Chapter 35: CH 35

Zong Yan didn’t even try to conceal the distrust in his eyes.

You’re an all-knowing, all-powerful god, the Lord of Time and Space, but your alt account is the seventh Monarch in charge of astrology and prophecy?! How dare you! You even get a double salary from MU and the Spire Council—shameless!!!

Tawil was an evil god, and frankly speaking, even if the entire human race went extinct, all the evil gods would be just fine. This guy would continue living his happy life in outer space. There was no reason for him to care.

He Yuan: “Right, I forgot. It seems that Professor Tawil is also your academic advisor and astrology professor at MU?”

“… Yes,” Zong Yan answered with reluctance. In accordance with his usual character settings, he added a greeting. “Hello advisor, hello captain, hello commander.”

As soon as Zong Yan spoke, Si Yan opened his eyes. In a bad tone of voice he said, “Since they brought you here, don’t give me any nonsense. Pipe down and concentrate on harmonizing your insight.”

Si Yan had been the most opposed to calling in Zong Yan to participate in the mission.

In his opinion, even if Zong Yan was a prospective Monarch, he was also a kid with no experience. He wouldn’t even turn eighteen until December. He was too young. Although he had immense potential, it didn’t erase the fact he hadn’t even experienced Second Awakening.

But right now everybody’s eyebrows were on fire. The combined insight of three Monarchs hadn’t managed to predict the disaster site, and He Yuan, newly promoted to Auxiliary level, couldn’t endure the oppression of Monarch-level insight. Si Yan had only agreed with sending He Yuan to pick up Zong Yan out of desperation. His face wasn’t pretty.

“Oh, okay.” Zong Yan felt uncertain, but he began to coordinate his insight.

Before him was an enormous composite alchemical array. Golden magic patterns around the table were slowly rotating, and both Si Yan and Commander-in-Chief Si Xun had passed their hands through the lines of separate patterns.

In the center of these smaller golden magic patterns was a much larger spell array rotating through Tawil’s fingertips. Clearly, the focus of this psychic alchemical formation was the seventh Monarch, that is, the renowned astrologer.

Who was actually an evil god.

“No, I’m still unable to see anything useful. And the data returned by the detection devices is far from sufficient.”

Here in the operations center, everyone was on edge. The command room was arranged in several levels. On the highest level was the table where the commander-in-chief was standing. Other instruments and data analysts were on the lower level. Between them was a pair of staircases.

Numerous members of the Dragon Group in white coats and combat uniforms were running calculations in front of sophisticated computers, seeking the answer in the big data returned by the detection devices.

“We lack the necessary prerequisites. One hour remains… “

The countdown displayed in the center of the room was decreasing by the second.

Zong Yan discarded every distracting thought and sank his hands into the alchemical array.

In a flash, he felt his spirit linking up, “Shhhw—”, rushing forward into the heart of the alchemical formation.

A second later, he felt an icy hand snake up behind his shoulders, and precisely and accurately pinch the back of his neck. A jolt of electrical current surged up from his tailbone, making him tremble uncontrollably.

Zong Yan: ! ! !

It was the exact opposite of a wonderful experience.

For cats, the scruff of the neck was absolutely taboo territory. Of course, it wasn’t a wonderful spot for humans either.

Zong Yan instinctively wanted to grab the back of his neck. But the moment he looked up and saw the amusement in Tawil’s eyes, he knew that nothing at all was actually touching him.

It was only on the psychic level.

What was even more terrifying was that the sensation of being seized at his most vital point continued drilling ever deeper into his mind. Obviously, the function of the alchemical formation was to converge the insight ability of the Monarchs, then use the seventh Monarch’s prophetic powers to deduce more of the future. But before that could happen, Zong Yan had to completely open up his insight to Tawil without restriction.

Zong Yan acted like a man who’d touched a live wire. He jerked his hands away with shaking fingers.

“?”

The other two Monarchs looked up at him. Si Yan pursed his lips even tighter.

Zong Yan didn’t appear to be in a good state. His face went horribly pale. He was white as a sheet.

