body, using the blood to control the black dragon's corpse.

"The real battle has begun!" The black dragon pounced on Capricorn, with Astoria's curse following closely behind.

Capricorn's eyes narrowed, and his expression turned serious: the current situation was somewhat beyond his control.

Meanwhile, the other contestants also began their actions.

Cedric stood on the shoulder of a giant native, looked at the fire dragon lying in a pool of blood before him, and breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked down at the natives who were fighting alongside him and gave them a gentle smile.

"The battle is over."

"The battle is over." Hermione's figure disappeared for a moment, then reappeared in the same spot. The dragon that had just been swaggering around was now a corpse.

The blood-soaked dragon heart in her hand seemed to have stopped beating for a long time.

Daphne stood before the dragon's charred corpse, her face grave.

"I accidentally used too much force... Does the shattered dragon heart still count?"

No one could answer her question.

Neville Longbottom lay panting on the steaming ground, the air thick with the stench of blood and the nauseating smell of roasted meat.

"The battle is over." A pale face appeared in Neville's field of vision. Neville remembered that this person was the wizard in the group, but he couldn't quite remember the name.

But as he said, the battle is over.

Some players have already completed the main quest. The best among them chose to go it alone and personally slay the fire dragon that would become their target, but many more chose to cooperate with the local inhabitants and fight side by side.

Some contestants succeeded, while others failed.

It doesn't matter if they fail, as long as they can escape the Fire Dragon's territory, everything will be fine. They can continue to seek help from the natives, or they can reunite with their teammates and then decide what to do next.

Outside the stadium, the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch was packed with people.

Besides the Hogwarts students and teachers, many people from other magic schools also came to watch the game. Led by their respective headmasters, they formed small squares and searched for their school's players on the screen in the stands.

On the court, gasps of amazement would occasionally rise due to a player's excellent play, while sighs of regret would ripple out at the occasional mistake made by another player.

Everyone watched the game with the same level of focus as if they were watching the Quidditch World Cup.

In a corner of the stands, Helga and Rowena sat together, admiring their masterpiece.

"You're something else, actually thinking of sending these kids to hunt a fire dragon," Helga couldn't help but mutter. In her opinion, this main quest was a bit beyond her scope.

A dragon, such a powerful magical creature, requires several adult wizards working together to subdue. To kill it would require even more effort. For a group of students who haven't even graduated from school yet, this challenge seems a bit too much.

Rowena glanced at her old friend calmly.

"I think the difficulty level is quite reasonable." She carefully analyzed what countermeasures she could take if she wasn't strong enough.

"They can seek help from the indigenous people, they can team up with other contestants, and I even gave them a month. If they can't complete the task under these conditions, they should come back to watch the competition as soon as possible." Rowena's attitude was very clear.

Her goal is to eliminate all unqualified participants in the first stage. Only in the second stage will she increase the difficulty of the trials and offer some benefits to those who pass.

"By the way, do you have any data on the players here?" Helga asked in a low voice.

She didn't believe Rowena hadn't left a backdoor in the crystal ball.

"Of course, let me see..." Rowena took out a crystal ball that was the same as the contestant's, placed his hand on it, and closed his eyes to manipulate it.

"Among the Hogwarts players, Astoria Greengrass, Daphne Greengrass, Hermione Granger, and Cedric Diggory have all completed their tasks..."

"Are there only these few people?" Helga asked in surprise.

It's so illogical not to have Salazar! What is the old viper doing?

"Oh! There's one more!"

Helga initially thought this person was the old viper using the alias Les Lint, but unexpectedly, Rowena uttered a name that she found somewhat unbelievable.

"Neville Longbottom, I remember he was also a student at Hogwarts, right?"

Helga: ? ? ?

"Yes, but this is a bit too incredible..." Helga muttered to herself.

Neville Longbottom passed the main quest test, while Salazar has yet to pass it. It's hard to say which of these two things surprised her more.

After telling Rowena his opinion of his student Neville Longbottom, Helga sighed and said he might have misjudged him.

Neville is no ordinary boy.

He possessed qualities of gold. It's just that these fine qualities were previously hidden by a mediocre outer shell and could not be revealed.

"May this tournament be like a grinding wheel, polishing away your ordinary exterior and transforming you completely," Helga prayed sincerely for Neville in her heart.

Rowena, however, was completely unmoved.

