Chapter 1672

Before Shiler had once become the mysterious existence Black Sun deep within the stars, listening to the Ancient One's lament about that dream world, and then wrote down all worldviews related to the Old Ones into a book and gave it to the Ancient One.

The title of this book borrows the name of a fictional grimoire, the Necronomicon, written by the mad poet Abdul Alhazred in the Cthulhu Mythos.

The Necronomicon does not exist in reality, but within the Cthulhu Mythos, this book is described as recording all knowledge in the world related to the Old Gods, and any investigator can find the forbidden knowledge they seek within it.

Shiler's written Necronomicon is not that miraculous, but its content does indeed contain all the knowledge he knows from the Cthulhu Mythos.

The Marvel Universe does have Cthulhu Mythos settings, although not very orthodox, more like a background board with a supervillain flavor, but there is still a group of blindly foolish mysterious existences deep within the stars waiting to return.

When Shiler gave this book to the Ancient One, he actually only hoped to help this Supreme Mage understand the power system of entities like the Eye of Agamotto, her old rival, to prevent the Ancient One from being ambushed.

But embarrassingly, later Eternity rebooted the universe, and the Ancient One lost this part of her memory, but because Eternity dared not reboot anything related to Shiler at that time, this book remained, and it is estimated that the Ancient One is now puzzled as to how this book suddenly appeared on her person.

But now Strange is even more puzzled than the Ancient One, his teacher secretly researching a book that looks very dangerous behind his back, and moreover being caught red-handed by other cosmic beings present, isn't this making the style of his universe—described as relying more on fists than brains—into a joke?

The Ancient One has spent a lifetime swinging fists, how did this turn into her starting to read military strategy?

Strange now very much wants to rush into the screen and flip open that book to see what is written inside, but the pride of the Supreme Mage prevents him from leaving this room now, especially since he has just finished recounting the Ancient One's glorious battle record to the mages of this universe, he cannot hastily run away, otherwise it would look very much like he failed to lie and fled the battlefield.

"Have you looked at it?" Harley asked.

Helen lightly shook her head, lifted her gaze to meet Harley's eyes, and said: "I have ample curiosity, but I am not stupid; what the Supreme Mage can see does not mean I can see."

"Then why did you take it away?"

"To prevent the Supreme Mage from continuing to look at it."

Harley paused for a moment, she lowered her eyes to glance at that book which looked very strange, lightly pursed her lips, and said: "Are you so sure it is harmful?"

"I can feel a kind of vitality... there is a vitality on this book, not saying it is some kind of life, but it is also not ordinary dead matter; I am not sure I will not be controlled by it, nor am I sure whether the Ancient One has already been controlled by it."

Strange now has no time to quarrel over whether facts contradict his words; he realized the seriousness of the matter, and thus turned around and stared intently at the screen.

And Shiler was communicating with the Gray Mist in his mind.

"Was it you who did it?"

"Greed left a wisp of consciousness on that book, originally to prevent the Ancient One from being deluded by the Old Gods."

"Will it work?"

"Of course, you can only be a follower of one among the stars; if the Ancient One carries this book with her, no other Old One will then be able to drive her mad."

"Because you are above them?"

"No, because they know that human fragile minds can only withstand one kind of madness; more is meaningless, so they almost never interfere with other people's followers."

"In other words, Greed used this book to mark the Ancient One as your follower, so as to prevent her from being ambushed by other Old Gods?"

"That can be said." The Gray Mist paused slightly, but still said: "Greed is very worried that the character he likes will head toward a tragic ending due to plot developments, so he has done everything possible to add precautions, and the Ancient One is no exception."

"Originally he did not need to be this meticulous, but previously Azathoth's dream once flickered into view, meaning that the existences deep within the stars in the universe are probably more dangerous and mysterious than what you have ever seen, and since the Ancient One is very important to humanity, additional protection is not excessive."

Arrogance conveyed a positive emotion in his heart; he had once discussed this experience with Greed, and the conclusion was that, in the Cthulhu Mythos system, the chief god Azathoth's status in the Marvel Universe should be second only to OAA, after all, one of his dreams plunged the Scarlet Witch deep into it, which cannot be called not powerful.

But because of Azathoth's setting, namely the Sleeper of Eternity and the Architect of the World, he almost has no subjective initiative, and can be completely regarded as a background board.

However, beneath him, the gods surrounding his dream's call and dance are not like that; the danger they bring is real and existent.

In the comics, the Ancient One died at the hands of the Eye of Agamotto, and the Eye of Agamotto's setting comes from the novel *The Curse of the Golden Skull* by the same author as *Conan the Barbarian*, which is also related to the Cthulhu Mythos, so taking precautions against this aspect is necessary.

The Gray Mist actually could have split off a part of himself long ago, but would not produce independent offspring like other symbiotes; and after he realized his true identity, every trace of his thought resonates with the call from deep within the stars, appearing to humans as inevitably strange and terrifying.

