anwhile, Lin Jie chose a path of inward exploration.
He shut himself inside a ditation and research chamber provided by the Hall of Light.
This quiet room had a simple, ancient structure. Its four walls were made of polished sandstone with no extra carvings or decorations. Only the wall opposite the door was inscribed with a wise aphorism in hieroglyphs.
"Know thyself, and thou shalt know the universe and the gods."
Lin Jie sat cross-legged on a rush mat woven from papyrus in the center of the room. Spread open before him was the papyrus manuscript personally gifted by the High Priest.
This manuscript was extrely ancient. The paper was fragile with age, and the writing was in a set of priestly symbols more primitive and obscure than hieroglyphs. If Julian hadn't translated and annotated it beforehand, Lin Jie probably wouldn't have been able to understand a single character.
Having isolated himself from the outside noise and the anxiety brought by his companion's injuries, Lin Jie could finally imrse his mind in this ancient wisdom from thousands of years ago.
He began to systematically study and research the "mythological variant" of Osiris, the King of the Underworld, whose fate had intersected with his own.
The manuscript's contents overturned his previous understanding of ancient Egyptian mythology.
In the mythological system he was familiar with, Osiris was typically portrayed as a benevolent king and judge of the underworld. He was killed by his brother Set, resurrected by his wife Isis, and ultimately beca the ruler of the world of the dead.
His story was interwoven with the tragic thes of death, betrayal, and rebirth.
Yet, in this secret text passed down through generations of the Royal Court, Osiris's image was far more complex.
The manuscript recorded that in older, more primitive beliefs unaltered by later priests, Osiris's authority was not limited to "death."
He also symbolized the flooding of the Nile, the fertility of the land, and the growth of plants.
At the very bottom of the text was a crude illustration depicting an ancient Egyptian sacrificial ritual.
In the drawing, priests were offering sacrifices to a plant that had erged from the ground, resembling a giant root nodule.
Imdiately after, Lin Jie saw, in a section of annotations heavily circled in red ink by Julian, a first-person account from a certain first-generation Observer that made his scalp tingle.
"It, which we call Osiris, is neither god nor spirit, but the pulse of the earth."
"Withering and flourishing once a year, in rhythm with the Nile. When the dry season arrives, its form resembles withered wood, lying dormant in the abyssal depths beneath the earth. All things wither and fade with it. This is its 'death'."
"When Sirius rises and the river floods, we take the secretions of the Holy Sand Scarabs and fragnts of the Solar Boat, mix them with river water, and pour them into the crevice where it slumbers. Three days later, the earth rumbles. Its new sprouts will inevitably break through the soil, winding around the obelisk as they ascend. The aura it radiates can cause all plants to regrow and grains to flourish abundantly. This is its 'life'."
"Its withered husk is also fertile soil. This cycle repeats, endless and unceasing."
Lin Jie's fingertip lightly traced this translated passage. A new understanding welled up in his heart.
From a UMA biological perspective, the two creatures, Nekhbet and Osiris, ford a relationship of predator and complent.
As the top predator, the existence of the Upper Egyptian White Vulture depended on a prosperous, stable ecosystem to provide prey.
The Osiris UMA maintained the vitality of this land through its cycle of life and death.
On a macroscopic ecological chain, the two ford a tightly closed energy loop.
Osiris was responsible for producing and recycling life force, while the Upper Egyptian White Vulture regulated and maintained the apex balance of this ecosystem through predation.
One sustained the foundation, the other managed and restrained. Together, they served the Pharaoh.
On the surface of mythology, these two creatures seed barely connected, even belonging to two different domains.
But at the most fundantal level of logic, they together constituted the most important concept in the ancient Egyptian worldview.
That was—the cycle of life.
The two were two sides of the sa coin, the alternation of day and night, each indispensable and mutually foundational.
And previously, the spiritual power within him was incomplete. One side of the scale was mountains, the other side was empty.
