With the house-elves helping, the basic construction work progressed very quickly.
At the same time, to make travelling back and forth more convenient, Wade had the goblin craftsmen install several more fireplaces.
That way, if the Vanishing Cabinets ever malfunctioned, they would still have another way to travel quickly.
Of course, the Floo routes connected to those fireplaces were illegal too...
As the basic infrastructure gradually took shape, Wade also refined his basilisk breeding plan.
There were two possible methods he could experiment with.
The first was the traditional method: have a rooster lay an egg, then hatch it beneath a toad.
The second was to use DNA from the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets and directly clone that thousand-year-old basilisk. Perhaps even the medicinal properties of its body could be replicated.
The first method would probably take much longer, and the materials obtained from newly bred basilisks might be far inferior to those from the ancient basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
The second method would take much less time, but the risks would be considerably greater.
After all, they would be cloning an adult basilisk that had lived for more than a thousand years.
If anything went wrong, it could cause a great deal of trouble.
Wade was also not certain whether the materials from a cloned basilisk would possess the same properties as the original.
Besides, genetic editing was still far too difficult to achieve in the current era.
In the end, Wade decided to follow the conventional route for now and first try breeding young basilisks.
After all, he truly had very little experience raising basilisks.
Jumping straight into cloning a full-grown one would be a little too ambitious. Taking too large a step at once was an easy way to hurt yourself.
Still, although Wade was a complete beginner when it came to breeding basilisks, there just happened to be someone in the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts who was highly experienced.
With his help, combined with Wade's newer methods, the task should not be particularly difficult.
"No, no, no... I'm not going!"
Inside the Chamber of Secrets, Slytherin immediately rejected Wade's proposal.
These days, he could stay at Hogwarts and chat with his old friend Hufflepuff whenever he wanted. His life was quite comfortable.
Why should he suddenly go to Africa and raise basilisks just because Wade said so?!
"You don't need to stay there all the time. I'll leave a Vanishing Cabinet there for you. You only need to visit regularly and give the house-elves some guidance," Wade tried to persuade him.
"Not going!"
"It isn't a long-term job. You only need to teach them how to do it, then you can leave the rest to them," Wade said.
"Not going! Not going! What kind of ridiculous request is this, you bastard? You actually want me to teach house-elves?" Slytherin had his pride too.
The fact that he no longer hated Muggles was already enormous progress. Now Wade wanted him to teach technical skills to house-elves?
Among wizards, especially traditional pure-bloods, looking down on Muggles and house-elves was practically a time-honoured tradition.
And Slytherin was about as traditional as they came.
So asking him to teach house-elves how to breed basilisks was practically stepping on a landmine.
If Wade had not been on such good terms with him, Slytherin would have thrown him out already.
"All right... I won't force you," Wade said helplessly. "I suppose I'll have to send Tom instead. It's a little unfortunate to make him drop out of school at his age and go work in Africa, but what can I say? I'm a bastard."
"Wait!" Slytherin glared at him with a dark expression. "You bastard, are you threatening me?"
Wade smiled. "You misheard me. I was only joking. Tom and I are practically brothers. How could I make him drop out and go work in Africa? Actually, this is a trade. I won't ask you to work for nothing."
"There's nothing I want right now... and don't bring up helping me find my remains! You promised that long ago as part of our agreement!" Slytherin said warily.
"You may not want anything right now, but I can give the reward to Tom instead." Wade smiled. "You should know that I still possess some resources even you don't have."
Slytherin thought for a moment before saying, "Fine! Teach Tom your nightmare magic!"
"No. Pick something else." Wade rejected the request immediately.
That magic had been taught to him by Miravia. Without her permission, there was no chance he would teach it to anyone else.
"Then give Tom some of that purified magic of yours." Slytherin smiled. "I know you can purify the 'residue' you absorbed from Miravia. Give Tom some of it, and I'll work for you directly. How about that?"
"Oh? So this is what you were waiting for?" Wade laughed.
The residue could rapidly increase a person's strength, and once purified, it had no side effects at all.
Although the current purification method still caused considerable losses, Wade had absorbed a huge amount from Miravia. Even after losing most of it during purification, there was still plenty of pure magic left.
Besides, the outside world was at war.
There was no shortage of negative emotions.
As long as the purification technique continued to improve, Wade's supply of pure magic could almost be considered inexhaustible.
