Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 986 Beating Up Restores Memories
Xia Xiu remained silent, mentally reviewing Amund's lengthy description of the potions he had just heard. From memory erasure agents to memory aids, this whole set was practically an alchemical arsenal for information warfare.

He subconsciously separated and recombined them according to their uses and risks;
Types A and G can first weaken the target's memory integrity, creating gaps in details and timeline; Type H can seal the formation of new memories, and when combined with Type F's personality replacement, can completely rewrite a person's self-perception in the shortest time.

On the other hand, when type W is combined with type X, it is possible to unlock certain deliberately blocked knowledge while preserving rationality, even if that knowledge is enough to drive ordinary people mad.

Type Y is the golden key to information recovery; when used on the right person, it can be as precise as mending a broken painting. As for Type Z... this is used when you explode against a reverse-mother individual.

I have to admit, the old guy always manages to get good stuff every time he drops gold coins.

Xia Xiu's gaze shifted to the ant queen not far away.

Her mental state remained chaotic, like a torn and haphazardly pieced-back map, its routes completely jumbled. Right now, what she needed most was someone to piece together the missing information for her.

Y·Perfect Memories—is designed for this situation.

Without hesitation, he said, "I want a dose of type Y medicine."

Amund raised an eyebrow, said nothing, and simply tossed a silver cube in the air, which drew a smooth arc before being caught steadily by Xia Xiu.

This thing is used in a very special way—it doesn't pick out memories on its own, but rather, under the user's guidance, it sorts out the memory lines of the user from beginning to end.

Users can set a recall threshold verbally, which makes it easier to combat reverse-Mother individuals like Gray, while avoiding recalling harmful factors like the Fifth Church.

Xia Xiu unscrewed the small box and glanced down at the silver square.

He knew very well that this time, he needed to make the Queen Ant recall her original, normal memories—those unrelated to the Fifth Church. After all, if she were to access fragments related to the Fifth Church under the influence of the drug… the trouble would be far more than just a little bit.

Now, it's time to deal with the mad queen ant.

Xia Xiu's gaze fell on the ant queen, Clarity.

boom--

The queen ant is still in a frenzy.

The four arms of the spinal core spread out like four guillotines with engines; her mental field surged into a raging torrent, and the earth runes layered upon each other, repeatedly shaking the entire containment area with a deafening roar.

"Well, it's also thanks to Gray consuming a lot of Clarity's memory information that her fighting style is more instinctive... This makes it easier for me to stretch my muscles."

Xia Xiu stretched his limbs, then his feet sank, and a purple-gold light and shadow stood beside him—[Sisyphus] appeared.

The perfectly sculpted avatar raised its fist, and the symbol [∞] on the fist slowly rotated within the bone patterns.

【Möbius Strip: Spatial Constraints】

hum-

Three Möbius strips lit up simultaneously around the Queen, like three thin rings that encircled her limbs from the outer edge of the floating core.

The next second, the Queen's sudden downward slam of the ground pulse was deflected by [Sisyphus], then the vector flipped and slammed into the side wall, cutting a deep groove in the entire corridor.

The queen let out a roar without mouthparts, spewing out a high-temperature plasma arc.

【Sisyphus】Takes two steps, splits the vector, and the arc of fire around him is like a snake with its teeth removed, turning and crashing into the suppression layer of the ceiling.

Xia Xiu raised his staff, and with a shake of the silver-white staff, the [Lever of Heaven] instantly extended into an alloy stake, which was driven horizontally into the ground, blocking the path that the Queen was about to pounce on.

A new incarnation floated out of his body.

Clang——

A cold white light suddenly fell, and Metatron descended from above.

With a spread of his six wings, feathers swirled into an arch, and he gripped the burning blade with both hands, the blade slicing across the ground rails and the floating core fuse behind the Queen.

With a "whoosh," it severed the other limbs of the queen ant, Claritius.

"Ahhh-"

Clariti let out a piercing scream.

A collective resonance of emotions exploded in the room, like thousands of tiny drums beating in one's head at the same time.

Xia Xiu's brow furrowed, and the second heart in his chest suddenly swelled and lifted, bringing the disordered rhythm back to normal; the organ [Solomon's Shield] forged by the Twenty-Four Saints formed a transparent arch on the soul layer, blocking the spiritual blade that was about to cleave his consciousness.

Subsequently, the queen ant's severed limbs began to regenerate and multiply.

call out--

The Queen swung her arm, and chitinous spikes rained down, a corrosive hot wind rushed towards him, the particles under his skin trembled, and the black protective layer automatically thickened—[Moses' Skin] expanded, leaving only a layer of grayish-white on the surface from the scorching.

"Go," Xia Xiu said in a deep voice.

[Sisyphus] takes a half step forward, his fist falling like a stake.

