Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 1196 [The Womb of the Great Old Ones: Lu-Kthu]

The meeting had just ended, and the various modules inside Blackrock Fortress were still operating at high speed. The technical staff were fully engaged, and everyone was full of energy.

Xia Xiu had already left the meeting space and was standing alone on the Etheric Throne of the fortress, refocusing his attention on the overall layout. He planned to familiarize himself with the various key bindings of Blackrock Fortress so that he could use the fortress to perform combos in future battles.

Just as he was fiddling with his "new toy," a signal that did not belong to the current spectral network structure suddenly entered his perception.

【Ding--】

[Abnormal access signal has been detected]

[Source Determination: Crisis Sequence - Golden Tree]

[Access Method: Non-standard Frequency Penetration]

[Eden's Hint: The target's will requests to establish direct communication]

Golden Tree?
What does this guy want from me?
Xia Xiu frowned slightly. Although he really wanted to kill Him, he hadn't taken any action yet.

While muttering to himself, he said to Eden:

"Give him the access rights and let him in."

The access was granted in the next moment, and the [Wall of Sighs] of the genealogical network loosened briefly, allowing an extremely powerful will to directly access the network along the forcibly opened path.

As the restrictions were lifted, Xia Xiu's great spirituality slowly unfolded and connected with the [Golden Tree], and the two wills made direct contact at the etheric level.

Xia Xiu's true nature manifested at this moment as that pitch-black blazing sun, suspended in the deep ether, stable, oppressive, and with obvious devouring properties; any structure that approached it would be distorted by its gravity.

At the same time, a tree appeared under the black sun.

It was a golden tree whose size could not be measured by conventional standards. Its trunk stretched across the entire range of perception, and its branches and leaves extended outwards, as if it were opening up an entire space. Even more exaggerated was its root system. Those roots did not penetrate into the ground, but extended directly to various directions, connecting different planes and nodes of the myriad worlds.

At those connection points, countless pieces of information flow.

You can even see structures resembling financial securities constantly being generated, circulating, and scattered around it, like a huge exchange system maintaining a certain order.

The two are locked in a standoff without colliding, yet they have already completed the most basic information identification.

Xia Xiu wasted no time and spoke directly.
"Speak, what do you want from me?"

And the golden tree, under his gaze, gently swayed its branches and leaves.

His response was presented directly in the etheric plane in the form of information. The content was not aggressive, did not have any corrosive structure, and did not even have the most basic temptation. It was just a sorted record, like an unadorned fact, which was delivered completely to Xia Xiu's consciousness.

Xia Xiu did not stop him.

He simply let the information flow through the connection and then completed the parsing in a very short time.

The next moment, he understood the other party's purpose.

Good heavens, this seemingly innocent and stern crisis leader is actually here to complain to himself!
For a crisis sequence to come and ask me to do this kind of thing is a bit... outrageous.

As expected of the "Golden Tree" which combines the characteristics of "Financial Street"—both are shameless.

As the information continued to unfold, the slight disdain on Xia Xiu's face quickly faded.

As the scene began to change, a set of fragmented and spliced ​​dimensional records unfolded simultaneously in his perception.

In the information screen, about seven medium-sized planes and hundreds of small planes were marked. They were originally connected by the roots of the Golden Tree and were part of the entire system. They were nodes that were maintained, scheduled, and incorporated into the order structure.

Now, all these nodes have broken, and at the points of breakage, there are obvious changes, much like the roots of a tree in reality being infected, and the originally tough and stable structure beginning to rot.

Dark patches first appear on the surface, then spread rapidly, forming ulcer-like tissue. The internal structure of the roots is eroded, becoming loose and hollow, and even collapsing and breaking in some places.

Worse still, this corruption is not static; it spreads, extending deeper and deeper along the broken roots, like some kind of contagious lesion spreading throughout the network.

Amidst this corruption, the scene shifts again.

The seven intermediate planes were gradually brought closer together.

Then, Xia Xiu saw those things; in each plane, there was a hideous creature.

