Chapter 201: The Horcrux Making Method

The Hogwarts copy of the book was originally placed in the library area.

The exact origin and exact time of its addition to the Hogwarts library was unknown to Ivan, but it was in fact the only known copy of the 'Secrets of the Darkest Art'.

Ivan did not expect the Blacks to have the same book in their collection. This was his greatest gain after destroying Voldemort's Horcrux today.

He had wanted to read this book for a long time, and had hoped to learn more about Horcruxes.

But the copy at Hogwarts had been removed from the library by Dumbledore and hidden away.

Although the book used to be in the library along with many other precious magical books, Ivan could not locate it anywhere.

Once he saw its name in the library catalog, followed by a small inscription in red: "Warning: this book is extremely dangerous to borrow and requires the personal approval of the headmaster, plus a good reason.".

In Ivan's opinion, getting the book was virtually impossible.

Successive Hogwarts headmasters were knowledgeable and powerful wizards. They knew they would not allow a young wizard to see the most evil book in dark magic; unless they had lost their minds, or were under the Imperius Curse.

The library's borrowing record also proves this. Before Dumbledore hid it, the book was placed in silence for centuries. Aside from a few teachers, no student had ever moved it. In fact, most young wizards did not even know there was a book of dark magic in the library.

This situation continued until just over 50 years ago, when Voldemort student Tom Riddle successfully borrowed the book from the library.

Ivan didn't know how he did it. He didn't know if it was a coincidence that he borrowed the book, or if he already had clues about the Horcruxes.

But there was no doubt that Voldemort had obtained a detailed method for making a Horcrux from this book. He believed that this dark magic would help him obtain the eternal life he dreams of.

From the information Ivan had, after knowing how to make the Horcrux and confirming several key problems, Voldemort immediately began experimenting, relying on killing to split his soul and become a monster that would never die thereafter.

This is also the main reason why Dumbledore has never been able to defeat Voldemort. When he was at his peak, he may have been able to defeat Voldemort, but he was never able to kill him.

Any effort is futile until all Horcruxes are destroyed.

Moreover, Dumbledore's strength is weakened by age, while Voldemort's is growing day by day.

Evidently, Dumbledore had noticed the signs of the anomaly in question, and must have had a suspicion in his mind, though it had been impossible for him to be conclusive until he saw Tom Riddle's diary last year.

But after becoming headmaster, he still removed the book from the library.

In addition to avoiding the appearance of a second Voldemort, his decision was driven by the fact that the contents of this book are not really suitable for young wizards.

As one of the most important dark magic books, 'The Secrets of the Darkest Art' reveals a great deal of extremely evil taboo magic. The Horcrux is just one of them, and it may not even be the most evil.

Ivan gently rubbed the book with his hand and decided to open it. The yellow, crunchy pages made a sparse, unpleasant sound.

The first dark magic introduced by 'Secrets of the Darkest Art' is the Horcrux. At the top of the page is a portrait of a cunning, distorted figure of someone whose soul is being split apart. He appears to be in great pain, but in the corner of his mouth, there is a cruel smile.

One could see that, compared to the other pages, the dozens of pages about Horcruxes were marked and read throughout due to much more flipping. Regulus must have opened this book many times. He was looking through it for clues, and so deduced that Voldemort's locket hidden in the cave was a Horcrux.

Ivan glanced at the contents and found them to be very detailed.

It introduced the Horcrux, the source, principle and method of this dark magic, as well as a large number of test records, and points to note at each step.

The more Ivan read, the more terrible it became. The contents of this book had gone beyond the scope of "general evil".

The first step in making a Horcrux is to split the soul, relying on murder or other evil forces to split the soul.

Then, through a series of very complicated steps, the split souls are separated from the main soul.

According to the label below, Ivan knew that although killing was the easiest way to split the soul, it did not mean that the soul would split immediately if a murder was carried out.

The power needed to divide a soul is very strong, and it comes from evil and cruelty. The key is not to kill, but to be evil to that extent.

Therefore, one does not divide one's soul simply by carrying out a murder.

It depends on the form of the cruelty of the murder and how evil the soul of the caster is. The whole process is very hard. As the number of soul splits increases, the degree of evil and difficulty required also increases linearly.

Most dark mages are able to split the soul once, which is already the limit.

No wizard can split his soul into more than two halves and create more than one Horcrux. The pain is enough to shatter the wizard.

Also, splitting the soul will cause the main soul to become unstable.

What Voldemort managed to do, splitting his own soul many times and successfully making multiple Horcruxes seemed almost impossible for Ivan.

After the soul is split, the next step is to choose the right Horcrux and inject the soul into it.

Any object can become a Horcrux, but with soul transfer, you need an extremely powerful spell to protect your Horcrux, and enough magical power to support the completion of the entire transfer process. This means that even if a dark wizard is evil enough to split his own soul, but not strong enough to support the transfer process, he cannot successfully create a Horcrux.

The book emphasizes that the dark wizard must properly protect his own Horcrux.

Damaging the Horcrux will inevitably affect the main soul, which is already extremely unstable, further fragmenting it.

The most immediate consequence is that the dark wizard will lose his mind and go mad.

And his power will not be affected. On the contrary, his soul will become evil enough so that he can use darker magic more easily.

Eventually, a dark wizard whose Horcrux is destroyed would end up being devoured by the forces of darkness, and become a monster who knows nothing but killing.