novelraw Chapter 185: The Scarab’s Protection
Chapter 185: The Scarab’s Protection
The back door of the souvenir shop, haphazardly nailed together from worn-out wooden planks, was unlocked.
William placed his hand on the rusted iron door ring, and the door creaked open with a groan in response to his push.
A strong perfume scent gushed out from the crack of the door. This perfume attempted to imitate ancient Egyptian kyphi incense, but only succeeded in producing a cloying sweetness mixed with a sense of decay.
Its odor was pungent and deceptive, making even Lin Jie, who had high tolerance for harsh environments, furrow his brow.
This was the center of the "Spiderweb" that had lured the guards into a death trap.
The four-person team didn't engage in any unnecessary communication;
a single exchange of glances was sufficient.
William still walked at the very front, his tall frame blocking all possible physical threats.
Ethan and Julian flanked the sides, their tactically considered formation placing Lin Jie in the safest position.
They filed in one after another. The interior of the shop was even more cramped and chaotic than they had imagined.
Under the dim lighting, countless crudely made scarab amulets, Anubis statues, and cheap papyrus paintings printed with pyramid patterns were piled up like garbage on dusty wooden shelves.Everything here displayed a cheap sense of commerce and fraud to any tourist who stepped inside.
It was hard to imagine that this place, which even ordinary tourists would sneer at, was actually one of the secret strongholds of the inner world organization, the Descendants of Apophis, active in Egypt.
A crisp yet languid young woman's voice came from the shop's inner room, obscured by a beaded curtain.
"Good evening, gentlemen who have lost your way."
The voice used fluent English.
"So late at night, do you wish to select some special souvenirs that represent the blessings of this ancient land for your relatives back home?"
Following her words, a pale, slender hand with nails painted a vivid black lacquer pushed aside the tinkling beaded curtain.
A young woman dressed in a traditional black Egyptian robe, wearing a translucent black veil, appeared silently before everyone like a black cat.
She was none other than the rumored mysterious female proprietor, Nephthys.
A warm, professional smile appeared on her face, one that could make wary travelers let down their guard.
Her enormous, deep obsidian eyes shimmered with a seductive glow under the dim light.
"Welcome, to my humble shop."
She gave a slight bow, her posture elegant.
Ethan snapped out of his brief daze caused by her beauty and mysterious aura. He stepped forward and spoke in an elegant tone.
"Good evening, beautiful young lady."
He didn't directly expose her identity, instead choosing to open this psychological battle, destined to be filled with lies, with the hypocritical probing manner of high society.
"We are not here to buy souvenirs."
Ethan took out a pure gold lighter, inlaid with a massive ruby, from his pocket.
With a dashing gesture, he lit a Cuban cigar for himself, then exhaled a thick cloud of smoke into the air.
"We are here to purchase something more... special."
A flash of understanding and amusement passed through Nephthys's eyes. She was long accustomed to this riddle-like opening for underground transactions.
"Oh? How special?"
She asked with keen interest, "Do you want a well-preserved cat mummy? Or perhaps a fragment of linen said to have once wrapped the jade-like body of 'Cleopatra'?"
"No."
Ethan shook his head. He crushed the half-burned cigar in his hand into a sand-filled ashtray.
"What I want is a blue stone."
"A stone said to be able to consume all light—the 'Tear of the Serpent'."
When the words "Tear of the Serpent" left Ethan's lips, Lin Jie caught the subtle contraction of the pupils within Nephthys's obsidian eyes, hidden behind her veil.
It was an instinctive physiological reaction, like prey hearing the sound of a shotgun being cocked, yet her perfect commercial smile didn't falter because of it.
She merely tilted her beautiful head and replied in a tone of innocence and confusion, "A blue stone? Sir, you must be joking. Here, I only have pharaoh amulets made from blue glass and cheap dyes from the Qing Dynasty."
"As for something called a 'Tear of the Serpent', I've never even heard of it. It sounds more like a name that would appear in a cheap, third-rate adventure novel sold for fifty Egyptian pounds on the street."
Her reply was flawless, her performance seamless.
If the person sitting here wasn't Ethan, who knew the truth, but an ordinary peripheral member of the Association coming to gather information, they would likely be completely deceived by her innocent and guileless acting.
A cold smile appeared on Ethan's face. The fish might be cunning, but it had already taken the bait.
"Is that so?"
Ethan unhurriedly took out a leather-bound checkbook and a Parker fountain pen with a pure gold nib from his breast pocket.
He wrote a string of astronomical figures on the check, enough to give an Egyptian antique dealer a heart attack.
Then he gently placed that check on the counter.
"How about now, beautiful young lady?"
"Have you developed even a sliver of interest in reading that 'third-rate adventure novel'?"
Nephthys's obsidian pupils slowly drifted downward. Her gaze fell upon the impossibly long string of zeros on that check, so long it seemed about to overflow the paper.
Her pupils contracted uncontrollably, but she was, after all, a top-tier impersonator who had undergone rigorous training.
She merely let out a silvery, bell-like chuckle, performing the part of someone shocked by the enormous sum.
"Sir, you really do know how to joke. I am just an ordinary..."
However, before she could finish her prepared lines.
A young man's voice sounded from behind Ethan, shattering this hypocritical masquerade ball constructed from lies and money.
"The scarabs in your shop..."
Lin Jie stepped out from the shadows, looking directly into Nephthys's beautiful yet dangerous eyes.
"...do they eat people?"
The smile on Nephthys's face stiffened for a moment before reverting to an innocent, puzzled expression.
"Oh, sir, you really do know how to joke. Are you referring to these handicrafts made from Nile mud and plaster powder?"
She picked up a crudely crafted blue scarab amulet and dangled it before Lin Jie.
"Of course they don't eat people. If you don't believe me, you could always try eating one yourself? Perhaps its taste isn't even as good as a piece of malt candy from your homeland."
Her counterattack carried the ease and teasing of using minimal force to deflect a powerful blow.
Lin Jie's expression didn't waver. He sighed with a tone of regret.
"It seems the leader of the Scavenger Dogs gang, Adil, lied to me."
When the name "Adil" was uttered from Lin Jie's lips, a crack appeared in the smiling mask of Nephthys's face.
"Impossible!"
She instinctively refuted, but her words cut off abruptly halfway through.
She had been bluffed.
"It seems he truly didn't know." Lin Jie said with a smile, "But now, I know."
Lin Jie's words pierced through Nephthys's disguise as an ordinary merchant. Instantly, the smile, innocence, and commercial enthusiasm on Nephthys's face shattered.
Her body was no longer in a languid, seductively soft posture, but was now coiled like an enraged king cobra.
All the allure vanished from her beautiful obsidian eyes, leaving only coldness behind.
She dropped the pretense, casually raising her right hand, and answered Lin Jie's question with a voice full of killing intent.
"In that case, I can tell you, it doesn't eat people."
"It only devours sacrificial offerings like you, who don't know their own mortality!"
As the final syllable fell, a vast spiritual power erupted from her slender frame!
Nephthys pulled up her sleeve, revealing a vambrace forged from obsidian and gold, engraved with ancient hieroglyphic curse runes.
"[Scarab's Sanctuary]!"
The enormous black gemstone at the center of the vambrace, shaped like a scarab's carapace, suddenly blazed with a heart-stopping dark red light.
Countless tiny black scarab reliefs, seemingly formed from grains of sand on the vambrace's surface, "came alive"!
Like a nest of awakened, bloodthirsty army ants, they swarmed out densely from the vambrace, converging in mid-air into a black tidal wave of sand.
Then, with a hair-raising buzzing sound, they surged madly towards the four "sacrificial offerings" before them.