Marduk's Land

  Lyscott-Lee was originally worried that Armon's identity as a magician would bring trouble or danger, but now it seems unlikely. Armon had worked alongside Prince Venu and rescued Princess Xiaoyan from the giant tribe, establishing relationships with two of the most respected people in the kingdom. Who would dare to offend someone like him? As long as Armon himself didn't say anything, probably no one would bother to investigate whether he was a magician or not.

  This young man is really something, he has encountered all sorts of big things

  Maidanzuo learned about Amon's recent situation in Xie Ou, and unexpectedly, Amon's experience after parting with him was so wonderful. In Maidanzuo's mind, Amon's status is that of a god, and even if he does something more magical, it's not unthinkable. Since he knew where Amon was, he made a request to Xie Ou, to follow his caravan back to Meng Fei Si as a bodyguard to find Amon, and Xie Ou naturally agreed.

  Maidenzo is a noble warrior of the kingdom of Balon, who is willing to humble himself as a bodyguard for Shio in order to meet Amun. This makes Shio feel quite honored. After arriving at Mufei Si, Maidenzo originally wanted to find an inn to stay in, but the enthusiastic Shio couldn't bear to let him leave and insisted on keeping him at home to entertain him properly.

  As they spoke, they had already arrived at Chiao's mansion. Chiao heard the news and hurried to welcome them in the front hall. As soon as he saw Amun, he bowed and said: "Lord Amun, it has been a long time since you came. Chiao has always looked forward to your visit."

  Amun hastily stopped him: "No need for courtesy, in front of you, I haven't changed at all, and don't call me sir, I'm not a noble."

  Kisio said, "You're already the captain of the guard, the captain of the guard at the Isis Temple, and your status is much more noble than that of an ordinary aristocrat... You haven't come to my house for three months now, and coincidentally, Lord Medanzo is also here, so you must have a good drink today."

  Amun couldn't decline, so he set up a banquet at Xiǎo's residence that day. During the wine party, Xiǎo, who was slightly drunk, expressed his dissatisfaction with Amun's identity issue again. Holding his wine cup, he said: "With your achievements, you should have become a noble long ago. It seems that only you can become the captain of the Temple Guard as a commoner. I heard that the Holy Maiden treats you specially, why didn't you make such a request?"

  Amun smiled wryly and explained, "What I've done has already been sufficiently rewarded. As a civilian warrior, I was promoted to be the captain of the archive's guard, how can I make even more excessive demands? Moreover, this demand violates the empire's laws."

  Xi'ao muttered drunkenly: "The imperial decree is really strict, no matter how much money you have, it's hard to become a noble."

  The nobility of the Aegyptian Empire can only be obtained in two ways, one is hereditary and the other is by special grace. The second way is extremely difficult, requiring great merit for the empire, nominated by nobles above the city-state lord, and granted by the Pharaoh's edict. Such merits are mainly military achievements or feats praised by all people, Amun only threw a dart at the grand ceremony, he was loyal to his duties, but not to that extent.

  If anyone can become a great warrior, it's not difficult to obtain the status of nobility, but for an ordinary person to learn martial arts and have the achievement of a great warrior is too slim. Xiǎo's dissatisfaction was also said to himself, he was a very wealthy businessman, but being rich alone cannot change his identity as a commoner. He had once said that if he could obtain the status of a noble lord, he would even be willing to give up half of his family property, unfortunately there is no such opportunity.

  Amon and Maidanzo had a chance to speak alone at the banquet after listening to Xiǎo's complaints all night. Maidanzo, already a 5th-level warrior and divine magician, said to Amon with emotion: "The firmness of faith, the temptation of demons, perhaps it is difficult to face. After I recovered from the pain, my life seemed to have undergone a transformation, and my faith became clearer. I quickly passed these tests. Amon, I don't know how to express my gratitude, you are the guiding spirit that led me."

