Hogwarts Summoning Guide

Bai Lin nodded and followed Krum into this northern industrial city. The buildings were low and factories were everywhere, but some of them were quite dilapidated. The city lacked the vibrancy of European and Eastern cities. There were few pedestrians and vehicles on the roadside in the early morning, giving it a desolate appearance.

Krum led the two through the streets and alleys. Although he had only been there once, he was very familiar with the streets. Finally, they arrived at a small, abandoned factory area. He knocked on a tall brick wall with red patterns painted on it. The brick wall, like Diagon Alley, creaked and split open to reveal an equally desolate street.

Catherine looked curiously at both sides of the street, which was mostly filled with dirty bars and restaurants. Large areas of frozen vomit in front of the doors seemed to tell the story of people's revelry last night while drinking cheap beer. It seemed that the wizards of the fighting nation were just as addicted to alcohol as the Muggle commoners.

Krum led them around a corner in the alley, up a rusty staircase to the third floor, and to the front of a house.

After knocking for about seven or eight minutes, the door was finally pulled open, revealing the angry face of a scruffy Slavic youth. But when he saw Krum, his anger vanished instantly, replaced by overwhelming joy, and he rushed forward to hug Krum tightly.

Knowing that Krum is a figure comparable to Messi and Ronaldo in the Quidditch world, Bai Lin was not surprised by the young man's excitement. Sure enough, he warmly invited the three of them into the house.

This is a typical magic hut. It looks very small from the outside, but it is more than 200 square meters inside. However, it is filled with strange and broken things, like a junkyard.

The young man, somewhat embarrassed, cleared the dirty sofa and excitedly said, "I watched your performance in the finals, it was absolutely fantastic! The Irishmen were beaten to a pulp!" Krum had managed to snatch the Golden Snitch, but the Irish team won the championship with the advantage of cumulative points (what a strange tournament format), so they could be considered to have lost but still earned honors.

Krum smiled at him, politely declining his offer to pour some liquid from an unknown bottle to serve them, and quickly asked, "Yakov, although it may be presumptuous, I've come to ask you for a favor..."

The young man straightened his expression, patted his chest, and said, "Victor, my brother, your business is my business! Speak freely!"

Krum said seriously, "We have important business to attend to. We need to go to the Amur Region and then to Sakha. Do you have any connections?"

Yakov said with a somewhat strange expression, "Going north... there is a magic train that can reach Sakha, it only takes two hours from Novosibirsk, but... the north has been rather unsettled lately!"

Bai Lin jumped in surprise and quickly went over to ask, "What happened?"

Yakov, clearly fond of Krum's companions, extended his friendliness to them as well, spitting as he spoke: "Just yesterday! Big news! The train to Sakha was bombed, and many people died!"

Bai Lin's heart skipped a beat, sensing that this was most likely related to Barnard. He quickly said, "Let's go to the scene of the train accident! I'm tracking a dangerous dark wizard! It's very likely he did it!"

Yakov was clearly getting excited too. He excitedly pulled a book from the nearby "junk pile" and said, "Like The Murder on the Orient Express? Are you the Auror of Europe or a detective? This is so exciting!"

Bai Lin glanced at the book and saw that it was a detective novel by British author Agatha Christie. He was speechless, not expecting that this young wizard from the fighting race would read a popular British Muggle novel.

After some negotiation, Yakov agreed to personally lead them there. However, due to the bombing, the train had stopped running, and they had to go to the Flying Network, which was controlled by conglomerates. It would cost a lot of money. Bai Lin quickly took out a handful of Gallons and stuffed them into Yakov's hand. As long as it was fast, spending a little money was a small matter.

As it turns out, money makes things easier. Yakov led them into the Filo network to the border of the Sakha Republic in less than fifteen minutes. However, the teleportation experience here was really unpleasant. Bai Lin felt like he had once jumped into a barrel of wine and rolled down a mountain. Catherine almost threw up.

A gust of wind far colder than they had experienced before gave the four people who had arrived at the station a rude awakening. The wind was accompanied by snowflakes, and the temperature dropped to minus twenty or thirty degrees Celsius. Everywhere they looked, there were snow-covered trees and vast expanses of frozen tundra, a scene both desolate and beautiful.

Even though Bai Lin was wearing thick winter clothes and a magical cloak to keep warm, he still felt cold to the core. Although he had been to the waters near Antarctica before, he was protected by the Water Shield and the seabed was relatively warm.

