Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 955 [Second Consul Sabaos]

The black orb remained entrenched in the center of the cave, neither moving nor attacking.

It simply keeps growing, replicating, imitating, and expanding, like a cancerous nucleus placed in the baseline reality, spreading towards every crack in the world with its ceaseless computational logic.

"Although it is not aggressive..."

Xia Xiu stood at the edge of the cave, muttering to himself:

"But the very way this thing exists is a huge problem... The fact that the Mechanic Church called the flesh cancer in the past is absolutely true."

When faced with something as invasive as cancer, violence is the worst possible solution.

The truly effective means are never destruction, but containment and subjugation.

Xia Xiu was thinking quietly.

"The ultimate life form was able to temporarily suppress this thing... thanks to the supreme divinity carried by the Blood God, which has the ability to suppress radioactive decay."

"But I am not the God of Blood. If I were to use leverage to pry open the supreme divinity of the God of Shattering... Lust and Shattering are two things: one is mindless, and the other is unhappy. Unhappy and mindless will fight as soon as they meet, which is also not acceptable."

"As for asking Eden... it's not time for that yet."

"So I have to try a different approach."

A sigh crossed his face.

“It’s not a long-term solution to always rely on the big boss Eden to back you up when you’re traveling.”

He sighed.

"So, it's your turn to make your appearance today, Second Boss."

Just moments before, Xia, in the deep space battlefield, would call for the Supreme Eight Days to add points whenever he was in trouble. But now, facing the ever-expanding flesh cancer, he has started looking for the second boss who has always been neglected.

[Asia Pacific Perth], come and help me!

He raised his hand and clenched it, revealing a bloodstain burning with a faint purple light in his palm.

In an instant, the air seemed to deform abruptly as if it were being scorched by twisted runes.

An ancient, sticky parchment scroll, dripping with an unknown liquid and spiritual writing, slowly crawled out of the void, like a fragment of a whisperer crawling back to the world from the abyss, tumbling and dripping.

It is covered with unrecognizable fleshy symbols, inverted scriptures, tooth-shaped seals, and circles of reliefs that resemble eyes.

The lineage of lust and flesh reappeared, the scroll turning pages in the wind, making a "crackling" sound as if flesh were being turned.

Immediately afterwards, a deep, inorganic voice sounded from behind his head:

[Fragment of the Six Commanders of Lust for Flesh Detected]

[Connecting: Second Consul Sabaoth]

[Sea of ​​Completion: Deactivated]

[Throne of the Witch King: In Response]

I wonder if it's because the fragment of the Fourth Consul was recently completed.
Or perhaps it's because that "divine beast" [His boundless expanse] is quietly drawing closer with each breath of the ether.

This time, the response from the Desire Lineage was surprisingly calm and orderly, unlike the initial frenzy, screaming, and chaotic outburst of the Fourth Consul. This time, it seemed to have sunk into an ancient mechanism, slowly and rhythmically activating itself.

As that deep echo reverberated from the scroll, Xia Xiu's golden eyes narrowed slightly, and he murmured softly:
"...The Throne of the Witch King?!"

Xia Xiu only glimpsed a corner of the Witch King's Throne when he vaguely came into contact with the hazy projection of the inner sanctum of the God of Flesh and Blood during his investigation of the Green Sun incident.

That was the throne that Yern created, the throne that the Lord of the flesh lineage used to rule over the gods of flesh.

Now, it has reappeared, and before Xia Xiu could investigate its mechanism and principles, a sudden change occurred.

That black sphere of light, that primordial core that devoured reality like a cancer, trembled slightly at that moment.

It seemed as if they sensed the approach of some "high-ranking kin".

At the same time, dozens of overlapping sentences, mysterious characters, and collapsing formulas suddenly appeared in Xia Xiu's palm, and it began to exhibit irregular logical fluctuations:

[&& currently attempting to connect to %& the six governors...]

No reply received &&&#￥

[Error feedback encountered!!!]

[Error feedback encountered!!!]

[Error feedback encountered!!!]

The three consecutive "error feedbacks" felt like three contractions of a compressed soul.

Xia Xiu's expression turned serious. The operation of the lustful spectrum was never a rational structure, but rather a rough emergence of infinite will.

The next second, the characters that appeared on the scroll caused his pupils to shrink to pinpoints:
[The Second Consul, Sabaos, has made contact with you...]