This significant imbalance was perhaps the root cause of the UMA will's harshness and exclusivity.
Now, those few strands of spiritual essence from the Scales of the Dead within Lin Jie had provided the theoretical foundation for this engine to achieve balance.
But the problem was that he, as the driver of this engine, didn't know how to start it.
Every burst of ability was a passive reaction triggered by external crisis, accompanied by uncontrollability and imnse risk.
He needed an "ignition device" that would allow him to actively turn this engine on and off at will.
Carrying this new idea, Lin Jie stood up from the quiet room.
He knew that for a problem involving the precise combination of spirituality and machinery, there might be one person who could give him an answer.
Arthur Conan.
However, the genius craftsman in London couldn't solve the urgent situation at hand. Lin Jie needed a local alternative.
He imdiately found Ethan, who was in the operations room, troubled by the flood of intelligence.
"I need an Armant Blacksmith." Lin Jie's opening was direct and blunt. "In Luxor or all of Egypt, is there a trustworthy and sufficiently skilled craftsman?"
Ethan was sowhat confused by this sudden question, but he quickly pulled out a list of "cooperative personnel" from the I.A.R.C. Cairo Branch from the mountain of docunts.
"Egypt's native inner world power system leans towards curses and protective talismans. They aren't skilled in chanical modifications." Ethan's brow furrowed as his eyes scanned the long list. "Most craftsn can only perform so superficial weapon enchantnts. Truly skilled masters are practically non-existent."
Just as he was about to give up, Ethan's finger suddenly stopped on a nearly forgotten na at the very bottom of the list.
"Wait, perhaps there is one person." Ethan's tone carried a hint of uncertainty. "He's not Egyptian, nor is he an official mber of the Association. He's an Arnian, a jewelry designer living in seclusion in the Coptic Quarter of Luxor's old city."
"His na is Vahé Manukian." Ethan read out the exotic-sounding na. "The file says he once crafted a protective heart mirror for an Ottoman Sultan that could resist ntal impact from assassins. But his temper is strange, and his fees are shockingly high."
"Him, then." Lin Jie made the decision without much hesitation.
That afternoon, deep within the labyrinthine, narrow alleys of the Coptic Quarter in Luxor's old city, Lin Jie and Ethan finally found that jewelry design studio with no sign, disguised as an ordinary silverware shop.
They were greeted by a short, white-bearded Arnian old man with a pair of thick tortoiseshell glasses perched on his nose.
He was Vahé Manukian.
The old man clearly had no goodwill towards the two uninvited "gentlen."
He scrutinized the two for a long ti with a critical gaze like one examining subpar gemstones, then said coldly in stiff English, "This shop only accepts custom orders from royalty. If you two gentlen just want to buy so cheap tourist souvenirs, please exit and turn left."
Ethan was about to reveal his "Redgrave" surna, but Lin Jie subtly stopped him.
Lin Jie understood that with masters possessing unique skills like this, any display of secular power or wealth was a foolish opening move.
He stepped forward and placed his right hand, covered by the White Vulture's Mark, on the old man's workbench, which was covered with precision tools and gemstone fragnts.
That mark instantly captured the old man's full attention.
Master Manukian's breath nearly stopped at that mont.
He had seen this symbol before.
In the oldest Arnian jewelry design secret texts passed down through generations of his family, there had been scattered records about this mark.
"Nekhbet…" He murmured the na with a tone of reverence and disbelief.
"Master," Lin Jie's voice sounded, "I need a switch."
He didn't explain the origin of the mark and directly stated his requirent.
"I need a trigger that allows to actively mobilize and guide this power."
"It must be small enough to conceal, and its activation chanism must be simple."
Then, Lin Jie gave a preliminary explanation of his "ignition device" concept to this jewelry master.
After the initial shock, Master Manukian's professional obsession as a top-tier craftsman quickly overwheld the reverence born of myth.
