Chapter Ch178.1 - Funeral Chamber
8translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The artificial fog in the amus.e.m.e.nt park finally dissipated.
Only the dense and curling water vapor around the Brave Rapids remained. The area closest to the pyramid was sticky and wet, and covered with mudflats.
At the innermost end of the park, the stone gate swung open with a bang.
Wei Shi walked out from the ‘House of Life’ sacrificial temple first, the longbow slung over his back and the bronze arrows at his waist, beside his right hand.
Wu Jin finished stamping himself and followed him out.
Sporadic drops of water hit Wu Jin’s cheek, and the youth wiped at them with the back of his hand. The two of them looked up at the same time to take in the largest entertainment facility in the entire amus.e.m.e.nt theme park.
The sound of water was deafening.
Water rushed down from the mouth of the Sphinx sculpture at the top of the 60 meter high pyramid, charging like a sword into the ground and washing open a channel in the oxygen-rich, iron-red tinted stones that formed the pyramid. At this time, it was approaching noon, and the side facing the sun was shining, the water spray refracting and reflecting the light. It seemed that if one looked on for longer, they would be painfully dazzled by this Ancient Egyptian miracle.
Amidst the noise of the water, the pyramid that stood higher than 30 stories seemed quiet and mysterious.
Wu Jin looked back. Behind them, the temple of clerical sacrifice and the temple of life with the dancers and musicians that had just been cleared weren’t even worth mentioning when compared to the magnificent pyramid mausoleum in front of them.
Wu Jin suddenly realized, “The order of the kneeling priests is the same as in the mural. At the bottom is the clerical priest who is responsible for recording and pa.s.sing on their history, further up are the priestesses in charge of divine music; finally there’s the priest of the door of life who performs magic and treatment. However, all of them together are still unequal to the reverence that ‘death’ brings.”
In Ancient Egyptian culture, death was the most important trial, and it led the dead souls to the residence of the G.o.ds. The joys and sorrows of a person’s life were merely preparation for the subsequent trial.
The pyramids were the tombs of the ancient pharaohs.
The funeral priest who was in charge of the construction of the pyramids was the most revered priest in Ancient Egypt. Because they were closest to death, they were ‘prophets’ with an incomparably high position.
The water mist was still gathering in the shallows, and tens of meters away from them, the mechanism of the temple where Jingyi was located was still rotating.
“Get ready to look for the entrance.” Wu Jin spoke immediately, “In this humidity, n.o.body will take the risk of letting their guns become useless. Just now, I heard a sound in the corridor; it should be the sound of Jingyi going back to the previous level to get a set of bow and arrows.”
“We’re the fastest team to get here.”
Just before stepping into the mud, Wu Jin suddenly stopped. He looked forward thoughtfully.
“Take off your shoes. Don’t leave any footprints when we go in.”
The two of them removed their military grade shoes and tossed them into their combat backpacks, then walked barefoot along the shallows. Wei Shi appeared impatient and urged Wu Jin to walk in front of him. At the same time though, a long arrow had already been nocked silently onto the bowstring as he kept watch from behind Wu Jin, aiming it the whole time at the possible direction that Jingyi would emerge from.
“The two of them shouldn’t be coming out so soon.” Wu Jin expressed.
Wei Shi saw that the little shortie was walking on uneven ground and was about to topple over and roll around. He grabbed Wu Jin’s dirty arm and propped him up.
Only then did he discover that Wu Jin had been looking at the new stamp as he walked.
Wei Shi: “What new clues?”
Wu Jin opened up the ticket that had been stamped full of clues, “There were three levels, and three clues. The first clue was the priest filling the container with water, and the second shows the water dripping onto the disc, and the third has the priest drawing a scale on the inner walls of the container.”
Wei Shi reacted quickly, “Water clock?”
Wu Jin nodded, “It’s similar to the hourgla.s.s principle. I only know a little bit about this kind of tool. It seems that the water clock was introduced into China from the Mesopotamian plain back then…”
According to the design of this ancient culture theme park, the time keeping method must be related to the context of the civilization. For example, the pendulum clock from medieval Europe.
It could then be inferred that this kind of ‘water clock’ originated from Ancient Egypt, then spread to Greece and China through Babylon, ultimately contributing to all those civilizations.
In Wu Jin’s memories, in the compiled by Shen Kuo from the Northern Song Dynasty, the re-invented copper inflow water clock reached a level of accuracy that changed with the cycles of the sun and moon and could accurately track a 24 hour cycle. However, at the time, Ancient Egypt, which was where the water clock originated, had already been annihilated for over a thousand years.
From behind Wu Jin, Wei Shi squinted and was completely unbothered by the sun. A long time later, he spoke, “I don’t see a water clock.”
Wu Jin squeaked and continued to walk unevenly, “Not only did we not find the clock, we can’t even find the ticket gate for the ride––!”
Wei Shi “Look for the river.”
Wu Jin paused, and suddenly realized. All sides of the pyramid were sealed by rocks, and it would take a long time to find the entrance––though Brother Caesar and the others might find it faster, since Caesar still believed that a pyramid only had three sides.
By contrast, it was much easier to find a river. The core of the Brave Rapids had to be a river channel. After the boats rushed down from the top of the pyramid, there had to be a deceleration buffer and a channel that allowed them to float back to the ‘boat return entrance’.
Wu Jin pondered, “The program team only had a few days recently to do their construction, so the soil must also have undergone some gradual changes…”
Wei Shi leaned over and picked up some of the sticky, wet soil from the shallows. A few steps later, Wei Shi finally concluded, “That way, North 15.”
