In the silent, dark Chamber of Secrets, a golden flame suddenly flared to life.
The shrunken Lumen hovered beside Lucien's shoulder, its Pure Fire driving back the surrounding darkness and illuminating the enormous serpentine stone carvings and deep passageways.
The Chamber of Secrets remained unchanged, vast and oppressive.
With Lumen's teleportation, Lucien had once again entered this place.
There was no other way. Opening the Chamber of Secrets still required Parseltongue. Although some exceptionally talented wizards could learn to understand the language of snakes through study, speaking it with authentic Parseltongue pronunciation was extremely difficult.
Moreover, the location of the Chamber's entrance was genuinely awkward.
Lucien still couldn't understand why Salazar had placed the entrance inside the girls' bathroom.
Or had it originally been a boys' bathroom, with the sign changed later?
Either way, placing the entrance to such an important secret chamber in a bathroom was rather strange...
Lucien shook his head.
He had come here to seek out "Salazar Slytherin" within the inheritance space and ask about Nagini.
At present, the curse's erosion of Nagini's physical body was the most severe. She had completely transformed into a giant snake.
However, to Lucien, this was actually the easiest part to deal with.
Lumen's Pure Fire had already proven capable of dispelling the curse embedded within the body. Although the process was painful, it was at least effective.
Moreover, Lucien could identify elements of Transfiguration within this phenomenon of "a human turning into a snake."
Given his own mastery of Transfiguration, together with the assistance of Pure Fire, Lucien believed restoring the snake's body to human form would not be a major problem.
But restoring the body alone wasn't enough.
The distortion of the magical circuits and the contamination of the soul were each more troublesome than the last.
The Slytherin inheritance Lucien had previously obtained from the Chamber of Secrets had focused primarily on the study of magical circuits.
That knowledge had greatly helped him improve his own strength and broaden his ideas regarding "circuit transformation."
And Slytherin naturally had considerable knowledge of the mysterious field of the soul as well.
Lucien entered the inheritance space.
The figure within remained unchanged, silver hair falling to his shoulders and emerald slit pupils glowing faintly with an eerie light.
Unlike the old and ugly statue outside, the man before him looked like a cold, elegant middle-aged nobleman.
"You have come."
Salazar's voice was calm, as though he had already known Lucien would return.
Lucien skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point, explaining the situation and his doubts.
After listening, Salazar fell silent for a moment.
Instead of answering directly, he asked a question.
"How do you understand the relationship between the magical circuits, the soul, and the body?"
Lucien was slightly taken aback.
He immediately recalled what had happened when he confronted Quirrell, or more precisely, Voldemort.
After Voldemort possessed Quirrell and took control of his body, he had actually altered Quirrell's magical circuits for a short time.
An adult wizard's magical circuits should already have been stable and fully formed, yet Voldemort's soul had forcibly torn and twisted them into a structure more suited to the Dark Arts.
Thinking of this, Lucien replied,
"The circuits are determined by both the soul and the body, but... does the soul have the greater influence?"
Salazar nodded, then shook his head.
"The first part is correct. But the second needs to be adjusted."
He raised one finger.
"It is not that the soul has the greater influence. Rather, the stronger side has the greater influence."
Lucien frowned slightly.
"The stronger side?"
Salazar said, "Some people's souls 'shine', while others have bodies that are 'heavy'. When the power of the soul overwhelms the body, the magical circuits lean toward the soul. When the body's instincts are stronger than the soul, the circuits adapt to the body."
Salazar leaned forward slightly, his slit pupils fixed on Lucien.
"Have you seen half-blood wizards? I mean those who possess the bloodlines of magical creatures."
Lucien understood that the "magical creatures" Salazar referred to were what modern wizards would define as magical beings.
In Salazar's era, wizards broadly referred to non-human magical beings as magical creatures.
When it came to wizards with such bloodlines, Lucien naturally thought of Hagrid and Fleur.
Hagrid had Giant blood, while Fleur had Veela blood.
Lucien had previously used the Eye of Peering Magic to observe Fleur while she was casting Veela magic. Her magical circuits would shift from the conventional tree-like structure into a special form resembling feathers.
"I have," Lucien nodded. "Is it because the bodies of magical creatures are naturally inscribed with more magic, so their bloodlines carry unique magical circuit characteristics?"
Salazar looked at him approvingly.
"Exactly. The bodies of magical creatures are born closer to magic than those of ordinary wizards. So even if their descendants inherit only half, or even less, of that bloodline, it still leaves a mark on their magical circuits."
He paused before continuing.
"But whether a soul is special has nothing to do with species. It depends entirely on the individual. Some humans and some magical creatures are born with powerful souls and possess certain innate talents."
"Parseltongue is a soul talent." Salazar's slit pupils narrowed slightly. "Natural Legilimency is another. And prophecy. I mean true prophecy, not the tricks of charlatans."
Lucien understood.
Salazar's achievements in the field of the soul were closely related to his own innate spiritual uniqueness.
After all, Salazar Slytherin himself had been a famous Parselmouth and Legilimens.
"Wizards with powerful souls often possess exceptional talent in certain types of magic," Salazar continued. "They may even develop unique abilities, abilities that belong only to them and cannot be learned by others."
As he spoke, he looked at Lucien.
A trace of doubt flashed through those snake-like slit pupils.
"The more gifted a wizard is, especially one without magical creature bloodlines, the stronger their soul should be... Have you still not discovered any special soul talent of your own?"
Lucien fell silent.
Those magical talents had all been borrowed from the system.
But his own magical circuits were also different from those of ordinary people.
And if magical circuits were determined jointly by the soul and the body...
Well, his body seemed perfectly normal, so that left the soul...
Salazar seemed to notice Lucien's confusion and waved a hand.
"Don't dwell on it. There is a form of magic that can allow you to gain an initial sense of whether your soul is 'special' or not. You should have heard of it."
As he spoke, Salazar quickly traced several words in the air with one finger.
"Expecto Patronum."
Lucien blinked.
Expecto Patronum?
The Patronus Charm?
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