Even so.
Anubis should have reacted and perceived something.
"Unless..."
Ian's black feathers gently stood up.
"Unless Anubis doesn't know either."
This thought made him shiver. What kind of existence can quietly make the leader of the Nine Pillar Gods disappear, and even keep other gods in the dark?
Ian furrowed his brow tightly.
The evening prayer bell echoed from outside the temple, its lingering resonance vibrating between the stone pillars.
Moonlight streamed through the high stained glass, casting the pattern of Ra defeating Apep onto the ground. Ian watched as the priests returned to their posts, their white robes spotless in the morning light, their expressions impeccably devout. Were it not for what he'd seen with his own eyes, he would never believe such a terrifying secret lay beneath this holy hall.
"Truly bewildering," the raven silently flapped its wings, flying to an unoccupied corner of the eaves, "but I've come to this era to find materials, not to solve mysteries..."
His target was the genuine fragment of the "Eye of the Ra." What he had just witnessed, although shocking, was ultimately peripheral to someone like him who did not belong to this era.
What he needed was the fragment, not the truth.
Time passed quickly.
After completing their evening duties, the priests were ready to rest. Once the last priest's footsteps faded at the end of the corridor, Ian gracefully descended from the corner of the eave. Upon touching the ground, his form stretched and twisted like smoke, his feathers transforming into a black robe, and his bird's beak retracting into a prominent nose.
Standing in the moonlight, Ian gently patted his robes and took out a small silver pocket watch from within his vest — it was his self-made "Divinity Sensor."
The watch's needle quivered slightly, yet without pointing clearly.
"Looks like the fragment isn't in the underground secret chamber... nor in the main hall."
He murmured quietly.
"Looks like I'll have to find it myself." Ian cast upon himself the "Illusionary Body Spell" — a high-level illusion technique that allowed his form and aura to fully blend into the environment, becoming invisible and intangible like air. With Ian's current cultivation, only the rare few with divine perception could detect his presence.
Ian's body became gradually transparent, occasionally refracting a faint rainbow light at certain angles. He moved along the wall, his ears picking up every subtle sound. The morning activities in the temple had fully commenced, while the distant chant of the night duty priests echoed harmlessly.
They rarely left that room. After all, in this era, there weren't many fearless thieves who dared to storm the temple, where numerous dangerous protective magic was embedded inside.
Even many very powerful wizards would find it impossible to avoid detection here. Of course, these powerful wizards did not include a legendary wizard like Ian.
Ian was in search.
The air was thick with a blend of myrrh and cinnamon fragrance.
The main hall loomed towering and magnificent, its ceiling adorned with murals of Ra steering the Sun Ship through the sky, gold powder glittering in the moonlight. The central statue stood solemnly, holding a scepter and an Ankh cross.
Ian walked slowly inside, his gaze sweeping over the altar, incense burner, offering table. Each artifact emitted a faint divine fluctuation, yet none was the "Eye of the Ra" fragment he sought.
He crouched down, inspecting the hidden compartment at the statue's base, finding inside only a papyrus scroll filled with prayers.
"A bit excessively conventional."
Ian sighed lightly.
He pressed on.
He first infiltrated the nearby Sacred Artifact Room. The room was not large, with wooden shelves embedded in the walls, where various ritual tools were neatly displayed — gold-plated scarab statues, a turquoise-inlaid scepter, hieroglyph-covered bronze mirrors. Ian's magic wand tip glowed with faint light.
"Reveal yourself!"
No response.
These items, although containing faint blessing magic, were unrelated to solar divine power. He particularly checked a blue sapphire accessory resembling an eye.
Unfortunately, it was merely decorative. The archive room was located in the temple's east wing, housing thousands of papyrus scrolls. Ian knew that true divine items were sometimes recorded in ancient texts.
Stacks of papyrus filled six tall bronze shelves, categorized by year and type. Ian quickly browsed through records from the past three months, mostly containing sacrificial schedules, offering lists, and copies of oracles. On the last shelf's bottom layer, he found a tightly-bound scroll tied with black string.
Unraveling it, Ian was greatly disappointed — just tedious records on new priest training. He flipped through various scrolls, fingertips lightly touching the writings, attempting to perceive if any contained magic for storing objects.
"Hymn to Ra" — None.
"Sun Ship Navigation Map" — None.
"Temple Ritual" — None.
"Anubis Judgment Record" — Wait.
He discovered a segment of deliberately smudged text within a torn-edged scroll:
"...On the seventh day, Ra did not ascend, heavens shattered... the gatekeeper closed... divine slumber…"
The words abruptly ended.
Ian's pupils slightly constricted.
Ra not ascending the heavens?
Heavens shattered?
Divine slumber?
This differed somewhat from the notion of "falling."
More akin to a kind of seal or slumber. Ian was somewhat amazed to find himself apparently uncovering some information again, yet he still hadn't found the fragment he sought.
"It shouldn't be..."
Ian rubbed his temples. The genuine Eye of the Ra fragment would emit strong solar magic power, as he had learned from the Hogwarts Library in the future.
However.
The temple's magic fluctuations were unusually tranquil, as if deliberately suppressed by something. Passing through a corridor lined with portraits of past High Priests, Ian arrived at the spice storage room. The scent here was pungent enough to be nearly visible to the naked eye, with bundles of frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon stacked in the corners.