Harry Potter: Don't Touch the Badger's Plants

Under Ciel's watchful gaze, this pot of Goldfish Vines illuminated by the blue-purple Frequency Charm showed no significant external differences. But the magical aura it emanated was, in Ciel's perception, several degrees more active than the control group.

His eyes lit up with satisfaction.

After carefully confirming several times and ruling out interference from various other factors, he reached a preliminary conclusion—the blue-purple frequency band of the Frequency Charm had a visible promoting effect on Goldfish Vine growth, with an amplitude of about five percent.

If he continued to refine within this blue-purple frequency band to find a precise optimal frequency, the estimated promoting effect could reach seven to eight percent. More optimistically, it might even reach ten percent.

Ciel breathed a light sigh of relief. This amplitude could hardly be called heaven-defying, but having an effect already made him quite satisfied. At most, it could amplify growth speed by ten percent, which would accumulate considerable benefits over time. It wasn't in vain that he had put so much thought into obtaining the Frequency Charm.

If he used this as an innovation point to write a paper, with Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick as corresponding authors, it would probably be enough to publish in a top herbology journal in the wizarding world.

Academia was just like this. If a new idea could be implemented with results, that was already quite smooth. Expecting one idea to directly achieve heaven-defying accomplishments? Such examples were few and far between, and there must be deep accumulation behind them.

For example, in his previous life, Ciel had heard of certain agricultural scholars using new ideas to cultivate new varieties, publishing in top journals, and winning prize money—truly glorious. But only industry insiders knew that these masters had already accumulated deep expertise in other directions. After failing several times, they switched topics and achieved such results through thick accumulation and gradual development.

Also, the agricultural college was next to the materials science college at that time. When eating barbecue together at midnight, Ciel had heard the materials students who had just finished their experiments express envy. They talked about how a graphene master used tape to separate single-layer graphene and won the Nobel Prize. How a young scholar used bird droppings structure for graphene biomimetics, also publishing in top journals and returning to China through the Young Thousand Talents Program.

But while envious, the materials students all shook their heads. Such ideas sounded simple, but implementing them wasn't so easy and comfortable. Even if the ideas were directly given to them, without the masters' papers, their chances of implementation would be minimal.

Academia was like this—success was accidental, failure was the norm.

Ciel was quite satisfied with the results of this Frequency Charm experiment. The plants he hadn't tried yet were only Blood Jade, Guardian Tree, and Piranha Algae.

Blood Jade was too precious—currently only Professor Sprout had that one specimen. Ciel didn't dare attempt anything with it. Otherwise, if he killed the current specimen, he'd probably regret it to his core.

As for the Guardian Tree, Ciel's magical perception wasn't up to standard, so there was no need to attempt it.

Only Piranha Algae remained.

He subconsciously dismissed it in his mind. "Aunt already told me that Piranha Algae severely fears light and dies upon exposure. It seems there's no need for further experimentation? It would just waste Piranha Algae seeds..."

Ciel's steps slowly moved toward the outside of the greenhouse. He still had many things to busy himself with. For something with a known conclusion, there really seemed no need to try again.

But after his steps had already left the greenhouse, Ciel took a deep breath, suddenly turned around, and walked toward the aquatic plant cultivation shed.

His previous life's academic career had taught Ciel a principle. "Impossible" was often not so absolute. Some achievements often lay in breaking through the so-called impossible. Questioning the "impossible" was key to achieving academic breakthroughs.

He had never achieved great accomplishments, but this concept had always been his academic creed. Whether the Frequency Charm could work on Piranha Algae—he had to try to know.

So Ciel took out the remaining Piranha Algae he had and set up new experimental and control groups. The control group, Piranha Algae, followed normal cultivation requirements, completely avoiding light. The experimental group, Piranha Algae, used conditions with intensity from weak to strong and frequency distributed in gradients from red light to purple light.

Soon, the experiment began. Equal numbers of Piranha Algae seeds were placed into test tubes under the above conditions.

The control group performed normally. The moment they contacted water in the dark environment, the Piranha Algae leaves unfurled and emanated vitality.

Ciel's gaze moved to the experimental group. Even under the weakest Lumos Charm illumination, just as Professor Sprout had said, all Piranha Algae seeds died. They didn't even unfurl their leaves.

"I've already reduced the Lumos Charm intensity to the lowest I can control. It's so weak the naked eye can barely see the light, yet the Piranha Algae seeds still all died. Is their photophobia to this extent?"

Ciel shook his head. He was already prepared for total annihilation of the experimental group seeds.

He looked toward those test tubes with continuously shifting frequencies. Gradually, Ciel's gaze movement slowed down.

"Hmm?" His face showed some surprise as he noticed certain changes. "The timing of death, and the state of Piranha Algae seed death, are different."

Piranha Algae seeds shifting toward the purple light band died faster than those under Lumos Charm illumination. Even the seed surfaces showed wrinkles and burn marks.

But seeds shifting toward the red light end died obviously slower. Some seeds, though dead, showed signs of leaf unfurling when they died.

Noticing this, Ciel's heartbeat accelerated. "Is it a problem with purple light?"

When his gaze fell on the test tube at the red light band's end, Ciel took a deep breath. In this band, in the test tube with the weakest light intensity, all Piranha Algae seeds had died, but their leaves were basically in a fully unfurled state.

As light intensity increased, though the seeds remained in a death state, their leaf condition began slowly improving. When light intensity reached its peak, in Ciel's vision appeared the first Piranha Algae seed that maintained weak vitality under illumination.

"It's alive?!"

A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Ciel's mind. He had just thought that Piranha Algae feared purple light. But now he had a different idea.

"Is there a possibility that Piranha Algae is actually a light-loving plant? It's just that it likes very extreme frequency illumination. If this frequency illumination doesn't reach a certain level, then it would rather reproduce in a dark environment through a special mode. When this frequency illumination reaches a certain intensity, Piranha Algae can enter another mode, adapting to light and surviving, maturing."

Ciel slightly clenched his fists. "If we could provide sufficient illumination of this type to Piranha Algae, perhaps it would grow much better than in dark environments!"

As for what this illumination requirement specifically was, Ciel already had a judgment. In Muggle spectroscopy, this frequency band exceeded the visible light range and was called infrared. In terms of the Frequency Charm's manifestation, it was exactly as Professor Flitwick had demonstrated earlier. Though the Frequency Charm succeeded, no light could be seen.

Ciel waved his wand, trying to cast this type of Frequency Charm beyond the visible range. But no matter how hard he tried, his wand could at most emit a constantly flickering Frequency Charm.

After trying for a moment, Ciel stopped. He sighed lightly. "Insufficient magical perception—not enough to make my Frequency Charm reach that level."

But immediately after, Ciel's gaze fell on the system panel. On the Magical Perception Enhancement text, silver luster had already covered more than half.

Trimming flying broomsticks, processing potion materials, plus occasionally harvesting a pot of Goldfish Vines—in three to five days, Magical Perception Enhancement would definitely advance to Silver Tier.

By then, Ciel could thoroughly verify whether his hypothesis was correct. If successful, Piranha Algae cultivation methods might be completely revolutionized in the future. Their growth speed could possibly reach astonishing levels!

Combined with the Sectumsempra curse, it might unleash unexpected power.

Thinking of this, Ciel quickened his pace toward Snape's office.

(End of Chapter)

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