By deep night, Professor Sprout finally set down her quill.
She rubbed her aching wrist, then stamped her seal firmly onto each envelope.
Only after watching the owls carry the letters away did she let out a long breath.
Under the candlelight, a strange smile crept across her face.
A low chuckle echoed through the office.
"Heh… I can't be the only one suffering. The entire herbology world should taste this pain too."
…
Soon, in a flower room covered with dense green vines, the sound of flapping owl wings broke the silence.
A well-dressed middle-aged witch was waving her wand, carefully tending to the plants around her. When she saw the owl delivering a letter, a hint of surprise appeared on her face.
"Junior Sprout?"
She opened the letter and saw Professor Sprout's sincere greeting.
"Dear Senior Isa, I hope this letter finds you well.
Lately, I have often found myself thinking back to our years at Hogwarts. Time truly passes like a dream.
I still remember when I first helped in the greenhouses as a student. You were the one who guided me step by step. Later, we spent a long time studying herbology together.
In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed. Looking in the mirror now, I can hardly believe we have reached this age.
Senior Isa, you have already published so much and even received the Order of Merlin. Your achievements in herbology are still ahead of mine…"
Reading the letter, Sir Isa's eyes softened with nostalgia.
Back then, school days had seemed so long.
Yet now, looking back, they felt impossibly short.
Many of their old classmates had gone their separate ways. Some had long left herbology and magical creature studies behind. Others had been taken by illness, war, or time itself.
Seeing a letter from Sprout after all these years moved her more than she expected.
And since Sprout, a fellow herbology master, had openly admitted that Isa's accomplishments were still ahead of hers, Sir Isa could not help feeling a little pleased.
But when she reached the final part of the letter and saw that Sprout wanted to borrow several rare plant seeds from her, she fell into thought.
"So Sprout still hasn't given up on cultivating the Whomping Willow and those extinct ancient herbs?"
"But judging from this, she may have abandoned the Whomping Willow and Emperor Flashflower projects. Those are too difficult. Perhaps she wants to try the seeds in my collection instead?"
Sir Isa sighed softly.
"Plants from the ancient age and the age of myth… none of them are simple."
If anyone else had asked to borrow her collection, she would have refused without hesitation.
But for Sprout's sake, and because this letter had stirred old memories, Sir Isa eventually took out three seeds and wrote a reply to Hogwarts.
…
The same thing happened elsewhere.
Several herbology masters still living in Britain received letters from Professor Sprout.
As leading figures in the field, they all had some connection with her.
Sprout's wording was sincere, respectful, and flattering enough to lift them high into the clouds. Although most of them felt that changing research directions would not help her much, they still generously lent out some of the rare seeds they had collected.
Inside a castle covered in vines and thorns, a black-robed woman let out a cold, sinister laugh after reading the letter.
"Sprout is asking me to borrow seeds?"
"She still wants to complete research in that direction?"
"Heh. What arrogance. Those plants can't possibly be cultivated in the current magical environment. That's already settled. Yet she still wants to try. No wonder her results have been so mediocre after taking the Hogwarts Herbology professor position."
At the thought of that position, the black-robed woman clenched her hand.
"If I could go back to that year with my current achievements and my teacher's support, how could I have lost to Sprout?"
"I don't even care about being Hogwarts' Herbology professor. But whenever I think about it, it still feels like a thorn in my heart."
She sneered, then took out a pouch containing at least ten seeds and sent it to Hogwarts by owl.
"Twelve seeds in total. All rare. All difficult to cultivate."
"Sprout, go ahead and waste your time."
"Once I finish my own research, you should step down from Hogwarts and hand over the Herbology position."
…
At Hogwarts Castle, Professor Sprout looked at the seeds delivered by the owls, and her expression said everything.
Just as expected.
"The others only lent one seed each. Senior Isa is still generous. Three seeds at once."
"But Flynna, that witch… She really came through."
Back then, Flynna had lost the competition for the Herbology professor position to Sprout and had held a grudge ever since. Later, however, she had been taken in by a reclusive herbology master.
That master's status in herbology was almost equivalent to Nicolas Flamel's status in alchemy. No one knew how Flynna had been so lucky, but over the years, her results had improved steadily, and she had gained access to all kinds of rare resources.
"She must have been delighted when she received my letter," Sprout muttered. "Twelve seeds at once. How generous."
Then the corner of her mouth curved into a playful smile.
"I wonder how long she'll stay happy."
Expectation gleamed in her eyes.
"Theodore… Theodore, I've spent all my connections and reputation on this. Don't disappoint me."
Soon, Theodore arrived after receiving Professor Sprout's notice.
When he saw the pouches of seeds, his eyes immediately grew heated.
Professor Sprout really was too good to him.
With these seeds, the herb garden inside his Primordial Sea finally looked like it could take shape.
Once these herbs matured, he could rely on his Profound Alchemy talent to study them and perhaps develop new pills beyond the Demon-Refining Pill and the Myriad Demon Golden Pill.
The Myriad Demon Golden Pill still depended on whether any Old One bloodline dared to appear. Without that, he could not even gather the main ingredient.
And after he had destroyed Dagon's projection, it was unlikely that any Old One projection would appear again anytime soon.
That made this herb garden the key to rapidly improving his cultivation.
"These herbology masters who lent me seeds… good people. They're all good people."
"As repayment, I can only make these seeds sprout and grow as quickly as possible. I'm sure they'll be happy to see that."
After returning, Theodore planted the seeds carefully on the divine peak inside his Primordial Sea.
He had even read the related papers in advance and prepared suitable conditions for each seed to germinate. The soil, refined through the Wutu Divine Light, was abundant and rich.
He also mobilized part of his Primordial Sea power to nourish and wash over the herb garden.