[Forced link to "Throne of the Witch King"]

【The Sea of ​​Completion - Temporary Launch】

He felt as if his consciousness was being accepted by some huge synchronization system, and unlike the first failed connection, this time he successfully reconnected to most of the functions of the lust spectrum that had been rendered ineffective.

Billions of memory fragments, non-verbal knowledge, and spiritual alignment thresholds instantly flowed from the scroll into the depths of his brain.

[Human Completion and Knowledge Sharing Device Activated!]

[Memory synchronization function successfully connected]

[Sensing and synchronized frequency function successfully connected]

[Attempt to repair perception successful—]

Xia Xiu felt a chill run down his spine.

These are countless "selves" who have been rewritten, devoured, and sacrificed, and their residual consciousness is resonating with him, thinking and feeling through this ancient divine device.

In that instant, a brand new line of characters appeared in the darkness on the inside of his retina.

[Throne Retrotester (Heroic Spirit) ID D-777 detected]

Codename: "The Unsung Hero"

[Data transmission fluctuations being confirmed...]

The tide receded quietly, leaving the water surface as still as a mirror, while the dark hemisphere in the center of the cave continued to split and writhe, like a grotesque fetus of the universe giving birth to its own rebirth.

Xia Xiu stood quietly before it, his fingertips resting on the tattered pages of the Desire and Flesh Genealogy, feeling his blood and bones boiling.

"This is... an unprecedented technique for shaping flesh and blood structures."

He raised his hands with a frown, and an unprecedented flesh-shaping technique surged into his mind.

[Human Completion and Universal Knowledge Sharing Device - Successfully Connected]

[Residual Consciousness Source ID D-777—Heroic Spirit: The Unsung Hero Otrava]

[Neuro-Reflection: Confirmed!]

[Start importing data package: Flesh and Blood - Zane's Harpist]

A low-frequency vibrato emanated from the depths of Xia Xiu's cochlea, as if an ancient instrument was being played in his brainstem.

His eyes suddenly sharpened, and in an instant, countless images flooded his mind like a torrent.

It was a late night on the altar, in the temple of lust; it was the weary panting of a thousand slaves playing flutes in a dark cave; it was a mad priestess twisting flesh and blood into threads, sewing a stringed body that could "play the structure itself".

This is the origin of that art form.

Tendons are the strings; bones are the bridges; air flows through the nasal passages like a flute; the nerves connecting them are the transmitters of music; in breathing and resonating, they play the music of sealing, resonance, or erosion.

[Shared Knowledge - Loading Successful]

Xia Xiu stood in the shadow of the Temple of Flesh and Blood, his gaze fixed on the Desire and Flesh lineage floating in the void.

This ancient blood-written book is now glowing with a thick, bloody light, as if a pair of hands have reached out from prehistoric times, handing over a piece of "consciousness" that has long been buried deep within mythology.

That was a memory.

A fragment of consciousness from Heroic Spirit D-777—[The Unsung Hero Otrava].

……

……

Initially, it was a fragment of blood and fire.

He was originally the leader of a secular faction of the new lustful carnal, named Otrava, a prodigy born in the forgotten lands on the frontier of the apocalypse, who was taught by the priesthood of the exiled Lustful Carnal faction of Diva.

Otrava witnessed the deepest darkness of civilization, and was also captivated by the splendor sculpted from flesh and blood.

He was not a villain; on the contrary, he had a stubborn obsession with human dignity.

In his memory, Xia Xiu saw his notes and autobiography;

"In the still-dawning of the great wilderness, [His boundless expanse], like a surging crimson meteorite, fell into the depths of the mortal world."

He gasped for breath, each breath transforming into a raging torrent of lava and bones; and from within His chest split forth six Archons, whose faces had yet to fully develop, wriggling and crawling with the primordial law that flesh is truth, seeking a people to whom they could sacrifice themselves.

The great Yan was merely an orphan from a broken tribe, yet he was chosen by the governor. "If I sacrifice my body, can I grant my people immortality?"

"Once the flesh and blood are healed, the spirit and bones will also grow back."

Six voices whispered in unison in his ears.

Yann cut off his own ribs, forged them into the first bone blade, and plunged it into his chest.

"Transform it, enhance it, and transcend it."

From that day on, the Carnal Cult was born, and the old tribe was rebuilt into the "City of Countless and Unspeakable Sins" (Adytum, the Inner Temple).

