# 1185
Chapter 1186: Concealed Deities
"Cthulhu Faction comes from another world? So what does that count as? Extraterrestrial invasion?" Lin Qiye asked, puzzled.
"I don't know. These are just my guesses. After all, besides this theory, I can't think of any other explanation." Jinian shrugged. "But what we can be certain of is that these 'setting monsters' that walked out of novels are definitely not the gods and myths within our understanding. Our current intelligence on power levels, abilities, and laws cannot be applied to them.
Their very existence is a kind of 'unknown.'"
Lin Qiye's gaze swept across several display cases. "Besides this, is there any other information?"
"Yes."
Jinian nodded seriously. "Did you see the fractured volcanic rock in the center?"
Lin Qiye walked to the display case Jinian mentioned. His gaze passed through the glass and fell upon a fractured rock over a meter tall. On the rough rock surface, dense clusters of twisted patterns could be faintly seen, resembling some kind of ancient pictograph.
"What is this?"
"It's an ancient inscription unearthed from one of the Cthulhu Faction ruins. The exact era is indistinguishable, but after technical restoration by the Second Research Institute, the general meaning can be deciphered."
Jinian paused. "According to this inscription, it should be a record of the history when the Cthulhu Faction gods were sealed on the Moon."
Lin Qiye raised an eyebrow. "But isn't this history already clear to us?"
"No, it's not that simple."
Jinian extended her hand and pointed to a certain region. "Look at this picture."
Lin Qiye followed her fingertip. On the ancient pictograph, clusters of twisted lines rose up and gathered within a spherical shape in the sky, hovering at the very top of the image.
"Is this the Cthulhu Faction gods ascending to the Moon?" Lin Qiye roughly guessed the meaning of the image.
"That's right. Now look here."
Jinian moved her finger to the very bottom of the image.
"This is..." Lin Qiye's eyes narrowed slightly.
On the surface of the dark rock, three dark red brush strokes of twisted lines crouched beneath the countless ascending lines, as if lurking motionlessly in the depths of the earth.
"Based on the meaning of this picture, there are three additional Cthulhu Faction gods that were not sealed on the Moon." Jinian looked seriously into Lin Qiye's eyes, speaking word by word. "They... have been lurking somewhere on Earth all along."
"There are still Cthulhu Faction gods on Earth?!"
Lin Qiye's expression instantly grew grave.
"After discovering this possibility, we dispatched a large number of personnel to conduct a more thorough exploration of the existing Cthulhu Faction ruins. Through technical restoration, countless speculations and deductions, combined with relevant Cthulhu Faction mythology content, we can roughly identify these three Cthulhu Faction gods."
Jinian took a deep breath and slowly said:
"They are respectively: [Black Goat] Shub-Niggurath, [Key to the Gate] Yog-Sothoth, and [Chaos] Nyarlathotep. In some novel settings, they are also designated as the Three Pillars of Cthulhu Faction mythology."
"[Black Goat], [Key to the Gate], [Chaos]..." Lin Qiye murmured these names.
Suddenly, he felt as though he had heard the name [Black Goat] Shub-Niggurath somewhere before...
An Qingyu?
After a moment of thought, Lin Qiye recalled the future An Qingyu who had appeared at the end of the river of time during the angel's judgment in hell.
At that time, An Qingyu had looked at the Seraph Uriel, controlled by the red worms, and said: "I didn't expect that our next meeting would be in this form... It seems I should thank Niggurath properly."
So the future An Qingyu also knew about the existence of [Black Goat] Shub-Niggurath? Or perhaps... they were originally on the same side?
Why did he thank [Black Goat]?
Because it facilitated their meeting across time? Or was it, or a part of it, the red worm that controlled Uriel and triggered the future judgment?
Just as Lin Qiye was contemplating this, Jinian continued:
"According to our speculation, at least two of these three Cthulhu Faction pillar gods remaining on Earth have awakened."
"According to Cthulhu Faction mythology, one of the characteristics of [Black Goat] Shub-Niggurath is possessing extremely powerful reproductive abilities, which is why it is called the Supreme Mother God, the Forest's Black Goat that birthed countless descendants.
The red worms and tumors that you encountered in hell, controlling the corpses of angels and demons, as well as the cluster of worms that composed Odin's eyeball not long ago, were likely all offspring it birthed, controlled by it."
"The second is [Key to the Gate] Yog-Sothoth. The nameless fog that caused the apocalypse a hundred years ago has inextricable connections to it. It can even be speculated that this fog is part of its own body."
Lin Qiye's frown deepened.
According to what Jinian said, [Black Goat] and [Key to the Gate]—the former controlled heaven and hell, attempting to build a unique divine realm for Cthulhu Faction gods, while the latter single-handedly created the current dire state of Earth, and was also the fundamental reason the Gods of Great Xia fell into the cycle of reincarnation... Their power and intent to subvert the world far exceeded Lin Qiye's imagination.
"What about the last one?"
"[Chaos] Nyarlathotep—one of its most important characteristics is its passion for deceiving and seducing humanity, with driving humans into terror and despair until they go mad with terror being its greatest delight.
We haven't yet discovered any events related to it, so we have temporarily classified it as not yet awakened... Or rather, it may simply be waiting for the right moment."
Lin Qiye nodded thoughtfully. "That much, we indeed haven't discovered."
"In short, we must always be on guard against these three Cthulhu Faction gods lurking on Earth... Otherwise, things will become very dire." Jinian licked her slightly chapped lips and said,
"I've warned you of what I needed to warn you about. If the Second Research Institute makes any new discoveries, I will update you.
If you need to find information related to Sumerian mythology, take your time searching. I'll go attend to other things first."
After bidding farewell to Lin Qiye, Jinian walked directly out of the castle.
Lin Qiye took one last look at the Cthulhu Faction ruins collection hall, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, as if still unable to recover from the heavyweight information he had just received.
He returned to the third floor of the castle, casually picked up an investigation file on Sumerian mythology, sat down on the spot, and began flipping through it carefully.
Although, as Jinian had said, the files on Sumerian mythology were scarce, extracting useful information from these fragmented pieces was still a massive undertaking.
Time passed second by second. By the time Lin Qiye finished flipping through all the files and left the castle, it was already late at night in Utopia.