Chapter 472: Seeing the Mermaid in such a state of decline, I feel relieved

But seeing his neighbors in Black Lake like this, Rice felt relieved.

If there was a powerful alien civilization at the bottom of the Black Lake or above the Slytherin College common room, he would not be able to sleep well.

The arrival of Les and his companions startled the mermaids in their stone dwellings. They all ran out of their caves holding spears, with fierce light flashing in their yellow eyes. When Les and his companions passed by, they slapped the lake water with their strong and powerful silver tails, causing ripples.

The mermaids' actions did not anger Les, because in his opinion, the mermaids' actions were more of a sign of self-protection than an attack. They seemed extremely afraid of the four strangers who broke into this place.

Rhys wasn't panicking at all, but Harry and Neville were nervous, reaching into their robes and pulling out their wands.

The mermaids immediately scattered like birds and beasts, trembling and hiding in their stone houses, squatting by the window and quietly watching them.

"It seems that they still remember the dignity of wizards. That's good. Put away the wands. We won't need them for the time being." Les was too lazy to create unnecessary trouble here. He led Harry and the others to swim quickly forward.

As they went deeper into the mermaid village, the number of stone dwellings increased, and the dwellings gradually became more exquisite. Some dwellings even had gardens attached, and some mermaids even kept green lodi as pets.

The arrival of the wizards disturbed the residents of this place, and they emerged from all directions. Unlike the mermaids just now, these mermaids had a curious look in their eyes. Harry's webbed hands and gills behind his ears were very eye-catching, and they were also quite shocked that Les, a pure human, could move freely underwater.

After walking around the fishman village for a few times, the four of them came to the square in the center of the village.

There were houses around the square, and in front of the houses a large group of mermaids were floating, and the singing was coming from them. The singing mermaids were gathered around a crude statue.

After discovering that there was a stone statue of a mermaid here, Leis frowned. But after carefully examining the stone statue and confirming that it had nothing to do with the royal family of the ancient mermaid kingdom, his frown suddenly relaxed.

Just now, he saw many interesting phenomena along the way.

The dwellings outside the village are simple, while those inside are luxurious. This mermaid settlement seems to have a rich-poor gap. The mermaids outside are wary of wizards, while those inside are relatively friendly. This difference in attitude is worth savoring.

The most interesting thing is that the mermen in the core circle seemed to be encouraged by Dumbledore to participate in the competition, but the mermen in the outer and inner layers seemed to have no idea that wizards would come. This is very interesting...

'In modern times, the upper echelons of merman have a close relationship with wizards, the middle echelons are friendly to wizards but cannot get intelligence from the core decision-making circle - the upper echelons of merman are afraid that they will get in touch with wizards, and the lower echelons are hostile to wizards, is that right? 'It must be said that Les is very satisfied with this social structure.

It would be terrible if the mermaid community remained united around the royal family like it did thousands of years ago.

While constantly calculating in his mind, Rice didn't stop and ran straight to the mermaid statue.

Under the mermaid's tail, there are hundreds of small boxes.

Les, Neville and the other two each picked up a box and looked at the mermaids standing nearby.

A merman who looked like a leader, particularly rough and fierce, swam over and asked in a hoarse and low voice: "Do you want to continue to accept the challenge?"

Les laughed, completely ignoring the words of the mermaid leader, and floated straight to the surface of the water.

He could probably guess what the reward would be after the challenge, and he didn't need those things at all. But he didn't really leave, but floated away for a distance and then disappeared, hiding to the side and observing secretly.

Harry and the other two looked at each other and felt that there was still enough time, so they decided to accept further challenges.

Three mermaids separated from the group of mermaids and took Harry and the other two to three small houses beside the square.

Harry followed the mermaid into the house with an uneasy mood, and found that the house was empty, without any furniture, only an hourglass in the corner of the house. In addition, there were dozens of small silver fish floating in the house.

"Here." The mermaid handed Harry a seaweed backpack.