“Sorry, I need to use the bathroom.”

He didn’t wait for anyone to react. He stumbled to the nearby bathroom, locked the door behind him, and stood in front of the sink splashing cold water on his face.

The psychic link had only lasted a few seconds, but it gave Zong Yan the illusion that his soul was in the other party’s grasp.

No matter what, Zong Yan couldn’t open his mind to an evil god without reservation. Of that he had no doubt.

Tawil could tamper with reality at will, distort perception, and forcibly insert himself into events without revealing any flaws for other people to notice. Zong Yan had only escaped by chance. There was no way he’d willingly crawl back into the cage where he’d been hoodwinked before. Otherwise the other party would meddle with his mind and make him think he was a loyal follower of Yog-Sothoth, like a total joke.

He didn’t believe Tawil would give information to humanity out of the kindness of his heart. If an evil god did something like that out of nowhere, it had to be part of a scheme. He was either planning something or enjoying a good show. Either way, there was something behind it.

What the hell was going on? Could the return of the stars caused by Ghroth have some kind of effect on the evil gods?

Zong Yan quickly rejected this explanation. After all, Yog-Sothoth’s body was located outside the dimensions of time and space. The universe itself could collapse and it would have nothing to do with him.

Everything from beginning to end was under Tawil’s control. If he didn’t want humans to know where the calamity would occur, they could get five Monarchs and it wouldn’t make a difference.

The countdown in the room outside had now reached forty minutes.

Zong Yan had been in the bathroom for fifteen minutes, and the alchemical pattern on the table had vanished.

The faces of Si Yan and Commander Si didn’t look so good either. The extraction of insight power was exhausting for them.

“Connect to the teleconference and contact the Spire Council.”

But the old man didn’t sit down. He stood at the command room conference table with his deep-set eyes fixed on the 3D projection in front of him.

When Zong Yan left, the leaders of the Dragon Group reached a consensus.

The three Monarchs weren’t able to determine the location, and just now Zong Yan’s performance made them realize that as a quasi-Monarch, he couldn’t withstand the pressure of insight convergence.

To put it bluntly, it was more important to preserve Zong Yan as an asset for future use. By no means did they want Zong Yan to suffer a backlash and lose his sanity in the process. Anyone with clear eyes could see the youngest Monarch had a bright future ahead of him.

With only forty minutes left they had to act immediately. Since this plan hadn’t worked, it was time to fall back to the next one.

“Yes, sir.” He Yuan gave the order, and the staff members on the lower level of the operations room immediately contacted the Spire Council through the intranet.

The next moment, the upper level of the command room changed.

A stream of data was projected from the equipment on the ceiling, and a dozen humanoid 3D figures appeared on both sides of the conference table.

There was no doubt that from the moment the astrological tower issued the warning, the Spire Council had all its members standing by.

The disturbance in Jiangzhou was just the start, but if they couldn’t even resist the start, forget about the future.

According to the astrological signs identified by the seventh Monarch, this was just the beginning of the trial.

If human beings were able to cleanly avert this catastrophe, they might delay the return of the stars.

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But if they couldn’t stop it… this calamity would likely become the spark that lit the fuse. Things would get worse and worse in the future.

“It’s impossible to use weapons of mass destruction in the city center. That includes alchemical weapons.”

These were the first words spoken by the Dragon Group commander-in-chief. “We will never harm civilians except as a last resort.”

""

A few minutes earlier, Si Xun had communicated with the leader in Yanjing.

For a Chinese citizen, for a senior leader of the country, the people would always come first.

No ordinary person should sacrifice for the greater good. Compared to seven billion people, a few thousand might not seem like much, but unless the situation was at its very worst, every Chinese citizen would be protected by the state, no matter how high or low.

There was no objection and the decision passed by a unanimous vote.

“Very well, there are thirty minutes left. What about the battle plan we discussed before?”

“The arrangements are in place.”

A councilman in a suit said, “Senior investigators affiliated with the Spire Council have gathered at Miskatonic University and dispersed through the Gate of Truth to all corners of Jiangzhou.”

