Chapter 148: The Prophecy of the Great Flood

Chapter 148 -61: The Prophecy of the Great Flood

He stopped in his tracks, turned to look at Yu Xian, and gestured frantically in the air.

“Old Yu, do you remember? The other day in the group chat, didn’t you just debunk that rumor about ‘man-made rainstorms’? You said it yourself—whether it’s HAARP or some secret weapon, humanity’s current energy levels couldn’t possibly generate precipitation on this scale!”

Shi Zuozhou pointed upward, as if gesturing at an invisible atmosphere. “That would require lifting all the water in the Pacific Ocean into the sky! Earth’s water cycle is a conserved system, right? There has to be a source! There has to be a driving force! Did Earth just go crazy? Or is there some invisible…”

Shi Zuozhou’s voice trailed off, the final word barely a whisper.

But the other three heard it clearly. The word he said was “god.”

Wen Xiao and Shao Yiyi raised their heads, their gazes converging on Yu Xian.

If science couldn’t explain it, and if human intervention was ruled out, then where exactly did this “Great Flood”—one capable of silencing physicists and sinking civilizations—come from?

What was its power source? What was its mechanism?

Yu Xian looked at those three pairs of fear-filled eyes. The world seemed to be growing increasingly… “unconserved.”

But he couldn’t explain it.

“I don’t understand.” Yu Xian shook his head, offering the honest answer. “If you’d asked me before, I would have told you that this violates the law of conservation of mass and the laws of thermodynamics. But now…” He thought of that slightly hunched, cheerful little old man. “Maybe it really is like what Professor Ning said in his last lecture. The ‘scientific’ and ‘real’ world we know so well, a world where everything has a perfectly closed logical loop, might be collapsing.

“As for the reason…” Yu Xian looked at Shao Yiyi, the Evil Bun Head in dinosaur pajamas, who was huddled tightly against the Kind Bun Head in kitten pajamas. “Maybe it’s a geomagnetic reversal? Maybe it’s abnormal solar activity? Who knows…”

“We’re like fish living in a fishbowl,” Yu Xian said softly. “We can calculate the water temperature, measure the water quality, and even predict feeding times. But…”

He glanced at the relentless downpour outside the window. “If one day the fishbowl starts leaking, or someone decides to change the water, we, as the fish, would never be able to figure out why.”

None of the three spoke.

The fishbowl and the fish, much like the farmer and the turkey.

The fear of the unknown was often far more despair-inducing than a known disaster. Because you didn’t know who your opponent was, when they would strike, or even who to ask for help. In the face of this grandiose catastrophe that could very well end civilization, these few college students were as insignificant as ants caught in a storm.

“So…” Wen Xiao closed her notebook. She looked up under the dim yellow light. Her eyes, which were usually shy and evasive, now revealed a hint of strength. “The reason isn’t important anymore, right?”

She looked at Yu Xian. Though her voice wasn’t loud, it rang out clearly in the quiet lounge. “Since the rain won’t stop, and since the people who know the truth have all gone silent, the most important thing now isn’t obsessing over ‘why it’s raining.’ The only thing we can do now is, before that day arrives…”

“Learn how to breathe underwater,” Shao Yiyi chimed in.

“Secure tickets for Noah’s Ark,” Shi Zuozhou added.

“Build a ship of our own,” Yu Xian finished.

Yu Xian looked at the group, encouraging them, “No matter what caused this rainstorm, and no matter when the Great Flood will drown us, at least for now, we still have time…”

“Wait a minute!” Shao Yiyi suddenly shouted, interrupting Yu Xian. “Speaking of the Great Flood… don’t you guys feel like you’ve heard that term in a story somewhere before?”

“A story?” Shi Zuozhou still hadn’t snapped out of the heavy atmosphere. He looked bewildered. “Are you talking about Noah’s Ark from the Bible? I just mentioned that.”

