After folding the snake slough and putting it into the magic suitcase, John adjusted his mood and continued moving along the winding tunnel.

Finally, he carefully turned another corner and finally found a solid wall standing in front of him, with two intertwined snakes carved on it, and their eyes were set with large, shining emeralds.

.

"Open."

John said in a low, hoarse hiss.

The two snakes separated, and the stone wall cracked in the middle, slowly sliding to both sides and disappearing.

John smiled and walked in slowly.

Inside, there is a long, dimly lit room.

There are many stone pillars engraved with entangled snakes standing around.

They support the ceiling that melts into the darkness above, casting long and eerie black shadows on the entire room that is filled with green and mysterious mist.

At the end of the entire room, there is a statue as tall as the room itself, clinging to the dark wall behind.

John recognized it immediately as the statue of Salazar Slytherin.

It is similar to the portrait hanging in the Slytherin common room.

However, it seems that due to the different expressiveness of the stone material, or the surrounding light, the statue in front of John looks even more ugly and terrifying at this moment.

John searched around the room and didn't find anything of value.

This room didn't feel like a secret room at all, but more like an open public place, such as the lobby of some shopping malls or a classroom in a school.

Wait, classroom?

John felt he had grasped the key.

He looked at the whole room, and the more he looked at it, the more it seemed like it.

It is clearly recorded in "Hogwarts: A School History" that what Salazar Slytherin wanted to teach his students most was actually dark magic.

It's just that he had serious differences with the other three founders of Hogwarts on this matter.

In this case, it is not impossible that he chose to build a secret classroom to teach black magic to students he recognized.

So, this is actually the Dark Arts classroom at Hogwarts?

So if we continue to think according to this logic, will there be a black magic office nearby?

Thinking so, John turned his attention to the Slytherin statue.

He remembered that in the original book, the mouth of this statue could be opened, and it was through here that the basilisk entered the secret room.

If that dark arts office really existed, it would only be in there.

After hesitating for a moment, John tentatively said in Parseltongue:

"Open."

"Boom boom boom——"

A series of roaring sounds sounded from inside the statue. Under John's witness, the statue's mouth slowly opened, revealing the dark and deep passage inside.

This left John speechless.

Although he couldn't remember the specific password that Riddle used to open this door, he vaguely remembered that the password was very accurate.

At the moment, the condition for opening this portal is obviously Parseltongue, not any specific password.

This also means that the second password was added by Riddle himself.

"I can't believe that Lord Voldemort, who has no nose, is still in the second stage!"

John shook his head and sighed for a while, then walked in holding the glowing wand.

Different from what John imagined, it was not another tunnel, but a larger grotto, and it was very dry and warm.

The floor of the grotto was also covered with a large number of animal remains, and John even saw some humanoid corpses inside.

However, from a structural point of view, this should not be a human being, but a mermaid from the Black Lake.

In addition, John also found a broken snake tooth among the nearby remains!

This discovery made John instantly excited.

He began to conduct a blanket search of the entire cave, and by the time he had completed searching the entire cave, he had harvested a total of twenty-two broken basilisk fangs and hundreds of basilisk scales as big as his face.

Due to the different time of existence of these materials, the effectiveness of these materials also weakens to varying degrees.

But no matter what, these are things obtained from the thousand-year-old basilisk.

Basilisk fangs should sell well in Knockturn Alley.

These things don't need any treatment at all, they are just poisonous daggers, and if there are no Phoenix Tears, they will basically die if they are scratched.

John estimated that depending on the potency, this stuff would be a good price for 50 to 100 Galleons each.

As for the basilisk scales.

It's not a big deal if this stuff sells for 2 galleons per piece.

In other words, the total value of these things has reached 1300 to 2400 galleons.

This number is really outrageous.

According to the average monthly salary of ordinary employees of the Ministry of Magic in the United States, which is only a few dozen galleons, this is already equivalent to the income of an ordinary wizard who has not eaten or drank for several years.

In addition to these things, John also discovered another slightly smaller cave in the corner of the cave.

It is directly connected to the large grotto and is not blocked by the door.

But there were no traces of basilisk activity around it.

It's as if the basilisk doesn't dare to come near this place at all.

When John cautiously entered it, he suddenly discovered that it was actually a study room with an overall style similar to that of the Slytherin common room.

Not only are there desks, bookshelves, sofas and other furniture inside, it even has a window that offers a view of the bottom of the Black Lake.

The only regret is that Voldemort apparently discovered this place and also raided it.

Now, the entire study has been basically emptied.

The bookshelves were even more empty.

Reluctantly, John once again conducted a carpet-like search in the study.

But this time, he really found something.

It was a worn notebook and a small bag of sealed black plant seeds.

They are hidden in the desk drawer and in the crevices of the wall display shelf.

The dilapidated notebook should have been left by Riddle, which records Riddle's practice notes for practicing the three unforgivable curses, namely the [Death Curse], the [Cruciatus Curse] and the [Soul Reaper Curse].

It not only records the casting procedures of these three spells in detail, but also records some spell-casting techniques discovered by Riddle himself.

For example, Riddle discovered that although the three Unforgivable Curses were both black magic, the differences between them were huge.

Among them, the casting of [Death Curse] and [Cruciatus Curse] requires strong casting will and emotional blessing, and these emotions must be unforgettable levels of hatred.

The more extreme the caster's emotions, the stronger the effects of [Death Curse] and [Cruciatus Curse].

As for the [Soul-stealing Curse], the key point of its spellcasting lies in skill, not emotion.

Formally speaking, [Imperius Curse] is actually more similar to [Legilimency], both of which invade other people's brains to achieve their effects.

This requires extremely high magical attainments.

As for the small bag of black seeds, John couldn't see the use at all.

We can only wait and see if they are planted later.

However, he felt that the seeds that could be put into this secret office by Salazar Slytherin would not be simple, and he could try to plant them later.

Of course, this is a matter for the future.

At this stage, John still values ​​that notebook more.
Chapter completed!