They were not monsters in the ordinary sense. They came in various forms, some were twisted, some were bloated, and some resembled some kind of incomplete life structure. But without exception, they all had a strong sense of presence and even vaguely possessed the rudiments of informational status.

More importantly, Xia Xiu felt a sense of familiarity from it.

That familiarity didn't come from appearance, but from a deeper structural resonance; it felt like a perfect embryo...

"Seven mutated, perfect embryos..."

Xia Xiu's expression finally turned serious, while the scene continued to rewind.

Time is pulled forward.

The state of those planes began to change, from the result of being eroded back to the point where they had not yet collapsed. During this period, four familiar divine structures gradually appeared in the scene.

Moradin, and three other pantheons.

They made no attempt to hide it.

You could even say they did it very directly.

Those planes were sacrificed one by one. The four pantheons used the energy, structure, and information of the entire plane as a source of power, forcibly compressing it and investing it into some existence that had not yet fully manifested.

The video doesn't show the complete process, but the result is obvious enough.

Those monsters were the product of the sacrifice...

They are completely different from the Firstborn Sons. They have no stable structure or complete consciousness. They are more like unfinished products that have been forcibly created, with obvious defects and distortions, but they still have the potential to grow.

At the very moment he confirmed this, something within his body reacted.

[Black Mark]

The mark deeply embedded in his intrinsic structure trembled slightly at this moment, followed by the emergence of new perceptions.

Beyond those seven failed embryos, there were some even fainter signals, which were not obvious and even somewhat blurry, but carried completely different characteristics.

They are alive, possessing a spirit; they are not deformed offspring forced into existence, but perfect embryos on the right path.

In other words, these are offspring who need to be returned.

Xia Xiu's gaze narrowed slightly.

He followed that sense and tried to pinpoint it further, but the information provided by the Golden Tree could only support him at an extremely vague level. The exact locations of those things could not be pinpointed; their existence could only be confirmed.

Moreover, in the perception of the [Black Seal], there is more than one perfect embryo.

However, the exact number is still uncertain. The final frame of the image freezes on an extremely unstable point in time.

At that moment, Xia Xiu saw Moradin's state.

The once majestic and iron-like dwarven chief god now stood atop the ruins of a plane after the sacrifice. His body was still enormous, his muscles like mountains, but the composure that belonged to the god of forging had long since vanished, replaced by an uncontrollable excitement and distortion, as if his will no longer belonged entirely to himself.

His divine power was still burning. He raised his head, opened his mouth to the void, and began to pray.

Yes, the sight of a deity praying to some unspeakable being is... quite bizarre.

Words flowed slowly from his mouth, each syllable carrying a weight that did not belong to normal language, echoing, overlapping, and amplifying continuously on the etheric level.

“Praise be to the one who is nameless yet has many names, praise be to the one who has no mouth yet weeps with ten thousand mouths, praise be to the one who sleeps deep among the stars yet dreams with every pustule.”

His voice began to grow deep and viscous, as if enveloped by something moist, causing the surrounding space to distort slightly.

“Praise be to him who does not rule by throne, nor judge by thunder, but covers the void with flesh, with womb, and with countless unborn offspring.”

The background of the divine kingdom began to peel away at this moment, the original structure gradually blurred, and in its place was a deeper blank space.

Moradin's voice grew heavier, and at that moment his body underwent a subtle transformation. The structures that originally belonged to divinity began to loosen, as if they were being rearranged by some external logic.

"Praise be to the womb of the Old Ones, praise be to the Mother of a Thousand Bubbles, praise be to the fleshy, perforated star that pulsates slowly in the Dead Sea of ​​the Universe."

Even the stars eventually burn out.

He is the womb that continues to expand after the stars have burned out, the foul blood that continues to seep after the seas have dried up, the moist palace that continues to conceive nameless things in darkness after all the worlds have completed their names.

O Lu-Cthus, you dwell in the dampness between the cold fog of the stars and the decaying ether, you connect the blisters with long, narrow passages, and you nourish the nascent forms of the gods through those blisters.

