Chapter 22

1

Following Guffy's map, we searched around the burial chamber. The mechanisms had all been activated, including the one that Mareutian had pressed when he fell in, but it still couldn't be opened, just like thirty years ago.

"Let's open the sarcophagus and take a look." Zi Sirou touched the humanoid sarcophagus in the chamber. It was very clean, and the paint on it was still vibrant.

"You won't be scared once we open it, right?"

"It's just a mummy, don't treat me like a primary school student!"

In order to prove that she wasn't afraid, Zi Sirou planned to open the sarcophagus herself. However, Anubis, who had gone out to divide the monsters, was about to return. I couldn't help but reach out and stop her, and we both hid behind the sarcophagus.

Two Anubis statues walked in, covered in sand and with some minor injuries.

"Those idiots actually started fighting over it. It's just a few incisors!"

"Don't you get it? We use the incisors as gambling chips when we play cards. For someone like you who always wins, the incisors aren't that important. But for them, playing poker without the stakes wouldn't be any fun."

"No matter how many incisors those fools have, they will still lose to me." The confident Anubis picked up the scattered deck of cards on the ground. It turned out that the deck that could kill everyone was theirs.

"What's the point of playing if there's something missing? Let's go find the lion-headed statue by the back door. It might have a peculiar personality, but its card skills are pretty good."

"Alright, let's win all their incisors once those idiots come back."

The two Anubis statues walked out of the chamber, chattering away with their cards, as if they hadn't noticed us at all. They didn't seem to have very sensitive senses.

I looked around and suddenly felt a double vision. The magic energy was almost depleted. Normally, without using Magic, my magic energy could last for a week. But after dealing with the monsters and the lion-headed statue, I couldn't hold on any longer. Collapsing now was definitely not an option.

"Sijou, open the sarcophagus."

"I'll open it, I'm not scared... Qin Yang, your hand?" Zi Sirou was originally excited to open the sarcophagus, but she became curious when she noticed that I hadn't gotten up.

My left hand transformed into a dragon hand, looking very powerful, and the dragon skin was like armor, sticking to my forearm.

"Why do you look like you're struggling?"

I slowly took off my glasses, pointing at my two different-colored eyes and said, "Magic auto-activates. To maintain my ability to move, I have to transform into a dragon and speed up my magic energy recovery."

Zi Sirou furrowed her eyebrows at my two eyes.

"Don't you think my eyes look handsome?"

"When did this start?"

"Two days ago, during the imperial banquet."

"So you fell off the balcony instead of using flight Magic?" Zi Sirou's expression became serious. Perhaps she thought that it was a wrong decision for me to come here under less than optimal physical conditions.

"Flight requires magic energy, but doing things requires physical strength. Anyway, until I find a solution, I need to catch myself in a half-dragon form to recover my magic energy."

"It seems like transforming into a dragon makes things harder for you." Zi Sirou held my dragon hand with her hand. The dragon's skin was really rough compared to human skin. Dragons prefer human form for more reasons than just the skin being good.

"You go and open the sarcophagus. I just need a few minutes."

"I want to see you recover."

"Haha, don't think of me as if I have a terminal illness. After this matter is resolved, let the magic energy deplete and sleep for a few days. It should be fine."

"The fact that your kidneys are weak turns out to be true! Besides, you have the ability to transform into a dragon, which is quite impressive. There are many people with dragon blood in their veins, but they spend their whole lives as mere dragon-blooded humans."

"I'm fine now, at least for the time being." I supported myself on the stone coffin and stood up. There was already a crack in the coffin lid.

"Is it true?" Zi Sirou didn't really believe me.

I slowly lifted the cover of the coffin. The smell inside was unpleasant, and it looked really ancient.

"It looks really impressive."

"Now is not the time to take pictures, is it?"

Zi Sirou was about to pick up the camera and get ready to start shooting.

"Since you're the patient, I won't take any pictures."

"It's better not to touch it. This mummy is poisonous."

The mummy was covered in tattered bandages, and the broken areas emitted a foul smell. Although the bandages were tattered, they still tightly wrapped the mummy. There was no point in unwrapping it, as I had seen mummies before.

"Qin Yang, does this mask look familiar to you?" Zi Sirou pointed to the golden mask on the mummy.

After seeing the mask, my heart suddenly started beating violently. Magical incantations surrounded my colored pupils, allowing me to see the entire body of the mummy clearly.

"The magic power remains even after death?"

"What do you mean? Is he still alive?"

"He's dead, dead for sure! But his magic power is still circulating. The magic power hasn't dissipated. Is it Dragon Clan Magic?"

"Dragon Clan Magic? Are all those incredible magic powers your Dragon Clan's?"

"As far as I know, there is Dragon Clan Magic that allows the magic power to continue circulating in the body after death. That's why every part of a dragon's body is valuable after it dies. But it also depends on the dragon's body structure. Even after a long time, a dragon's corpse can still generate magic power. This way, the magic power attaches to the body and remains useful. Otherwise, it would just be a magic power container that can only release, but not absorb, magic power."