Yakov pulled a flask from his pocket, took a big gulp, and handed it to Krum. This time, Krum didn't refuse and took a sip as well. He then handed it to Bai Lin, who downed a mouthful of strong liquor and felt much warmer. It turned out this small flask was high-quality stuff. Finally, it was Catherine's turn. She took a small sip, and although it was spicy and pungent, she appreciated the wonderful effects of the liquor and quickly drank another sip. Yakov, however, seemed quite distressed.

The four of them boarded their magic brooms and flew across the tundra for half an hour, braving the cold wind. Finally, they spotted a long railway track and flew along it for another forty minutes. Then, a horrific scene unfolded before them.

The explosion created a crater over a hundred meters in diameter on the snowfield. The railway tracks were twisted and bent, and the broken parts appeared to have been burned away. Four or five train carriages were burned to blackened shells and scattered around, demonstrating the power of the explosion.

Of course, such a horrific scene that had already made the news wouldn't be left unattended. There were at least twenty or thirty people at the scene, braving the wind and snow to clean up the wreckage of the explosion. As soon as they saw someone approaching, two wizards on broomsticks immediately came to stop them. Judging from their attire, they should be Aurors from the magic management department of the warrior race.

Krum took off his goggles, and the Aurors immediately recognized him. Although Krum looked simple and honest, he was not stupid at all. He quickly introduced Bai Lin as Professor Durmstrang, who was tracking down a fugitive dark wizard.

Although it was inconvenient to discuss such a murder case with ordinary people, especially given Bai Lin's East Asian appearance, to his surprise, the Aurors treated him as one of their own and immediately began discussing the case with him. (The Sakha Republic in Siberia is inhabited by the Yakuts, who are of yellow race and whose appearance is almost indistinguishable from that of East Asians.)

"The survivors have been sent back to Moscow for treatment. At least sixty people died, including the elderly and children..." said a tall Slavic Auror, his tone filled with regret, anger, and hatred towards the murderers.

Before the Aurors could question him, Bai Lin...

He went straight to the point: "The dark wizard I'm tracking is named Barnard, and he's about 186 centimeters tall..." He then proceeded to describe Barnard's appearance and physique in one breath: "He may be possessing very dangerous magical artifacts..."

However, before Bai Lin could finish speaking, the Slavic Auror said, "There was more than one killer, but two groups. They had a fierce battle on the train, which led to the explosion... If one of them is the fugitive black wizard you mentioned, is the other a European cross-border law enforcement organization?" His tone was quite hostile, as if he suspected that the other party was related to Bai Lin.

Bai Lin was immediately at his wit's end, but fortunately Krum corroborated his statement, saying, "Professor White came all this way because he saw the newspaper and found out that Barnard had been in the vicinity. And it was just the three of us."

The Aurors sized up Bai Lin, but ultimately didn't continue questioning him. Instead, in their desperation, they took Bai Lin on a tour of the site.

"At first glance, it should have been an explosion caused by a very powerful Fiendfire spell, but we still found a lot of metal shrapnel in the wreckage... Muggle weapons!" The tall Slavic Auror was probably the leader of the group. He thought for a moment and took out some metal shrapnel in a transparent plastic bag.

"WTF!" Bai Lin exclaimed in shock. The plastic bag clearly contained bullet casings and grenade shrapnel. He exclaimed, "It's a Lawbreaker?!"

The Auror leader's eyes widened. Bai Lin explained briefly, "Do you have a map of this area? The Spellbreakers are all Muggles; they can only use Muggle vehicles. It's impossible for them to leave the scene without leaving a trace after the explosion!"

Although the Auror leader was puzzled as to how Muggles boarded the magic train and why they clashed with dark wizards, he knew it was a very important clue.

Previously, the Aurors used some search magic to try and capture magical traces at the scene, then conduct a large-scale search and surveillance operation. If someone used similar magic again, it would trigger an alarm, and the Aurors would then pursue them. This was a common method used by the Aurors to hunt down dark wizards, but firstly, it was time-consuming, laborious, and inefficient; secondly, Siberia is not like Britain—it is vast and sparsely populated. The Sakha region alone is as large as India, but has only a few hundred thousand people. This method of surveillance is impossible to implement across Siberia, let alone even within the Sakha region itself.

