He felt as if he had accidentally slipped into the intestines of some animal.

That was Newt's first impression as he rapidly descended a dark, slimy, and seemingly endless chute.

With the faint light emanating from his wand tip and magical shield, he could see numerous pipes attached to the main conduit, branching off in all directions. If he wasn't mistaken, this should be the legendary underground pipe network of Hogwarts Castle.

However, he wasn't worried about getting lost, as the central pipe was significantly thicker than the surrounding branches.

This main slide twisted and turned, winding steeply downwards.

Newt was well aware that they had slid very, very deep beneath Hogwarts Castle, possibly even deeper than Hufflepuff's underground city. He could hear Dumbledore and the wizards from the Ministry of Magic ahead of him. As they passed each bend and junction, they could see the magical marks left by Dumbledore, the gold and crimson imprints making this dark tunnel journey less unpleasant.

Several minutes later, just as Newt began to suspect that they had entered some kind of magical loop, he suddenly landed on the ground.

The pipe had become horizontal, and he emerged from the opening, landing with a 'thud' on the damp marble floor.

This was a dark stone tunnel, as large as a train platform.

Not far from Newt, Dumbledore and the others were taking headcount and observing their surroundings. Judging from the somewhat tired but relieved expressions on the old man and Scrimgeour, the journey was clearly longer and more smoothly safer than they had anticipated.

"We should be at least six or seven miles beneath the castle now," Scrimgeour said, his voice echoing in the dark tunnel.

"Yes, but still roughly beneath the lake," Dumbledore said, squinting as he examined the dark, slimy, mottled stone walls around him.

As the headmaster of Hogwarts, he had a strange connection with the castle.

According to Aileen's earlier explanation, it was akin to a special frequency signal channel in the non-magical world—within a certain range, any wizard who had established a service agreement with "Hogwarts" was automatically online within the school's signal coverage.

And the best way to test the signal status and communicate in a timely manner was...

Dumbledore glanced at Newt, who had just appeared at the pipe opening, and a reassuring smile appeared on his face as he cleared his throat.

"Gryffindor, 47 points; Hufflepuff, 7 points, 23 points, 1 point, minus 1 point; Slytherin, 2 points, 5 points, 1 point; Ravenclaw, 1 point minus 1 point, 13 points, 27 points..."

...

Meanwhile.

Hogwarts Great Hall Entrance Foyer, at the House Points Hourglasses.

With a series of tinkling sounds as gems fell, the previously stagnant and quiet atmosphere finally came to life.

"Successfully arrived at the Chamber of Secrets antechamber, arrival count: 47."

"Spatial condition: 7 meters wide, 23 meters high, unknown length tunnel."

"Damp, lakeside, architectural complex."

"No basilisk traces found, no combat initiated. Time calibration successful, 13:27."

"Recording complete, next routine contact time is in ten minutes."

The goblin registrar waiting by the House Points Hourglasses checked the number of gems that had fallen, compared them with the "codebook" in their hands, and quickly reported the latest situation to the wizards stationed in the castle area. As the House Points changed, everyone present breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Clearly, Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets had not exceeded Hogwarts' "signal service area."

This meant that they could contact Dumbledore, Newt, and the others below at any time through the "House Points" hourglasses.

Judging from the current feedback, even with a distance of several miles, they could still achieve real-time information sharing.

"A very ideal start, this is a good thing—"

Grindelwald grinned, put down the tarot cards in his hand, and tapped them lightly a few times.

As an old-fashioned wizard, carrying tarot cards for divination during major events was quite normal.

He looked around at the young people from the Ministry of Magic, and his wand was unobtrusively placed back on the table.

"Now, it's up to Professor Dumbledore. Let's hope everything goes smoothly."

...

On the other side.

Hogwarts Black Lake, Hyperion.

With the support of the "Major Arcana" ultra-long-range conference magic, everything that happened in the Hogwarts Great Hall was truthfully presented in front of the command platform in the center of the Hyperion's bridge.

Although she understood that there probably wouldn't be any problems, Aileen still breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, no one knew if that big snake had a habit of taking strolls.

If an extreme situation occurred, such as Dumbledore, Newt, and others encountering the basilisk at the first moment, or even being wiped out immediately, the trouble would be huge. She wasn't mentally prepared to take over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts just yet.

Of course, now was not the time to relax; the real hunt had just begun.