Under all these measures, seeds that could no longer grow in the magical world began to awaken one by one.
The very next day, tender shoots of different shapes and colors broke through the soil.
Theodore immediately reported the news to Professor Sprout.
The moment she heard it, Professor Sprout shot up from her chair, her face flushed with excitement.
"Good!"
"Very good!"
"Excellent!"
Then she immediately took out her quill and began writing letter after letter.
In Sir Isa's flower room, when she received Professor Sprout's reply, she was a little confused.
"Why is there a reply so soon?"
"Does Sprout want to discuss cultivation techniques with me?"
But the moment she opened the envelope, she saw Professor Sprout's bold handwriting.
"Senior Isa, I hope you are well.
The seeds you lent me have been placed under the care of one of my students. One of them has already sprouted today.
Please see the attached image."
Sir Isa froze.
Then she rubbed her eyes and read it again.
And again.
"Huh?"
"What?"
"It sprouted?!"
"That seed had been in my hands for years. I studied it for so long and tried every possible method. It never reacted once. I was already convinced it had completely died, which was why I was willing to lend it out."
"How did it sprout in Sprout's hands after one day?"
A complicated feeling surged inside her.
"I had it first…"
But soon, Sir Isa took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
"Herbology is about diligence and persistence. Perhaps this is the reward for Sprout's decades of research."
"She makes it sound simple in the letter, but in reality, she must have paid a price no one can see."
"This one-day germination must be the result of decades of accumulated work."
"There is nothing to envy. I should not be jealous. Yes. This is what Sprout deserves."
"Whether the seed survives afterward or not, this result alone is enough to shake the top journals of herbology again."
With that thought, Sir Isa wrote a congratulatory reply.
The other herbology masters who received Sprout's letters thought much the same and sent their congratulations as well.
Only Flynna, who had always held a grudge against Sprout, nearly ground her teeth to pieces.
"One of the seeds I lent her actually sprouted?"
"Damn it. I tried those seeds myself. Why didn't I get any reaction?"
"How is her luck this good?"
After a long while, Flynna finally calmed herself down.
"It's only one sprouted seed. A decent result, yes, but nothing compared to the research I'm about to finish."
"Let her be proud for now. She can be proud for a moment, but not forever."
Unfortunately, things soon developed in a direction no one expected.
Another day passed.
They received yet another letter from Professor Sprout.
This time, the letter mentioned that more seeds had sprouted.
Sir Isa fell silent.
The three seeds she had sent had all sprouted.
That was far beyond her imagination.
Even if these had not been supposedly extinct ancient seeds, even if they were merely rare plants still present in the modern magical world, a herbology master like her could not guarantee a one-hundred-percent survival rate.
But this…
Ancient seeds with a one-hundred-percent germination rate?
What kind of joke was this?
And worse, Sprout's letter said they had been casually grown in flowerpots.
Sir Isa no longer knew how to reply.
The other herbology masters also fell into an eerie silence.
That day, no replies were sent to Hogwarts.
But in her office, the corner of Professor Sprout's mouth curved upward.
"You should all understand the unfairness of this world by now."
On the third day, Professor Sprout sent another letter to every herbology master who had lent her seeds.
This letter shattered them completely.
"What?"
"Sprout didn't just borrow seeds from me?"
"She borrowed from others too?"
"She borrowed nearly twenty seeds in total, and the current germination rate is…"
"One hundred percent?!"
"How did she do it? Flowerpots? No care? Just casually planting them and they sprouted?"
"Who would believe that nonsense?!"
The herbology masters' breathing grew heavy.
They understood better than anyone what it meant for Professor Sprout to achieve a one-hundred-percent germination rate with ancient seeds.
It meant she had most likely found a way to revive ancient seeds.
From this point onward, more and more ancient plants might reappear in the magical world.
The herbology world was about to change.
But after realizing that, their hearts felt unbearably sour.
As herbology masters, they all had their own pride.
And now, that pride had been trampled flat.
Sprout and a student named Theodore Snow had easily accomplished what they had spent their entire lives failing to achieve.
That Theodore Snow had simply planted them in flowerpots and revived the seeds?
"I am a master. I will not be angry. I will not be jealous. I must have dignity…"
"…"
"Dignity, my foot!"
"My entire life's work was surpassed by a student?"
"I served those seeds with priceless potions, and they didn't even twitch. Why did they come alive in Theodore Snow's flowerpots?!"
"I don't understand!"
These famous figures of the herbology world were now full of doubt.
Had all their years of research been wasted?
Was their knowledge no longer suited to the current magical environment?
What meaning did a lifetime of effort have if this was the gap between genius and ordinary people?
Flynna, meanwhile, looked as though her mind had suffered a severe blow. She clutched her head and growled.
"I don't believe it."
"I refuse to believe it!"
"How could something like this happen?"
"This violates every principle of herbology!"
"How could anyone in the magical world do this? Even my teacher was helpless against those ancient seeds. How could someone achieve a perfect germination rate?"
"Fake. This must be fake. It's a scam."
"I'm going to Hogwarts myself and expose Sprout as a fraud!"
At that moment, inside Hogwarts, Theodore was looking at his herb garden with great anticipation.
Then, without warning, one system notification after another appeared before his eyes.
[A wandering medicinal cultivator's Dao Heart has collapsed.]
[Another wandering medicinal cultivator's Dao Heart has collapsed.]
[You have formed a casual acquaintance relationship with a wandering medicinal cultivator.]
[…]
[Qingfeng, the Dao child under Great Immortal Zhenyuan, has suffered a Dao Heart collapse and developed hostility toward you.]
[Your relationship with Dao Child Qingfeng has become Coldly Hostile.]
[Dao Child Qingfeng is preparing to come seek revenge. Host, please be careful.]
[Beware of Zhenyuanzi!]
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