Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 881: Oletin's "Gear Orthodox Chapter"

After the giant machine [Morning Star Eärendil] knelt down and surrendered, it was still operating at a low frequency.

The aftermath of the data fire has not yet dissipated, and a vague vibration field still remains on the entire industrial platform, as if the oracle has not been completely extinguished and is still lingering in the air.

At this moment, the Mole had put on his dark gray cloak, wearing a prosthetic monocular, and walked forward with his group of mechanized warlocks who looked like a demolition team.

They carried densely packed multi-limbed robotic arms, like spiders and priests, and slowly began to surround the various nodes of the body.

"Master data link interrupted."

"Extraction of the Machine Soul's Deep Thought Template... Phase One Completed."

"Assisting in the synchronization of the authority channel."

"Disassembly area: Altar base slot - core pulse chamber - psychic prism layer."

The Mole turned the instrument with one mechanical hand, and with the other he pulled a blank seal module engraved in pure silver from his tool belt.

That is - the Ether Memory Cube.

A special device specifically used to store high-level machine soul fluctuations, psychic fragments and core logic seeds, usually only used to preserve the original memory of special bodies.

Xia Xiu walked forward and stood on the edge of the platform, looking down at them.

He ordered calmly:
"Extract a portion of the Morning Star's machine soul fragment."

"It is sealed in this square box."

"I want you to put it together with the awakening video," he paused, looking into the void, "Adam, edit the scene of the machine soul's surrender just now and package it up."

[clear!]
The light curtain of [Adam] slowly closed behind Xia Xiu, and the last video document that had been carefully edited was packaged and uploaded to the genealogy mailbox for the week.

After confirming that the transmission was complete, Xia Xiu turned around.

He slowly placed the silver-white "Ether Memory Cube" engraved with sequence prayers into the power armor box he had personally made.

The scepter tapped the ground lightly, making a clanging sound.

He looked at Zhou who was standing beside him, his eyes calm as water, as if all this was just a daily routine.

He handed over the power box, his tone was so calm that it was almost gentle:
"Take it with you and go to Terra."

"One week."

"I need you to represent me at the branch of the Cogwheel Orthodox Church on the border of the Oletin Empire."

"Take this video with you."

"Take this 'gift'."

“They’ll understand what this is.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Turles, who was standing not far away and watching the aftermath of the awakening of [Morning Star Eärendil], turned around suddenly. His fox tail exploded into a cluster of popcorn-like balls, and his whole face was filled with an expression of "Are you crazy?"

"Are you planning to let Ichiko die?!"

"That's not an invitation for 'cooperative negotiations', it's a naked video declaration of war!"

“And this box contains a fragment of the machine soul, right?

It is the reverse coding core of their "art of god-making."

"You took an artifact that the Orthodox Church considers sacred, added a video of 'Machine Soul converting to Om Messiah', stuffed it all into a box and sent it over - you might as well have included a bottle of gasoline and let Yi Zhou burn himself!"

It's no wonder that Tours was so shocked. He was actually frightened by some of the actions of the golden retriever.

Giving this thing to the Gear Orthodox Church is like dancing in front of the grave of the God of All Machines.

Xia Xiu just smiled lightly in the face of Tours' excitement.

He did not rush to refute, but instead closed the power box with his backhand and asked casually:
"One week, are you afraid?"

Vito Antonio said nothing, just smiled and shook his head, catching the armor box steadily in his palm.

"You won't let me die."

Xia Xiu nodded with satisfaction, then turned to look at Turles.

"Take it easy, Tulsi."

"I'm not sending misfortune."

"This box does contain a record of the 'machine soul's surrender'... but I also included some information I got from Valraven."

He smiled slightly, his eyes deep:

"Information about the Soul Sucker Empire shows that they are controlling the complete remains of a Broken God."

Turles's face changed.

Xia Xiu's tone was still gentle:

"I bet that after hearing this news, those Orthodox saints in their iron heads will hold back their anger and bite off this 'blasphemous gift' first."

"They called me a heretic, but in their hearts they just wanted to get back the lost template of the divine machine."

"Because they know better than us - reviving the Broken God is more important than anything else."

Tulsi stared at the golden retriever for a few seconds, and his fox ears moved.

“…I just don’t understand.”

His voice lowered, almost questioning in a deep voice:
"If you want to give them information, why not just hand it over to the saints of the Orthodox Church?"

"Why does it have to be like this?"

"What video, what conversion, what 'heretic god ignites the machine soul' - are you handing over intelligence, or a declaration of war?"

"You know your identity. They can just find an excuse to declare you a heretic and launch a holy war."

Xia Xiu smiled helplessly and spread his hands:

"You think I don't want to keep it simple?"