  Amon sighed and said, "Faith comes from within your heart. I didn't force you to do anything, and there are some things that I don't hope will happen either. Given your personality, it's not easy for you to make promises to Princess Xiaoyan, no wonder you passed the test of the devil's temptation. Of course, I'm not saying that Princess Xiaoyan is a devil, nor am I saying that the title and land of nobility are devils, you should understand. ... You already have five levels of achievement, has your cultivation been interrupted during this period?"

  "Ah, Lord Amun," Mei Danzuo chuckled. "You know my aspirations and pursuits. Once, it was to restore my noble status and the glory of my ancestors, but after I regained my nobility, I realized that what I truly desired was a different kind of transcendence, walking the path you pointed out to me. The cultivation of the dual-faced power, except for those few days when I traveled with you, has been uninterrupted since then. It has become my life."

  Amun nodded thoughtfully and said, "The power of unity in duality cultivation, what it gains is a kind of power, but at the same time it's also a habitual self-awareness that one forgets yet naturally possesses. Perhaps this is the true pursuit. Maidan Suo, since you've embarked on this path, I hope you'll remember this point."

  ……

  Meadanzo temporarily settled in the city of Meng Fei, and Amun gave him a task to buy a mansion inside the city as a foothold. He also gave him an identity document with the name Arota written on it. Having someone under his command made things convenient, but some matters couldn't be entrusted to his subordinates, the guards. Meadanzo had arrived at just the right time.

  Amon had enough money, of course, to buy the most suitable place. On the west side near the edge of the city-state, Medanzo bought a very large mansion, which was the estate of a fallen noble. Not only did it have a front yard and a backyard, but also a small independent garden. The spacious front hall even had a fountain, and in the backyard there was a small private temple for worshiping gods and meditation prayers. It seemed that many years ago, the owner of this mansion was also a divine technique master.

  It has now become Armand's mansion, with everything managed by Médard des Rogues, who also hired a batch of servants, such as doormen and grooms. Médard des Rogues became the steward, while the real Monsieur d'Aragnan rarely showed up, reportedly being very busy.

  Amun brought Xue Dingyuan into the house, and Mei Dansuo recognized the cat. He instructed everyone to show respect to Xue Dingyuan, as it was a sacred cat of the great master. However, Xue Dingyuan did not like living in the house and spent most of its time outside the Isis Temple with stray cats. It was impossible to find it, and they could only wait for it to come out on its own.

  To please Bastet, Amun ordered the statues in the temple of the backyard to be replaced with those of Bastet, and every day the best wine and freshly baked fish were placed on top, regardless of whether Bastet came or not. In fact, it was all prepared for her. As a result, Bastet would visit every day, eat and drink her fill, and then slip away, seemingly very pleased with this arrangement.

  Maria initially advised Armon to stay in the Isis Temple and become a glorious warrior, mainly to protect him. In fact, the Isis Temple did not lack a warrior at all. Maria also promised that she would not stop him from returning home, if Armon had something to do, she would send him to the area of Duk Town to perform tasks.

  The agreed-upon one-year period still had several months left, and Meidanzo himself arrived at Dreamflight, but Armon was no longer in a hurry. Whether it was divine art or physical art, the more he cultivated, the more profound and complicated the content became. Armon encountered his first failure since starting to cultivate. He wanted to process the snake tendon obtained on the Balen River into a divine artifact, but he lost control, watching helplessly as the precious snake tendon broke inch by inch in his hand, becoming a useless scrap.

  But he also gained another unexpected harvest, which was also given by Xue Dingyuan's guidance.

  Ah Meng bought a private house in the city, and there was nothing unusual about it. As the captain of the guard and with his salary, it would be abnormal if he didn't buy another place to live in the city. Ah Meng only left the temple when he wasn't on duty, and one time he came to the back of that mansion, walked into a small temple dedicated to the goddess Bastet, and found Xue Dingyan drinking and eating meat on the altar.

  Amun smiled and stood quietly there, watching without disturbing the cat's good mood. Xue Ding'e didn't turn his head but knew Amun had arrived. After eating its fill, it jumped down from the altar, stretched out its paws like a human and made a beckoning gesture, then ran into the courtyard.

