The night was pitch-black, chilly winds sweeping off the Black Lake to lash gravel and sand against the stone wall at the tree line.
Along a secluded forest trail, a slender, statuesque silhouette stepped lightly over the withered leaves.
Yin Luo wore an ink-black cultivation dress, its hem snapping crisply in the wind.
Her bare feet trod across the coarse, muddy ground without collecting a single speck of dirt, enveloped in a faint halo of pale-purple protective spiritual light.
Idly toying with a dark-crimson Blood Butterfly jade pendant in her hand, her steps appeared slow and unhurried, yet each stride effortlessly crossed several feet through the air.
She had just passed the third ancient oak tree deep within the woods.
Buzz!
An ear-piercing sonic boom of compressed magic detonated overhead without warning!
Before she could react, three golden-red illumination orbs rocketed into the night sky above the canopy!
The orbs burst in mid-air, coalescing into a colossal hemispherical dome of golden radiance that slammed down over a radius of dozens of paces!
The layer of decaying leaf mold on the forest floor was blasted away as several thick, python-like black iron chains erupted from the dirt, sweeping along the ground straight for Yin Luo's ankles and knees!
"Hm?"
Yin Luo's eyes turned cold, her stunning face frosting over instantly.
Without a shred of panic, her bare white feet pushed lightly against the earth, launching her slender frame backward like a nimble black swallow, soaring back over ten feet!
Crack!
Two black iron chains whipped viciously across the dirt where she had stood an instant before, pulverizing stone and wood into a spray of debris!
"Move fast! Box her in! Don't let this alien witch slip away!"
A raspy, gravelly roar tore through the trees!
From the shadows around the perimeter, five or six dark-cloaked figures leaped into view.
Leading them was a limping man with a wooden peg leg, a glowing blue mechanical eye spinning in his left socket, gripping a thick black wand in his right hand—none other than the Order of the Phoenix veteran, Mad-Eye Moody!
Beside him stood Kingsley Shacklebolt, towering like an iron fortress with his wand raised, flanked by four battle-hardened veteran Aurors from the front lines, each occupying a strategic angle to seal off all escape routes, hemming Yin Luo in on all sides.
"I wondered who was skulking in the shadows; turns out it's just a pack of wand-waving cripples."
Yin Luo landed gracefully atop a protruding slab of ruined stonework, her bare, porcelain legs showing through the slits of her black gauze dress.
She crossed her arms over her chest, long black hair billowing in the wind, her brow radiating the unyielding haughtiness of a supreme demonic cultivator.
Even surrounded on all sides, her breathtaking face showed not a flicker of fear.
"What? Did Jerry blinding your eye at St. Mungo's last time not teach you a lesson? Itching for a beating so badly you came here to throw your lives away?"
Moody's scarred face twitched violently.
The mechanical blue eye spun frantically in its socket, his knuckles whitening around his wand.
"Shut your filthy mouth, demon whore!"
Moody barked, taking a heavy step forward, his wooden peg leg thudding against the stone.
"You slipped through our fingers at St. Mungo's last time! But tonight, War Operations and the Order have laid down a triple-layered anti-magic array! Between the black-market armor and the stolen frontline potions, I'm peeling every last secret out of your skull!"
"Interrogate me? With a handful of unrefined barbarians who don't even know what a meridian is?"
Yin Luo let out a chilling sneer, her gorgeous lips curling into a look of absolute disdain.
She brought her right index and middle fingers together into a sword-finger mudra, twisted her slender waist, and traced a bizarre arc through mid-air!
"Looking to die!"
Swish!
Several dark-crimson Blood Butterfly sword-beams screamed from her fingertips, manifesting into razor-sharp crescents of bloody light that streaked toward the throats of the two advancing Aurors!
The sword Qi sliced through the air, detonating the surrounding foliage into splinters!
"Shields up! Defensive formation!"
Kingsley bellowed, stomping forward!
Slashing his wand downward, three thick stone ramparts erupted from the earth!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Blood Butterfly sword-beams slammed heavily into the stone walls, kicking up showers of sparks and thunderous concussions!
