After the math test ended, Zong Yan wasn’t going to delay here any longer.
The key was already urging him to leave, burning hot in his palm. The temperature scorched his skin, but it was just the right amount of heat, not enough to hurt, like the tenderest urging of a lover.
Whether it was the world of the Sun God or Yun Zhong Jun or the Night Watchman, Zong Yan had never attempted to stay so long before.
After all, he had other things to do. The moment he changed his body, he immediately grabbed the key to find his way. He’d probably spent more time on the Astrologer’s world than on the previous three combined.
After all, he’d arrived in the middle of the college entrance exam. Zong Yan couldn’t just hand in a blank test sheet and leave the exam room, so there was no choice but to stay. Besides, he was genuinely curious about the Astrologer persona card.
The Sun God came from the Greek pantheon, Yun Zhong Jun originated in the Jiu Ge myth, and the Night Watchman belonged to London of the 19th century. But the Astrologer was more like a parallel world that operated under the same rules as Zong Yan’s. Whatever relationship existed between himself and the other three persona cards still wasn’t clear.
If you were suddenly given the chance to see yourself in a parallel world, you’d naturally want to know how your other self lived.
Zong Yan was extremely curious how the Astrologer made money.
So he unlocked the screen of his phone—all of Zong Yan’s social networking and phone passwords were strings of characters he’d encrypted himself. This was something that remained the same no matter what world he was in.
And then, as soon as he logged into the network, several text messages immediately arrived. “Ding Ding—“
One of the messages grabbed Zong Yan’s attention.
【Great Master, you said you wouldn’t accept any business for the next few days, but I’m really in a hurry. I’ll do anything to expedite the process. As a rush fee I’m willing to pay 50% more. Please cut me some slack as a loyal customer】
The message wasn’t sent through SMS but WeChat.
The other party’s avatar was a cartoon character, and the message itself was a little incoherent, but the transfer was unmistakable. There was a direct, blatant transfer of 50,000.
And it wasn’t just one transfer of 50,000, it was four transfers of 50,000.
WeChat’s single transfer limit was 50,000, and the daily limit was 200,000. But when the other party sent the payment, they treated 200,000 like it wasn’t worth mentioning.
And that wasn’t all. The message was sent a few hours ago. The person probably got anxious when they saw Zong Yan hadn’t replied, so they sent several additional messages.
【Great Master, without your guidance I really don’t dare to join this crew. That Xing woman is up to no good. If they choose the wrong shooting site at launch I’m afraid she’ll drag down the entire production】
【If you agree I can add another 50%】
…
Zong Yan: ? ? ?
He stared at the words “crew” and “shooting site” sent by the other party and clicked on their circle of friends.
The circle of friends was full of selfies. Zong Yan glanced through it and got a weirder and weirder feeling.
Zong Yan had actually seen this face before. He was an online star who suddenly got popular a year or so ago. He won first place in a talent show, then appeared in a well-produced film and landed on top of the mainland entertainment industry. He had millions of fans and a versatile, constantly-changing image.
Normally Zong Yan didn’t pay any attention to entertainment news, but this was a star who’d was incredibly popular lately. There were some girls in class who liked to chase stars, and they secretly gathered after class to whisper together. Sometimes when their voices got too loud Zong Yan would vaguely hear this name.
Now, seeing the selfies in his circle of friends and what looked like a lot of extravagant spending, it seemed to be the same person.
Zong Yan closed the chat box and glanced through several other unread messages.
The other messages were pretty much the same, begging respectfully for his help and immediately transferring money even when he didn’t say much.
As he looked through the names, he saw a big entrepreneur whom even Zong Yan had heard of. Then he looked at the label these contacts were grouped under. The name was two cold and ruthless words: “Sheep Customers”.
Zong Yan thought he might have figured something out.
The Astrologer not only had unparalleled computing power, he could also peer into the trajectories of the stars and detect the traces of fate.
If used skillfully, this kind of ability would make it no problem at all to swindle the gullible.
He stared at the money that was transferred for a single request, then thought about what he’d earned for activating a persona card and destroying otherworldly monsters to save the world. He opened his WeChat wallet.
At that moment, a string of zeros blinded his eyes. He counted digits with trembling lips, then checked the balance of his bank card online. Suddenly he stood in place and took a deep breath.
Money, money… so much money.
Zong Yan stared at the string of numbers and began to doubt his life choices.
Maybe this Astrologer guy wore simple clothes, but in fact he was filthy rich, okay?!
