Chapter 89: CH 89

Zong Yan was waiting anxiously.

He’d just used the Astrologer persona card, and he was about to find out if he’d guessed correctly.

If he was right, after he used the card he might immediately return to his human body. After all, the Astrologer persona was based on Zong Yan, the human being who attended Qingyang High School, not any other mythical creature or transformed being.

Success or failure would be decided in one move.

Of course, it was a dangerous guess. If Zong Yan’s theory was incorrect, there was a very big chance he’d never return.

Right now he was 350 million years in the past. There was no way to know if he even existed in the future of this timeline.

Even after so many years, time was an obscure and unsolved problem for human science. With the addition of relativity, the puzzles became even more difficult to solve.

If time was always flowing, it meant that while Zong Yan was experiencing the passage of time 350 million years in the past, time continued to flow in modern times 350 million years later. A few months had passed since he arrived. In modern times, the college entrance exam might already be over. If Zong Yan had already missed the exam, forget about Tsinghua University, he wouldn’t even be accepted by a diploma mill. After he returned he’d only be able to study at Miskatonic University.

What a painful realization.

But that was a much better scenario than some of the alternatives. If modern time was still flowing and no one had collected his body, he might still be floating in the vacuum of space…. He might even collide with the space station or something, giving rise to a global sensation of a horror story. In vacuum, the human body would be squeezed out of shape by the lack of air pressure. His corpse might not even look human.

If his body disappeared or no longer existed, what would the Astrologer card do? Create a new body for him?

Zong Yan was a bundle of nerves. He just hoped that wherever he ended up, not much time had gone by. Otherwise, not even the gods could save him.

Darkness. The darkness was overwhelming.

Zong Yan slowly regained consciousness. He felt the same as when he’d arrived in the underground cave in R’lyeh. He couldn’t even open his eyes, let alone move a finger.

But it wasn’t the first time Zong Yan had experienced something like this, so he was more relaxed about it now. Reborn once, reborn twice, not a big deal.

He couldn’t move his body yet, but he didn’t feel any discomfort or pain, and there was no sign of any missing arms or legs. If anything he seemed to be in perfect condition.

Zong Yan felt a surge of relief.

So he settled down to wait.

As time went on, Zong Yan managed to detect more and more about his surroundings.

First of all, the temperature felt normal. Also, judging from the lack of pressure on his body, he seemed to be floating.

After he went to R’lyeh, did his original body remain in outer space?

Zong Yan’s doubts were growing. He even began to wonder if one of the three pillars of the original gods had felt merciful enough to collect his corpse. Maybe he was in a hospital morgue right now, lying next to fellow investigators who’d died gloriously defending New York. He couldn’t rule out the possibility that one of the evil gods had kept his body to reuse it for some reason. For example, the Bloated Woman’s favorite meal was fresh human brains.

Zong Yan let his mind drift. When a person is bored, they always find something to distract themselves. Since he couldn’t move or jump around, all he could do was imagine possibilities.

First of all, Shub-Niggurath wasn’t on the list. Zong Yan had given Shub a severe slap in the face after his repeated warnings and promise that “as long as you don’t use that card, I’ll consider making you my family”.

At this point Zong Yan had experienced the arrogance of evil gods from the inside. If the Black Goat with a Thousand Young got his hands on Zong Yan’s body, he’d probably grind it into dust.

As for Yog-Sothoth, he was the evil god that Zong Yan had the most contact with, but their relationship wasn’t close. Facing him was even more stressful than facing Nyarlathotep.

So if an evil god really had taken care of Zong Yan’s remains after death, the only possibility was Nyarlathotep. Of course, it was far more likely that none of them had bothered with a gnat like him at all.

In the midst of these thoughts, his body finally regained its strength. By the time Zong Yan realized he was able to open his eyes, he could already control every part of his body. He felt a stream of astrological power within him.

So he opened his eyes.

And he saw a billion luminous lights that shone bright enough to dazzle him.

How could this brilliance be described?

It was like they formed a being of infinite existence, an entity that contained the whole knowledge of the truth of the universe. This divine being transcended time and overshadowed space itself. Even if this being existed outside the universe, beyond the reach of intelligent creatures and almost all evil gods, he could discover with ease every secret in existence—if he cared to.

Of course, his true body wasn’t the disgusting or repulsive form possessed by most evil gods. The physical self of the omniscient and omniscient Lord was described as “holy” even by other evil gods.

Yes, “holy”, how ridiculous. But it was true for him.

This entity who was composed of billions of spheres of light, luminous orbs that constantly divided and merged, was suspended in this boundless space. A myriad of mysteries and the most ancient laws of the universe swirled around the glowing spheres in a chaotic, patternless dance, like subjects hurrying to attend an audience with the king. No matter how wild or turbulent the temporal forces were, in this place they were obedient.

