“Amun is the source yet also the final destination of everything. God loves all mortals, whether they are kind or evil, rich or poor. The river of fate starts to flow, continuing until the end which will ultimately head to the one and only other shore.” On the land of Egypt, an old man sat cross-legged on a bridgehead while seriously and sincerely narrating the legends that had been passed on on this great land.
A dark-skinned youth in his twenties who wore handy clothes was carrying a travel bag and squatted in front of the old man. He listened to the old man in earnest and nodded from time to time while asking some questions.
……
In the eyes of the Egyptians, a body was merely a container for one’s soul. Death wasn’t the end of life, rather it meant a new beginning.
Under the will of Osiris, souls would enter the river of fate, eroded by it to cleanse their sins, pass through the netherworld and enter the one and only paradise.
……
“God loves all mortals, forgives all their sins and evils.”
Finally, Lin Hao got up and bowed solemnly.
He was a professional traveler. His parents died early, leaving behind a sum of wealth enough for him to live comfortably even without working, thus he spent his entire time in traveling. He traveled to numerous ancient civilization sites, exploring and probing the unknown cultures, as if this was the only way for him to be able to feel the meaning of life.
This was his second visit to the ancient land of Egypt. It was also the second time he heard the legends that had been passed on on this land.
The legends spoke by the old man was somewhat different from the general legends, however there was also similarity between them, namely the belief that death wasn’t the end of life and the existence of a world where souls resided.
As for him, it wasn’t that he found it unbelievable. However, in the era where science thrived, it was hard for him to completely believe it. He even thought that if that paradise really existed, maybe that was the place he had been pursuing all this time.
Walking into a local hotel, Lin Hao put down his travel bag, taking out his items and put on a sunglasses. Moments later, he had changed from a vigorous tourist youth into a weather-beaten scholar.
“Almost there.”
Lin Hao took a look at himself in front the mirror, nodding to himself. He took out another thing then walked out from the hotel.
“Sir, may I ask where are you going?”
“Giza.”
Hearing his answer, the driver was obviously shocked for a moment. After seeing Lin Hao’s gaunt and haggard appearance who wore shabby yet neat clothes which gave out a scholarly look, he came to an understanding.
Half a month ago, there was a further breakthrough with regards to excavation of Egypt’s pyramids. In the lower layer of Great Pyramid of Khufu, an excavation team found some weird skeletons. From the shape of those skeletons, there wasn’t any similarities with any known creatures on the Earth!
Though it hadn’t been disclosed yet, there was already an uproar within archeological community. Relying on his special channels, Lin Hao came to know of this news and hurried over.
……
“Traveler, halt your steps!”
Without a doubt, a few guards stationed at the outer perimeter of the pyramid stopped Lin Hao.
“Hello, I’m from Archeological Society of China. This is my business card and credentials.” Lin Hao deliberately put on an act like a scholar, took out the credentials and proudly handed them over.
“Please wait.”
A few guards took the credentials, sizing them up and spoke in apologetic manner. Afterwards, a guard ran inside bringing the credentials with him.
Lin Hao nodded his head.
Soon after, an old man with disheveled hair walked out and took a glance at Lin Hao. A trace of disgust flashed in his eyes, however, seeing Lin Hao was looking towards him, a smile immediately showed up on his face.
“Hello, friend from China. Currently, the investigation of the pyramid is still in initial stage. Related information is inconvenient to be divulged. I wonder what is the request of your distinguished country. Our side will try to satisfy to the best of our capabilities.”
Old fox!
The corners of Lin Hao’s mouth curved slightly, but he didn’t speak anything else and just took out another set of documents.
“This is my application to consulate which has been signed by the authorities. It allows China to participate in the pyramid’s expedition. Please have a look.”
“Consulate!”
The old professor with disheveled hair’s smile abruptly froze. He took the documents, yet without even taking a look at them, he handed them over to the young assistant behind him who left hurriedly after receiving the documents.
Upon seeing this, Lin Hao smiled in his heart. He knew that assistant had left to verify the truth.
