Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 997 [The Fifth Truth = Patrick Star]

The Patriarch's figure suddenly froze.

His once surging, fleeing torrent trembled slightly in the sunlight at the well's mouth, instantly churning into countless eddies, like a desperate heart transforming into a raging torrent. His gaze suddenly lost focus in the curtain of water, and the next second he erupted into a near-mad roar.

“Ahhhhhh——!!!”

"I'll fight you to the death, you damned bastard!!!"

The sewage suddenly boiled, and his body expanded in an instant, transforming into a roaring torrent. The brick walls of the street sewers were torn apart, and the sound of the water trembled like a thousand horses galloping.

Sewage, spring water, raindrops, and even mist were swept into this raging torrent, transforming into a gigantic maw of water that spanned the alleyway, as if it were about to swallow Xia Xiu and the world up with it.

However, the current Patriarch is actually at his limit. He had already consumed a lot of elemental power from his avatar [Krosel] by releasing the Water Cube. The moves he is releasing now look very powerful, but he is actually just a paper tiger.

Therefore, Xia Xiu, standing on the manhole cover, simply raised his cane slowly. He could now easily leverage the elemental power that originally belonged to [Klosser].

The scepter in his hand was not conspicuous in the sunlight, yet it seemed to be the fulcrum of the world from beginning to end.

【The Leverage of Heaven: The Art of Manipulating Clouds and Mist】

Xia Xiu uttered a single word softly:

"Congeal."

In the next instant, the water molecules in the world seemed to be under an irresistible command.

The Patriarch's furious torrents suddenly froze in mid-air, the surging waves transforming into layers of mist, losing their sharpness and weight, their freedom stripped away by invisible laws.

The mist swirled and gathered, like invisible shackles, wrapping around Croselle's watery body, compressing it into a struggling, gigantic cloud of mist.

The Patriarch's pupils contracted sharply through the mist, staring incredulously at the staff, a hoarse, desperate growl escaping his throat:

“This…this is…!”

His eyes widened suddenly, and his voice trembled as if a forbidden veil had been lifted:

"The one and only thing since time immemorial... the authority of the supreme god..."

He completely broke down, his expression filled with fear of the unattainable truth.

The only thing that has existed since time immemorial; another name given by all the heavens and worlds to the [Miracle Prologue] that houses such great power.

Xia Xiu, however, calmly retracted his staff, as if casually chaining a ferocious beast, completely binding the Grand Patriarch within the clouds.

The Grand Patriarch's figure was firmly imprisoned by the authority of [Clouds and Mist]. His water elemental avatar, [Krosel], struggled and twisted in the void, like a collapsing wave crashing and shattering in the air, turning into countless watery fragments that were forcibly compressed back into the cage of Mist Binding.

He tilted his head back, water droplets streaming down his cold, wet face, but a twisted madness burned in his eyes. His breath was bubbly, and he murmured hoarsely and fearfully:

"You are... a deity on earth..."

Xia Xiu did not answer immediately. His steps were slow, yet heavy, like the sound of the world's will falling. Mist still lingered at the tip of his staff, and within the mist seemed to lie an unquestionable law, blurring even space into a white haze.

Xia Xiu stopped in front of the Grand Patriarch and asked him directly with a smile:

"Now, can you tell me—where did 'The Secret of the Stars' come from?"

Where is the Fifth Church located and what are its foundations?

What is the purpose of everything you did in Far East City?
And why did you betray me...?

He paused, and after thinking it over, he revealed the person the Patriarch had betrayed:
"Why did you betray humanity, betray existence, and flee to nothingness?"

The Patriarch's throat trembled, and he suddenly let out a chilling, sinister laugh. The laugh was like a bronze bell submerged in water, each note growing colder than the last, accompanied by the sticky ripples of water droplets splashing on the ground from his body.

He raised his head with a ferocious grin, his lips curled into a cold, mocking smile:
"Heh...heh...even if you are a human deity who possesses something unique since time immemorial, you cannot defeat Him...you cannot defeat the great constellation that possesses the fifth truth—the Cosmic Starfish."

His laughter gradually became hysterical, like waves crashing against endless reefs, roaring out an ancient fear:
"He is the most indescribable mystery, the sacred starfish, the complete pentagram, the traveler of the fifth dimension! He walks in the dreams above the stars and the firmament! No one can defeat Him!"