He adjusted his glasses, grabbed Lin Jie's right hand, and aid an engraved magnifying glass at the mark.
A light of obsession, similar to Arthur's, burst forth in his eyes.
"A perfect spiritual structure. This is practically a circuit diagram drawn by God's own hand!"
He muttered to himself while quickly grabbing a piece of parchnt and using charcoal to swiftly sketch down the complex spiritual nodes and flow paths he saw under the magnifying glass, invisible to the naked eye.
"A trigger, a physical switch. Interesting, a very interesting idea."
His mind was already imrsed in this challenge.
"No, a ring's structure is too simple. It can't bear a sufficiently complex spiritual guidance matrix."
He sketched while rejecting his own ideas.
"A bracelet? No, too bulky and not conducive to instant activation."
Finally, Manukian's gaze settled on Lin Jie's slender, bony fingers.
A bold and ingenious idea took shape in his mind.
"I might have a solution."
He pushed the parchnt, covered in sketches and complex data annotations, in front of Lin Jie.
In the center of the parchnt, Manukian had drawn, with precise strokes, a "knuckle duster" combining Victorian-era retro aesthetics and Arnian classical jewelry inlay craftsmanship.
Or rather, a "twin knuckle ring" worn on the index and middle fingers.
The main body of the ring was connected by a chain in the middle. Inside the ring was a set of miniature chanical structures as precise as a clockwork movent.
"Look here." Master Manukian pointed with the tip of his pen at the core part of the drawing.
"When you make a fist with your fingers, it will drive this pressure transmission device hidden inside the ring."
"This device will drive this set of miniature gears, which will then push these two probes…"
He pointed at two probes extending from inside the ring on the drawing, thinner than embroidery needles.
"…to accurately pierce two key spiritual nodes on your palm, thereby connecting the spiritual energy circuit of the mark."
"And when you release your fist," a proud smile appeared on his face, "the entire device automatically resets, cutting off the energy output."
"It is a Spiritual Guidance Trigger that obeys only your muscle commands!"
This design, blending imagination and the beauty of precision chanics, impressed Lin Jie.
He imdiately agreed to the proposal.
For the next two days, Lin Jie witnessed the birth process of an artwork.
Master Manukian first brought a piece of spiritual obsidian said to be from deep within a pharaoh's tomb. Using an ancient, lost cutting technique, he polished it into two ring blanks that fit Lin Jie's knuckles.
Then, he placed a piece of rare Osirian holy gold, provided at high cost by Ethan, into the alchemical furnace.
After several hours of complex slting involving over a dozen different mineral powders, he finally drew out two slender yet resilient "resonance probes."
The most impressive part was the assembly of the movent.
Even with Lin Jie's dynamic vision enhanced by the ntal Staircase, he could only barely see a blurry afterimage.
Countless tiny gold gears, ruby bearings, and mithril springs were precisely embedded inside the small rings under the nimble operation of Master Manukian's tweezers.
Finally, when the last piece of sapphire crystal protecting the movent was perfectly inlaid.
A masterpiece combining Victorian-era retro aesthetics, Arnian classical jewelry inlay craftsmanship, and top-tier chanical beauty lay quietly in the old man's palm, stained with grease and tal shavings.
It looked like two slightly exaggerated signet rings connected by a gold chain in the middle.
The entirely black spiritual obsidian was polished to a smooth finish. Mithril inlays ford an abstract totem of the sacred bird of the ancient Egyptian protective goddess Nekhbet—the white vulture.
And at the eyes of the totem, two tiny, dazzling diamonds were set.
Had one not seen it with their own eyes, no one could imagine that beneath this gorgeous and mysterious exterior hid a precision weapon that could be called a "miracle of horology."
"…Try it, young man."
Master Manukian solemnly handed the still-warm Spiritual Guidance Trigger into Lin Jie's hands.
Lin Jie took a deep breath and slipped this "switch" onto his index and middle fingers.