He didn’t care about that. Though the documents from the consulate were fake, but his identity as a member of Archeological Society of China was absolutely genuine. Having traveled to various ancient sites, he was able to obtain the documents easily. Of course, with regards to the pace on how China’s consulate handled affairs, they would be unable to obtain the results they wanted in a short time. This would provide him enough buffer time. As for the consequences, with his professional knowledge on archeology, he knew as long as he didn’t cause any loss to the relics, there wouldn’t be too much of a problem!
“Since you carry the documents from consulate, I wonder what assistance Mr. Lin would like us to provide?” The old man asked while lifting the glasses on the bridge of his nose.
Lin Hao shook his head, “You have misunderstood me. My country doesn’t wish to intervene with your research study. I was sent here as an eyewitness to witness what does the unknown civilization look like. You can just ignore me.”
“Mr. Lin, please come with me then.”
Sure enough, after hearing that Lin Hao wouldn’t intervene with their research, a smile immediately appeared on the old professor’s face.
Lin Hao followed the old professor and walked to the pyramid. The air gradually became dull and wet, giving off a discomfort feeling.
A moment later, they were in front of the pyramid’s entrance. A staff who stood on the side brought a set of protective clothes and stepped forward.
“Professor, here’s your clothes.”
The old man nodded, then turned around facing Lin Hao, “Preparations will be needed past this point. Otherwise, don’t mention tomb’s mechanism, just poison from the tomb is enough to make us suffer. Will Mr. Lin stay here temporarily or go in with us?”
“I will go in then.” Lin Hao lifted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and smiled lightly.
“Provide Mr. Lin a set of protective clothes.” The old man didn’t find it surprising and ordered immediately.
Both of them entered soon after. Though he was situated inside the large tomb, Lin Hao still felt kind of depressing feeling. The sound of footsteps was enough to make one’s hair to stand on its end.
Though this wasn’t the first time visiting Egypt, personally entering pyramid, one of the seven wonders of human race, was the first time for him. Instead of feeling fear, he even felt slightly excited!
……
Lin Hao duo wasn’t the only one inside the pyramid. Other than the old man, there were ten or so excavation team personnel who were in the midst of surveying the bones that had been handed down. Expression of shocked and amazed could be seen on their faces from time to time.
“Mr. Lin, we have arrived. If there’s nothing else, I will take my leave. During observation, please do not damage any relics. Of course, as a member of Archeological Society, Mr Lin surely doesn’t need my reminder.” The old professor stroke his white beard and said with deeper meaning.
“Professor Ryan! Come quickly and take a look! A big discovery!”
It was at this time, a distant voice suddenly shouted. Hearing this, the old professor gave Lin Hao an apologetic nod and left hurriedly.
Staring at the old professor who was clearly getting on in years, yet dragging the heavy protective clothes as he ran past, Lin Hao shook his head. Lifting his glasses, he started to observe the beast bones that were scattered on the ground.
As for the “big discovery” on the other side, though he was interested, but he wouldn’t go and intervene. After all, he was really here only to observe.
Lin Hao found that from the shape of the beast’s skeleton, though it could be counted as something unknown but that wasn’t entirely true either. They were similar to the skeletons of wolves, tigers, or leopards, though they were obviously much larger. Hadn’t it been for evolution system which had been confirmed, he even suspected that these skeletons were the ancient species of those creatures. It seemed to him now that they clearly weren’t.
In the end, he even saw couple of human bones among these bones. What made him felt incredible was though they were referred as human bones, there weren’t any abnormalities in terms of size or shape, but when tried to lift them up to observe them, he found that these few bones were incredibly heavy. It was to the point, if he didn’t use his full strength, he couldn’t even move them!
“This…”
He couldn’t help but shocked. Just imagine, four to five thousand years ago, there existed creatures which had the appearance similar to humans, but a piece of bone alone weighed over a hundred pounds. Once they land their steps, they could even cut into a mountain and split rocks. A collision with them would be akin to being crushed by a war chariot. What sort of concept was that? Just the thought of it would frighten people to death. Yet, why would this kind of creature buried inside the pyramid?
“Mr. Lin, are you there? Please come here!”