"Maintain vigilance, all combat teams begin checking weapons and equipment, prepare to attack."

Aileen said calmly, her eyes scanning the bridge, issuing various instructions in an orderly manner.

"Activate the ship's sonar to play rooster crows, and notify all units on shore to maintain vigilance. The live roosters at the research institute can rest for a while and wait for our signal. Squads three and four continue to restrain the merpeople tribes; don't let them make trouble at this time."

"Uh, Captain, those merpeople may be a little hard to restrain..."

Just then, the goblin first mate glanced at the message just sent back to the Hyperion, and said meaningfully.

Hogwarts Black Lake was different from other areas. In addition to aquatic products such as big blue fish and giant squids, it was also home to a considerable number of aquatic magical creatures. Among these, the most troublesome were undoubtedly the several merpeople tribes that Dumbledore had taken in decades ago.

Ever since the Hyperion entered stealth mode last night, the merpeople in the Black Lake had surrounded the ship almost immediately.

However, thanks to Dumbledore's communication, they had not initially shown strong aggression.

But as time went by, the merpeople's emotions became increasingly unstable, especially when they were also informed that their activity area was temporarily restricted.

"Are the wands in the hands of those on-duty wizards made of wood? Or do you expect the Hyperion to launch torpedoes for deterrence?"

Aileen glanced at the goblin first mate and casually retorted.

Of course, she knew the expectations in the goblin's words—the application for freedom to open fire.

Although the Hyperion, Gringotts, and the Destiny Group had always been in the shadows of the world, when they appeared on the front lines, they were all demonic armies that simply didn't play by the rules. The "patrol" role like the one they were currently playing was indeed not suitable for many people's mentality.

Aileen scanned the few small wings standing behind her, tapped her fingers lightly on the command platform, and said calmly.

"When has the Destiny Group ever needed to solicit the opinions of merpeople when clearing the field?"

"The merpeople certainly have no reason to trust unfamiliar wizards, but we also don't need to consider their emotions. If a squad of wizards can't suppress the merpeople tribes, then they might as well all transfer to clerical positions. There's no need to ask me about this kind of question."

"As long as you don't cause any deaths, anything else is fine. Appeasing merpeople and being good neighbors are things that Dumbledore and Newt would consider..."

...

Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, Entrance Hall.

Everyone's wands were drawn, staring warily into the darkness ahead.

"Enhanced... Lumos Maxima!"

Dumbledore raised his wand, said softly, and waved it casually forward.

The next moment, a soft, powerful, opalescent orb of light bloomed from his wand, and the darkness receded rapidly like a tide.

"Let's go and see the basilisk that Slytherin raised—"

Dumbledore turned to look at the wizards behind him, his voice containing a reassuring power.

As the surrounding darkness rapidly receded, people could finally see the full picture of this stone tunnel.

The surrounding walls and floor were exactly the same style as Hogwarts Castle, the only difference being the decorations in the torch recesses on the walls.

Unlike the simple and unadorned sconces in Hogwarts Castle, every five meters or so on the walls of the tunnel, there was a pillar formed by two giant serpent stone carvings coiled together. The gray-white marble snake heads stared at the wizards below, with an indescribable creepiness.

Especially when Scrimgeour and others lit the torches one by one, the eerie blue flames gushing from the snake eyes were even more bizarre.

"Remember," Dumbledore said solemnly as they walked cautiously forward, "as soon as there is any movement, immediately close your eyes and turn around—"

As the pathfinder walking in front, Dumbledore naturally had to concentrate on staring ahead, but if he failed to control the basilisk that suddenly attacked from the shadows in time, then he could at least issue a warning, giving the subsequent wizards a chance to organize a second round of counterattacks.

Under the magical bombardment of nearly fifty adult wizards, there was almost no creature in this world that could escape unscathed.

However, until they reached the bend, the tunnel remained as silent as a tomb.

Apart from the bones of small animals scattered all over the tunnel, there were no signs of any living creatures.

"Professor, there seems to be something over there—"

When they were about to reach the corner, Rufus Scrimgeour suddenly grabbed Dumbledore's shoulder, his voice hoarse.

The wand light illuminated the outline of a coiled behemoth, lying quietly on the other side of the tunnel.

"Is it dead, or... asleep?"

Scrimgeour's voice was very soft, his wand clenched and pointed at the outline of the behemoth, waiting for Dumbledore's response.

