Ryan had cast several layers of protective spells on the mummy, even covering it with seven or eight pieces of talisman paper. After the preparations were complete, the mummy stepped onto the stone bridge under the gaze of the two men.
The moment the mummy stepped onto the stone bridge, it was as if a gust of wind blew away the gray layer on the entire stone bridge, revealing the intricately carved crystal bridge underneath.
"Looks like it's just a welcoming ceremony?" Ryan said this with a smile when the black mist that had been floating above the blood pool suddenly rushed towards the mummy on the bridge and enveloped him. After seven or eight seconds, the black mist dissipated, and the mummy turned into fragments of bones and fell into the blood pool.
Ryan: Uh, this slap in the face is a bit too quick.
In that instant, Ryan realized the black mist floating above the pool of blood wasn't actually mist at all, but a swarm of tiny insects the size of sesame seeds. These insects possessed a magical resistance and possessed a formidable gnawing ability. Just now, their swarm had easily devoured the fully prepared mummy in a matter of seconds.
Ryan then tried throwing samples of various items from his possession onto the bridge, but nothing he had on him could stop the creatures from gnawing at him. However, during the experiment, Ryan discovered that the bugs had two states: real and ethereal. Their ethereal form was even more lethal to living things than their physical form was to inanimate objects. (Xiaoqing, bribed with five jars of sunlight crystals, sacrificed a clone to investigate.)
Similarly, these bugs had very high magical defenses, and all magic had little effect on them. It seemed that forcing their way in would only add nutrients to the blood pool below.
"Or we can just go back and rush over from the main road." Hermione suggested after seeing Ryan standing here experimenting for a long time but still looking unhappy.
"The problem is, those guys blocking the main road are terrorists." Ryan hesitated for a moment, but thinking about the information he'd obtained about the Blood God Cult, he became more determined. "Wizards who fall into their hands often become raw materials for their experiments. Compared to over there, at least they can die more quickly here. Besides, I think I have a way to deal with these bugs."
Ryan pulled a piece of white cloth painted with various mysterious patterns from his space bag and spread it across the junction of the platform and the bridge, then sat cross-legged on it. This cloth was made from the spider silk obtained from the centaurs after the extermination of the giant acromantula in the Forbidden Forest. Numerous runes were drawn on it using precious materials. This cloth served as a temporary altar where no altar existed, but it could only be used three times before its magical power was exhausted.
Sitting on the white cloth, Ryan pulled a small knife from his pocket and cut his hand, letting the blood pool on the floor before him. He then drew out Clingwell's tooth, dipped it in the blood, and drew runes in the air. These runes became silver symbols that floated in mid-air, slowly circling Ryan.
"That looks like Chinese characters," Hermione muttered to herself. Indeed, this was the rune used in the Maoshan Shangqing Daoist method to communicate with the dead.
If Nordic life magic is like a raging fire, skillfully manipulating various dead creatures and the forces of death, particularly effective with those souls that have lost their self-awareness, Eastern methods of communicating with the dead tend to be like flowing water, tending to seep in silently and gradually, moistening things. It is much gentler in operation and is also more conducive to communicating with these souls that may have self-awareness.
"The Supreme Lord commands that all your lonely souls and ghosts, and all living beings, be blessed..." After Ryan finished reciting the spell, he glanced at the swarm of insects on the pond and found that they were flying even more chaotically.
This kind of requiem should theoretically calm the swarm of insects.
He decided to see what was going on. He gestured with his left hand and chanted, "Open your third eye," then silently opened his eyes.
Everything in front of him turned gray. He first checked himself and Hermione and found that the three orange-yellow life flames on their bodies were burning brightly, which meant that their souls were temporarily safe.
When he turned his gaze towards the blood pool, he was stunned. He saw countless blue will-o'-the-wisp lights floating above the pool. Each will-o'-the-wisp represented a deceased human soul. The bright spots above the pool indicated that there were at least 100,000 souls in that area. However, unlike normal souls, these souls were frozen and stiff, each bound by chains of black mist.
But these souls should still have some instinct. Ryan saw them magically surrounding the platform he was on, silently hovering in mid-air. They must have been attracted by the spell Ryan had just cast to liberate the dead souls.
It seemed the mantra was working. Thinking of this, Ryan channeled his merits into his recitation. As Ryan continued chanting, the black mist entwined with the will-o'-the-wisp gradually dissipated. Finally, after chanting the mantra seventy-seven forty-nine times, the black mist finally dissipated completely. The will-o'-the-wisp slowly recovered from their frozen state and began to regain some vitality.
But unlike other souls that were usually saved, Ryan's mantras were no longer effective. He also felt that these souls seemed to have some information to tell him.
"They shouldn't have any ill intentions." Ryan thought as he sent a thought to the souls in front of him, hoping that they could select a few generations to tell him what they wanted to say.
A few minutes later, three will-o'-the-wisp fires, which were a circle larger than the other will-o'-the-wisp fires, stood out from the crowd and appeared in front of Ryan, then sent a thought to him.
This thought contained a lot of information. After receiving the thought, Ryan spent several minutes to figure out what kind of information these ghosts wanted to tell him.
This pyramid is indeed a temple, but it is also the tomb of the most powerful wizard king in ancient times. In the era when the wizard king and his wizards ruled the land, they could produce fertile seeds, use powerful magic to change the flow of rivers and level the land, and make the wooden and stone tools in the hands of the natives tougher than metal.
In this situation, the powerful local indigenous people quickly conquered large tracts of land around them, and a jungle empire was born. They originally thought that everyone could live happily under the rule of the wizard, but they forgot that wizards are also human beings and will grow old with the passage of time.
So the Witch King began to frantically search for the path to eternal life. One day, the Witch King left without saying goodbye, and returned here a year later with wounds all over his body.
From then on, the Witch King became extremely violent. He killed everyone who tried to dissuade him, even his favorite concubine and most loyal minister. He then forced everyone to build this gigantic pyramid for him in the space he had created.
All the souls in this pool of blood are the souls of the builders who were killed during the construction of the pyramid because they were not obedient enough.
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