We got a full Kofi! Say thanks to Balbara everybody. That chapter will be updated tomorrow.
Co-translator: Blu
【"No no —— let me go ah ah!!!" Screams rose one after another.
Catherine was so frightened that she’d gone numb,watching as the person beside her was bitten in half by the monster from the sea.
The humans who survived the ordeal ran off the beach and into the woods at the edge of it. Catherine, who had returned to her senses, followed in a panic.
It’s all that monster’s fault!
Catherine remembered the beast who’d escaped the circus and followed after her with resentment.
Her feet had blisters, she’d been scratched by branches, her clothes torn ragged, she looked extremely miserable.
Suddenly, a dense wave of black-shelled insects crawled out onto the ground. They ate everything and instantly turned the people running in front of her into a pile of bones. Catherine screamed and swerved to the side.
On the peak of the mountain, the torches on the altar were lit in turn. Aman in black robes cut open the monster's wrist and watched the blood flow along the grooves in the altar, the emotion in his eyes frantic and chilling.
"We offer sacrifices to the god! We pray for your awakening!"
The sea became stormier and a terrible existence deep in the sea opened its eyes.
That was, the inexplicably great existence —— Cthulhu. 】
——From 《Cthulhu’s Wrath》
"Let me go." Zhou Yu frowned and lifted the old man's hand off his shoulder.
"I'm here to get the documents. I'm afraid I can't comply with your wishes." Zhou Yu smiled, but his eyes were cold.
The old man froze and naturally realized that the young man was unwilling to be his apprentice.
"Boy, why are you being picky? I'm the best alchemist in this city, you definitely won't lose out!" The old man's face wrinkled, and he had a childlike stubbornness in his eyes as he kept promoting himself with a thick face. (S: “thick face” wasn’t in the raws, but he’s being shameless, and this is a Chinese novel, so I thought it sounded more authentic)
"... No thanks."
Zhou Yu was speechless.
He walked into the credential room and saw the walls covered with various models. The only table was covered in papers full of messy notes.
"Excuse me, where is my certificate? I still have something to do." Zhou Yu looked at the pestering old man, his tone chilly.
"No no no, you must have rejected me without knowing who I am! I used to be the chief alchemist of Toria, but I was forced to leave the imperial capital because I was framed by my peers and returned here to do this job! Don't underestimate me! As long as you become my apprentice, I promise that you’ll become the greatest alchemist of all time!" The old man didn’t answer Zhou Yu's inquiry and continued to try persuading Zhou Yu, his face still stubborn to the point he looked a little insane.
He must take this young man as an apprentice! His life was running out. He didn’t have time and energy to return to the capital to get revenge on that scum. Only by receiving a genius as an apprentice could he prove to the world that he was right! Everything he did was for the development of alchemy as a whole! He wasn’t in the wrong!
Zhou Yu looked at this old man spouting nonsense, and wrinkled his brows in impatience.
He had to go back and cook for Franken. He didn't have the time to listen to the old man spouting inane rubbish.
"My family was once the country’s most prosperous family. Even the king had to bow his head to the people in our family, because they were all sorcerers and alchemists. There used to be a high-level alchemist and mid-level sorcerer! To this day, there are countless priceless alchemy books and grimoires in my family!"
"I don't need to know these things, please tell me where my documents—" Zhou Yu wanted to interrupt the old man, but paused when he heard what the old man said.
There was a flash of surprise in his eyes, and he asked, "Did you say your family still has grimoires? How many?"
He really didn't believe that there would still be a lot of magical books in such a remote town.
You know, a sorcerer was an existence that ordinary people couldn't see in their lifetime, not to mention precious books about magic.
In this era where knowledge was circulated, the price of books was unexpectedly expensive. The original owner only bought one ancient magic book and it exhausted all his savings. Did this old man really have magic books that were a lot more precious than those?
The old man saw that the young man he valued became interested in his family and immediately began to show off.
He boasted, saying that his family's collection of books was comparable to that of the Torian Imperial Library, because it was arduously collected through generations of their family.
Zhou Yu knew that it must’ve been an exaggeration and naturally he didn't fully believe it. He heard the old man boasting non-stop about it and began to look closely around the room. He accidentally saw an abandoned manuscript.
On this manuscript paper was the drawing of a human body. Those meticulous lines outlined an exquisite map of the human anatomy.
In a time when experimenting on humans with alchemy was forbidden, Zhou Yu had an inkling as to why the old man was driven out of the capital.
"If possible, I would like to look at those books before making any judgements. Mister, you should know that I’m short of money and usually can't buy many of them. If you really have a lot of books, I might just agree to your demand.” Zhou Yu took some gold coins out his pocket and smiled, interrupting the old man's lengthy speech.
The old man's eyes flashed with surprise and he once again happily started to ramble: "Good, good, come, follow me! I'll take you to our family's library!"
The old man pulled Zhou Yu, about to leave the certificate room, but Zhou Yu reminded him that his certificate had not yet been issued. Only then did the excited old man recover a bit of his reason, taking Zhou Yu's official alchemist's certificate from who knows where and giving it to Zhou Yu.
Because this city's Alchemist Society was only responsible for the assessment of low-level alchemists, Zhou Yu now has the credentials of the lowest class of alchemists.
But that was enough.
He didn't want to go too far in that direction, because in his opinion, except for some individuals who were truly skilled, many of them passed themselves off as formal alchemists by mechanical memorization, it was almost on the same level as ancient China.
After receiving the certificate, Zhou Yu followed the old man out of the Alchemist Society. As for Franken's breakfast, Zhou Yu decided to buy more things at noon to compensate him.
Under the guidance of the old man, Zhou Yu quickly came to a quaint old house.
Red bricks and tiles, a three-storeyed spire, an overgrown courtyard and the tattered iron fence gave off the atmosphere of a medieval haunted house.
Zhou Yu glanced at the old man with some doubts in his heart. Anyone who saw such a run down house would not have thought that it would have any precious books in it.
"Come, young man, follow me!" The old man was anxious when he saw Zhou Yu hesitating at the door, "Don't look at how worn out the exterior looks, in fact, the inside is still very neat!"
Obviously, he also knew that his ancestral house was very shabby. He was usually just too lazy to take care of it and was also disinclined to hire servants to clean up the place because of his alchemy experiments. This caused the original luxurious and beautiful house to turn to shambles.
Zhou Yu stepped in with hesitation, but palmed his dagger. He was going in prepared, just in case this old man turned out to be a lunatic.
Following this somewhat crazy old man, Zhou Yu walked into the library located deep inside the house.
Huge bookshelves were scattered throughout the originally empty room and the shelves were filled with dusty books.