Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 1013 [Civilization Virus Theory: Localized Necrosis]

Three days later.

Far East City - Storm King's Residence

The day-night cycle had turned to daylight, but beneath the palace of the Storm King, the sun's rays were completely swallowed by thick, dark clouds.

The entire tower resembled a spear piercing the sky, its shadow casting a curtain that shrouded the streets of Far East City in darkness. The wind howled, not the ordinary wind, but a low murmur with a strange frequency, as if vibrating in some unseen dimension.

Xia Xiu stood at the foot of the tower, his silver cane lightly touching the ground, his gaze indifferently fixed on the cloud-piercing spire. Beside him, Lupercal stood quietly.

The boy had just experienced his first Holy Forging debut, and his flesh and soul still carried the undried flames.

But under this gloomy sky, his newfound courage was swallowed up by an invisible sense of oppression.

The wind came from all directions.

It is not a natural wind, but rather carries an aura of corrosion and erosion—cold, sharp, and with the illusion of whispering decadent sounds in one's ear.

That is the domain of the Storm King, the closest place to the outer realms within the Kingdom of Peace.

The boy's keen senses made him aware of this better than anyone else. He felt that every gust of wind was like a tentacle, cold and slippery, maliciously brushing against his skin, trying to penetrate his breath and marrow.

Lupercal instinctively took a small step closer to Xia Xiu.

At that moment, he could clearly feel the gap between himself and his father—his father's aura was like the scorching sun melting gold, and even the strongest cold wind could not touch him in the slightest; while he himself, even though new blood and strength were burning in his body, was still intimidated by this chill.

"Father..." The boy's voice was low and fragmented, torn apart by the wind, but he still managed to continue:
"We're here to find the Wind Queen, right?"

Finally, his gaze, tinged with a hint of probing, fixed on the tower shrouded in dark clouds.

In fact, it was no coincidence that the father and son were standing here.

Three days ago, after the holy forging of Alan and Seris was completed, Far East City suddenly fell into an anomaly.

At first, it was just sandstorms rising from the horizon, but soon, as if driven by some invisible giant hand, the gale swept wildly across the entire city.

Daylight turned to night in an instant, and the light of the day-night sphere was suppressed by dark clouds.

Far East City was plunged into unprecedented darkness. In the sky, it seemed as if countless invisible eyes were opening amidst the sandstorm; and outside the city, it was completely sealed off by a ring of sandstorms.

The sand wall was thousands of feet high, with yellow sand mixed with lightning churning. Anyone who tried to leave the city would be instantly swallowed up and turned into dust.

The inhabitants of peaceful nations have long recognized this calamity. It is not a natural disaster, but a manifestation of authority.

The Queen of Storms.

The storm violated the ancient law of the peaceful kingdom—that the power of a storm never lasts more than twenty-four hours, and that the interval between two storms is at least three days and no more than a week.

Now, a terrifying sandstorm is sweeping across the Far East, and her power is personally transforming Far East City into a prison.

The residents were terrified. They prayed in hushed tones or simply huddled indoors, trying to avoid the whispers carried by each gust of wind.

"Given her attitude, it would be unreasonable for us not to contact her now," Xia Xiu replied with a shrug.

Looking ahead, dark clouds roll in, and flashes of lightning occasionally pierce the night sky, illuminating half of the tower's outline.

That was no longer ordinary weather; it was the iron fist of the King of Storms.

The entire Far East City is now like a giant noose around the throat, tightening step by step.

Whether Feng Hou has completely fallen into depravity or has only partially succumbed to it, he is still unsure.

But one thing he had clearly seen was that the other side had no intention of concealing anything. The crown was unfurled, sealing off the entire city; what followed was a slow crushing and strangulation.

This was no ordinary punch; the opponent was clearly aiming for him.

If he really wanted to leave, he could have simply used [Heavenly Lever] to tear open the opponent's territory.

He could still move freely within this level of elemental domain. However, considering the influence of the Fifth Truth, he had to intervene to suppress Feng Hou.

Xia Xiu explained the current situation to the First Son of Gui who was standing beside him:
"The situation is quite clear now."

“We cut off the number θ, and we took away the Northern Devourer. The Fifth Church has lost two of its most crucial tentacles. Just like cancer cells that, after being cut off one after another, will instinctively proliferate and spread wildly.”

He paused, then tapped the staff lightly with his fingers, the sound crisp and clear, mingling with the whistling wind.

"We are essentially the immune cells of civilization—swallowing toxins, blocking foreign objects, and keeping the virus under control."

