Chapter 14: CH 14

If you really wanted to update your worldview, alchemy and magic pattern classes were nothing. Biology, now—that was the real deal.

When it came to educating new students, MU’s curriculum started with their understanding of the world. For the first two weeks, almost every class on the schedule was for introductory biology. This ensured that every freshman was fully aware of the cruelty and horror of the world they’d now entered.

“At the outset of this class, the first thing I should like to say to you is—the gods are real. But the gods are not what men think they are, ever luminous and grand.”

In his first lesson, Professor Darwin used this as his opening statement. “The gods that evolved from human myths are known as Elder Gods. Bastet, the cat goddess in Egyptian mythology; Hypnos, the god of sleep for the ancient Greeks; Nodens, the god of the sea in Celtic myths; and even the goddess Nüwa of Chinese mythology, are all quite real.

“The attitude of the Elder Gods towards man is generally benign. Many Elder Gods were the guardians of ancient cities. They were essentially born out of the worship system of men on Earth. The cat goddess Baphomet was once the god of faith of ancient Egyptians and Romans. Men built temples to Elder Gods, forming a mutually beneficial relationship. Miskatonic University was able to move from Arkham in the United States to the border of the Dreamlands with the permission of Nodens, the Lord of the Abyss.

“By the way, as a token of our gratitude, we erected a statue of Nodens in the garden at the center of school. It’s the one of the old man in underpants holding a trident.”

The suddenly enlightened crowd bowed their heads as they took notes.

“Aside from the Elder Gods, there is an even more powerful kind of God. They are known as the Great Old Ones. The Great Old Ones rule the universe. They are not bound by any laws or treaties known to mankind. They exist beyond the three-dimensional space we know, belonging to a higher-dimensional form of existence.”

Darwin expanded on this subject: “The biggest difference between the Elder Gods and the Great Old Ones is that the Elder Gods possess a degree of humanity, while the Great Old Ones do not. This is why we usually refer to the Great Old Ones as evil. But in fact they cannot be classified as good or evil in simple terms, for the values of human beings are completely alien to them, just as ants are unable to understand the minds of men. In the eyes of the Great Old Ones, we are as insignificant as ants.

“Lastly, among the Great Old Ones there are even more formidable entities. These gods are more akin to the embodiment of the laws of the universe than individual beings. And they are completely beyond our conception. They exist outside the universe, above the dimensions. They are called the Outer Gods. None of your studies in elementary biology will involve the Outer Gods. Not unless you receive honors in the advanced biology examination and pursue a master’s degree in the MU Biology Department will you be involved in research on the Outer Gods. Because for us as human beings, the Outer Gods are the most distant and unknowable entities in existence.

“Men have no relationship at all with the Outer Gods. How powerful are these beings? Let us say, if the Outer Gods really had the idea of destroying mankind, even if it were just a single thought, the entire solar system would vanish in an instant.”

Facing the stunned eyes of the students, Darwin slowly added, “As for these Outer Gods, which are so powerful and beyond the reach of human cognition, we will not discuss them much. Put away the alarmed expressions on your faces. The Outer Gods have better things to do. If they really cared, they wouldn’t have allowed human history to develop for three million years.

“This introductory biology class will only discuss the current enemies of mankind.

“Our enemies include extraterrestrials as well as cult believers.

“In fact, compared with alien species, cultists are the biggest problem we face. There are countless religions in the world, big and small. Some of them secretly venerate this or that Great Old One or Outer God and try to gain power from their worship.

“Don’t underestimate this power. Even if these cultists are not Awakened, from their faith they can gain abilities on par with Awakened. Unfortunately, there are also a number of cult believers who’ve tried to reveal the existence of Awakened to the public.” Darwin thought for a moment. “You might compare them to Lex Luthor, the villain in Superman. After all, many men are born with a fear of the unknown and assume the worst about it.”

Zong Yan never thought Mr. Darwin had seen Superman.

His hand twitched and he almost wrote this sentence down in his notebook.

“Cultists do not only invoke the gods they themselves believe in. Sometimes they also summon otherworldly creatures. As investigators, our task is to prevent this—because the awakening of the gods means the end of mankind, especially certain of the Great Old Ones who were sealed by the Elder Gods within the universe or here on Earth. If ever they were to waken, it would be the advent of the end of the world. In an instant we would cease to exist, because their strength is far beyond human imagination.

“But you don’t have to worry too much about this.”

Darwin looked around at the heavy atmosphere in the classroom, shrugged his shoulders indifferently and decided to make a cold joke. “Cultists lack the excellent learning environment we have at MU. Even if they wished to summon the lord of their faith, they lack the necessary knowledge of ancient languages. A cultist might not even be able to read the summoning spell. It’s possible they would only anger the evil god they tried to invoke. In fact, when faced with a half-baked ritual, an investigator might not need to deal with it. The god might clean house on his own.”