“If you can catch thirty small fish before the hourglass runs out, you will pass the test.” The mermaid said slowly.

Harry was stunned. He was holding the smooth and sturdy basket, looking at the school of small fish, and couldn't help but wonder: Is this test too easy?

But he hoped that the mermaid's trial would be as simple as possible.

The moment the mermaid flipped over the hourglass, Harry rushed out like an arrow and pounced on the school of fish.

Harry was a seeker, he had excellent dynamic vision and was extremely agile. If he were on land, it would be very easy for him to catch these slow-swimming little creatures. Unfortunately, this was underwater, which was different from the land.

Harry's attack was in vain. The fish were startled by the current he created and quickly fled away. The whole room was filled with a flash of silver reflection.

Harry didn't get discouraged after the miss. He quickly adjusted and tried again. This time he succeeded, but the fish was slippery and Harry let it slip away.

Harry:…

He suddenly felt that this trial was not so simple.

Harry made several more attempts, and his progress was greater each time. On his fourth try, he was able to catch a small fish.

The expression of the mermaid nearby gradually changed from disdain to surprise.

But when he saw that Harry had left the lid of the backpack open, he couldn't help laughing.

Harry was busy catching fish and completely ignored this matter. When the time was up, he looked down at the basket and found that there were only two small fish he had just caught.

A feeling of depression surged into Harry's heart, and he felt extremely lost for a moment.

"I... um, can I challenge you again?" After two seconds, Harry adjusted his mentality and asked the mermaid beside him without much hope.

He subconsciously felt that this kind of trial would be unlikely for someone to repeat, but he didn't expect the mermaid to agree to his request.

Harry was greatly encouraged. He had already figured out the trick. He only needed to try it two more times and not make any more stupid mistakes, and he would definitely pass the test!

Sure enough, by the end of this time, he had caught twenty-seven small fish!

"Again!" Harry said excitedly.

"Okay, but please get in line."

"Huh?" Harry looked outside and found Cedric standing outside with a funny huge bubble on his head.

He suddenly realized that this trial was more difficult than he had thought.

As the first contestant to arrive here, being able to participate in two trials in a row is already a great advantage. Presumably, the time interval between trials will be longer as time goes by.

Harry stepped back outside and watched Cedric go in and frantically start catching fish.

Cedric's situation was even worse than Harry's at the beginning. Harry's hands and feet at least had webbed feet with the help of gillyweed, but Cedric retained his human hands and feet. He also had a huge burden on his head and couldn't even catch up with the school of fish.

Just when Harry thought Cedric was going to give up the trial, a magical scene happened.

Cedric suddenly stopped and patted his head as if he had suddenly realized something. The huge bubble above his head trembled twice and seemed to be about to be popped by him.

Then he stood still.

The magical thing was that the small fish actually flew towards his fish basket little by little, as if there was a strong attraction inside.

Harry:? ? ?

Soon, Cedric caught thirty small silver fish and passed the test.

The mermaid thrust a box into his hand.

Cedric waved to Harry, swam towards the surface, and soon disappeared.

Harry took two deep breaths, trying to forget Cedric's way of catching fish, and then entered the room to start his third trial.

While Harry was taking the test, other contestants started arriving.

There is Fleur who has the same bubble hair as Cedric, there is Krum who has turned himself into half a shark, and there is Daphne who has a strange mask on her face.

They stood outside the house and watched Harry put the small fish into the fish basket with his nimble figure.

As the saying goes, three times the limit, this time Harry finally passed the test successfully.

After getting the second small box, Harry also floated up quickly. During the process of floating up, he found that an endless stream of contestants were rushing towards the mermaid village.

They all showed off their magical powers. Some wore Muggle diving suits, some turned into aquatic animals, and one even drove a fish deep into the Black Lake.

Harry tutted at this.

When he swam to the shallow water, Harry realized that his transformation was not over yet!

Recalling the feeling of suffocation on land, Harry decided to stay in the water for a while until the effect of the gillyweed wore off.

