Plague Doctor

Translator: Lonelytree

The aurora borealis curled and slithered in the night sky. There were strands and layers of them, a much charming reflection of the roiling waves on the sea below. The cliff-face to the side of the giant summit was so even that it felt like it had been sliced through by a knife. At that treacherous location, a cultish ceremony was underway.

Gu Jun could feel his vision being pulled over. His head was aching and tightening, but in contrast, his heart rate was relatively stable, at least much more in control compared to before. It had to be the effect of his newly-acquired skill.

He trained his focus to get a better look. There were about more than ten people caught in the trance, including adults and children. They were dancing around something. Even in the extreme weather, they were only wearing strange outfits stitched from various beast hides. The clothes were dripping in fresh blood like they had just been skinned from the animals. The blood was also used to paint some kind of cultish symbol on the hides. For some reason, Gu Jun felt that symbol was rather familiar…

The Inuits sang louder and stronger. Gu Jun was pulled in closer. He could now see the people dancing around a conical stone sculpture that was the size of a normal adult. The statue was difficult to make out in the darkness, but its shape was reminiscent of the symbol painted on the animal hides.

'Closer, I need to get closer.' Gu Jun frowned. The sculpture was definitely a key clue. It was the idol that the Inuits worshipped. 'Is it similar to the one worshipped by the zombies? The ball of shapeless darkness venerated by Ol' Uncle Dog, Chen Defa, and the rest of the villagers?'

He forced his mind's eye to move closer, and as a result, his heart felt the instant drawback. Gu Jun's heart rate upped to one hundred beats per minute, and it showed no sign of slowing down.

He had started to hear it, the fanatic voices of the Inuits. The voices of the few children came through the sharpest and strongest. Their faces had been stripped of their usual innocence and were filled with bloodlust and hysteria, just like the faces that turned toward him in the picture. It was as if their minds were taken over by the ceremony, and at that moment, they were channeling some kind of insidious power.

"Ah…"

Suddenly, Gu Jun's head cracked like it was being drilled through. Through the intense pain, he could finally hear what the Inuits were chanting. " Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

They were chanting the spell of the R'yleh Cult, and their pronunciation and tempo were extremely precise. It was a perfect recreation of the spell written down on that piece of paper.

'But why?' The headache became more intense. It was like his brain was being pulled in two different directions. 'How did the Inuits come to learn this‽'

He wanted to lean in closer to hear the chanting clearer, to get a clearer view of the sculpture, but the pain was getting too intense. The pain had become palpable in his skull, and Gu Jun swore it could have burst his head right out at any minute. The last bit of the illusion that he saw was some kind of strangeness down the cliff on the surface of the ocean. Then, the pain overwhelmed him and drowned the illusion away. His heart started to palpitate, and when he opened his eyes, he realized he was still inside the living room of the old wooden house.

"Ah…" Gu Jun groaned in pain. The last time he came in direct contact with this spell, he had to be given an adrenaline shot to the heart to get it pumping again.

After a moment, a notification came in his mind from the system.

"The mastery of your Strong Heart has increased by five hundred points. Current level is 1 (500/50000 Mastery)."

'Even an illusion as intense as that only got me five hundred mastery points?' The thought flashed across his mind as he tried to catch his breath. His hands flew to his chest. He wondered whether he would live to see the day the skill upgrade to level 2.

"Ah Jun, Siyu, are you guys alright?" Uncle Dan asked nervously as he reached into the medic kit to take out the needle. "Do you need a shot?"

"I'm fine… thank God for this chair." Wu Siyu breathed out a long sigh. Her face was as pale as paper. "If not for it, I would be face down on the floor right down."

Gu Jun was also adjusting his breathing. Catching the levity in her words, Gu Jun was sure she was fine. In that case, this dirty-minded girl's heart was quite strong.

"Uncle Dan, we're fine." He halted Uncle Dan, who was coming at him with the needle. "I just need a little rest. It's fine…"

The Arctic Wolf squad at the door were as confused as they could be. Did they just witness an astral projection or something like it? Zhang Xiaoqi's questioning gaze wandered over to Xue Ba.

"Vice leader Zhang, they are risking their lives to do this." Xue Ba's square jaw clenched. "I hope you can all treat this more seriously."

Lou Xiaoning heard this exchange and suppressed the urge to lay it on them. No wonder Elder Tong had said that those with high S values were good for nothings because their eyes were blinded by everything. Certain things had to be experienced personally, and even then, they might not believe it. Imagination could only take one so far.

"You saw it, right?"

Ignoring the rest, Gu Jun had a private meeting with Wu Siyu. The latter nodded. "I did, the spell was similar to the one you casted before, right?"

He nodded and then asked, "Did you catch a good look of that stone sculpture?"

She shook her head. "I was about to when the illusion was shut down."

After some quick confirmation, Gu Jun confirmed that they had seen and heard about the same things during this session. There was no additional information. Even though they did not have a clear vision, he had great confidence that the stone sculpture shared the same origin as the statue that was exhumed during Elder Tong's case. The familiar symbol was the shapes of the twisting limbs of the abnormal creature.

"Guys." Gu Jun decided to share the information with the rest. "The Inuits in this picture, they share the same fanatic idolatry as the R'yleh Cult."

Not every member of the Arctic Wolf squad had access to this sensitive information. Only high-ranking members like Zhang Xiaoqi knew about it. The three Demon Hunters naturally knew all about it. But as they listened to Gu Jun's revelation, their faces were scrunched up in confusion and surprise. The picture was taken in the early 20s or 30s. The migration had happened much earlier than the incident at Nan Tang Village. Furthermore, these Inuits inhabited the Arctic Belt. They were literally worlds away from Guang Ting City. And based on the results of current research, the Inuits had migrated to the Arctic from Asia around four thousand years ago. That was at least one thousand years earlier than the dated creation of the tomb where the stone statue was exhumed. The religion and culture of the Inuits also did not have any reference to R'yleh at all.

So, how did this small cluster of Inuits gain access to that cultist knowledge? R'yleh Cult, Nightmare Illness, the abandoned island in the dream… the coordinates had led them to this part of the Chukchi Sea. If Gu Jun was not hallucinating, there had to be something that connected all these scraps of information.

Just as everyone was confounded, Yu Xiaoyong, who had been sent out earlier, rushed back in a hurry. His face was lined with surprise and excitement. "Ivanov has helped us with some digging. The report states that Vasily Petrov woke up one night from a nightmare, and he rushed up to the deck from his cabin. No one was able to stop him. It was like he was overcome by madness. He jumped over the railing into the icy sea, and that was how he drowned himself."

When Yu Xiaoyong heard that, he was instantly reminded of the Nightmare Illness, and now Zhang Xiaoqi and the rest came to the same conclusion. So, the connection truly lay in that picture. The way the Arctic Wolf squad viewed Gu Jun had gained a hint of respect and admiration. No wonder the headquarters had given them that kind of order. This Gu Jun was not a fraud, nor was his power.

"Captain Yu," Gu Jun said, "are there any cliffs that overlook the ocean around here?"

"The island's central ridges extend to the far east and west. They are truncated with overlooks that face the sea." Yu Xiaoyong thought about it before adding, "The one closest to this place should be the one on the eastern coastline."

"I believe a trip there is required," Gu Jun announced darkly. The arctic winds were still howling outside the wooden house.