This is a real skull with no flesh on it. The stone eye sockets are filled with red flames, and a series of black smoke floats in the air beneath the skull.

This is the gatekeeper of the underworld, Anubis' subordinate. Known as the loyal hound of the underworld, he and Anubis hold the gates of the underworld together to prevent living beings from entering without permission.

The gatekeeper seems to be quite talkative. While guiding Chen Xu to find Imhotep, he keeps talking: "It's been a long time since a new priest summoned me. Kid, you're pretty good."

"The priesthood has been lost. I'm just an amateur priest." Chen Xu said respectfully and humbly.

Although this skull in front of him may not be its true form but only projected into this world through some special rules in the underworld, it does not affect Chen Xu's humility.

With his possession of Necronomicon, he increasingly understands how powerful those who came before him were on this path - they were like gods compared to him now as if he was still an infant newly born into this world.

"Not bad at all! Nowadays there are few people who dare speak their minds truthfully anymore; even I have to admire your courage," said the gatekeeper while tapping his head. "To use 'Bronze' level strength to hunt down someone who was at 'Silver' level peak during their lifetime and about to enter 'Gold' level realm requires more courage than most heroes possess."

"What is 'Bronze' level? What about 'Silver'? asked Chen Xu solemnly; these names were unfamiliar to him although he guessed that they might relate to power levels.

As expected when hearing Chen Xu's question, there was a faint sneer coming from within wind blowing around them: "Ignorance truly is blissful bravery."

"'Bronze', 'Iron', 'Silver', and 'Gold' levels are all divisions of power. They belong to the realm of mortals, while 'Legendary,' 'Epic,' and 'Mythical' realms belong to gods."

"The difference between each level is like heaven and earth. Imhotep had already reached the peak of the Silver level during his lifetime, only one step away from entering the Gold level. I wonder if you still have the courage to face him now that he has escaped from the underworld?"

For some reason, Chen Xu heard a gloating tone in the gatekeeper's voice.

"I'm not afraid," said Chen Xu firmly. "As you said, there is a big gap between me and Imhotep, but it's not so big that I would give up. He may be powerful, but he's still just a person - even though he's an undead one - there must be a way to defeat him; I've already found it."

Chen Xu snatched the Sun Gold Sutra from Evelyn's hand. "I know what he's afraid of, and I know what to do to bury him. So I'm not afraid at all."

"The Sun Gold Sutra, you've done a lot of research." The gatekeeper smacked his lips in disappointment at his failed intimidation.

"But I don't know which stage or level your strength has reached," Chen Xu put away the Sun Gold Sutra and transformed from a confident man into a humble one.

He approached the gatekeeper from the underworld with an almost flattering attitude, not missing any opportunity to learn knowledge or peek into the truth of power.

"Just entered the 'Golden' realm," said the gatekeeper.

"I see." Chen Xu pondered for a moment and had a vague guess in his mind.

"May I ask, respected gatekeeper, what stage has Anubis, the great god of death reached?"

"That is within the domain of gods and cannot be peered into by mere mortals like you." The gatekeeper sternly warned and suddenly became irritable. "Are young priests nowadays so bold? You haven't even reached your peak as a mortal yet but dare to pry into secrets that belong only to gods?"

"Of course not." Chen Xu shook his head. He was not even close to being the first owner of either Black Book of Souls or Sun Gold Sutra. Even those high priests who owned Black Book of Souls couldn't ascend as gods with their power alone; therefore, Chen Xu would never be arrogant enough to think otherwise.

However, something about how seriously this gatekeeper took it made him wonder if there was some taboo surrounding these divine secrets.

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In reality, Chen Xu didn't believe that divine secrets were taboo; otherwise, why would Sun Gold Sutra still exist? Although he wasn't entirely sure about its origin nor why it could record divine secrets, the fact that it hadn't been destroyed throughout history indicated that the secrets recorded in it were not a big deal to gods.

At least they couldn't threaten gods; otherwise, they wouldn't have allowed Sun Gold Sutra to continue existing in this world.

"Alright, weak priest. Before you step into the 'Golden' realm, don't even think about prying into the domain of gods. Don't even entertain such thoughts; otherwise, hell will be your destination." The gatekeeper warned solemnly.

"Isn't the underworld just another name for hell?" Chen Xu asked with confusion.

In his understanding, underworld and hell were one and the same - where souls of dead people rested. It was just different names for similar places.

"Foolish." The gatekeeper sneered coldly at Chen Xu's ignorance. "The underworld is the underworld and hell is hell. They are two different things."