The Patriarch's pupils were bloodshot, twisted with madness, and he screamed hoarsely:

"Because He is an aggressive concept within the sphere of ideas, residing at the intersection of the local sphere of ideas and the higher spiritual world! Once He fully enters reality, He will devour all abstract concepts, corrupting thought, faith, and order! And the physical universe... will also be transformed into an unbearable void and collapse under His influence!"

He took a deep breath, his chest heaving like a shattered water sac, and with a desperate yet frenzied fervor, uttered his final declaration:

"Ideas...are immortal!"

Before him, the mist at the tip of Xia Xiu's staff continued to churn silently, unmoved by this madness, suppressing all resistance into the depths of the deathly silent sea of ​​clouds.

"It seems you have come into contact with the true entity of the Fifth Church..." His voice was calm, as if stating a fact, "and you were not completely possessed by its Mother... Hmm, your memories have been woven together."

The Patriarch let out a low laugh, which he did not deny.

Its water-like body trembled within the mist, but its eyes gradually revealed a morbid fanaticism.

“Yes, you’re right.” His voice was a mixture of bubbles and roars. “I have faced the Fifth Truth itself. At that moment, I understood—so-called ‘despair’ is just a mortal’s illusion. The true Him, the true Idea, transcends fear and hope!”

His voice grew louder and louder, as if he were praying to some unseen being:

"Initially, He did indeed act in the manner of Membrane—eroding, possessing… tearing us mortals apart one by one. But later, He showed mercy!"

He chose 'transformation'—no longer just destruction, but making us a part of Him!

Thoughts and memories were rewritten by Him, becoming pure and flawless, no longer struggling, no longer suffering!

"So I didn't betray them! I simply achieved transcendence!"

“I am still me, but I am no longer me. I have become the container of the ‘idea,’ His language, His propagation, and His hand.”

In the mist, his figure twisted wildly, his voice hoarse yet filled with ecstatic joy:

“We have become the echoes of the stars, the followers of the starfish, the extension of the Fifth Truth in reality! Even if we still retain the outward appearance of humanity, our will has long surpassed your mortal form! Our free will has become His immortal meme!” He raised his head, blood and water dripping onto the ground together, yet his eyes shone with light:
"Betrayal? No... this is loyalty. It's you mortals who are betraying the old order and the old beliefs!"

The High Patriarch's voice was cold, filled with fanatical and trembling reverence as he continued to mutter about the supreme, ineffable truth, the air echoing with dimensional concepts and bizarre terms like the fifth dimension.

puff~
"To hell with sublimation and transformation, your idiots' beliefs! To put it bluntly, it's nothing more than scooping out the marrow of humanity, breaking the soul into five-pointed shapes, and stuffing it into that damned starfish mother's stomach!"

The phantom of the Demon King Amund suddenly appeared, standing in the gap of Xia Xiu's Heavenly Genealogy Network, like a data afterimage burning with black flames, looking at the Patriarch with disgust and saying:
"These shitty creatures are nothing more than half-finished products that have failed to be completely possessed. They have a human throat left in their skin, but they can only spew out the monstrous babblings of that monster."

Believers in the Fifth Church?
"Ha, don't be ridiculous. That dog-like host, even being a slave wasn't voluntary; it was just the rotten dregs secreted during His digestion."

"A group of people who have erased their own selves and live worse than puppets dare to call themselves followers of the truth? They are nothing but empty shells of body and spirit, filled with an idea that has no form at all."

Xia Xiu did not respond to Armand, but simply watched the scene before him silently.

He finally realized something in his heart: the Fifth Church was not rooted in complete "nothingness".

It may seem abstract, but it is an objectively existing entity.

“As expected…” Xia Xiu murmured, “This thing is some kind of supreme divinity.”

The supreme divinity represents an existence that transcends all categories.

They are not merely mythical or physical gods, but rather the embodiment of the idea itself. They exist above reality, yet can, in turn, shape reality; they have no beginning or end, only an infinite projection of concepts.

The same applies to the Four Monarchs, the Red King, and now to the Fifth Truth before us.

To be honest, Xia Xiu felt that most of the supreme divinity was very abstract—abstract in every sense of the word.

However, there was one thing he could at least confirm. Unlike the four monarchs and the Red King who ruled with blood and fire, the truth of the Fifth Church never directly tore reality apart.

Unlike the Chaos Lord, who is nakedly corrupted by chaos, or the Red King, who has a playful and perverse sense of humor, He always moves between concepts, symbols, and human consciousness.

It is a concept, an indelible seed of thought.

Armand had once given him a clue—the initial spread of the Fifth Truth was brutal and direct, like a predator invading the mind, possessing and spreading, turning people into a new medium.

