King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 30

Everyone was both amused and exasperated, and Tina's face showed a mixture of surprise and concern.

There was no smell on Gu Ye—this was suspicious, because I had seen Gu Ye with a cigarette in his hand and in his mouth countless times, and as a drug addict, he should at least have the distinctive smell of heroin. Instead, he was like a freshly washed porcelain vase, completely odorless.

I stared at his face for a full minute before shrugging with feigned humor: "Don't worry, I was just joking. Everyone's too tense, please relax, try to relax..."

Tina shook her head and sighed, "Mr. Feng, your humor isn't funny!"

I casually asked in a low voice, "Mr. Tanino, do you have any local spices in your luggage? The day before yesterday, Miss Suren asked me to ask you for some 'Thousand Flower Birds'. I wonder if I could have a chance to curry favor with this beautiful lady?"

I patted the dust off my hands, but there wasn't much dust at all. The inside of the pyramid was spotless, as if it had just been cleaned by the most efficient vacuum cleaner.

Tanino shook his head in surprise: "I'm sorry, I don't have that kind of thing. The Thousand Flower Bird is for the exclusive use of the royal family, and its production is extremely limited. On the black market, it costs almost ten times more than a Chanel product from France. Besides, even if I did have it, I couldn't possibly bring it to Africa. After all, it's a product for girls."

I took two steps back and made a look of utter regret.

Gu Ye turned back to his work, ignoring the question I had just asked, clearly thinking I was out of my mind.

I retreated to a tomb chamber, away from the crowd, and urgently called out to Suren, "Suren, I want to go back into the tunnel and re-enter the tomb chamber. I've detected a scent on Tengjia. I'll smell it all the way from the entrance to see where it's coming from."

I strode through these enormous doorways and headed towards the tunnel. Golden light shone from behind me, like a supercomputer-generated lighting effect from some movie.

Suren sighed softly, "Brother Feng, are you going to use 'scent to identify a woman'?"

After a brief pause, she switched to a businesslike tone and methodically advised, "There are too many tombs. If you really hope to find something using that scent, what you need most is a top-notch military tracking dog."

Indeed, having a tracking dog would make the job easier, but with Yellan's efficient work, the fragrance could be completely destroyed at any moment with the powerful exhaust fan. Just to be on the safe side, I decided to finish the task manually as soon as possible.

When I re-entered the tunnel, a team of soldiers dressed in black overalls and wearing welder's helmets rushed towards me. They ignored me and quickly headed straight for the center of the tomb; there were twelve of them in total. They carried various welding and cutting tools, seemingly there specifically to dismantle the large gold ingot.

I calmed myself down, took a dozen deep breaths, and then began to slowly sniff.

Upon crossing the junction of the tunnel and the tomb, nothing was found. The cumbersome equipment like oxygen masks had long been discarded; for the sake of convenience, I had completely forgotten about the mysterious cause of Berenlang's death.

Upon entering the first tomb chamber, I crouched down as low as possible, but still found nothing. Once I got close to the ground, I discovered a few interesting symbols among the vast expanse of hieroglyphs.

The symbols were all rectangular, occupying an area exactly the size of a standard-sized computer keyboard, about forty centimeters long and twenty centimeters wide. The characters were shaped like a canoe, with one end comically raised high, like the toe of a clown's boot.

Standing on the boat is a figure with simple lines, standing straight with his back bent and his head held high.

I called out to Suren, "Look at this word, what does it mean?"

Without hesitation, Suren replied, "Brother Wind, what are you thinking? Isn't it just a simple euphemism for 'sunship' in Egyptian hieroglyphs?"

My face flushed red with shame for my absurd and foolish behavior. In my intense mental state, I hadn't even remembered the most basic facts about Egypt—it was truly unforgivable.

"Sorry, my brain seems to be..." I slapped my head hard with a self-deprecating laugh. Perhaps the ancient Chinese concept of "great wisdom appearing as foolishness" describes my current state? However, I'm definitely "foolish," but "great wisdom" is another matter entirely.

