Chapter 97: Pilgrim

【You brewed a cauldron of anti-swelling potion at an expert level. Proficiency +50】

The anti-swelling potion had already reached the beginner level. Although still utterly exhausted, Xi En’s heart was incomparably excited.

He stepped onto the staircase constructed by Master Libatius Polage, taking yet another step forward in the field of potion willpower magic.

But when he turned back, what met his gaze was Professor Snape’s extremely furious stare.

……

The consequence of unauthorized innovation was—besides being harshly scolded by Professor Snape, starting from Thursday, three days a week he also had to help Professor Snape sort and handle the ingredients in the dungeon, and at specific times go to Professor Snape’s office.

Just like today:

“Grasshoppers, leeches, bicorn horns, two-eared grass, flowing liquid grass, African tree snake skin are all placed on the leftmost row. If that reckless, foolish brain of yours can still think, you will know what potion they can make together!”

Professor Snape let out a cold sneer, then assigned Xi En to place daisy roots, shrunken fig, caterpillars, rat gall, and a little leech juice together in one area.

It was obvious that the first set of ingredients was the complete set for the Polyjuice Potion, and the second was the raw materials for the shrinking potion.

While organizing, Xi En gradually became proficient with many potion recipes, and also familiar with the states in which potion ingredients were required—such as chopped, peeled, sliced thin.

“Xi En Green,”

Before Xi En, having completed much sorting and quietly taken his noted-down notes, left the dungeon, Professor Snape spoke in a cold, snake-like hiss,

“If I ever see you brewing potions anywhere outside the dungeon… you had better pray that Merlin truly comes to protect you…”

Xi En nodded silently.

Brew potions outside the dungeon? Setting aside the danger, he would at least need a cauldron.

The boiling cauldron had long since calmed, and the potion in the crystal bottle caused Professor Snape’s gaze to slowly freeze.

His earlier storm-like tirade had already scattered with the wind; words such as, “Do you think you can surpass the recipe created in the sixteenth century by Zygmunt Budge?” “Or do you imagine you have surpassed all the great apothecaries in history?” “Ignorant fool!” had all vanished without a trace.

They left no impression in Xi En’s memory, nor did Professor Snape care about them.

It had always been this way, always.

Taking advantage of the calm, Xi En quietly put everything in the dungeon in order, and after casting the final scouring charm,

he softly said, “Goodbye, professor,” and prepared to leave the dungeon.

But the usually silent Professor Snape suddenly spoke, his voice bearing rare weight and a barely perceptible ripple:

“Very well, Xi En Green,

let me tell you a truth—

never submit to mediocrity,

do not be like ninety percent of the wizards in this world.

If you resign yourself to mediocrity,

it is a tremendous harm to both this world and to yourself.”

Xi En was a little stunned.

These words almost overturned everything Professor Snape had just angrily shouted.

The professor’s gaze was cold, as if whispering icily, “If I see you content with mediocrity and standing still, I will make you regret it.”

“I understand, professor.”

Xi En nodded quietly and, under Professor Snape’s long, steady gaze, slowly walked out of the dungeon.

In the corridor, Xi En noticed that 《Advanced Potion Making》 in his bag was trembling slightly,

Xi En quietly took it out, waiting with some anticipation for Master Libatius Polage to pop out his note.

But this time, nothing happened.

Only the faintly trembling 《Advanced Potion Making》 slowly revealed some words under the cold moonlight:

【When Zygmunt Budge, on the distant Hermetra Island, kept company only with rats,

when Libatius Polage carved the trajectory of potions with painstaking effort,

compared with truth, life is insignificant.

I suppose you surely want to know—

why must we study the mysteries of the potions field?

Because… it is there.】

Xi En watched as this line of handwriting gradually grew hot, and an image of a portrait actually appeared.

In the portrait, those turbid and weary eyes held a deep, barely discernible joy:

【I… have seen your eyes,

child.

Like a shadowed dawn, wrapped around an ancient yesterday.

I have seen all that I could not comprehend; I feel truth flowing between your eyes and mine.

Libatius Polage’s greatest achievement is no longer the discovery of potion rituals and the willpower guidance method,

but the continuation of the trajectory of truth, handing it over intact into the hands of his successor—

Xi En Green.

We are believers of the morning in the darkness; only the everlasting radiance of truth can dispel the numbness of ignorance.

Remember well—follow this arduous journey to reach the stars.】

Xi En felt his heart pounding, beating against his chest like a drum.

Master Libatius Polage’s portrait slowly faded, while the note tucked in Xi En’s notes began to grow hot.

A golden name was branded upon it, making Xi En’s eyes widen—Xi En Green—the third pilgrim of the greatest potions field.

In 《Advanced Potion Making》, much of the handwriting underwent changes beyond Xi En’s expectations. Those unfinished improved potion rituals, those unverified potion-making techniques, were all presented before Xi En.

What he held was no longer a book with a purple cover, but the lifetime insights and explorations of Potions Master Libatius Polage.

Just like the Half-Blood Prince’s Notes that Harry obtained, the entire experience of a top potions master was laid out clearly before him.

He quietly put the book away.

The moonlight of Hogwarts Castle was refracted by the windowpanes, thinly scattered across the stone floor.

A faint creaking came from the distance; it was the ever-moving staircases shifting direction of their own accord.

Without pause, Xi En kept reading those altered lines of text and instantly realized there was vast room for improvement in his past potion brewing.

And this excitement lasted all the way until Friday.

……

“Mr. Green, you want to learn spell interruption?”

Professor Flitwick had already grown accustomed to Xi En appearing at his side.

If not for truly being overwhelmed with work,

spending an entire day discussing spells with the most diligent, most humble, and most gifted child of Ravenclaw Academy—oh, he dared not imagine how wonderful that would be.

Just like that astonishing silent spell last time, and the dark magi…

Hmm… that one does not count.

Unfortunately, the heavy course tasks at Hogwarts meant his diligent little eagle had to seek him out in the staff room.

The staff room.

It was a large room paneled with wooden boards on all sides, with two talking stone beasts at the door, filled inside with black wooden chairs. There was also a very ugly wardrobe stuffed with the robes teachers wore to class.

It was said that the elderly Professor Bens had once rested here. One day he rose to go to class, but accidentally left his body behind in an armchair by the fireplace fire in the staff room, thus becoming the only ghost professor at Hogwarts.