(Note: This novel will NOT turn into a xianxia/cultivation story for any reason.)
When Louis used Clairvoyance and saw a meteor shatter above the Forbidden Forest, he instantly realized something was wrong.
His expression twisted.
Images flashed before his eyes—the future appeared before him without even a veil of fog. If he wanted to see it, he could.
Golden Core… Tribulation Lightning…
What kind of absurd combination was this?
"Uh… so it's actually walking the cultivation path now."
Louis was speechless after viewing the short-term future.
It felt like his entire story's genre was being dragged sideways.
His owl was a magically enhanced creature through gene modification.
His cat was apparently an alien species cultivating like an immortal.
And he himself was a Muggle walking the "Dark Qi Wizard" path.
Not a single one of them was normal.
Beside him, Dumbledore was still watching the Meteor Shower Scroll play out with full concentration—but honestly, even with all that attention, he still couldn't understand its principles.
Louis decided it was time to go. He'd already received confirmation that the mission was complete. Time to sort out the spoils from this run.
"Can this magic be recreated?"
Just as Louis was about to leave, Dumbledore spoke.
"It probably can't."
Louis thought about the randomness of the system's lottery. He wanted to give a firm answer…
But then he remembered the nuclear self-destruct bomb sitting in his inventory…
Given the system's temperamental nature, it was hard to say for sure.
So he left his answer ambiguous.
Dumbledore nodded. "Your honesty makes me trust you more. Don't betray that trust. I do not wish to see this world fall into chaos again because of a Hogwarts student."
"Don't worry, Headmaster. I'm the most honest person you'll ever meet," Louis replied with a cheerful smile.
Whether those Voldemort fragments were honest, however… was another matter entirely.
Speaking of which, what had the Ravenclaw fragment been doing lately? It had gone radio-silent. If not for the feedback from the Ghost General's Mark, Louis would've assumed the guy dropped dead.
"That's good."
Dumbledore nodded again and patted Fawkes on the shoulder.
Fawkes understood and spread its wings, flying toward the Forbidden Forest.
Once the magic ended, it would need to extinguish any fires. They couldn't let the entire forest burn down.
Although Meteor Shower only affected a radius of 300 meters, fire certainly didn't follow rules.
As Louis watched Fawkes leave, he wasn't worried at all. Even if Fawkes or Dumbledore saw Hastur, so what?
It was just a ridiculously powerful cat. Not anything shameful.
Meanwhile, Hastur's battle against its own limits was nearing its conclusion.
Only one meteor remained in the sky.
But by now the glowing aura on Hastur's body was no longer enough to fully protect it. High temperatures scorched patches of its fur, leaving bald spots and charred sections.
Hastur didn't mind at all.
Its whiskers curled from the heat, its fur was burnt and patchy—like some dusty countryside cat that got into a chimney in winter.
But its eyes shone brilliantly like twin burning stars.
A soaring battle intent surged inside its tiny body.
The final strike!
Hastur let out a hoarse roar and leapt upward, the ground collapsing slightly under the force.
It charged straight toward the falling meteor.
In its eyes, a flicker of enlightenment flashed.
Then it opened its mouth—
And thick, violent tentacles burst forth.
The tentacles, however, no longer resembled raw, blood-red muscle.
They had become crystalline—clear and glasslike—though faint streaks of red still ran through them.
In the next moment, the tentacles coiled together, rapidly compressing.
It felt as if they were devouring something from the very air, stirring up a violent gust of wind.
At the eye of that storm, the glasslike tentacles fused into a lustrous crystalline sphere, with one end connected to Hastur's mouth by something like an umbilical cord.
Because of that cordlike biological strand, the sphere held a trace of impurity within it.
A look of fierce resolve flashed across Hastur's feline features.
It opened its mouth and bit down on that umbilical connection with its sharp teeth.
Instantly, a jolt like lightning struck through Hastur's body, making it tremble violently.
Meanwhile, the sphere—now severed completely from Hastur—seemed to undergo purification.
The discoloration vanished, leaving behind a flawless, pure crystal.
The crystalline sphere—
No, it should now be called a Golden Core—
erupted with immense power.
The blast shattered the falling meteor.
It even tore through the colorful clouds across the sky.
At the same time, thunderclouds gathered overhead, rumbling with the threat of tribulation lightning.
But Hastur was not afraid in the slightest.
A sharp brilliance lit up in its eyes as it curled its body and activated Divine Qi Art.
The glassy Golden Core suspended in the sky unleashed a terrifying suction force.
The thunder-filled clouds didn't even have time to strike—
They were dragged straight into the Golden Core, which remained completely unchanged, not even its color shifting.
The Golden Core was swallowing the heavenly tribulation.
…Well, thinking about it carefully, this was actually to be expected.
As a Devourer Beast, Hastur had merged its racial talent with the system's cultivation art to create this Golden Core.
And a Devourer's Golden Core would, of course, be capable of swallowing anything.
Who knows—Hastur might even be capable of forming a small world soon, walking straight into a full protagonist template.
…Though that would probably take some time.
Hastur did not look like the type who could farm or manage land.
With the tribulation lightning fully consumed, the Golden Core returned to normal.
Hastur opened its mouth, swallowed the Golden Core whole, and licked its lips in satisfaction.
It had finally broken through!
Now that winged cat had no right to compete with it ever again. (T/N: Poor Dragon)
So what if it could fly?
Flying wasn't impressive.
Hastur could fly now too—faster and more stable!
Indeed, the Golden-Core-formed Hastur now floated effortlessly in the air, paws not touching anything, as if walking on solid ground.
Miraculous.
Hastur was about to let out a triumphant roar when it suddenly spotted a massive bird of flame flying toward it.
A bird…
Hastur instinctively licked its lips, but fortunately remembered Louis' warning.
This was the Headmaster's phoenix.
Not edible.
Fawkes—busy absorbing the forest fire—also noticed the cat floating midair and froze.
What in Merlin's name?
Is this some kind of new species of owl?
How is it flying with no wings??
Hastur ignored Fawkes completely.
Birds that couldn't be eaten and weren't friends were beneath its attention.
It was time to go back and share its triumph with its master.
But before leaving, Hastur glanced down at the burning forest—and at the phoenix struggling to devour the flames.
A sneer appeared on its feline face.
Phoenix, huh.
And yet it struggles so much just to swallow fire.
Hastur opened its mouth.
The simple motion unleashed an astonishing suction force—
Every flame on the ground, even those already halfway into Fawkes' beak, was ripped away and swallowed into Hastur's mouth until nothing remained.
After gulping down the last fire, Hastur let out a sneeze that shot out a spark.
It cast one disdainful look at the phoenix…
Then its body vanished with a sharp sonic boom, leaving Fawkes staring in stunned silence.
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