Two kings make a decision
An ominous crimson light shot out from the gap in the slowly opening giant stone eye, illuminating the turbid surface of the Nile River into a sea of blood.
In this strange light, the Temple of Ra's Left Eye, which had sunk for a thousand years, rose inch by inch from the receding torrent with a roar that shook the earth. Its majestic outline broke through the water surface, and finally stood upright again on the opposite bank of the city of Thebes like an ancient giant beast.
The half-open giant eye stared coldly at the thousand-year-old capital, as if a disturbed ancient god was examining his long-forgotten people.
The temple appeared and the giant eye opened.
This scene, which was beyond mortal comprehension, was like a thunderclap that instantly detonated the entire Egypt.
Waves of fear and awe swept through every street. The people knelt on the ground, prostrating themselves in the direction of the temple, muttering ancient prayers.
Rumors spread faster than a flood. The saying that "the Eye of the Sun has chosen a new master and the old pharaoh will be abandoned by the gods" spread throughout Upper and Lower Egypt overnight.
Like wolves smelling blood, the remnants of Amenhotep's followers immediately seized the opportunity and spread carefully crafted prophecies among the crowd: "The old king will fall, and the true god will return! The wrath of Ra will cleanse the unclean throne!"
Inside the palace, the atmosphere was completely different from the frenzy outside, and was dead silent.
Ding Wei stood in front of the huge map of Egypt, her fingertips running across the area where the temple was located.
Her eyes were clear and sharp, without a trace of panic.
The ancient geological files she read all night formed a clear picture in her mind - the foundation of the temple was located right on a hidden Nile fault zone.
Thousands of years of groundwater erosion have already made the rock structure beneath the temple fragile, forming a delicate buoyancy balance.
The devastating explosion that destroyed the dam not only triggered a flood, but also a small-scale man-made earthquake.
The tiny vibration of the earth's crust completely broke this fragile balance, which is the real reason why the temple floated up!
"A miracle?" Ding Wei sneered, "It's just physics playing a thousand-year-old joke."
Without the slightest hesitation, she immediately summoned Isis, who also had a serious expression on her face.
"As a priestess of Thebes, go to the outskirts of the temple immediately." Ding Wei's order was clear and decisive.
"Hold a grand 'Soul-Calming Ceremony'. Tell everyone that this is to appease the disturbed spirit of the god Ra. But your real mission is to use the ritual as a pretext to completely seal the entrance to the temple with the priestly guards. No one is allowed to approach without my order!"
Isis looked at her deeply, and read the unquestionable determination in her calm eyes. She nodded heavily, turned around and left quickly.
The night was dark, but the palace hall was brightly lit.
Ramses' high fever had not subsided, and his pale face was abnormally flushed, but he was still wearing the royal robe, sitting on the golden throne, and trying his best to preside over this emergency court meeting.
His eyes swept across the nobles and ministers below with different expressions like a hawk.
"Your Majesty!" The obese nobleman Seti was the first to stand up, his voice full of feigned grief and piety.
"The temple has appeared in the world, this is a divine oracle! Yet, relying on womanly wisdom, you have presumptuously interpreted it as a miracle and even sent people to seal off the holy site. This is a great disrespect to the gods! We implore Pharaoh to hand over the affairs of the temple to the high priests to appease the wrath of the god Ra!"
"That's right! Please think twice, Pharaoh!" A group of old nobles immediately echoed with thunderous voices.
Ding Wei walked slowly out from behind the throne, without a trace of anger on her face, as calm as a deep pool of water.
She didn't argue with them, but just clapped her hands lightly.
Heavy footsteps were heard, and several guards carried three heavy coffins and placed them heavily in the center of the hall.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Three muffled sounds made the entire hall quiet in an instant.
"Lord Seti!" Ding Wei's voice was not loud, but it was clearly heard by everyone.
"Before discussing the gods, let's first look at the sins of mortals."
She signaled the guards to open the first two coffins, and the two bodies, which were swollen but still recognizable as Nubians, were exposed to everyone.
"These two were spies captured near the dam ruins a few days ago. I'm sure you're familiar with them. They've already confessed to being ordered to detonate the dam."
The nobles were in an uproar, but Seti snorted coldly: "What does a mere Nubian spy have to do with the temple?"
"Of course it is related." Ding Wei's gaze turned to the third, and most gorgeous, coffin.
The guards opened the coffin lid and found no body inside, only a secret scroll made of expensive papyrus.
Ding Wei picked up the scroll herself and slowly unfolded it amid the astonished gazes of the crowd.
Written on it in the most orthodox ancient Egyptian temple script were large, murderous characters: "In the name of God's wrath, purge the court and establish a new god!"
"Boom!" Inside the hall, the ministers were in an uproar!
This is no longer a conspiracy, but a naked declaration of rebellion!
Ding Wei seemed oblivious to everyone's shock and continued, "We found this secret order in one of Amenhotep's secret bases. Even more interesting is the ink used to write it..."
She held the scroll close to the candlelight, and a faint smell of sulfur filled the air.
"...contains trace amounts of sulfur. This smell is exactly the same as the blue flame residue used by the assassin that night."