And besides that, the Astrologer had two WeChat accounts, including a special one for work, and the comments were all cold and merciless, “Simpleton 01”, “Simpleton 02”, etc. His personal signature in his circle of friends was ruthless too: “Pay first, then talk”. The very image of a cold and indifferent, lofty, extremely talented swindler.
At first Zong Yan thought using his superpowers to work for MU was a bright path out of darkness. After all, studying at MU would solve his future employment needs as well as pay him a lot of money. It was a beautiful thing.
But now he saw how the Astrologer was so skilled at doing business at such a young age. He collected money while sitting around doing nothing, and all sorts of big shots had to beg him for help. While Zong Yan was exhausting himself parkouring around magical cities, this guy was sitting on a sofa, giving one or two words of advice, and adding six figures to his bank account.
The gap was so wide it felt cruel.
Zong Yan originally planned to follow the key back to his original world, but he wasn’t in a hurry anymore. He took out his phone and quite leisurely looked up an expensive restaurant nearby. He was going to enjoy the happiness of being one of the filthy rich before slinking home.
It was all his own money, and a meal wouldn’t cost even a fraction of his wealth. Just think of it as descending to earth to enjoy the life of a multimillionaire for a spell.
After Zong Yan finished enjoying his dinner, he wandered to the place where the key guided him, and once again was lost for words.
He’d arrived in a small villa complex that Zong Yan knew all too well. It was the exact same property he lived in.
The price of land in this location was frighteningly expensive. Zong Yan might live here, but he was only borrowing it. After all, the name of Shub-Niggurath was still on the property deed.
Although, supposedly, the Lord of the Gate had used his reality modification powers to update it with Zong Yan’s name.
But that was done by cheating. Zong Yan suspected this Astrologer guy bought the house with his own money.
Damn, the jealousy had him bent out of shape.
Obviously they were both ordinary high school students, but Zong Yan felt like he’d been destroyed at the starting line.
One relied on a man(?) and the other relied on himself. It was quite a gap!
While Zong Yan was madly complaining to himself, he took out the key and opened the door of the villa under double verification of fingerprint and face.
Behind the door was endless darkness.
In the middle of the darkness was a radiant door, emitting a quiet, gently shimmering light.
The black-haired young man exhaled and grasped the Silver Key tightly in his hand.
He suddenly had a mysterious premonition—this time, perhaps, past the threshold of that door, would be the thing he’d been struggling so hard to find.
An answer.
What would he see? The true consciousness of the Lord of the Universe, or some other indescribable thing, or something even more remarkable than the being who existed beyond the Ultimate Gate?
After he’d touched things that no human being could touch, would he retain his own will, or be assimilated, or fall into endless madness?
Of course, even in the face of his uncertainty, Zong Yan wasn’t afraid.
Because the Lord of Time and Space had given him almost unlimited courage.
Zong Yan never retreated, he only forged ahead.
And this time was the same.
Without hesitating, he walked straight in.
…
Once again Zong Yan felt the familiar sensation of passing through a spatial membrane.
The moment he arrived, the star map in his mind disappeared. He looked down and saw that his clothes had returned. He was once again wearing the long, dark khaki trench coat the Lord of the Gate had helped him put on.
He’d returned to his own body.
In front of Zong Yan there was nothing but a magnificent, multi-colored staircase. Its endpoint was so high above it couldn’t be seen, extending all the way up to the sky. From a distance it looked like a delicate jade ribbon.
There was no handrail on this section of stairs, and all around it was a blanket of white. Looking down, he couldn’t see the end. He was standing on one of the steps.
Zong Yan instinctively turned around, but even the frame of the door had disappeared.
When he entered this mysterious space, the temperature of the key in his hand suddenly cooled down.
The owner of this place, or perhaps this place itself, didn’t want him to rely on anyone else’s power.
Zong Yan squinted his eyes and gazed at the towering stairs in the distance. He looked back at the expanse of clouds that stretched below him, with nothing visible beyond. Then, suddenly, he leaped down into the sea of clouds.
Everything around him suddenly changed.
All the misty clouds disappeared.
In an instant, everything that Zong Yan was able to observe with his naked eye had vanished, whether it was the stairs or the space around him, or even the concept of “color”, like they’d all been annihilated and they no longer existed.
He was suspended in the void, as if he had returned to his origin, as if he had just been born.
This was a universe of nothingness, or possibly it was the original universe.
Zong Yan stretched out his hand.
‘No, in this world something else should exist.’
As he thought this, a tiny nebula was suddenly born above his fingertips, spinning and expanding, like the God’s-eye view of a simulation game.