  When Amun chased him out, Xue Dingyuan had already disappeared, but left two lines of words on the ground. What was written was not divine script, this cat still wrote secular text for the first time, and Amun was quite surprised. The things written on the ground would definitely be unreadable to others, but Amun recognized them at a glance, which were exactly the archive catalog numbers of the Isis Temple.

  It seems that this cat's mood is not bad, after drinking wine, he pointed to Amont to find two documents in the archives. What does Xue Ding'e want him to point out? Amont was also curious.

  Although he was the captain of the archive's guard, he couldn't casually browse through the stored books. He could only try to arrange for himself to be alone on duty in the corresponding reading room, and wait for an opportunity when no one was around to take out the files and examine them carefully. The first document was quickly found, placed in a high-specification document storage room, on the lowest level of a shelf protected by a detection spell array. Fortunately, Amun's detection spell had already been cultivated to a high level, allowing him to remove the document without triggering an alarm.

  The result shocked and delighted him, the name of this document was "The Land of Marduk", and the content recorded on it was the legend about Duketown that Maria had mentioned. Amun spent half a year searching for it but couldn't find it, if not for Xue Dingyuan's guidance, he still wouldn't know what to look for, it seemed that the cat also understood what he was thinking in his heart.

  Amon Wan never thought that the name of Du Ke Town would be related to Marduk, the main god of the Kingdom of Balen. It was a long time ago when Marduk became famous in the war, which was a battle of many gods in the Anunaqi pantheon.

  In the Anunnaki mythology, the first to become gods were the male god APSU and the female goddess Tiamat. They gave birth to the male god Lahmu and the female goddess Lahamu, who in turn gave birth to the sky god ANU. The Anunnaki pantheon was named after Anu, who is said to be the highest-ranking supreme god, which involves a very distant war.

  Anu, the sky god, had two sons, Enlil and Ea. Ea was a god of wisdom and had a son named Marduk. Enlil fathered Nanna, the moon god, and Utu, the sun god. Nanna in turn fathered Inanna, the goddess of the planet Venus.

  Moyun Goddess once told Amun in person that the relationship between gods is not a kind of kinship and blood relationship understood by mortals, and did not explain much about it. However, in the classics and legends seen by Amun, they are still recorded according to kinship.

  It is said that the gods had a disagreement when dividing up their domains, and Ea killed Apsu. In revenge, Ammat created nine monsters: the nine-headed serpent, the swamp dragon, the scorpion-tailed dragon, the sea monster, the giant lion, the three-headed dog, the man-faced scorpion, the enchanting mermaid, and the wild buffalo, and gave the sacred "Tablet of Destinies" which represented the highest godly position at the time of the creation of the pantheon to his other son Kingu, telling him to go take revenge.

  The gods split into two factions, one led by Amat and commanded by Kingu, the other led by Enlil and commanded by Marduk. A great war of the gods broke out in the central land of Heaven's Hub, with many divine casualties. The result was Marduk's victory, killing Amat and Kingu, seizing the Tablets of Destiny, and thus that battlefield is also known as "Marduk's Land".

  The winner, however, had a friction. Enlil, as the leader of the gods, should have received the Tablet of Destinies, but Marduk handed it directly to Anu, making Enlil not become the supreme god who grasped the Annunaki pantheon. And Anu and Ea unintentionally continued to participate in the struggle among the gods, from then on retreated into the legendary country of the Annunaki gods.

  A conflict broke out between the two great gods Enlil and Marduk, resulting in the division of divine domains, while the other gods were attached to the divine domains of the two great gods, with their own divine domains based on their merits in the war of the gods.

  Legend has it that the fallen divine spirit's blood congealed into flame spirits, muscles congealed into the Earth's Pupil, breath congealed into the Wind's Enchanting Dance, and sweat congealed into the Azure Water Heart. The crystallization of bones transformed into ordinary divine stones. The tears of the gods were the condensed tears shed by the gods themselves. Duke Town is not the only place on the continent where divine stones are produced, but its yield is very high, naturally related to this ancient great war.