As she finished speaking, Isis, who had been standing quietly by her side, stepped forward and testified in her uniquely cold voice as a priestess, "This sulfur-containing ink is unique to the temple's forbidden area and is used to draw certain special runes to ward off evil. Its formula has never been passed down to anyone else. Unless taught personally by the high priestess, no one can obtain it!"
Everyone's eyes were instantly focused on Seti, whose expression suddenly changed.
Everyone knows that he has a close relationship with the high priest whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Seti's body began to tremble uncontrollably, beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead. He opened his mouth, but could not utter a word. Amidst the contemptuous and horrified gazes of the crowd, he retreated silently, almost shrinking into the shadows.
Ding Wei surveyed the room, seizing this fleeting opportunity and proposing aloud, "To uncover the truth and shatter the conspiracy, I propose that Fa-□□ and I jointly preside over a 'delusion-breaking ceremony,' personally entering the temple to uncover the truth behind this so-called 'oracle'!"
She paused, her voice suddenly rising, filled with irresistible power: "If there is indeed an oracle in the temple proving that I am a blasphemer, I, Ding Wei, am willing to abdicate the throne of queen in front of all the people of this country, imprison myself in the temple, and be a slave for life! But if there is no god involved, and it is just some man-made trick, then I also ask all the priests in this country to bear witness to the abolition of the temple's right to interfere in national affairs, and return power to the king, and the trust of the people!"
This is a huge gamble, a gamble on her own future and the future of the entire theocracy!
All the civil and military officials in the court were speechless.
In this dead silence, Ramses, who had been silent all the time, slowly reached out and held Ding Wei's hand tightly.
His burning palms conveyed unquestionable faith.
He stood up, and though his body swayed slightly, his voice resounded like a bell throughout the hall: "Wherever she goes, I will be there in person. Her life will be protected by my royal authority!"
That night, a huge royal boat, illuminated by thousands of torches, cut through the dark Nile like a sharp sword and sailed towards the silent giant.
On both sides of Thebes, the people who heard the news spontaneously held up torches, forming two brilliant galaxies, silently seeing off their king and queen.
The interior of the temple was eerie and silent, the air filled with the smell of a mixture of thousands of years of dust and water vapor.
This place is full of deadly traps.
A huge gravity pressure plate fell down with a loud bang when they stepped into the main passage. However, Ding Wei calmly calculated the supporting point and ordered the guards to use crowbars to jam the core of the mechanism, thus averting danger.
As deadly poison gas gushed out of tiny holes in the wall, she used her understanding of air fluid mechanics to find the hidden vents and reverse the airflow.
And Ramses, in front of the last heavy bronze door, used the secret order passed down from generation to generation in the royal family to turn an unknown gear on the door, opening the way to the core.
At the deepest part of the temple is a huge circular stone chamber.
In the center of the stone chamber, a huge sun gear device made of gold and bronze stands quietly, connected by countless complex gears and chains.
In the very center of the sun wheel, there is a black crystal the size of a human head. It is as deep as the night sky, and there seem to be stars flowing inside it - this is the legendary "Left Eye of Ra".
Ding Wei walked forward quickly, her eyes not fixed on the gold, but on the bottom of the device.
She discovered that the crystal was connected to an underground water vein beneath the temple's foundation through an extremely sophisticated system of levers and water wheels.
"I see..." she muttered.
"This isn't a divine eye at all. It's an ancient and magnificent...seismograph!" The so-called "divine eye opening and closing" is simply the result of changes in the groundwater level, triggering the mechanical linkage that drives the outer stone eyelids open and close!
She took a deep breath, and under the nervous gaze of Ramses and Isis, she reached out and decisively took out the core black crystal.
"Boom—"
The stone chamber shook violently, and the entire temple seemed to let out an unwilling sigh.
Then, they could clearly hear the huge stone eyelids on the outside of the temple slowly closing.
On the way back home, the night breeze blew on my face.
Ding Wei handed the cold black crystal to Isis.
"This object isn't divine power, but the wisdom of our ancestors. If the truth is made public, it might dispel millennia-old superstitions. But if it's hidden deep within the palace, it might become the root cause of the next power struggle."
Isis held the crystal in her hands, thinking for a long time. Her eyes gleamed with an unprecedented light, and she whispered, "Your Majesty, why don't you hand this item over to the seven major temples of Upper and Lower Egypt for safekeeping? Let them swear a blood oath never to use it in power struggles, but to keep it as a symbol of our ancestors' wisdom for future generations to admire."
Ding Wei nodded approvingly and looked at Ramses beside her.
He kept gazing at her, his eyes filled with complex emotions she couldn't understand. Suddenly, he chuckled softly, "You once told me that our union didn't require the witness of a god. But today, in this land, you have become a miracle more real than all the gods combined."
Before he finished speaking, a dark shadow quickly passed by in the eastern sky at dawn.
It was a messenger eagle from the border.
The news it brought excited everyone on board - the new envoy from the Hittite Empire had arrived at the border again with a letter of credence.
This time, their request was no longer to meet with the Pharaoh alone, but to meet with the "two kings" of Egypt.
The envoy also brought a secret message: "May the wind of the steppe flow with the water of the Nile."
Ding Wei held Ramses' hand tightly, her mind clear.
She knew that the storm that swept Egypt had not subsided, and a bigger game had just begun.
But this time, they are no longer just drifters who passively respond to the storm.
They are the navigators who control the sails and the rudder.
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