Chapter 34: CH 34

Zong Yan: “…”

He thought back to the classroom just now and the awe-struck eyes of the other students. Over the past few days he’d overheard some gossip. He might not be able to wash away that rumor about being a young master from an underworld triad anymore.

When people imagined gangsters from Hong Kong and Taiwan films, they were dressed all in black, wore dark sunglasses, and pulled down a quarter of a million per year.

Just a few moments ago Zong Yan was leaning on his desk doing exercise problems, spinning his pen until his head went dizzy, struggling through the suffocating sea of Einstein’s mass-energy equations.

Even so, Zong Yan wasn’t sorry about the absence of evil gods. It was great not having to match wits with Great Old Ones and Outer Gods to preserve world peace.

He’d rather face his physics homework than a certain evil god named Tawil, better known as Yog-Sothoth. No matter how terrible Zong Yan’s homework was, he had confidence he’d figure it out eventually, but he didn’t have the first clue where to start with Tawil. He kept thinking there’d come a day when he’d make the big guy angry and meet a sudden, violent end.

Compared with the helicopter last time, today the Dragon Group might be called low-key.

It really was a sudden emergency, otherwise He Yuan wouldn’t have rushed over in a car to retrieve Zong Yan in such a hurry. He didn’t even have time to change clothes before he barged in with a search warrant.

Zong Yan realized the situation must be serious. “What’s wrong?” 

He Yuan rubbed his brow. He put on his mask and sunglasses again. “Talk as we go.”

Qingyang High School was a long way from Chenghuang Temple. Even the Dragon Group base was a bit far.

These days Zong Yan lived at the base. Going to and from school wasn’t very convenient, so he was planning to go back to the tube building for a while.

He didn’t have any special requirements in terms of living standards. There might be a saying that once you’d enjoyed luxury, you could never go back, but it didn’t really apply. 

For every Chinese student, the significance of senior year three was self-evident. To summarize, senior year meant that one must guard against impatience and conceit, give up the luxuries of life, abstain from meat and pray to Buddha and do homework problems, and ignore the outside world.

Zong Yan implemented these rules faithfully. In the past half a week, he’d been living a life of three points and one line: going to school, getting off school, and going directly home. His cell phone was basically relegated to the cold palace, and he didn’t even log in to the MU app.

So he’d missed a lot of crucial information.

For example, when the new semester started, Miskatonic University had entered a state of comprehensive preparation, and all students’ schedules were completely filled. The first priority was magic patterns with combat applications, followed by xenobiology. All the students were struggling in a double sea of magic patterns and biology.

All this was because of urgent warnings given by the astrology tower and Revered Daoist Xu Fu.

“Have you heard about the time when the stars will return?”

He Yuan slammed the car door shut, fastened his seat belt, and stepped on the gas pedal. The black Lamborghini shot forward like an arrow from a bow.

It was an emergency, so he’d borrowed Si Yan’s car.

“When the stars return?” Zong Yan asked, confused.

This wasn’t the first time he’d heard those words. Half a month ago in His Majesty’s Theatre in London, the yellow-robed Great Old One had also said this phrase.

Something a god talked about couldn’t be ordinary. Zong Yan didn’t hesitate to reveal his ignorance.

“The time when the stars return refers to an Outer God named Ghroth.” As He Yuan steered he said, “He’s known as the herald of destruction, constantly drifting through the universe singing a siren song. If the song reaches a solar system where a Great Old One is sealed, the celestial bodies in that system will slowly recover their original positions. The evil god will wake up from its slumber, break free from the seal, and destroy the planet.”

This had long been taught in biology class. Most of the Great Old Ones had been locked in various galaxies by the ancient gods. In normal times, the stars weren’t in the right position, so all they could do was sleep.

Once the stars returned to their original places, only then could those evil gods break free from their seals.

“The moment his song reaches our system, we’ll undergo the greatest test in history. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis… All the natural disasters you can imagine and some you can’t will repeat in waves.” He Yuan’s face was grave. “I remember you took Earth history and Mayan mythology.”

“That’s right.” Zong Yan nodded.

As the school chief, he basically took all the courses he could.

It might sound like a lot, but aside from those few courses that required in-depth study, most courses in MU could be tested out after one class.

Earth history was such a course.

“Since the Cambrian period, there have been five mass extinctions on Earth. It’s similar to the Five Suns of Mayan mythology.

“The first was the Ordovician extinction, when the global temperature became colder, commonly known as an ice age. This era lasted two hundred thousand years, and almost eighty-five percent of all species on Earth went extinct.

“The second was the Devonian extinction, which had the same cause as the Ordovician. Countless marine organisms died.

“The third was the Permian extinction. The drift of continental plates led to the loss of oxygen in the atmosphere. It was the worst extinction event in history, killing nearly ninety-six percent of all species.”

“The fourth was the Triassic mass extinction. The cause is unknown. Seventy-six percent of all organisms died out.

“The last one was the Cretaceous extinction. An asteroid collided with the Earth and released black dust into the atmosphere. Sunlight couldn’t reach the ground, global temperature plummeted sharply, and photosynthetic algae and other microorganisms died. The dominant species on Earth, the dinosaurs, became history forever.

