Chapter 2: New Century (Epilogue)
Chapter 674: The Scenery of R’lyeh
Xi Wei finally experienced the might of a divine domain. Before, within the accelerated rift, there was a sense of incongruity. Now, Ruo Yi directly unfurled her divine domain and utilized the rules of time to pause it. Afterwards, she could freely heal, accelerate the healing process, or temporarily freeze the time of the one being healed, and finally restore time, instantly maximizing all healing effects.
The brain’s neural and sensory centers of ordinary people were simply unable to process such a massive amount of information. But for beings like Xi Wei, Loli, and Ruo Yi, who had transcended the mortal realm, it was nothing.
After the healing was complete, Ruo Yi retracted her time divine domain. As a final consolidation treatment, Xi Wei brought out two cans of Black Bull High-Calcium Milk, a specialty of Winter City, infused with Red Dragon Bloodline. Of course, in this异世界, there were no modern square plastic containers. The milk was contained in oval-shaped leather pouches. However, there was only one straw. Since the two of them were close, Xi Wei didn’t mind.
Looking at the straw, Loli and Ruo Yi exchanged a glance, like two little beasts preparing to snatch food, a glint flashing in their eyes. Today, who could eat their fill depended on skill. “Let’s be clear first, eat properly, no using of rules!” Xi Wei said, looking up from his newspaper at Loli and Ruo Yi, and warned, “Loli, no using life rules, otherwise it’ll be endless. Ruo Yi, no using time rules, otherwise no one can compete with you. Fair competition! Understood?”
“Yes, Master~” Loli obediently nodded. “No problem~” Ruo Yi wagged her fox tail, a playful curve to her lips. Before Xi Wei could even call out “start,” she had already snatched the straw and, with narrowed eyes, began to enjoy it with great concentration. Her movements were so practiced, as if she had done it countless times.
Loli, being a frail mage, was always a step behind Ruo Yi. She approached Ruo Yi’s cheek, trying to snatch the straw, but Ruo Yi skillfully dodged her every attempt. For a moment, she could only watch with wide, blinking eyes. After watching for a while, she simply started to suck on the pouch pitifully.
“Gulp—” After a moment, Ruo Yi’s eyes widened, her cheeks puffed out, and she abruptly released the straw. Milk was still gushing out of the straw. And because her movements were too vigorous, some milk had accidentally splashed onto Loli’s face. Loli was stunned. Seizing the opportunity, she immediately latched onto the straw.
This was Black Milk produced by the Red Dragon Bloodline, extremely precious. Although Winter Fort produced it daily, the production time was long, and the processing was arduous. It should not be wasted. One had to know that despite the Wintery Empire being very wealthy, there were still many children who couldn’t even afford to drink ordinary milk regularly. The little maid and the fox-eared girl took turns drinking, until all the milk in the pouch was gone, and they reluctantly squeezed the empty pouch. As if squeezing toothpaste, a little bit would always come out.
Xi Wei put down his newspaper and, seeing the greedy look on the two girls’ faces, sighed helplessly. “Ruo Yi, rewind time once.” Ruo Yi’s eyes lit up, and a silver hourglass appeared in her golden pupils. When her gaze fell on the milk pouch, although she couldn’t see the situation clearly, she knew that more milk had been produced. In fact, Loli’s divine nature of life could achieve a similar effect, but it would consume more divine power. This time, Ruo Yi generously gave the straw to Loli, indicating for Loli to eat first. She then patted her own round belly and watched from the side. With a second rewind, there would be a third, a fourth, and when Loli was full, she could slowly enjoy it.
…
Blue Star.
Grass was an archaeologist. Recently, his assistant had brought him an interesting little item: a beautifully carved statue about seven or eight inches tall. The statue vaguely had human contours, but its head was a strange octopus head with tentacles covering its face. It was covered in scales, its torso was like rubber, it had claws in the front, and a pair of wings on its back.
At first, he found it a bit strange. But after looking at it a few more times, he felt an absurd sense of horror. Looking at the statue, he seemed to “feel” its cold scales and twisted tentacles through his vision. There was no doubt that the statue was lifelike. Grass consulted numerous documents, but could not find any similar artistic style in history. It was as if it existed in a historical gap, or appeared out of nowhere, not like a product of this world.
Secondly, there was the material of the statue. Grass was shocked to discover that the statue’s material was none of the metals or minerals known to him. The base of the statue was also inscribed with a few indecipherable symbols, which were also mysteries with no historical origin. Looking at these twisted characters, Grass vaguely recalled certain ancient and impure life cycles, in which the human world and its concepts had no place.
Grass showed the sculpture to his colleagues, and a group of scholars who had extensive research on world history immediately showed great interest. They compared all the information in their database and finally narrowed it down to a small Inuit tribe. Legends of this tribe worshipping an evil god, and their evil god was very similar to this statue.
In order to understand the meaning of the characters on the statue, Grass spent a week working with his colleagues to reconstruct the written archives of that small tribe. They worked day and night, almost like madmen, even forgetting to eat and sleep. A month later, they finally deciphered the meaning of all the symbols, and in the manner of cultists chanting, they punctuated those strange characters.
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh waga’nagl fhtagh hjioked z’ohgafh.”
Their meaning was roughly: “Praise the Lord of R’lyeh! We call for Your descent with our true spirits! Cthulhu, who slumbers in dreams!”
After reciting this prayer, Grass went mad. The scholars who worked with him also went mad. Intertwined dreams told of fear, tearing their remaining sanity into pathetic fragments. In the endless deep sea, green silt covered the seabed, and a city made of giant stones rose into existence, and the slumbering figure within opened its eyes. After all the effort, they finally succeeded in entering the crystal wall system of the Blue Star. For the Old Ones, it was both easy and difficult for them to descend. First, one had to understand their existence, allowing human spirits and life cycles to resonate and connect with the life cycles of the Old Ones. Secondly, one had to call to them correctly. The first two conditions alone were very difficult. To understand the Old Ones, the spiritual power of mortals had to be far above that of ordinary people, which was reflected in profound knowledge and insight. Secondly, the life cycle was even more complex. Cthulhu used a statue to help twelve scholars slowly research and understand His existence. He guided these scholars to combine the human life cycle with the Old Ones and correctly call for His descent. Thus, He descended. That moment of magnificence was not bearable by mortals. Therefore, they became madmen.
Cthulhu had long ago sent many anchor points to this world similar to Earth. Statues, murals, texts… But most of the time, they could only cause a certain degree of spiritual pollution. Or, they were buried, carelessly discarded in corners. Primitive tribes had an overly foolish, yet pious, attitude of pilgrimage, but due to their ignorant perspective, they were unable to form resonance in the life cycle. Everything was predetermined. At least now, a crack had appeared in the crystal wall system of the Blue Star.