"I'd love to, too."

"What a pity - these Orthodox saints don't have normal brain circuits. Will they listen to me if I talk to them nicely?"

"If you want them to take it seriously, you have to take some drastic measures."

"Then we need to give them some 'exemplary cases' that can overload their souls."

“Even if they are so angry that they jump up and down, calling me a fire thief and sullying the holy name of the divine machine…”

Xia Xiu smiled and raised his hand toward the sky:

"But eventually, they will open the box."

“They’ll finish watching the video.”

"When they pray at midnight, they will repeatedly confirm: 'Should the God of all things that we believe in do something?'"

"Everything I did just fit their stereotype of a 'heavenly wild man.'"

"The more they hate me, the more they think about what to do next."

"Human beings."

"The more I hate you, the less I will ignore you."

"And I'm looking for the branch of the Gear Orthodox Church stationed in Oletin, not the main church of the Daeva Empire... Of course, I have to pick the weak ones."

Tours opened his mouth, but eventually swallowed his words.

You know what, it seems that people in that land are just like this.

Xia Zheng was about to continue teasing when Zhou Yi, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up.

The voice was not loud, but it was like a short blade that pierced into the bone marrow, straightforward and cold, without any embellishment or euphemism:
"What do you want to gain from the negotiation?"

At that moment, the originally playful atmosphere seemed to freeze in an instant.

Xia Xiu finally stopped laughing.

He slowly put away his usual calmness and teasing, and the whole person seemed to transform from an angel bishop strolling in the garden to a conqueror who was about to write a decree to declare war.

He stood under the huge shadow of [Morning Star Earendil] and looked sideways at the leader of the Assassin's Court.

The golden hair trembled slightly in the light cast by the tower.

He looked at "One Week" quietly and spoke slowly:
"I want them out—the saints."

"I need the Church to bring their bronze soldiers." "Bring the [Iron Wall] that can freeze the enemy's mind, isolate the psychic energy, and split the alien plane itself."

"And the collapsible [Histoirs] they use to navigate psychic storms."

"I hope they launch a 'real holy war' against the Soul Sucker Empire."

Xia Xiu's voice was like the flame of a candle on an altar; although it was not loud, every word burned into the bones and blood.

"The Courtyard will join forces with them."

"Joint expedition."

“We will no longer hide, pretend, or test.”

"I hope they can carry out a true war of trial in a saintly way."

He paused slightly when he said this, his eyes tilted slightly like a sword, and his voice lowered a bit:
"As for the distribution of benefits..."

"Let them take the legions—"

"Come to depth 60."

"Come see me."

“I talk to them personally.”

Zhou received the order and then promised the owner of the courtyard:
"I will complete the task."

"Thanks a lot."

Xia Xiu patted Zhou Yi's shoulder.

***********
In the courtyard, the morning bell has not yet rung.

But the bow light of the [Sword of Glory Class Cruiser] has already been lit.

It was like the eyes of a god opening in the darkness.

Zhou Yi, wearing a pitch-black combat robe and holding a sword, stood expressionlessly on the edge of the ship's bow boarding platform.

Behind him was a row of courtyard guards who had finished their formation.

They were clad in heavy battle-forged armor, each set engraved with the seal of heaven and the holy emblem of the courtyard, and their dark silver decks were like cast-iron battle walls.

The leader was the Grey Knight Joachim Murat, who had been reborn in the First Apostle War.

On the other side was the inquisitor, Sel Draven, who came from a family of poets.

Finally, a young man wearing a gold-patterned navigator's suit and carrying a multi-layer ether computing device slowly came over - Navigator Silas Cephalon.

Three of the Nine Guards were dispatched, and they will go to the Oletin Empire with the President of the Assassin's Court.

He will be responsible for delivering the entire cruiser to the designated coordinates - Depth 5, Polar Storm Boundary.

"The jump coordinates have been injected, and the star layer has been locked."

He whispered to Zhou Yi.

"The jump is expected to take one hour. We will pass through four subspace disturbance zones on the way. Twelve psychic links are stable."

Zhou Yi nodded without saying anything more.

He just turned around slowly and spoke softly to the heavily-armored imperial guards:
"Get on board."

At the command, footsteps hit the deck in unison, like hammers hitting the ground.

[Sword of Glory] The hull vibrated slightly, and the subspace engine started up. It slowly rose up like a flying cathedral, passed over the courtyard tower, floated over the orbital bridge, and gradually disappeared at the end of the sky.

**********
The Far North of Chukotka, the Terra-Oletin Empire.

In the northern hemisphere of Terra, on the northern eastern border of the Oletin Empire - the Chukotka Autonomous Oblast.