Vector Manipulation - Beam

[Vector Manipulation] deflected the Queen's outward thrust into an inward pull, causing her massive body to buckle under its own power; at the same instant, [Metatron]'s second wave of attacks slashed down from above, bringing with it a ring of divine fire, directly severing the Queen's regenerated limbs once again.

Enraged, the Queen's spine-mounted core suddenly opened, illuminating the rails beneath the floor and revealing the crown behind her.

Xia Xiu's golden eyes flashed:
"Now, Vasak, stop the world from flowing."

The shadow spread out from his feet like water, the sound waves in the room were suddenly pulled away, and the edge of the light lingered for a moment—[Vasak] looked up, his purple eyes lighting up in the darkness.

"Buzz——"

Time stopped flowing.

Everything is stuck in that one frame:
The flames flickered like tongues, the rubble hung in mid-air, and the queen's armor plates were not yet closed.

Xia Xiu stepped into the shadows, as if walking through a painting.

He grabbed the Queen's outermost occlusal joint, pinpointed the joint with two fingers, and twisted his wrist—with a soft "click"—pulling her mouth open.

Then, three silver rings were precisely fitted onto the cervical vertebra, spinal cord, and main arm root.

These are the thin shadows of [Mobius], passing through her ankles, as if directly "tying a knot" in her movement trajectory.

"Buzz——"

Time began to flow again.

A deafening roar returned, and the chains settled firmly on the next beat. The Queen leaned back to struggle, but the clasps tightened first, the twisting force of space forcibly pulling her regenerated limbs back into place, and the nozzle of the floating core only spewed out a wisp of dull fire.

Xia Xiu was already in front of her.

The small silver box opened in his palm, and the Y·Perfect Memory cube reflected a calm light.

He raised his hands and pressed down on the Queen's jawbones, bringing her gaze level with his, his speech as steady as a hammer blow:
"Restriction: Information related to the Fifth Church."

Then, Xia Xiu uttered a series of restrictive words. Afterward, he directly held the pill and punched it into her mouth, releasing his hand to allow the Y-type drug to come into contact with the queen's mouthparts.

The moment the silver sheet touched her mouth, a fine reflection surged from the depths of the Queen's compound eyes, like countless shattered mirrors closing together.

The Queen's Adam's apple bobbed, and the silver flakes melted away.

Her struggles did not stop immediately, but clearly shifted from a frenzied attack to resistance.

Xia Xiu slowly stepped back, with three avatars guarding his side.

[Sisyphus] held firmly to the two rings on either side, [Metatron] sheathed his blade and stood to the side and behind, his wings hanging down to shield him from the flying fragments; [Vasak] stood in the shadows, his purple eyes unmoving, waiting for the effects of the medicine to reconnect the torn threads of memory one by one.

The moment the silver cube melted, countless tiny points of light flickered deep within Clarity's compound eyes, like countless tiny water droplets emerging from a dark cave, only to be instantly stretched into luminous threads, intertwining, entwining, and tracing back.

The floating core on my spine pulsated intermittently, and the band of light flickered, as if it were resonating with some distant rhythm.

The chaotic mental fluctuations began to contract inward, transforming from a boundless raging to a converging vortex, and then from the vortex into a stable downward flow—the information was drawn back to its original position.

As the clues of memory were pieced back together one by one, Clarity's tentacles slowly drooped, his segmented skull lowered slightly, and the trembling at the edge of his carapace gradually subsided.

She raised her forearm and saw the scene beneath her feet—the ground was shattered, the rails were overturned, runic light surged incessantly, and several familiar Zerg corpses lay scattered among them.

Their shells were severed, their limbs curled into a protective posture, and their compound eyes were long since dulled. The lingering scent of glands in the air was a death signal for the colony.

A shadow flashed across Clarity's compound eyes, her tentacles abruptly retracted, and her thorax plate bulged slightly before quickly tightening again, as if instinctively suppressing some overly strong signal. Her abdomen swayed slightly, and her tail segments emitted a faint rubbing sound—the low-frequency vibration that Zerg only make when they are fearful or regretful.

She slowly turned to Xia Xiu, lowered her body, placed her forelimbs on the ground, and tilted her neck downwards to show submission and gratitude.

The larynx produces a series of deep, resonant sounds, which are then converted into speech that humans can understand through the palatine diaphragm:
"...If you hadn't restored my memories...I'm afraid Gray would have devoured my soul."

Her antennae extended slightly, pointing towards the fallen members of her tribe, her voice trembling with the last traces of emotion:
"I...broke off their limbs with my own hands...shattered our own nest's ridge."

Her skull tilted slightly, her chest heaved once more, and then stabilized:

"Regardless, I must thank you again. Without you, the entire tribe would have been under that guy's control."