Now, He is beginning to learn how to create containers for propagation.

A publication printed with strange symbols, a song with a call hidden in its melody, a ceremony disguised as a festival, or even just a graffiti in a corner of the city... could all be ways in which He sows His seed.

He no longer forces His way in, but rather, like a virus, infiltrates humanity's own creations, making people willingly accept, willingly sing, and willingly fall into depravity.

In simple terms, the Fifth Church has evolved and learned to keep up with the times; it has changed its propagation formula.

Previously: The Fifth Church = Mother Virus + Parasitic Possession + Hive Consciousness Cluster.

Now: The Fifth Church = Membrane Virus + Cult Spread + Atypical Cognitive Individuals.

The formula has changed, and its essential meaning has also changed.

At least the believers of the Fifth Church today can barely be considered "human beings".

They possess the same physical structure and social identity as ordinary people, much like the current Patriarchs, but their core ideology has been replaced by the Fifth Church's concept, and their sole mission is to spread the Fifth Truth.

If you were to ask the believers of the Fifth Church today: Are you even human?

There is only one answer: yes.

He is not now refraining from directly spreading pollution, but rather spreading it slowly and systematically. He allows those with the ability to transform first, and those with better conditions to transform first, using those who transform first to influence those who transform later, ultimately achieving the final intervention of the Fifth Truth.

At the same time, the Fifth Truth began to be disseminated according to specific circumstances, no longer blindly, but precisely, scientifically, efficiently, and strategically.

The high-ranking individuals with magical abilities should be involved in the spread of the Fifth Truth, with those in the management class taking the lead. Their professional expertise should be used to help establish an efficient Fifth Church, while also taking into account special circumstances and spreading the Fifth Truth flexibly.

Thinking of this, Xia Xiu spoke telepathically to Amund beside him:
"It seems our enemy has indeed kept up with the times. Compared to their initial brutal invasion, they are now more adept at using leverage against us. But in the end, they are still as disgusting as those other troublemakers... Well, they are quite disgusting, but compared to those four troublemakers, they are actually... well, normal."

Xia Xiu tapped his fingertip lightly:
"Ideas may be immortal, but even immortal ideas can be destroyed by sharper ones—bad ideas will eventually be replaced by better ones."

Xia Xiu whispered to Amund in the depths of his consciousness, his tone calm, yet carrying a certain certainty that he had grasped the key point:
"In any case, seeing this guy at least confirms that the Fifth Church has completely changed its mode of propagation. Next... as long as we can pry more details out of him, we can piece together the complete formula for countering it."

Amund simply appeared silently in the shadows of consciousness, revealing an ambiguous expression.

Indeed, once the propagation formula is determined, then the subsequent confrontation with the Fifth Church will only require targeting the formula itself.

Xia Xiu regained his composure, slowly raised his eyes, and looked at the Grand Patriarch in front of him.

The mist and rain swirled around the patriarch, as if they were about to dissipate into an invisible barrier, isolating him from all external gazes.

“You will not get everything you want from me,” the Patriarch said, his voice deep and arrogant, filled with the determination to defend his ultimate beliefs.

Xia Xiu simply smiled, slowly shaking his head, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes.

"You can't make promises you can't keep."

His smile was faint, and his tone carried an undisguised sarcasm:
“Every word you just said to me has already completely betrayed your current situation. To be honest, looking at you like this, I'm starting to wonder if the Fifth Truth was just thrown at anyone and anyone could learn it—otherwise, why would they choose someone like you with a brain like Patrick Star to spread it?”

"Oh, do you know what Patrick Star is?"

Xia Xiu immediately launched into a sarcastic and sarcastic attack, unleashing his full power:
"Oh, never mind, judging from your expression, you probably don't know. Well then, I'll mercifully tell you."

He raised his hand and waved it casually, his tone playful and relaxed, as if he were slowly and methodically lecturing a child in a classroom:
"Patrick is a pink starfish with hands and feet, and he can talk, but his brain... well, it's just like yours, completely empty. While others are thinking, he takes forever to process what they're thinking. His head is filled with seawater and air; he has no organs for thought. He just babbles all day long, in a daze, yet indescribable and extremely difficult to kill."

He narrowed his eyes, his smile widening, and added in a low voice:
"So, what you call the Fifth Truth is actually spreading Patrick Star's ideology, turning everyone into Patrick Star."

"The so-called Fifth Church is just a bunch of Patrick Stars."

(End of this chapter)