Hamnata.

The exquisite stone pillars prove that there was once glory here, and the broken ones prove that the glory is gone. Chen Xu stood outside Hamnata with Suleiman, looking at the complex expression on his face.

It was here that he obtained the Necronomicon, came into contact with the magical world, and became a glorious priest; it was also here that he faced danger and buried Imhotep, who used to be his most admired undead priest.

Dozens of camels were half-kneeling outside Hamnata with bags all over their bodies. "Teacher, is this Hamnata you mentioned?" Suleiman's immature voice came out. "There are supposed to be large amounts of gold in legendary Hamnata."

"Do you like gold very much?" Chen Xu suddenly squatted down and looked at his disciple's immature face seriously. He said word by word: "Remember, gold never has enough power. Only power is the most terrifying existence in this world. With it, everything such as gold jewels or power women will come swarming."

"I remember," Suleiman's white face showed a hint of fear. This was still his teacher but for the first time speaking so solemnly to him made him feel scared.

"Good if you remember." Chen Xu stood up and clapped his hands saying: "Now watch me cast spells."

Chen Xu took out bone ash from a bag hanging around his waist and sprinkled it out while chanting: "In the name of Anubis - god of death - desert mummies appear!"

Like zombies, Egyptian mummies have many types; desert mummies are one type mixed with sand and bone ash which gives them stronger speed and strength than ordinary mummies.

Soon five mummies stood in front of Chen Xu waiting for its command without any iconic bandages on their bodies but instead strange patterns covering them making their faces grimacing like skulls.

"This is the spell of desert mummies." Chen Xu translated these words into ancient Egyptian and told Suleiman: "Remember, keep this sentence in your heart and form an instinct to recite it without thinking during battles."

"I will remember," Suleiman clenched his small fist firmly saying: "I won't let you down, teacher."

In fact, for Suleiman, magic was just an interesting thing. He couldn't understand fighting even though he had participated in it before. The reason why he agreed with Chen Xu was simply because he didn't want to disappoint him. In his little head, Chen Xu had become someone second only to his parents and after their death became his only relative.

His parents died under Imhotep's magical power - Imhotep caused disasters in Egypt frequently holding sacrifice ceremonies offering people to Anubis getting unimaginable magic power.

"Magic is not only used in battles, but also has many applications in daily life," Chen Xu smiled slightly and began to teach, "In fact, in ancient Egypt, magic was considered high technology by ordinary people. It not only represented powerful strength but also represented an improvement in life."

"You see..." Chen Xu pointed to the mummy. "There is a lot of gold inside the sarcophagus of Hamunaptra, but the two of us cannot carry it all ourselves. We need help."

"But it's difficult to control the hearts of ordinary people. If we're not careful enough, they may rebel against us and cause harm."

"But mummies are different. They are our most loyal servants and can do anything for us if it's simple enough."

"Follow me." Chen Xu said this to the mummy.

The motionless mummies suddenly moved and followed behind Chen Xu with neat steps.

"If we directly command them to search for gold jewelry and antiques, they won't understand because they don't even know what gold or jewelry means. That's why we need to guide them."

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Chen Xu came into the space filled with gold jewelry and burial objects without any joy on his face as he looked at all that glittering wealth.

"Go ahead, pick up these pieces of gold." Chen Xu ordered emotionlessly while looking at Suleiman's face. He saw Suleiman's eyes light up before there were no further changes in expression.

"Gold and jewels are needed by us priests but aren't necessary because whenever we want more gold or jewels we can take them away easily."

"The power of priests dominates foolish commoners and nobles alike; this is our power - a great power indeed," said Chen Xu.

"The power of priests is truly amazing," murmured Suleiman.

Chen Xu nodded satisfactorily after glancing at him once.

Leading the mummies outside again, Chen Xu ordered them to pour the gold on the ground. Through this method, he left an impression in their not-so-intelligent brains - just like training a dog to catch a frisbee.

In terms of intelligence, mummies are nothing compared to dogs. They act purely on instinct and are different from dogs.

But precisely because they have no intelligence, they can be controlled by desires through magic and become loyal servants of priests.

Through this method, Chen Xu could easily draw out an instinctive response and make them act accordingly.

"In fact, in ancient Egypt, mummies were far from being as sacred as they are now. According to the 'Holy Scripture' in the Sun Gold Sutra, mummies were only pharaohs' servants in ancient times."

"To win battles during wars, pharaohs commanded priests to produce large numbers of mummies for deployment on battlefields so that these dead soldiers could fight against heretics," said Chen Xu.

"Heretics?" Suleiman was confused. His teacher's description of Egyptian history was different from what he knew, but then again, in the history he knew, there were no mummies that could act.

"Yes, heretics. Perhaps these heresies are not recorded in current history," said Chen Xu.

"I have researched your Egyptian history and found that it is vague when describing the ancient Egyptian era. But I can tell you that the Heretic War did exist."

"At that time, those who left Egypt went all the way to the far west. During this process, some were relentlessly pursued by Pharaohs."

These were all things Chen Xu had seen in The Golden Sun Scripture. It must be admitted that The Golden Sun Scripture was extremely wonderful; although it seemed to only have a few pages, its knowledge was like stars in the sky.

Every time he opened it up, Chen Xu felt as if he had experienced a baptism-like feeling. This highest secret scripture of ancient Egypt made him feel inferior as if facing the starry sky.

And every time he peeked at the secrets of gods, Chen Xu felt like he was desecrating them.

In fact, Chen Xu wasn't afraid of this feeling; instead, he was excited because he saw a path from being human to becoming a god. Although this path still remained untouched and shyly refused to reveal itself completely until now - just like an unopened virgin - Chen Xu believed that as long as he persisted with determination and perseverance one day all secrets of gods would be revealed.

"The so-called master is not really a master; it is a belief system created by humans which should never have existed in first place but eventually enslaves people - this is such a sad joke."

Suleiman looked at his teacher, feeling scared. He felt like his teacher had gone mad, blaspheming against the gods of the West. If the Westerners found out, he and his teacher would surely be held at gunpoint by the army and sent to the gallows.

Yet deep down in his heart, there was a sense of joy - a blasphemous joy. Like his teacher, Suleiman's soul was also that of a great heretic.

"Alright, let's not discuss this topic for now," Chen Xu thought Suleiman was still young and instilling these things in him now wouldn't do much good for his future path.

"But you should know that we are priests who worship the gods. In front of them, we should remain humble," Chen Xu said sternly.

Private blasphemy and public blasphemy were two different things; while the former could strengthen one's own path, the latter was simply asking for death.

Without equal dialogue with the gods' power, blaspheming against them would undoubtedly make oneself their sacrifice - just as Imhotep sacrificed Egypt to Anubis.

"I understand now, Teacher," came Suleiman's immature voice.

"Well then... perhaps these matters are too heavy for you right now but you will encounter them eventually."

"Now what we need to do is move all this gold away."

"Although this gold and gems aren't necessary for us they're better than nothing."

As Chen Xu taught Suleiman he directed desert mummies to put all of it into camel bags.

In no time at all those shriveled bags were full with occasional glimmers shining through cracks between stitches.

"If we go back like this won't Uncle Jonassen be angry?" Remembering how excited Uncle Jonassen got when he saw gold made shivers run down Suleiman’s spine; he believed that Uncle Jonassen would definitely fight them if he found out.

"Your Uncle Jonassen won't be angry because he's very smart."

"Well, we should leave now. We can come back for more gold next time if no one finds Hamunaptra," Chen Xu said as they watched it disappear into the sunset.