Behind the two, a series of magical lights lit up silently, and the wizards added another layer of magical protection to themselves, squinting their eyes as much as possible, stopping and raising their wands to aim at the behemoth in front of them.

"Obviously, neither—"

Newt Scamander raised his wand and, at some point, had walked from the back of the line to the very front, carefully examining the behemoth in front of him.

The light shone on the enormous snakeskin, revealing a faint glow. Underneath the greenish snakeskin, it was possible to vaguely see that there was no dark solid part inside. As one of the foremost magizoologists in the magical world today, Newt recognized what it was immediately.

"This is a snakeskin, the old skin shed by that basilisk. Judging from its appearance... it may be smaller than we imagined."

"Smaller? This thing is at least twenty or thirty feet!"

Scrimgeour lowered his voice and whispered incredulously.

"Yes, because it's an adult now, which is certainly beyond doubt."

Newt tapped the empty snakeskin with the wand in his hand, explaining with a serious expression.

"But according to the records in books, adult basilisks can grow up to fifty to sixty feet long—as for the one raised by the villainous Herpo, it is said to have been fully seventy feet long. It can even easily kill most dragons, so we're relatively lucky."

"Sounds like relatively good news."

Scrimgeour raised an eyebrow, carefully bypassed the huge snakeskin, and checked the surroundings.

"But the bad news is, it looks like it's in pretty good shape—at least it doesn't look like a guy that's been around for thousands of years."

From here on, there were traces of biological activity all around. Clearly, they were bound to encounter a live basilisk today.

Everyone stayed here for a moment, waiting for Dumbledore to send a new round of signals upwards, and two wizards from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures were assigned to stay here as responders and to check the secret passages. The remaining wizards bypassed the snakeskin in turn and continued to walk towards the seemingly endless depths of the tunnel.

With the appearance of this ridiculously large snakeskin, everyone's confusion about the existence of the basilisk instantly vanished.

The tunnel turned one corner after another.

Almost everyone's every nerve was trembling uncomfortably.

They hoped to reach the end of the tunnel quickly, and at the same time, they were afraid that the tunnel would really reach its end.

Finally, they carefully bypassed yet another bend and found that the seemingly endless tunnel disappeared. Instead, there was a solid wall with two intertwined snakes carved on it, their eyes set with large, glittering emeralds.

Dumbledore walked forward calmly, his Elder Wand held steadily in his hand, and cleared his throat.

"Open," he imitated the Parseltongue he had just learned a little while ago, speaking in a low, hoarse hiss.

The two snakes separated.

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

Dumbledore walked in without hesitation.

...

This was one side of a long, dimly lit room.

Many stone pillars carved with coiling snakes towered, supporting the ceiling that dissolved into the darkness high above, casting long, eerie shadows throughout the room, which was filled with a greenish, mysterious aura. Even Dumbledore's wand could not illuminate the highest point of the dome.

Dumbledore stood there, listening to the chilling silence.

Was the basilisk lurking in the dark corners behind some stone pillar? Or was it still asleep?

Dumbledore held his wand steadily, slowly moving forward between the snake-coiled pillars.

For him, the last similar experience seemed to have been a long, long time ago, even earlier than Tom Riddle's enrollment.

Every careful step that Dumbledore took produced a hollow, loud echo in the ghostly walls.

He squinted his eyes and closed them tightly at the slightest movement, while Scrimgeour and Newt and others followed a few meters behind him.

Finally, when he reached the level of the last pair of pillars, a statue as tall as the room itself suddenly appeared before his eyes.

The statue was close to the dark wall behind it.

Even Dumbledore had to crane his neck high to see the huge face above:

It was an old, monkey-like face, with a sparse, long beard that almost dragged to the hem of the stone-carved wizard's robe, and two gray feet standing on the smooth floor of the room—Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts.

And on Salazar Slytherin's statue's long beard, a clear water stain and rubbing marks extended all the way to his lips.

At the same time, on the stone slab floor directly in front of the statue, a sentence was engraved.

"Speak to me, Slytherin—greatest of the Hogwarts Four."

This was the so-called inheritance of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, as for what treasure it could yield... it was obvious.

Dumbledore took a light breath, raised his hand to signal the people behind him to stop, and his gentle, calm voice echoed in the space.

"Prepare for battle, everyone, this is the battlefield—"

"Gryffindor, deduct 47 points, add 45 points; Hufflepuff, add..."

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Yay!