But at the same moment Zong Yan’s “will” appeared, something even more mysterious emerged, as if a hand had reached out of the void and seized control of him.
The mysterious presence manipulated his body. He could only watch “himself” as he stretched out his hand.
Heaven and earth fell silent for a moment, and then the chain of the Silver Key snapped. The chain, together with the key, shattered into millions of silvery grains of powder.
—
The author has something to say:
The next chapter concludes the main text.
This book will have more extras, including extras for YanYan’s college entrance exam, the story of YanYan filming a movie, and the story of an investigation team composed of YanYan and the three original pillar gods exploring ancient Egypt. There’s also the extra that everyone has been calling for, Mr. K gege and Hastur gege (so there are really a lot of extras—ah)
There was also a promise of a chapter of a little black room captivity scene. When this story is completely finished, YaYa will give it to everyone free of charge on Weibo
Love you all~
TL Notes:
Regarding the “little black room” chapter—this was previously mentioned in the TL Notes of Chapter 105. If I track down a copy I’ll post it (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥
Great Master – 大师 – Dàshī – Grandmaster, Master – Refers to scholars, experts, artists, chess players, etc. with deep knowledge and reputation
up to no good – 养了些不干不净的东西 – raised some unclean/sloppy things – I suppose there could be a more literal meaning, but I took it to mean the lady is up to shady business
versatile, constantly-changing image – 造型可盐可甜，百变的很 – The shape/modeling can be salty or sweet, and it is very changeable
""online star – 流量明星 – traffic star, flow star – Someone who has a large number of fans and strong appeal but no particularly well-known works. They constantly appear in headlines and online gossip but may not be much of an actor or musician, unlike traditional stars
popular – 红 – red, symbol of success, luck, popularity, etc.
swindler – 神棍 – god stick – A liar who pretends to see ghosts or gods or uses tricks to swindle people
sheep customers – 羊毛客户 – Wool customers – Customers who can be easily shorn of their money
simpleton – 冤大头 – yuāndàtóu – take advantage of – a person deceived on account of his generosity
bent out of shape – 面目全非 – lose one’s identity; a complete change; all looks wrong or differently; be changed beyond recognition
Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:
Great Master – 大师 – Dàshī
[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]
After the math test ended, Zong Yan wasn’t going to delay here any longer.
The key was already urging him to leave, burning hot in his palm. The temperature scorched his skin, but it was just the right amount of heat, not enough to hurt, like the tenderest urging of a lover.
Whether it was the world of the Sun God or Yun Zhong Jun or the Night Watchman, Zong Yan had never attempted to stay so long before.
After all, he had other things to do. The moment he changed his body, he immediately grabbed the key to find his way. He’d probably spent more time on the Astrologer’s world than on the previous three combined.
After all, he’d arrived in the middle of the college entrance exam. Zong Yan couldn’t just hand in a blank test sheet and leave the exam room, so there was no choice but to stay. Besides, he was genuinely curious about the Astrologer persona card.
The Sun God came from the Greek pantheon, Yun Zhong Jun originated in the Jiu Ge myth, and the Night Watchman belonged to London of the 19th century. But the Astrologer was more like a parallel world that operated under the same rules as Zong Yan’s. Whatever relationship existed between himself and the other three persona cards still wasn’t clear.
If you were suddenly given the chance to see yourself in a parallel world, you’d naturally want to know how your other self lived.
Zong Yan was extremely curious how the Astrologer made money.
So he unlocked the screen of his phone—all of Zong Yan’s social networking and phone passwords were strings of characters he’d encrypted himself. This was something that remained the same no matter what world he was in.
And then, as soon as he logged into the network, several text messages immediately arrived. “Ding Ding—“
One of the messages grabbed Zong Yan’s attention.
【Great Master, you said you wouldn’t accept any business for the next few days, but I’m really in a hurry. I’ll do anything to expedite the process. As a rush fee I’m willing to pay 50% more. Please cut me some slack as a loyal customer】
The message wasn’t sent through SMS but WeChat.
The other party’s avatar was a cartoon character, and the message itself was a little incoherent, but the transfer was unmistakable. There was a direct, blatant transfer of 50,000.
And it wasn’t just one transfer of 50,000, it was four transfers of 50,000.
WeChat’s single transfer limit was 50,000, and the daily limit was 200,000. But when the other party sent the payment, they treated 200,000 like it wasn’t worth mentioning.
And that wasn’t all. The message was sent a few hours ago. The person probably got anxious when they saw Zong Yan hadn’t replied, so they sent several additional messages.