The high walls were built of living bones, the city gates were covered with the tongues of giant beasts, the people cheered day and night, and the shadow of the governor roamed the dome like giant hands stirring the starry sky.

Yann appointed four saints (Nadox: the strategist of anger, in charge of military formations and strategies; Ravata: the blood-soaked one, in charge of harvest and reproduction; Oroko: the spear-wielder, in charge of blades and conquest; and Saen: the plague-bearer, in charge of pathology and purification) as pillars.

They carved the valley into a pool of blood, planted insect eggs in the altar, and made the drumbeats in the sacrificial tomb beat in sync with everyone's hearts.

The priest performed a spinal manipulation ritual, removing the spines of sinners to set the bones of young children in order to grant them longevity.

Live insects are raised in the wild, and the white insects circulate in the body, serving as both ornaments and weapons;
The palace was built with walls of flesh, where prisoners of war were buried inside, and their flesh buds assimilated with lime to form palace pillars.

The Empire of Lust swept across the Caucasus and the Balkans, and subsequently, the entire Central Plateau and part of the Orleans Plateau were brought under its rule.

By defeating the Mechanical City-State and completely destroying Diva, Yann will surely become the Lord of Terra and the Lord of Mankind!
As Yann said: Desire will liberate all mankind and establish a paradise for mankind!

However, after a century of war, Yann suddenly disappeared into a seven-day loop and has been missing ever since.

The four saints each held a divine symbol, and the church began to split. The blood-stained altar cracked open, and bone spikes gushed out, tearing apart the world of flesh and desire.

This was the first century after Yann's disappearance, and the six leaders also disappeared one after another. The Desire for Flesh was plunged into an unprecedented internal strife, and the Desire for Flesh was divided into four major churches.

The Awakening Church of the Inner Temple.

Red Church.

The Church of the Eternal Mother.

The Church of Vatula.

The century-long bloody war has made me greatly disappointed with the four religions.

A century of internal strife has led to the complete collapse of the empire. We... have lost our rule over the central government, and the people regard us as enemies.

These greedy fools... they have forgotten the true meaning of the way of stripping away flesh and desire.

Disease was revered by them, and the path of stripping became a means of eliminating the weak and purifying the masses...

Lust has led to demonic possession!

I must reclaim the Six Commanders, I must restore the glory of lust!

In Otrava’s short but brilliant life, he dedicated himself to finding the Six Leaders and restoring the lineage of lust.

He witnessed the collapse and final madness of the Empire of Lust, where the empire hollowed out mountains to become pools of blood, dissolved war criminals into walls to become phosphorescent lampposts, swarms of insects swirled in the dome, and crimson mist lingered day and night.

The old history refers to that period as "the twilight of flesh and starlight dancing together."

After several detours, he arrived in Diva and participated in the movement to dissolve the enslavement of the Diva exiled carnal priesthood. During this time, he found information about the Six Leaders.

There is a place name that became the end of his fate—Kaliakra Cave.

A strategic location situated on the Black Sea coast.

"A group of Diva soldiers stood guard here fiercely, the formation was ridiculously large. Not only that, in just this month I have already seen six or seven Diva tree people coming over, continuously sending slaves to this settlement."

Could it be that there is some kind of mine hidden in this place, and they made these slaves mine there until they died?

After I killed all the guards, the village was abandoned.

I discovered that the slaves were actually taken underground and sent into a complex, large cavern.

However, we soon discovered that there were no mineral deposits here. Instead, there was a blasphemous underground temple where slaves were forced to participate in a complicated ritual!

During my daring foray into the cave, I observed the Diva priestess throwing slaves into an invisible void, something I had never seen before. Upon reaching the center of the cave, I discovered an even larger void, motionless, surrounding the malnourished slaves, who were being ordered around and constantly playing flutes.

One of the pipers, exhausted, collapsed to the ground. He was immediately dragged away from the scene and replaced by another unfortunate creature.

I could no longer bear to watch this absurd scene, so after a brief struggle, I imprisoned the Diva priestesses in the slave pen. Most of the newly freed slaves fled, but some remained to swear allegiance to me.

Although I'm reluctant to admit it, the ritual I interrupted didn't seem as foolish as I had imagined.

This morning I noticed that the invisible dark shadow outside the main cave has begun to spread, almost blocking our path out of this place!
When the shadow suddenly attacked her, one of my advisors failed to dodge in time, and she disappeared in the next second.