  When the two great gods divided up the divine realms, Marduk's land was placed on the edge of Enlil's realm. Enlil did not want Marduk's name in his own realm, so later the place where people lived came to be called Tukkum. The local temple had no record of this legend, but it was recorded in the writings of the Isis temple far away in Eridu.

  The land of Marduk was once very fertile, but it became desolate and barren due to the war of the gods. It is a place where the gods fell, a place abandoned by the gods, and also an exile. The miners who lived there have been mining divine stones for generations as descendants of those who revered the gods, and they are not allowed to leave their hometown. This is said to be a punishment because their ancestors supported Amat and Kingu in the war of the gods.

  Legends are just legends, and no one can say for sure what the truth is. Ah Mon grew up in Duketown, where everyone knows that the guardian deity is Mu Yun. How did the goddess Mu Yun become the guardian deity of Duketown? This document doesn't mention it, but it does mention two other things that are worth noting.

  One is that the miners of Duketown are cursed by the gods, generation after generation engaging in heavy labor. The mining techniques of Duketown were also passed down by the gods, containing rituals to awaken strength, even the most basic divine techniques, similar to awakening strength twice, but unable to truly break through. The purpose of the gods passing down mining techniques was only to make them labor for generations until they obtained redemption and forgiveness.

  No wonder Maria once said that Armon was a miner from Duke Town, and it's not difficult to awaken the power of the second ritual. She is the guardian saint of the goddess Isis, and she doesn't care much about the legend of Anunaqi. The truth or falsehood of the legend is unknown, but the mining skills of Duke Town are real, and the final step of divine stone excavation is always completed by a divine technician, except in Duke Town where it's done by miners.

  Secondly, there is a prophecy that has been passed down from an unknown era. When the land of Marduk returns to its former prosperity, a new god of gods will appear. Another version says that at that time, a new war of the gods will break out. These legends are unverifiable, but in the main temples of Hatti and Assyria, Enlil's oracle is clearly recorded, where he will make it a fertile land again, and he will become the true god of gods.

  After reading the mythological legends recorded in this document, Amun took a cold breath. These should be legends from very long ago, and no one knows what's true or false, but Duketown is indeed a special place. He can't interfere with matters between gods, but if he wants to guide his people back home, the road ahead will likely be filled with thorns and bloodshed.

  Then he thought of another thing, the path to becoming a divine spirit, was it also related to this ancient legend and prophecy? Bell had been here before, he had contact with the old madman, the old madman should also know about the records on this book.

  Amon turned to the last page of the document, and indeed confirmed his speculation. Someone had left two prints on the blank space, very blurry, but the texture looked like the front and back sides of the token given by the old madman.

  That token was also Bell's keepsake, why did he want to leave a mark here? Was it waiting for someone to come and read this volume of books again, and hinting at something? Amun subconsciously wanted to take out the token for comparison, but then thought that the token wasn't on him.

  It wasn't difficult to find the first volume of documents, but it was not easy to look up the second volume of documents pointed out by Xue Dingyuan. According to the numbered index, that volume of documents was locked in a cabinet with many important classics, and the key was held by the high-ranking priest in charge of the archives. The cabinet and lock were both blessed with divine techniques. Amun couldn't open it quietly without leaving any traces, so he could only wait for an opportunity.

  Amon hadn't waited for the right opportunity yet, but was first summoned by the Holy Maiden. It was still Gabriel who personally delivered the message. The place where the Holy Maiden summoned him was a study room where she usually handled documents, which was very spacious and like a small palace. The Holy Maiden gave him enough courtesy, still allowing him to sit down, with his seat far away from hers, and a carpet laid out in front of him. Amon could only bow on the carpet before sitting down to speak.

  Maria sat behind the desk, this was a private meeting, there was no one else in the study room, Maria had already let Gabriel go. The distance did not affect anything, Amun could still see her very clearly, even every eyelash's arc was crystal clear.

  According to common sense, Maria should have first praised Amun's behavior at the ceremony of bestowing blessings, but she didn't say that. Instead, she looked at him and asked: "Amun, are you doing well?"