Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 876: The Secret of Valraven

Xia Xiu tilted his head slightly.

It was a light and natural movement, as if he had heard a joke that was not worth mentioning.

The tone was still very light, as if teasing a child who was unable to defend himself:

"Or……"

"In your brand dictionary, the word 'willing' means to postpone, blur, or process in installments?"

He didn't make an effort to speak.

But as soon as these words came out, the entire space seemed to collapse in response.

A "Smile Tasty Index" advertising sign hanging on the cognitive ceiling made a crackling sound, and the next second it exploded, breaking into hundreds of fluorescent character fragments, which fell to the ground and melted into a pool of smiley face juice.

Not far away, the display stand of children's meal dolls marked "Childlike Collaboration·Happy Biting People" was torn apart by some invisible gravitational field. The cartoon dolls slowly melted in the flames and turned into twisted anthropomorphic gears and chewing device fragments.

Their eyes were still smiling, but their mouths were dripping with oil.

A black sun hung high behind Xia Xiu, burning like a god-devouring burning wheel.

And Martin...

I am so exhausted that I can't even cry anymore.

Oh my god, this time I lost a lot.

His signature smiling face, which once dominated the advertising industry and sold billions of copies a year, has long since become as if his parents had died and he can no longer smile.

Hugh Abraham is indeed...

How cruel!

However, facing the Lord of the Courtyard, the fourth sword-bearer in Heaven, he dared not move, nor did he dare to speak to his face.

In this world, the influence of his brand image and the nearby [Building Castle] is no different from a discounted hot dog to the Fourth Sword Bearer of Heaven.

The previous round of explosions had completely wiped out all his money.

To be precise, two-thirds of Gaizhibao's assets at this hub were blown up.

Not "market share" in the conceptual sense.

But in the true sense: property, brand personality server, brand axis, and belief dissemination node.

All of these were just blown into scrap metal.

Martin had only one thought in his mind at this moment:
You can't be forceful, absolutely not forceful.

He must be made to stop.

Stop!

Stop this killer!
An inspiration suddenly struck him, and he thought of a dirty trick: he would rather die than let his friend die.

"Your Majesty Abraham!"

He raised his head quickly, his tone sounding like he was crying at a grave:

"Stop it first! Stop it, I have something... an extremely important situation to report!"

"This matter...is more serious than the illegal product issue of our building fort."

"This is not a brand issue, Your Majesty."

He gritted his teeth and finally threw his moral bottom line and peer ethics into the brand crusher.

"This matter involves the Valraven Company."

"It has even...involved the next enemy of your courtyard - the Soul Sucker Empire."

The moment Martin finished speaking.

The space vibration paused.

The Black Sun Flame did not go out immediately.

But it stopped expanding.

It was like the eye of a giant god, half open for a moment.

Xia Xiu stood where he was, his fingers pausing slightly.

The 『Heaven's Lever』 that was about to drop again stopped in mid-air.

Slightly deflected.

Then he slowly tapped the staff on the ground.

【Boom. 】

The fire in the space no longer spreads.

The destructive inherent fluctuations receded like the tide, and the black sun behind him slowly shrank into a seal-like shadow, hanging in the sky behind his head, burning and waiting.

Xia Xiu then raised his eyes, his tone no longer sarcastic, but still cold:

"Oh?"

"whats the matter."

He narrowed his eyes and spoke in a calm tone.

"explain."

There is a play!

Martin suddenly became energetic, and he spoke to Xia Xiu non-stop:
"That's right, Your Majesty..."

"Valravin Corporation - they recently started the research and development of the fourth-generation etheric universal machine in a certain colonial hub in secret."

"This group of people... acted very properly and extremely cautiously, even bypassing the regular supervision procedures of the courtyard."

"I... our Gaizhibao accidentally intercepted a supply chain transfer document during a procurement bid, and since then I have started to pay attention to this matter..."

He tried to speak calmly and logically, but before he could finish his words, Xia Xiu tilted his head slightly and said calmly:

"Can you tell me something I don't know?"

The sound was not loud, but it was like a nail, accurately nailing Martin's forehead.

His pupils shrank slightly and his scalp tightened instantly.

He knew he had failed.

This god of death cannot be dealt with by simply deceiving with information.

He knew that the information about the "fourth-generation machine" alone would not be enough to completely divert His Majesty's attention.

He has to up the ante.

Aggravate.

Harming colleagues.

A dead Taoist friend is not a poor Taoist.

Valraven, in order to [build the castle], I will have to bear with you for a while.

Then, Martin suddenly stopped talking, lowered his head as if biting his tongue, and said in a trembling voice:

"...You might..."