In her view, her assessment was so simple it couldn't be simpler; it was practically an open-book exam. What was there for candidates to be proud of in passing such an assessment?

Salazar, however, deserves my attention, as he carries a much more important responsibility. I hope he fulfills the task I've assigned him.

At this moment, Rowena's expression suddenly became playful.

"What's wrong?" Helga noticed the change in her friend's expression.

"Someone is trying to crack the crystal ball."

"Who's so bold?"

Salazar.

"That's alright then."

Rowena understood that Salazar likely wanted to obtain information about the players through the crystal ball, and perhaps even contact them through it. Furthermore, during her investigation, she discovered a very interesting detail.

Salazar's role overlaps with that of a contestant from the Secret Order.

This is really interesting.

Rowena swore to God she hadn't tampered with the contestants' group assignments. The fact that the esoteric monk was placed in Salazar's group only proved his incredibly bad luck.

"I have to give Salazar some fun." Without hesitation, Rowena started touching and manipulating his crystal ball.

Rice felt he was about to break the spell on the crystal ball.

The moment the spell was broken, Rice's hand was jerked away from the crystal ball.

"What happened?" Godric asked, puzzled.

Rice was silent for two seconds, then told him that he had been electrocuted.

Godric: ? ? ?

"Is this the crystal ball's defense mechanism?"

"I don't know."

However, Rice immediately knew what was going on, because he saw Rowena's face in the crystal ball—to be precise, the face of Aries.

"Salazar, you seem quite relaxed! Do you know that several Hogwarts students have already completed the main quest, even Neville Longbottom has finished his, but yours still shows as incomplete. What have you been doing these days?"

Rice gets really angry just thinking about it.

He was most likely the first to complete the task, but because he didn't retrieve the Dragon Heart, he had to redo the task. Who could handle that?

After he vented his dissatisfaction, Rowena frowned.

"It's probably because you completed the task too quickly; the main quest hadn't been issued yet."

Rice: ...

"After all, under normal circumstances, no contestant would be sent directly to the fire dragon's lair."

Rice: ...

"Forget it, I'm too lazy to keep arguing with you. Things are getting a bit tricky. There are a lot of powerful people in this alchemy world you're in now..." Rice counted on his fingers: the Four Dragon Kings, the Pope, the Emperor, the Chief Magician, and a god who seemed to exist. It seemed like he had too many people to fight.

Rowena, on the other side of the crystal ball, fell silent, to the point that Rice thought the image transmitted by the crystal ball had malfunctioned.

"Help me, Mr. Salazar!" Rowena's voice came through the crystal ball.

Rice was stunned for a moment, and after a few seconds he slowly said, "I forgot to tell you, Godric is also here, but you can't see him because I summoned him with the resurrection stone ring."

The image on the other side of the crystal ball was now completely cut off.

Rice clicked his tongue and retrieved the locations of the remaining six Secret Order monks from the crystal ball.

Then he noticed that the location almost overlapped with Astoria's.

"Interesting, let's start here!" Rice closed his eyes and began to meditate, silently sketching the coordinates of the esoteric monk in his mind.

The next second, with a loud crack, he disappeared from the tavern.

"Huff...huff..." Astoria gasped for breath, her face extremely pale.

The Capricorn on the other side wasn't in much better shape. His upper body clothes were completely torn to shreds, his skin was covered in scales, and one of his hands hung at an odd angle at his side, looking like it was broken off.

He had a large hole in his stomach, caused by an attack spell stored in the Astoria Necklace.

"Looks like I'll have to fight tooth and nail..." He gave a smile that was more like a grimace, and then completely released control over the divine blood.

The cultivator's aura began to surge, the wound on his abdomen healed rapidly, and his severed arm reattached itself.

The blood of the gods awakened the potential within his body, unleashing all the vitality in his life.

Thirty seconds! The winner must be decided within thirty seconds! The Capricorn's eyes were incredibly sharp.

Seeing this, Astoria knew the moment of truth had arrived, and she raised her wand—

Snapped!

A loud bang suddenly rang out in the air, and then a figure appeared next to the cultivator. Before the cultivator could react, a hole appeared in his forehead.

His rising momentum came to an abrupt halt, and his life vanished with it.

Capricorn was killed by Rice.

After casually tossing the monk's corpse aside, Lesley smiled at Astoria.

"The hunt has begun."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Update delivered, goodnight everyone.

By the way, please send hearts to the characters!

(End of this chapter)