But you must understand, viruses don't just sit idly by and wait to be eliminated; they will fight back and push their reproduction rate to its limit in a short period of time.

Dark clouds rolled in, and lightning flashed across the sky, making Xia Xiu's profile appear cold and hard as iron.

"The Fifth Church is currently in a state similar to a virus entering its peak outbreak phase."

His voice suddenly became more forceful: “They will inevitably make a bigger commotion and devour us in order to maintain their expansion; when the immune system of civilization and the lesions of civilization enter the most intense stage of confrontation, the virus will frantically replicate believers, spread ideas, and release new civilization toxins.”

"The current situation is like a virus entering a period of high outbreak, trying to suffocate civilization itself to avoid being suppressed by the immune system."

"The current state of Feng Hou is like a cell that has been completely hijacked by a virus and turned into a virus factory."

Xia Xiu then explained his and the Fifth Church's current strategic situation to the Son of First Return in a simple and easy-to-understand way, enabling the other party to see the current situation from a higher perspective.

"From a pathological perspective, civilization viruses can be divided into four basic stages."

He calmly and methodically explained the situation to the eager-to-learn Lupercal:
"Phase One, Infection: The main characteristic is that the carrier enters the interior of the civilization—books, songs, symbols, the Northbound Monster, θ—these are the ways the virus invades."

Phase Two, Infiltration: Infiltrating all forces such as the church, the monarchy, and guilds, and beginning to replicate wildly.

Phase Three, Precursors: Small-scale anomalies begin to emerge, such as the Fomi ant colony.

Phase four, acute: high fever develops, and viral load surges. Corresponding to the current typhoon queen, she will stop at nothing to fight her immune system.

The next step is localized collapse; even if the city dies, they will cause the immune system to collapse.

As Xia Xiu said, from a macro-level perspective of civilization—the wind after the wind is like a cell hijacked by a virus.

Even if she is a crowned being, in the face of a scale like Fifth Truth, which uses civilization as its chessboard, she can only be considered a "cell" used to cause local necrosis.

In his own plan, he intends to build the Horizon Initiative into a systematic civilization immune system.

Innate immunity = wolf pack, responsible for physical damage;
Adaptive Immunity = Documentation Team, compiling "Universal Scriptures: Anti-Mediterranean Version", establishing long-term antibodies;

Lymphatic inspection = a shepherd's team, infiltrating the streets and alleys to track nodes and manage contacts;
Memory Cells = Establishing a complete set of operational manuals and ritual responses through the Hammer Drop Project, creating a sanctuary similar to a central containment chamber.

As the immune system of civilization, Xia Xiu's momentum is indeed quite strong. 'Northward' and 'θ' are like hidden strains and core gene segments lurking in the body of civilization.

One is the viral central nervous system that parasitizes nerves, and the other is a malformed fragment that disrupts the code.

Lao Xia grabbed two at once, and Fifth Truth couldn't help but breathe on them.

When Patrick breathes, it means some "individual cells" are about to suffer a terrible fate.

Xia Xiu was able to deduce his opponent's current thought process behind their move:
Patrick: Let's play a 'Local Necrosis' card first and see if we can force an immune backlash, which means we can take down Lava Hitch.

There's probably another card hidden behind it, meaning there's something really nasty up their sleeve, ready to really annoy Xia.

Xia Xiu wasn't afraid. If pushed too far, he would just use the Civilization Special Effects Drug to launch a fierce attack—enter code 42 to activate the Civilization Suppression Weapon CR-13 [Spiritual Legion - Daughter Who Defies the Heavens].

So you think you, Patrick Star, can flip tables and breathe on things?!

If it really comes to that, no one should back down. It's not like he can't be ruthless enough to become a demon king and format the peaceful kingdom into a civilized one.

Just as Xia Xiu was lost in thought, he felt his trouser leg being tugged.

He looked down and saw Lupercal raising his head, his voice filled with childlike earnestness:

"Father, she...she's noticed us!"

The next instant, the boy's left eye suddenly shone with a jet-black light; it was the "Eye of Horus".

Immediately afterwards, a silent "spider-like monster" crawled out of his eye socket and landed on his shoulder. It raised its carapace, its six legs gripped the ground, and hissed in the face of the howling wind.

Xia Xiu raised his cane, his aura deepening. The next instant, the void swirled, and two enormous figures suddenly appeared beside him.

First was Sisyphus—his colossal, purplish-gold body was like a living metal statue, his muscles bulging, his back broad, as if he could single-handedly support the heavens and the earth. He took a step forward, his feet shattering the stone bricks, and stood directly in front of Xia Xiu and Lupercal, like an insurmountable iron wall.