"What you may not know is——"

He raised his head, his eyes flashing fiercely like a gambler:

"The reason why Valraven insisted on developing the fourth-generation machine was not simply because of the accumulation of technology."

"But because..."

"They found a prototype of what appears to be a fourth-generation aircraft."

"And this prototype..."

"It's related to the Soul Sucker Empire."

Xia Xiu's eyebrows did not move, but the light in his eyes obviously froze for a moment.

Martin was suddenly inspired when he saw this reaction, and immediately stepped up to finish off the opponent:

"I can find out the numbers of those documents! They are lost parts obtained from a deep colony planet."

"According to the engineering data they themselves leaked, the reaction core of that machine possesses 'etheric crown super-resistance' and is highly consistent with a certain 'mind-body dual neural structure' of the mind-absorber system."

"What's even scarier is that they are trying to stuff a 'Crown-class Mind Mapper' into that machine."

Xia Xiu stood under the halo, still not moving at all.

But at the moment when Martin threw out the words "crown-level thought mapping body", his eyes fluctuated slightly for a moment.

Deep within the golden pupil, there seemed to be some structure quietly rippling.

Martin saw it.

He captured this detail keenly, as if he had grasped a life link that could pull him out of the hot dog graveyard.

So, he stopped hesitating and continued to make the last kill and sell out his teammates.

The voice was word by word, like a knife scraping on steel:
"I can retrieve the reference numbers for that batch of documents!"

"They found it in a deep colonization hub - the place was originally identified as a historical abandoned planet of the Mind Drainer Empire, but it was actually a covered-up experimental graveyard."

"That machine - suspected to be the prototype of the fourth-generation machine - has been recovered and taken away."

"And who possesses this kind of mind mapping ability, Your Majesty... you know better than me."

"That is undoubtedly the most powerful and core mastermind of the Soul Absorber Empire."

"Valraven knew this...but they didn't report it to the Court, they didn't report it to you."

"They want to get it secretly, bypass the Soul Sucker, and snatch this prototype divine weapon."

"They want to use the private power of abnormal capital to gamble, while the Soul Sucker Empire has dispatched multiple colonies and Nautilus fleets."

The air suddenly turned cold. The remaining traces of the black sun had not yet dissipated, but the entire space was like falling into an icy lake.

Xia Xiu remained silent.

When talking about soul suckers, we have to mention their nickname in the universe - mind strippers.

These guys usually have purple-gray skin, a wriggling octopus head, four mouth tentacles that can penetrate the skull, and a pair of psychic eyes that have no pupils, no emotions, but can peel off all will.

They are born with mind control.

For them, persuasion, influence and guidance are never means of communication, but foreplay before eating.

They don't need dialogue.

Just one "thought" and your mind will be torn apart.

You'll give away your memories, your thoughts, your words, your fears, your family, your beliefs, the songs of your childhood, and then have them all sucked out along with your brain.

And behind them is a being more terrifying than each individual—the mastermind.

The spiritual source of every group of soul suckers is a giant brain placed in a pool of mucus that constantly devours the consciousness of its members after death.

It has no body, but it commands the thought grid of all mind suckers.

It controls the rhythm of their speech, the frequency of their breathing, and even... the time of their death.

“It’s not the nerve center of society, it’s them.”

The Mastermind is the colony's king, judge, algorithm, and faith.

All individuals in the colony are merely extensions of the main brain's consciousness.

And those colonies are connected to each other through higher-level mental links, forming the 'Mastermind Council'.

This is a huge tower of thought composed of thousands of years of wisdom, millions of brains, and hundreds of millions of assimilations.

At the top of this tower, there is another name in the legend——【Zeroth Will】

The secret high-level officials of the Soul Sucker Empire, a union of the oldest masterminds.

A conscious god formed by the fusion of dozens of ancient main brains.

They are not emperors, not parliaments, but a resonance.

A single will that overwhelms all civilization.

And according to the information Martin just provided, the machine intercepted by the Valraven Company is likely to be related to it.

They plan to fragment the "Crown-level Mind Mapper" - perhaps, the main brain of the Mind-Sucker Empire.

Or, just stuff the [Zeroth Will] into that body.

what does this mean?
This means that there is a force that is trying to connect the mind network of the soul suckers with human war technology.

This means that a war machine capable of carrying the "God of Consciousness" is taking shape.

It means that a thinking god of war is about to wake up.

Xia Xiu was silent for a long time.

In other words, the whole space was silent.

The remaining flames and rune data after the explosion have not yet dissipated, but at this moment, they are no longer the focus.

The focus is the golden light in his eyes, which quietly condenses into a sharp edge in silence.

