Ancient wizards return to Hogwarts.

The cold wind was howling, and the surface of the Black Lake was frozen and covered with white snow. The audience in the stands wrapped their coats tightly and tied the scarves around their necks tighter.

In this weather, the contestants had to enter the Black Lake to search for treasure. Not to mention how to hold their breath in the lake for an hour, the water temperature close to zero degrees alone was enough to make them drink a pot of wine.

Rice looked around and found that each of the contestants seemed to have special skills.

Daphne, who was standing beside him, took out a strange-looking box and put it on her face, fitting perfectly into the contours of her face.

Les:?

Daphne noticed Les's gaze and gave a sheepish smile.

"I cast a traceless expansion spell inside, creating a space in the box to support my breathing." As she spoke, Daphne began to apply waterproof ointment to the edges of the box to completely seal those tiny gaps.

Les: Awesome.

He didn't expect Daphne to solve the problem in this way. He couldn't help but think of the diving device called oxygen tank used by Muggles.

Les looked around and found that some contestants were actually wearing Muggle diving suits - the students of Ilvermorny took off their wizard robes in unison, revealing the same diving suits underneath, and each of them carried an oxygen tank on their backs.

It seems that Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has not given up studying the "strange skills and tricks" of Muggles!

After looking at Ilvermorny, Les glanced at the students at Hogwarts and found that Astoria did not do anything like him, but just kept taking deep breaths, while Hermione and Cedric had a huge bubble on their heads.

"Bubble Head Charm? Interesting." Les saw the thinking of Hermione and the others. The essence of their operation was no different from that of Daphne and the students of Ilvermorny. They all provided themselves with an oxygen supply environment underwater.

Harry, Neville and Luna were eating something.

As for the students of other magic schools, they also showed their magical powers. Some turned their heads into fish heads, some took potions, and some brought out the automatic combat dolls made by Helga. They chose special dolls with manual mode, which was also a new type of doll developed by Helga. It can be used as a teaching tool. Unexpectedly, they used it in the competition.

Since there is no restriction on players using external forces in this stage of the competition, players can choose any operation as long as they enter the lake to search for treasure by themselves.

Rice even saw a black-haired young man take out a piece of yellowed paper from his arms. When he shook his hand, the paper began to burn, and a large translucent fish appeared in front of him.

The young man raised his hand and pointed towards the Black Lake, and the translucent big fish sank into the lake and disappeared.

"That's interesting. It really opened my eyes." Watching the young man's operation, Rice couldn't help but feel that he had learned a lot.

That guy seemed to be using a completely different system of power.

After the contestants had made their own preparations, they all headed towards the Black Lake.

With dozens of explosions, the surface of the Black Lake was blown open by the joint efforts of everyone, and the broken ice was agitated, revealing the dark, deep and bottomless lake water under the ice.

Many contestants' expressions suddenly changed after seeing the lake.

Even if one is mentally prepared, the instinctive fear that is deeply rooted in the human soul is still aroused after seeing such a lake.

But as contestants, they had no choice.

After hesitating for a few seconds, the first contestant began to walk towards the Black Lake, followed by the second, the third...

Les glanced at the students standing in the corner of the Black Lake and rubbed his chin: That seemed to be the place where he had buried the Dementors before. He hoped that these guys would not be unlucky enough to be affected by the residual power of the Dementors.

He looked back at Helga and found that her eyes were also wandering over those people, and he immediately felt relieved.

With Helga around, there shouldn't be any casualties.

Les also walked towards the Black Lake, with Harry following behind him, looking like he was having trouble breathing.

Les turned his head and saw the long and narrow crack under Harry's ear, where he had gills.

Now Les knew what he had just eaten.

Rice slowly stepped into the Black Lake, pushed away a few pieces of ice that were floating over, and then sank into the water like a lead weight.

There were still a dozen contestants on the shore who had not entered the water. They sat on the shore with their eyes closed, resting as if they had given up, as if the competition had nothing to do with them anymore.

The freezing cold lake water did not make Les feel any discomfort. To him, there was no difference between water and land.

