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Chapter 315: Parseltongue and Hidden Secrets
🕑 Added 2018-12-01 02:37:28 +0000 UTC
Yes, this was the statue of Salazar Slytherin himself.
Surrounded by a silver band of light, he held a wand in his hand, and the end of the wand leaned down slightly, as if he were casting some magic. The expression on his face was extremely serious.
Unlike the statue of Slytherin that Evan had seen before, this statue was neither that old and clumsy man in the Chamber of Secrets, ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard; nor the handsome, calm and reserved middle-aged man who was in charge of everything. It was Slytherin as a teenager.
He was even younger than Slytherin, whom Evan had met a thousand years ago. This statue should’ve been made back when Salazar was about the same age as Evan; or slightly older, around fifteen or sixteen.
The face at the top of the statue had a solemn expression besides its handsome appearance. It emitted a sense of vigor and vitality, as well as an indescribable temperament, a temperament that’s like an unsheathed sword, shimmering and exceptionally sharp.
“The noble and immortal Slytherin, who valued blood and honor, judged the situation, defended himself wisely, and won supremacy..." Evan could not help whispering.
Although it was only a stone sculpture of Salazar in his youth, it perfectly reflected the qualities that Slytherin had long valued.
Even those who were biased against this House had to admit it.
Evan looked at the statue carefully. He looked like Tom Riddle in his school days. He had black jade-like hair and was thin and tall, but he was more confident and full of the peculiar sense of the medieval aristocracy.
The common denominator was that both of them had a cold smile on their lips.
Evan did not know what thoughts Voldemort would have seeing his ancestor. From the current situation, Evan estimated that he had never been to this cave. This was also very similar to Voldemort's usual style. He thought he had mastered everything. He disdained to have a thorough understanding of the magical creatures he despised and the Muggle-born wizards.
But in fact, he missed out on a lot of valuable things.
Evan carefully observed the surroundings, and under the traction of the Acromantula behind him, he slowly landed at the foot of the giant statue of Slytherin.
Like the Chamber of secrets, the ground was paved with cyan marble.
Under the thick dust, the marble was carved with dark golden ornaments, silently telling the glory of the past.
Besides, there were various kinds of stone fragments on the ground.
Evan moved forward, raising his wand high.
He found himself standing in the middle of a wide circular basement hall, whose decorations had been damaged by the Acromantulas, and it was impossible to recognize their true features.
Silver-white planktons landed sporadically from the sky, like a little starlight, scattered on the statue of Slytherin and the surrounding huge stone pillars.
In the quiet, empty hall, he stood alone.
The faint fluorescence emitted by the end of Evan’s wand appeared so small in the darkness, and the stone carvings that had remained unchanged for nearly a thousand years seemed to have stagnated.
In the absolute silence, he could clearly feel the impact of time.
Under the light of his wand, not far from Slytherin's feet, he saw a huge stone altar, engraved with words, and Evan walked over to see it.
Like the surrounding decorations and walls, the altar had also been destroyed by Acromantulas, and split into several pieces, leaving only a huge base.
He picked up a slightly larger wreck and took it in his hand to observe it. The text engraved on it was very weird.
“This is..." Evan seemed to think of something, and hurriedly flipped Slytherin's Locket hanging on his chest, comparing the two.
All of them were symbols, twisted like snakes. They were all words. As for the text on Slytherin’s Locket, Evan studied it for a long time. He looked up many books related to ancient magic patterns, but did not find any information about it.
However, in ancient astrology books, he found some clues.
In the center of the Locket, the lines engraved around the green gemstones were all symbols and visual azimuths of ancient astrologers. These symbols related to the astrological knowledge of the relative angles of planets and their relationship to each other.
Because it was too esoteric, Evan was still working on solving it.
As for the other inscriptions on the Locket, he had not made any progress.
But when he saw the words on the broken stone altar and the surrounding scenes, Evan got a glimmer of inspiration. Salazar Slytherin's most famous trait was Parseltongue, so these unknown words might have to be recognized by a Parselmouth, as long as they were in accordance with the ancient English grammar...
He tried to read it, and there was a strange hissing sound in his mouth. It didn’t make sense, but it sounded exactly the same as Harry when he was using the Parseltongue.
“Yes, that's it, I should have thought of it!" Evan clenched his fist. "These weird words left by Salazar Slytherin must have something to do with the Parseltongue. I spent months looking for ancient magic handed down from all over the world."
He hurriedly collected all the broken stones and put them in his pocket. He was ready to go back and restore them to their original state. He could let Harry look at them and maybe make a breakthrough and know why Slytherin left a legacy here and the old words on the Locket.
Evan remembered the vampire girl called Elaine Slytherin, and the prophecy she mentioned…
He waited until he collected all the stones and calmed down before moving on.
In the empty hall, only Evan’s footsteps echoed in the darkness, and he walked for about five minutes in the direction indicated by Slytherin's statue wand.
In front of him was a huge stone gate. The decoration and cracks on it were exactly the same as the ones Evan had seen in his dreams. He remembered that behind the door was the monster, the secret hidden for nearly a thousand years, and the huge blood-red eyes...
Evan increased his vigilance. The stone door was not opened.
On the door were two intertwined snakes with large, shiny emeralds in their eyes.
They were very similar to the two snakes above the gate of the Chamber of Secrets in the castle, but the style of the two snakes looks plainer, just like that of a shrinking Basilisk.
If Harry was here, he could use Parseltongue to order the two snakes to open the stone door.
Evan couldn’t do it, but there should be another entrance. He took the bottle containing Aragog out of the package.
“Aragog, I’ve come to the underground ruins, and I'm standing in front of a huge closed stone gate. How can I get in here?"
“Follow my children, Hagrid's friend! As the voice commanded, we opened an entrance on the far wall." Click, click, said Aragog weakly, "Right over there, we used to take the captured prey from that crack to it..."
