# 2024
Chapter 2024: The Great Lord Azathoth
Lin Qiye stood alone, staring at the desolate wasteland before him, motionless as a stone sculpture.
Confusion and doubt filled his mind.
Don't forget yourself... You will definitely find me?
This wasn't the first time Lin Qiye had heard these two sentences, but he still couldn't decipher their meaning. Although they had now defeated the three Pillar Gods—the Black Goat, Chaos, and the Key to the Gate—if they didn't "ascend dimensions" to defeat Azathoth, humanity would still be destroyed in the mad universe.
Why didn't He tell him the method to defeat Azathoth?
Did He not know it Himself?
With the greatest hope falling through, Lin Qiye felt hollow inside... With the death of the Key to the Gate and An Qingyu's disappearance, the only path to salvation before him had been completely severed.
Only seven days remained before Azathoth's shadow consumed the Earth.
Could these seven days only mean waiting for death?
A surge of bitter不甘 surged through Lin Qiye's heart. His fingernails dug deep into his skin, maintaining his consciousness from falling into despair... He had to find another way!
Just as Lin Qiye was racking his brains, a soft sound came from behind him!
Lin Qiye turned sharply and saw that the sound was coming from An Qingyu's fallen physical body. With both the Key to the Gate and An Qingyu gone, this body had no owner and lay on the ground like a corpse.
Pui——!
As Lin Qiye stepped forward to investigate, a ball of flesh sprayed out from that body's mouth.
"HAHAHAHA... Wonderful! Truly wonderful!!"
"Well killed!!"
"Secretly scheming against me, wanting to be the Cthulhu Faction's boss? And yet you only had this much skill??"
"Wanted to be the mandarin duck behind the scenes, only to be out schemed by another mandarin duck? Did you really think I couldn't see through that little An Qingyu's schemes?? I kept him around just to see how badly you would be played! I didn't expect his show to be so brilliantly prepared!! Hahahaha..."
"Weren't you always boasting about being omniscient and omnipotent? And look at the pathetic end you came to?!"
"HAHAHAHAHA..."
The sharp, ferocious cursing came from the ball of flesh. At the moment he heard this voice, Lin Qiye's eyes slightly contracted!
Chaos!!
He truly wasn't dead!
Lin Qiye grabbed it like the last straw. His palm gripped the air, and a strand of causal thread directly flung that ball of flesh into his hand!
His five fingers tightly gripped the surface of the ball of flesh as he spoke coldly:
"Chaos... We meet again."
"Yes, meet again!" The crack on the surface of the ball of flesh, resembling a mouth, opened and closed repeatedly, "Although I've watched this scene countless times, it never gets old! Never enough!!"
Hearing this inexplicable words, Lin Qiye's brow furrowed. His five fingers gripping the ball of flesh grew even more用力, and he spoke grimly:
"I'm asking you... How do you communicate with Azathoth?"
"Just like this!"
"Just like this how exactly?"
"Just like how things are now." With that, a scarlet tongue poked out from the crack in the ball of flesh, shaking rapidly, "Blblblbl..."
Seeing this, a surge of anger welled up in Lin Qiye. His five fingers slowly curled. With tremendous force, that ugly ball of flesh was stretched like a rubber toy, extending through his finger gaps.
"With your current state, I could kill you ten times with one hand. I advise you to behave老实点." Lin Qiye's eyes narrowed into a dangerous arc, "I'm asking you again... How do you communicate with Azathoth?"
Grunts of pain came from between Chaos's ball of flesh. His twisted, shrill voice immediately rang out:
"Let go, let go... Isn't it that you want to know how to meet Azathoth? I'll tell you right now!"
Hearing this answer, Lin Qiye's fingertips loosened slightly... Of course he didn't trust Chaos, but under the current circumstances, Chaos might be the only breakthrough.
"Don't play tricks. You should know you can't escape." Lin Qiye pulled on the causal thread connected to Chaos, speaking calmly.
"Rest assured, I'm not running. This is my favorite encore!"
The ball of flesh of Chaos dropped to the ground, quickly squirming and growing, restoring that浑身黢黑 humanoid silhouette. It faced Lin Qiye with a brilliant smile, showing a mouthful of white teeth.
It stood before Lin Qiye, clearing its throat, then tidying its messy clothes... Its expression solemn and dignified.
Under Lin Qiye's gaze, it slowly knelt on one knee...
Lin Qiye watched Chaos kneeling before him, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter. He couldn't understand what this家伙 was doing... Just as he was about to speak, Chaos's voice respectfully rang out:
"Your dream should now end... Great Lord Azathoth."
Hearing this sentence, Lin Qiye froze in place.
"What are you playing at..."
Before Lin Qiye could finish speaking, everything before his eyes suddenly blurred. In an instant, his mysterious connection to the universe became startlingly clear. He saw countless black ribbons extending from within his body, piercing into every corner of this world...
It was a feeling Lin Qiye had never experienced before. An ancient, vast consciousness rose from his mind, gradually occupying his body. His entire person seemed to lose weight and float upward...
The sky, the earth, the abyss where black fire danced, Wang Mian and Merlin approaching in the distance... Just as Lin Qiye's connection to this universe intensified to the extreme, everything around him shattered like mirror images!
In an instant, his body too disintegrated along with the surrounding environment...
All light and shadow, sounds, and scents vanished. Lin Qiye seemed to have returned to that abyss of darkness he fell into during each near-death moment. His consciousness kept sinking, sinking... A sensation of weightlessness filled his mind, but unlike every time before, this time Lin Qiye's consciousness was awake!
SPLAT——!!
His consciousness seemed to fall into something, then produced a sound of a heavy object hitting the ground!
The moment Lin Qiye's consciousness returned, his body immediately bounced up from the ground, warily surveying everything around him... But except for endless darkness, there was nothing.
"Here again??"
Lin Qiye naturally recognized this place. His consciousness had entered this mysterious space several times, but strangely, this time he had been awake for a while, yet that mysterious little boy hadn't appeared.
"Is anyone there?" Lin Qiye试探性地开口。
There was no response in the darkness.
Lin Qiye hesitated for a moment, then could only reach out and grope in the darkness... His palm had barely risen when it touched a solid wall.
His eyes narrowed slightly. He immediately followed along this wall in one direction, then touched a smooth bulge and pressed it lightly.
CLICK——!
A crisp switch sound rang out.
Bright light immediately lit up from above. Lin Qiye疑惑地环顾四周, and the next moment, his entire person stood frozen like a sculpture!
This place was not some mysterious realm he had imagined. On the contrary, everything here was so familiar to him that it couldn't be more familiar... This was a ward.
A ward in the Asylum of the Gods.