[Zeroth Will] + [Fourth Generation Machine]...

This is no longer a business violation, nor is it an internal struggle among abnormal capital.

This is the eve of a war that could corrode the soul of an entire intelligent civilization.

This is no longer a courtyard war.

Nor are these merely unusual disputes.

What he has to face is an ancient empire that invades his worldview at the neural network level.

A mastermind that can make intelligent races forget who they are, believe that the mastermind is God, and surrender themselves as awakening.

A nightmare empire that does not need a fleet and can seize the colonial hub by relying solely on "distributed thinking".

This matter is no longer a matter of the courtyard; it is a matter that requires the intervention of the Kingdom of Heaven and it is the target that the angels must strike hard.

Xia Xiu's eyes fell on Martin's face, and he asked word by word:
"you sure?"

The sound was calm, but the moment he heard it, Martin shuddered.

However, he also heard that this was no longer an inquiry into the crimes of the [Gaizhibao] brand.

Martin knew he had won the bet.

"It is absolutely true, Your Majesty."

"I wouldn't dare lie about something like that."

"You can investigate it yourself, or you can go directly to Valraven and ask their senior board members."

"They'll be... happy to receive you."

"real."

He looked up at Xia Xiu, even though the brand program on his face was still automatically adding the "smile muscle reaction".

But at this moment, he was really smiling honestly.

Xia Xiu nodded slightly.

The triple halo slowly converged, like a ring of judgment tracks buried deep in his back, disappearing into the invisible.

And the black sun that stretched across the sky and burned the logic of space finally went out slowly, as if a god had closed his armor and retracted the ray of angry light that illuminated everything.

But——the pressure has not dissipated.

Although the space is quiet, the temperature is still at the critical point of being cold and chilly.

Even if the divinity did not appear, Martin did not dare to say another word.

Xia Xiu said directly:

"One week."

"You have one week to make the corrections."

"Product cleanup, node destruction, personality interface recovery, consciousness contaminated area isolation... I don't need to say it a second time."

"If you are overdue, you know the consequences..."

Martin's scalp tightened when he heard this.

He nodded quickly, his waist almost bent to 90 degrees, the corners of his mouth curled up wildly, and his smile was worthy of being a model for the company.

"Don't worry! Your Majesty, don't worry!"

"We are building a fort, and you will definitely cooperate with us with all your strength!"

He became more and more excited as he spoke, his smile almost twitching, and he spoke so fast as if he was afraid he would be kicked out of the star realm before he could finish the next sentence.

Xia Xiu just listened quietly.

He turned slightly and glanced over the brand ruins where data ashes were still floating.

Then, turned around and left.

Say no more words.

When the figure covered in the black and gold storm completely disappeared into the end of the space, the temperature dropped, the divinity converged, and the spiritual energy vibrations gradually subsided.

Martin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

No, it was a breath of life that could be described as "air coming directly out of the chest".

“Huaaaaaah…”

He leaned back and slumped onto the ground, like a brand spokesperson who had been haggled over by a customer for three hours and had to smile and take photos, and finally called it a day.

The smile collapsed, the skin began to twitch, and the marketing voice assistant hanging behind the ear made a "ding" sound and burst into sparks, announcing that the system was overheating.

Martin took it off, yanked it off, threw it aside, lowered his head and stared at his hands. It took him a long time to utter a word:

"What a tyrant! What a dictator!!"

He cursed without enthusiasm, as if he didn't have the courage to get really angry at anyone even after cursing. He just subconsciously let out a little emotion from his repression, with fatigue, frustration and deep-seated...cowardice.

He rubbed his temples, as if he had just woken up from a marketing hallucination, and muttered:

"I knew it... that the hot dog machine would have problems sooner or later... it's all because of those brainless people in the product department who insisted on putting it in the courtyard hub..."

"What do you mean by 'logically closed loop of market penetration path'... Close your fucking loop!"

He slumped against the ruins of the data wall behind him, staring at the brand light box in the air that had turned into a smell of burnt French fries. His eyes were empty for a few seconds, and suddenly he laughed out loud.

"Ha... But at least my life is saved."

"Valraven's side..."

He chuckled, then waved his hands, as if talking to the air, or as if to clear himself:

"That's not a backstab on my part."

"This is called sacrificing local interests to preserve the brand."

"All for the sake of building a fort."

He sighed, sat up, rubbed his face and muttered to the air:

"Call everyone from the marketing department."

"Issuing an emergency order - the 21st brand rebranding plan of Gaizhibao, codename: 'Survival after cutting off the tail'."

“Tell them that our products in the courtyard world need to be transformed.”

(End of this chapter)