"Digory, do you have anything to say?" Ryan asked with a frown.
"I... I don't know." Cedric took a deep breath and said, "I swear by my magic wand, I still don't know why Vid would do such a thing... I can't judge whether Miss Amina is telling the truth."
Amina was furious: "Do you think I'm lying? Do you think I'm deceiving people? Look me in the face when you're speaking!"
Cedric: "..." He silently averted his gaze.
Well... Amina indeed didn't seem like she was lying, but Vid was a fellow from his own academy...
Cedric sighed inwardly, gripping his magic wand, ready to act at any moment.
Even though facing five opponents, there's hardly any hope of winning...
Ryan reached out to stop Asada Chinatsu, who was preparing a spell, and looked at Cedric, "Leave, Cedric."
"Go the other way. If you're capable, handle the situation ahead on your own and return with a Golden Egg."
In such a narrow passage, sudden action could easily result in losses on our side.
There are Vid Gray and countless traps ahead, while new contestants keep pouring in behind. They haven't even seen a Golden Egg and are already fighting here, benefiting others.
But it's also impossible for everyone to continue traveling with Cedric, otherwise when they encounter Vid, this person by their side would immediately turn from an ally into an ambush mine on their team.
So Ryan repeated, "Let's not attack each other. Please take another route, Cedric."
Fleur pursed her lips, Asada Chinatsu remained expressionless, Diogo's eyes showed a yearning for aggression, and Amina...
She was still caught in a mix of embarrassment and anger, gritting her teeth, her eyes aflame.
Cedric glanced around at everyone, gave a wry smile, and said, "Alright... hope you can successfully get a Golden Egg from Vid."
He slowly backed away, rounding a corner, and when stone walls blocked the view, both sides breathed a sigh of relief.
"Let's go." Ryan turned around and said, "Be careful, Vid Gray is an alchemist, there might be traps ahead waiting for us!"
Suddenly, Asada Chinatsu softly said "Hmm?"
"What's up?" Fleur asked.
"Look at that place..."
Asada Chinatsu pointed to a shadow at a fork in the path, hanging eerily in the air like a puppet suspended in mid-air.
Asada Chinatsu softly said, "Doesn't that shadow look like a person?"
...
When Cedric and Ryan's conflict occurred, three more shadows appeared near the Compass.
The three from Salem Academy happened to face the Fire Dragon around the same time, so after Abby Williams was the first to rush into the Chamber of Secret, she patiently waited a while, then saw the other two also being teleported in one after the other.
Hope squatted on the ground, waving her magic wand, chanting softly, and some overlapping footprints appeared on the ground, emitting a faint glow.
Another contestant, Samuel, bent over with his hands on his knees, looked and said, "It looks like most people went into the right passage, there should be five people in the previous group."
"All chose the right..." Hope lifted her head, looking through gaps between her hair softly saying, "Is there something scary on the left?"
"I don't think so, it should be a coincidence. Because previous people didn't use the Tracking Spell like you." Samuel looked up at the red-haired girl and asked, "Abby, what do you say?"
"Go left," Abby said decisively.
Shortly after the three entered, they encountered Victor Krum returning, both sides were momentarily surprised, then quickly drew their magic wands and simultaneously cast the Iron Armor Spell.
The invisible shields solidified and collided in the air, only to defend against nothingness, then dissipated simultaneously.
Both sides were taken aback again.
Seeing the other side reacted the same, prioritizing defense over attack, they gained a thin layer of trust with each other.
Krum was the first to speak, "I only took one Golden Egg, there should be six or seven more inside, you can go search for the others."
Samuel replied, "How do I know you're not lying?"
"No need." Krum said with a stern face, "I'm about to leave, taking more Golden Eggs would violate the rules."
Samuel, unwilling to let this person take the first place honor, was eager to move his arm holding the magic wand, but was suddenly held back by Abby.
"I believe you're not lying." Abby said to her companion, "Let him pass."
This part of the passage wasn't wide, Krum sticking to the wall, Salem's three sticking to the other side, both sides slowly passing each other, they could even hear the metallic clasps on leather armguards making unpleasant scraping sounds on the stone wall.
They parted ways, each continuing forward.
...
"Kill him... kill him..."
Amina's shouts echoed through layers of stone walls, transforming into strange whistling sounds.
Vid shook his head, "Looks like someone saved them, but is it necessary to be so angry?"
The crab poppet beside him waved its claws, making a "click-clack" sound in agreement.
While speaking, Vid had already solved the final riddle and obtained the Golden Egg hidden in the box.
The insect poppets, being light, couldn't unravel some of the mechanisms even if they found the Golden Egg, they could only bring Vid to solve them.
By this time, all eight Golden Eggs on this path had fallen into Vid's pocket.
Vid put the one Golden Egg he needed into his own pocket and casually conjured a stone platform for the remaining seven, piled inside it.
This was a spacious cave over a hundred square meters that used to belong to a ghoul. Nearby, the sound of clinking chains could still be heard.
A ghoul, with gray skin and sparse hair on its head, was dragging chains, walking back and forth, its sores and rotting flesh emitting a nauseating stench, its long, thin arms occasionally flailing, its nails appeared extremely sharp.
It would sometimes stretch its neck, emitting a low growl toward the tunnel; sometimes lean against the wall, making whining sounds.
Ghouls, these Dark Creatures, though simple-minded, are very dangerous. They often attack travelers in the dark, or wander in cemeteries, having a strong appetite for human corpses, sometimes even capturing live humans for food.
They were originally human beings, but have gradually devolved into monsters due to consuming humans and corpses.
Of course, to wizards like Weasley, a ghoul is just a slightly noisy and ugly pet. To Vid, it's a barely usable watch-dog.
Amidst the ghoul's noise, Vid calmly set up in the cave, awaiting those champions who wanted to snatch the Golden Egg to step inside.