save the bachelors

Chapter 4154: 4156 [Breaking into Gringotts]

Xiang Nan then came to the village of Saltaire in east London.

This is a very remote little village. It was very small forty years ago, and forty years later it is still very small and almost inconspicuous.

Xiang Nan soon found a cliff on the coastline east of the village. The cliff stretched for miles, with steep walls and was beaten by waves all year round, so it was smooth and slippery, and no one could climb it.

And just at the bottom of the cliff, a crack was faintly visible.

Xiang Nan jumped from the cliff and when he reached the sea, he had turned into a sea otter. He swam into the crack.

I saw a dark passage inside the crack, which could be easily submerged by sea water when the tide rose.

The widest part of the secret passage is only one meter wide, and the entrance is less than thirty centimeters, so it can be easily overlooked.

If Dumbledore had not been smart and had not followed Voldemort's life trajectory, exploring and investigating step by step, no one would have known that he would hide the Horcrux here.

Xiang Nan swam along the secret passage for about 800 meters and finally came to the end of the passage. There was a staircase at the end.

Xiang Nan climbed up the steps, changed back to human form, and then used the drying spell to dry his clothes. He walked up the steps and came to a wide cave.

Xiang Nan carefully identified it and couldn't help showing a slightly disappointed expression.

Because he was in the cave, he did not sense any magical aura.

"It seems that Voldemort has not hidden the Horcrux here yet." Xiang Nan guessed.

This was not surprising, because as far as he knew, Voldemort had hidden the Horcrux in this cave in 1980. Now it was only seven or eight years, a difference of two years.

"Come and take a look every now and then." Xiang Nan then swam out of the cave and left the cliff.

……

After leaving the cliff and returning to the Dragon Power Shop, Xiang Nan sent a message to Dumbledore, telling him that he did not find the Horcrux in the cave.

Although Dumbledore was disappointed, he did not say anything. Instead, he encouraged Xiang Nan to continue searching.

Xiang Nan agreed, and in the following days, he continued to develop magic props, anti-curse equipment, potions, etc., and visited the cave on the cliff every now and then.

In addition, he also tried to go to Gringotts.

Gringotts has hundreds of years of history and is equipped with many ancient and powerful protective spells to ensure that it is not invaded by outsiders at will.

Its security is even comparable to that of Hogwarts.

But Xiang Nan knew the art of earth escape, a Taoist art that did not exist in Europe and had even been lost in the East. Even with Voldemort's extensive knowledge, he had never heard of such magic.

Xiang Nan had used this magic to travel around Hogwarts, and the common rooms of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin could not stop him.

Therefore, he wanted to try out the earth escape technique and see if it could work in Gringotts.

If it worked, then if Voldemort gave Hufflepuff's gold cup to Bellatrix and hid it in Gringotts, Xiang Nan could easily steal it without any trouble.

If it doesn't work, Xiang Nan will consider using other methods.

Quirinus Quirrell, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter were all able to break into Gringotts, so Xiang Nan didn't believe that he couldn't do it.

……

Xiang Nan then used the earth escape technique to enter the underground of Gringotts. He could feel that Gringotts was indeed surrounded by ancient and powerful magic. There were magics to prevent intrusion, theft, and destruction, etc.

These magic spells are densely packed, layer upon layer, like a dragnet.

Not to mention humans, even if a fly or a mouse tried to sneak in, it would be sensed immediately.

Once sensed, the fairy guards will rush over immediately, and their magic is also quite powerful.

Therefore, Gringotts's defensive capabilities are indeed extremely powerful, comparable to Hogwarts.

However, the goblins' protective magic did not have the desired effect on Xiang Nan's earth escape technique.

Because Xiang Nan's earth escape technique is to merge himself with the earth, rather than digging a hole like a mouse.

The goblins in Gringotts probably don’t know about this magical technique, so it is impossible to guard against it.

After learning this, Xiang Nan heaved a sigh of relief.

He then dived into the pit beneath Gringotts.

This pit goes hundreds of miles underground and is said to have once been the remains of an ancient fairy kingdom.

Goblins are ancient magical creatures who mastered magic even before humans.

However, goblins hate humans and are unwilling to tell them their magic secrets. Humans also respond tit for tat by not telling goblins the secrets of their magic wands.

In addition, the habits of fairies are also different from those of humans. They believe that anything made by fairies belongs to the fairies. Humans only buy temporary rights to use it, and when they die, they should return it to the fairies. Giving it to others is the same as stealing.

The founder of Hogwarts, Godric Gryffindor, once commissioned the goblin king Ragnark I to make a sword. But the sword was so well made that it attracted Ragnark I's covetousness.

It decided to send goblins to steal the sword back, but was repelled by Gryffindor, who warned them not to steal again. Ragnac I had no choice but to swallow his anger, but from then on the goblins began to spread the rumor that Gryffindor had stolen the goblin's sword.

Precisely because of differences in ideas, conflicts often break out between humans and goblins. The book "History of Magic" records many wars between goblins and wizards.

Through these wars, although human wizards did not turn the goblins into slaves like they did with the house-elves, the power of the goblins still suffered a severe blow.

The Goblin Kingdom was destroyed in the 14th century, and the remaining goblins scattered and lived in tribes. Then the goblin Gringott built the first and only wizard bank in the UK on the original site of the ancient Goblin Kingdom.

The British Ministry of Magic once wanted to control Gringotts, but after operating it for a while, they found that they couldn't do it at all, and finally had no choice but to return it to the goblins.

……

There is a huge pit under the Gringotts Bank building that twists and turns and reaches hundreds of miles into the center of the earth. On the rock walls of the pit, there are a large number of vaults.

For hundreds of years, almost all wizards in the British wizarding world have kept their money in Gringotts.

This is true from wealthy ancient families like the Blacks, Lestranges, and Malfoys to poor families like the Weasleys.

The defense levels of these vaults are different. The closer the vault is to the upper level, the weaker the defense is, and it can be opened with just a key.

The key to the vault in the middle is no longer valid, and the fairy must operate it personally to open the door of the vault. Otherwise, he will be sucked in by the door and trapped inside and unable to escape.

The goblins only search the vault once every ten years or so, so he was doomed.

As for the vault at the bottom, it belongs to the oldest family and its defense measures are the most stringent. There is even a dragon guarding the door of the vault.