Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
âAre you sure thatâs going to work?â Mo Fan asked, feeling very surprised.
âYes, these doors might be complicated, but they do have certain loopholes. The ancients were impressively intelligent, but that doesnât necessarily mean us modern people have no brains, right? The most important thing is understanding their sequence and rules,â Shreev answered. He sounded completely like an academic.
âSo itâs also reasonable why you are so ugly, Shreev! Most ugly people are pretty smart!â Zhao Manyan exclaimed.
âWhat do you mean by that? Are you telling me you are a retard?â Shreev grunted back.
âThanks for describing how handsome I am!â Zhao Manyan agreed shamelessly. His mood had greatly improved after hearing there was another way to enter the right chamber.
âLetâs continue to the next chamber,â Shreev said.
âIs resting a little longer going to kill you?â Mo Fan said.
âUh, is that strange? Werenât you the one that was urging us to keep going previously?â Shreev replied, confused.
The group might be unharmed, but the psychological impact that the Scorpion Lord Medusa had delivered was pretty serious. They had to get their hearts back to normal and exercise their limbs, so they could get rid of the residual effects of the Petrify Magic.
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The group finally gathered the courage to keep going after resting in the passage. The next chamber was most likely related to snakes again...
They had come up with a plan. They would quickly look around the chamber. If they sensed something was not right, they would immediately return to the passage. Even though they would no longer return to the chamber of the Scorpion Lord Medusa by going back along the same passage, they could still follow Shreevâs instructions and avoid the chambers with guardians that were too strong for them to take on, now that he had deduced the sequence of the chambers!
The passage soon came to an end, the chamber eventually showing up. Everyone immediately focused as soon as they stepped into the chamber. Their fear of Scorpion Lord Medusa had yet to fully dissipate. They were only hoping that the creature in the chamber was no scarier than the Scorpion Lord Medusa so their hearts could still endure the shock.
âThatâs strange... all the doors in this chamber are open!â Shreev blurted out.
The chamber was huge. Shreevâs voice echoed a few times back and forth. Most importantly, apart from the ancient drawings along the walls, the ground, and the ceiling, there was no sarcophagus, which meant the chamber did not have a guardian!
âThere are a lot of traces left by scorpions and snakes...â Heidi pointed out.
âAn empty chamber?â Mo Fan was quite surprised.
He scanned the huge chamber intently, but did not find a single creature in it. The whole place was covered in paintings on the walls and on the ground. It had statues of scorpions and pillars of snakes, too. It felt like they had just entered an ancient palace that existed in a myth related to the snakes and scorpions.
The drawings and the statues were lifeless, Mo Fan was sure. There was no sign of life in any corner of the chamber!
âI understand now!â Shreev suddenly yelled.
âI can understand them too.â Mo Fan looked at the drawings around him.
The drawings were not painted onto the walls or the ground, but were engraved, drawn with solid lines, holes, scorpion shells, and snake scales. Mo Fan could not help but wonder how much money and manpower the ancient Pharaohs had spent on this...
âTell me what you think!â Shreev said promptly.
âThe scorpions and the snakes are from the same species, thus the chamber with the scorpion symbol and the chamber with the snake symbol both belong to the Scorpion Lord Medusa. However, this chamber isnât designed for a mummy, itâs more to record some ancient rituals, myths, and history. I know a legend about the Medusa around here. The first Medusa was actually human. She was most likely the first person to Awaken the Curse Element and the Psychic Element. However, those Elements were once deemed forbidden or evil. In the end, the humans offered her to the primordial ancestor of the scorpions and snakes as a sacrifice, but to their surprise, it did not kill her. Instead, it slowly combined with her and gave birth to the Medusae and the Gorgons. The Medusae have the Curse Magic and Petrify Magic, while the Gorgons have incredible strength and physical attributes...â Mo Fan explained what the drawings along the walls were depicting
Shreev looked at Mo Fan and raised his thumb. He said, âYou can actually understand the hieroglyphs of the ancient civilization. It seems like you have spent quite some time on them!â
âWe have been investigating the Totem Beasts. These hieroglyphs are similar to the ones left by our ancestors during the era of the Totem Beasts. Your Pharaohs overthrew the ancient beasts and became rulers themselves. When our Totem Beasts went extinct, we also gradually relied more on magic, up until today,â Mo Fan confirmed.
Mo Fan did not mention that he had read records of the Egyptian myths at the Parthenon Temple. The ancient civilizations in Greece and Egypt were closely tied together. Mo Fan just had to join the records he read at the Parthenon Temple and the hieroglyphs on the walls together to decipher their meaning.