Stone fragments sprayed outward, yet the residual magical barrier held, absorbing the brunt of the kinetic force!
Almost simultaneously!
Moody kicked off his wooden leg, closing the distance like an old panther skimming the ground!
His wand carved three wicked, dark trajectories through the air!
"Impedimenta!"
"Stupefy!"
"Locomotor Wibbly!"
Three curses packed with violent kinetic tearing and stunning properties converged in a triangular spread toward Yin Luo's lower body and flanks!
Yin Luo tapped her bare feet rhythmically across the stones, unleashing the signature movement technique of the Myriad Demons Palace.
Her body contorted weightlessly like a silk ribbon in the air, dodging two of the hexes by a hair's breadth.
However!
The four remaining Aurors had clearly undergone rigorous joint-tactical training!
Refusing to engage Yin Luo in close-quarters combat, each produced a white metal disc emitting a high-frequency drone and slammed it down into the four corners of the golden containment dome!
Hummm!!
A violent surge of magical interference and spatial viscosity blanketed the clearing in an instant!
Yin Luo felt the surrounding air congeal into viscous syrup; the spiritual energy circulating smoothly through her meridians hitched violently under the dual suppression of the alien magic circle and spatial disruption!
Her feather-light frame was dragged down by the crushing gravity, her bare feet slamming heavily onto the stone tiles as she landed!
"Got her!"
Seizing that split-second opening, Kingsley closed the five paces between them on her left flank!
Rather than drawing his wand to cast, he channeled his forward momentum into a massive tactical warhammer, swinging it brutally toward Yin Luo's left shoulder!
Wind howled with the strike!
A raw physical hammer-blow forged in frontline life-and-death brawls!
Yin Luo's gaze sharpened, a flash of frost crossing her proud face.
She could not retreat—Moody's three anti-magic chains were screaming toward her back!
Twisting her slender torso, her right palm blurred into an afterimage, coated in a layer of dark-black Jiuyou demonic internal force, meeting Kingsley's warhammer head-on!
SMACK!!
Palm collided with steel!
A dull, sickening crack of flesh meeting metal echoed through the woods!
Kingsley felt a terrifying, bone-chilling dark energy surge up the hammer shaft, shocking his entire right arm into agonizing numbness.
Grunting in pain, he stumbled back two paces!
The recoil sent Yin Luo's delicate bare feet skidding half a foot through the mud, a faint trace of blood welling at the corner of her lips.
Before she could catch her breath!
Moody's wooden leg tore through the dirt behind her as his left hand hurled a black iron net reeking of acrid sulfur!
The net was lined with dense anti-demon warding runes and heavy binding hooks!
"Get down here!"
Moody roared as the net expanded in mid-air like a canopy, sealing off every angle of retreat!
Yin Luo slashed her fingers like daggers, firing dozens of Blood Butterfly sword-beams at the net!
Riiip!
Several gaps were sliced through the mesh, but the binding hooks snagged into her ink-black robes!
The immense drag yanked her frame forcefully back down to the muddy ground!
The four Aurors flicked their wands in unison!
Four thick, arm-wide crimson ropes shot forward, wrapping around Yin Luo's arms and legs with surgical precision!
Thud!
Yin Luo landed hard against the dirt.
Pinned beneath the iron net and binding ropes, the anti-magic runes on the cords flared with blinding crimson light, greedily feeding on her spiritual energy!
"Hahaha! Caught in my tactical ward—let's see you dance now, witch!"
Moody limped forward with heavy thuds, crushing dead leaves beneath his boots.
He raised his wand, the tip gleaming with cold light, leveling it directly between Yin Luo's brows.
His blue mechanical eye spun madly, boring into the trapped woman on the ground.
Kingsley approached with his heavy hammer, his face grim as he wiped spit from his mouth.
"Easy, Moody. Dumbledore gave strict orders: we need her alive. She holds the secrets of cultivation techniques, not to mention direct evidence tying Old Nott to the black-market munitions."
The four Aurors tightened their perimeter, wands trained on the binding nodes, on high alert.
