During another practical class, Murphy moved the lesson indoors due to the extremely cold weather.
This classroom, the largest next to the Great Hall, seemed to be enhanced with an Undetectable Extension Charm, easily accommodating hundreds of students.
Lately, various research groups had made progress.
For instance, Dean's group, obsessed with flying, had begun preparing a suit of armor. They planned to apply a flying charm similar to that on broomsticks to the armor, allowing it to fly according to the wizard's will. Their ultimate goal was to design a wizard's robe that could replace the flying broom.
Malfoy's group also made progress, but the results were somewhat disappointing.
They first conducted a simple survey at school and found that pure-blood wizards were surprisingly rare. Forget tracing back five generations; even those without Muggle ancestry in three generations were few and far between.
This wasn't what upset them; after all, Malfoy himself was of pure lineage, and the rarity of pure blood emphasized its nobility.
However, after comparing the proportion of pure-blooded wizards with academic performance, they sadly discovered a fact: pure blood did not make young wizards perform better. To some extent, it seemed they were even worse than those with Muggle ancestry.
Oh, dear!
Draco felt his faith crumbling.
They initially hesitated to submit these results, but after consulting Tom, he said, "If you can't even admit an obvious fact, what's the point of talking about honor?!"
So, they reported their findings.
To this, Murphy seemed very pleased and even rewarded them with a set of special coins marked with a raven for being the first to achieve a milestone. Although they already had goblin-made coins, receiving an official award from the professor was clearly different.
They immediately planned to use Murphy's raven coins to make a new set, and even their frustration with their research results vanished.
Isn't it just a statistical data?
Murphy said, statistics show a general rule, not individual differences.
Maybe pure bloods aren't that great, but I, Draco Malfoy, am, right?
Speaking of goblin coins, the third-year Weasley twins stopped their "Super Dung Fireworks" research and proposed to study goblin coins to develop more useful functions. Of course, they hoped that if successful, Murphy would grant them the right to manufacture and sell new coins in school.
Murphy fully supported this, not only because he was glad to see the twins use their ingenious minds for something more serious than magic communication, but also because canceling the terrifying plan of "Super Dung Fireworks" was enough reason for him to fully endorse their new project.
Had that project succeeded, Murphy would definitely bear the responsibility for explosions everywhere.
A lifetime of reputation might be ruined in an instant.
Besides these groups, the one that surprised Murphy the most was the Autumn Zhang group.
Since their research direction was closest to Murphy's previous approach, he gave them the most guidance.
Under Murphy's careful guidance, the Autumn Zhang group made rapid progress in understanding wizard self-transformation. They even began experimenting with animal transformation potions based on compound potions and Animagus transformations.
Their goal was to create a potion that could turn a person into an animal directly.
For transforming into specific animals, they initially thought of combining Patronus and specific animal hair for trait extraction.
However, Patronus is related to a wizard's emotional state and not easy to change at will. Direct trait extraction using animal hair was unstable and could lead to mutations in wizards who took the potion.
So, Murphy provided them with a new idea: the shamanic Ancestral Spirit Prayer Ritual.
The Soviet shamans captured by Murphy were taken to the magical research institute and guarded by former Watchers. After interrogating them using Legilimency, Veritaserum, and other methods, the institute had a good understanding of the situation among Soviet wizards and shamans.
They now knew that most Soviet wizards lived in an ancient city called Arkaim, governed by an imperial system under the Eagle family. The current emperor was a 15-year-old girl, Sofia Petrovna.
Ordinary Soviet wizards also use wands, slightly different in form from British wands, but essentially the same.
Shamans represent an ancient tradition and a noble profession in the Soviet Union.
Their duties are similar to a royal advisory group, seers, and religious monks.
Most reside in a place called the "Ancestral Tomb," following a few Grand Shamans in their practice. Shamans use instruments, dance, and speech to perform unique magic.
Their most powerful magic is called "True Name."
Shamans believe everything has a spirit, from mountains and seas to grains of sand and drops of rain, each with its own "True Name." By chanting these True Names, one can command all things to serve them.
These True Names are passed down orally among shamans and rarely written down, making them almost exclusive to shamans.
Another magic is the "Ancestral Spirit."
Shamans believe they can communicate with ancestors' souls in the spirit world through certain rituals and summon them to fight for them.
These spirits usually appear in various animal forms.
The initial ritual for such communication is the Ancestral Spirit Prayer Ritual.
Murphy believed these summoned "Ancestral Spirits" were somewhat similar to Patronuses and could be used as a substitute to add a "protective" dimension to the animal transformation potion, stabilizing it.
Compared to the highly emotion-dependent Patronus, Ancestral Spirits were more flexible and ideal as a stabilizer for the potion without complex procedures.
After going through the progress of all groups, the afternoon passed quickly.
It got dark early, and perhaps due to hunger, Murphy felt a bit drowsy and weary. He was about to end the class when the four little ones said they wanted to ask him a question.
Hermione, leading the Hero group, approached him, "Professor, we've encountered a problem in our research. Have you heard of Nicolas Flamel? Do you know who he is?"
Murphy looked speechlessly at the four young wizards, especially Tom, who was hiding in the back.
Trying to hide, huh? Asking me must have been your idea.
Impressive, learning to take shortcuts, eh?
I give you the task, and you want me to help you complete it?
What kind of circumventing strategy is this?
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