Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 168 Your life is like a candle flickering in the wind

"Our preliminary assessment is that the cysts in your lungs are not atypical alveolar tissue, but rather tumors."

In the treatment room, a surgeon pointed to a few small dots on the film.

"Besides your lungs, you also have these abnormal tissues in your stomach, intestines, and even lymphatic system. If they are all tumors, you may have more than thirty primary tumors throughout your body."

"Moreover, this may not be the whole story. After all, so many primary tumors indicate that there must be a systemic problem in your body."

Murphy glanced at the other experts in the conference room; this was the tenth joint consultation this month. "So, have you reached a conclusion? What's wrong with me?"

The head of the joint diagnostic team was a white male with gray hair named Solánth Bateman.

He glanced at the others and finally said, "Director, although we haven't fully understood half of the reports yet, we've already reached a general conclusion regarding your health."

"Oh?" Murphy sat up straight. "Tell me about it."

“We suspect,” Solans said with a strange expression, “that you may be getting old.”

"What?"

"We've found that many cells in your body are aging to varying degrees, and their distribution is uneven," Solans said. "These aging cells are more prone to replication errors and are also more likely to become cancerous..."

"This is likely due to the effect of dictamnus extract, which caused the number of cell divisions in various parts of your body to increase too much in a short period of time."

Murphy frowned.

This conclusion is not surprising.

At the time, in order to heal the wounds all over his body and cope with the threat of death, he drank white lycopene.

However, the dictamnus glycosides reacted unexpectedly with the mandrake juice, causing his cells to undergo violent mutations and rapid proliferation.

In those short ten minutes, he swelled into a giant, with several tons of cells proliferating.

Its total number of cell divisions is likely close to the theoretical limit.

"In addition to the issue of cell lifespan, you also have many defects at the genetic level."

"We extracted many toxic proteins from your body. These are all due to genetic disorders, which is caused by the failure of the genes of various magical creatures and your own genes to combine perfectly during the multiple Animagus transformations."

"Genetic defects combined with aging... your body is collapsing... although the rate of this collapse isn't particularly fast yet thanks to your excellent physical structure, each time you undergo an Animagus transformation, it exacerbates the collapse..."

Overall, your life is like a candle flickering in the wind, and you could face serious problems at any moment.

Murphy frowned. "How much longer do I have?"

"If you stop undergoing intensive deformation and continue with active treatment, we estimate you should have another year or two..."

One or two years?

Do I only have a little over a year left to live?

He remained silent for a while, then asked, "Do you have any suggestions?"

"First, you need to actively pursue cancer treatment. Some carcinomas in situ can be surgically removed directly, but cancers such as lymphoma may require radiotherapy or chemotherapy to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells."

"Secondly, please try to maintain a good mindset and mood, avoid emotions such as anxiety and anger, and don't put too much pressure on yourself. This will help provide your body with a better recovery environment."

"Finally, we are working with the Potions Research Group and the Spells and Transfiguration Research Group to find ways to slow down aging for you."

Murphy frowned. "So, there's no concrete plan?"

"Yes, experts from the Transformation Research Group have proposed several methods, such as transferring the vampire's longevity gene into your body via a virus."

"However, firstly, the effectiveness of these solutions still needs to be verified, and secondly, your body is currently in a fragile balance. This method of adding foreign genetic material is likely to disrupt this balance and cause more serious consequences, so safety is also a concern."

"We need more research to evaluate this."

……

Over a period of more than half a month, after more than a dozen surgeries, major and minor, Murphy's multiple carcinomas in situ throughout his body were brought under control.

However, to avoid irritating the body, no datura extract was used for the healing of the various surgical wounds. Therefore, he needed to recover his health through rest, just like an ordinary person.

However, with his current self-healing ability, even without transforming, ordinary wounds will heal completely within two or three days.

However, doctors did not see this self-healing ability as a good thing.

This indicates that the cells in its body can still proliferate at a rate far higher than usual, and will naturally reach the theoretical lifespan limit more quickly.

Surgical treatments were urgently halted because too many surgeries on a particular area could cause that organ or tissue to die prematurely compared to other parts of the body.

Murphy's overall lifespan clearly depends on the shortest-lived of his key organs.

Therefore, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and other treatments that put a great burden on the body need to be used with caution, which once left doctors helpless in dealing with Murphy's condition.

Fortunately, Murphy is also desperately trying to save himself.

Is current technology inadequate?

Let's go for the future then.

Through a comprehensive recollection and collaborative efforts with several cell immunology experts, Murphy developed more than ten Nobel Prize-level key technologies, including CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, successfully replicating CAR-T cell therapy, which may not appear for more than thirty years to come.

After another two weeks of treatment, the level of cancer cells in his body finally dropped to a level that would not affect his daily life.

However, this only temporarily suppressed the tumor.

If the problem of cellular aging is not resolved, cancer will continue to occur.

Scientists were clueless about how to solve the problem of aging, but Murphy thought of something from the original book.

The elixir of immortality.

Nicolas Flamel survived for 600 years thanks to it, and although he doesn't seem to be in very good condition, it should be enough to save his life.

If you do the math, it's the end of July now, so the Philosopher's Stone might still be in Vault 713.

Should we get our hands on the magic stone?

The Philosopher's Stone has many uses beyond just crafting elixirs of immortality. It can also be used to refine gold. Furthermore, it is said that many powerful potions can be made without using extremely rare ingredients when prepared with the Philosopher's Stone.

It is the greatest alchemical product in itself, and also the most powerful potion amplification device.

It would be such a shame if Dumbledore could easily ruin it later.

With this in mind, Murphy immediately made up his mind.

Protecting cultural relics is everyone's responsibility!

Precious historical artifacts like the Philosopher's Stone have irreplaceable research value, and I want to save it from destruction!

It seems like it's double monthly pass time now, please give me your monthly passes, let's see if I can get a thousand to participate in the lucky draw.

(End of this chapter)