“What’s going on?” Sirius asked aloud, pulling out his wand and rushing over.

  Harry and Hermione, who were walking ahead, turned around and looked at Ron worriedly. They didn’t know what had happened, but Ron’s scream made them feel bad. They could not help thinking of Sirius’s warning that the Temple of the Centaurs was not safe. They pulled out their wands and raised their vigilance.

  Magorian stood still, and looked eccentrically at Ron who had fallen to the ground.

  He seemed hesitant, but he did not interfere.

  “Inside… inside… those statues are all monsters!” said Ron tremblingly, pointing to the dark room half-hidden by the stone door ahead.

  “Monsters?!” Sirius looked at him suspiciously, and then turned his eyes to Evan.

  Evan nodded and signaled Sirius to be ready. Then, he swiftly waved his wand, and an egg-sized yellowish light flew out from its tip, and moved forward, knocking the stone door in front of him instantly into the dark room.

  The next second, the light glare illuminated the whole room.

  Everyone took a step forward. When they saw what was inside, they couldn’t help but gasp. They looked extremely shocked and they couldn’t help stepping back a few steps.

  “This, what on earth is this?” Harry said in surprise.

  Unexpectedly, in this old and narrow room, there were many statues of strange creatures.

  They were all the same. They looked weird, and hard to describe. They were horrible creatures like deformed insects, five feet long.

  Their bodies were of blue-grey rock, occasionally revealing pink tinges.

  The most striking thing was the huge bodies resembling crustaceans with several pairs of giant dorsal fins or thin-winged organs on them, and six groups of arthropods.

  What was horrifying was that there was a complex green ellipsoid covered with a large number of short tentacles where the head was supposed to be.

  Underneath the tentacles were all the head and orbit holes. The muscle membranes above were like the eyes of a fly that had been magnified countless times; extremely repulsive.

  Watching carefully, they could see through the cyan film that the inside of the monster’s head was a gray fleshy core.

  It was like a huge tumor that mutated out of nowhere.

  With their breathing, the tumors seemed to be trembling, but when looking carefully, it was just an illusion.

  These statues looked shocking. They didn’t seem to have been moved for centuries. They were covered with thick dust, but they were still vivid.

  In fact, they seemed too real, as if they were alive.

  Evan thought of the people who had been petrified by the Basilisk last year. These statues looked just like them. He couldn’t help but think: ‘they are all alive, just petrified’.

  That was not a good thought, but obviously it was not Evan alone who thought so. The others’ faces were equally gloomy, and Hermione even got involuntarily closer to Evan.

  Holding her cold little hand, Evan felt her inner agitation and tension.

  Imagine that in the ancient, mysterious, dark Centaurs’ Temple, the small, dim, and unknown rooms were filled with statues of such evil monsters. What kind of feeling would it be if these nightmarish things suddenly appeared in front of you?

  It was horrible to the extreme. It’s no wonder that anyone would be so shocked.

  After his extreme shock, Evan was glad that they were statues rather than living monsters. Otherwise, the consequences would have been absolutely unimaginable.

  He gasped, wondering what they were. He had never seen such a thing in any magic book. Was it the magic creation of some evil Dark wizard?

  Sirius was also extremely shocked, apparently learning about them for the first time. He turned around to hide Evan, Harry, Ron, and Hermione behind him as fast as he could, pointed his wand at Magorian in front of him and asked, “What are these statues in there?”


  “You’ve already known that our ancestors once believed in an evil god, which drove powerful tribes toward madness and destruction. These monsters were left behind by those exiles who went astray at that time!” Magorian said slowly, and his voice was much slower than usual. “When it was at its peak, the Centaurs’ colony was beyond your imagination. What you see now is only a small part of it.”


  “Only a small part?!” Evan looked down the ancient wall and saw dozens of such rooms in front of him. If they were full of such monsters…”


  Then he thought again that what he saw was only a part of it.

  This Temple was much larger than he had imagined. No one could guarantee how many hidden rooms there were or how many such monsters were left.

  And since it was created by the so-called evil god, would there be only one kind of monster, or would there be other kinds?!

  “I don’t care if they are banished or not. Since you still have these things, you should be responsible.” Sirius was determined and did not put down his wand, “I need an explanation; otherwise I will not let the children behind me continue to take risks.”


  “Unlike humans, we will never shirk our responsibilities!” Magorian shouted. “If any of you can pass the final test and get the magic item left by the Founder of the castle, then he’s the one chosen by the stars. The elder will explain to you and tell you all the details.”


  “We won’t move on until you’ve made everything clear…” Sirius roared and responded to him as loud as he could

  His face was blue and his wand kept sparking outward.

  “As you wish, Sirius, you’re not the one chosen by stars and fate. You’ve been tested twenty years ago!” Magorian said without fear, his eyes sweeping slowly over Evan, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. “As for the four of you, either you go ahead and learn the truth through the test, or go back and reject the friendship of the Centaurs, and get out of our Forbidden Forest forever. It’s your choice, humans!”


  Evan, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, wondering how to answer him.

  Sirius, standing in front of them, gasped violently, seeming to want to rush and fight him.

  Ignoring Sirius’s eyes, Magorian came up and closed the open stone door, then took a few steps forward and stopped.

  He turned around and looked at the four of them proudly, waiting for everyone’s decision.