Chapter 97: CH 97

To be fair, although Yog-Sothoth lacked certain emotions, he had a deep appreciation for Zong Yan.

Zong Yan had surrendered an unimaginable, unobtainable amount of power without a second thought. Not everyone had such determination.

Moreover, the power of an evil god was a world away from a human being. Like the difference between clouds and mud, it was a level that couldn’t be reached no matter how one strived. A human who wanted to explore the power of the gods would only lose themselves in the cracks of reality and fall into madness.

It wasn’t exactly easy to possess the power of an evil god.

Power is addictive. Power dominates everything. Turning clouds into rain with the wave of a hand, wielding absolute power over the life and death of all things.

If Zong Yan hadn’t given up this power, sooner or later he would have been influenced by the evil impulses inherent to his body. Eventually he would be assimilated by the thoughts that pervade the minds of evil gods, abandoning those weak emotions that belong to human beings. His humanity would be completely extinguished, his original personality would be subsumed, and he would become in all respects a cold and ruthless evil god.

There was nothing surprising about this process. The reason evil gods were called evil was because of their deep-rooted amoral tendencies. The spiritual pollution that came attached to their bodies was horrific in itself, and the souls of weaker intelligent creatures had no way of resisting this corrosion.

This was something Yog-Sothoth had never concealed from Zong Yan.

In a sense, the Lord of the Gate admired Zong Yan most when he was human, struggling with the dazzling, brilliant hope that burst out from despair.

Human lives were limited to a century and unbelievably fragile, but it was because their time was so short that made it precious.

Zong Yan had lived as an evil god for a considerable amount of time, but he gave it up without any hesitation or reluctance, and his soul didn’t show any signs of being bewitched by power. It revealed a level of tenacity and mental strength that made the Lord of the Gate turn his head.

An ink-black layer came out of nowhere and suddenly blanketed this place, located outside of time and space. A cold, clammy shadow wrapped around Zong Yan’s ankles and yanked the black-haired teen straight down into darkness.

He’d just given up the power of an evil god and returned to his original body. His reaction speed was slow. He felt incredibly weak.

Every time he underwent a soul transformation, he experienced similar after-effects. Like when he first became the half-self of the Lord of R’lyeh, or when he returned to his own body stored inside the Lord of Time and Space. At first he couldn’t even open his eyes, let alone twitch his fingers.

Zong Yan hadn’t expected Yog-Sothoth to catch him off guard like this. Maybe his defenses had been lowered by the Lord of Time and Space’s recent friendly behavior, so much so that all Zong Yan was able to do right now was jump up and down in his own sea of consciousness in a state of total anxiety.

“Let me see what you’re trying so hard to conceal.”

Zong Yan forced himself to calm down. He recalled what the Lord of the Gate said just now, and his heart turned a hundred somersaults.

Since when was he concealing something? Zong Yan felt completely innocent. As if he’d dare hide anything from the all-knowing, all-seeing Lord. Was he tired of living?

No… wait—

There actually was something he was trying to avoid.

Zong Yan gulped nervously, and his eyes revealed the grief of a heart in utter despair. The next instant, he was wrapped up in the darkness like a package and his brain completely halted.

In his last second of consciousness, Zong Yan prayed from the bottom of his heart that the other party wouldn’t uncover a certain fragment of the future in his memory.

Because it was really… too embarrassing.

—

In spite of Zong Yan’s breathless horror, the matter disappeared without a ripple.

After getting his original body back, Zong Yan gingerly departed from the end of time and space. Along the way, he cast several unobtrusive, measuring glances at the Lord of the Gate.

The other party’s face was unperturbed and calm, but every time Zong Yan peeked at him, the evil god’s eyes met his with perfect synchronization.

Everything really seemed to be okay?

The more Zong Yan thought about it, the more he decided the future he saw in the timeline was utterly ridiculous.

