Rowle could smell the sea and hear the sound of crashing waves.

He stood on a tall, black rock protruding from the sea, the waves churning and foaming at his feet.

He turned to look behind him. A cliff towered there, its steep rock face plunging straight down, dark and featureless in the dim light.

Several large rocks, like the one he and Barty Jr. stood on, seemed to have broken off from the cliff face at some point in the past. The surroundings were barren and desolate… aside from the vast sea and rocks, there wasn't a single tree, no grass, no beach.

"Wh-where is this?" Rowle hunched his shoulders, cautiously following behind Barty Jr..

"A small island near England."

Barty Jr. stared at the giant boulders around the cliff, half-submerged in the sea, his eyes shining with excitement.

"Some Muggles use this place for leisure and vacations, but most of the time, no one comes here."

"How... how did you find this place?" Rowle asked nervously, glancing around.

Barty Jr. simply pointed to his own head.

"I told you, the ring the Master left showed me some visions. This place was one of them!"

Rowle finally stopped being so nervous and scared, but the damp, salty sea wind still made him shiver.

"Where do we go now?"

This time, Barty Jr. didn't answer his question. Instead, he raised his wand.

"Lumos."

The tip of his wand lit up with a golden light, illuminating the pitch-black rock face before him!

In this light, Rowle could clearly see a fissure in the cliff, with dark, swirling seawater inside.

"How's your swimming?" Barty Jr. suddenly asked.

Rowle didn't react at first. After two or three seconds, he suddenly understood what Barty Jr. intended to do.

By then, Barty Jr. had already taken off his large outer robe and thrown it onto a nearby reef, revealing a close-fitting shirt and trousers underneath.

His question to Rowle seemed casual, as if he didn't really care about getting a positive answer.

Before Rowle could fully process it, Barty Jr. crouched down and then slid silently into the water!

Barty Jr. was clearly familiar with everything in the water. He held his wand in his teeth and swam with a very standard freestyle stroke towards the dark fissure in the rock.

He was extremely fast. Before Rowle could hurriedly take off his own outer robe, Barty Jr.'s figure had already disappeared into the darkness. Only faint, starlike golden light shone faintly from between the fissure and the water's surface.

Soon, Rowle also jumped into the water.

He could swim, but his skills were clearly not as proficient as Barty Jr.'s. After floundering and choking on a few mouthfuls of salty, algae-tasting seawater, he barely managed to follow Barty Jr.'s figure.

They swam through the fissure into a dark tunnel. They swam for a long time in here. When the icy seawater had numbed Rowle's fingers, he saw Barty Jr. stand up in front of him, walking back onto solid ground.

Rowle followed him out of the seawater and stood up.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

This Death Eater, who wasn't good in the water, coughed uncomfortably and later even started dry heaving.

"Don't vomit into the seawater. We might have to swim back later."

Barty Jr. said coldly.

But immediately after, an unconcealed look of joy and surprise appeared on his face. He hurried up the clearly man-made stone steps!

Rowle grumbled a few complaints under his breath. He struggled to follow Barty Jr. into a large cavern.

They each used spells to dry their clothes, which had been soaked by the seawater. Although he no longer felt the cold dampness, Rowle still looked around uneasily. There was no path forward here.

"What... what do we do now?"

Barty Jr. didn't look at him. He just stared at the stone wall before him, reaching out to touch it, then raised his wand again.

He didn't utter any incantation, just gave a gentle flick towards the stone wall.

However, nothing appeared on the stone wall, but some obscure and profound patterns were reflected in Barty Jr.'s eyes at that moment.

A smile also spread across his face.

"This is it! Such methods could only be set by Master! It rejects intruders. Even Master's most loyal servant must leave something behind to enter here!"

"Thing? What thing?" Rowle looked at Barty Jr. in alarm and suspicion.

Because he noticed that the young man, who possessed the same ruthlessness as their Master, was now holding a short knife conjured by Transfiguration, though he didn't know when it had appeared!

This made Rowle's eyes widen. He backed away uneasily.

"No, no! You can't do this!"

"Don't be afraid, I'm not taking your life!"

As he spoke, Barty Jr. grabbed Rowle and pulled him close. Then, without hesitation, he slashed Rowle's arm with the short blade!

"Ah!!"

The pain of his skin being cut by the sharp blade made Rowle cry out.

Thick, bright red, eye-catching liquid splattered onto the stone wall, leaving a pattern like a blooming plum flower!

"Stop screaming. It's just some blood!"

Barty Jr. said indifferently, while using his wand to gently trace over the fresh, long wound on Rowle's arm. The wound healed immediately.

But while the physical wound was gone, the lost blood wouldn't return anytime soon.

Rowle's face was pale. He had suffered a dual blow to both his spirit and body, and he couldn't stop trembling.

A dazzlingly white outline of an archway appeared on the cave wall.

The rock behind the archway, now splattered with blood, suddenly vanished, revealing an opening that seemed to lead into endless darkness.

"Follow me."

Barty Jr. continued walking ahead, beckoning to Rowle.

Rowle shuddered. He glanced back, hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward again to follow Barty Jr..

Passing through the opening, they stood on the shore of a vast black lake.

The lake was incredibly wide, stretching as far as the eye could see, with no distant shore visible. The cave they were in was very high… looking up, they couldn't see the ceiling.

Seeing this, Barty Jr. became even more excited!

He took a deep breath of the still foul, sea-stench-filled air, then began walking along the shore of the great lake before them.

"Hurry up! Even if Master isn't here, he must have hidden something extremely important in this place!"