“Brother Feng, the crux of the problem must be beneath the gold ingots. Let’s not waste our time. Besides, our guesses might not be correct. Can you imagine how a living person could instantly pass through over a hundred meters of mud and sand—” She stopped. This question had no answer. Even if they passed through that mud and sand, what about the outer walls of the pyramid? How could they possibly just think about it and get through?

There are many problems in the world that cannot be explained by geophysics. When I discovered that chain, my initial reaction was: "Wormhole".

"Tengjia entered the suddenly appearing and opening 'wormhole,' breaking through space and time and entering the pyramid."

The third part: The Bizarre Purgatory

— Chapter 10 - Super Gold Ingot —

Suren sighed again, "Brother Feng, instead of saying Tengjia entered a magical 'wormhole,' wouldn't it be easier to explain that she herself created the 'wormhole'?" Her words were clearly sarcastic. It seemed that my excessive concern about Tengjia's disappearance had made her sensitive again.

"ah--"

"Ahhh—"

Countless gasps of surprise emanated from the center of the tomb. The golden light before my eyes suddenly vanished, and in an instant, it felt as if I had fallen from the blazing sunlight into a dim, gloomy valley, sending a jolt through my body. In fact, lights had already been turned on in about a third of the tomb chamber. However, artificial light couldn't compare to the natural light of the large gold ingot; my eyes needed a considerable amount of time to adjust.

The reason for this change was that the gold ingot had been cut in half, and the golden light disappeared the moment the cutting line was completed.

The Rainbow Warriors' engineering team was not just boasting; they completed the initial work in just thirty minutes.

Suddenly, Su Lun said hurriedly, "Brother Feng, I feel that the gold ingot is like a light bulb. What do you think?"

To imagine a rectangular gold ingot as a light bulb requires the most imaginative and boundless imagination.

"Light bulb?" I repeated, walking quickly toward the central burial chamber.

"Brother Wind, tell me, what is a lamp? How is a lamp defined?"

In a broad sense, any object that emits light, such as light tubes, neon light fixtures, spherical lights, etc., can all be called a "lamp". If we consider it from another angle, if we make a transparent object that is four meters square and one and a half meters high, and place a light source in the middle of it, wouldn't it also be called a "lamp"?

“Surren, you’re right, that can be called a ‘lamp,’ but where is its light source? Deep in this ancient tomb, who can provide it with electricity?”

My mind is in a mess, and I've asked an incredibly stupid question: if it's a product of ancient Egypt, why would it need electricity? Humans have only been able to develop a tiny fraction of the energy on Earth, and even the application of solar energy is still in its infancy. So how can we be sure there aren't other things that can be used to replace "electricity"?

If the gold ingot is a "lamp", now that the lamp has been broken, it can no longer emit light.

The engineers resumed their work, dividing the gold ingots into four pieces.

Tina stood to the side with her arms crossed, her eyes fixed on the busy engineers. Her marksmanship was superb and should be enough to intimidate the soldiers present.

It's a truly bizarre and surreal scene: dozens of modern people, inside a pyramid dating back thousands of years, are frantically surrounding a gold ingot that is extremely rare. What lies beneath it?

The cutting work gradually slowed down because all the cutting tools were wearing out rapidly with continuous use. They had to adjust their cutting method, preparing to first cut one half into strips two meters long and one meter wide. Even after being cut to this extent, their enormous weight made moving them by hand a very difficult task.

I moved closer to Tina and whispered my request: "Please give me ten men. I hope we can search the tomb again during this time."

I hope that the faint scent I just caught will provide evidence that Fujika entered the tomb. For some reason, I have a feeling that she is still alive, no matter how absurd that idea may sound.

"Mr. Feng, wouldn't it be nice to stay by my side?" She smiled humorously, half-jokingly trying to persuade him to stay.

I've never been one to presume to be in love with someone, so I smiled gently and rejected her without revealing my feelings.

Tina granted my request and ordered ten heavily armed soldiers to follow me.

We passed through the central burial chamber and continued forward until we reached the other side of the tomb. This location should be the westernmost edge of the pyramid, on the same axis as where we entered the tomb.