After sinking, Les opened his eyes, identified the direction, and drove the water flow to the bottom of the lake.

As Rice was drifting with the current, he felt a wave, and the next moment, three figures passed by him.

They were Neville, Luna, and Harry. Their gills were opening and closing to swallow up the lake water. Their hands and feet had become like those of frogs, with long, slender fingers with webbed fingers in the middle.

"How does gillywort taste?" Rice joked to the three of them.

After hearing Les's voice, the three of them stopped. It was obvious that Harry and Luna wanted to reply, but when they opened their mouths, no sound came out and only a big bubble came out of their mouths.

"This is what happens underwater. Your organs change a little, and become like fish." Rice also explained the characteristics of gillweed to the three of them.

Watching Rice swimming and talking underwater unimpeded, the three were stunned, and a question flashed through their minds: How did he do it?

Neville tried hard to make a gesture and asked if they wanted to act together, and Les naturally agreed.

The four of them swam towards the center of the lake together.

As they gradually dived, the surroundings began to become dark. Les snapped his fingers, and a ball of faint blue light appeared beside him to provide him with lighting. Harry and the other two also drew out their wands, and fluorescent spots appeared on the tips of their wands.

In the dark water, the light is likely to attract predators and other fish, but Rice doesn't care. Any creature that tries to approach them will be swept away by a strong current and carried dozens of meters away.

Meanwhile, the eliminated ones have emerged.

Just as Les had expected, the unlucky few who chose to dive into the water where the Dementors were buried had been fished out by Dumbledore.

A few minutes after the four of them entered the water, a large number of bubbles appeared on the surface of the lake. Dumbledore, who had been warned by Helga long ago, acted decisively and pulled the four people out of the water.

All four of them fell into a coma and obviously would not be able to participate in the next game.

Even if the Dementors suppressed at the bottom of the lake cannot escape, the effects of their bodies will form an area in the water, which will have a negative impact on people who accidentally enter it.

But none of this had anything to do with Rice and the other three. They had arrived at the center of the lake without any obstructions.

At this time, the water plants at the bottom of the lake had disappeared, replaced by large areas of black mud. A large rock appeared in front of everyone, with many mermaids painted on it. They were holding spears in their hands and chasing something that looked like a giant squid. In the distance, the singing of mermaids could be heard faintly.

"We're here. This is the location of the capital of the ancient merman kingdom." Les grinned and pointed to the mud beneath him.

Mermaid Kingdom? This was the first time the three of them had heard of this term. Perhaps it was mentioned in the History of Magic, but it was very likely drowned out by Professor Binns's boring tone.

He could even make the story of the bloody goblin rebellion sound sleepy, so it was only natural that he just briefly mentioned the Murloc Kingdom.

Seeing the confusion in the eyes of the three people, Rice's teaching habit suddenly came into play.

"When Hogwarts was first founded, there were many more magical animals around the school than there are now. There were even many intelligent magical animal settlements. There were dragons, centaurs and goblins in the Forbidden Forest, and the Black Lake was ruled by the Mermaid Kingdom.

The ancient merman kingdom at that time was not as lame as the current merman tribe. They had their own language, writing, system, and culture—they even had things like gillyweed and bubble-head spells that allowed them to come to the ground and move around.”

Looking at the shocked eyes of the three people, a hint of satisfaction flashed in Rice's eyes.

"Are you surprised? This is normal. The history of mermaids is longer than you think. The earliest records of mermaids can be traced back to ancient Greece, when they were called sirens. But I personally think they existed in ancient Egypt."

Several bubbles came out of Luna's mouth.

"Do you want to know why the mermaid tribe now only lives at the bottom of the Black Lake, and why their civilization has not developed further and has even regressed?"

Luna nodded repeatedly.

"That's because there was a conflict between the ancient mermaid kingdom and the founders. At that time, the newly founded Hogwarts was poor and had to find ways to get food. Either go out and trade with Muggles, or open up farmland and hunt in the Forbidden Forest. Compared to the Forbidden Forest full of dangerous magical animals, the Black Lake is undoubtedly much safer.

