This Is a Fantasy Novel

"Name?"

"Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"Gender?"

"Male."

"Hobbies, contact information, whether you have a partner, and any other accomplices—spill it all."

Inside the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets, Horatio sat on a sofa with a golden table before him. Isis and Nephthys stood on perches atop the table, one on each side.

Opposite him was young Tom Riddle, bound to a golden cross.

Behind Horatio hung a banner held up by two Venomous Tentacula. It read: "Confession earns leniency; resistance brings severity."

Nut carried Hathor while leading a group of Biting Cabbages in frolicking over the Basilisk, which had been bound so tightly it could not move.

"What exactly do you want to ask? Can you just get it over with?" young Tom shouted angrily at Horatio.

"Oh? Getting bold, are we? You dare yell at me?" Horatio picked up the whip beside him and lashed young Tom.

The soul-rending pain made young Tom howl in agony, and he eventually passed out from the pain.

"Huh? That's it? And you call yourself the Dark Lord? You can't even take two lashes? Peeves can take ten." Horatio said disdainfully.

Ignoring the unconscious young Tom, Horatio walked over to the Basilisk. He had not dared look directly at it before, so he had not noticed the black shadow within its head.

"What the hell is this?" Horatio pulled the shadow out of the Basilisk's head and sniffed it. "Not bad. It has the scent of a soul, and a very ancient one at that. Could it be...?"

Horatio hurriedly took out soul-nourishing potions from his bag and poured them into the shadow.

After he poured in more than a dozen bottles, the shadow gradually changed. An old man with a wrinkled, monkey-like face and green robes emerged from it. He looked exactly like Slytherin's statue.

"Holy shit, isn't this Salazar Slytherin?" Horatio said, then began studying the soul.

"It's somewhat similar to the power of will in the Sorting Hat, but the Sorting Hat's was engraved with alchemical runes, whereas this was preserved using soul power.

This soul is extremely weak and has no consciousness. It acts entirely according to its will. No wonder this Basilisk only obeys the orders of Slytherin's heir. So this Basilisk is Slytherin's Horcrux, except its purpose differs from Voldemort's Horcruxes."

Horatio glanced at the Basilisk on the ground and young Tom bound to the cross, then remarked, "Is this some evil Gryffindor disciple breaking into Slytherin's forbidden sect grounds, kidnapping Slytherin's ancestral patriarch, injuring Slytherin's sacred sect beast, and capturing Slytherin's holy son? Tsk, this is clearly supposed to be a ridiculous magical fantasy novel. Why does it feel like a xianxia novel?"

Horatio took out the Symbiote backup that had previously been confiscated by the Ministry of Magic and threw it onto the Basilisk. The black non-Newtonian substance wriggled into the Basilisk's body and began repairing its wounds.

As its body was restored, the Basilisk slowly rose. Horatio hurriedly turned his back to it and instructed Bellocan to kill it immediately if it showed any inclination to attack.

After a while, no movement came from behind him. Horatio also received a message from the Symbiote: the Basilisk had submitted.

Horatio carefully turned around. The Basilisk had lowered its head and lay prostrate on the ground, its eyes wrapped by the Symbiote as well.

Horatio breathed a sigh of relief and patted the Basilisk's head. "From now on, you'll be called the Symbiote War Serpent."