Trapped beneath the net and glowing ropes, her robes disheveled and her bare feet bound tight, not a shred of panic or submission showed on Yin Luo's gorgeous face.
Instead, she slowly lifted her chin, looking up at the surrounding wizards with cold, haughty disdain.
Even cornered, an Elder of the Myriad Demons Palace in the Xuantian Realm retained the absolute dignity of a supreme cultivator.
She spat out a trace of blood, her gaze sweeping over the cloaked wizards.
"A handful of battered cripples thinks they're worthy of interrogating me?"
Her voice was husky, carrying bone-chilling frost.
"When I was slaughtering demonic warlords in the Myriad Demons Palace, you barbarians from this remote backwater were still playing in the mud with twigs."
"Still barking while flat on your back!"
Moody sneered, thrusting his wand forward until it nearly grazed her fair forehead.
"I don't care what kind of grandmaster you were in your world! Once we get you down into the War Operations holding cells, I have plenty of ways to make you talk! Hoist her up! Take her to Safehouse Three!"
Two Aurors stepped forward, reaching for the ropes to haul Yin Luo up.
However.
The exact instant their hands were about to touch her robes!
A bizarre, lethal smile surfaced across Yin Luo's proud face.
"You want my confession?"
Yin Luo smiled, her voice as faint as a fleeting breeze.
"You aren't worthy."
Without warning!
The Jiuyou demonic energy circulating within Yin Luo's body reversed in a violent, impossible surge!
BOOM!!
An unfathomable, bone-chilling arctic frost erupted from her heart vessels and pubic core!
This was no Freezing Charm from the wizarding world—it was the supreme life-preserving art of the Myriad Demons Palace: the Jiuyou Profound Yin Ice Sealing Art!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Shrill, piercing shrieks of flash-freezing air tore through the clearing!
With Yin Luo at the epicenter, the air within several paces froze into white crystalline frost in an instant!
The crimson ropes and iron net touching that pitch-black absolute-zero aura shattered into powdery dust like brittle crackers!
"Get back! Fall back now!"
Kingsley's face drained of color as he roared, grabbing the nearest Auror's collar and lunging back dozens of paces!
Moody sensed the soul-freezing aura of death as well, stomping his peg leg and scrambling madly backward!
BOOM!
A colossal, ten-foot-tall, transparent black ice crystal of octagonal geometry erupted from the earth!
The black crystal was pristine and translucent, veins of ink-like demonic runes swirling slowly within, radiating absolute zero!
Dead-center within the colossal black crystal,
Yin Luo stood completely motionless.
Her slender, voluptuous silhouette was sealed in the deepest core of the ice.
Her black hair remained suspended as if billowing in the wind, her delicate bare feet resting lightly over the frost, her black robes shimmering coldly beneath the translucent surface.
Her stunning, proud face still carried that cold, mocking smirk of total disdain for the wizards before her.
Like a breathtaking goddess carved from marble, preserved for eternity in primordial permafrost!
The forest fell into dead silence.
The wind off the Black Lake whistled through the canopy.
Moody stood a dozen paces away, panting heavily, cold sweat drenching his brow.
His blue mechanical eye whirred violently, locked onto the monolith radiating black frost.
Kingsley stepped forward with his tactical hammer, testing the surface with a heavy swing!
CLANG!
A dull, metallic ring echoed across the clearing.
A warhammer capable of shattering stone walls failed to leave even a faint white scratch on the black ice!
Instead, the kinetic recoil jarred Kingsley's wrist with blinding pain, nearly tearing the weapon from his grip!
"Kingsley! Try magic!" Moody shouted from the rear.
Kingsley drew his wand, firing three high-tier Curse-Breakers and Fire-Making Spells in rapid succession!
FWOOSH!
Blazing magical fire engulfed the black ice, yet not only did the surface refuse to melt, it actively absorbed the magical energy, causing the dark demonic runes inside to swirl even brighter!
"Useless..."
Kingsley lowered his wand, his face grim as iron.
