Chapter 234: Southern Murong Tom

Another practical class. Because the weather was already very cold, Murphy moved the class to a classroom.

This was the largest classroom besides the Great Hall, seemingly cast with some *Undetectable Extension Charms*, and it could hold hundreds of students without any problem.

Recently, various research groups had made some progress.

For example, the Dean group, who were very persistent about flying, had already started preparing to make a set of armor. They planned to cast a *Flight Spell* similar to that on flying brooms on the armor, so that they could fly according to the wizard's will. According to their ideas, their ultimate goal was to design a wizarding outfit that could replace flying brooms.

The Malfoy group also had some progress, but the results made them somewhat dissatisfied.

After a simple investigation in the school, they found that the proportion of pure-blood wizards was pitifully small. Let alone five generations back, even three generations back without Muggle bloodlines were few and far between.

This wasn't the point that made them unhappy; after all, others didn't know, but the Malfoys indeed had no Muggle bloodlines three generations back. The scarcity of pure blood just showed their own nobility, right?

However, after comparing the relationship between the proportion of pure-blood bloodlines and academic performance, they sadly discovered a fact: pure-blood bloodlines not only didn't make the little wizards perform better, but to a certain extent, they seemed even worse than Muggle-born wizards.

They used several different statistical methods—for this, they even chewed through a book on basic statistical theory—but the results didn't change.

Although they didn't know the reason, it seemed that wizards of pure-blood origin were just a bit stupider than Muggle-born ones.

Heavens!

Draco felt like his faith was collapsing.

They once didn't want to submit this result, but after asking Tom for his opinion, the latter said: "If you don't even dare to admit an obvious fact, what kind of bullshit glory are you talking about?!"

Only then did they report the results.

To this, Murphy was very gratified, and even because they were the first to make phased achievements, he rewarded them with a set of special gold coins with crow marks—although they already had Goblin gold coins, the official products rewarded by the professor and the privately made ones obviously had very different meanings.

They immediately planned to use the crow gold coins rewarded by Murphy to redo a set, and even the depression caused by the unsatisfactory research results disappeared.

Isn't it just a statistical data point?

Professor Murphy said it himself, statistics is a holistic law, not representing individual differences.

Pure-bloods might indeed not be very good, but I, Draco Malfoy, am good, isn't that enough?

Speaking of Goblin gold coins, the third-year Weasley twins suspended their original "Super Dung Fireworks" research plan and proposed to study Goblin gold coins to develop more useful functions. Of course, they hoped that if successful, Murphy could grant them the right to make and sell new gold coins in the school.

To this, Murphy was very supportive. Not to mention seeing the twins use their clever brains for invention and creation on proper things like improving magic communication, which itself was worth being gratified about, just canceling that terrible "Super Dung Fireworks" plan was enough to make Murphy support them with both hands and feet.

Once that thing really succeeded, Murphy would definitely have to bear the joint responsibility for exploding poop everywhere.

A lifetime of reputation might be ruined for ten thousand years.

Besides these groups, the one that surprised Murphy the most was the Qiu Zhang group.

Because their research direction was closest to Murphy's previous route, he gave them the most guidance.

And under Murphy's careful guidance, the Qiu Zhang group's understanding of wizard self-transformation progressed very quickly. They had even started to conduct animal transformation potion experiments based on *Polyjuice Potion* and *Animagus* transformation.

Their goal was to make a potion that could make people transform directly into animals after drinking it.

Regarding how to transform into specific animals, they originally wanted to combine the *Patronus* and animal hair, etc., to perform feature extraction.

But the *Patronus* is related to the wizard's mood state and is not easy to change at will, while the method of extracting features directly through animal hair is very unstable, easily causing the wizard who drinks the potion to undergo mutations.

Thus, Murphy provided them with a new line of thought: the Shaman's ancestral spirit prayer ritual.

Those few shamans from the Soviet Union were brought to the Magic Research Institute after being caught by Murphy and were guarded by several former Watcher members.

After using *Legilimency*, *Veritaserum*, etc., to interrogate them, the institute had roughly figured out the situation of Soviet wizards and shamans.

Now they already knew that most Soviet wizards lived in an ancient city named Arkaim. The Soviet wizarding world was indeed an imperial system, ruled by the God-Eagle family. The current Emperor was a 15-year-old girl: Sofia Petrovna.

Ordinary Soviet wizards also used wands. Although the shape was slightly different from that of British wizards, they were roughly the same thing.

And shamans were an ancient inheritance in the Soviet Union and also a noble profession.

Their duties were similar to the imperial advisory group, prophets, and religious monks.

Most of them were stationed in a forest area named "Ancestral Mausoleum," following several Great Shamans to cultivate. Shamans could use musical instruments, singing and dancing, and language to use unique magic.

The most powerful magic among them was named "True Name."

Shamans believed that all things have spirits, from mountains, seas, and heaven and earth, down to sand and raindrops, all have their own "True Names." As long as you chant their true names, you can command all things to serve you.

These true names were passed down orally from generation to generation among shamans and were rarely put into writing. Except for shamans, there was almost no channel to know these true names.

Another kind of magic was "Ancestral Spirit."

Shamans believed that they could communicate with the souls of ancestors in the spirit world through some rituals and summon them to fight for them.

These souls usually appeared in the form of various animals.

And the ritual to communicate with them initially was the ancestral spirit prayer ritual.

Murphy believed that the "Ancestral Spirits" summoned by this ritual had a certain degree of similarity to the *Patronus* and should be able to serve as a substitute for the *Patronus*, providing a "protection" dimension bonus for the animal transformation potion, prompting the potion to stabilize.

But compared to the *Patronus*, which is highly related to the wizard's mental state, the ancestral spirit is more flexible, without complex steps, making it very suitable as a stabilizer for the potion.

By the time Murphy went through the progress of all the groups, the afternoon had passed again.

It got dark very early. In the evening, perhaps because he was hungry, Murphy felt somewhat tired, and his body was exhausted. Just as he was about to end the class, the four little ones said they wanted to ask him a question.

Hermione brought the Hero group to him. "Professor, we encountered a problem while doing research recently. May I ask, have you heard of Nicolas Flamel? Do you know who he is?"

Murphy looked at the four little wizards speechlessly, especially Tom hiding at the very back.

Hide your head, huh? Coming to ask me, this idea must have been yours.

Fine, you've grown capable.

You've learned to take shortcuts, haven't you?

I gave you the quest, and you directly let me help you complete it?

What *Dou Zhuan Xing Yi*?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 235 =====