Felix stared at the altar. Such a large statue, right in front of him, turned into decay in a very short time, broke into pieces, and then was blown into fine sand by the invisible wind, and finally nothing was left.

Was it because of the breath he blew?

Definitely not, Felix thought, this is ridiculous, the statue of Herbo should be similar to the basilisk corpses he saw before, also in a sealed state, and who knows how long it has been, at least thousands of years, no, two thousand years?

He thought about it very seriously. The despicable Herbo was active in ancient Greece, earlier than the four founders of Hogwarts, and when the four giants rose, Herbo had disappeared for hundreds of years.

To them, Herbo was already part of the legend - they only knew his notoriety, but had never seen the real person. Even when they were young, they might have been scared by their parents with Herbo's evil reputation because they were disobedient.

Felix grinned, feeling amused by this sudden idea. Legends were once children, which is a fact, but few people would associate it this way. They are more inclined to believe that legends are legends from the beginning.

Felix put aside this idea, became serious, and thought seriously about the issue of Horcruxes.

That's right, Horcruxes. For him, the only attraction of Horcruxes is the research on the soul. Unfortunately, even if he has mastered the method of making Horcruxes, he knows very little about the field of souls. He

has not even touched the surface.

He thought of the book, "Secrets of Advanced Black Magic Revealed", which contains more than one kind of magic, Horcruxes, but it is undoubtedly the most evil among them. The reason for evil is not only murder, but also the splitting of the soul.

Making a complete and flawless soul incomplete is an act against nature, and it will definitely pay a very heavy price. This is clearly mentioned in the book. As for what the price is, the book does not say, and Felix has no way of knowing.

...

Hermione was startled when she first came in. It turned out that there were not only two basilisks blocking the door, but also a large nest inside. She had to use the Bubblehead Curse to carefully bypass the snake corpses lying on the ground to prevent them from touching her. Then she came to the professor and happened to hear the professor mention the Horcrux.

She was shocked. Did the professor discover the fourth Horcrux of the mysterious man? Thinking carefully, it was not right, because a person's name was mentioned before - Herbo. She also quickly realized the meaning of the name Herbo.

The despicable Herbo, a famous black wizard in ancient Greece, is one of the sources of many existing black magics. He invented many evil curses and black magics, the most famous of which is the Horcrux! In addition, he is a Parseltongue and discovered the method of hatching basilisks.

Did they accidentally enter the place where Herbo hid the Horcruxes?

Just as she was about to ask, the professor sighed and blew a breath, and then the statue in front of him, which looked very solid, collapsed and turned into ashes. Even when she walked over, even the ashes disappeared, as if everything was her illusion.

"Professor?" Hermione tilted her head and looked at Felix, who had been silent since just now.

Felix looked at her and said calmly: "Nothing, just some emotion."

"You destroyed Herbo's Horcrux?"

"Well, it has nothing to do with me. It was destroyed a long time ago. We just discovered this fact."

Hermione blinked and tried to analyze it with her limited knowledge about Horcruxes. She first glanced at the others. Clemmy and the other two had just come in and were smacking their lips at the basilisk corpse blocking them. The goblin Gornuk... she couldn't see it, maybe it was blocked by the basilisk.

So she asked in a low voice: "Professor, if the Horcrux is destroyed, what about Herbo's main soul?"

Felix's eyes turned. This is a very interesting question. The function of the Horcrux is to split the soul and hide part of it in an object outside the body. In this way, even if the body is attacked or destroyed, it will not die, because there is still a part of the soul left in the world, undamaged.

But this is for the situation where the wizard died accidentally but the Horcrux is still alive. What if both of them have an accident?

Is it possible that Herbo invented the method of making Horcruxes and successfully made the first Horcrux, but he died unexpectedly or simply died of old age before he could study how to restore his body...

This speculation is not impossible. The reason why Herbo was admired or hated by later generations is because he creatively invented a lot of black magic. Is it possible that before him, no one had studied how to restore the body of the dead?

