1888: Memoirs of an Unconfirmed Creature Hunter

Chapter 236: Land Where All Things Sleep

As Ethan mobilized the Redgrave family's resources to search the globe for any lead on the "dragon," the atmosphere in the Cairo Branch's medical ward grew increasingly grim.

William's condition was deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace.

The foreign-type spirituality from the River Jiao, after an initial quiet phase, had begun to adapt to William's body.

It no longer lashed out blindly;

instead, it became more purposeful and more dangerous.

It behaved like a parasite, consciously avoiding the herbal suppressants and divine arts the Royal Court priests deployed.

Then, in a subtle, insidious way, it began to entangle itself more deeply with William's organs and bodily systems.

"...This is bad."

After several hours of a complex spiritual diagnosis, an I.A.R.C. top alchemical doctor urgently transferred from London Headquarters delivered a prognosis that amounted to a critical condition notice to Lin Jie and Julian.

The doctor was a meticulous German, and helplessness showed on his face.

"The spirituality inside Sergeant Keen is making a nest."He used a horrid metaphor.

"It's remodeling the sergeant's body into a riverbed best suited for its own survival."

"At the current rate of assimilation, even if we find this so-called 'true dragon' within a month, it will already be too late."

"By then, the sergeant's life-source will have been replaced by it."

"He will become a walking corpse, stripped of volition and awareness."

The pronouncement struck Lin Jie and Julian to the core.

"Is there absolutely nothing else we can do?" Julian asked anxiously. "Anything that can delay the process?"

The German doctor was silent for a moment. He pushed up the single lens of his spectacles, seemingly running a difficult theoretical simulation in his head.

Finally, in an uncertain tone, he said, "Theoretically, there is an 'environmental therapy.'"

"The core attribute of that River Jiao spirituality is flow and change."

"According to basic spiritual physics, to suppress a high-frequency, dynamic spirituality, the most effective method is to place it inside a low-frequency, static spiritual field."

"Simply put," seeing the confusion on Lin Jie's and the others' faces, he switched to a more accessible explanation, "we need to find a place."

"A place that itself radiates a powerful energy field whose frequency is the opposite of the River Jiao's."

"Like tossing a red-hot branding iron into an icy lake: we cannot extinguish the branding iron's core flame, but we can dramatically lower its temperature, buying us precious time!"

"Low-frequency, static energy field?" Julian's eyes lit with a flash of hope. "For example, some ancient megalithic circle, or a massive crystal vein deep in the crust?"

"Exactly." The German doctor nodded. "But it must be a 'living' energy field."

"A lifeless vein won't resonate with or suppress that living foreign spirituality."

"A living, gigantic, low-frequency, static energy field..."

Julian dashed to the large world map in the operations room. His broad knowledge let him instantly pinpoint a dozen theoretical candidate sites.

Stonehenge in Britain, the Carnac megaliths in Brittany, even the moai of Easter Island...

But those locations were either too distant or their spiritual field properties had long been proven in centuries of study not to meet the 'low-frequency static' requirement.

The team again found themselves at an impasse of theory without a plan.

Lin Jie, who had been silent the whole time, stood up. He did not participate in the heated but fruitless academic debate.

His gaze pierced the operations room door and settled on the heavily guarded underground detention area.

"Perhaps," his voice came quietly, "we've been ignoring the most recent and most direct source of intelligence."

Ethan and Julian paused, then realized Lin Jie's implication.

The Cairo Second Branch's underground detention was damp and dim.

Lin Jie walked alone down the narrow corridor and stopped outside a special cell sealed with multiple spiritual restraints.

Inside sat the former Apophis descendant officer known as Holy Sand Scarabs, Nephthys, quietly cross-legged on the cold stone slab.

Since returning from Alexandria and after weeks of imprisonment, her exotic black robe had long since become tattered.

But her deep, beautiful black eyes still shone with defiant pride.

When she saw Lin Jie, a teasing, seductive smirk curled her lips.

"Oh? Look who came to visit," she purred smoothly. "Our great 'favored of Nekhbet,' the 'hero' who beat me."

"Come to admire your trophy, or finally unable to stand the loneliness without a woman?"

Lin Jie ignored her provocation. He pulled up an iron stool and sat outside her cell.

Then he laid out the German doctor's full theory of 'environmental therapy' and the crisis they were facing, recounting the predicament simply to the prisoner.

He asked no questions, made no threats;

he merely presented the problem before her.

Nephthys' smile faded bit by bit. Her beautiful eyes narrowed slightly.

"You want me to tell you where that place is?" she finally said, a note of amusement audible.

"Exactly." Lin Jie faced her. "Your Apophis sect has occupied these lands for centuries. If Egypt truly contains a spiritual field matching the doctor's description, your secret scriptures must have records of it."

At that, Nephthys burst into a crystalline, mockingly melodious laugh.

"How interesting." She laughed and swayed. "You I.A.R.C. people deem us heretics and call our gods demons, yet now you come to a heretic begging for a god's guidance?"

"But..." Her laughter cut off. A sly light flashed in her eyes.

"...you're right, my 'favored one.'"

"In our doctrine, there does exist a sanctuary called the 'Land Where All Things Sleep.'"

"It is the place formed from the first drop of blood shed by Set, the great god of stagnation and death, after his defeat."

"Time there is frozen;

life falls into an eternal cycle;

its spiritual frequency is indeed the lowest and most tranquil in all of Egypt."

Lin Jie's heart leapt—he had found the right person.

But Nephthys' next words struck him like a blow.

"However," a seductive smile returning to her mouth, "why should I tell you?"

