Chapter 419: Future Great Age (Part 2)

"…No, it's one thing for them to kowtow to me, but why are they kowtowing to this gunship?" Wu Pifu rubbed his neck and head, unable to help but ask out of curiosity.

His emotional perception had indeed been active the whole time, but all he sensed were emotions of piety, ecstasy, and the pure, singular thoughts of fanatics. There wasn't a single stray thought—nothing like "am I pious enough," "such piety is worthy of praise," or "I am so pious myself." It left him completely unable to fathom why they were doing this.

Kethia already had a general understanding of Wu Pifu's utter unfamiliarity with and ignorance of this era. She weighed her tone and vocabulary before saying, "These people are members of the Adeptus Mechanicus. They firmly believe that machines have spirits, and above those spirits is the Omnissiah, the all-knowing and all-powerful. Machines are the manifestation of the Omnissiah in the mortal world, which is why they kowtow. They believe this gunship completed a great mission by retrieving someone as great as you, so they view it as a manifestation of the Omnissiah."

Wu Pifu looked at the group of trendy, cyberpunk-augmented individuals for a long moment. He said speechlessly, "I always thought they were scholars or experts in technology..."

Kethia nodded as if it were only natural. "That's correct. They are indeed the scholars and experts of technology; they are the group most proficient in the technological fields of the Empire."

"?"

Wu Pifu's head was full of question marks. In his emotional perception, Kethia's thoughts were incredibly pure—pure to the point of being completely matter-of-fact. There were no stray thoughts, which left him unable to perceive the core key: why were these people who were kowtowing the scholars and experts of technology, and the most proficient ones at that?

Forget it.

Wu Pifu wanted to just discard his brain to avoid making his neck and head feel too fragile. He said, "Get me the historical records of human events from the 21st century onwards as soon as possible. I want to see them. Also, organize a report on the various factions, the Warp, daemons, and what you call xenos."

Kethia stood straight and shouted, "Yes!"

Wu Pifu took two steps forward, then stopped and added, "Everyone is exhausted, and there are many wounded. Don't rush into anything else right now; let everyone rest for a few days... Also, thank you for your hard work."

After saying this, Wu Pifu walked toward the room arranged for him.

Kethia stood dazed in place for a long, long time, then she bowed slightly toward Wu Pifu's departing figure...

Kethia, as an Inquisitor—and an elite one with a Grand Inquisitor for a mentor—commanded a Gothic-class heavy cruiser. The total number of crew members on board was over 120,000; Kethia herself didn't even know the exact figure. This was the norm for the entire Human Empire.

And this was even after Kethia, as an Inquisitor, had normalized the purging of her own ship. In the Human Empire, merchant ships, transports, or warships far smaller than a Gothic-class cruiser that carried hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people, were commonplace.

So, having nearly 250,000 people board this Gothic-class cruiser didn't lead to overcrowding—in fact, if they didn't treat them as human beings, they could have loaded 2.5 million people just as easily.

None of these were the problems; at least, they weren't the main problems of this world.

The only thing that truly qualified as a main problem in this world was... faith and corruption!

After the cruiser set sail, Kethia did not immediately order it to prepare for Warp jump, as she wasn't sure if it was appropriate to take Wu Pifu into the Warp. She simply checked and re-checked whether everyone who had boarded the ship was a daemon or showed signs of corruption.

The results left her very relieved and satisfied.

No one was a daemon, and no one showed signs of corruption.

This was perhaps the only time in history that mortals had witnessed daemons, and even fought them in person, without showing any signs of corruption.

This also served to illustrate Wu Pifu's uniqueness and importance!

Next, Kethia summoned the priest, the Tech-Priest, and everyone else on the ship related to scholarship—thirteen people in total—to discuss how to describe human history to Wu Pifu.

The priest spoke first: "Since this is the wish of the Living Saint, it must also be the will of the Emperor. We must obey. And with the Living Saint on this ship, any knowledge we disseminate will not attract Warp corruption. However, I worry that we cannot fulfill the Living Saint's request because... even if we know some knowledge, it is only knowledge of our own world and our own fields. Unless one is a great scholar certified by the Ecclesiarchy or the Inquisition, or a Magos of the Mechanicus, we cannot outline human history."

This was indeed the truth.

The history of humanity in this world was too vast and too grand. And that was just the history of humanity as a whole; if it involved specific sectors or specific planets, that historical information would become an ocean of books.

Kethia said immediately, "The Living Saint desires a general description of the information. He does not seek events down to a specific year. To put it more plainly, the Living Saint might be completely ignorant of human history after the 21st century. Therefore, we only need to describe human history after the 21st century in general terms."

Yet, everyone remained dazed. Because forget about what Wu Pifu wanted to know, they themselves only knew about the "21st century" as a unit of time through hearsay and the technical support of the Tech-Priest.

They debated for an entire night and only ended the argument the next morning.

They decided to stick to Kethia's proposal, describing the progress of human history in a summarized form—for example, the tens of thousands of years from the 21st century to the Golden Age, describing as much as possible how humanity stepped into the stars, and so on. Then, they could focus on describing the encounters of the Golden Age, followed by the Emperor walking among mortals as a god, leading humanity in the Great Crusade... and then they fell silent.

Because the end of the Great Crusade, which led to the Great Heresy that left the Emperor comatose, was a taboo among taboos. Forget about describing it; if someone who knew about it didn't have a strong enough background, they would be sent straight to the pyre.

Kethia said with a headache, "I will personally recount that part to the Living Saint... You all should describe the history you know as best as you can, then integrate it and present it to the Living Saint... Although the Living Saint is exceptionally benevolent, please remember, everyone, that he represents the will of the Emperor. I hope you will not stray from the path due to sloth!"

That meant they had to write it as quickly as possible. Everyone felt a chill in their hearts and naturally agreed one after another, not daring to disobey.

After they all left, Kethia sat down in a quiet room, feeling heavy-hearted. She sat for a long time before writing down some content on a piece of paper using cipher code.

"... The above is my entire experience in the Otya Paradise World. I swear in the name of the Emperor that everything I have said is true, without any falsehood or lies."

"Currently, we have captured what is suspected to be the Tzeentchian Greater Daemon Kairos Fateweaver (unsealed state) and the Primarch Angron's head (alive, unsealed state)."

"I have verified repeatedly that there are no signs of corruption or phenomena on the entire ship; all Warp poisons have been isolated... no, they have been cleared."

"!"

"But I am not sure if my mental state while writing this text is already a corrupted form, nor am I sure if what I have seen and heard is an illusion after corruption."

"My respected mentor, Grand Inquisitor Anris Guss, I request that you come to this star system as soon as possible to examine me and everything on this ship. If there are signs of corruption, please purge me and everything here as soon as possible."

"If all of this is true, then perhaps our long-cherished wish, the hope of humanity, has appeared."

"Everything is the will of the Emperor; everything is His decree!"

Then, Kethia ordered the Astropath to transmit this message to her mentor, Grand Inquisitor Anris Guss.

On the other side, Wu Pifu had spent these three days wandering around the entire cruiser, getting to know the people, talking to them, giving them confidence, and so on. On the third day, he received the first volume of the description of human history.

"... After the 21st century, human technology advanced significantly..."