Entering the Chamber of Secrets

"Enough, Rozier," Riddle said coldly. "You don't need to act like a superior and tell me what to do. I, Voldemort, don't need anyone's instructions!"

"I'm sorry, I've been so focused on my own career in the Wizarding World that I haven't paid enough attention to you," Xiwen said apologetically, unperturbed by Riddle's words. "Riddle, I should have guided your character better; otherwise, you wouldn't have ended up like this."

"Enough! I told you I don't need your lectures! And my name is Voldemort, don't call me Tom Riddle!" Riddle angrily drew his wand, pointed it at Xiwen, and shouted. "Let me see what kind of power you have to contend with Grindelwald, Rozier!"

"I don't understand how a wand core made of Unicorn Tail Hair can possess such power. I also don't understand what right a wizard who never uses Dark Magic has to be a Slytherin!"

Xiwen stared at the pale, bone-like wand in Riddle's hand and calmly asked, "Why do you look down on Unicorn Tail Hair? Is it like how you look down on other Muggle or Half-blood wizards?"

"Because I am the most extraordinary wizard, the most outstanding successor to Salazar Slytherin!" Riddle said arrogantly.

"So your wand is...?" Xiwen asked.

"Thirteen and a half inches, yew, Phoenix Feather core." Riddle gently raised his wand, softly stroking its knuckle-like handle, and said softly, "Phoenix Feather is one of the rarest cores, far more precious than common Unicorn Tail Hair."

"Wands with Phoenix Feather cores can cast the widest variety of spells. These wands are always the most selective in choosing their masters, because the Phoenix itself is one of the most independent and transcendent creatures in the world. These wands are also among the most difficult to tame, and wizards rarely gain their loyalty."

Riddle spoke with a hint of smugness, while giving Xiwen a haughty glance.

"It seems you've completely tamed this wand with its Phoenix Feather core, haven't you?" Xiwen said with a smile.

"Of course," Riddle said haughtily, raising his head. "My wand is certainly far superior to your Unicorn Tail Hair wand."

"I'm curious, who told you that my wand has Unicorn Tail Hair core?" Xiwen said with a chuckle.

Riddle frowned and said, "In my five years at Hogwarts, I've never seen you use Dark Magic even once. Doesn't that say enough?"

"If you ask me, you should use more Dark Magic to render your wand useless," he continued. "You don't seem like the kind of person who's short a few dozen Galleon to buy a second wand, Rozier. Even a Dragon Heartstring wand would be better than a useless Unicorn Tail Hair."

Xiwen chuckled and shook his head at Riddle, then took out his own wand from his sleeve and gently stroked the straight-grained pine pattern on it.

"First, I need to correct you on one point: Unicorn Tail Hair wands aren't as bad as you think. Second, my wand core isn't Unicorn Tail Hair either," he said softly, showing the wand to Riddle. "Fourteen inches, pine, Unicorn Horn Nerve core."

"It's not that I don't use Dark Magic because of it, but rather that the knowledge of spells is so vast that we could never grasp even a fraction of it in a lifetime. Dark Magic is simply not necessary."

He then added in his mind, 'Moreover, I also learned many illegal dark spells in Kamar-Taj, each one no weaker than the Dark Magic of this world.'

"Unicorn Horn Nerve?" Riddle pursed his lips, seemingly a little jealous that Xiwen had found such a unique wand, but still stubbornly said, "At the end of the day, it's still a part of Unicorn. I don't think it can be much better than Unicorn Tail Hair."

Then, he seemed to have finally made up his mind, letting out a chilling hissing sound.

The Basilisk, which had been silent until now, suddenly sprang into action upon hearing Riddle's command in his Parseltongue, and attacked Xiwen.

"Riddle, I thought we would have a fair and square duel," Xiwen sighed and said softly. "I never expected the battle to begin with a Fantastic Beasts attacking first."

"In that case, aren't you proud of your wand core?"

Xiwen stretched out an arm into the air to his side, and then, accompanied by a melodious singing sound, a golden-red flame appeared above Xiwen's arm.

A large bird with golden and red feathers landed on Xiwen's arm and gently preened its feathers; it was Fawkes.

When Riddle saw the Phoenix, he suddenly felt a strange stirring rising within his wand.

"What did you do to my wand?!" he demanded sharply.

"I didn't do anything," Xiwen said casually, shrugging to Riddle. "It's just that the wand's core's owner came over."

As Riddle's eyes widened in shock, the Basilisk's foul-smelling maw was already close to Xiwen's, the stench so intense it seemed to be enough to knock someone unconscious.

Just then, the Fawkes, perched on Xiwen's arm, suddenly flapped its wings and flew towards the giant Basilisk.

The Basilisk was enormous; compared to it, Fawkes's body was like a miniature sparrow.

However, the "sparrow" avoided the Basilisk's mouth and eyes at the first moment, landing directly on its head and nibbling twice, instantly turning the terrifying giant snake into a blind Basilisk.

With no worries about the future, Xiwen immediately raised his head and looked into Riddle's dark eyes.

"While the Basilisk and the Phoenix are fighting, shouldn't we find a quiet place to fight them too?" he asked.

Riddle forced out two words from his throat. "I'm fine."

He then turned in the opposite direction from where he was facing Xiwen, and then jumped down into the water pipe under the tap.

Xiwen followed closely behind, and the feeling of jumping down the pipe was like rushing down a dark, sticky, endless slide. You could also see many other pipes branching off in all directions, but none of them were as thick as this one.

The pipe twisted and turned, winding and steeply descending. Xiwen guessed it was going to slide down to a very, very deep place beneath the school, even deeper than the Slytherin dungeons and underground classrooms!