"I hope it's in time," he prayed quietly in his heart.

If his gills haven't disappeared after an hour, he will have no choice but to float up.

Harry drifted idly underwater, and then he saw Neville and Luna who arrived before him, both holding two boxes.

Apparently they all passed the mermaid test, but I don't know how they did it.

Then Cedric also appeared.

Because he had no webbed toes, he moved more slowly, so he left the water earlier than Harry, but reached the surface much later.

He gestured to the three people who remained underwater, asking if they wanted to float up together. The three of them shook their heads helplessly and pointed to the gills behind their ears.

Cedric immediately understood the difficulties of the three people. He waved his hand, indicating that he would go first.

At the moment of surfacing, Cedric was a little excited. He felt that he was likely to be the first among all the contestants to complete the project and pass the additional test.

Although the first one was no different from the last one, it was still a morale booster and brought honor to Hufflepuff House.

As he emerged from the water, Cedric lifted the Bubblehead Charm from his head, and then he heard a commotion coming from the audience.

'Strange, it doesn't seem to be cheering, but -' Cedric didn't have time to think about it, and a spell flew past his ear.

If he hadn't subconsciously tilted his head to observe the audience, the spell would have hit his head accurately!

Cedric dove into the water, and in less than half a second, a dozen spells fell on the spot where he had just been floating.

In the stands, a large group of people stood up, their faces filled with shock.

"Shameless!"

"Is it a foul? Where is the principal? Where is the referee? Take care of it!"

"How can you do this?!"

It turned out that the dozen or so contestants who had not entered the water had already taken action. They did not give up participating in the competition, but decided to ambush the students who had floated up after receiving the clearance reward at the lakeside!

As soon as Cedric showed his head, he was hit by more than a dozen spells and disappeared without a trace.

Dumbledore also stood up, squinting his eyes and watching the farce by the lake. Professor McGonagall beside him angrily slapped the railing in front of her.

"This is cheating, shameless cheating! Albus, we should--"

"The game continues." Dumbledore's voice rang out, and Professor McGonagall's second half of the words were stuck in her throat.

"This... Albus, they-"

"There is nothing in the rules of the game that prohibits this kind of behavior," Dumbledore said calmly.

Professor McGonagall was silent.

As the masterminds behind the game, Rowena and Helga did not think there was anything wrong with the lakeside players' operations. They even thought that this was how it should be, and that these people were the ones who grasped the essence of the game.

Dumbledore did not move, and Henry and Bagman did not take any action either. The judging panel composed of the headmaster and officials from the Ministry of Magic finally condoned the contestants' outrageous actions.

Seeing that the referees did not react, the contestants by the lake were immediately reassured.

Some of these people were those who had not found a suitable coping strategy, and others were contestants from certain magic schools who deliberately stayed on the shore. Their purpose was to snipe at those strong contestants, take away their clearance rewards, and eliminate them.

They were very nervous at first, wondering whether this behavior would be recognized by the authorities. Now that the authorities have not responded, it means that their bet was right.

There were more than a dozen snipers on the shore. If anyone showed his head, they would be hit by more than a dozen spells. Even the fire dragon couldn't withstand it. Now they had a big advantage.

Seeing that the principals did not react, the students watching the game also understood what the referees meant. Now they began to worry about the players from their own schools.

Cedric sank into the water, thought calmly for a few seconds, and quickly figured out the current situation.

Then he laughed.

He surfaced again, and this time he released an armor spell as soon as he emerged from the water, while controlling the mud on the shore to build a mud wall for himself.

The mud walls and armor spell blocked the incoming spell, and Cedric took the opportunity to rush to the shore.

One contestant was unwilling to give up, and cast a stun spell at Cedric after he got ashore. However, Cedric defused the spell with his backhand, and then retaliated, knocking the tactless guy unconscious.

Seeing Cedric being so fierce, the others immediately gave up the idea of ​​continuing the attack.

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Update is here, see you tomorrow night at midnight~