Chapter 64: Establish the Dao for the Wizard Civilization!

The Defense Against the Dark Arts, a legendary course rumored to be cursed by Voldemort; in recent years, almost no one has managed to teach it for two years.

Every single instructor generally meets with various misfortunes within the first year of starting their tenure, rendering them unable to continue teaching the students due to all sorts of bizarre reasons.

Yet this time, Quirrell had "fallen" far too early.

This was indeed a problem that demanded an immediate solution.

"Do you have a recommendation?" Dumbledore asked.

When conversing with the Seer, Dumbledore always spoke his mind without beating around the bush; to him, doing otherwise was pointless.

Since Roger brought this up, he surely wasn't mentioning it without reason.

Roger shook his head. "I don't have any recommendations, just asking purely out of curiosity... If we are to find a substitute from within the school, Professor Snape and yourself would be the most suitable. But if we are recruiting from outside, I'm a bit curious as to who it might be."

Currently, the faculty members possessing top-tier strength within the school were limited to Dumbledore and the four Heads of House.

The Head of Hufflepuff was the Herbology professor, which made her unsuitable. The Head of Ravenclaw was the Charms professor—tremendously strong, but better suited for dueling wizards, whereas dealing with dark creatures fell outside his domain of expertise.

He knew a thing or two about it, but not to the standard of a domain expert. Being strict with themselves, they surely wouldn't agree to simply read verbatim from textbooks and turn a life-and-death subject like Defense Against the Dark Arts into a slacker class.

Professor McGonagall fell into the same category. Thus, the only ones suited for this were Professor Snape, who excelled in this area, and Headmaster Dumbledore himself.

After listening to Roger, Dumbledore thought for a moment and then said, "Let's go with Professor Snape."

The Christmas holiday offered very few days off; within such a short window, finding someone genuinely reliable was truly difficult... Hogwarts wasn't a place where Dumbledore had absolute dictatorial rule.

Although he possessed the capability, he was unwilling to use brute force to disrupt order, meaning certain matters still required consultation with the Board of School Governors.

Internal faculty reassignments like Quirrell's were easy to handle, but recruiting from the outside required many people to nod in agreement.

Since the conversation had turned to Snape, Dumbledore smoothly added, "I heard you previously went to Snape to seek guidance on matters concerning the path of magic."

Feeling no need to conceal this, Roger replied frankly, "I also consulted Professor McGonagall and Voldemort. By now, I already know what path I must walk."

Hearing that Roger had actually gone to Voldemort to ask about such matters, Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, and the portraits of past headmasters hanging behind him immediately began chattering and arguing noisily.

Yet neither Roger nor Dumbledore paid any mind to these magical portraits.

Noticing that Dumbledore showed no particular reaction to this, Roger continued, "The answers given to me by Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Voldemort were, respectively, 'proficiency,' 'passion,' and 'power.'"

"Among them, while the answers of Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape seemed different, their essence is the same."

"Magic grows powerful through the yearnings of the soul. If a person pours sufficient passion into magic, they will naturally grow proficient."

"‘Passion’ can elevate a person's magical aptitude to a certain extent. As long as you believe in magic, magic will give you a response."

"Of course, there are also instances where someone lacks passion yet remains proficient."

Take someone like the demolition expert Seamus Finnigan, or certain individuals who had suffered abuse and, though perhaps uninterested in the Dark Arts, developed an aptitude for them due to a twisted psyche.

"And Voldemort's answer is not entirely wrong, either."

"As long as the soul is strong enough, every form of magic possesses extraordinary power. However, magic always has its areas of focus."

Take the Killing Curse as an example: even if Voldemort were ten times stronger, he could never use an Unforgivable Curse to conjure food, unless he went out to rob someone.

"Therefore, the answer is quite obvious."

"I love this magnificent world; I look forward to the infinite possibilities of the future. I am greedy; I want to eternally witness and possess all of this, which is why I pursue immortality."

"All my ideals, all my yearnings, center entirely upon—'myself'!"

"And what is magnificence, what are possibilities? Their essence lies in change."

At this point, Roger paused briefly before continuing, "The path I wish to walk is one centered upon 'self,' mastering change until I become change itself, and ultimately transcending change!"

As he listened, Dumbledore frowned slightly.

He could understand the literal meaning of Roger's words, yet he found it hard to grasp what kind of path this truly was, or what methods would ultimately be used to realize it.

For some reason, a vague sense of foreboding stirred within Dumbledore's heart.

Yet he could not well ask directly, for this undoubtedly touched upon Roger's most closely guarded core secrets!

Unless one shared a nearly master-apprentice relationship like the one between Professor McGonagall and Roger, such questions were simply not easily uttered.

As if perceiving Dumbledore's thoughts, Roger smiled faintly and said, "If you are interested, I can write down the specific operational methods upon my return and present a copy for you to read."

"What?" This time, Dumbledore was genuinely startled—so startled that it took him two full seconds to process what Roger had just said.

Ordinarily, Roger was someone who did things quite openly and above board, but this was entirely different.

To use an analogy, this was roughly equivalent to a superpower voluntarily publicizing all its advanced technological details, every classified state archive, and all national financial intelligence, rendering all information completely transparent!

Who wouldn't be dumbfounded upon hearing such a thing?!

"My path is nothing that needs to be kept secret." This was a thought Roger had only arrived at after establishing his own path.

In the past, Roger had been reluctant to disclose his technique for eternal life because he didn't want everyone to monotonously employ the exact same method without any innovation, thereby diminishing the overall potential of the human race.

Yet.

It is exceedingly difficult for a single person to erect a towering skyscraper.

The nearly impossible path to immortality required greater assistance.

Approaches like cultivating Hagrid or Harry, planting trees in the river of time and harvesting their fruits later, were indeed viable.

Yet planting the seed upstream and harvesting the fruit downstream was far too slow in efficiency, with too many variables along the way.

Therefore, he wanted to try something special.

Roger wanted to... establish a Dao for the wizarding civilization!

Much like many legends of old where immortals descended to pass down the Dao of Immortality—once the Dao was transmitted, everyone who embarked upon this path would blossom into entirely unique and dazzling brilliance based on their own individuality!

Some refined their essence to transform it into qi, refined qi into spirit, refined spirit into void, and ultimately merged the void with the Dao.

Some swallowed a single pellet of golden elixir into their bellies and declared, "My fate is determined by myself, not by the heavens."

Some discarded the Golden Elixir Great Dao, instead dabbling in Nascent Souls, Deity Transformation, Tribulation Crossing, and Mahayana realms.

What about magic, then?

This system, which heavily prioritized the mind and bore an eight-tenths resemblance to the Warp psionics of Warhammer 40K, might it stand a chance at giving birth to something entirely new—something capable of continuous progression while simultaneously allowing a hundred flowers to bloom in competition?

In this world, human thought truly held formidable power; the collective consciousness of all living beings could act as a ritual capable of changing the world.

If Roger's conception proceeded smoothly, every single person who learned magic in the future would become his living "cheat code"!