Chapter 144: The Underground Palace and Anubis

The speed at which the personnel assembled far exceeded my imagination. The twenty-four-member expedition team was formed in no time, and Old Ma and the others flew in from China as well. Old Ma mentioned that there were some individuals with supernatural abilities and other spirit-folk among the team members.

The leader this time was a middle-aged, bald man who bore a striking resemblance to a mainland celebrity. He had a very amiable demeanor. It was said he was a professional sent by the sponsoring company, and even Old Ma could only serve as the deputy leader.

With our preparations complete, all twenty-four of us geared up in elite American equipment and embarked on this mysterious expedition!

Ismail and ten guides led the vanguard. We followed them in five jeeps, heading toward the mysterious pyramids of Tutankhamun.

Tutankhamun's pyramid lies on the west bank of the Nile, 700 kilometers south of Cairo. Directly across the river from modern cities like Luxor lies a vast expanse of desert where the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes was once located.

The Valley of the Kings is situated in a desolate limestone gorge not far from the ruins of Thebes. Beneath those sheer cliffs lies the resting place where pharaohs were buried during the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt (1570 BC to 1090 BC).

The five vehicles sped across the sandy terrain, kicking up billowing clouds of golden dust in their wake. After all, Cairo is a city surrounded by deserts.

In Egypt, one of the ancient nations boasting several millennia of civilization, I seemed to witness the resilience of the entire Egyptian people amidst these yellow sands. Indeed, no one could survive upon these harsh sands without being indomitable, and even the young children displayed a radiant vitality in their expressions.

It was already evening by the time our group reached the destination. Ismail declared that now was the optimal moment. With those words, he led us deeper into the desert until we reached a protruding boulder. I estimated we must have been several miles away from Tutankhamun's complex.

From the weathered contours of the rock, one could tell it had once been a statue of a Sphinx. However, due to its distance from the pyramid cluster, it had been eroded almost beyond recognition by time and the desert winds.

This was a desolate expanse of desert, and ordinary people would never wander here without reason unless they had a death wish, because the sands crawled with snakes after nightfall.

"Follow me, everyone!"

Ismail, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke. He instructed our group to follow him. Although we had no idea what we were about to do, Ismail was our guide, so his word must be right.

"Xiaodong, whatever happens later, remember to stay right behind me!"

Uncle Ma, who was by my side, showered me with endless instructions. Though it came from a place of concern, even the most well-meaning nagging wears thin when droned persistently into one's ear, and I could only reply impatiently that I knew.

I was no child, and besides, I was the King of Corpse Demons; the immortal body of a corpse demon was not something just anyone could injure.

"Ten men take your positions, open the entrance!"

As soon as Ismail finished speaking, the other ten men formed a large circle, standing two to three meters apart from one another. Each of them thrust their hands deep into the sand beneath their feet, while the rest of our group stood enclosed within this circle.

*Clack, clack, clack, clack!*

A moment later, I saw Old Yi reach one hand into a crevice in a boulder and twist something. Accompanied by the grinding sound of machinery, the ground itself slowly descended into the subterranean desert like an elevator, until a pitch-black entrance yawned open before our eyes.

Through our noses, we could catch the scent wafting from the cave—an odor heavy with decay, a mixture of rotting wood and the metallic tang of gold, silver, and bronze vessels that instantly induced a feeling of nausea.

"This cave once devoured dozens of men who worked alongside me for years. It is not because the interior holds horrors, but rather because once you step foot inside this cave, you become subject to the ultimate curse of the God of Death."

The speaker was no longer Ismail, but a middle-aged man standing beside him. He was heavily built and fierce-looking. Every word he uttered carried utmost solemnity, entirely devoid of any trace of expression.

"Hajik, enough of dwelling on the past! I am telling you once again, those men simply reached the end of their days and died of illness!"

Old Yi shot Hajik an angry glare after speaking. Meeting Ismail's gaze, Hajik did not dare to utter another word, instead muttering something under his breath.

"Let's go in!" Old Yi said, switching on the headlamp mounted on his helmet and stepping first into the unknown, dark cavern. What puzzled me was that my corpse-demon vision could only pierce through about five meters of the darkness within.

The remaining ten guides followed closely behind Old Yi, entering the wide, dark opening.

"We must keep up as well. Remember, no matter what, we must secure a certain journal stored at the very bottom of the cave. That journal records matters unknown to humanity and will be of immense help to our research into uncharted prehistory!"

After the bald leader finished speaking, he also switched on his flashlight and walked in. Old Ma and I followed closely behind him, and bringing up the rear were several ability users—commonly known as superpower holders—from the expedition team.

Just a few hundred meters inside the entrance, massive blocks of stone used to construct the pyramid could be seen all around. The passageway was a large rectangle, resembling a luxurious underground palace.

Yet, I had no idea which Egyptian pharaoh had commissioned this subterranean palace for themselves; such knowledge had never been mentioned in any books.

Twenty-four robust men moved through the rectangular corridor, their beams of light crisscrossing through the gloom.

The passageway was roughly ten meters wide and seven or eight meters high, piled entirely from massive yellow sandstone blocks. The construction principles were almost identical to those of the pyramids.

The only difference was that flanking both sides of the corridor were stone statues of Anubis, the jackal-headed God of Death holding long spears.

Anubis is the jackal-headed God of Death in ancient Egyptian mythology, the deity who aids the deceased in passing into the underworld.

According to legend, he was worshipped because he invented the method of mummification.

The Egyptians believed that Anubis preserved the corpses of the deceased so that they could be resurrected.

Anubis was depicted as a man with a jackal's head wielding divine authority. His symbol was a black-and-white bull hide splattered with blood and suspended from a pole, the true meaning of which remains unknown to this day.

I had heard that Anubis possessed three crucial attributes: he governed the methods of mummification; he escorted mummies into their tombs and presided over their souls; and most importantly, he protected the dead from deception and ensured their resurrection.

In the early history of Egypt, Anubis was consistently revered as the God of Death, a role later supplanted by his father, Osiris.

Anubis was the son of Nephthys, and his father was Osiris. Legend has it that Nephthys made Osiris drunk and subsequently gave birth to Anubis.

Another account states that Nephthys disguised herself as Isis to seduce Osiris and thus gave birth to Anubis.

All in all, these artifacts made me feel deeply uneasy right now. Although they were merely stone statues, I had a persistent sensation that an abnormal pulse of energy stirred within the bodies of those Anubis statues.