Plague Doctor

Chapter 391: Land of Mu

Inside the dilapidated rental, Gu Jun and Yu Chi exchanged information about the two worlds. There were new answers but also new questions. Yu Chi, 29 years old, a student of archaeology, he joined Mysterium when he was 21 and was promoted to lead the Special Mobile Force, the Icebreaker when he was 27. He was forced into retirement due to PTSD when he was 29 and he had been in this semi-retired state for half a year already. Yu Chi did not come from a complicated background but there was one detail about his family history that stood out to Gu Jun. Both his father and grandfather were archaeologists and they died from mysterious circumstances. Neither of them worked for Mysterium. Due to the investigation he conducted when he was leading Icebreaker, Yu Chi found out both his father and grandfather were killed by cultists.

Gu Jun gave a simple introduction about his childhood as a Spirit Child and the foreign world. Yu Chi’s world did not seem to have similar counterparts.

And the Dreamlands...

“No, we have not heard of anything like that.” Yu Chi was clearly surprised. “We’ve entered abnormal space and we can perform lucid dreams but we have not ventured to this Dreamlands.” This was beyond Gu Jun’s expectation. He thought all parallel universes could be connected via the Dreamlands.

“Is it possible that the place just hasn’t been discovered yet?” Gu Jun pondered.

“That’s unlikely. Mysterium might not have discovered it but the cults definitely would have.” Yu Chi scratched his head. Gu Jun understood what he meant. The cultists would not have given up a resource as precious as the Dreamlands. Yu Chi suggested, “Could this be another difference between our worlds?”

In any case, they put this question aside for now and moved onto the next topic, the cults. When Gu Jun heard the term, the Great Old One, he frowned. It could not have been a coincidence that the term was repeated in this world...

“Ghatanothoa, we’ve seen its reproduction on some cave paintings and statues.” Yu Chu showed Gu Jun a few pictures. As he made the introduction, Yu Chi’s eyes turned bloodshot and his tone fanatic. “These images might influence your mind, be careful...”

“Captain Yu, we do suffer from the same fate.” Gu Jun said self-deprecatingly. In the past, his mind would be impacted whenever he laid his eyes on the image of the Great Old Ones. Now it was no different. As expected, with just one glance, his mind ached. However, this was a positive proof that the existence depicted in the pictures was not just a legend. How was he to describe the thing that he saw? Gu Jun had no words for it because it could not be described with words. No human concept could define it. It was enormous with numerous tentacles, eyes like deep-sea octopus. Its body looked soft but contained patches of scales and wrinkles...

“This thing...” Gu Jun took in a deep breath. It did appear like the Lord of R’yleh but there were minor differences. He put down the pictures and shared the tales of R’yleh. “Could they be the same legend with different names?”

“Captain Gu, names possess power.” Yu Chi croaked. “Spells rely on drawing from the actual name of its source. If ‘Cthulhu’ has power, so does ‘Ghatanothoa’, so they should be two different existences...” Gu Jun concurred. That was indeed the case. For spells and rituals, a minor mispronunciation in the name could cause it to fail. In that case, why would these two beings be so similar? Not only their images but also their background. R’yleh was a city and Land of Mu was a continent, they were both sunken in the deep ocean.

The duo then proceeded to discuss the issue of spell. Gu Jun realized this world was more advanced than Earth. Mysterium already had a Spell Department 2 decades ago. In fact, it featured greatly in the naming of Mysterium. In an incident that happened 30 years ago, some government officials excavated an ancient sutra called Nine Mysterium Arts from a pre-Qing dynasty tomb. It was a great archaeological find but it was not revealed to the public for Nine Mysterium Arts was a spell book. After years of research, Mysterium gained some understanding into the tome. The book possessed chapters on summoning, offensive and defensive spells. Gu Jun hungered after the knowledge, “Captain Yu, then what is the source of this Nine Mysterium Arts? And how do you guys solve the issue of mental corruption?”

“We named the source of the power as the King of Hsan.” Yu Chi answered. “With regards to your other question, there is a second relic that was unearthed during that excavation. It was a giant opaline gem. It should not belong there because it was later identified as a mineral from Australia.” Gu Jun then was told there was also a seal carved on the opaline gem but here, the seal was called the Branching Seal.

The Pnakotic Manuscript was a copy so it was not strange for its content to be circulated elsewhere but the strange thing was how similar these two worlds who acquired it were. After some comparison, the duo confirmed that both worlds possessed the technology of Ancient Seal, mental cleansing and monitoring. The two worlds had minor differences since prehistoric times and they experienced many different big events but they somehow arrived at the same results. Was this development independent from each other or there was a mutual influence?

Gu Jun contemplated for a long time. One could not proceed to the Dreamlands from this world, but Mysterium had access to Ancient Seal technology, this proved that the Pnakotic Manuscript did not originate from Dreamlands. In that case, who were the Yith? Where did they come from? Yu Chi and Mysterium had not heard of the Yith before and had not visited that grand library.

Due to its longer history, Mysterium’s headquarters had more than ten thousand members who knew spells and they had guards stationed across the nation. Both Phecda and GOA would need years before they could mature to this state.

“Despite the many precautionary amenities...” Yu Chi said, “Over-usage of spell is still a problem. Mysterium has a very high turnover rate...” Before they ventured into the technological details, Gu Jun had a question he needed to ask. “Captain Yu, you mentioned you saw illusions about me. What exactly did you see?” He wouldn’t have seen images of him making out with Wu Siyu, would he?

Yu Chi explained, “People with high spirituality and unique talent are often exposed to illusions. They sometimes can be of help, other times of hindrance. Half a year ago, we defeated a cult from the Land of Mu... And then it happened to me. I started to receive that signal and began to see illusions about you.” Gu Jun nodded. After hearing some of the illusions, he realized they were not chronologically ordered and they were all from the past.

“I told the others about you that I saw from a different Earth. Initially they did research into it but after a while, they thought I have lost my mind, have I lost my mind...”

“Captain Yu... you didn’t see anything private about me, right?” Gu Jun eventually posed the question directly or else his heart could not sit well. He would not know how to face the man.

“What do you mean?” Yu Chi was confused. He scratched his beard. “Define private.”

“Things between me and my girlfriend.” Gu Jun explained, “Well, those kinds of things.”

“What, you have a girlfriend?” Yu Chi was shocked and flustered. “I thought you were a couple with that man with very little hair.”

“Who, Zixuan?” Gu Jun gave the description and confirmed Yu Chi was talking about Cai Zixuan. Gu Jun frowned. “No, Zixuan has his own girlfriend and we are definitely not a pair.” As if sensing the eyes on him, Yu Chi said hurriedly, “No, of course not... I didn’t mean... I don’t have a girlfriend myself, I’m too busy...’

“Understood.” Gu Jun said, “I really do.”

Then they moved onto the mysterious signal and the cross. This was the most desperate and important detail.

“Brother, now I don’t think we exist in parallel universes,” Yu Chi’s tone turned heated again, “I think we exist in different realities of the same overworld.”