novelraw Chapter 183: Reverberation in the Sea of Sand
Chapter 183: Reverberation in the Sea of Sand
There was no extra time for rest. Early the next morning, a specially modified steam car provided by the Cairo Branch roared out of the clamorous, twilight-tinged city of Cairo, carrying the vengeance-driven joint task force straight toward the endless sea of sand ruled by silence and death in the southwestern suburbs of the city.
The Giza Plateau.
In the Surface World, it is a sacred site representing the great miracles of human civilization.
In the inner world, it is also a massive graveyard burying countless unknown beings.
When they arrived at the desert area outside the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Khufu where the mummified corpse was discovered, the midday sun hung high in the sky, pouring its scorching "gaze" upon this land without shelter.
The air was scalding, each breath bringing a burning pain to the throat.
The sand beneath their feet was baked to a high temperature, hot enough to scorch through thick leather boot soles.
The entire world under the blazing sun presented a distorted, unreal mirage caused by the extreme heat.
"We're here," Ethan said, jumping down from the sun-scorched armored vehicle.
He had changed out of the wool hunting attire he wore in Europe, now dressed in breathable, loose-fitting white linen clothing suitable for desert operations, styled like a local explorer."Abdul's men discovered the body at this coordinate point," he stated gravely, pointing at a crude marker on the ground made of a few stacked stones.
William followed closely behind.
The taciturn veteran silently retrieved a field backpack filled with water and food from the vehicle, then habitually placed the [Zulu's Gaze] before his eyes.
He was about to begin his work.
He would use those "eyes" capable of seeing through appearances to find traces left by the "ghost" that killed the innocent in this sea of sand for the team.
The moment the lenses, composed of a cannibal tribe witch doctor's skull and divination crystal, made contact with his eye sockets.
A torrent of "information flow" so vast it was difficult to bear violently crashed into his mental world.
"Ugh—ah!"
William let out a pained grunt.
His body staggered backward several steps, nearly collapsing into the yellow sand.
"William! What's wrong?!" Lin Jie and Julian immediately rushed forward, supporting his trembling body from left and right.
William did not answer immediately.
He only used his trembling hand to laboriously pull the [Zulu's Gaze] from his face.
His eyes were filled with crimson blood vessels, and he gasped heavily, desperately trying to get air.
"Too much."
It was a long time before he squeezed out a few horrified words from deep in his throat.
"Everything here is too much."
Lin Jie and Julian exchanged a glance, both seeing gravity in each other's eyes.
They knew the principle of [Zulu's Gaze] was to see the "Spiritual Trails" and "emotional echoes" lingering in space.
At Giza, this "living fossil of human civilization" soaked repeatedly for millennia with the blood and tears of slaves, the power of pharaohs, and the deaths of war, the information sedimented in its space was vast and terrifying.
For William, that brief glimpse was equivalent to a mortal trying to look directly at the sun with a telescope.
He didn't see a landscape, but a pure white ocean that could incinerate his spirit.
William, the team's reliable "human map," had gone "blind" on this special battlefield where information was overly concentrated.
The team suddenly lost an important means of enemy detection. They lost their direction, falling into a state of confusion.
The determination for revenge on Ethan's face also began to waver slowly due to this unexpected turn of events.
If even the tracking expert from I.A.R.C. couldn't find clues, then it would be difficult for him to find the cunning Descendants of Apophis on his own.
A sense of powerlessness, like the suffocating scorching air of a desert afternoon, began to spread silently throughout the entire team.
Julian anxiously flipped through the ancient map in his hand, trying to find any possibly relevant clues from the long-outdated terrain markings.
At the moment when the oppressive atmosphere reached its peak, Lin Jie suddenly spoke.
"Since the 'eyes' are blind, then, let's switch to a more direct method."
"Let me go and 'listen'."
"Listen?!" Julian put away the map, "Lin Jie! You can't possibly be thinking of using that ability of yours here?!"
"You're insane!"
This time, it was Ethan who let out a horrified shout.
He swiftly stepped in front of Lin Jie, his face filled with lingering fear and terror from personal experience.
"You have no idea what the hell is buried beneath this damned sand!" Ethan stared intently at Lin Jie, as if transported back to the ancient tomb from years ago that he would never forget.
"My best friend died on this very land!"
"His soul, his vitality, everything about him was 'eaten' alive by this desert!"
"What you're about to do is no different from sticking your own head into the mouth of a hungry crocodile!"
"This is suicide!!"
Ethan's warning was not alarmist.
The core of [Reverberation Touch] is "resonance."
And to attempt to "resonate" with this land itself, which bears the weight of ancient Egypt's millennia-long civilizational history, buries the bones of countless pharaohs, slaves, soldiers, and the nameless, and is steeped in countless generations of legends?
What kind of immense and resilient willpower would that require?
"I know."
Yet, facing Ethan's sincere and vehement dissuasion, Lin Jie's response remained as calm as ever.
He reached out and gently pushed aside Ethan, who was blocking his path, then turned his gaze toward the spot on the sand where the mummified corpse was discovered.
"But Ethan, you should also know," Lin Jie's voice grew low, "we don't have any other better options."
"That murderer could very well be lurking in any corner of this sea of sand right now, quietly waiting for the moment we show a weakness."
"We can't wait any longer."
"Rather than passively waiting for danger to arrive here," a sharp glint flashed in Lin Jie's eyes, "I prefer to actively go and knock on the gates of hell!"
Having said this, he gave Ethan and Julian no further opportunity to dissuade or question him again.
He walked to the center of the target sea of sand and slowly crouched down.
Then, under the worried gazes of everyone, ignoring the heat that could cook a raw egg, he plunged his right hand into the yellow sea of sand.
[Reverberation Touch].
Lin Jie's world plunged into a darkness from thousands of years in the past.
In that instant, he heard the painful, blood-and-tear-filled groans of slaves dragging massive stones under the pharaoh's whip.
He heard the hoofbeats of conquest and destruction as Persian warhorses trampled the ancient city of Memphis.
He also heard the legion's march as the Roman eagle standards were planted atop the lighthouse of Alexandria.
Dynasties rose, empires fell.
Deities were born, faiths changed.
All the grand historical fragments spanning thousands of years that occurred on this ancient land flooded into his brain at an extremely rapid pace.
Lin Jie's body began to tremble, but he did not withdraw his hand.
His resilient willpower teetered precariously under the onslaught, his situation dangerous, as he struggled to maintain his clarity.
He forced himself to search within this ocean of historical noise for the target of his journey here.
Finally.
Just before his consciousness was about to be submerged by the grand history, he saw, on many ancient nights shrouded in silver starlight, beneath the shadows of pyramids that had stood for millennia.
A dark shadow with no fixed form, composed of flowing sand, silently patrolling this quiet sea of sand, carrying the posture of one surveying its territory.
It had no fixed form, no malice or goodwill.
Its state of existence was very similar to the desert itself.
Ancient, silent, eternal.
And hungry.