Chapter 315 Parseltongue And Hidden Secrets
Yes, this was the statue of Salazar Slytherin himself.
Surrounded by a silvery band of light, he held a wand in his hand, and the tip of the wand was slightly inclined, as if performing some kind of magic. The expression on his face was extremely serious.
Unlike the Slytherin statue Evan had seen before, this statue was neither the clumsy old man in the Chamber of Secrets, ancient and simian-looking, with a long and thin beard; nor the handsome, calm, and reserved middle-aged man 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 must have been created when Salazar was approximately the same age as Evan, or a little older, around fifteen or sixteen years old.
The face atop the statue bore a solemn expression in addition to his handsome appearance. It exuded a sense of vigor and vitality, as well as an indescribable temperament, a temperament like a drawn sword, shining and exceptionally sharp.
"The noble and immortal Slytherin, who valued blood and honor, assessed the situation, defended wisely, and achieved supremacy…" Evan couldn't help but whisper.
Although it was just a stone sculpture of Salazar in his youth, it perfectly reflected the qualities Slytherin had cherished for so long.
Even those biased against this House had to admit it.
Evan scrutinized the statue carefully. It resembled Tom Riddle in his school days. He had jet-black hair and was slender and tall, but he was more confident and filled with a peculiar sense of medieval aristocracy.
The common denominator was that both had a cold smile on their lips.
Evan didn't know what thoughts Voldemort would have upon seeing his ancestor. From the current situation, Evan estimated that Voldemort had never been in this cave. This was also very similar to Voldemort's usual style. He thought he had it all figured out. He disdainfully avoided gaining a deep understanding of magical creatures he looked down upon and wizards born to Muggles.
But, in fact, he had missed out on many valuable things.
Evan carefully surveyed the surroundings and, under the tug of the Acromantula behind him, slowly landed at the feet of the giant Slytherin statue.
Just like in the Chamber of Secrets, the floor was paved with cyan marble.
Beneath the thick dust, the marble was carved with dark golden ornamentations, silently recounting the glory of the past.
Furthermore, there were various stone fragments on the ground.
Evan advanced, raising his wand high.
He found himself standing in the center of a wide underground circular hall, whose decorations had been damaged by the Acromantulas, making it impossible to recognize their true features.
Silverish white flakes sporadically fell from the sky, like small stars, scattered on the Slytherin statue and on the surrounding huge stone pillars.
In the silence, empty hall, he stood alone.
The faint glow emitted by the tip of Evan's wand seemed so small in the darkness, and the stone sculptures that had remained unchanged for almost a thousand years appeared 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 towards it to examine it.
Like the surrounding decorations and walls, the altar had also been shattered by the Acromantulas, splitting into several pieces, leaving only a massive base.
He lifted a somewhat larger fragment and held it in his hand to observe. The text engraved on it was very strange.
"This is..." Evan seemed to remember something and quickly compared it to the Slytherin Medallion hanging on his chest.
All of them were symbols, twisted like serpents. They were all words. As for the text on the Slytherin Medallion, Evan studied it for a long time. He searched through many books related to ancient magical patterns but found no information about it.
However, in ancient astrology books, he found some clues.
In the center of the Medallion, the engraved lines around the green gems were all symbols and visual azimuths of ancient astrologers. These symbols were related to the astrological knowledge of the relative angles of planets and their relationship to each other.
Due to its esoteric nature, Evan was still working on unraveling it.
As for the other inscriptions on the Medallion, he had made no progress.
But when he saw the words on the broken stone altar and the surrounding scenes, Evan had a spark of inspiration. Salazar Slytherin's most famous feature was Parseltongue, so these unknown words might need to be recognized by a Parselmouth, as long as they adhered to the ancient grammar of English...
He attempted to read them, and there was a strange hiss in his mouth. It made no sense, but sounded exactly like Harry when he used Parseltongue.
"Yes, that's it, I should have thought of it!" Evan clenched his fist. "These strange words left by Salazar Slytherin must have something to do with Parseltongue. I spent months searching for ancient magic passed down from around the world."
He hastily gathered all the broken stones and stashed them in his pocket. He was ready to return and restore them to their original state. He could have Harry look at them and maybe make a breakthrough to uncover why Slytherin left a legacy here and the ancient words on the Medallion.
Evan remembered the vampire girl named Elaine Slytherin and the prophecy she mentioned...
He waited until he had collected all the stones and calmed down before proceeding.
In the empty hall, only Evan's footsteps echoed in the darkness as he walked for about five minutes in the direction indicated by the Slytherin statue's wand.
Before him stood a massive stone door. The decorations and cracks on it were exactly the same as Evan had seen in his dreams. He recalled that behind the door lay the monster, the secret hidden for almost a thousand years, and the huge blood-red eyes...
Evan heightened his vigilance. The stone door did not budge.
On the door were two intertwined snakes with large emerald eyes.
They were very similar to the two snakes above the Chamber of Secrets door in the castle, but the style of the two snakes seemed simpler, like that of a shrunken Basilisk.
If Harry were there, he could use Parseltongue to command the two snakes to open the stone door.
Evan couldn't do that, but there should be another entrance. He took out the bottle containing Aragog from his pack.
"Aragog, I have arrived at the underground ruins, and I am facing a huge closed stone door. How can I enter here?"
"Follow my children, friend of Hagrid! As the voice commanded, we opened an entrance in the far wall. Click, click," Aragog weakly said, "Right there, we used to carry the captured prey from that crevice to there..."