14 · Materials

This trip to China was only secondarily for sightseeing. Their main purpose was to visit Laike'er, the brother who was hiding from the Ministry of Magic's pursuit in Britain.

Fumengde and the others did not want to stay at Laike'er's place for long. They did not even plan to spend the night there, worried that they might expose Laike'er's residence and bring him unnecessary trouble.

Thus, after the two brothers spent around two hours together, they reluctantly parted ways at dusk.

"I'll move somewhere else. This place isn't very safe anymore. I mainly wanted to let you know I'm safe..." Laike'er said, unable to help himself as he looked at the concern in his older brother Fumengde's eyes.

"Next spring, I'll move back to Europe and live in seclusion. Then I'll secretly keep in touch with you."

"Are you sure about that?"

Compared with Europe, China was actually much safer for Laike'er.

"I'll do my best! And I believe that once Sherlock grows up..." Laike'er turned his gaze toward Sherlock, the Mephisto Family's most promising member in centuries.

"I believe that even Azkaban and Nurmengard, the two most infamous prisons in the wizarding world, will absolutely never dare imprison a member of the Mephisto Family in the future."

With that, their trip to China had come to an end. After parting from Laike'er Mephisto, Fumengde set off for England with his wife and children.

Sherlock's greatest gain from the journey was a precious piece of wood, enough to make a fifteen-inch wand: purple nanmu.

After returning to Mephisto Manor, Sherlock pestered his mother, Aili, asking her to brew a magical potion that could preserve or even restore a plant's vitality.

"Fine... darling, I'll make it for you. But I need to tell you that the ingredients for this potion are very scarce. If you only need it temporarily, one bottle can preserve something for about a month. But if you want to preserve it indefinitely, that's impossible."

Aili warned Sherlock in her private laboratory within the manor. Even her husband Fumengde did not dare enter this room casually, which was fully equipped for potion research. If he made his wife angry, the consequences would be severe...

Allowing Sherlock inside this time was an exception Aili had made.

"Even if you insist on watching me brew it myself, I hope you'll stay farther away from the cauldron. When I was studying at Hogwarts, I saw plenty of fools among my classmates who couldn't even brew simple potions. Some even blew up their cauldrons. Darling, accidents like that are dangerous. Even though I would never make such a mistake, you'll still be safer standing at a distance."

Sherlock could not help but grin. Perhaps only top students like his mother would consider Hogwarts' Potions class easy. Even Hermione, another future top student at Hogwarts, would complain bitterly about the school's Potions lessons.

Aili's potion-brewing technique and process flowed almost entirely in one smooth motion. Watching someone work without making a single mistake, completely familiar with every step, was a kind of pleasure in itself.

"Plant Vitality Elixir. This potion will meet your needs. Just pour one drop into the soil each time, and it will preserve vitality for one day. This bottle holds thirty drops. Even a broken piece of wood can retain its vitality, as if it had just been snapped from a tree."

Sherlock accepted the potion as though it were a priceless treasure. Though it could only last for a month, that was enough.

"Thank you, Mom. Love you, mwah!"

After running out of Aili's laboratory, Sherlock eagerly returned to his room. There, a flowerpot and soil had already been prepared by the house-elf Shog at his request.

After dripping a drop of Plant Vitality Elixir into the soil, he planted the piece of purple nanmu in the flowerpot.

According to Sherlock's speculation, in the legend of the Elder Wand, Death had casually broken off a piece of elder wood by the river and used it to make the Elder Wand. Though Sherlock did not know whether wand materials needed to retain their vitality during wandmaking, when Death snapped that elder wood and began making the Elder Wand—

That piece of wood must have still been alive, rather than deadwood. That was why Sherlock wanted the best, most vital material possible to be used when his wand was made in the future.

However, a young wizard could only obtain the first wand of their life at the age of eleven, after receiving an acceptance letter from a magic school, by purchasing one from Ollivander's Wand Shop in Diagon Alley.

At least, that was how it worked throughout the wizarding world of England. Sherlock did not know whether the rest of Europe followed the same practice.

But there were still exactly six years until he would receive his first wand. Using a bottle of Plant Vitality Elixir that could only last one month to preserve purple nanmu for six years was impossible.

Moreover, as his mother Aili had said, brewing a bottle of Plant Vitality Elixir was not difficult for her. Even if its ingredients were expensive, they were insignificant compared to the Mephisto Family's wealth.

Unfortunately, many of the ingredients for Plant Vitality Elixir were scarce commodities in the wizarding world. When the raw materials were so difficult to obtain, even the Mephisto Family's enormous wealth was of no use.

Thus, Sherlock could only set his next goal on the third spell he would be able to develop at the beginning of the following month.

That was also why Sherlock had insisted on watching his mother brew Plant Vitality Elixir in person. The third spell he intended to invent would be different from Scarless Healing and Whispering Word Spirit.

The third spell would preserve a plant's vitality—or, in other words, prolong the life of a plant that was about to die, allowing it to continue growing and surviving. But that was very difficult.

Plant Vitality Elixir was one of the few magical potions with such a miraculous function, so Sherlock needed to personally observe the specific brewing process. Only then could he conveniently record the spell's matching rules and specific effects in the Magic Notebook.

He now had less than a month to study Plant Vitality Elixir and observe what form of life the purple nanmu, nourished by the potion in the soil, would take in order to sustain itself.

"I heard from Aili that you asked her to brew some Plant Vitality Elixir. I could figure out with my eyes closed that you planned to use it on that piece of wood you carried back from China... Also, your door wasn't closed."

His father, who had walked in without permission, deliberately pointed at the open door.

"Oh... fine. Then close the door for me when you leave."

Sherlock let Fumengde see the piece of purple nanmu he had already planted, then emphasized, "This isn't ordinary wood. Nanmu is known as the foremost of the world's four great timbers. This particular kind of nanmu is also called 'golden-thread nanmu' in China, while its academic name is purple nanmu. In China's ancient feudal dynasties, it represented the gold among woods, reserved for royalty and nobility."

Fumengde rolled his eyes at his son. "So you plan to use this piece of wood for the wand you'll have six years from now? Don't you think you're planning a little too far ahead?"