"Can you still operate this book now? Even across a world?" Shiler asked the Gray Mist.

"Yes, when I gaze upon it, I can."

Shiler speculated that this might perhaps be one manifestation of the observer effect Bruce mentioned; when he gazes at that universe from this end, the distance between the two universes and their own positions are not that important, more coming from the cognition brought by their observation.

"Make sure it does not hurt the students."

"I will."

At this moment, Harley, sitting at the desk, had already begun to use her natural Gotham-born suspicious mindset to speculate about the origin of this book.

"If what you said is true, that before you came the Ancient One was still researching this book, then it must mean that this book contains something she wanted; this is our only clue to investigate her behavior without opening the book, what does the most powerful Supreme Mage Ancient One you mentioned want?"

Helen furrowed her brows, similarly falling into thought, she felt that some parts of her thinking were gradually being developed; previously she had not had such conspiracy-theory thinking, but now she could gradually grasp some clues and traces, perhaps precisely due to Judgment Day's powerful learning and evolution ability bringing her another cognitive evolution.

"The Ancient One Master is not a blind pursuer of power; speaking of which you might not believe it, she also never actively provokes trouble; it is always the demon gods who come to her to borrow power, and the Ancient One, to balance the accounts, has no choice but to retaliate against them."

"She also does not crave knowledge; she long ago achieved mental perfection, seeks nothing more, will not continue to obsess over answers to certain problems, she has already found the answer regarding herself and her own resolution to all problems in this universe."

"Then what exactly is going on?"

Harley and Helen's gazes simultaneously fell upon the book's cover; they could not deny that the thought of opening the book to take a look was incredibly tempting, and they two were also not Zen masters who had practiced cultivation for many years; overall, they were still two girls inexperienced in the world.

"If I were you, I would choose to go back now to stop them." Constantine frowned, using a solemn expression to say: "We all understand that accidents always happen; nothing is more worth your protection than the good situation you carefully built."

Constantine was actually reminding Strange that there was no need to endanger his own universe for face's sake, but Strange seemed to have suddenly understood something; his previously tightly furrowed brows relaxed, he walked around the coffee table and sat back on the sofa, even having the leisure to pick up a wine cup and take a sip.

Bruce, Constantine, and Zatanna all turned their heads to look at him, and at this moment Strange shook his head and said: "If the Ancient One truly was bewitched by this book, or wanted to explore some secret within it, then why is it in the Kamar-Taj library?"

The room fell silent; Strange lightly sighed and said: "If the desire to possess mystical knowledge had eroded her, she would absolutely not choose to research such knowledge in a school library; this place lacks both conditions and quietness; this book was deliberately left by her."

"To let this little girl get it?" Zatanna said incredulously: "I absolutely do not intend to question your teacher's ability, but will this not be... I mean, is it not a bit... adventurous?"

"Helen Stark is special." When Shiler's voice sounded, everyone turned to look at him, and Shiler's fingers lightly rubbed the wine cup, as if doing two things at once, his voice light and ethereal saying: "She is not a native of that universe, and her origins are quite extraordinary."

"As extraordinary as you?" Strange asked.

Shiler remained silent, gave no answer, but Bruce's gaze suddenly locked tightly onto Strange's body.

The two girls in the dormitory ultimately did not make a rash decision; they agreed to wait until tomorrow after classes, then go together to the academy library to look up information about the Necronomicon, at least first clarify what they might face, and then take action.

Soon the lights in the two dorm rooms dimmed, but the room where little Bruce and Barry were remained brightly lit, because the dorm they used was not brand new; the previous owner had left some Chinese books on the bookshelf, and little Bruce now intended to learn this ancient and complex language through only those few books.

"You're not really coming, are you?" Barry said, as if he could not take it anymore: "Before this, you didn't even recognize a single Chinese character, but you plan to learn a language just by looking at books? Isn't this a bit too absurd?"

"I haven't completely never heard Chinese." Little Bruce gave a very slight eye-roll, even sitting cross-legged on the mat, his back remained straight, he focused on the content in the book, and said: "If you treat this as deciphering a code, it will become simple and fun."

"Never."

"Bang bang bang," the door was knocked.

Little Bruce and Barry looked up together; Barry glanced at the outside sky already darkened, somewhat puzzled saying: "So late, who else would come?"

"Maybe it's Harley." Little Bruce gave Barry a look; Barry had no choice but to get up from bed and open the door.

Standing outside the door was a little girl about their age, with golden hair and brown eyes, not very pretty but with a touch of childish cuteness. She widened her eyes and looked at Barry, who was a little taller than her, and said: "My roommate, Sheila, asked me to bring you some things."

After saying that, she pulled out a wand and pointed it at the empty space in the room, and miscellaneous daily items such as trash cans, trash bags, electric kettles, toilet paper, and tea sets appeared on the floor.

"Oh, thank you. Are you also a first-year? I'm Barry Allen, and this is Bruce Wayne. What's your name?"

"Jennifer Marvey. You can call me Jennifer."