Felix deduced from this speculation. Because of the existence of the Horcrux, Herbo's main soul was immortal and kept wandering, but he couldn't find a good way to revive. It has been like this for many years, and the Horcrux has decayed in a long time. What will be waiting for Herbo?

Will he die directly, or continue to wander in a corner of this world, worse than the humblest wandering soul?

"I don't know," Felix answered Hermione's question, "maybe death would be more comfortable."

Hermione couldn't understand it for a moment and wanted to continue asking, but she soon realized the key point. Without the Horcrux, there are only three possibilities for the main soul. Either it will dissipate, or it will linger like Voldemort, or it will be successfully resurrected.

The first two are unknown, but the third possibility is extremely slim, because people in later generations have never found any traces of his activities - this is actually not right. If Helbo resurrected with the help of the Horcrux, he would have no reason to hide.

As for the remaining two possibilities, according to the professor's answer, 'maybe death would be more comfortable', which refers to the ending of the main soul dissipating, but if not... like Voldemort, wandering in the world for thousands of years?

She suddenly shuddered. The most painful punishment in the world is just like this, right?

"Little girl, move aside."

A voice said, and Hermione trembled in fear. She jumped to the side and found that the goblin Gornuk was looking straight at the relief on the side wall of the altar. She lowered her head and saw that the goblin had taken a silver knife and was trying to pry the gems on the relief. Gornuk successfully

got a ruby. He exhaled lightly, wiped it with his sleeve,

and said greedily: "Ancient gem, I smell the taste of heavy history, it is more precious than any of my collections, that is the weight of time!" Hermione blinked, she felt that this sentence should be just a rhetorical device, similar to what Trelawney and Rafitin said, but she still asked curiously: "What do you see, Mr. Gornuk? Can I see it?"

"No! Everything here is mine, no, it belongs to Gringotts." He said seriously.

Felix smiled and said, "Miss Granger, you can pick one or two of your favorites as souvenirs."

The goblin looked at him viciously, but Felix took out an invitation letter from Gringotts and waved it at him. He instantly became deflated like a ball.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked in confusion.

Cremi came over and said with a smile: "Professor Hep is an expert invited by Gringotts, so he is naturally paid. Gornuk realized this, so..." She made a heart-broken gesture towards Hermione, and Hermione chuckled.

However, Hermione was just curious and had no idea of ​​taking it for herself. She had no interest in gems, so she circled around and looked at the pattern on the altar - there were wizards on it, some identifying gems, some sitting majestically, and some writing at their desks. Next to these wizards, there were always various gadgets, gems, wands, small bottles, and hourglasses.

She wanted to take a closer look, but the goblin followed her wherever she went. Finally, she got tired of it and ran to the corridor to see the magic words left on the slate with the professor.

Felix was recording the ancient magic on it, and Hermione was more interested in the story told on the slate, but after knowing that the owner of the darkroom was Herbo, she naturally understood that all this was fake and a scam carefully woven by Herbo.

But why did he do this?

Hermione tried to understand Herbo's intention. She had read many magic notes of ancient wizards from Felix and was not unfamiliar with their mentality. However, Herbo's behavior made her extremely puzzled.

After thinking for a long time, she had two directions. One was that Herbo hoped to lure skilled wizards to the dark room and use the magic inside to achieve the secret that could not be told, such as holding a resurrection ceremony, but unfortunately, he waited for a thousand years in vain. The other direction

was the sleight of hand reserved by Herbo. He never thought that people could leave alive after knowing this place. All the previous arrangements were for this purpose -

to put the hiding place of the Horcrux under the pyramid, and use the pharaoh's tomb to cover up the secret of the Horcrux, making it difficult for outsiders to find it. This is the first layer of protection.

The black fog and curse in the corridor are the second layer of protection. If the wizard who strayed into this place was a little less capable, he might die in the black fog for no reason and be digested by the black fog. You know, Mr. Goblin said that the black fog is corrosive!