At this time, the excited voice of old professor came from the distance.
Lin Hao hesitated slightly, then he put down the bone on his hand and walked to them.
“Mr. Lin, we found a big discovery. I’m not proficient with regards to ancient culture of China, but do you have any impression towards this pattern?”
Seeing the arrival of Lin Hao, the old professor whose face had turned red, shouted excitedly. He had totally forgotten how he loathed Lin Hao’s appearance before.
Lin Hao was slightly started. He carefully unfolded the scroll which was being studied by the old professor and the others. What he found inside it was a sketch of abstruse star map. He didn’t look at it clearly. Instead, he followed the indication by the old professor and the others and landed his sight on the inscription of the star map, where his eyes shrunk suddenly!
There wasn’t any words inscribed, but there was a fist-sized Eight Trigrams drawing!
Inside Lin Hao’s mind, the story regarding Eight Trigrams surfaced immediately. According to the legends, the China’s forefather, Fuxi observed the white turtle in the pond for three days then had an epiphany. He split yin-yang, the two opposing extremes which created heaven and earth, and developed the Eight Trigrams.
This was part of China’s civilization!
According to the legends, the pyramids in Egypt were built at around 2700 BC, dating back to nearly 5,000 years ago, which was the initial period of China’s ancient civilization. It was right before the era of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the era where China’s forefathers thrived!
The time coincided, but… why would the relic of China’s ancient civilization appear inside Egypt’s pyramids?
Could it be during that period, the two ancient civilization had the means to travel across the continent and intersected with each other?
When he thought of this, part of his knowledge started to be broken. Lin Hao’s heart shook. He even felt like his brain wasn’t enough for him to use!
“How is it? Isn’t this part of China’s culture, the Eight Trigrams?” Right at this moment, someone raised his question.
Hearing this, Lin Hao turned around with a serious look. He knew whether his conjecture was correct or not, once this thing was confirmed, it would undoubtedly trigger a magnitude 10.0 earthquake within archeological history!
Right when he was about to answer, a horror scream came from the distance.
“Not good! Get out quickly!”
The expression of the old professor and the others abruptly changed. They didn’t wait for Lin Hao’s answer and evacuated immediately.
Everyone knew there were strange occurrence within the pyramid. Though they were curious about unknown civilization, they wouldn’t joke with their own lives.
There was a youth who had just lifted his foot, but his body abruptly froze.
“Oscar!”
The old professor let out a shout, but there wasn’t any response from the youth. A moment later, wisps of black smoke spilled out from his protective clothes.
At the same time, not only him, several excavation personnel also froze in their tracks. Even the old professor, who realized something was wrong and wanted to run away, suddenly stood motionlessly after his fifteenth step. Horrified expression remained on his face. Wisps of black smoke appeared from the inside of his protective clothes and became thicker as the time passed, gradually filling up the entire tomb!
Lin Hao stood still on his place. Fear could be seen from his face.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to move, but he didn’t dare to move!
He who stood on the side could clearly see that those people stopped in the tracks after came into contact with those black smoke. From his point of view, he knew that those people inside the protective clothes had already decayed.
“Not good!”
Right at this moment, he saw a wisp of black smoke was moving towards him. In a hurry, he raised the scroll on his hand to shield himself!
Crackle, crackle.
The scroll instantly decayed. Without any suspense, the black smoke entered his body!
I am finished!
His expression changed suddenly.
Boom!!!
His mind roared suddenly. Then, his line of sight of the world gradually grew further and further, eventually turned into a thin line and disappeared. For unknown reasons, he could vaguely see that after the scroll had decayed, the star map didn’t disappear. Instead, it turned into thin lines and numerous dazzling points of light, sketching out a star map on the empty air. It seemed to move closer to him and became even clearer in his pupil.
The next moment, his sight blurred and completely darkened!
……
“The great God of Wisdom, Thoth has left behind an oracle. If what has had passed isn’t the end, then the soul who has leapt out from fate will return eventually. Then, everything shall return to its proper track …”
On the ancient land of Egypt, an old man sat on a bridgehead, continued to pass down the legends on this great land.
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