21st Century Necromancer

"We're quite lucky that this temple isn't submerged in water right now." Standing by the ancient Temple of Osiris, Professor Smith said with a touch of excitement, introducing it to Chen Yu and Major General Claire.

The temple he's referring to is not the Temple of Seti I, which Chen Yu previously visited, but the older Temple of Osiris located behind it.

This temple is situated at a lower elevation than the Temple of Seti I, and it's very close to the Nile River, so when the river's water level rises, part of this temple becomes submerged, making it inaccessible.

However, the Nile is currently in its dry season, and there's only a bit of water and silt inside the temple, so it doesn't affect entry.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the temple before us is one of the oldest buildings of Ancient Egypt. Its construction date can even be traced back to the early days of Ancient Egypt, concurrent with the era of the Sphinx." As Professor Smith eagerly descended the stairs into the temple, he continued his enthusiastic introduction.

This temple is indeed very ancient; it is entirely underground and surrounded by waterways, symbolizing the primordial waters from Egyptian mythology flowing through here.

Many people think of Egypt as a land full of deserts, but in fact, due to the nourishment from the Nile, cities built during the ancient Egyptian era weren't particularly lacking in water. So despite having endured thousands of years, these cities remain standing on this ancient land.

"Ancient Egyptian civilization has many magical and magnificent aspects, such as the famous Temple of Ramses II. On February 21st and October 21st every year, which are the accession and birthday of Ramses II, respectively, during sunrise, sunlight would pierce through the temple's main door and traverse a 60-meter-long hall to directly illuminate the face of Ramses II's statue on the altar. There has never been any deviation in thousands of years." While talking about the Temple of Ramses II, Professor Smith seemed extremely excited, gesturing emphatically with his hands. "Unfortunately, the construction of the Aswan Dam led to the rise of the Nile's water level, prompting UNESCO to oversee the temple's relocation. I participated in the project, but even with precise calculations by hundreds of scientists using computers, there was still a deviation, where sunlight now illuminates Ramses II's face a day earlier, and the angle has also deviated. How did those Ancient Egyptians achieve such precision without modern tools?"

It's indeed incredible. Thousands of years ago, in Ancient Egypt, without modern computers and measurement tools, using almost nonexistent primitive tools and manual calculations, they achieved results more precise than those from modern computers. This is a testament to the intelligence and wisdom of Ancient Egyptians.

Chen Yu was also impressed by the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians. However, coming from another equally great ancient civilization himself, Chen Yu wasn't as shocked as Professor Smith and even made a cheeky joke: "Perhaps the Ancient Egyptians received help from the deities? The pharaohs believed they could rival the deities, so perhaps they really could in history."

"Yes, perhaps the Ancient Egyptians truly received help from the deities." Having studied Ancient Egyptian civilization for many years, Professor Smith, though ordinary, is somewhat aware that the world isn't as simple as it seems. Chen Yu's joking remark may, in his ears, represent a possible historical truth.

If it were Chen Yu in his student days, he might believe the online rumors, the idea that the pyramids and these miraculous structures of Ancient Egypt were the works of aliens.

But after witnessing another side of the world and personally seeing these miraculous ancient architectures, Chen Yu felt these exquisite and magical buildings were constructed by the Ancient Egyptians relying on their intelligence and possibly a bit of help from the deities.

However, after entering the temple, Chen Yu and Professor Smith did not discuss this topic further. Instead, Major General Claire, standing nearby, asked Professor Smith with some concern, "Professor, how's the preparation for the rites and rituals?"

"The procedures for the rites have been confirmed, and all preparations are complete." Professor Smith answered Major General Claire's question, which is why Claire had asked him to oversee this matter in the first place, but he also expressed his concern: "Only who should preside over the rites? According to the translated material, the person presiding over the rites should be a Priest of Osiris, but the Temple of Osiris has been deserted for thousands of years. Where do we find a Priest of Osiris?"

"Can't someone else replace the priest?" Major General Claire frowned. It's been over a thousand years since Ancient Egypt's ruin; indeed, it's hard to find a Priest of Osiris.

The priests of Ancient Egyptian deities weren't simple positions, and not anyone could perform this role.

Priests had requirements concerning lineage; a Priest of Osiris couldn't be a descendant of Seti. The priest presiding over rites dedicated to the Sun God shouldn't be a Priest of the Dark God; these were the basic requirements.

Moreover, as priests of Ancient Egyptian deities, they needed to understand Hieroglyphics, which is different from what's recorded on papyrus in the monastic script or the demotic script used for secular purposes. It's the formal script used by Ancient Egyptians in solemn occasions, inscriptions on many Egyptian temples and pyramids are also in Hieroglyphics.

When the script was first created, it was imbued with great power, and as one of the oldest scripts, Ancient Egyptian's Hieroglyphics naturally possessed such power.

In the rites dedicated to Ancient Egyptian deities, official liturgy and prayers needed to be recited in Hieroglyphics, using the power embedded in the words to communicate with the deities, thereby gaining favor and blessings. Hence, priests knowledgeable in Hieroglyphics were incredibly important.

However, the Ancient Egyptian civilization has been extinct for over a thousand years, not to mention the priestly lineage; finding someone today who can correctly use Hieroglyphics is difficult.

Despite modern archaeologists deciphering the Ancient Egyptian script since San Boliang, this only means that they understand what these scripts say, what they record, but it doesn't mean that today's archaeologists can accurately know the pronunciation of these scripts.

It's like modern Chinese people can't imagine how Chinese from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods used to speak. Ancient Chinese and modern Chinese, just by listening to the pronunciation, you might feel like it's a foreign language from some unknown country.

Professor Smith explained this issue to Major General Claire, also indicating that if someone random were to substitute, the rites wouldn't take effect, thus it would just be a restoration of the ritual process.

Considering the situation, Chen Yu spoke after a moment of thought: "Let me do it. If it's just invoking the name of Osiris, I can manage to do it."