She rose and stepped to the cell bars.

Her obsidian eyes met Lin Jie's at close range through the iron.

A warm breath with exotic scent brushed his face.

"Unless..." Her voice softened dangerously, "you make a deal with me."

"Set me free."

"Open this door, lift the seals on me, and not only will I tell you where the place is, I will personally take you there."

"Think about it," her fingertips traced the iron bars as if caressing his cheek, "an ally who knows the land and wields power will be far more useful than the stubborn fools at your side."

"And..." Her eyes flashed with a woman's primal desire, "perhaps we could do things together far more interesting than battle?"

Faced with a devil's bargain designed to inflame any man's blood, Lin Jie's face remained unmoved.

He looked calmly at the woman attempting to trade beauty and gain for freedom, then shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Miss Nephthys." His tone was cold and rational. "This deal is far too risky."

"And I never invest when the odds aren't in my favor."

With that, he left without a backward glance.

"You'll regret this! Fool!" Nephthys screamed in fury from behind him.

But Lin Jie didn't turn back. He knew Nephthys truly did know the location.

He also fully understood the horrific backlash they'd face if they released a tiger in the wild.

Impatience gnawed at him, but he did not act rashly.

He strode out of the detention wing and returned to the parlor serving as a makeshift operations room.

Ethan and Julian were huddled around William's bedside with the German doctor, debating a high-risk "spiritual dialysis" procedure. Anxiety showed on every face.

"I found a possible direction."

Lin Jie's voice drew everyone's attention immediately.

He didn't dangle suspense. He reported the partial intelligence he had extracted from Nephthys about Set's blood and the Land Where All Things Sleep.

"...A place where even time 'stands still'?" Julian's tone brimmed with excitement. "My goodness! That fits the doctor's theory perfectly! If such a place exists, it would be an icehouse to suppress that flowing spirituality in William!"

"But," Ethan replied more calmly and cautiously, "this intel comes from Nephthys—an extremely cunning fanatic. Can we trust her? Could this be another trap?"

"She did not lie." Lin Jie spoke with certainty. "When she spoke of that place, I felt instinctive fear in her expressions."

"That feeling can't be faked."

"But," Lin Jie shifted, "I'm also sure she concealed some crucial information. For example, what fatal dangers are hidden there besides the 'stasis.'"

"Therefore," he decided, "we need a more authoritative, more reliable source to cross-check and complete the clues Nephthys gave."

The three of them looked in unison through the operations room window toward the retreat at the back of the branch.

"Looks like we'll have to have a proper talk with our 'uneasy ally' again." Ethan sighed.

Before Lin Jie and the others could approach the courtyard, a fiery argument with the smell of gunpowder erupted from within.

On one side was the High Priest;

on the other was Old Abdul, the head of the Cairo Branch.

"I repeat, sealing off the Valley of the Kings was the correct decision after our Royal Court's careful deliberation!" the High Priest's voice was shrill. "The shattering of the Scales of the Dead has caused the gravest spiritual imbalance the Nile basin has seen in centuries. Countless things sleeping beneath the sands are awakening!"

"And the Valley of the Kings concentrates the most spiritual power in both Upper and Lower Egypt! If the seals there loosen, the consequences will be catastrophic! Don't talk about Cairo—Alexandria itself could become a city of the undead overnight!"

"But it's also our most important observation point!" Old Abdul's voice was anxious and indignant. "We have several research projects there!"

"Moreover, according to the latest intelligence, remnants of the Descendants of Apophis are trying to enter the Sinai Peninsula via a secret passage in the Valley of the Kings! If we withdraw now, we hand the entire battlefield to them!"

"Let them have it!" The High Priest's tone was icy and merciless. "They're nothing but a pack of mangy dogs who lost their divine relics! Compared to their laughable schemes, I'm far more concerned about the dozens of pharaohs already beginning to stir!"

Lin Jie felt a headache at the argument.

He now had a direct, visceral sense of how devastating Yan Xilou's 'mutual destruction' strike had been to this ancient land.

He took a deep breath and pushed open the courtyard gate.

"Gentlemen, forgive my intrusion."

Lin Jie's voice immediately cut through the tense atmosphere.

The High Priest and Old Abdul turned their complicated gazes toward him.

Lin Jie repeated the German doctor's theory and the fragmentary intelligence he had just extracted from Nephthys about Set's blood and the Land Where All Things Sleep.

Then, in a pleading tone, he asked, "High Priest, I need to know exactly where that place is."

The High Priest looked at Lin Jie's anxious, expectant face and fell silent.

The air in the room pressed down like a weight.

Finally, the elderly man who'd been driven nearly mad by Egypt's spiritual dilemmas sighed.

He waved Old Abdul to halt the discussion.

Only after that did he walk to a map of Egypt hanging on the wall.

He ran his finger past bustling Cairo and sacred Luxor until he reached the far western edge of the map.

There lay an isolated oasis, surrounded by the vast Libyan Desert, a green gem embedded in the sea of sand.

"Foreigners, do you know?" the High Priest's voice sounded distant, "Sometimes I truly envy you."

"You have no gods, no pharaohs in your hearts. You believe only in the weapons you hold and the bonds between your companions."

"So you can challenge the world's rules for a comrade's life or death."

"We," he showed a weary expression, "must carry the heavy, ancient history of all the gods and pharaohs on this land."

He paused. "Sometimes the heretic's mouth speaks truth."

"The place you seek does exist."

"A site blessed by Osiris' cyclic power, yet cursed by his brother Set, who represents stagnation and death."

"A corner forgotten by the gods, the last resting place of the dead."

"—The Siwa Oasis."