I was unable to understand this for a moment. By then, Zhang Keying had completed a simple preliminary investigation and told me, "The time of death is approximately 12 hours ago. The cause of death is exsanguination due to rupture of the aorta. The fatal wound is located at the connection of the chest cavity and the second rib."
"Alright, take the body back first!"
Just as we were about to leave, for some unknown reason, deafening roars suddenly echoed from the direction of the valley. I immediately realized something was wrong and my heart skipped a beat.
The next second, a panicked villager ran over and said to the old man, "Uncle Long, the village, I don't know what happened, but there was a landslide just now, and the valley entrance is blocked!"
"What did you say? That means we can't get out?" Uncle Long exclaimed in shock.
"Yes, what should we do? Wuwu, have we really offended Osiris? Did he do this!"
"Bastards, it's all your fault, Perseus!"
Mentioning Perseus, I finally noticed a middle-aged man in the crowd. He was dressed exceptionally well, constantly fiddling with an exquisite pocket watch in his hand, a silver chain hanging from his clothes down to his waist. The man appeared very quiet, yet his dignified and handsome brows exuded an aura of natural authority.
"Uncle Long, we are only here to investigate the Osiris culture in the village. Why do you always point fingers at us? Do you remember what the village was like before? If it weren't for me, could you live like this?"
"Haha, precisely because of that, you can unscrupulously destroy the local culture. Now look, Osiris is angry, and he will surely punish you unruly mortals!"
"Is that so? Uncle Long, as the high priest here, aren't you well aware of how gods kill? Tell the police! Otherwise, they will arrest us!"
"You're talking nonsense, Perseus. I shouldn't have let you foreigners come here for investigation in the first place. This is all my fault!"
"Hmph, isn't it because of the money I gave you? The villagers' lives have improved!"
Uncle Long looked at everyone's expressions. They all nodded, showing helpless reactions. At this moment, I interrupted them, "You did this on purpose, didn't you? Blocking the valley, wanting to prevent us from leaving and investigating the truth?"
"Officer He, don't speak nonsense. How could we do such a thing? Even if it's blocked, can't you just move the stones? Call for reinforcements!" Uncle Long said. He Xin suddenly became a little angry and said, "There's no signal here at all!"
"Oh? You don't say!" Uncle Long fumbled in his pocket in surprise. I thought he was going to look for his phone, but it seemed these people didn't have phones. What Uncle Long took out was just a radio.
He seemed to want to test the signal here. When he turned on the radio, there was only static. He immediately said, "That's strange, wasn't there a signal before?"
I could see that his reaction was normal, as if he himself didn't know what was going on.
It's too strange. Who blocked the valley?
We carried the body to the front of the valley. Gao Mingqiang and Xia Hou immediately got to work, but these stones were incredibly heavy. Let alone them, even if all of us helped, it would be useless.
Unless a huge excavator was available, it would be impossible to move these stones.
In other words, none of us could leave now, not from Osiris Village.
Fortunately, I had checked online before. This place is located northwest of Guangming City, about 23 kilometers from the Provincial Department. It's not very far, but if there's no way to contact the outside world, it would take at least 48 hours for Director Zhang to become suspicious.
Our group had no choice but to return to the vicinity of the altar. By this time, most of the villagers had dispersed. Uncle Long was kneeling on the ground, constantly burning some bread and wine, along with vegetables and meat. I remembered these were the methods of Egyptian sacrifice.
Oh, right. Those two so-called deities were actually the Egyptian gods of light and darkness, and the village was named after the god of darkness.
After Uncle Long finished burning these items, several priests led several bulls to pull a coffin to the front of the altar. The priests held incense burners and knelt devoutly in front of Uncle Long.
We didn't know what they were doing for a moment. At this time, Perseus said, "They are asking for Osiris's forgiveness, so that he doesn't kill anyone else!"
"Heh, they really put on a good show!"
"Don't say that in front of them, or they'll get angry again."
I took Perseus to a quiet grove in the village and showed him my police ID, speaking to him alone, "Mr. Perseus? Hello, I am Officer He!"
"Hello. I've been in China for over ten years. I heard that this village retains the culture of Osiris. I don't know how many years ago, but there was once ancient Egyptian civilization here."
"Are you sure this is true?"
"Yes, I am an archaeologist and I am very interested in Chinese culture. Officer He, how should I put it, I can describe it with the same interest you have in solving cases!"
"No problem, Mr. Perseus, are you alone?"
"No, my family has settled here since they came to the village 10 years ago. We built houses for the villagers, opened up farmland, and developed several scenic spots, attracting some tourists, which has made the village gradually prosperous. However, these people want to drive us away when something happens, they are truly ungrateful!"
"Do you know the identity of the deceased woman?"
"She was a maid from our family!"
"Oh? So that's how it is."
"Yes, the last time I saw her was around 6 PM yesterday. She told me she was going out to pick mushrooms. I didn't pay much attention at the time, as Arilan usually liked to wander outside. But the next day, I found she hadn't returned, and I felt a bit strange. So I went out to look for her, and unexpectedly, when I reached the altar, I found her body!"
"So, you were the one who notified the villagers?"
"No, when I approached the altar, several villagers were already there. They were the ones who called out the other villagers, and Uncle Long was also called by them!"
"Then Mr. Perseus, what kind of person do you think Uncle Long is?"
"He, sigh, I don't know how to say it. Anyway, if compared to Jesus before the cross, it should be about the same. He strongly believes that Osiris exists in this world. In fact, there is a legend passed down in this village that in the past, the god of light Heliopolis and the god of darkness Osiris had a great battle on the border of Heliopolis. In reality, this was just a historical war. In July 640 AD, the Battle of Heliopolis broke out. The Arab general Amr ibn al-As, who entered Egypt with 4,000 men, after receiving reinforcements led by Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (some say 8,000, others say 12,000 or 16,000), fought fiercely with the 20,000 Byzantine army led by Augustus Theodore, with about 10,000 men in Heliopolis. Amr ordered Hariga to lead 500 cavalry to ambush in the hills at the northeast corner of the battlefield. The Byzantine army, during the stalemate, was attacked from the rear and, after scattering, was intercepted by Amr's ambush troops in the east, suffering heavy losses, with only a small number surviving. This means that ultimately, the army of the god of light won. However, Osiris (the defeated Byzantine army) fled to the southeast of Europe and eventually entered China. Their descendants live in the present Osiris Village. In fact, the people in the village now are all Byzantines! That is to say, Romans. They were not far from ancient Egypt, and the Romans at that time believed in the gods of ancient Egypt and their culture. However, later, some historian, who knows from hearsay, changed it to a war between two gods, which is also the origin of Greek mythology! Officer He, do you think I'm right?"