Bill instinctively braced himself, about to cast a high-level Shield Charm.Douglas's eyes, however, lit up. A fascinating experiment."Devouring Soul Lightning? Interesting."The terrifying black lightning descended. Douglas didn't retreat. He advanced.He raised his wand as a guide. Meanwhile, hidden within his sleeve, his left thumb snapped down to press against the base of his ring finger—an ancient, eastern Daoist hand-seal. The Thunder Bureau.CRACKLE—!The black torrent of lightning swallowed Douglas whole.But the expected scream and charred corpse didn't materialize.As the violent black arcs reached him, they became like tamed beasts.They didn't detonate. Instead, they were violently channeled into the stone floor, dissipating into nothing.Douglas was unscathed. Not even a singe on his robes."Your path to the thunder arts is wrong."Douglas shook his head, his tone holding an academic disdain.He looked at the stunned patch of shadow, his voice taking on a near-lecturing quality."In Daoist theory, thunder is Heaven's mandate. It governs life and death. The purest embodiment of supreme Yang, of rigid force.""True thunder arts use righteousness to conquer evil. Yang to transform Yin. Pure. Imposing."He pointed at the dark clouds still roiling on the ceiling."Your lightning, though? You forcibly fuse it with malice, resentment, curses. This filth. It seems more powerful. In reality, it's just polluted. It's lost the essence of thunder itself.""It's not that Yin Lightning is bad. But this… amateurish Yin Lightning. Its structure is chaotic, impure. Anyone who understands the true principle of thunder can easily divert it into nothingness."Douglas's critique didn't just neutralize the attack. It disparaged Anhur-ka's entire magic from its very foundation.The shadow was utterly horrified.What kind of monster was this wizard?He used this unheard-of eastern theory to dismantle and humiliate Anhur-ka's ultimate curse?To its greater shock, as the lightning vanished, the figures of Douglas and Bill shimmered like heat haze."False…?" the shadow projected, its psychic wave laced with disbelief."Correct. I've already folded the space here with illusions."Douglas lowered his wand."That was just to get a closer look at the quality of your Yin Lightning. Even if I hadn't acted, you'd have missed our true position."Bill watched Douglas. The man's need to show off and his insatiable curiosity were bone-deep.Attack completely countered!The shadow went mad.It abandoned the ritual circle. The patch of darkness ballooned, becoming a black shroud descending upon them.The Forgetting Tongue sounded again, twisting into a sharp psychic shriek, trying to scour their minds clean!Bill's eyes hardened. He swiftly erected his mental barriers.His Occlumency, forged under Douglas's relentless pressure years ago, was masterful. It held firm against the assault.He also felt the more robust soul barrier Douglas had already put in place."Sorry to disappoint."Douglas yawned."Our memories are already fortified. Shielded."Absolute counter.The shadow finally, completely, despaired.It shrank back violently, trying to flee into the deepest shadow of the corner.Douglas shrugged. He leisurely pulled a silver ring from his pocket.On its obsidian face, a three-dimensional rune was inscribed in gold wire, resembling an ancient eastern character.—囚. Imprison."Don't be tense. You're a living database of ancient Egyptian magical history. A waste to just vanish.""A database? Douglas, you're even collecting ancient Egyptian ghosts now?" Bill couldn't help but mutter."You should continue to shine, just elsewhere."Douglas curled his index finger and flicked the ring.WHOOSH—He uttered the incantation—the name of the ring itself:"Zhìhuì Cángqì! The Vessel of Hidden Wisdom!"A streak of silver light shot out. It carried the absolute force of a binding rule, streaking toward the patch of despairing darkness.The golden 囚 character seemed to come alive. It tore free from the obsidian, transforming into a three-dimensional cage of light, woven from countless golden chains.It didn't chase the shadow's physical form. It simply locked onto the core concept of its conscious existence. At the rule level.The shadow released a silent shriek. The space around it warped violently, trying to merge with the wall, to flee into the untouchable shadow dimension.The golden cage ignored all physical spatial changes.It was an absolute concept, branded directly onto the shadow's own.No matter how the shadow shifted, it was trapped within the frame of that 囚 character.The golden chains constricted swiftly. They compressed, folded, and sucked the two-dimensional darkness entirely into the obsidian ring face.The light faded. The ring clattered to the floor, returning to its normal size.The millennia-old chill and the sensation of being watched vanished from the tomb chamber in an instant.Bill stared, dumbfounded. He hadn't even felt a strong magical fluctuation.The whole process felt more like… a dimensional demotion.Douglas's magic always, always found new ways to shatter his understanding of what magic could be.Douglas walked over, picked up the ring, and blew on non-existent dust.Then, like tossing a toffee, he casually threw it to Bill."For you, mate."Bill fumbled to catch it.The ring was warm in his palm. Inside the obsidian face, the tiny shadow darted left and right, fruitlessly crashing against the boundary of the golden 囚. Like a fly in a glass bottle."What… what is this?" Bill stammered."A portable old master," Douglas explained. "I call it the Holmes Mark 1 Personal Edition Smart Q&A Terminal.""Next time you run into an ancient Egyptian puzzle at Gringotts, just ask it. Guaranteed faster than any book. Comes with real-time emotional feedback."The words had barely left his mouth when a weak, furious psychic wave surged from the ring directly into Bill's mind."Release me! You defiler! Usurper!"Bill's hand jerked. He almost dropped the ring.He wasn't holding a piece of jewelry. He was holding a scalding, verbally abusive bundle of trouble."You'll get used to it."Douglas clapped his shoulder, looking utterly relaxed."Chat with it. Ask it if Anhur-ka wet the bed as a child. It'll be tame within three days."Bill looked at Douglas, caught between laughter and exasperation. Finally, he carefully slid the ring onto his index finger.The fit was perfect.A torrent of vast, ancient knowledge instantly formed a faint, tenuous link with his consciousness.He understood immediately. Douglas had just given him a treasure that could upend the entire Gringotts curse-breaking industry.This wasn't just a living database.This was a mentor. A brutally experienced one, straight from thousands of years ago.
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