The ritual brought the Diva priestesses boundless pleasure, and it seemed to be able to halt the growth of the void, even if only for a short while. Their maniacal laughter only subsided when I began to cast the priestesses one by one into the all-consuming void.

While this action may have been impulsive, it bought me the time I needed to come up with a solution.

Otrava recorded the cries of slaves and the fear he felt when he first saw the star-shaped gate behind the black sphere.

It was spied on, and it saw the truth behind that boundless abyss.

That was not a summoning object of the Diva priests, nor was it some kind of "minor deity".

It is a projection of one of the six rulers, a critical projection point of His boundless coverage in the material world formed through a certain sacrifice.

"...Music is its shackle."

"The black orb of light allowed me a glimpse behind its immovable black curtain. At that moment, I tried to look away, but found that I couldn't: the more I struggled, the more ambiguous and blurred that boundary became."

At first, it seemed like a gateway to the vast universe, where nothing existed except for the faint starlight.

When I got closer, I saw that the stars had opened up like menacing eyes, and the undulating darkness around them had opened up countless deformed mouths, all frantically biting their razor-like teeth.

In that instant I realized I was wrong: this thing, though the force driving its behavior may be merely instinct, is not an ignorant, inferior deity.

No, in that instant I saw its true form: one of the six leaders!

Why! Look what I've discovered! My God, what blasphemy!

The blind and foolish god, the primordial source of chaos, the chief of demons, the lord of the stars...

He has some deep-rooted connection with the God of flesh and blood, and I have discovered the dwelling place of His servants, the servants of the Outer Gods, and the foolish demon sultans.

There, the omnipotent Outer God slumbers amidst the music sung by an invisible flute player, residing behind the final gate.

Anything strange and surreal that people can imagine has a place in that world beyond logic.

It's truly despairing. It turns out that Terra's blind and foolish god who responded to his believers was just... an empty shell.

A shell created by the stars, but the true Him always resides in His own divine court.

This thing... is related to the Six Commanders, because in the court of the blind and foolish god, where the almighty Outer God slumbers in the music sung by the invisible flute player.

The same applies to the Six Commanders; they must hear music at all times, otherwise they will expand outwards!
I saw that thing, a servant of the Outer Gods!

In Xia Xiu's memory, he saw the servants of the Outer Gods, who were neither human nor beast, nor any known life form that could be categorized.

Its body is made up of countless viscous tentacles, like pulsating tendons after decay, layer upon layer, intertwined into a twisted pseudo-body.

Each tentacle had a faint, transparent, gelatinous texture, wriggling repeatedly in the dim light reflecting off the cave walls.

Moist, heavy, with the mechanical spasms of nerve endings instinctively protruding and retracting.

He was playing a slender bone flute, the sound deep and unsteady, like the wind passing through his body.

There is no rhythm, no melody, but every syllable penetrates to the bone, like a lost nursery rhyme from memory, or a mourning echoing in the ear before death.

It wasn't for playing music, it was for survival.

Because once the whistle stops, something will awaken.

"There are hundreds of billions of such things, playing tirelessly in the divine court, lulling the truly blind and foolish gods to sleep."

The same applies to the Six Commanders; they must hear the music of the living beings.

I have to get this thing back to sleep.

Now I understand more clearly than ever that Diva's solution is unsustainable; sacrificing an endless stream of slaves' lives will never bring it peace.

Without a doubt, I must find a way to seal this thing away, from now until the end of time.

This is not the proper course of action for a flesh sorcerer, but I have few options: all I have left to control is my own flesh and blood.

With my knowledge of flesh and blood, I should be able to contain the leader without having to make any more sacrifices.

I want to build myself into a "temple of flesh and blood," and then play it eternally to ensure that someone will always stop this thing from peeking out.

I will give my seekers a task: to seal all the entrances I know of.

From that time onward, those who remain in this cave will share in my physical blessing and become with me the eternal night watchmen.

The words recorded here will become my last few clear and coherent memories.

I reject Deva’s act of sacrificing the majority for the minority, just as I reject the cruel nature of life.

That is the true nature possessed by the earthly creator within all things;
As Yann once said, "Throughout history, those who strive for good have only ever had one path to take: defying their nature."

If I must remain in darkness forever, then let me live on through the path of lust, so that all but me may see the true path of lust that Arn taught.

(End of this chapter)