Xia Xiu listened quietly to Clariti's gratitude, simply nodded slightly, and said calmly:

"This is something that partners should do."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned his head and looked at Gray not far away.

The guy was curled up on the ground, still spitting out a bunch of incomprehensible yellow nonsense—he had truly become a stinking garbage dump, his mind now filled with outrageous comments from various stinky forums and pornographic films.

Xia Xiu withdrew his gaze and slowly spoke to the Queen:
“He is special—his body cannot be touched, and any direct contact will trigger an unknown reaction. He is temporarily unable to move, but this is only temporary. I want you to establish a cordon in the area where he is located, contain him here, and not allow him to leave.”

Clarity's compound eyes flashed with a cold light when he heard the word "containment," his antennae gently twitched, and his low-frequency vibrato was suppressed to an extremely low level:

"clear."

She immediately pressed the tip of her antennae close to the ground, emitting a series of extremely short tremor signals—the call waves of the tribal consciousness network.

A moment later, a rustling sound came from the end of the passage, and a large swarm of worker ants quickly appeared. Their exoskeletons gleamed with a dull metallic color under the runic light, and their segmented limbs deftly crossed the crack, directly laying out a ring of carapace support around Gray.

The worker ants moved with practiced ease, constantly spewing out a hardened, grayish-white viscous substance between the decks, smoothing and reinforcing it, and embedding black ore blocks brought from the depths of Jawbone City to form a closed barrier. Each segment interlocked tightly, with runic inscriptions embedded in the gaps to sever the transmission of mental waves and information layers.

Clarity stood to the side, her antennae trembling slightly, her compound eyes gleaming coldly and cautiously—clearly, she had been traumatized by Grey's aberrant nature.

The worker ant swarm moved efficiently and silently, like a precise, mechanical torrent, constantly layering seals around Gray. The hardened, sticky substance had completely covered the cracks in the ground, and the outer ring of black ore blocks had been bitten together to form a thick barrier. The light of runic inscriptions crisscrossed within, like a grid, cutting this small space into an isolating prison.

As the last worker ant retreated, Clarity slowly stepped forward. She lowered herself, her antennae sliding slowly along the outer edge of the barrier, releasing extremely faint tremors at each segment, which she compared with the reverberations within the runic inscriptions.

The waveform was confirmed to be stable and without leakage.

A glint of light flashed deep within her compound eyes, and her tail fin rubbed together gently, emitting a short, resonant low-frequency sound. Then, she retracted her antennae and turned towards Xia Xiu:

"The blockade is complete. The isolation barrier is three times thicker than the standard for a nest ridge, and the runic inscriptions are double-locked."

She paused, her tentacles pointing towards Gray, trapped in the partition, his humanoid, ruin-like figure twitching slightly amidst the viscous yellow substance:
"I will absolutely not let this guy step out of containment procedures again."

Xia Xiu nodded slightly: "Very good."

Once the isolation barrier stabilized, Xia Xiu withdrew his gaze from Gray and turned to Clarity.

"Now that this matter has been resolved, it's time to take a look at your database—I need to study the Fifth Church's intelligence."

Clarity's antennae twitched slightly, a thoughtful glint flashing deep within his compound eyes, followed by a deep, trembling sound:
Before we go in, may I ask... are you confident in your method of erasing memories?

Xia Xiu's lips curled slightly upward, his golden pupils seemed to be shrouded in a layer of light mist, and his voice was firm and calm:
"Don't worry, I'll still be me after I come out. The Fifth Church won't be able to possess me so easily."

The queen's antennae trembled slightly, as if to confirm that he was not just making empty promises.

After a moment of silence, she looked away, asked no further questions, and turned to lead the way.

Soon, they arrived at a huge and heavy metal door.

Clarity didn't speak, but immediately began a series of authentication procedures—

The tips of her tentacles probed the sensor holes on the side of the door, releasing vibrations of a specific frequency; glands on her abdominal segments secreted a viscous liquid, which was smeared into the grooves engraved with the tribal emblem; finally, she inserted a mid-limb into the mechanism slot on the side and slowly rotated it until a deep "click" sound came from deep within the door.

Multiple locks were released simultaneously, and the thick door slowly rose, revealing the dark passage inside.

She tilted her neck, her antennae pointing slightly forward, and emitted a steady, low trill:

"Go on in, I'll stay here for now."

Xia Xiu glanced at her sideways and could easily tell that this was not just a simple act of courtesy—Clarity's posture remained slightly lowered, the luster in her compound eyes diminished, and her antennae unconsciously pressed close to her skull. Clearly, her fear and apprehension towards the Fifth Church were ingrained in her very being.

She was still worried about the Fifth Church's message taking over her body.

Xia Xiu didn't say much and stepped into the room.

The thick door slowly descended behind him, cutting off all outside sounds and leaving only darkness and the unknown quietly unfolding before him.