Hogwarts: A Chinese-Style Professor

Chapter 116 Success and Failure
Inside Li Wei's office, the study group members who had been watching Hermione's performance looked on in shock.

"It's actually... a full twelve seconds faster?"

Hermione herself stood there, stunned, staring at the timer in Levi's hand.

【23 seconds】

This is her final result—two seconds faster than Harry's 25 seconds.

But the professor did nothing; he simply told her to give it her all and removed the timer.

Why? Because I was distracted by watching the timer during yesterday's assessment, which wasted time.

But could the error be that large? A full twelve seconds?

Impossible—or is it that you performed even better the second time?

Hermione looked at Levi with confusion—the other group members were also looking at him, curious about the difference.

Li Wei patted Hermione's head and said softly:
"You're the one most like me—I heard you've vowed to read through the entire Hogwarts library during your student years?"

Before Hermione could answer, he looked at his teammates behind him.

"Hermione is in this situation because she has already perfectly mastered the first stage of spellcasting, but she lacks experience in the second stage."

As I've told you before, whatever your understanding of magic may be, it's correct in a certain sense—as long as you truly believe in it, magic will respond to you.

Hermione's problem is actually quite simple.

She firmly believes that theory can give her some strength, but she thinks it's just cleverness and can't help her reach the pinnacle.

The more outstanding she was in theory, the more doubtful she became about her practical abilities—I suspect it's because she had never seen a wizard who could perfectly combine theory and practice.

After all, Gryffindor students often emphasize courage while neglecting the power of intellect.

Li Wei paused subtly at this point.

He suddenly realized something—was his understanding of incantations also like this?
He firmly believed that scientific methodology would help him learn magic better, but subconsciously, he always felt that this way of deconstructing magic with rational thinking was not "magical" at all.

This perception was so deeply ingrained that he had never realized it, yet it profoundly influenced him—after all, when he first began learning magic, his speed was indeed slower than others.
If he could stubbornly believe in himself, perhaps even without Dumbledore's guidance and without changing as the other suggested, he might one day reach legendary status.

But how long will that take?

Old Deng really did pull a trick on him in order to make him change his mind and get back on the right track.

But so be it—it's just a different way of entering the legend.

At the very least, Li Wei believes that life is not bad now—no, it's better than before.

Whether it's him or the people around him.

He turned to Hermione, a gentle smile on his face. "You should understand what I've said, right?"

Hermione nodded with a hint of disbelief, then returned to her seat absentmindedly.

What happened today had a huge impact on her; she needs to go back and think about it carefully.
Then, third-grader Aria Spinnett chimed in:

“My question is actually similar to Ginny and Hermione’s, and I have no more questions now.”

Cedric is currently studying with Harry and Jowell every day, which isn't a problem, but after thinking about it, he brought up a recent discovery.

"Professor, I noticed that the spell you used in the dueling class the day before yesterday seemed to involve multiple rules?"

"What did you see? Tell me."

Li Wei looked at him encouragingly. "Hmm—first of all, there was that red cloud. I sensed a terrifyingly concentrated magical power within it—this is Professor, your control over magic."

As for those transformations, the spear and the sword, they are transformations that the teacher teaches you to create by combining polymorphism and magic—and after they dissipate, you use magic to recycle and reuse them.

"With just this one spell, I saw a high degree of integration between transfiguration and magic—but there must be some things I didn't understand, otherwise the spell's power wouldn't be that high."

"I think there's also willpower and cognition—this spell is definitely the professor's own creation, a condensation of his extensive understanding of magic."

Magic and shapeshifting alone could never achieve that—especially with that last divine bird.

Percy chimed in at this moment, his eyes filled with uncontrollable admiration.

But the thought that Li Wei had no interest in pursuing fame and fortune made his heart ache again.

"Eh—in that case, doesn't it all come back to the five spellcasting phases the professor mentioned?"

The atmosphere immediately became lively when the dueling class from the day before yesterday was mentioned, with all the students actively joining in the discussion.

Li Wei simply let them come up with as many guesses as possible and told them the spell for forging with fire.

Seventh-grader Pas raised his hand to try it out—and it was clear the professor wasn't a stingy person.
The thought that he might learn the spell under the other party's guidance made his body tremble uncontrollably.

Unfortunately, he was clearly overthinking it.

Although Livy taught him the correct syllables, rhythm, and staff-waving movements, his incantations only produced a thick, blazing flame, resembling more of a flaming scythe.

Although it looks powerful, it is far from the overwhelming effect of Levi's.

He was naturally not satisfied either.

"I guess it's because you don't have enough imagination for this spell."

First-grader Ginny offered a bold critique of Paz's spellcasting.

"More than that, I think it also lacks the magic that corresponds to imagination."

Hermione echoed her sentiment without any hesitation.

The two women exchanged a glance and chuckled knowingly.

Pas's thoughts were too straightforward, even they could see through them, but learning the professor's self-created spells was not such an easy thing.

The other party was clearly completely attracted by the powerful spell, which caused them to fail to see their own position.

"Imagination, magic, and what else?"

Levi continued asking questions, his gaze fixed on Cedric.

He believed that the student could give him the answer he wanted.

"And then there's shapeshifting, and willpower!"

Cedric quickly realized and responded to his expectations.

"Actually, that's what I wanted to say—Professor, besides the five stages of spellcasting, spells aren't actually a separate system. We can also add polymorphism into them, right?"

"That's right. Combining spells and transfiguration is one of the most common and efficient ways to use magic."

Moreover, many spells themselves contain this principle.

Examples include numerous obstacles, raging flames, tongue-locking spells, and so on.

(End of this chapter)