However, the mermaids were very dissatisfied with this. They thought that the wizards were plundering their pastures, which led to several small-scale conflicts and eventually a war.

Harry and the other two listened attentively. If they were on land, they would definitely ask: What happened next?

"As for the result later..." Les spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders: "The mermaids were defeated by the teachers and students of Hogwarts on land, and the two founders, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, rushed into the lake. Ravenclaw, with the assistance of Slytherin, destroyed the capital of the Mermaid Kingdom, and Slytherin destroyed all the outlying strongholds of the Mermaid Kingdom.

When Rowena Ravenclaw destroyed the capital, she also wiped out the writing and system of the Mermaid Kingdom and killed all the royal family members. Slytherin destroyed the herbs they needed to land on the ground. Thus, the Mermaid Kingdom, which was once powerful and occupied the entire Black Lake, was destroyed.

The remaining mermaid tribes are the survivors of the Mermaid Kingdom, who escaped the war. It seems that they did not inherit the culture of the Mermaid Kingdom. "

Harry blinked. He wanted to ask Gryffindor and Hufflepuff what they were doing, but he couldn't make any sound underwater.

Neville and Luna were fascinated by the story, and the "tragic" war a thousand years ago almost appeared before their eyes. They even had the illusion that what was beneath them was not black mud, but a prosperous underwater city.

"This is what I read in the letters of ancient wizards. You may find it a bit cruel, but this is the characteristic of that era. The competition between species is a life-and-death struggle, and there is almost no compromise. Even Godric Gryffindor's sword is stained with a lot of blood." At the end, Les did not forget to add a sentence to explain the source of his knowledge.

Rice's eyes turned to the stone not far away and a smile appeared on his face.

The water surged, the rocks were turned over, and a cloud of mud was raised.

When the mud cleared, the three were shocked to find that the back of the rock with a mermaid hunting picture on its surface was actually carved with a strong Greek-style relief.

However, there was an extremely horrifying wound on the body of the mermaid in the relief, as if it had been cut by something, and the crack was full of black mud.

Harry tried hard to control his mind and not let himself imagine what would happen if the knife hit a person.

Rice used the water to put the rocks back in place, stirring up a large area of ​​mud again. At this time, a golden light flashed in the mud, which immediately seduced Rice who was about to leave.

He waved his hand into the mud, and a piece of glittering gold floated out from it.

Les took it and took a closer look, and found that it was a golden scabbard with a string of inscriptions engraved on it. The sword in the scabbard was gone, and only this half of the scabbard sank in the mud.

If Les hadn't had the sudden inspiration to move the big rock today, it would probably have continued sleeping at the bottom of the Black Lake.

"There are many good things at the bottom of the lake. After all, it was the ancient merman kingdom that flourished. It is said that the lost treasure of the merman king is buried deep in the Black Lake!" Les was not interested in the scabbard, but since it was an object with an inscription, he could not let it stay here. So he threw the scabbard to Neville.

This kid helped me a lot last semester. This is my small way of giving back to him.

Maybe he could find the missing treasure of the Mermaid King through this? The battle was fierce, and the capital was destroyed very thoroughly. They searched afterwards, but ultimately failed to find the legendary mysterious treasure house filled with gold, silver, and jewelry.

After telling the story of the Mermaid Kingdom, the four swam towards the singing.

Not long after, many rough stone dwellings appeared on the bottom of the lake, with water plants growing on the stones. From time to time, some faces flashed through the dark windows. Those faces were very different from the images of mermaids described in the literature of wizards and Muggles on earth. They looked extremely ugly - their skin was iron gray, with messy dark green hair, and each mermaid had a mouthful of uneven, deformed and rotten teeth, which made their appearance even worse.

Looking at this group of mermaids and their shabby houses, Rice couldn't help but raise his eyebrows: he knew that the mermaids were destitute and backward after the fall of the kingdom, but he didn't expect that they had fallen to this point!

----

Update is here, tomorrow's update will be at midnight

(｀w)