Chapter 432: The Foolish Competition

Bai Lang's mistake shifted all of Harry Potter's anger onto Professor Severus Snape, and Harry wasn't unaware that Bai Lang was a Potion giant—didn't he see that after Seamus Finnigan left him, the explosions stopped and it seemed at least he wouldn't get deducted points? Since Bai Lang has no Potion talent at all, the continued point deductions can only be seen as Snape deliberately targeting him—and a few days ago, when he was with Ron and Hermione holding books after class, Snape casually invented a reason to deduct points.

Bai Lang wasn't singled out by Professor Severus Snape—or rather, Bai Lang was never targeted by Snape outside class; although Snape was quite hostile toward Gryffindor outside class, he treated Bai Lang as if he were air. Bai Lang still thought the professor was pretty decent, but had no intention of deepening the relationship—after all, Snape was never a good person, and it was right that Harry Potter's mother didn't marry him back then.

Professor Severus Snape had been injured recently, limping on one leg—so the Potions Class began teaching healing potions. "White Fresh plus daffodil plus wormwood makes a potent healing potion, while White Fresh plus Wolf Poison Aconite makes a scar adhesive; even White Fresh alone has wound‑healing properties." Bai Lang muttered the textbook knowledge, and this time he resolved to seriously attend Herbology to study the White Fresh plant, growing a large batch himself to research Potions—a super golden wound‑healing potion for internal and external use.

He recalled a similar thing called Sanqi; perhaps Sanqi and White Fresh could be combined into such a potion? Bai Lang thought that with his Potion skill, this would be a long‑term project. While brewing the healing potion, his crucible finally didn't explode, and the potion he produced made Snape stare at him for a full minute, "It's still terrible, but at least it won't kill anyone." He didn't earn Gryffindor any points, but unprecedentedly he wasn't deducted points either.

Likewise, when brewing the scar adhesive, Bai Lang wasn't deducted points, which was practically a miracle. He tested the effect: in the Forbidden Forest he caught a deer, wounded it, and applied the potion; the deer's cut stopped bleeding instantly and the wound closed. Bai Lang kept wandering the Forbidden Forest, and since his last encounter with centaurs, those centaurs seemed no longer to appear before him?

"They must be acknowledging my strength!" Bai Lang thought smugly. Of course, unicorns never appeared before him; those sensitive and intelligent creatures deliberately avoided Bai Lang. But some creatures weren't afraid of him—like the spider that suddenly leapt out of a tree right before him. The spider was rather large, about the size of a wolf‑dog, and with its eight legs spread it spanned over three meters in diameter.

Bai Lang wasn't defenseless; he tapped his wand on the ground, used the momentum to flip over the spider and avoid its lunge, then raised his wand and struck down. The oak wand, its steel‑tipped base, pierced the spider's carapace and pinned it to the ground. The low‑level creature's life force was still strong, struggling desperately to break free—but whether it broke free or not, its life was already beyond saving.

Bai Lang shook his wand to enlarge the wound, "I think this is a giant spider, right? Its venom seems quite valuable." He lamented that the book didn't cover how to harvest spider venom, and he hadn't read the method carefully; if magic could be used… Bai Lang decided to try. He drew out the lower half of his wand, now soaked with the spider's internal fluid, tapped the spider's poisonous claws, fully intending to extract the toxin.

"Miri Marri Red!" an indecipherable sound burst from Bai Lang's mouth, then he tapped, and the two huge poisonous claws suddenly shrank and fell off. Bai Lang picked them up, shook them, "Huh? They've turned into little leather pouches shaped like poison claws, and there's still fluid inside. I'll take them to Snape to show him; if it's real I'll give him one to sell one to him… wait, if he asks where I got them, I'll say the Forbidden Forest—won't that mean point deduction and being locked up?"

After thinking it over, he secured his loot, kicked the spider's corpse away, rushed to the Black Lake to wash his wand, and then went back to sleep.

When he slipped back, he found Harry still awake; the sound of him tossing and turning on the bed could be heard across the dormitory, "Makes sense, tomorrow is the first match, so the kid's nervousness is perfectly reasonable."

The next day was the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match; Bai Lang lazily finished breakfast, weighing whether to head to the library for books on magical creatures or magical herbs, and to see if there was any way to obtain venom. He noticed Harry's appetite had waned; the kid was so nervous he could barely eat. Seamus Finnigan had made a huge hot dog, drenched in ketchup, urging Harry to eat a bit to keep his strength up.

After eating, Bai Lang headed toward the library, but before he got there Neville Longbottom stopped him, "Hurry, let's go watch Quidditch." Bai Lang pointed at the library, "The library's closed." Neville Longbottom replied, "The whole school's going to watch Quidditch." Bai Lang sighed, resigned to follow Neville Longbottom to the Quidditch he deemed purely boring, but along the way Neville Longbottom was unusually excited, gesturing wildly as he promoted Quidditch, nothing like the boy's usual demeanor.

"Damn, you have to climb so high just to watch a match." Bai Lang muttered curses at the stadium seats, but he still climbed up, even putting on the Gryffindor scarf—though he thought it was utterly foolish, he didn't want to stand out and, after all, he was a Gryffindor student, and the house's collective honor deserved some respect.

Commentator Qiao Dan was great at hyping the atmosphere, and with Mrs. Huo Chi's silver whistle, both teams' players shot up and the match began. Bai Lang watched for a while and realized the game resembled a hybrid of rugby and polo, but after a minute he lost all interest—Bai Lang's flying class grades were abysmal, he could only fly with his wand, never high or fast, and his maneuverability was poor.

The weather was pleasant, so Bai Lang immediately grabbed a hat, covered his face, and sprawled on his seat to nap. Warm sunshine bathed him, and he blocked his ears, so the cheers and jeers couldn't disturb his sleep. Yet he didn't sleep long—because Harry Potter caught the Golden Snitch ten minutes later, the match ended, and Gryffindor won.

Bai Lang sluggishly climbed down from the stands, and his daily routine was now quite simple—attend classes, go to the library for research and homework, read miscellaneous books, practice martial arts to study how to infuse magic, night‑wander the Forbidden Forest… and occasionally spar with the Pipi Ghost, beating it into mush—Pipi Ghost never remembers, only escalates its pranks on Bai Lang. Since that's the case, everyone else seemed a lot more relaxed…