Rowle, shivering, followed behind Barty Jr., but deliberately kept more distance between them than before.

He looked uneasily at the mirror-like calm surface of the lake, but could see nothing in the center. It was shrouded in a hazy green light, as if concealing something.

Before long, Barty Jr. made an exciting discovery on the shore!

He stood at the edge of the rock, his hand clenched into a fist as if gripping something. Finally, he tapped his fist with his wand.

Immediately, a thick green copper chain suddenly emerged from the depths of the lake! Barty Jr. grabbed the chain and pulled a small boat up from the lake bottom!

Rowle stared in shock.

He was utterly speechless. Previously, he had thought Barty Jr. had merely received some profound revelation from the ring about finding this place. But now, if he still held that belief, he would be gravely mistaken!

Their ability to reach this point wasn't solely due to information the ring provided Barty Jr.. The young man himself possessed talent and wisdom far beyond most Death Eaters!

What Rowle was thinking, Barty Jr. clearly didn't know, and even if he did, he wouldn't care.

After pulling the small boat to the shore, they found it could only carry one person across the great lake to the green-lit center.

Barty Jr. forced Rowle onto the boat first. No matter how Rowle pleaded, the young man, whose heart was as cold as iron towards everyone except his Master, showed no mercy.

In the end, Rowle could only board the boat, trembling with fear. Then, Barty Jr. cast a spell on himself.

The spell allowed him to float in the air like a balloon. As long as Rowle held onto his sleeve, he could sit in the boat and be taken to their destination.

The boat began to move, speeding swiftly towards the center of the lake.

During the journey, Rowle clearly saw things in the water!

Inferi!

Countless Inferi!

His body became as stiff and cold as a corpse, and the hand holding Barty Jr.'s sleeve trembled uncontrollably.

But Barty Jr. didn't even glance down at the things underwater. His burning gaze remained fixed on the green light at the center of the lake!

The green light grew larger. After a few minutes, the boat bumped against something and stopped. Barty Jr. canceled the spell on himself and relit his wand.

It was a small island in the center of the lake. The source of the green light was unmistakably a stone basin!

The two approached the basin. It was full of an emerald green liquid that emitted a phosphorescent glow.

Barty Jr.'s figure also began to tremble, unable to contain his excitement.

'This is it!'

'This was the place I had seen in the visions… where Master had placed a locket!'

While he didn't know what the liquid in the basin was, but from the visions he'd seen, he knew how to clear it.

Conjuring a goblet with his wand, Barty Jr. shoved it into Rowle's hand.

"Use this. Scoop out the liquid from the basin and drink it!"

Rowle was terrified!

He instinctively backed away.

"You can't do this! It will kill me! Who knows what kind of poison this is!"

"It won't poison you to death, I'm sure. You must obey me and drink it!" Barty Jr. said impatiently, emphasizing his point to Rowle.

"If it's not poisonous, then why don't you drink it yourself!"

Rowle clearly couldn't trust Barty Jr.'s assurance. He continued to back away, unaware that he had retreated to the edge of the lake!

A pale, marble-like hand suddenly shot out from the mirror-still water and grabbed Rowle's ankle!

"Oh god!! No!! I want to go back!!!"

This terrified Rowle to the extreme!

He screamed, but more and more arms emerged from the lake. The things that had been slumbering seemed disturbed, all coming to life! They vied with each other to drag a living being down, to turn it into one of them!

At that moment, a blazing flame suddenly lit up!

Barty Jr., with his face icy cold, waved his wand. Crimson flames gushed from its tip.

The excited monsters that had been trying to surge out of the water, upon being exposed to the light and heat, instantly shrank back into their lair.

Seizing this opportunity, Barty Jr. grabbed Rowle by the hair and yanked him back from the lake's edge. Then, in a voice colder and more sinister than the seawater, he threatened, "If you listen to me and drink what's in the basin, you won't die. But if you refuse! I can't guarantee those things underwater won't have a late-night snack tonight!"

Rowle was clearly scared out of his wits.

Among the people Barty Jr. had gathered, Rowle could be considered the best, but that was purely picking the tallest among dwarves!

The truth was, apart from Barty Jr., everyone else, including Rowle, was a bunch of misfits.

In this situation, Rowle had neither the ability nor the courage to resist. Under Barty Jr.'s cold gaze, he could only support himself on the stone basin, his face pale and body trembling, as he stood up again and took the goblet.

His hand shook uncontrollably as he scooped out a full cup of the glowing green liquid.

Rowle stared at the liquid in the cup, closed his eyes, steeled himself, and brought it to his lips!

He didn't taste anything at all… it was as if nothing flowed down his throat.

But after finishing one cup and looking back at the stone basin, an inexplicable dread and resistance welled up inside him.

However, under Barty Jr.'s compelling gaze, he could only repeat the action, drinking a second cup!

After this cup, he collapsed onto the ground.

"No... I can't drink anymore... I want to go back, I don't want to drink anymore..."

Barty Jr. coldly stared at Rowle, recognizing the effects of the liquid in the basin.

He showed no pity for Rowle. Instead, he snatched the goblet from his hand, scooped out another cup of the liquid, and forcibly poured it into Rowle's mouth!

"You must drink it!"

Rowle struggled desperately, but every time Barty Jr. brought the cup to his lips, he seemed parched and drank all the potion greedily!

Finally, the potion in the stone basin was empty.

A golden locket lay quietly within.

Barty Jr. dropped the cup, ignoring Rowle, who kept hoarsely begging for water, saying he was thirsty.

His eyes wide and shining, as if holding a sacred relic, as he picked the locket up from the stone basin.