Approaching the monolith, looking upon the lifelike, perfectly preserved form of Yin Luo trapped in suspended animation, he exhaled a heavy sigh.
"This isn't wizarding magic. This is her innate life-sealing technique. Unless she breaks the seal from within, any attempt to breach it with brute force from the outside will detonate her body alongside the ice, reducing both to dust."
Moody limped up to the crystal, glaring at the woman inside, his fists clenching until his knuckles popped.
"Damned alien witch! Pulling a trick like this!"
Moody spat blood-flecked spit, furious yet utterly helpless.
They had spent the better part of a week coordinating the elite forces of War Operations and the Order, successfully ambushing this terrifying demonic cultivator.
Only to end up with an unbreakable, impenetrable ice statue that couldn't be interrogated or harmed!
"Moody, at least she's in our hands," Kingsley rested a hand on Moody's shoulder, his gaze dark. "Keep this locked down. Not a word to Malfoy or Old Nott. Summon the logistics transport squad; crate this black ice in anti-magic lead and move it to the outskirts safehouse in secret."
Kingsley turned, glancing toward the distant silhouette of Hogwarts Castle, his voice dropping low:
"Jerry... he will discover she's missing soon enough. Before Bill 14's second reading, we've secured a very heavy bargaining chip."
Moody sneered, tugging at his cloak.
"A chip? More like a scalding hot potato! Get them over here to crate it up! I don't want to spend another second in this miserable place!"
The four Aurors moved quickly, assembling anti-magic lead plating and heavy mechanical dollies, carefully wrapping the black monolith.
The wind and snow intensified.
Deep within the black ice, Yin Luo stood frozen, her cold, mocking smirk gleaming with eerie, unyielding arrogance beneath the pale moonlight.
In the depths of the woods, only the dull clanking of metal frames against the ice echoed into the stillness of the night.
Inside the private suite at the deepest end of the Slytherin subterranean dormitories.
Green flames flickered silently in the hearth, casting an eerie glow across the cold stone walls.
The heavy scents of eaglewood smoke and exotic herbs that normally filled the room were fading at an alarming rate.
Jerry stood beside the coffee table, his zipper secured and his belt buckled tight.
He idly flicked his brass lighter, the metal cap snapping open and shut with a crisp, rhythmic cadence.
He tilted his head, his gaze settling on the divan by the window.
The deep-red velvet cushions were rumpled, bearing lingering damp patches and a few stray strands of black hair.
Yet the voluptuous silhouette that had reclined there moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
Jerry pressed his left hand over his chest.
Magic circulated through his heart vessels, but the faint resonance and warmth that normally flared whenever Yin Luo was near had vanished completely, leaving only a cold, numb void.
Jerry strode across the plush woolen carpet to the divan.
Crouching down, he ran two fingers along the edge of the velvet cushions.
The warmth on the cushions had cooled entirely; the signature Blood Butterfly fragrance in the air was so faint it was barely detectable.
In the shadows near the foot of the divan lay the broken fragment of a dark-crimson jade pendant, carrying an imperceptible trace of scorched sulfur and iron rust.
Jerry picked up the shattered jade, rolling it between his fingertips.
The fracture line was smooth and clean, clearly severed by a curse packing violent cutting force.
"So something went down," Jerry murmured, a cold smirk curling at his lips.
Rising to his feet, he slipped the broken jade into his overcoat pocket, walked to the darkwood desk, and pressed a hand against the concealed anti-magic ward at the corner.
Hum.
A faint blue light flickered across the wood.
With a soft click, the heavy stone door slid open.
Hermione stood in the corridor clutching a stack of freshly inked alchemical blueprints from the underground workshop, wearing mid-heeled leather pumps, poised to push the door open.
Seeing Jerry standing at the threshold, she looked up, curiosity in her deep brown eyes.
"Jerry? You haven't changed your clothes yet?"
Hermione stepped inside, kicking the stone door shut behind her with her heel.
Setting the papers onto the desk, she adjusted her slightly disheveled collar, scanning the room.
"Where's Yin Luo? Wasn't she just with you..."
"She was taken."