"The former is a place where deceased rest peacefully while latter is where sinners are punished. Please don’t confuse them."

"You're an odd little priest who doesn’t seem to know basic knowledge," he continued disdainfully.

"I..." Chen Xu blushed slightly but quickly regained composure.

He recalled from Chinese mythology that Yama's Court was a place of judgment after death where souls were taken by Black and White Impermanence before being judged by King Yama himself on whether they would reincarnate or go through punishment in one of eighteen levels of Hell. This showed that Underworld and Hell were two distinct places in most mythologies: Hell was usually seen as a place for punishment rather than restful peace except for some sects which had briefly altered myths like Old Testament turning resting place into punishment ground making it less strange overall

As he walked further inside, it became colder and colder due to aura emanating from Underworld freezing human soul almost unbearable.

"Poor little priest, I have already found the person you are looking for," said the gatekeeper with a sympathetic look at Chen Xu. "So I wish you good luck, young priest. May you defeat your enemy instead of being sent to the underworld by them."

The gatekeeper turned into a wisp of black smoke and dissipated in front of Chen Xu, while a cold and eerie feeling spread through him.

"What a chilling sensation," Chen Xu carefully felt his body and realized that his bodily functions were showing signs of stopping - much more terrifying than what was described in movies.

But it's not hard to imagine as Imhotep, who returned from the underworld as a mummy, inevitably carried the breath of the underworld. And in ancient Egypt, the underworld was known for death and coldness."

Chen Xu was feeling a bit unbearable, and Evelyn and Suleiman behind him were even worse. Under this cold force, their teeth were already chattering, and they hugged themselves with their arms crossed. Obviously, they were already freezing to the extreme.

"It's so cold."

"Yes, teacher, it's so cold."

"Hold on."

Chen Xu could only say that in terms of real power. Imhotep had already recovered almost completely and he would definitely defeat Chen Xu who had only performed one sacrifice if it weren't for the fact that Chen Xu held the Sun Golden Scripture in his hand. Otherwise Imhotep would have found him long ago.

He simply didn't have the ability to change the environment caused by Imhotep.

"As long as we find Imhotep, we will win." Chen Xu cheered them on. "Don't forget about Egypt's disaster and how pitiful those refugees are. If we let Imhotep continue to ravage Egypt like this, then all of Egypt will become a dead land."

"For Egypt and to make up for our mistakes, let's go!"

Chen Xu grabbed both the Undead Black Scripture and Sun Golden Scripture in his hands; he was familiar with the spells inside them so he just needed to hold onto both books to activate their effects.

Soon they found Imhotep again but at this time there was a big difference between this version of Imhotep compared to Hamunaptra’s version: He had skin and eyes which made him look similar to an ordinary person.

"You finally came." The hoarse voice of Imhotep rang out. "I've been waiting for you - my Evelyn as well as my little priest who betrayed me.”

"How dare you appear before me?" As soon as Chen Xu saw Imhotep he immediately recited a spell from within Sun Golden Scripture: "Ashes returneth unto ashes; dust returneth unto dust. The soul returneth to the great god of death, Anubis."

After reciting the spell, nothing happened; there were no Hell Knights descending and Imhotep didn't seem afraid at all. On the contrary, he looked very happy.

"You fools! If I couldn't restrain Sun Golden Scripture's power, would I appear before you? Look around me.”

Chen Xu's face changed as he began to pay attention to Imhotep’s surroundings.

The place where Imhotep was located was just an ordinary small hill with nothing but a statue in front of him.

Wait a minute...the statue! Chen Xu's gaze fell on the statue and his face immediately darkened.

It was an ancient Egyptian woman with wings holding a stick in her hand.

"Nephthys." Chen Xu uttered this name from his mouth.

"Is this Nephthys?" Evelyn said fearfully.

"What is Nephthys?" Suleiman curiously looked at Evelyn waiting for her explanation.

"Nephthys is one of Egypt's nine pillar gods and protector of the dead. Legend has it that all deceased are protected by her." Evelyn explained: "If it is Nephthys' idol then Chen Xu may not be able to harm him."

The appearance of magic had changed Evelyn's worldview; she no longer believed that there were no gods in this world since magic existed - how could gods be far away?

"That's right, it’s Nephthys’ idol. In front of Nephthys' idol even Death God Anubis' messenger wouldn’t dare come over here and hurt me.” Imhotep laughed heartily.

"Without Sun Golden Scripture power support you're not my opponent."

Imhotep raised both hands up high causing the earth beneath them to shake violently while countless sands emerged between Chen Xu and himself forming into a sandstorm.

"Die."