Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 243 Magic Vision Virus

Snape has been in a bad mood lately.

Since the gambling incident, he has almost always avoided Murphy.

He was even somewhat reluctant to appear in crowded places like the auditorium. When people were looking at him, he could almost feel being pointed at and mocked, as if they were laughing at him behind his back.

He knew it was just an illusion.

Now he's a professor, not some embarrassing student, and no one dares to laugh at him.

Even so, when Flitwick comforted him by saying "don't worry about it," he almost exploded. He didn't need comfort! He didn't need sympathy! That brat had just cheated; he hadn't lost!

"Never mind, Tom..." Hermione stopped Tom, who was about to block Snape's way. "He's even more terrifying than before. I seriously doubt you'll come back alive."

"Don't worry," Tom smiled, "he can't kill me again."

Having experienced the darkness of the past few days, he was no longer so afraid of a professor.

Amidst the puzzled looks of his friends, Tom stopped Snape in the corridor leading to the underground classroom.

"Professor, could I have a moment of your time?"

Snape, who moved with the speed of the wind, like a giant bat skimming the ground, stopped. "Get out of the way, Lucas. Otherwise, Gryffindor will lose fifty points!"

"I am Slytherin, Professor," Tom smiled.

"Oh, really? That's surprising."

"I have a question I need to ask you."

"Can't the all-knowing Murphy Darkholm answer your question?"

"Professor Murphy himself admitted that he did not understand, but you may."

"Ha, that's really strange."

"Professor, what I'd like to know is, are you able to create an elixir of immortality?"

"What?" Snape's eyes sharpened instantly.

"I remember you saying that you could teach us to resist death... and you probably meant more than just magic potions like white cinnabar or hemostatics."

Why are you asking that?

"I've heard it's one of the greatest potions ever made," Tom said. "And I'm curious to know if potions really do have all-powerful magic, even the power to fight death."

"Since you've heard of the elixir of immortality, you should know that it requires the Philosopher's Stone." Snape stepped forward, tilting his head slightly to look down at him. "I'll ask you one more time: why do you ask this? Who gave you permission to ask?"

Tom, unaware that Snape was already suspecting he was being tested by Quirrell, continued, "It's said that the elixir of immortality can be used to reshape the body. Do you have anyone you wish to resurrect?"

This statement was undoubtedly offensive, but Tom didn't care much. He was now basically certain that Snape did indeed have the formula for the elixir of immortality; otherwise, he could have denied it outright or simply walked away.

Tom wanted to test whether Snape really intended to steal the Philosopher's Stone, as Harry suspected.

If so, then he might be alarmed by having his secret exposed.

But to Tom's surprise, Snape flew into a rage, "Did Murphy send you? Did he?!"

This reaction was somewhat unexpected for Tom.

Tom guessed that if Snape were innocent, he might only be angered by his own offense, but he would never be so furious as if he had suffered a great humiliation.

Snape left without even threatening to deduct points. His rage seemed to vanish suddenly, replaced by a terrifying silence that Tom couldn't understand. Finally, he turned and left without a word.

"Tom...are you alright?" Harry and the others waited until Snape was out of sight before daring to approach. They patted Tom on the shoulder, asking, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Professor Snape... doesn't seem to be the person we're looking for," Tom said.

"What? What did you just say to him? I think he's about to lose control and pull out his wand to duel you."

Tom was also puzzled. "He seems to be overreacting to that statement..."

However, it is now confirmed that Snape had the formula for the elixir of immortality.

The remaining question is how to get the recipe from Snape.

……

The workload in the second semester was much heavier than in the first semester, and Harry also had to prepare for the Quidditch matches, so he was exhausted every day.

Tom is also very busy; he has been spending almost all his free time in the library lately, working even harder than Hermione.

He was intensifying his study of various spells. The words in the notes last time had spurred him on. Of course, the spells he learned from the notes were not enough to defeat his opponent, so he was now learning solely with his own mind.

To break free from the notebook's control, he needed to have some ability to protect himself—the hope might be slim, but he didn't want to sit idly by and wait for his doom.

Tom never opened the notebook again, so Murphy can no longer use the notes to guide his actions, but their relationship has recently improved a lot.

This was because Tom often came to him for instruction on spells, and Murphy happened to have a project that required Tom's assistance.

His recent research is on the "magic vision virus".

This was inspired by training with "anti-cancer viruses".

His cancer research institute now has thousands of employees, half of whom are responsible for sourcing all sorts of strange and unusual cancerous tissue samples from around the world, while the other half are responsible for labeling the samples and reviewing the labels.

Because the number of people was larger than previously expected, the training of the anti-cancer bacteria was much more extensive than anticipated. However, his luck was not good. Of the more than one hundred bacteria that were trained, more than eighty had already been eliminated by the strict criteria—all individuals in the bacteria had been killed by the Seed of the Mind because they had either killed normal cells three times or failed to kill cancer cells three times.

In order for the remaining twenty colonies to survive, he had to slow down the training pace, giving them enough time to reproduce and mutate.

During training, he suddenly realized that since bacteria could be trained to kill cancer cells, they could also be trained to represent microorganisms with an affinity for a certain magical property.

For example, by repeatedly stimulating the bacterial flora with the magic of "manipulation," those that react remain and those that do not die. After hundreds of generations of mutation, optimization, and iteration, bacteria or viruses that can produce specific reactions are selected from them. As long as the sample size is large enough, he can always find such pathogens that meet the requirements.

In this way, a type of bacteria or virus that can react specifically to "manipulation" attribute magic was created.

Surely, one can find a substance in this virus or bacteria that can react specifically to "manipulation" magic—for example, by making them release certain ions.

And they must also have one or more genes that can express and synthesize this substance.

Next, by cutting out these genes and transferring them to rod or cone cells, and utilizing their original light conversion mechanism, magical stimulation can be used instead of light stimulation to produce magical vision.

Although the process is very complicated, there are no absolute technical bottlenecks. Moreover, once this technology is successful, not only wizards, but even Muggles and animals will be able to see the magic.

Tom's main responsibility in this project was to output the magical training bacteria.

After training that day, Harry used the goblin coins to call Tom to the Gryffindor table, where the young wizards gathered together once again.

"The match is over for today..."

"A competition?" Tom had been spending all his time after school with Murphy lately, engrossed in his studies and research, and neither of them had paid any attention to sports.

"Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, we won," Harry said. "Anyway, after the game, I saw Snape and Quirrell. Snape was threatening Quirrell; he seemed to want to know how to get past Quirrell's trap."

"You still think there's something wrong with him?"

Harry nodded. "And this time, I've figured out a way to prove it."

"How do we do it?" Hermione asked as well.

"Go ask Quirrell," Harry said. "If Quirrell tells the truth, we'll have evidence."

"But Quirrell is a professor, he won't listen to us," Ron said.

"Unless, you transform into a professor and ask him," Tom said. "Professor Murphy mentioned Compound Herbs, which can transform a person into another person."

Tom didn't really believe Snape wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone, but if it could be proven true, it wouldn't be a bad thing for him.

In a desperate situation, he might help Snape succeed and then share the spoils, since all he needs is the elixir of immortality made from the Philosopher's Stone, not the Philosopher's Stone itself.

"However, it is said that the medicine takes more than two months to brew."

"It won't take that long." Hermione suddenly remembered something. "Do you remember Cho Chang and the others researching Transfiguration? Professor Murphy had them make a lot of Compound Potions. Maybe I can borrow a bottle."

(End of this chapter)