CHAPTER 592: FREEMASONS IN THE CTHULHU MYTH BACKGROUND

Freemasons?!

Liu Xing raised his eyebrows, and like Zhang Jingxu and others, they all looked at Zhang Wenbing with surprise, because no one had expected that Mu Yao would be a Freemason.

At the same time, Liu Xing also began to search the memories of "Watanabe Ryuusei" and found that in this parallel world, the situation of Freemasons was almost the same as in the real world.

The full name of Freemasons is "Free and Accepted Masons," which originally meant "free stonemasons." It first appeared in the 18th century in England and was a religious brotherhood organization. It is currently the largest secret organization in the world, with many famous figures and politicians being Freemason members.

However, there is no definite account of the origin of Freemasons. According to the "Historical Chapter" of the first part of the Freemasons’ Charter, the Freemasons originated around 4000 BC, and all members claimed to be descendants of Cain, understanding the secrets of nature and the universe.

Since the birth of Freemasons, there have been constant doubts and opposition. One of the earliest doubts about Freemasons came during the French Revolution when they were suspected of supporting the movement to overthrow the monarchy.

As for now, because many political and business figures in the United States of America have a Freemasonic background, the latest conspiracy theory about Freemasons is that they are the behind-the-scenes rulers of the United States of America.

Liu Xing couldn’t help but feel that Freemasons could now be renamed the "Scapegoat Society" because since their birth, they have been constantly scapegoated. Whenever something big happens in Western countries, someone will come up with various conspiracy theories, and the targets of these conspiracy theories are always pointed at Freemasons.

Therefore, in this parallel world with the Cthulhu Myth as the background, many incidents originally attributed to secret cults and mythical creatures have been pinned on Freemasons by uninformed ordinary people. For example, the previous Glasgow riot was claimed to have been organized behind the scenes by Freemasons, and the cases of missing foreign tourists in England were also said to be a staged spectacle arranged by Freemasons. The reason for Freemasons to do this, it was claimed, was because they wanted Scotland to leave the Great Britain Alliance, so that Freemasons could then establish a nation in Scotland.

This black pot was inexplicably pinned on the Freemasons’ heads.

"So, Zhang Ge, do you know if these Freemasons are a secret cult or not?" Ling Ishikawa suddenly asked.

Zhang Wenbing shook his head and said hesitantly, "Regarding this issue, when I joined the China Dao Sect, I asked some friends about it. After all, before joining the China Dao Sect, I had heard a lot about the Freemasons, so I have always been quite interested in their true nature. However, those friends of mine said they didn’t really understand it either. Although the Freemasons appear to be a very mysterious and powerful organization to ordinary people, to those of us who know about the existence of mythical creatures, the Freemasons are somewhat unsophisticated. This is because from the very beginning, the organizers of the Freemasons were just ordinary people. Although they all believed in the existence of deities, the gods they believed in were not mythical creatures."

"So initially, organizations and secret cults that had existed for thousands of years, like the China Dao Sect and the Cult of the Cadaver, did not really pay much attention to the Freemasons. After all, as long as the Freemasons did not know the truth of this world, they were like the United States of America, merely a hollow existence that could only frighten ordinary people. If they encountered mythical creatures and secret cults, they would be helpless. However, a major incident happened to the Freemasons some time ago, known to ordinary people as the Morgan Incident. At that time, the Morgan Family, a business tycoon in the United States of America, had a conflict with the original Freemasonic leadership in order to join their top ranks. This ultimately led to both sides dispatching people to assassinate each other’s core members, resulting in mutual losses. In the end, the Freemasons had no choice but to allow the Morgan Family to join their leadership."

"However, this is only what ordinary people know. In fact, behind the Morgan Family stood a secret cult, and this secret cult is quite interesting. It was established during the founding of the United States of America, and its situation was exactly the same as that of the United States – the United States was formed by the colonies of multiple European countries in North America, while this secret cult was formed by the North American branches of multiple secret cults headquartered in Europe. After all, it’s the same old saying – the followers of secret cults are also human, and most of them have human desires and emotions, so there are often traitors even within secret cults."

"However, this secret cult was ultimately formed by the North American branches of other secret cults. As you all know, North America at that time was seen as a land of hope, full of opportunities, but also in need of development, with conditions inferior to Europe in many aspects. Additionally, the shipping conditions at that time were very poor. Therefore, many secret cults in Europe had no intention of expanding to North America, especially famous ones like the Cult of the Cadaver. Only a few lesser-known secret cults in Europe sent some followers to establish branches in North America. So in the end, although the secret cult in the United States had a considerable number of followers who worshipped many mythical creatures, their actual abilities were very poor. To put it bluntly, they were just armchair strategists. They did know about the existence of mythical creatures and even the Great Old Ones, but they didn’t know any Magic Spells, and they didn’t even have the ability to communicate with mythical creatures."

"So this secret cult became a laughingstock in the secret cult circles from the very beginning. However, since the United States was then in a secluded area, this secret cult monopolized its region. After absorbing some secret cults established by Native Americans, this cult took shape, finally deciding on the name ’Lighthouse Society’ and confirming that their deity of worship was the snake man. The reason the Lighthouse Society worshipped the snake man was that there were multiple Snake People Tribes in the Americas, so the local secret cults mainly worshipped the snake man. More importantly, the local snake men worshipped the Great Old One – the Serpent God Yig, so they were tall and had well-developed limbs."

"So they’re called the Lizard People?!" Ming Hanxing exclaimed loudly.