The Auror leader acted decisively, pulling out a map while directing the Aurors to search for traces of Muggles leaving the explosion site.

"The land in the Saharan region is almost entirely permafrost, and the snow is very heavy. Footprints and sled tracks are easily covered up, but Muggles can't go too far. My men will split into five groups to search the surrounding area. The nearest town is to the north, and they've probably gone there!" the Auror leader said. However, he declined Bai Lin's assistance and only told them to leave the scene as soon as possible before hurriedly leaving with his men.

"Kerry, what do we do?" Catherine asked, huddled in her cloak, leaning against Bai Lin's arm.

Bai Lin took out a piece of paper and simply drew the map he had just seen on it. Pointing to a village in the northwest, he said, "Let's go here first! If there's a powerful dark wizard here, I should be able to sense it!"

Yakov peeked out and exclaimed, "That's a Tatar village! It's certainly a good hiding place!"

Krum grabbed Yakov's arm and said, "Yakov, that's enough! It's too dangerous to go any further! I don't want anything to happen to you!"

Yakov kept shaking his head, saying, "Without me, you probably wouldn't even be able to communicate with the locals. Besides, I've admired detectives since I was a child, and no one can stop me from going with you!"

With time running out, the group had no time to argue with Yakov. They all mounted their flying brooms and sped off northward. Before long, a small village on the snowfield came into view a few kilometers away.

The village was small, surrounded by a tall wooden wall, and wolves could be seen in the woods outside the village.

Yakov said, "Wolves are rampant in the Sakha region. If someone is walking alone in the wild, they are very likely to be attacked by wolves... The Tatars don't welcome outsiders very much, so let's not let the villagers see us!"

The group lowered their flight altitude, skimming the snow as they approached the village. The village in the snowfield was unusually quiet, and Bai Lin had a bad feeling. Sure enough, as soon as they got close, a figure on a broomstick came to greet them. It was an Auror they had just seen by the train wreckage.

The Auror, with a full beard, looked quite nervous. Yakov approached him and learned that they were too late. Someone had looted the village, several villagers had died, and the rest were locked in the largest house in the village.

Bai Lin took out a map, glanced at it, and quickly locked onto their next target. He frowned and said, "They're going into the mountains!"

Yakov leaned closer to take a look and said, "That's the Chersky Mountains in Magadan Oblast. Victory Mountain, the highest peak in Sakha, is over there—it's uninhabited!"

Bai Lin marked Novosibirsk, Amur Oblast, the location of the train accident, and the small village in front of them on the map, and then formed a graphic.

Bai Lin explained, "They're not heading towards Yakutsk; they're planning to go into the mountains!"

The bearded Auror stared intently at the drawing Bai Lin had made. He had just notified his colleagues, but Bai Lin didn't intend to wait for the Aurors to gather before going with them. He felt a strong sense of urgency, as if he would miss something of great importance if he was late.

Auror the Bearded wanted to stop them but dared not leave the village, and could only watch helplessly as the four rode brooms toward the mountains.

The four of them moved swiftly like the wind, quickly crossing the snowfield. However, the closer they got to the mountains, the stronger the wind and snow became, and the visibility gradually decreased. Looking up, they saw a tall mountain range stretching upwards, standing majestically amidst the wind and snow.

Bai Lin was a little uneasy, wondering if his analysis was wrong. But Krum had a sharp eye and made a discovery under a large rock that was mostly covered by snow. They landed and Bai Lin took a closer look. It was a brand new ski with a big "F" logo on it. Bai Lin recognized it as a French brand.

It can be basically concluded that this was left behind by the lawbreakers, but as the group approached and Yakov stepped forward to pull the skis out from under the rocks, Bai Lin suddenly felt a warning.

The sense of danger came on so suddenly that Bai Lin didn't have time to warn anyone. He could only grab Catherine, who was closest to him, and together they crouched down and fell to the snow.

A gunshot rang out amidst the howling wind in the empty valley.

Immediately afterward, Krum cried out in anguish, "Yakov!"

Bai Lin looked up and saw that Yakov didn't even have time to scream. Half of his head had been blown off by a sniper rifle, leaving only his chin. Blood sprayed into the air and froze into bright red ice blocks before it even hit the ground.

You have received a new chapter update: Chapter 205 Chasing the Killer in the Snowfield, here is the reading link.