Jerry spoke flatly, without an ounce of inflection in his voice.
Hermione's hands froze mid-adjustment.
A sharp jolt of shock flashed across her pale face, her long legs stopping dead in their tracks.
She spun around, staring wide-eyed at Jerry.
"Taken?! Here?! Inside the Slytherin dormitories?!"
"Not in the dorms."
Jerry stepped forward, reaching out to take Hermione's left wrist.
Applying gentle pressure, he pulled her close, his fingertips checking her pulse to confirm no tracking runes clung to her frame.
"The moment she told me about the cultivators retreating on the front line, she slipped out through the back door on her own."
Hermione bumped lightly into his chest; sensing the cold lethality radiating from him, her breath caught.
"Who did it? The pureblood mercenaries? Or... Aurors from War Operations?"
She reached to her waist, drawing a circular brass locator compass.
Her fingers flew across the runic dials along the rim, attempting to isolate residual magic left near the dorms.
"Those pureblood fools lack the balls and the competence."
Jerry snatched the brass compass from her hand and tossed it onto the desk.
He raised a hand, flicking Hermione firmly on the forehead.
Smack.
Hermione winced, rubbing her forehead with an indignant huff: "What did you flick me for?! I'm trying to trace the magical residue!"
"Trace what?"
Jerry slipped both hands back into his coat pockets, pivoting on his heel.
"The residue carried scorched sulfur and rat-poison rust. In all of Hogwarts, only that peg-legged bastard with the iron eye-patch laces his curses with that filthy garbage."
Hermione's eyes widened: "Mad-Eye Moody!"
"Who else."
Jerry sneered, stepping past Hermione toward the stone door.
"Kingsley just secured Dumbledore's special warrant in the safehouse last night; today he couldn't wait to test his frontline veterans. Yin Luo has been wandering around the back mountain and the Black Lake lately; that cripple caught her in an ambush."
Hermione hurried after his strides.
One after the other, they navigated the damp underground corridors, Hermione's heels clicking sharply on the stone as she tugged at Jerry's sleeve.
"What do we do now? Yin Luo carries the core techniques of the Myriad Demons Palace! If Moody uses Veritaserum or Legilimency on her, our workshop and the betting pool..."
"Veritaserum?"
Jerry halted, casting a sidelong glance at Hermione.
He reached out, giving her rounded cheek a firm, merciless pinch that made her squeak and pull back.
"You think an Elder from a demonic cultivation sect is an easy target for you wand-waving children? With the little twigs Moody and his lot wave around, extracting her soul would be a flat-out miracle."
Jerry pulled his hand back, a wisp of icy magic swirling in his palm.
"The Jiuyou Profound Yin Ice Sealing Art. Cornered like that, she would have locked her three souls and seven mortal spirits inside an absolute ice core without hesitation. Right now, what Moody is holding is nothing more than an immovable, unbreakable chunk of solid ice."
Hearing this, Hermione's tense expression finally relaxed a fraction.
Dabbing the red mark on her cheek with a handkerchief, the shrewdness in her eyes returned.
"So... Yin Luo is in no immediate mortal danger?"
"She won't die," Jerry continued walking. "Though leaving that ice in Moody's hands is a nuisance."
They swiftly crossed the narrow passages of the second basement level, slipping out through a side portal behind the castle.
The late-winter mountain wind was biting, lashing moisture off the Black Lake against their faces.
With hands in his pockets, stepping across the soft, muddy terrain, Jerry tracked the near-imperceptible trace of black-frost death aura straight into the clearing deep in the woods.
Most of the trees in the clearing had been blasted down.
The once-flat earth was trampled into a chaotic mess of craters and shattered stone.
Several trenches blasted open by dark curses scored the ground, reeking of sulfur.
Beside a boulder in the center lay fragments of white metal and vast swathes of dead, frozen turf.
Hermione crouched down, reaching out to touch the frostbitten grass.
The instant her fingers made contact, a bone-chilling arctic frost surged into her skin, making her gasp and jerk her hand back, rubbing it frantically against her coat.
"What horrifying cold..."