Unsurprisingly, we found nothing except for the hieroglyphs covering the walls. My sense of smell is perfectly normal; I could detect the acrid smell of the cutting machine permeating the tomb. This made me even more surprised: "Shouldn't there be other dark, damp smells in the tomb?"

Assuming Berenlang died from inhaling bacteria from the tomb, why are we okay? Because everyone in the tomb has now given up their oxygen tanks and gas masks; if they were poisoned, everyone would have met the same fate.

The soldiers remained silent, their nerves still reeling from the shock of their comrade being killed by Tina; each of them looked dazed.

In fact, the Egyptian Rainbow Warriors special forces are no less capable than the US military's four top special forces units: the Green Bay, Navy SEALs, Delta Force, and Viper. In the annual global special forces combat effectiveness competition, the Rainbow Warriors consistently rank among the top ten.

I leaned against the west wall of the burial chamber, the outer wall of the pyramid, staring at the strange writing at my feet. Gradually, I began to make a discovery: each burial chamber had four "sunships" on its four walls, floor, and ceiling, and the tallest end of each sunship faced my left, which is the north.

I immediately ordered the soldiers to search the two adjacent burial chambers on the side. Sure enough, the symbol was pointing north, which meant that the "Sun Boat" was sailing in the north.

"North? Why not east? Towards the rising sun?" My head started throbbing again, as if it were coiling around me, and I kept repeating this question mark in my mouth.

Suddenly, a special forces soldier muttered in a low voice, "What's there to not understand? Their orientation is directly towards the burial site of the 'Sun Boat' in front of the pyramids."

One sentence jolted me awake, and I realized I really needed to do some serious self-reflection: "I had completely forgotten about the wooden 'Sun Boat' unearthed in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza! Damn it, I really have to!"

Looking at the soldier who revealed the secret, I really wanted to rush over and hug him tightly.

I called into the walkie-talkie: "Surren Surren, all the 'Sun Boats' are heading towards the Great Pyramid of Giza. Think about what that means?"

Actually, upon closer reflection, there's nothing to be excited about.

This discovery might suggest that the Pyramid of Tsarist Russia worshipped the Great Pyramid of Giza, with the Great Pyramid of Giza being the core of the Pyramid of Tsarist Russia.

Even so, it still proves nothing. We are still standing in the same sealed tomb chamber, unable to go down into the burial site or go up into the tomb.

Suren remained silent, but I could hear the rapid clatter of keyboard keys; she must be quickly searching for some information.

As I gazed through so many doors at the bustling crowd in the central burial chamber, a sudden, dreamlike sense of unreality washed over me: "We are now hundreds of meters underground, inside a pyramid recently breached by 21st-century high technology. What was this place like thousands of years ago? When this incredibly strange pyramid of Turksham was first built, did anyone stand where I am now, gazing at that enormous, alluring gold ingot, just as I am now?"

The technological sophistication of the ancient Egyptians far surpasses the imagination of modern archaeologists. For example, the exquisite hand-hammering of a gold mask unearthed before is breathtaking. How could they have melted gold into such large ingots without a precise process? Furthermore, were those ingots first placed in the center of the tomb before the ceiling of that layer was sealed and cast?

“Brother Feng, according to previous pyramid excavation data, there are 24,000 complete ‘Sun Boats’ with a precise count. No one has been found to collectively point towards the Great Pyramid of Giza. Even if there were, they would be disorganized and dilapidated. If… assuming all the ‘Sun Boats’ in this burial chamber are pointing in that direction, it only proves that a much greater secret must be buried within this seemingly empty chamber—”

Finally, I heard Suren's voice again; she sounded extremely tired.

"Where is the secret? You mean the passageway and the mechanism?"

"Hmm, I think so." She wasn't sure.

The reason the ancient Egyptians calculated the exact placement of each material in the pyramids was primarily for the convenience of setting up mechanisms. Some even describe the mechanisms inside the pyramids as an "irregular Rubik's Cube." Like a Rubik's Cube, it can be rotated and transformed at any angle without any obstruction or stagnation.

Based on this strict control, they could easily move any one of the hundreds of boulders with a push or pull force of a few dozen kilograms.

I looked up at the ceiling, dejected, hoping to find traces of possible mechanisms among the strange and bizarre hieroglyphs.