【Great Master, without your guidance I really don’t dare to join this crew. That Xing woman is up to no good. If they choose the wrong shooting site at launch I’m afraid she’ll drag down the entire production】
【If you agree I can add another 50%】
…
Zong Yan: ? ? ?
He stared at the words “crew” and “shooting site” sent by the other party and clicked on their circle of friends.
The circle of friends was full of selfies. Zong Yan glanced through it and got a weirder and weirder feeling.
Zong Yan had actually seen this face before. He was an online star who suddenly got popular a year or so ago. He won first place in a talent show, then appeared in a well-produced film and landed on top of the mainland entertainment industry. He had millions of fans and a versatile, constantly-changing image.
Normally Zong Yan didn’t pay any attention to entertainment news, but this was a star who’d was incredibly popular lately. There were some girls in class who liked to chase stars, and they secretly gathered after class to whisper together. Sometimes when their voices got too loud Zong Yan would vaguely hear this name.
Now, seeing the selfies in his circle of friends and what looked like a lot of extravagant spending, it seemed to be the same person.
Zong Yan closed the chat box and glanced through several other unread messages.
The other messages were pretty much the same, begging respectfully for his help and immediately transferring money even when he didn’t say much.
As he looked through the names, he saw a big entrepreneur whom even Zong Yan had heard of. Then he looked at the label these contacts were grouped under. The name was two cold and ruthless words: “Sheep Customers”.
Zong Yan thought he might have figured something out.
The Astrologer not only had unparalleled computing power, he could also peer into the trajectories of the stars and detect the traces of fate.
If used skillfully, this kind of ability would make it no problem at all to swindle the gullible.
He stared at the money that was transferred for a single request, then thought about what he’d earned for activating a persona card and destroying otherworldly monsters to save the world. He opened his WeChat wallet.
At that moment, a string of zeros blinded his eyes. He counted digits with trembling lips, then checked the balance of his bank card online. Suddenly he stood in place and took a deep breath.
Money, money… so much money.
Zong Yan stared at the string of numbers and began to doubt his life choices.
Maybe this Astrologer guy wore simple clothes, but in fact he was filthy rich, okay?!
And besides that, the Astrologer had two WeChat accounts, including a special one for work, and the comments were all cold and merciless, “Simpleton 01”, “Simpleton 02”, etc. His personal signature in his circle of friends was ruthless too: “Pay first, then talk”. The very image of a cold and indifferent, lofty, extremely talented swindler.
At first Zong Yan thought using his superpowers to work for MU was a bright path out of darkness. After all, studying at MU would solve his future employment needs as well as pay him a lot of money. It was a beautiful thing.
But now he saw how the Astrologer was so skilled at doing business at such a young age. He collected money while sitting around doing nothing, and all sorts of big shots had to beg him for help. While Zong Yan was exhausting himself parkouring around magical cities, this guy was sitting on a sofa, giving one or two words of advice, and adding six figures to his bank account.
The gap was so wide it felt cruel.
Zong Yan originally planned to follow the key back to his original world, but he wasn’t in a hurry anymore. He took out his phone and quite leisurely looked up an expensive restaurant nearby. He was going to enjoy the happiness of being one of the filthy rich before slinking home.
It was all his own money, and a meal wouldn’t cost even a fraction of his wealth. Just think of it as descending to earth to enjoy the life of a multimillionaire for a spell.
After Zong Yan finished enjoying his dinner, he wandered to the place where the key guided him, and once again was lost for words.
He’d arrived in a small villa complex that Zong Yan knew all too well. It was the exact same property he lived in.
The price of land in this location was frighteningly expensive. Zong Yan might live here, but he was only borrowing it. After all, the name of Shub-Niggurath was still on the property deed.
Although, supposedly, the Lord of the Gate had used his reality modification powers to update it with Zong Yan’s name.
But that was done by cheating. Zong Yan suspected this Astrologer guy bought the house with his own money.
Damn, the jealousy had him bent out of shape.
Obviously they were both ordinary high school students, but Zong Yan felt like he’d been destroyed at the starting line.
One relied on a man(?) and the other relied on himself. It was quite a gap!
While Zong Yan was madly complaining to himself, he took out the key and opened the door of the villa under double verification of fingerprint and face.
Behind the door was endless darkness.
In the middle of the darkness was a radiant door, emitting a quiet, gently shimmering light.
The black-haired young man exhaled and grasped the Silver Key tightly in his hand.