"According to what you're saying, human bodies don't have the ability to continue producing magic power after death, so this mummy is just a container?"

"But in fact, this mask is the same as the hawk mask I have. In principle, it's like our mobile phones. My mask is a receiver for finished magic, while the one on the mummy is a transmitter."

"Qin Yang, can you try the mask to prove everything?"

"For now, I can't decipher the mystery of the mask. What I said earlier was from the perspective of the Dragon Clan's perception of this mummy. What we can confirm now is that the mummy has abundant magic power. There's a connection between the two masks. However, there are many things that we can't be sure about, like how a mummy can use magic, where its magic power comes from, and how we can transmit finished magic to the humble ones, etc."

Zi Sirou touched the stone coffin and said, "Maybe only the magic power can be transmitted."

"Guffy mentioned it, and I also felt it. The humble ones' magic is infused with a corpse poison, which is what's on this mummy. If I unwrap its bandages, you'll see strands of black smoke, which is the poison."

"You make it sound like you've actually seen it."

"I may not have seen new things, but when it comes to these ancient and clichéd things, they pale in comparison to what The Demon Realm has done. This poison is merely a naturally occurring one."

The Demon Realm experienced an era when the crimson sky from the Underworld to The Demon Realm was shrouded in deadly corpse poison. The surviving demons became today's or yesterday's demon kings.

"Dark magic is really vicious..."

"There are words on the stone coffin, do you want to take a look?"

The yellow stone was unevenly engraved with characters, long but small, neatly encircling the stone coffin.

"Opnael is the name of the coffin's owner, the time of death... Wow, just ten million years after the end of the war between gods and demons, a great man who prompted the transformation of this country with unparalleled lightning."

"The kind of ability to manipulate thunderclouds with lightning? It looks intimidating, but it's not the scariest magic I've seen." Zi Sirou was scared at the time, but now she didn't want to admit it.

"At that time, the level of magic in The Human Realm was completely different from now. It's been three million years since then, and there are countless magic practitioners who possess the same magic as him."

"I think if the humble ones had the magic of the mummies before they died, how can they act so superior now? Zi Sirou remembered the rumors about the humble ones. Before breaking into my room last night, she also saw the humble ones of the Snake Sect and the Hawk Sect. To be honest, their conversation on the lamppost yesterday was really loud."

"Because they are humble, they are favored by the great men and gain power. For a country with belief, as long as they want to do so, there will always be reasons to make people believe and fear them. And the power they hold is indeed persuasive."

"I have another question. Many people have entered the pyramid, but they still can't find any problems with the mummies. But you just need to take one look, and the secrets of Egypt, there must be many secrets."

"The vision of the Dragon clan is unique." I waved my two fingers in front of my eyes. The information I could refer to in my memory was more useful than the library in the undergraduate department. What I lacked was only the information from the past thirteen million years. And until now, humans still cannot surpass the gods and demons in terms of magic. I can guarantee that if any random demon lord comes in, he can find a reasonable explanation, but it will be easier to discover the secrets with the perspective of Dragon magic.

"So please use your Dragon's perspective to tell me, have you come to a conclusion?" Zi Sirou said while taking out her camera, ready to take pictures.

"Don't take pictures, it won't benefit you to make this public."

"The duty of a journalist is to let the public know the truth. I want the people of this country to see through these humble ones."

"You're thinking too much. After your photos are made public, how are you going to explain? Do you think the camera can capture these invisible magical powers? It can't. Can you explain to this country's people why you entered the pyramid? You can't. As long as they can't find a valid reason for why you entered the pyramid, they won't believe you. And certainly, there is no valid reason for grave robbing."

Zi Sirou held the camera, her tongue constantly moving between her teeth, seemingly pondering how to explain these questions to the public.

I took out the two masks in my hands. Judging from the situation here, the other mask was also used by a magic practitioner who used lightning magic during their lifetime. In order to continue my speculation, I had to activate the mask.

Wait a minute, it seems like I remember that my purpose here was not to decipher the magic of Egypt. Understanding the magic of the humble ones is not something I need to delve into. Even if I regard it as Dragon magic, it is similar to the magic formation of the mask. It just somewhat reminds me of Dragon magic, but fundamentally, they are very different. Or, from another perspective, it is not Dragon magic at all, but a method created by Egypt to inherit the magic of the great men during the long process of mummification. After the gate of gods and demons opened, anything could happen in The Human Realm.

"Siro, let's go somewhere else and let the Empire handle our ideas by sending adventurers to investigate."

"Huh? So we're giving up just like that?"

"Seeing the mummy wasn't my main purpose for coming here."

"Ugh... It took so much effort to come here, and now I can't even take a photo."

"When the Empire sends adventurers, you can apply to accompany them as a guide."

I walked straight out of the tomb chamber, thinking about where to go next.

"Qin Yang, you dropped something."