âIt also says that Khufu invented the Undead Element and built Pyramids that were connected to the Underworld to strengthen his kingdom of the undead in order to prevent himself from being overthrown. He helped the Snake Scorpion Primordial Ancestor and Medusa build a lot of their temples,â Shreev elaborated for all of them.
âThe drawings also indicate that the undead have formed an alliance with the scorpions and the snakes, allowing them to move freely in the Pyramids... HAHA, isnât this the same as telling a story from some pictures!?â Zhao Manyan burst out laughing, pointing at one of the drawings.
Mo Fan took a quick glance at the drawing and interpreted it the same way as Zhao Manyan. It was showing how Khufu had formed an alliance with Medusa, the highest ruler of the snakes and scorpions... ahem!
âWhy are we wasting our time here? Shouldnât we just move on to the next chamber and leave this place if thereâs no one guarding this chamber?â Sayed demanded impatiently.
âWait, there are a lot of mysteries that we havenât solved on these drawings! For example, the place where the Snake Scorpion Primordial Ancestor and Medusa stayed at. Give me some time, I need to learn more about those temples!â Shreev answered hurriedly.
The drawings indicated that Khufu had not built only the Pyramids, but also the evil temples for the Snake Scorpion Primordial Ancestor and Medusa! They were hidden in the deserts in Egypt...
âHumph, what difference is it going to make? Itâs not like the evil temples are going to give us the power to kill the detestable Snake Scorpion Primordial Ancestor and Medusa!â Sayed mocked him.
âSayed, how stupid can you be? If the Snake Scorpion Horde decides to attack us one day, or when only us humans or the demon creatures can live in Egypt, how can we possibly take them out if we donât even know where their rulers are!?â Meos scolded him.
âFine, Iâm the stupid one!â Sayed did not talk any further.
âWhat are the evil temples for?â Mu Bai asked, confused about their importance.
âEgypt is known for two special things: the undead, and the snakes and scorpions! The snakes and scorpions are the demon creatures. They can move freely without the deathlight, which means the threat they pose to the cities is no less than the undead. However, the nests of these demon creatures arenât deserts or caves, itâs the evil temples!
âWeâve already explained the origin of these temples. Many people know about their existence, but only a handful of them have been found so far. No one has found the evil temple that the Snake Scorpion Primordial Ancestor and Medusa live in. These evil temples were built by the Pharaohs, so only the Pyramids will have records on where the temples are built. On top of that, the evil temple that the Great Pyramid of Giza has records on is most likely the one that Medusa lives in...â Mo Fan explained to him.
âI see. So if we found the evil temples and destroyed them all, the snakes and scorpions would no longer bother us?â Mu Bai said.
âMore or less, but Iâm afraid itâs unlikely that the army is strong enough to raze the evil temples to the ground. We can find out where the temples are first. Itâs not too late to deal with them later, once we have grown strong enough. Shreev is doing his country a huge favor!â Mo Fan said.
While Shreev was recording the drawings, Mo Fan took a closer look around since he was bored. The chamber was surprisingly huge, with lots of drawings all over the place. They contained a huge amount of information. It was rather confusing to look at them without knowing the background to the stories.
Mo Fan ignored the drawings that he had no clue about. He focused on the drawings that he could understand.
âMo Fan, thereâs a drawing here. The snakes are eating humans... I think they are eating little girls...â Heidi said timidly, pulling Mo Fanâs sleeve while pointing at a drawing.
The drawing alone was just an abstraction, but it was totally different when they recalled Apas mentioning how the little girls were eaten alive by the higher-level Gorgons and Medusae.
Mo Fan glanced at the drawing and let out a sigh.
âWhat does the second half mean?â Heidi asked.
âPerhaps itâs saying how the Medusae can keep their youthful looks by eating the little girls?â Mo Fan guessed.
Mo Fan remembered how the young Medusa began to look like Apas after swallowing her alive. It was likely that the young Medusa would have claimed Apasâ looks after it fully digested her. It was quite terrifying now that he thought about it.
âWhat about the part after it?â Heidi asked.
âWell... I donât really understand it, Iâm not a professional,â Mo Fan said.
Shreev had finished recording the information he needed while the two were conversing. He came over with the smile of a reputable person whose discovery was going to benefit the whole of mankind. His smile had almost a sacred brilliance to it!
âYou can smile after we make it out of this place alive,â Mo Fan poured some cold water on him.
âOh, youâre right.â Shreevâs brilliance dimmed significantly. It was true that the information he collected was only useful if he could make it out alive...