As he spoke, Professor Darwin took off his glasses and gazed at them like they were a bunch of innocent lambs:

“Every year there are graduates who go astray. When our own MU students become cultists, they tend to become senior leaders. So don’t worry whether you’ll manage to keep in touch after graduation. When something abnormal occurs you may get to meet up with an old classmate—and collect a corpse from the other side.”

…

No wonder the human skeleton model in biology class had a sign that said ignorance was bliss.

MU’s homework wasn’t half-hearted either. With a wave of his hand Professor Darwin assigned everyone a short paper on the Elder Gods.

Zong Yan worked on the paper while flipping through 《My Understanding of the Great Booke》. After wrangling with it for a couple of hours he didn’t manage to finish, so he pushed it off and began to work on his summer homework.

Summer homework wasn’t easy either. Zong Yan had saved the worst for last, having already worked on mathematics, biology, chemistry, Chinese, and English, leaving only physics. What’s more, he’d failed his physics final, and so, according to the rules, his physics homework had been increased by fifty percent.

There was already a lot of physics homework. Increasing it by half was enough to kill.

Physics was really a mysterious subject. Why did people bother about the force of objects on an inclined plane, the internal resistance of a current, whether a light bulb could light up or not, or what kind of motion charged particles would make in a composite field, hello? What’s going on? Why did all of these things have to decide his test results?

Zong Yan couldn’t understand it. He painstakingly drew diagrams in his notebook to analyze the forces, while looking for the appropriate formula in the exercise book.

“Try a variation of the acceleration formula.”

Just as Zong Yan was scratching his head, looking at his left hand to determine the direction of force and judging the vectors of moving electrons in a magnetic field, Tawil sat down next to him in a very friendly manner. He took up a piece of paper, gripping a pen in his pale and slender fingers, and smoothly wrote down the formula, which gave Zong Yan a sudden moment of clarity.

Fck! With this version all he had to do was plug in the values and he was done. Any fool could find the result.

Zong Yan was astounded. “Thank you, senior.”

“No need to be so formal.”

Tawil smiled.

That smile was impeccable. The radian of the corners of his mouth was just the right angle to be pleasant, without causing any wariness or disgust.

Zong Yan didn’t know why, but for a moment he sensed that Tawil was deliberately communicating the emotion of “happiness”. Meanwhile, the real spirit of this man was high above, expressionless, watching everything below without the slightest ripple of emotion.

Just as Zong Yan fell into a trance, Tawil, who’d been writing with his head down, lifted his eyes.

When Zong Yan met those golden eyes, the doubts that had just bubbled up inside his mind silently dissolved.

Senior Tawil had always been courteous and friendly. He wrote with a fair hand and had an excellent reputation at school.

His handwriting resembled medieval print. Just like the man himself, it was rigorous and cold.

So why did he get such a strange idea?

Zong Yan was about to continue working on the physics problem when Tawil gave a soft “huh?” sound.

“Vorvadoss?”

Zong Yan turned his head in time to see a wisp of gray hair fall on the biology paper he’d pushed aside.

He returned to his senses. “Ah, right, he’s known as the Lord of Universal Space.”

“The Lord of Universal Space?”

The senior repeated this sentence with great emphasis. Zong Yan thought the other party hadn’t heard of this before, so he explained, “Vorvadoss is an Elder God who guards the darkest outer reaches of the Earth. His title is the Lord of the Universal Spaces.”

The next moment, Zong Yan felt his hair stand on end.

This premonition of danger was very acute, just like the sixth sense people often talked about. It wasn’t a literal forewarning. It was more like palpitations, a sensation of imminent fear that strangled his heart directly through his chest, almost making him feel like his heart had stopped. In less than a second Zong Yan’s back was soaked with cold sweat.

He automatically glanced over at Tawil. The other man still wore a pleasant smile. Even the radian of his lips hadn’t changed.

What Zong Yan didn’t know was that in the shadows cast on the floor by the flickering candlelight, an immense and evil force was circling. Billions of light-years away, galaxies collapsed and died without a sound. For their master, their omnipotent master, was utterly unpredictable and careless.

For the next hour, nothing happened. Everything was calm. All that could be heard was the scratch of the pen across blank sheets of paper.

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Before he left, the gray-haired senior suddenly got up, took out a thin book from a nearby shelf and placed it before Zong Yan.

“I think you should be happy to read the third volume of this book… Knowledge is a most desirable thing, is it not?”

In the dying candlelight of the library he had the most bewitching smile. Zong Yan nodded his head unthinkingly, and his black eyes were disoriented for a moment. “Of course, Senior Tawil.”

“Good boy.”

