A Reckless Soul-Summoning Ritual

After three months of continuous study, Yinsen had practically drained Imhotep of all his knowledge.

Strictly speaking, Yinsen was now capable of resurrecting Anck-Su-Namun immediately. It would not even matter if her corpse was incomplete, nor would he need to prepare all sorts of ritual items. With Yinsen’s powerful magic and perfect control over spells alone, he could bring Anck-Su-Namun back to life.

Yet he still could not break free from the constraints of the Book of the Dead. He had no way to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun entirely through his own abilities.

That meant that even if Anck-Su-Namun was revived, she would remain subject to the Book of Amun-Ra—or rather, to the various gods.

This control did not mean the gods would simply crush you with overwhelming power. Rather, they barely needed to expend any power at all. With a single "rule," they could freely decide whether you lived or died, or even make you wish for death while denying it to you.

His head aching from all the thinking, Yinsen let his rapidly working mind go blank for a while. He sat on the floor in a daze for some time before finally feeling a little better.

When he looked up, he realized that only he and Ada, who had returned at some point, were in the room. Imhotep had stopped standing watch before Yinsen all the time, waiting for his questions.

Yinsen had already drained him of that knowledge. As for all kinds of knowledge concerning rituals, serving the gods, and his experiences in Ancient Egypt, Yinsen had little interest in any of it.

After "offering" all his knowledge to Yinsen and then sitting before him for more than two full months, answering the assorted questions Yinsen occasionally came up with, he had gained more and more free time.

Yinsen had been asking fewer and fewer questions lately. Recently, he might not ask even a single question all day. Most of the time, Imhotep wandered through Hamunaptra, seemingly reminiscing about its past glory.

Perhaps having been thoroughly taught a lesson by Yinsen had knocked the arrogance out of the High Priest. At the very least, Imhotep had been quite polite to Yinsen’s companions during this period. They got along reasonably well, and he would occasionally take them on walks through Hamunaptra, explaining what each "room" had once been used for.

Touring Hamunaptra and listening to Imhotep recount old stories had become one of their few forms of entertainment.

Moreover, most of them remained somewhat wary of Imhotep, so they generally chose to act as a group, leaving him no opportunity to entertain any bad ideas.

Only Ada occasionally acted alone. This spy truly did not enjoy moving around with the others, just like this time.

"Did you just get back from outside?"

Ada was beautiful and carried herself exceptionally well. Yinsen had never denied that a major reason he had invited her aboard his ship was her stunning looks.

But at that moment, Ada sat casually atop a stone platform, her short boots placed beside her. She was pulling off her socks, then snapping them repeatedly against the soles of her feet. She was probably trying to shake the fine sand out of them while also knocking off the sand clinging to her feet.

There was sand inside Hamunaptra as well, but not enough to get into every little crevice like this. Only someone returning from outside would need to do such a thing.

Hearing Yinsen’s question, Ada did not feel that her behavior damaged her image in the slightest. Once she saw that most of the sand had been cleared from her socks, she picked up the boots at her side and carefully dug through them.

"Not all of the Medjai have left. Some are still guarding the area nearby. I check every day to see whether their numbers have changed."

It was normal for the Medjai not to leave. One of their duties was to guard Hamunaptra. Even though Imhotep, the one they needed to be most wary of, had already been resurrected, they still had to remain there until their leaders made a new decision.

If the Medjai withdrew, it would mean they had reached a decision. Whether they intended to come looking for trouble with Yinsen and the others or simply disband afterward, either was possible.

If the Medjai’s numbers suddenly increased, it would mean that their presence here had been discovered. Such a sudden buildup of forces would likely mean they intended to attack Yinsen.

"It’s good to keep an eye on them. Who knows what those lunatics might do?"

After digging around for a while, Ada turned her boots upside down in front of her. As she kept tapping their sides, a pile of sand poured out.

"How much longer are we staying here? I feel like my skin has gotten much rougher."

"That is definitely your imagination. The Enhancement Potion I gave you is enough to ensure that weather like this does not affect you."

Resting his chin on his hand, Yinsen watched Ada’s entirely unladylike movements. None of it had anything to do with beauty, yet Yinsen found it rather interesting.

Most of what he knew about this woman came from several games and CG films from his previous life. In those works, no matter what sort of environment Ada was in, she always looked flawless. He would never have seen a sight like this.

After watching Ada fuss around for a while, she put her socks and boots back on. In an instant, she became that beautiful spy with impeccable poise again, as if the person doing all that just now had not been her.

"As for leaving this place… it really is about time."