The ten soldiers who came with me were happy to have some free time. They sat on the ground with their guns in their hands, chatting about the meanings of the hieroglyphs. The atmosphere was harmonious, almost like a heart-to-heart talk.

"Is it really as Tina said, that we need hundreds or thousands of soldiers to enter the tomb and dig three feet into the ground to search?" I couldn't help but sigh. Doing so would only result in wasting manpower and resources and causing massive destruction.

"Actually, there's a simple way: have Dr. Tang's drill drill holes in the ceiling and floor of every tomb chamber. Wouldn't that easily reveal the secrets of the tomb chambers?" Suren said casually. However, with 361 tomb chambers, a total of 722 holes would need to be drilled. The workload was enormous, and even if the extended drill bit was worn down, it might not be completed.

More importantly, we don't know what will fall from above after we drill through the top wall. Will it be quicksand? Or poisonous insects and wild beasts? Of course, the best outcome would be to drill up layer by layer into the empty space until we reach the top of the pyramid.

"Haha, perhaps, with a bit of luck, we'll find a super gold ingot on every level. Then, Egypt's gold reserves could very well surpass any other country in the world, making it the wealthiest nation in Africa..."

The third part: The Bizarre Purgatory

— Chapter 11 - The Deep Underground Well —

With Suren in the camp, I don't seem to need to worry about any changes in the situation on the ground. Her ability to repel the "Hidden Mist One-Sword Style" siege proves her martial arts are definitely no less than mine. Besides, there's the powerful backing of Scalpel.

Actually, I hoped Tiger could come down into the tomb. With his extensive knowledge of tomb raiding, he might be able to offer these busy experts some constructive advice. It seems that today's harvest will only be breaking down the gold ingot and smuggling it out of the tunnel—

Bored, I turned to look at the stone wall, when suddenly a thought flashed through my mind: "Surren, should I go and look at the north-south axis of the tomb? Especially the northern outer wall, which is closer to the Great Pyramid of Giza?"

She sighed, "Great minds think alike; I had the same thought."

Without hesitation, I led the group back to the central burial chamber via the same route, and then hurriedly headed north. Inside the ten-meter-high burial chamber, we, running around busily, looked like ants at the feet of a giant.

"Brother Feng, what do you hope to discover?" Suren asked me.

"I hope—" I don't know how to say it, but perhaps deep down I hope to find an underground passage leading to the Great Pyramid of Giza. If all the "sunships" point in that direction, then at least when the Pyramid of Tsar was built, the builders' ideas must have had some connection to the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The Sunship has long been considered by archaeologists as "a tool that the Pharaoh hoped would travel to the sun after his death."

Like the emperors of ancient China, the pharaohs believed themselves to be "mandated by Heaven" and to be "taken back by Heaven" after their death. Since they needed to "go to Heaven," they required a means of transportation: the sun boat, described in Egyptian texts as "capable of flying towards the sun."

However, upon reaching the north wall of the pyramid, we still found nothing, which only caused the soldiers following me to gradually become resentful, muttering complaints in Egyptian.

I wasn't disappointed, after all, it was only the first day in the ancient tomb, and there were still many days to come!

I've examined that stone wall carefully at least ten times, but unfortunately I overlooked a crucial point—"Since you suspect there might be a passage here, why not just call in a ray detector to investigate?"

No one is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes; I'm no exception. Because I wasn't entirely certain about my previous ideas regarding the "channel," I didn't pursue them further.

Amid cheers, the first gold nugget, two meters long, one meter wide, and one and a half meters high, was cut off. Such a spectacular sight is something even the most imaginative Spielberg probably wouldn't dare to fabricate, yet it is truly before our eyes.

Even more remarkably, due to a slight deviation in the cutting, the dividing line left on the other large gold ingot was not perfectly straight, thus revealing a narrow slit a few millimeters wide on the ground.

The first to snap out of his frenzy was Tani. He quickly dropped to the ground, raised his magnifying glass, and after observing for five seconds, let out a strange sound that was hard to decipher—either a howl or a groan: "A hole! My God, there's a hole here..."