The two of them ran at full tilt.
Although Wu Jin would fall into the dirt from time to time, the big boss would simply pull him back up like plucking a radish from the earth, and they didn’t waste any time on the process. The two of them went around one side of the pyramid, and Wu Jin’s eyes brightened.
The north of the pyramid was paved with reddish brown bricks and stones. Beneath the 80 meter brick wall, there was a clear distinction between the shallows and the waterway. They couldn’t find the entrance to the Brave Rapids, but they’d found a hole in the wall.
It led into the pharaoh’s mausoleum.
“Let’s go inside.” Wu Jin plunged into the water.
“……” Wei Shi, who had been just about to pull the little shortie into the water, ended up grasping at air. When he looked down again, Wu Jin was already happily making little air bubbles in the water.
Wei Shi gave a cold snort and followed him into the water.
The 27 year old Wei Shi let Wu Jin do as he liked most of the time, while the 16 year old Wei Shi really wanted to raise him under his protection.
It was probably because he didn’t yet have his older self’s self confidence.
Just as Wei Shi entered the water.
A scream rang out from a few hundred meters away.
Jingyi had just walked out from the temple, and cameras swarmed in around them. The people they ended up coming face to face with weren’t Caesar and Red as they’d expected, but rather Azure People’s Entertainment’s closed up contestant, Raphael. The player showed up and lifted up his crossbow without a word––
“How come he has a crossbow?” Ming Yao complained loudly, “This doesn’t make sense. Little Witch and us only have bows and arrows…”
“He didn’t come from the Ferris Wheel.” Zuo Botang’s eyebrows twisted slightly as the insight hit him, “It should be a reward from another ride.”
Ming Yao was stunned, “But there weren’t any rewards for the Ferris Wheel.”
Zuo Botang shook his head, “There were, but we missed it. If you board the Ferris Wheel after the fog clears up, you can see the map of the entire amus.e.m.e.nt park from the highest vantage point.”
“The sight itself is a reward. Wen Lin probably didn’t choose to solve the Ferris Wheel first because he’d expected such a thing.”
Ming Yao wanted to continue talking, but Zuo Botang had already pointed his bow at Raphael, “I know you want to win.”
“But you don’t need to waste time here.” Zuo Botang glanced at the pyramid, “Others have already gone on ahead.”
A few hundred meters away.
Inside the giant pyramid.
Wu Jin climbed out of the river and back onto land, and the smell of damp decay swept over. It was dark all around, and he couldn’t see his own fingers. While searching for a flashlight in his bag, Wu Jin also tried to quickly dry himself off.
Wei Shi glanced at the Wu Jin who was twisting and turning like a top, “Strip.”
Wu Jin smartly removed his combat jacket and lifted up the pure black waterproof combat vest, revealing the clear and powerful waist muscles under milky pale skin. The veins at Wei Shi’s temple jumped, and he blocked the view between Wu Jin and the camera, “Can you take your clothes off properly?”
The Crosson Show’s live stream room.
The scrolling comments suddenly filled with a tidy stream of “Yooooooo~” calls. Ying Xiangxiang chuckled, and Blood Pigeon expressed that Contestant Wei was being too strict, as there were no tactical standards for removing clothing.
At the same time, in Floating City.
While drinking yoghurt, the Researcher Song who was watching the live broadcast also let out a brief ‘Yo’ sound and quickly called Zhou Nan the psychologist over to watch the show. Researcher Song pointed to a flash of Wei Shi’s profile and said, “Do you see that? His ears are red! Based on Brother Wei’s shameless nature… At this time, it must be the side effects acting up! Who told him not to listen!”
It wasn’t only Researcher Song who noticed this. The microscope fans who were proficient with all sorts of detail catching had reacted even before he had.
“Aahhhhh G.o.d Wei is really protective of Little Witch, he won’t let others look when he’s taking off his clothing, the Scarf CP is real ahhhh––”
“What are you being fierce for! He’s clearly stripping for the audience and not for you! #Old aunt laugh! G.o.d Wei’s moved and blushing on the scene––”
“How is this related to anything? I’m a straight man, and I’ll blush too when other straight men take off their clothes in front of me…”
In the camera.
Wei Shi finally finished wringing out Wu Jin’s jacket, and the two of them grabbed the clean combat boots that hadn’t been stained with mud out of their backpacks.
Possibly because Wu Jin hadn’t yet fully recovered, he couldn’t hold back a small sneeze just before he put his shoes on. With his back to the camera in a dead vision corner, Wei Shi couldn’t help but force Wu Jin to sit on the ground. Then, he sat down next to the little shortie, curled up his long legs, and warmed Wu Jin’s feet before stuffing them into the boots.
The big boss’s feet were still covered with mud.
Wu Jin sneezed again, and his eyes grew damp.
Wei Shi thought about it, “When we get out, you shouldn’t play in the compet.i.tions anymore.”
Wu Jin: “Ahh…”
Wei Shi thought about it for a moment and ordered, “I’ll go play on my own. You stay at home.”
Wu Jin was stunned silly. However! The 16 year old idealistic big boss was so cute that there were soap bubbles all around them! Wu Jin pretended to be serious, “Then, what would I do at home!”
Wei Shi raised his chin, “Raise and sell rabbits. Don’t you have rabbit genes? You have innate advantages over normal people when it comes to rabbit farming… or are you saying that you can’t raise rabbits? Hm?”
Wu Jin choked.