Liu Xing raised his eyebrows, suddenly recalling that in the Cthulhu Myth setting, the appearance of the snake men did resemble lizard people. After all, if you add four legs to a snake, most people would think it looks like a lizard...Speaking of a side note, Liu Xing had always felt that in the idiom "painting feet on a snake," the reason the person added legs to the snake was likely because they had seen a lizard and mistook it for a snake. But it’s also possible they had seen a snake man.

As for why Ming Hanxing brought up the lizard people at this point, it was because in the eyes of many conspiracy theorists, the true masters of the Freemasons are actually the lizard people, and the goal of the lizard people controlling the Freemasons is to control all of humanity!

Zhang Wenbing nodded and said with a smile, "That’s right, those snake men do look very much like lizard people. So you should have guessed what happened next. Although the Lighthouse Society had grown strong by then, it was still far behind the old-school secret cults in Europe. So the Lighthouse Society’s leadership suddenly had an idea – to take a different path from other secret cults by no longer hiding in the shadows. They began using various means to gain influence within the United States and supported the Morgan Family as their mouthpiece. As for why they wanted the Morgan Family to join the Freemasonic leadership, it was because the Lighthouse Society wanted to take over the Freemasons and completely whitewash themselves as Freemasons!"

"With the Morgan Family joining the Freemasonic leadership, the Lighthouse Society soon disappeared from the China Dao Sect’s view. However, the Freemasons then became active, actively participating in various affairs in the United States. Soon, people with Freemasonic backgrounds rose to prominence in US politics, and rumors about the lizard people controlling the Freemasons also began to surface. So the China Dao Sect believes that the current Freemasons have actually been completely assimilated by the Lighthouse Society. Therefore, the nature of the current Freemasons is a bit ambiguous – they can be said to exist between a secret cult and a secret organization, freely switching between the two."

"However, because there is indeed an ambiguous relationship between the current Freemasons and the United States, organizations with a certain official background like the China Dao Sect tend to regard the Freemasons as a regular secret organization. Various major secret cults, on the other hand, believe that the Freemasons are essentially just the Lighthouse Society, so they consider the Freemasons a secret cult. More importantly, there are now people in the China Dao Sect who believe that the success of the Freemasons in the United States has given the Deep Diving Society and the Cult of the Cadaver confidence that they too can emerge to control a country. After all, if the Lighthouse Society, a third-rate secret cult, can control the United States, then we old-school secret cults can do the same. That’s why the Deep Diving Society and the Cult of the Cadaver have started trying to control the Cosmic Country and England."

After listening to Zhang Wenbing’s explanation, Liu Xing and the others were dumbfounded, as they had never expected the Freemasons to be such an existence in this parallel world.

Liu Xing had thought the Freemasons in this parallel world were just a professional scapegoating organization...

At this time, Liu Xing suddenly thought of a possibility, which was that among the top leaders of the Lighthouse Society, there were most likely players, which was why the Freemasons had become their current existence.

However, speaking of which, since everything in this parallel world would be projected into the real world, it was likely that the Freemasons in the real world had also taken control of the United States of America.

"Wait, I remember Zhang Jingxu, didn’t your junior sister go to the United States to help them deal with the local secret cult? Could it be that the Freemasons are planning to turn against us and dissociate themselves from the secret cults?" Ling Ishikawa said doubtfully.

Zhang Jingxu shook his head without saying anything, only looking towards Zhang Wenbing.

Zhang Wenbing nodded and said, "We’re not too clear about this matter. It was the official United States government that invited organizations like the China Dao Sect to send people to help deal with the secret cult. We in the China Dao Sect can’t just outright say that the Freemasons have taken control of your United States, so now you can just let the dogs fight each other, so to speak? Besides, to be honest, we only suspect that the Lighthouse Society has taken control of the Freemasons, but we don’t have definitive evidence to prove it yet, which is why the China Dao Sect has sent people to the United States."

"Oh, I remember the Freemasons don’t seem to accept female members, right? So how did Mu Yao join the attacking group?" Lu Tianya suddenly said from the side.

Lu Tianya’s question stumped Liu Xing and the others, because in this parallel world, the Freemasons had indeed explicitly stated that they did not accept female members.

Zhang Wenbing shook his head and said with a smile, "That’s just a smokescreen. Although the Freemasons previously did not recruit female members, after the Morgan Family joined the Freemasons, they began secretly recruiting female members as well. This can be seen as circumstantial evidence of the Lighthouse Society’s takeover, and after World War II, the Freemasons began rapidly expanding worldwide. However, at this time, the members recruited by the Freemasons could be divided into internal and external members."

"The internal members recruited by the Freemasons at this time were mainly politicians and business figures from various countries, while there were fewer restrictions on external members – anyone the Freemasons took a liking to could become an external member. So now I suspect that Mu Yao may be an external member selected by the Freemasons. The reason she has appeared at Tokyo Comprehensive University is because she is currently executing a mission for the Freemasons in order to become an internal member. That’s right, the external members of the Freemasons are essentially their employees. They are selected by the Freemasons because they can help the Freemasons do things that the internal members cannot do easily. Like now, the Freemasons can’t exactly have Trump or Gates become students at Tokyo Comprehensive University, can they?"

Liu Xing sighed and said helplessly, "I didn’t expect that Tokyo Comprehensive University really is a den of talented individuals. Not only is there the local Deep Diving Society, but even foreign Freemasons want to get involved. I think the Freemasons’ target is probably also that mythical creature in the Mirror World."

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