He suddenly had a mysterious premonition—this time, perhaps, past the threshold of that door, would be the thing he’d been struggling so hard to find.
An answer.
What would he see? The true consciousness of the Lord of the Universe, or some other indescribable thing, or something even more remarkable than the being who existed beyond the Ultimate Gate?
After he’d touched things that no human being could touch, would he retain his own will, or be assimilated, or fall into endless madness?
Of course, even in the face of his uncertainty, Zong Yan wasn’t afraid.
Because the Lord of Time and Space had given him almost unlimited courage.
Zong Yan never retreated, he only forged ahead.
And this time was the same.
Without hesitating, he walked straight in.
…
Once again Zong Yan felt the familiar sensation of passing through a spatial membrane.
The moment he arrived, the star map in his mind disappeared. He looked down and saw that his clothes had returned. He was once again wearing the long, dark khaki trench coat the Lord of the Gate had helped him put on.
He’d returned to his own body.
In front of Zong Yan there was nothing but a magnificent, multi-colored staircase. Its endpoint was so high above it couldn’t be seen, extending all the way up to the sky. From a distance it looked like a delicate jade ribbon.
There was no handrail on this section of stairs, and all around it was a blanket of white. Looking down, he couldn’t see the end. He was standing on one of the steps.
Zong Yan instinctively turned around, but even the frame of the door had disappeared.
When he entered this mysterious space, the temperature of the key in his hand suddenly cooled down.
The owner of this place, or perhaps this place itself, didn’t want him to rely on anyone else’s power.
Zong Yan squinted his eyes and gazed at the towering stairs in the distance. He looked back at the expanse of clouds that stretched below him, with nothing visible beyond. Then, suddenly, he leaped down into the sea of clouds.
Everything around him suddenly changed.
All the misty clouds disappeared.
In an instant, everything that Zong Yan was able to observe with his naked eye had vanished, whether it was the stairs or the space around him, or even the concept of “color”, like they’d all been annihilated and they no longer existed.
He was suspended in the void, as if he had returned to his origin, as if he had just been born.
This was a universe of nothingness, or possibly it was the original universe.
Zong Yan stretched out his hand.
‘No, in this world something else should exist.’
As he thought this, a tiny nebula was suddenly born above his fingertips, spinning and expanding, like the God’s-eye view of a simulation game.
But at the same moment Zong Yan’s “will” appeared, something even more mysterious emerged, as if a hand had reached out of the void and seized control of him.
The mysterious presence manipulated his body. He could only watch “himself” as he stretched out his hand.
Heaven and earth fell silent for a moment, and then the chain of the Silver Key snapped. The chain, together with the key, shattered into millions of silvery grains of powder.
—
The author has something to say:
The next chapter concludes the main text.
This book will have more extras, including extras for YanYan’s college entrance exam, the story of YanYan filming a movie, and the story of an investigation team composed of YanYan and the three original pillar gods exploring ancient Egypt. There’s also the extra that everyone has been calling for, Mr. K gege and Hastur gege (so there are really a lot of extras—ah)
There was also a promise of a chapter of a little black room captivity scene. When this story is completely finished, YaYa will give it to everyone free of charge on Weibo
Love you all~
TL Notes:
Regarding the “little black room” chapter—this was previously mentioned in the TL Notes of Chapter 105. If I track down a copy I’ll post it (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥
Great Master – 大师 – Dàshī – Grandmaster, Master – Refers to scholars, experts, artists, chess players, etc. with deep knowledge and reputation
up to no good – 养了些不干不净的东西 – raised some unclean/sloppy things – I suppose there could be a more literal meaning, but I took it to mean the lady is up to shady business
versatile, constantly-changing image – 造型可盐可甜，百变的很 – The shape/modeling can be salty or sweet, and it is very changeable
""online star – 流量明星 – traffic star, flow star – Someone who has a large number of fans and strong appeal but no particularly well-known works. They constantly appear in headlines and online gossip but may not be much of an actor or musician, unlike traditional stars
popular – 红 – red, symbol of success, luck, popularity, etc.
swindler – 神棍 – god stick – A liar who pretends to see ghosts or gods or uses tricks to swindle people
sheep customers – 羊毛客户 – Wool customers – Customers who can be easily shorn of their money
simpleton – 冤大头 – yuāndàtóu – take advantage of – a person deceived on account of his generosity
bent out of shape – 面目全非 – lose one’s identity; a complete change; all looks wrong or differently; be changed beyond recognition
Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:
Great Master – 大师 – Dàshī
[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]