In fact, he had already been thinking about giving some of the purified magic to Tom and the others.
The stronger the people he trusted became, the better they would be able to help him in the future.
If they ever betrayed him, Wade could simply extract the magic from them again at any time.
"Fine, I agree. I'll give it to Tom in front of you," Wade said with a smile.
Using something he had already planned to give Tom in exchange for Slytherin's help was a deal Wade certainly did not lose out on.
"All right, but you'll have to handle making the roosters lay eggs. I don't know how to do that... and I'm not waiting another ten years or more like before just to get a single rooster egg."
"No problem. You can come in and take a look."
Wade opened his suitcase.
He had brought it along specifically so that, once the deal was made, Slytherin would not have time to change his mind.
"Toby, bring me one of the eggs," Wade said as soon as he climbed down the ladder into the suitcase.
Inside, Wade had sectioned off a large area specifically for raising chickens. Toby personally looked after them, following Wade's plan exactly and feeding them specially prepared food containing the required potion ingredients.
Slytherin floated in after him, looking around the interior of the suitcase with great interest.
"I didn't expect such a small suitcase to contain such a vast space..." Slytherin said admiringly.
"This wasn't my invention. A Hufflepuff senior taught me how to do it," Wade replied.
"Oh... I see. In that case, Hufflepuff really does produce some capable people..." Slytherin nodded.
He thought back to Hufflepuff's teaching philosophy.
Helga accepted students without discrimination. It was only natural that a few geniuses would occasionally emerge.
Thinking of it that way made Slytherin feel a little better.
At that moment, Toby came running over carrying a bamboo basket.
A cloth covered the top, and judging from its shape, the basket was clearly filled with eggs.
Wade lifted the cloth, revealing the eggs inside.
They looked different from ordinary chicken eggs. Every one was pale green, and faint patterns resembling snake scales covered the shells.
Slytherin stared at them, completely stunned.
Wade picked one up and examined it, making sure Toby had not accidentally brought out one of his century eggs, then handed it to Slytherin.
"See? These are the rooster eggs I produced."
Slytherin took the egg in a daze and examined it carefully before looking at Wade with a complicated expression.
"This really is a rooster egg, and every single one is of much better quality than the one I found back then! I raised chickens for Helga for more than ten years without receiving anything in return, and only found one rooster egg. How did you get so many?"
Slytherin felt distinctly sour about it.
"It's simple. You only need a gender-altering potion," Wade said. "This potion temporarily changes the rooster's physiological structure. But its DNA... I mean, its bloodline remains male. It's somewhat similar to Transfiguration. You create the organs they normally lack, then pair them with other roosters... cough... and finally combine that with my specialised feed."
"Sss... That actually works?!" Slytherin said in shock.
"Of course it does. Roosters normally can't lay eggs. The rare exceptions only happen because of genetic mutations. All I did was use potions to turn that extremely low-probability mutation into something guaranteed."
"Damn it! Why didn't I think of that back then?!" Slytherin paced back and forth in frustration. "If I had thought of this earlier, I wouldn't have wasted more than ten years working for Helga for free! Developing a simple gender-altering potion would have been far easier than raising chickens for over a decade!"
"That's true," Wade said, nodding in agreement.
"Are you deliberately trying to annoy me?!" Slytherin snapped.
"No, you misunderstand. I'm only saying that raising chickens really isn't easy... and because the transformation is temporary, I can officially say that no roosters were harmed. Hmm... there may be some psychological trauma, though. After all, they were being... by other roosters..."
"All right... all right... It seems we really are getting old..." Slytherin sighed. "Young wizards these days really are getting stronger with every generation."
"It isn't that young wizards are getting stronger. Young Master Wade is simply very strong!" Toby corrected him seriously.
...
Slytherin left carrying the basket of rooster eggs, then travelled to Africa through the giant Vanishing Cabinet inside the suitcase.
Of course, to avoid endless explanations, Slytherin simply did not reveal that he was one of the four founders.
He wrapped a scarf around his head, leaving only his eyes exposed. Professor Slughorn could not tell that he was a ghost and merely assumed he was someone Wade had sent.
Otherwise, if Professor Slughorn discovered that this was Salazar Slytherin, Slytherin probably would not get any work done at all.
Professor Slughorn was extremely interested in ancient potion-making as well.
Wade closed the Vanishing Cabinet and clapped his hands in satisfaction.
"Excellent. Another capable worker acquired."
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69