As many people were aware, there were a countless number of parallel dimensions in the universe. The one he saw probably came from the most outrageous, least probable future. Besides, look how frigid and indifferent these evil gods were. They didn’t have any kind of desires or needs when it came to such things.

Zong Yan had been an evil god himself. How could he not be clear on that? Evil gods reproduced by fission. Despite the “evil” label on their heads, in this respect their hearts were pure and passionless. They didn’t care at all how lower-level intelligent creatures reproduced.

So Zong Yan managed to put his mind at ease.

He pushed through the door of the Ultimate Gate and left, quickly walking past the ancient ones who now had surprise written on their faces.

The ancient ones had never heard of the Ultimate Gate opening from the inside, not to mention the fact that the being who emerged belonged to an ordinary, inferior race, although its appearance was oddly similar to the evil god who was brought inside before by their superior.

When Zong Yan returned to MU, the first thing he did was go to the Logistics Department.

His cell phone had been irreversibly damaged by radiation in outer space. It was almost impossible to turn it on.

The Logistics Department gave him a new phone and a full set of travel gear. Lastly, he was told that because there weren’t any flights available that night, the college planned to make an exception and directly link him to the spatial coordinates of Miskatonic University in Jiangzhou.

Amazing, it was practically state guest treatment.

Under the admiring eyes of everyone in the Logistics Department, Zong Yan hurriedly bowed his thanks, grabbed his phone, and ran away.

It wasn’t that Zong Yan had never noticed the way people stared at him before, but he didn’t fully understand his own hardware specs, so he’d never paid attention. But now it had reached level. He was now famous. Wherever he went, fellow students might come over to ask him to sign an autograph. It made for quite a spectacle.

That wasn’t all. After he finally managed to log into the MU app, the top post obviously hadn’t been updated yet.

【Deep condolences: The tenth Monarch died heroically to save the world. A memorial service will be held in the auditorium of Miskatonic University on the 15th of this month】

Okay, fine.

Zong Yan began to think that if he’d come back any later, people wouldn’t have thought he was a fake dead man, instead they might be screaming about a ghost.

Another message on the app forum attracted his attention.

【Unusual changes reported in the South Pacific, but no signs the stars are about to return. Coastal residents have found the bodies of a large number of unidentified creatures】

The South Pacific!

Zong Yan’s heart almost seized. He quickly scanned the item.

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Although Zong Yan had never quite adapted to being an evil god, Cthulhu really hadn’t treated him poorly.

Even though he was a fake.

【Main content: image, image】

【Recently, otherworldly creatures caught along the coast of Pohnpei Island were reported to the relevant official agency and were turned over to the Spire Council for evaluation】

The contents of the two photos were painfully familiar.

Ugly skin like a toad, a fish-like head with a humanoid body. They clearly belonged to the most renowned subordinate race of the Cthulhu clan, the Deep Ones!

“Whew—” he sighed.

The original Zong Yan had catapulted Ghroth to an extremely distant galaxy. Unless some kind of accident took place, the stars weren’t going to return for as long as the Earth existed.

If the stars didn’t return to their original positions in the sky, Cthulhu couldn’t awaken from the eternal sleep of R’lyeh.

Zong Yan told himself there must be a mistake. Yog-Sothoth took care of it himself. Everything should be back on track.

Cthulhu wouldn’t remember that he once had a second self, or that he’d spent billions of years guarding his half-self until he awakened.

When the Lord of R’lyeh woke up, his wrath which had been sealed away for millions of years would sweep across the Earth, dragging all intelligent creatures into Cthulhu’s world of dreams, and R’lyeh’s reign of terror would resume.

Evil gods were inherently ruthless. From the perspective of Zong Yan, who was now a human, the best choice was for Cthulhu to continue his long sleep indefinitely.

Zong Yan’s mood was slightly complex. He knew the Spire Council wanted to find out exactly what he’d done to force back a Great Old One and an Outer God, and he knew the Vice Chancellor, whom he thought was a good person, was also a secret Cthulhu cultist. It was more than a little shocking.