Tawil revealed a satisfied expression. This time his smile had a much more realistic feeling, but the implication was a little off.

""

It was a superior, patronizing smile.

—

That evening after washing up, Zong Yan lay in bed and couldn’t help but open the book.

It was originally just an empty promise, like when someone said they’d invite you to dinner or let’s meet up again next time.

For some reason he couldn’t put his finger on, that book had stayed on his mind. He’d even thought about it in the shower. It was almost like it had been placed at the top of his mental to-do list.

He really couldn’t help it. Zong Yan pinched his nose and pulled out the book.

The moment he glanced at it he was acutely aware something was wrong.

On the cover, written in classical Arabic, were the words 《Kitab al Azif》, written by Abdul Alhazred.

Obviously this book was centuries old. The yellowing, blackened parchment and the ancient smell of the binding made that clear. As for why it hadn’t vanished in the vast river of history, maybe it was preserved by the same methods ancient Egyptians used for papyrus, like the famous ancient grimoire, 《The Book of the Dead》.

Zong Yan: …

Wasn’t this the original text of the 《Necronomicon》?! In class today, his professor of ancient linguistics had mentioned the mad poet Abdul Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon. It was said that after the book was completed, he’d died in the streets of Damascus, devoured in broad daylight by an invisible monster. It was very sad.

So here’s the problem. This book was definitely classified as “dangerous” by Miskatonic University. If a student wanted to borrow it, they needed not only excellent Arabic, but the signature of a professor of ancient linguistics.

So how did Senior Tawil get this book?

Zong Yan still didn’t have any suspicions.

He clearly remembered the vice chancellor’s words, “Trust no one”, and maintained a detailed list of possible double agents in his head.

But Tawil’s name wasn’t on this list.

It was like there was some kind of unfathomable force weaving silken threads within the mind of the black-haired boy, manipulating him like a puppet on a string, so that he reflexively shied away from certain thoughts.

He didn’t know if reading this book would be like Professor Darwin said and directly send him to the medical ward of Miskatonic University. After all, this was the original uncensored version. The higher a person’s insight, the more dangerous it was to read.

Even as these miserable thoughts crawled through Zong Yan’s mind, his fingers, as if they’d been urged, quietly turned the first page.

—

The original book of the 《Necronomicon》 was divided into multiple codices. Written in 700 AD, it recorded the true history of the Earth and the unnamable gods.

For example, in the volume opened by Zong Yan, there was a detailed account of a supreme and mighty Outer God.

He was called the lord of time and space; “All-in-One, and One-in-All”; the trinity of the key, the gate, and the guardian of the gate; the knower of the past and master of the future; the all-knowing, all-seeing God.

In the entire hierarchy of Outer Gods, he was one of the supreme three pillars of the original Gods, an existence second only to the Cosmic Progenitor.

""

He had countless followers throughout the universe. If someone was able to please him, he would grant knowledge in return.

Of course, the knowledge he gave could far exceed what a human brain was capable of holding. The humans who received his grace lost themselves in this vast knowledge and succumbed to madness.

The name of an Outer God couldn’t be expressed by human vocal cords, but he’d condescended to teach his believers the approximate pronunciation of his name.

His name was—Yog-Sothoth.

The Lord of Time and Space.

After he read this.

Zong Yan: “… That’s it?”

—

The author has something to say:

Bubbles: How dare someone claim to be the Lord of Universal Space in front of me?! Hmph!

Zong Yan: Damn it! When I find out something’s wrong, you’re finished!

A lot of cuties asked about this, so let’s explain it now.

Bubbles is a nickname for Yog-Sothoth. As for who Yog-Sothoth is, he is… read the copywriting

TL Notes:

underpants – 裤衩 – Alternatively: undershorts, briefs, shorts

Written in 700 AD – 于公元前七百多年写成 – The raw states “It was written in more than 700 BC” (公元前 = BC, BCE). My research shows this is incorrect so I changed it in the tl. For one thing, the Arabic language didn’t exist in 700 BC.

Baphomet – 巴菲特 – Bāfēitè – Not sure why but the author states this is a cat goddess/goddess of cats (“猫之女神巴菲特曾经是古埃及人和古罗马人的信仰神”)

hello – This word was in English in the raw text

Glossary of world terms—new in this chapter:

Elder God – 古老神明 – Alternatively: “ancient god’ was used in the teaser

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

Vorvadoss – 沃瓦道斯 – The Flaming One, Lord of the Universal Spaces, The Troubler of the Sands, He Who Waiteth in the Outer Dark (Wikipedia)

Yog-Sothoth – 犹格·索托斯 – YóuGé·SuǒTuōSī – Our ML, an Outer God conterminous with all time and space

Bubbles – 泡泡 – PàoPào –

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