Ning An stretched out his hand and touched the shabby curtain, and the wind swept through the tip of his nose - cold and wet.

He tightened the resurrection stone in the palm of his right hand and took a step forward.

This step is empty-

The dazzling white light shook Ning An and couldn't open his eyes, but he could feel that his feet were not stepping on any solid ground, he was falling, he was falling at a very fast speed.

All the strength in his body was stripped away, and he was so cold that he couldn't help but curl up in a ball and hold himself tightly with both hands.

"Is this death?"

Ning An thought in his heart, his body was cold, the temperature left him the moment he passed through the curtain, his limbs were hard like popsicles, and an extremely sleepy feeling invaded his brain, as if a voice was telling him in his heart:

"Sleep—sleep—you're too tired—it's time to rest—sleep—when you wake up—everything will be fine—"

"Maybe"

Ning An muttered, but he was indeed very sleepy, he was sleepy and tired, and he had hidden too many secrets, and he didn't know if this was beyond the limit of what he could bear, so he began to think that it seemed good to just sleep like this.

Falling, as if endless, Ning An felt as if he was in a never-ending elevator passage, just falling like this, he couldn't reach the end.

On the other side of the curtain he heard the sound of the waves—"Bang, Bang, Bang."

The voice was so close to him that one could not help but think of the sea below, but he was too tired to even open his eyes.

At this moment, a warm feeling came from his right hand, like hot water gently flowing through his frozen body, Ning An felt that his body was regaining consciousness, the strength slowly surged, the feeling of exhaustion was dispelled, and he regained his vitality.

The eyelids that were like a thousand pounds in the last second were finally no longer an obstacle for him to observe the world, Ning An slowly opened his eyes and looked around.

His feeling was not wrong, he was falling, at a great speed, into a black, inky, endless, tumbling sea.

The sky was a gloomy gray, as if he had dressed himself up like this in response to the roaring ocean below.

Between the sea and the sky, where gray and black reign, there is nothing else, no land, no life, only a cold wind, and a black sea.

"Of course there's no life here—what am I thinking?"

Ning An muttered to himself, if this end of the curtain did belong to the dead, then it was not unusual to not see life.

Gripping the resurrection stone in his right hand tightly, he touched the back of his waist, the wand he inserted in his waist was still firmly there, and Ning An could still really feel the mana pulse in his body.

He twisted in the air, put his hands on his forehead, and made a winged movement, and then the boy turned into a raven covered in black feathers.

With a wave of its wings and the resurrection stone in its mouth, it glided a few feet above the sea, dodging a vicious wave with a miserable howl that swooped down on it, and flew a little higher in the gloomy wind, hovering in the lifeless gray sky.

"What's that?"

Ning An's eyes, which had turned into a raven, were much sharper, and it saw that in the distance at the junction of sea and sky, there seemed to be a faint dot that belonged to neither the black ocean nor the gray sky, like a golden snitch that was too far away to see clearly.

"If Ravens can play Quidditch, then I might be a good Seeker—"

Ning An thought silently in his heart, he was in a good mood now, and crossing the other side of the curtain did not let him die directly, although he thought that he had been exposed to death for a while, but obviously the resurrection stone allowed him to survive.

This meant that resurrecting Calidora might not be wishful thinking, and in any case, he decided to fly forward for a while and get closer to that little one.

The pitch-black sea below him seemed to be boundless, and he couldn't see where there was land, Ning An didn't know how long he could hold on to flying, and at this moment he could only hope that the black spot was a place for him to stay.

Ning An held the Resurrection Stone in his mouth, flapping his wings tirelessly across the ocean, his wand turning into a spiral black pattern attached to the bird's back, but this pattern did not look obvious due to the black feathers on the back.

He didn't know how long he had been flying, he felt as if he had been flying for a few days and nights, and he was extremely tired, but fortunately, the resurrection stone in his mouth kept transmitting a warm energy, which could support Ning An to continue flying.

But the good news was that it had finally seen the little black dot for what it really was, and it wasn't a golden snitch about three miles away, it was a huge, cold, eerie castle.

It was alone in the black sea, with no land underneath it, and it became the only different existence in the whole world, although the tone of the castle was not pleasant, and it seemed to be full of ominousness, which made people instinctively not want to approach.

If such a castle appeared in the other side of the world, perhaps the Ministry of Magic would have sent someone to investigate and keep a close watch, but here, this castle has obviously become Ning An's only choice to settle down.

Even if you look beyond the castle and look in front of it, you can't see anything, and the sky and the earth are foggy, and there is only an endless sea current and a gray sky covered with clouds.

"Let's go"

The raven's little paws rested on the walls of one of the castle's towers, and the bluestone walls were slippery and cold, and many of the stone flakes had peeled off from the long wind, and fell to the ground, turning into ash and piling up in a corner.

The castle seems to have stood here for thousands of years, and every stone wall is engraved with the traces of time.

In front of him was a yellow-brown wooden door, fumigated by the moisture of the sea, the wooden door became a darker and darker color, and many places were rotten, and a grid-like iron window was opened on the door, and the yin wind poured into the castle from the window, making a strange sound of "woo--", as if the door was "giggling" and laughing.

Just as Ning An was hesitating whether to lift the transformation of Animagus, the wooden door suddenly opened.

The firelight illuminated the narrow round tower top, the small clearing.

A half-human-high candlestick jumped out from behind the door, the base of the candlestick became its feet, and every sharp needle with a candle was an arm, and it came to Ning An crookedly and saluted him.

Ning An jumped down from the stone at the edge of the tower, stretched his wings and spun around in place, then changed back into human form, spit lightly, caught the resurrection stone in his mouth with his hand, and quietly touched the wand on his waist with his left hand.