“In fact, these five mass extinctions were all directly or indirectly caused by evil gods. For example, the Devonian extinction of marine life was caused by the sinking of a magnificent ancient city into the Pacific Ocean. And the Triassic extinction was caused by the song of Ghroth!”

Zong Yan guessed that He Yuan had reached the main event.

“And we may be about to encounter a sixth mass extinction. Many celestial bodies have already started to realign. There was an omen about ten years ago and it was confirmed just last year. But for unknown reasons, the date keeps getting pushed forward. We don’t know exactly when the Outer God’s song will arrive.”

Zong Yan sucked in a breath.

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In fact, the matter had been confirmed at the beginning of Miskatonic University’s current semester. The Dragon Group and the Spire Council had only found out a little while ago. He Yuan was just repeating it to Zong Yan.

“Human lives are short, including our history, which in the eyes of the gods isn’t worth mentioning. According to the original prediction, Ghroth wasn’t supposed to reach our solar system for a long, long time, maybe not until after the end of human civilization.

“But now the Earth already seems to be in flux. Various things have appeared, and Jiangzhou was the first place they showed up.”

The black Lamborghini wove in and out of traffic. Whether it was the wild driving skills or the streamlined shape of the vehicle, it attracted a lot of stares from the roadside.

The car drove straight to the underground lot of a bustling downtown shopping center, entered a dark tunnel and headed to the exclusive parking lot of the Dragon Group.

“Okay, get out of the car and we’ll continue to talk.”

He Yuan unbuckled his seat belt, locked the car, and entered the direct access elevator to the side.

“The situation in Jiangzhou isn’t good. There are more and more signs of otherworld activity. In the last few days the Dragon Group has basically been recalled from all overseas missions. In any case, this is more important for our country.”

The elevator glided quickly and silently, heading down rather than up.

“This time, the astrological tower predicted the first calamity would arrive within three hours. This is different from the previous skirmishes. If we allow the situation to unfold, tens of thousands of people could die.”

He Yuan looked at the combat watch on his wrist. “To be precise, only an hour and a half is left. And we still have no idea where the disaster will happen.”

The seventh Monarch was the first to sound the alarm.

Among the nine living Monarchs, the seventh was undoubtedly the most mysterious. His most renowned ability was prophecy.

Since ancient times, there had never been any Awakened who claimed the ability to foretell the future. This made it even more valuable.

Generally speaking, the numerical ordering of Monarchs was based on whoever died and left a position open. If a new Monarch appeared and there were no vacancies, a new number would be activated. For example, the tenth Monarch hadn’t yet been crowned. Although the Spire Council hadn’t made it public, the position was set aside for Zong Yan. When he had his Second Awakening, he’d be granted the title of tenth Monarch.

Aside from that, the Monarchs in the other numbered places changed all the time—except for the seventh. Legend had it that in the high tower of the Spire Council’s codex room, this position was recorded on a single piece of paper.

That meant that the seventh Monarch might have lived an unknown number of years.

However, information about Monarchs was absolutely SS-level confidential, so most of this was speculation and there wasn’t any substantial evidence.

“We activated a psychic magic pattern, but if we want to accurately predict the location of the coming calamity, three Monarchs aren’t enough.”

When the search turned up fruitless, they thought of Zong Yan, the quasi-Monarch.

Given the circumstances, it was better than nothing.

The cold-forged alloy door silently slid open, revealing the situation of the battlefield operations center behind it.

In the center of the room, a 3D holographic projection faithfully depicted a map of Jiangzhou. Si Yan and the commander-in-chief had placed their hands on the alchemical formation in the void. The soft lights overhead added a touch of warmth to the otherwise cold, metallic surroundings.

The operations center was quite large. Behind the central table were countless high-precision computers. Awakened and other researchers were trying to identify the most likely location with big data.

And there, in the center of the alchemical array, was a gray-haired man in white robes.

What made it even worse was that after Zong Yan followed He Yuan through the door, Tawil gazed at him with great interest. Zong Yan was the only one who observed this. As far as He Yuan was concerned, the astrologer continued to sit there, meditating.

Zong Yan: …

He had a feeling that if this astrologer said a calamity was coming, it wasn’t an act of charity.

—

The author has something to say: 

Zong Yan: This can’t be good

Bubbles: Don’t confuse public with private √

TL Notes:

guard against impatience and conceit – 戒骄戒躁 – be on guard against conceit and impetuosity; avoid conceit and impetuosity; guard against arrogance and impetuosity; shun complacency and impetuosity

ignore the outside world – 两耳不闻窗外事 – not care what is going on outside one’s window; be oblivious of the outside world; hold aloft from the affairs of the world reality; not bother about what’s happening in the outside world

three points and one line – 三点一线的作息生活 – An unchanging life of going to school/work, getting off school/work, and going home without any other activities

Five Suns – The doctrine of Aztec and other Nahua peoples in which the present world was preceded by four other cycles of creation and destruction (Wikipedia). The Mayan version is fragmentary, so less information exists

Don’t confuse public with private – from 私事公办 – to do things in a strictly businesslike manner; personal affairs – public affairs

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

junior – from 小弟 – xiǎo dì – Alternatively: little brother

Ghroth – 格赫罗斯 – Géhèluósī – The Harbinger. An Outer God.

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