This is the last fence on the map of the empire, overlooking the White Strait to the east and the Arctic Circle to the west. In winter, the nights can last up to thirty days and nights.

And this place is no longer a "territory" in the ordinary sense.

It is the Empire's closest buffer zone to the "Disaster Corridor".

Tundra, icy sea, fiery auroras, geomagnetic disturbances, sky-shattering storms, occasional subspace tears...

Each of these disasters alone is enough to wipe out a colony, and in this far north, 250 of the 300 standard days a year experience "abnormal weather."

Therefore, the Academy of Sciences, the Military Industry Group, and the Joint Council of the Daeva Cogwheel Orthodox Church in Oletin of the Oletin Empire created the most bizarre land structure in the world:
——“Mobile city on land”.

They are like giant steel whales in armor, swimming slowly across the tundra.

The ether anchor of the main engine needs to be replaced every hour of operation. The belly of the ship is equipped with a multi-dimensional shock-pressure crawling track system that can cross ice crack zones, permafrost collapse zones, and magnetic storm layers.

The city has a giant main clock tower with holy emblems and alarm poles hanging on it, and gray-white buildings are lined up one after another, each of which is a protective ballast structure.

The largest of them is called: [Tula VI Type Holy Wheel Ark City]

“It is not a city, but a nation that persists in prayer in exile.”

——Description of the Cogwork Orthodox Church.

It is also the Eastern Border Management Center of the Oletin Empire.

The Gear Orthodoxy [The Third Holy Opportunity of Terra] has a hub temple in the north, and also houses the Sixth Legion's Imperial Guard Mechanical Maintenance Center and the Deep Cold Disaster Prophecy Hall.

As the entire city slowly advances on the ice, the ice will collapse in the opposite direction due to the heat energy, and then recrystallize after it passes, like a snowy giant carrying the holy light.

The core layer of this city belongs neither to the Oletin government nor to the imperial military.

Instead, it belongs to a border branch of the Cogwheel Orthodox Church in Oletin, which is still in operation today.

This is the oldest outpost of the Cogwork Orthodox Church in the Oletin Empire.

It is located under the city's bishop's bell tower. Three bronze organ pipes extend crisscrossly to the entire city's power center, and mechanical hymns are used for daily prayers. The interior of the church is divided up by three non-integrated sects.

The temple is six hundred meters high, with three bronze organ pipes piercing the sky.

When the time for prayer comes, the waste heat from the city's main furnace engine is poured into the pipes. The steam and music merge into a metallic hymn that runs through the entire city and resounds across the frozen horizon.

Below the temple are three core structures built side by side but not connected to each other.

They belong to:

The Broken Church: A Conservative and Fundamentalist Successor to the Idol

The Cogwheel Orthodox Church: The Theocratic Craftsmen of the Industrial Age
Maxwellism - Connecting Believers in the Information Age
In the Daevite Empire, the Cogwheel Orthodox Church is the only legal sect and exists as a state religion, almost deeply integrated with the state apparatus.

Completely different from the Daevite Empire, the Cogwheel Orthodox chapter here has not yet achieved ideological unification.

The emperor is far away and the authority of faith is being eliminated.

Three major factions coexist on this frozen land in a strange and delicate balance.

No one faction can overwhelm the other two.

In the main hall of the Broken Church, a broken statue with only half of its face and left hand is enshrined, and flesh and blood prostheses are offered every day to be reshaped repeatedly;

The altar area of ​​the Cogwork Orthodox Church is like a giant factory, with steam mingling, springs roaring, and standard holy charts projected onto the ceiling clock three times a day;

The Maxwellists are more like a flowing consciousness hidden in cables and cold data. They have built a black silicon neural network in the deepest part of the core layer and conduct collective prayers through brain-computer interfaces, with the sound of a fan humming.

It may be difficult for outsiders to understand how these three parties coexist.

But in Oletin, this structure has been maintained for nearly a hundred years.

Because in this ice field where natural disasters are frequent and extreme cold is rampant, if there is no multiple balance mechanism, even gods will freeze to death in the depths of the snow.

They fight each other, but they also depend on each other.

The reason why this city has not been devoured, infiltrated by the mind suckers, or destroyed by the civil war is precisely because of that silent but still alive——

[San Bumarou].

Legend has it that the sacred "Builder of the Broken God" ascended the throne last century but has not stepped down to this day.

He never made appearances and never gave interviews or talks.

Instructions are issued only through an ancient "broadcast slate" embedded in the statue's abdomen.

Recently, a message came from that stone slab:

"Anyone who comes from the Fire Seed can enter."

And today, the messengers of the courtyard quietly came to the mobile city-state where the saint was.