Hamunaptra was, after all, a pyramid that had been built and then abandoned for thousands of years. It was not particularly comfortable to live in. After staying here for three months, even Yinsen was beginning to find it unbearable.

It was not that he could not endure hardship. When he had first gone to sea, had he not lived through wind, sun, and rain aboard that tiny boat? But when he had the ability to live better, he had no interest in tormenting himself. The only reason he had not found a comfortable place this time was that this place was relatively hidden, and Imhotep needed to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun here.

Now that he had learned the knowledge he wanted, and the problem was right there before him with no apparent solution in the short term, there was no point in continuing to waste time here. Why make himself suffer?

"I’m going to help Imhotep resurrect Anck-Su-Namun, then find somewhere a little more comfortable to continue my research."

He had originally planned to directly modify the resurrection spell, completely eliminating its hidden dangers and side effects. Then he would use Anck-Su-Namun’s resurrection to observe the actual results, determine whether further improvements were needed, or whether he could go straight to Tony.

Things had proven more troublesome than he expected. The changes he could make now were extremely minor, and all of them concerned insignificant details. The core problem remained unresolved.

The most important issue was how to evade the gaze of the god of death, find a soul that had already "slumbered" forever in the underworld, and pull it back into the world of the living.

At present, there was no particularly good solution. The resurrection spell in the Book of the Dead used the book to submit an application to the god of death, requesting his permission. The god of death would then place all sorts of marks upon that soul.

What Yinsen was considering now was whether those marks could be erased. If they could, then in a sense, that person would be resurrected completely without side effects. The shackles imposed upon them by the god of death or other powerful beings would no longer affect them.

Of course, if the god of death was petty and became determined to settle accounts with that person, there would still be many problems afterward.

Yinsen rose from the floor, patted the dust from his backside, and went with Ada to find Imhotep.

Imhotep was wandering around Hamunaptra with his "tour group," occasionally talking about the customs and culture of Ancient Egypt. When he saw Yinsen appear, he thought Yinsen had come up with another question. Instead, he heard the words he had been waiting for so long to hear.

"Let’s resurrect Anck-Su-Namun first."

This was a promise Yinsen had made before. He would not ignore it just because he had fought Imhotep once.

Keeping his word had always been a line Yinsen had drawn for himself, one he would never cross.

Imhotep knew that Yinsen had always wanted to alter that Resurrection Ritual. But as a High Priest, he was even more wary of the authority of the god of death. He longed for the kind of resurrection Yinsen had described, one that could completely escape the god of death’s control, but after calming down, he felt it was unrealistic.

After these past few months, he had set that "unrealistic" idea aside. All he wanted now was to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun as quickly as possible, then live in a Two-Person World with his beloved.

But he did not dare suggest to Yinsen, "Stop wasting time and resurrect Anck-Su-Namun directly." Deep down, he still held a faint hope that Yinsen might truly succeed. Wouldn’t that be even better?

Although it now seemed that Yinsen had not succeeded, Imhotep had long since lost the mood to dwell on such matters at the prospect of seeing his beloved revived. He immediately led Yinsen to the Stone Chamber he had prepared long ago, the chamber used for the Resurrection Ritual.

He had already prepared everything they would need, and Anck-Su-Namun’s body had long since been moved there. In fact, if he could obtain the Book of the Dead, Imhotep could resurrect Anck-Su-Namun immediately.

However, if Imhotep presided over the Resurrection Ritual, he would need a sacrifice, trading one life for Anck-Su-Namun’s soul to return to the mortal world.

Yinsen, on the other hand, did not intend to do that. He wanted to use the Spring Water of Life and sufficiently powerful magic to forcibly summon Anck-Su-Namun’s soul back and restore vitality to her body.

The only uncertainty was whether the god of death, who ruled the underworld, would be displeased that no life had been offered to fill Anck-Su-Namun’s vacancy.

"We should prepare a sacrifice."

Yinsen seemed unable to improve the Resurrection Ritual, and out of caution, Imhotep felt that having a sacrifice would be safer.

But Yinsen had no intention of doing that. He had agreed to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun because he wanted to use this ritual to test his various ideas and verify certain things. So, on the way here, he decided once again to take a reckless gamble according to his own plan.

For instance, he would first try to bypass the god of death’s permission and directly use his own magic to "hook" Anck-Su-Namun’s soul out of the underworld.

Such an act naturally carried tremendous risks, so before acting, Yinsen deliberately signaled Logan and the others with his eyes, telling them to gather together near him. If anything went wrong, he would immediately activate the Teleportation Magic Array and run.