The Dragon Group naturally hadn’t pinned everything on the chance of identifying the exact location.

Two hours into the countdown, the Dragon Group sent a helicopter team to sound the air defense sirens throughout Jiangzhou.

Fifty to sixty percent of the general public had never been exposed to these warning sirens before. Even if they’d had drills in school, after years of working in society they’d forgotten all about it.

The commanders of the Dragon Group also issued emergency evacuation instructions on every major social platform. People at home were advised to immediately extinguish fires and evacuate to the nearest air raid shelter.

After years of peacetime, it was impossible to house an entire city’s population in wartime bomb shelters. The rest of the citizenry could only take refuge in nearby underground parking lots as instructed.

Maybe it wasn’t much, but it had to be better than nothing.

The Dragon Group had made arrangements with the Spire Council in advance. Now, anyone who was an investigator was sent to Jiangzhou, except for the reserves who were still studying at MU.

This was the reason investigators existed. Investigators, in the face of the unknown, would lay down their lives before ordinary citizens.

This was the oath that all investigators had sworn.

Investigators enjoyed better treatment than ordinary people, and in return, they shouldered greater responsibilities.

In the command room just then, the atmosphere was heavy.

The remaining time on the big screen was dwindling minute by minute. Everyone present was conscious of impending death.

Below them, many members of the Dragon Group were making preparations, taking off their white coats to reveal their battle dress uniforms underneath. Quietly picking up their weapons and walking out of the conference room, they bravely went to battle.

In the last ten minutes, everyone in the Dragon Group base except for civilian personnel would run to the battleground.

No matter what the cost, they had to contain the situation before it got worse.

Because… once the stars returned, the human race would be destroyed.

Investigators from all over the world and Awakened of every skin color rushed to Jiangzhou, China.

This was the first large-scale battle against extraterrestrial creatures in history, and the dignity of all human investigators was at stake—

Only victory, never defeat!

—

Zong Yan still hadn’t come out of the bathroom.

As one might expect, the restrooms of the Dragon Group were high quality. There were even tranquilizers and medicines on the wall in case of emergencies.

He rinsed his face with cold water for a long time until he finally recovered from the feeling of being controlled. Then Zong Yan picked up his phone and swiped through his social networking messages. That was when he saw his SMS inbox was full of information about the air raid sirens, urging people to evacuate and find shelter immediately. Even the three major communication networks had sent several updates in a row.

Although He Yuan explained a lot to him earlier, because of the lack of time and Zong Yan’s status, he didn’t explain everything.

After all, reserve investigators would never be sent to the field unless the senior investigators were dead. The mortality rate of reservists in field conditions was much higher. In such a scenario, the occult world could fall into a situation where the old crop had been harvested before the new one was ripe.

When he saw the messages from Jiangzhou Air Defense, only then did Zong Yan realize the seriousness of the situation.

“Identify the specific location of the calamity…” he murmured.

Obviously, if you wanted to predict something like that, you’d need prophetic abilities as well as a high degree of insight.

Even after Zong Yan had drawn so many E-rank superpowers, none of them had anything to do with prophecy.

Wait—!

The black-haired teen suddenly widened his eyes. He took out a brilliantly-glowing card from a gap in space.

The young man on the card wore the same blue and white school uniform Zong Yan was wearing now. The only difference was that the other party had an astrological crystal ball floating above his hand.

It was the card Zong Yan had drawn two days ago.

E-rank daily disposable persona card—the Astrologer.

There were only twenty minutes left until the prophecy would occur.

Could he change all this?

—

The author has something to say:

Zong Yan: It’s time for me to make my debut!!

TL Notes:

Only victory, never defeat! – 只许胜，不许败！ 

the old crop had been harvested before the new one was ripe – 青黄不接 – Green and yellow have not joined–a new crop has not yet come; but the new crop is not yet ripe; food shortage between two harvests; temporary shortage; a shortage of young and old

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

Professor Tawil – 塔维尔阁下 – Tǎwéi’ěr géxià – Alternatively: Sir, Lord, His Excellency. Newton was referred to with the same title in Ch 12

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