“No, not just Noah’s Ark.” Shao Yiyi shook her head. She patted her bun, recalling her memories. “Our history department has an elective course called Introduction to World Ancient Mythology. When I took that class, I thought it was incredibly strange!”

“What was strange about it?” Yu Xian asked.

“Did you guys know? It’s not just Western Christianity’s Bible: Old Testament and Islam’s Quran that say this. In almost every ancient civilization’s mythological system around the world, there is a shockingly similar world-ending flood.” Shao Yiyi’s eyes went wide.

“All of them?” Wen Xiao asked softly, seeming a bit incredulous.

“Yes, almost all of them.” Shao Yiyi nodded emphatically. “For example, in our myth of Nuwa Mending the Heavens, it happened because Gong Gong smashed into Mount Buzhou in a fit of rage. The sky collapsed, and floodwaters poured down from the heavens.”

“Gong Gong and Zhuang Xu fought to be emperor. In a fit of rage, Gong Gong smashed into Mount Buzhou. The pillars of heaven broke, and the tethers of the earth snapped…” Shi Zuozhou instinctively recited a passage he had learned in his middle school Chinese textbook, before asking, “Da Yu taming the waters—that was also about controlling monstrous floods, right?”

“Right. Not only that, but take the Sumerian Civilization’s Epic of Gilgamesh, for instance. The flood legend recorded in it predates the Bible by many years.”

Shao Yiyi continued listing them off, “In Ancient India’s Manu Code, Vishnu warns Manu to build a boat to escape the flood. In Ancient Greece, according to Greek Mythology, Zeus unleashed a great flood to punish humanity, and only Deucalion and his wife survived by hiding in a chest. You can even find records of a great deluge in America’s Maya Civilization and Inca Civilization, as well as in Oceania, and even in the indigenous tales of Africa.”

Yu Xian was stunned.

As a science student, he hadn’t delved deeply into these myths and legends before. He had merely dismissed them as the ancients’ exaggerated imaginations of natural phenomena.

But at this moment, hearing Shao Yiyi draw the comparisons against the backdrop of the pouring rain outside, these ancient tales suddenly came vividly to life, even…

Taking on a bone-chillingly prophetic tone.

“Don’t you guys find it strange?” Shao Yiyi’s voice pitched slightly higher. “Why would civilizations all over the world, separated by thousands of miles with absolutely no contact with one another, all coincidentally record a world-ending great flood in their Creator God myths?”

Shi Zuozhou stared blankly. “Is it because there was a lot of rain in ancient times? Did major rivers breach their banks frequently? Or is it because civilizations mostly originated in large river valleys?”

Yu Xian looked at Shao Yiyi, lost in thought. “Could it be… that the Great Flood actually happened once in ancient times?”

“Exactly.” Shao Yiyi clearly agreed more with Yu Xian’s theory. “The professor for that course brought up a theory. He said that myths aren’t just stories; they’re very likely the ancients’ ‘blurred memories’ of real history. If ancestors from different regions and different cultures all around the world recorded the exact same disaster during the exact same time period, that can only mean…”

She took a deep breath, enunciating every word. “This disaster truly happened. Furthermore, it was global, and it was devastating.”

“Also…” Shao Yiyi’s voice dropped low, a flash of fear passing through her eyes. “In these myths, the Great Flood is rarely the end. Rather, it’s a ‘beginning.’ It marks the end of the old era. It is a god’s cleansing, purifying, and judging of the world. Or perhaps…”

“A rebirth.”

The moment that word was uttered, the air in the lounge seemed to freeze.

Yu Xian turned his head toward the window. Rainwater slid down the glass, blurring everyone’s line of sight.

“People always say the sky is falling. Well, now the sky is actually falling…” Shi Zuozhou said, his face crumpling. “Don’t they say Nuwa used the Five-Colored Stone to mend the heavens? Where’s Nuwa? Where’s the Five-Colored Stone?”

He shouted again, “Noah, where are you?! Where’s your Ark?! Can we hitch a ride?! We’re willing to pay the full toll!”