"Funny guy, huh? Where are you from? ”

Ning An talked to the candlestick, the height of the candlestick was almost up to Ning An's size, like a floor lamp, as long as he lowered his head slightly, he was basically level with the other party.

It's a pity that the candlestick can't speak, it bent over, maybe the iron rod is its waist, and then jumped and turned, waving at Ning An again, as if to say "follow me".

Ning An followed behind the candlestick quietly, he knew that it must be the owner of the castle who had discovered him, so he sent this lovely servant to greet him.

However, it is difficult to say whether it is a kind welcome or a malicious one, but for Ning An, he has no choice in all this.

The small staircase that winds down the tower step by step, the candlestick that walks in front of it becomes the best illuminator, it twists awkwardly and descends the stairs, but it illuminates every staircase for Ning An.

Ning An wondered if the castle's owner had given life to a candlestick because of the lighting, and many wizards liked to make strange little objects come alive to help them pour tea or clean up.

But because of the instability of this magic, most of the cups and teapots that are cast this magic can't do their job properly, and you don't want to listen to a teapot that runs out of water and shouts for a whole day.

The candlestick in front of him seemed to be doing well, and so far it had done its job perfectly, leading Ning An all the way through the narrow corridors, across the bridge between the two towers, through the long halls, and up the spacious staircase in the center of a very large and large, red-carpeted room.

Ning An believed that they had reached the center of the castle, and in fact his guess was correct, and after walking up the spiral staircase, the upper of his shoes stepped on a soft, slightly warm wooden floor, and before him was a bright study illuminated by candlelight.

The floor was also covered with a red carpet, and large brown-and-red bookcases filled almost the room, and near a carved gold filigree window frame sat a large brown oak desk, with a round base delicately decorated with rosettes and a pair of rice leaves.

The study was full of half-man-high candlesticks, they lit a fire, and the candlestick, which led the way for Ning An, jumped back to the middle of the other candlesticks, and then straightened the sharp needle with the candle inserted, and then stood motionless.

"Crunch – Crunch"

The sound of the chair twisting came, and Ning An's eyes retracted to the desk, only to find that there seemed to be someone sitting on a beech chair behind the desk, who was originally looking out of the empty window, and was now slowly turning the chair to Ning An's side.

"How long has it been?"

A deep voice came from behind the chair, it sounded like muffled thunder, if it weren't for knowing that there was a person sitting there, Ning An would have preferred to believe that it was really thunder outside.

"Sorry, what?" Ning An asked politely back, he didn't quite know what the other party meant.

But the man ignored him, and asked as if to himself, "How long has it been since no one has been here?" ”

This time, Ning An understood the other party's question, but he couldn't answer it, because he didn't know how long ago someone came here last time.

"It's too long...... It's too long...... It's so long that I'm too lazy to keep track of time, and you're the second ...... in so long."

The chair was finally turned around, and leaning on the back of the chair was a man covered in a long cloak, with a hood on his head, and his face hidden in the shadows, Ning An couldn't see his appearance clearly, but he could tell from his figure that it was an adult.

Ning An didn't speak, just tightened the wand in his hand, the sweat droplets in his palm gathered unnaturally, he had seen some terrible guys, such as Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, such as the basilisk - even he himself could be called a ruthless dark wizard, and he knew more about the evil Ning An than ordinary wizards.

But the guy in front of him hidden in the cloak made him feel the smell of danger stronger than anyone else, probably that is the feeling of being targeted by a rooster basilisk, this person ...... Evil, and terrible.

"Resurrection Stone? - Yes, you do need it to get here. ”

Still muffled, the cloaked man leaned back in his chair motionless, as if the sound had not come from him.

"What do you mean when you say I'm the second?" Ning An quietly took a step back and diverted the topic, he didn't want to always let this cloaked man ask questions, he wanted to ask some questions himself.

The good news was that this time the other party did not ignore him, and the low, clarinet-like voice came from the shadows shrouded in the hood

"Literally, you're the second person here."

Ning An secretly guessed that the first person to come here might be the man in the sixth story of the poet Bedou? But it didn't matter, and he was about to try to get more information when the "clarinet" interrupted him

"Who do you want to resurrect? Or do you want to make yourself immortal? ”

“……”

Ning An didn't speak silently, being exposed by others meant that he was restrained, and he didn't understand anything, and the other party actually said what he thought in his heart, which was really unpleasant.

"It's not surprising, if it weren't for these two things, who would have gone out of their way to come here?"

"You...... Can make the dead ...... Back? ”

Ning An couldn't just be so deadlocked, he came here to resurrect Calidora, and it seemed that the resurrection was not his own fantasy dream, it seemed that it was really possible to become a reality, which made him can't help but ask it, and swore in his heart that no matter what price the cloaked man wanted him to pay - he was willing to do it.

"So there are people who want to be resurrected."

The thunderous voice let out a soft "um", as if to confirm something, and then he raised his right hand, and Ning An saw his body for the first time, it was a wizened hand, the skin crumpled and attached to the bones, covered with yellow spots and dark spots, and every burst of blood vessels was clearly visible.

"Smack"

The cloaked man snapped his fingers, and the two rows of bookshelves to the right of his desk slid slightly in the opposite direction, revealing a dark chamber that was completely unclear of what was inside.

"I can't resurrect them right now, but I think I should be able to provide you with the souls of the people you want."

His words shook Ning An's heart.

"Caridora's ...... Soul? ”

The cloaked man shrugged and let out a low "giggle" smirk

"I think so—I've collected a lot of souls here that are haunted by powerful thoughts, and they're all kept in my collection in order to one day make such a deal."

As he spoke, he seemed to glance at Ning An with his eyes hidden under the hood

"You're a wizard...... It's not bad...... If you want to be resurrected, I guess it will be in my collection, right? ”