Meanwhile, Metatron descended.

Three pairs of light particle wings unfurled, their light swirling, and the scattered particles clustered around him like stars. In his hand he held a flaming greatsword, its blade twisting and turning, the burning flames swirling outwards, illuminating the shadows beneath the tower.

Without the slightest hesitation, he raised his sword and swung it horizontally. The blazing flames cut through the sand and wind, and the blade crashed into the raging wind ahead.

boom--!
A sudden, intense wind pressure surged from the void, like the low roar of a thousand armies, colliding head-on with the power of the flaming greatsword. The air was torn apart, and wind and fire intertwined to create a blazing shockwave that shook the entire earth.

Xia Xiu narrowed his eyes, his golden pupils flashing coldly in the sandstorm.

“...The crown of the wind queen.” His voice was low, carrying the calm of an analyst.

"That's interesting. By using the element of wind to create multiple layers of wind, each layer changes the refractive index of light. Then, a special anti-Membrane essence is applied to further enhance the disturbance of perception—in this way, one's own weapon will be equivalent to disappearing in both vision and spirituality."

He paused, then tapped his fingers lightly on the cane.

"And that superimposed wind pressure can be continuously compressed and released... It is a means of long-range attack, like using the sky itself as a bowstring. Even the crowned one, if he makes a mistake in his positioning, will be torn apart by this force."

The wind howled, as if the world was being sliced ​​apart by invisible blades.

Beneath Sisyphus's feet, rocks were whipped up by the wind pressure, turning into a chaotic jumble of stones; Metatron's flaming sword continuously pushed open layers of wind barriers, creating a brief stalemate in the midst of a violent clash.

Xia Xiu simply lowered his head slightly, looked at Lupercal beside him, and smiled:

"It seems that our Wind Queen is an exceptionally skilled Grand Assassin."

"The delicate assassin crowned one... is different from the powerful assassins I've encountered in the past."

This guy has compressed all his power—enough to destroy a city and seize a stronghold—to its absolute limit. Those assassination attempts, lurking in the wind pressure, would have killed at least 3.5 Mr. Nights' worth of people if they were anyone else.

"Who is Mr. Night?" Lupercal asked curiously.

Xia Xiu smiled and said, "It's a unit of measurement. I'll quantify the standard of this unit of measurement for you when I have the chance."

He rubbed his shoulder and then said:

"Now, we need to have some fun with this Grand Assassin."

The next instant, three halos of light, like white jade, appeared behind Xia Xiu, warm yet intense, overlapping each other like three holy suns hanging in the sky. The flowing light illuminated him, making him appear like a judge standing in the storm.

“It’s come to this point…” he murmured, his fingers gently stroking the silver staff. “No one needs to keep pretending anymore.”

Even the Grand Patriarch of St. Coopers has fallen into depravity, so the rest of the peaceful nation is naturally rotten to the core.

At this moment, he, the foreign invader, has become the only savior.

boom--

The silver staff suddenly transformed into a magnificent silver rod, its lever-like light shimmering like an invisible scale balancing the heavens and earth. Xia Xiu raised his hand and casually swung it, the rod cutting through the wind, the air seeming to collapse in that instant, emitting a muffled explosion.

His gaze spread outwards, sweeping across the dust-swept Far East City.

He was examining every breath, every wisp of air.

—But it wasn't found.

"...A Grand Assassin is indeed difficult to detect."

In the past, he was always the one playing hide-and-seek with the enemy using [Presence-Weakening Element]. He never expected that one day he would be the one playing hide-and-seek with the enemy. This feeling is really...unpleasant.

Xia Xiu sighed softly, but a glint of eager anticipation flickered in his eyes.

He slowly turned his head and looked at his two incarnations.

The colossal, purple-gold shadow, Sisyphus, stood firmly, like an iron tower guarding Lupercal; Metatron, with its burning wings, raised its sword, flames rolling on the blade, as if ready to sever everything at any moment.

Xia Xiu nodded and said in a deep voice:

“Protect Lupercal.”

As the words fell, he stepped forward and stood in the center of the howling wind pressure.

He offered no defense, no cover. He simply held his long staff horizontally behind him, slowly spreading his arms, his chest exposed to the howling wind.

The wind howled, whipping and cutting through clothes; one could almost smell the murderous intent lurking deep within the gale.

Xia Xiu laughed.

It was a provocation; he raised his chin, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Come on, let me see—the killing intent of a Grand Assassin."