The fit was perfect.
The inner wall of the ring, made of spiritual obsidian, transmitted a cool, smooth sensation, seeming to resonate faintly with the mark on the back of his hand.
He turned his gaze towards a mosquito that had been buzzing incessantly in the corner of the quiet room.
Then, imitating the motion of pulling a trigger.
Slowly, he clenched his right fist.
"Click!"
A spring chanism sound, audible only to Lin Jie, ca from inside the ring.
Imdiately after, a faint stinging sensation ca from the two energy nodes on his palm pierced by the probes.
In the next second, sothing incredible happened.
For the first ti, without any external stimulus, Lin Jie actively triggered the White Vulture's Mark with a purely physical action.
A visible, soft white light, like living flowing water, slowly stread out from the mark on the back of his hand.
The light wasn't blinding but carried a powerful presence.
It didn't transform into majestic wing phantoms or spiritual storms sweeping everything away like it had in the Karnak Temple or the Osiris Shrine.
Instead, with Lin Jie's palm as the center, it extended outward, forming a translucent, eggshell-like miniature domain!
This domain hovered quietly and steadily around Lin Jie's body, isolating him from the outside world.
Lin Jie could feel that within this domain, he was the master!
A thought stirred in his heart, and he looked towards the mosquito in the corner of the quiet room.
Just as the thought arose, the mosquito that had just flown into the range of his domain seed to hit an invisible wall.
Its rapidly vibrating wings instantly lost balance. The entire insect tumbled chaotically in mid-air without direction, eventually fleeing in panic from this bizarre space that made it feel severely uncomfortable.
A look of ecstatic joy appeared on Lin Jie's face.
Within this domain, any biological entity with foreign properties, without his permission, would be affected by an invisible pressure.
To further verify his conjecture, Lin Jie's gaze searched the quiet room for other suitable "test subjects."
Finally, his eyes settled on a forgotten clay jar in the corner.
It was an ordinary jar for pickled olives. At that mont, several large Egyptian black beetles, attracted by the residual food scent, were crawling out of its mouth one by one.
That's it!
Lin Jie approached the clay jar.
The boldest black beetle had just crawled out of the jar's mouth and was preparing to climb down the jar's wall.
When its front legs made contact with Lin Jie's invisible domain, its hard black carapace suddenly stiffened. Its six legs covered in fine bristles began to tremble and twitch uncontrollably.
The black beetle abandoned its downward climb and forgot to turn and flee.
It just stiffened in place, shivering from a pure, biological fear!
After a few seconds, the beetle could no longer withstand the pressure from the "superior being."
Its six legs went limp, and the entire insect lost all strength, flipping over with a soft "plop" onto its back as it fell from the smooth jar wall.
Success!
Lin Jie's heart beat faster.
He had finally directly witnessed this authority from the "Lord of the Sky." He had successfully opened an inviolable wing of feathers around his own body!
Although the range of this domain was currently very small, covering only about three ters around his body.
This was a huge and fundantal improvent in his personal strength since his transmigration!
But this ecstasy didn't last long.
After maintaining it for less than thirty seconds, Lin Jie felt the familiar exhaustion sweep through his body.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his complexion began to turn sowhat pale.
The miniature domain surrounding his body finally dissipated silently in the air like a punctured soap bubble.
Panting heavily, Lin Jie plopped back down onto the rush mat.
He sowhat helplessly realized that he seed… to have celebrated too early.
Actively opening and maintaining this domain was still a huge burden on his current body.
In his current state, at full exertion, he could maintain it for at most… about one minute.
More crucially, the effect this domain currently displayed was rely simple biological pressure.
It could affect mosquitoes and insects, but could it affect more complex creatures? Even soone like Yan Xilou?
All of this was still unknown.
How to efficiently apply this powerful authority in the rapidly changing battlefield of actual combat.
This beca the next problem laid before him.
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