Looking at the white frost coating her fingertips, she murmured:
"This feels nothing like a Freezing Charm! It's ten times colder than the water at the bottom of the Black Lake!"
Jerry walked over to the withered patch and crouched down.
Dispensing with magical shields, he pressed his index and middle fingers directly into the deepest frozen soil.
Crack.
The frozen dirt fractured under his Jiuyou internal force.
Lifting his hand, Jerry brought his fingertips to his nose, sniffing lightly.
Beyond the icy death aura, he caught faint traces of anti-magic lead dust and the deep ruts of heavy mechanical dollies in the mud.
"Lead plating, mechanical dollies."
Jerry stood up, kicking a loose pebble into the crater.
"Moody brought anti-magic lead crates. They used a logistics transport squad to haul the black ice holding Yin Luo away."
Hermione stood up beside him, taking hold of his overcoat hem.
"Where did they take her? The detention cells on the fifth basement level of the Ministry? Or the Order's safehouse on the outskirts?"
"Certainly not the Ministry."
Jerry sneered, exhaling a plume of white smoke.
"Kingsley wouldn't dare move something like this into the Ministry right now. Next Wednesday is Bill 14's second reading; Old Nott has two hundred mercenaries watching every entrance on the fourth and fifth levels. If the purebloods caught wind that the Order was holding an alien witch who could prove illegal arms smuggling, Old Nott would raid War Operations that very night."
Jerry patted Hermione's shoulder.
"Kingsley is a cunning fox. He'll keep the ice hidden in the outskirts safehouse as a trump card to force Old Nott and Malfoy to heel at the final hour."
Hermione blinked, a mocking curve playing on her lips.
"Then they've picked up a bomb that will freeze their hands to the bone."
Leaning into Jerry's chest, she wrapped her arms around his waist, looking up at his jawline.
"Jerry, should we raid the safehouse tonight? I have thirty boxes of explosive micro-needles and high-frequency disrupters in the workshop; if we blast open their wards..."
"Blast what?"
Jerry brought his hand down, landing a heavy slap across Hermione's firm ass.
SMACK!
The sharp clap echoed loudly through the silent woods.
Hermione shuddered, a breathy whimper slipping past her lips as her long legs clamped tight beneath her skirt.
"Don't be so naive."
Jerry's tone was leisurely, yet calculating.
"Moody is hoarding the ice, waiting for the showdown between Old Nott and Dumbledore. If I swoop in and snatch it now, Kingsley will realize a third player is manipulating the board! Once their guard is up, how are we supposed to stage next Wednesday's grand finale?"
Rubbing her stinging backside, Hermione shot him a coquettish glare: "So you're just going to let Yin Luo stay locked in a lead crate?"
"Frozen in ice won't kill her; what's wrong with letting her sleep for two days?"
Jerry scoffed, lifting Hermione's chin with two fingers.
"The secret gathering the night after tomorrow proceeds as planned. I already spoke with Cassiopeia; the rising-star witches from War Operations and International Cooperation are the prize we're claiming."
Hearing his plan, a look of complete satisfaction bloomed on Hermione's face.
Parting her lips, she gave his fingertip a gentle nibble, licking away the dust from his skin.
"Whatever you say, Boss."
Releasing her grip, Hermione turned toward the castle, her hips swaying with each step.
"I'll head back to the workshop to prepare the 'Holy Dew' and the anti-magic wards for the gathering. Don't forget to read Rita's new article tomorrow morning."
"Go on, then!"
Jerry waved her off.
Watching Hermione disappear behind the subterranean doors, Jerry stood alone at the edge of the dark woods.
The late-winter gale whipped at his coat.
He pulled the shattered fragment of the Blood Butterfly jade pendant from his pocket, rolled it in his palm, and crushed it into fine powder beneath his thumb.
"Moody... Kingsley..."
The smirk on Jerry's lips widened, cold light flashing in his eyes like a blade cutting through the dark.
"Using my woman as a bargaining chip... I certainly hope you old bastards can still laugh come next Wednesday."
With steady strides, Jerry melted back into the deep shadows.