Even if a wizard successfully breaks through the black fog, there is still a third layer of protection, which is the temptation of the ancient magic on the stone slab. He will think that he has broken into the inheritance of a strict predecessor. Not only will he not reveal the news to the outside world, but he will try to break the invisible curse alone again and again.

Even if he successfully passes these levels, what awaits him in the end is more than a dozen basilisks. According to Hermione's guess, no matter how powerful a wizard is, he can't resist the attack of more than a dozen basilisks at the same time, right?

"If that's the case, then Herpo is too terrible, worthy of being called the despicable Herpo." Hermione muttered softly.

"What?" Felix asked.

"No." Hermione immediately shook her head and followed the professor's line of sight to look at the magic runes above.

Felix said gently: "I don't have time to guide you for the time being, but you can try to learn it. Do you understand what I mean? Just the most core magic runes. See which one you feel the most. Maybe it will be your second ancient magic."

Hermione nodded and tried them one by one excitedly. The first ancient magic, she didn't know the core rune, so she gave up...

The second one, which meant 'twist', she tried to draw the core rune and the sub-core rune, the air in her hand seemed to twist, but after trying several times, she still didn't succeed.

She kept moving until the second to last one, and Hermione's eyes lit up. The core rune - flame, sub-core rune, all recognized! She also knew most of the remaining peripheral runes.

This is it. She had a strong premonition in her heart.

Hermione carefully drew the runes in the air. With the experience of learning illumination, she knew the most basic operation process of ancient magic - the core rune embodied the magic symbol, the sub-core rune determined the external characteristics and properties of the magic, and the peripheral runes constructed and perfected the complete magic.

Hermione first drew the flame rune, letting it constantly switch between the rune symbol and the flame, and then restored it to the ancient rune, and continued to draw the sub-core rune.

After a long time, Hermione wiped the sweat off her face and stopped. She covered a yawn with her hand and decided to take a break.

Felix had finished recording the runes on the slate, and gentle black lightning flashed between his fingers, but the scene was only a flash. He put away his magic and said to Hermione with satisfaction, "Let's go out. They are waiting outside."

They walked out of the pyramid and returned to the tent camp. The goblin was exhausted and slumped in the chair, constantly complaining that his knife was cracked, but no one sympathized with him. "Because you didn't let us help." Crème said while mixing a small glass of ice water for herself.

She took a big sip, frowned, and then relaxed a little bit and let out a long breath.

The others were also relaxed. They were lucky to get out of such a dangerous place. Faisal and Rahman immediately decided to take a leave to watch the Quidditch World Cup.

Felix was also a little tired. He took off his basilisk skin cloak, took out a silver pocket watch, and gently flicked open the lid. A Niffler came out from it, stood in his palm, kept yelling at Felix, enumerated his crimes, and then turned his butt against him.

"It's my fault," Felix said with a smile, and his mood suddenly improved. He took out a gold Galleon and gently touched Niffler's shoulder. It seemed to smell the charming smell, and turned its head a little bit. It caught a glimpse of the golden light in its peripheral vision, and immediately snatched the gold Galleon in a flash, stuffed it into its pocket, and patted Felix's fingers with satisfaction.

Hermione stared at the little guy with wide eyes, "Professor, is this Niffler?"

"Yes, I raise her, you can call her Valen." Felix said, touching her pink beak with his finger. Niffler ignored her and looked around, looking around.

Hermione took out the small locket that could control the temperature and shook it in front of it. Niffler looked around, then immediately jumped along the table into Hermione's arms, stretching out his short hands to reach the locket.

When Sniff appeared, the goblin Gornuk immediately widened his eyes, covered his pocket, and shouted in horror: "Take that little devil away, take it away quickly!"

His scream attracted the attention of Sniff, and it poked its head out of Hermione's arms, staring at the goblin Gornuk with its bright black eyes.

Do you have any treasures?