Zong Yan thought about it over and over. In the end he decided it was better not to beat the grass and scare the snake.

It was possible the strange situation in the South Pacific was the long-cherished goal of Cthulhu’s cult. Paracelsus was probably heavily involved. When the time came, he would certainly give himself away.

“Are you Mr. Zong Yan?”

The plane was parked in a private airfield in Boston. The captain and a flight attendant in a sheath dress stood at the entrance, waiting politely.

“Yes, thank you.”

He gave his luggage to the flight attendant, nodded to the captain, and walked onto the plane first.

He wasn’t sure why, but after returning from outside time and space, Zong Yan’s muscles were aching all over. His whole brain was a little dizzy.

So he didn’t say much. As soon as he got on the plane, he asked for an eye mask and a quilt, and then he rolled into bed. The next second he sank into a dark, sweet dream.

By the time the plane landed, everything would go back to normal.

He’d return to Qingyang High School and spend his last few tense but unexciting months in senior three.

As for everything that happened before, it was all just a dream.

—

Zong Yan slept peacefully. He didn’t even turn over or open his eyes until the plane landed.

What he didn’t realize was that a trace of the evil god’s divine consciousness remained deep in his unconscious mind.

The gray-haired evil god roamed the sea of Zong Yan’s consciousness like a mist. All around him were drifting fragments, entangling the evil god in the spiritual sea.

He searched for the thing he wanted to see inside these memories, until he finally found the answer in a secluded nook the owner obviously wanted to abandon.

In a fragmentary vision of the future, the black-haired teen’s dark eyes were heavily misted over, incomparably dazed, and the corners of his eyes were stained with a matchless crimson blush. 

As his mouth opened in a gasp, his lips were as delicate and charming as drops of blood, his body rose and sank, and his neck was incredibly slender.

Yog-Sothoth’s eyes deepened with a sudden realization.

He’d found at last the most fitting, perfect expression for the face of that black-haired young man. 

TL Notes:

without a second thought / without a ripple – 轻而易举 – be an easy job to; as easy as ABC; can be done in a slipshod way; can be easily done

the grief of a heart in utter despair – 哀莫大于心死 – Nothing is more lamentable than a dead heart; Despair is the greatest sorrow; Nothing gives greater cause for sorrow than despair; There is no grief so great as despair

breathless horror – 提心吊胆 – be always on tenterhooks; be filled with anxiety [fear]; be haunted with fear; be in a blue funk; be in great terror; breathless with fear; have a thrill of horror; have one’s heart in one’s mouth; have one’s nerves kept on tenterhooks

Cthulhu really hadn’t treated him poorly – 克苏鲁对他是真的没话说 – “Cthulhu really had nothing to say to him” – Providing the raw bc this was super vague

more than a little shocking – 真是让人跌碎眼镜 – makes people break their glasses, what a shock, eye-opener

beat the grass and scare the snake – 打草惊蛇 – beat the grass and frighten away the snake — act rashly and alert the enemy; beat emptily upon the grass, and the snake will be frightened; beat the grass and drive the snake away; beat the grass and the snake will be startled; let sleeping dogs lie; arouse suspicions

give himself away – 马脚 – horse’s foot – sth. that gives the game away, cloven hoof, let the cat out of the bag

walked onto the plane first – 率先走上了飞机 – At least in Western etiquette, it’s more usual for the VIP to board last. Last on, first off bc it saves time for the “most important” person 

his mouth opened in a gasp – 他的口齿开开合合 – his mouth opened and closed – I may not always note this kind of thing, but I’ll occasionally make choices that in effect “ramp up” the language slightly to get the idea across. Otherwise things can sound really mechanical and strange

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

Pohnpei Island – 波纳佩岛 – Formerly known as Ponape or Ascension Island, one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia

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

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