Zong Yan was inside the largest sphere. As he pushed upwards and looked around in confusion, he was dazed by the brilliant light. He overturned in the center of the orb. In a panic he watched himself tumble out of the big round ball.

Just as he was about to hit the inner surface of the sphere, Zong Yan shut his eyes in fear.

He didn’t know where he was or what was going on with the strange orbs in front of him, but he could sense the majestic power around him, the aura of an evil god.

He’d just escaped one evil god’s lair, and now he’d ended up in another?!

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Zong Yan was frantic.

Hmm?

At first Yog-Sothoth didn’t notice what was going on with the supposed corpse inside him. At any given moment, his true body dwelled outside time and space, coldly overlooking the timeline of the entire universe.

His avatar had traveled to the temporal location where he’d detected the soul of Zong Yan. He remained there, calmly and leisurely watching the drama unfold without any trace of alarm.

And then… he was surprised.

While the newly awakened human was still confused and didn’t understand what was going on, multiple spheres gathered around him like a crowd of stars surrounding the moon. They caught the young man before he could fall.

With a dumbfounded expression, the black-haired teen rolled out from the largest sphere. The shirt of his school uniform became untucked, revealing the slender waist and tender white skin beneath. His hair was a mess, sticking up like a chicken’s nest, and his face was full of confusion and dismay. His black eyes held a layer of watery mist like he’d just woken up.

Zong Yan’s face froze into panic. He found himself rolling out of the largest sphere, greeted by millions upon millions of other spheres, large and small, occupying his entire field of view.

“Who are you?!” Because he hadn’t spoken in so long, Zong Yan’s voice was a little raspy. He coughed, then pursed his lips.

He was now sitting on top of one of the smaller orbs with several other spheres squeezing close around him. Each of the glowing orbs somehow gave Zong Yan the feeling he was about to be swallowed into its belly.

Damn, this was tricky. After using the Astrologer persona card, Zong Yan only had two San points left. It wouldn’t be easy to protect himself, let alone escape.

Last time he became the half-self of the Lord of R’lyeh. Was he about to become the half-self of a bunch of bubbles?

“Who am I, you ask?” Yog-Sothoth was in an incredibly good mood. He didn’t care at all about the black-haired teen’s somewhat rude exclamation.

His question wasn’t vocalized, Instead it was projected directly into Zong Yan’s mind.

Inexplicably, Zong Yan seemed to hear a hint of teasing banter in those words.

He drew his eyebrows together in a frown, and as he stared at the sphere that was closest to him, he had a sudden flash of realization.

He’d seen that color before.

The sphere wasn’t the usual shade of a standard beam of light. Rather, it was an aggregate of all the light in the entire spectrum of the universe.

Zong Yan had indeed seen such a color before. At the time… he felt as though he’d faintly glimpsed, through an evil god, the underlying reality of the world.

But the light was too strong for Zong Yan, who was still in a human body. He stared for less than a minute, but it was too long for his eyes to bear. As a result, the light burned through his corneas and even reached the inner lens.

Zong Yan was too anxious, too distracted. By the time he noticed what had happened, the billions of brilliant lights were like sharp thorns piercing his eyes.

“Ah—!” The black-haired teen instinctively cried out in pain and shut his eyes.

Scarlet blood seeped out from the corners of his eyelids, beneath the eyelashes that were as long as crow feathers, a shocking color against his strikingly pale skin.

“Are you… Yog-Sothoth? His true body?” In pain, Zong Yan ducked his head and covered his face.

His eyes were probably blinded by now, but he didn’t care. Shock and confusion overwhelmed him.

To tell the truth, Zong Yan had never imagined that Yog might have his body.

The Lord of Time and Space was too deep and mysterious, and he had the ability to peer into reality like he was reading an open book. Zong Yan mostly tried to avoid him. He didn’t understand why the evil god would get involved. The only thing Zong Yan could think of was the physics tutorial, but that was pretty ordinary.

“Don’t move.”

The next moment, Zong Yan felt something cold pressed against his eyelids.

The pain subsided like a tide pulling back.

Yog-Sothoth lowered his newly materialized hand. His true body contracted and collapsed, and he changed into human form.

Then he reversed time and restored Zong Yan’s eyes to their undamaged state.

But the evil god had no intention of saying this to the black-haired teen. Instead he slowly said, “Indeed, what you just saw is my true body.

“So—to avoid burning your fragile human irises again, it’s best you close your eyes.”

—

The author has something to say:

Bubbles: Don’t open your eyes (so I can do bad things)

Zong Yan: ? ? ?

[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]

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