Chapter 193 "Dead Predecessor"

"No one could survive." Sean rubbed the paper.

At the back of this line, it is marked that the Basilisk itself is immune to its own gaze, and the same is true among its kind. However, Basilisks are not immune to the venom of their own kind. They are only resistant to venom from other snakes.

Although it has a resistance that other creatures do not have, the venom of a Basilisk can still harm other Basilisk. If the amount of venom is large enough, it can even kill each other.

He turned his head to look at the Basilisk. The huge emerald-green body was sweeping the ground lightly. Blood was still oozing from the wound bitten by Dave, but it had begun to heal.

Sean felt that the Basilisk's injuries would probably heal soon if he was in a coma for another week.

Salazar used a great deal of space in the following records to record his experiments in trying to make the Basilisk reproduce naturally. However, Sean's face became weird just after reading a paragraph.

Perhaps due to the limitations of the times, the method used by Salazar was simple and brutal. He directly gave the male and female Basilisks a huge dose of love potion.

Although they are magical creatures, they still have reproductive organs like normal creatures. Salazar even described in detail the scene of the Basilisk mating.

Watching two fifty-foot-long pythons mate is quite weird. Even Sean has to admit that Salazar is a research-oriented scholar who is obsessed with experiments, and this kind of effort is worthy of recognition.

Although the experiment was unsuccessful, Salazar did not come to a bad conclusion.

"The experiment was unsuccessful, and seven pairs of basilisks were mated. I did not get a baby Basilisk. I did, however, obtain a Basilisk egg. This egg was exactly the same as the egg normally used to hatch a basilisk. There was no difference in size nor color."

"I tried to incubate the egg with the toad but failed. Even when the egg was left to the parents, it also failed."

"Under the circumstances that neither parent can hatch the egg, I can only think that this egg is a failure. However, I think the natural reproduction of the Basilisk is feasible. But I don't know how to proceed to the incubating stage."

"I thought about poaching this Basilisk egg for a taste, but considering it was the first egg in the world to be laid by a female Basilisk. I finally gave up on the idea. I'll try it once I get another one next time. Maybe I can use it for potions."

However, Salazar's idea was not implemented, and his experimental record was interrupted here. Sean estimated that at that time, it might be the time when the dispute broke out among the four founders of Hogwarts. Salazar left Hogwarts, and the experiment here was stopped.

In the last part, Salazar mentioned the records of communicating with the Basilisk.

"My ancestry brought me the gift of Parseltongue. However, to my disappointment, the intelligence of the Basilisk is not much different from ordinary snakes. Their intellect is not even comparable to other magical creatures."

"If there is no Parseltongue, I do not doubt that those guys will eat me directly. Even if they are all raised by me."

Sean frowned. This description did not match his experience. He learned Parseltongue, and he couldn't control the Basilisk at all. But the Basilisk in the stone room didn't attack him except for the first encounter, and he was even able to communicate peacefully with Dave.

Through this, it has shown a certain level of intelligence.

"My descendants, I think I need to describe to you how Parseltongue works. As the most glorious talent, Parseltongue is essentially a language magic. This magic requires no spells no magic power. As long as you can speak Parseltongue, it works automatically."

"Parseltongue can convey the thoughts of wizards to snakes and translate what the snakes were talking into our language. Parseltongue is like another language, and it is possible for other Parselmouths with this language as a way to communicate with each other."

The following sentence seems to have been written by Salazar after a long time. His handwriting is very scribbled, and he seems to have some trouble writing it. He is a wizard who can use magic to remove his writing, but he blacked out some words.

Below the blacked-out writing, he wrote, "Remember, don't show your Parseltongue in front of other wizards."

Sean raised his eyebrows. He could probably guess why he acted this way. He knew that anyone could learn Parseltongue.

Sean remembered that in the plot, Ron listened to Harry's sleep talking and successfully imitated the language to open the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

This proves that Parseltongue does not rely on blood. It is a language that anyone can learn. However, due to the difficulty of learning, the Gaunt family's conceited and irritable characteristics and bad reputation. Other wizards have no chance to learn this thing at all. Moreover, most of them wouldn't learn a Parseltongue given it has a bad reputation revolves around it.

Salazar thought this probably because to avoid the general people learning this. As a Pure-Blood, Salazar must have prized this kind of talent.

He put away the parchment paper and continued to wander the room. After picking up another Salazar's Charms and Curses book, Sean discovered a special place. Under the stone wall at the farthest corner is a slightly protruding stone brick with a small snake engraved on it.

It is estimated that this is the treasure that Gormlaith said, which can only be obtained by chanting the password in Parseltongue.

Sean was worried about what would happen again. He learned his lesson this time. He retreated directly into the corridor, making sure that he would not make eye contact with anything again, and chanted the password.

He hissed the password loudly. Then, Sean immediately clenched his wand and phoenix tail, ready to run away if something went wrong.

Nothing happened, and Dave sent a signal that everything was safe.

Sean breathed a sigh of relief and walked over. The stone brick had disappeared, the stone wall was sunken, and a small room with a size of four to five square meters appeared in front of his eyes.

Sean saw three bones leaning against the wall next to a tall box. Those bones seemed to have existed for quite a long time, and the clothes on their bodies had long been turned into rags that could not be seen clearly.

After using the spell from afar and silently investigating, Sean didn't find any magic in that box. Sean felt relieved and then checked the box.

The three white bones were leaning together, and the body was in an unnatural posture. Among them, there was a thick notebook under the piles, and a crystal vial was lying on it. Something like silver liquid floats and sinks back and forth inside the bottle.

Sean picked up the notebook and blew on the dust, and magic was cast on it. Apart from the dust, the notebook itself was not damaged in any way. This is a relatively commonly used preservation spell, which is generally used to preserve various books and materials.

Sean opened the first page but found that there were traces of another spell on it. A spell that was meant to cover up the appearance of the book.

However, this spell is different from the Preservation Charm. The Preservation Charm only needs to input enough powerful magic power at one time, and the spell can last for a very long time. However, the Covering Charm works differently, and the effect would wear off once the caster dies.

However, looking at its magic traces, he could tell that the caster was very powerful during their lifetime. At least really strong in this kind of magic.

The first page reads, "My name is Alys Lockhart, born in 1583. I graduated from Hogwarts as a Ravenclaw. This is my first time returning to the castle after many years. I wrote this to remind myself of who I am at all times and don't get confused."

This person's name is also Lockhart. He doesn't know if it is related to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. However, the person in question was alive three hundred years ago.

Sean continued to read and had a strange expression on his face.

This Alys Lockhart is a total genius. They are extremely proficient in memory magic. Whether it is the Forgetfulness Charm or the False Memory Charm, it is a piece of cake for Alys.

After discovering this, this person was on the road of meddling with memory forever. They even stole the memory of someone from the Gaunt family and learned Parseltongue.

At the same time, they also learned about the Chamber of Secrets and learned that Salazar Slytherin had left a treasure in the castle. Alys disguised themselves as a student and returned to Hogwarts to grab the treasure.

They wanted to write those words in their notes because they had manipulated their own memory too much, which affected their memory negatively. They often suffered from self-cognition disorders and thought of themselves as someone whose memories had been stolen.

Sean's mouth twitched. This person is really talented at their magic.