We crawl and kiss the earth and blood, because the earth will eventually rot into flesh, because the blood will eventually flow back into you, because the flesh will eventually remember where it came from.

Heed our call.

If you have ears, listen to us with millions of ear bulbs.

If you have no ears, then hear us with every budding embryo within you.

As Moradin prayed, in the void, an indescribable galaxy of terrifying stars revealed His body.
At that moment, the entire scene began to exude a certain humidity, as if reality was being soaked through.

The prayer is complete.

And the response—arrives.

In the area pointed to by the prayer, a colossal object slowly emerged. Its size could not be measured by celestial bodies, yet it did indeed present a spherical outline, except that the outline was not smooth, but rather composed of countless undulating fleshy structures.

Its surface is covered with holes of varying sizes.

Those holes emitted a faint orange-red light, as if some kind of internal activity was taking place. Closer to the center, several huge openings could be seen, like torn mouthparts, their edges constantly writhing, with slender, glowing organs growing inside, like tentacles or unformed limbs.

Beneath that structure lies accumulation.

Countless formless remains, bones, and tissues were compressed and fused together to form its lower structure. These things were not static; they were moving slowly, as if providing some kind of foundation for the entire existence.

Deeper inside, there are pipes.

Those long, narrow channels extend from the main body and connect to the areas covered with pustules. Each channel is slightly contracting and expanding, as if transporting some kind of undefined nutrient.

Within those pustules, one can vaguely see outlines of beings that are not yet fully formed, curled up inside, waiting to be fully developed.

—【The Womb of the Great Old Ones: Lu-Kthu】

This is His name.

Soon, the image was cut off. The moment the image ended, all the humidity and weight it carried dissipated, and the connection in the entire etheric plane returned to its original stability. However, Xia Xiu was still able to clearly recall everything he had just seen.

The oppressive feeling, which wasn't visually striking but rather acted directly on his intrinsic structure, caused his thinking to stagnate slightly for a brief moment.

To be honest, most people would lose all their SAN value just by seeing this.

Xia Xiu slowly exhaled, completely suppressing the lingering strangeness. His consciousness stabilized again, and the golden tree, after completing the transmission of this information, stopped unfolding. It offered no further explanation or probing, as if it had presented the evidence and was now waiting for a response.

He looked at the golden tree that stretched across the ether, and his gaze became clear and calm again. He finally understood the true purpose of the golden tree.

"You want me to take action and completely eliminate these things, allowing those contaminated planes to return to your control structure, and at the same time, clean up those few half-formed failed embryos to prevent them from continuing to spread and drag down the stability of your entire root network, right?"

The Golden Tree did not deny it.

He once again expressed his attitude through feedback.

There was no concealment or ambiguity in that thought; He not only acknowledged this but further elaborated that He would not merely be a bystander throughout the entire process.

He will help.

It's not just symbolic support, but based on its own root structure, it participates in the blockade and suppression of those planes, assists in clearing those infected nodes, and, when necessary, directly provides channels and locations to maximize the efficiency of the operation.

And after that.

He gave the terms of the exchange.

If the preceding content was merely a request for cooperation, then the following information has already entered the realm of transactions.

He was willing to step in afterward to help Xia Xiu take over the plane controlled by the four pantheons.

And just when this bargaining chip had become significant enough.

He added another message.

Without any preamble or explanation, it was inserted into Xia Xiu's perception in a more direct way, like a key variable that had been deliberately reserved and was only brought out at this moment.

Xia Xiu's gaze sharpened slightly the moment he came across that message.

Then, he spoke in a low voice.

"The World Bubble left behind by the Crimson King... the embers in the story."

The new information provided by the Golden Tree points to a remnant structure that has not yet completely disappeared, belonging to a vast system that once existed but is no longer in the current timeline.

It now lingers in reality and throughout the myriad worlds in an extremely subtle way, and the Golden Tree has already found it.

Xia Xiu was silent for a moment, then chuckled softly.

"You're really showing a lot of sincerity."

It must be said that he was moved by the sincerity of [Golden Tree].