Chapter 199: Child-Rearing Robot?

The moment Zhou Yun's voice sounded, Kabanha reacted instantly.

With a speed incongruous with its massive frame, it flashed forward, appearing before Zhou Yun in an instant; its crimson body resembled a wall of solidified flame as it raised its massive axe, wreathed in sulfurous fire, and brought it down.

Yet before the axe could strike, Zhou Yun's finger quietly pressed a button on the mechanical device on his left hand.

Instantly, Kabanha felt a searing pain piercing its very existence—the burns left by chanting the Emperor's name flared with agonizing intensity across half its body.

Zhou Yun's flesh erupted with a heat foreign to the Warp—a stellar fire of the material universe, encircling him.

Solar prominences lashed like whips, slicing through the void toward Kabanha.

Kabanha cried out in pain, a crimson, burning whip-mark seared into its flesh.

But what stunned Kabanha was not the brilliance of the stellar flame, but

"Psyker energy of the Cursed One?! How dare you wield His power?!"

Kabanha staggered backward, gritting its teeth against the agony of its flesh burning, and shrieked in terror.

The stellar fire was not the greatest danger—the true peril lay within it: the Emperor's psychic power, left behind ten thousand years ago, still potent, capable of shaking any demon to its core.

It was a power capable of annihilating both body and soul—the icy fire of the Cursed Sun.

Zhou Yun suddenly rose from the ground, his body instantly swallowed by roaring stellar flames, transforming midair into a blazing sun the size of a house, the Emperor's psychic energy coiling around him like chains.

Instantly, the chaotic sky of the Warp glowed bright.

A throne forged of brass soared into the clouds; countless skulls piled into towering, wind-swept mountains.

These skulls varied wildly, as if containing the crania of every species since the galaxy's birth, or perhaps the skulls of legendary heroes from every race—sharp as blades, piercing the crimson and orange heavens, slicing the Blood God's domain into hanging ribbons of blood.

The heavens wept blood; crimson streams poured down, drenching the primordial, pure, bloody, and horrifying giant seated upon the golden throne, who slowly lifted his head.

He seemed to notice something—his gaze, hidden beneath the bloodstained, twisted armor of a bull-headed demon, shifted slightly away from Cadia.

Instantly, the intensity of the war on Cadia lessened slightly; the fury swirling around both sides of the battlefield dimmed a fraction.

This was only because the Blood God had diverted a fraction of his attention toward the Warp region near Baal.

That region of the Warp was being engulfed by dark shadows—darkness teeming with hunger and the urge to devour, layer upon layer like swarms of tiny insects obscuring the Warp around Baal.

But within that shadow, a light flared—unpleasant to the Blood God—a psychic radiance from the Cursed One, from the Dark King.

Though faint, it was undeniably present.

What is that cursed thing doing now?

Yet the Blood God paid little heed to Baal—for now, Cadia was the focal point of all Four Gods' attention.

Not only the Four Gods, but most of the Dark King's gaze too converged upon Cadia, locked in struggle with the Four Gods around that fortress world.

The Blood God must now devote nearly all his focus to Cadia.

"Cat!"

"Child-rearing robot!"

"Container!"

"Human?"

"Doraemon!"

"Insulting bastard!"

"Fifth! Sixth! Seventh!"

In the Terra Imperial Palace, the corpse seated upon the throne hung its head; its dry, withered muscles crawled across its face, weaving hollow features.

In those hollow eyes, a faint flicker of confusion stirred—he sensed that a copy of the psychic power he had left behind ten thousand years ago had been replicated and was now being used by another being.

Slightly withdrawing his gaze from Cadia, he caught sight of the replicated psychic power's origin: Baal.

"Doraemon!" "Doraemon!" "Doraemon!"

Instantly, millions of voices echoed in his consciousness—he writhed in agony, feeling his soul torn into the finest particles, falling toward a dark celestial body, as the Warp's surging waves threatened to drown him.

Billions upon billions of prayers erupted simultaneously in his mind—prayers filled with sorrow, pain, destruction, despair—nearly drowning out his own voice entirely.

A desire surged within him: rise from this throne like an instrument of torture, burn away all despair, burn away all hope, drive both the material universe and the Warp toward their fated end—reduce all to ash and utter oblivion, then destroy himself as well.

Intense urges of destruction and self-annihilation drove him—just rise, just rise, just take one more step from the path of ascension.

No. No.

For the umpteenth time, he resisted his own contradiction; in this prolonged, agonizing internal struggle, even his self was nearly eroded—he could no longer utter his true name, could no longer find the true self among billions of selves.

Almost instinctively, he tore off a bloody chunk of himself—repulsed yet yearning—he extended his hand, following the psychic link, and hurled a part of himself outward.

"Help me!!!"

Light erupted from Zhou Yun's body; the Emperor's psychic power, copied from the star Adalia, roared forth.

The star Adalia itself, though originally compressed from the Emperor's psychic power, had since been installed into a complex array of machinery, serving as the power source for the entire Holy Sun Vault—in the mechanical device's definition, Adalia had become a machine, its abilities replicable by Zhou Yun.

This was one of Zhou Yun's backup strategies against Kabanha.

A star carrying the Emperor's residual psychic power, hurled straight at the face.

"ROOOOAR!!!!"

Kabanha let out a furious howl—the stellar light from Zhou Yun struck it directly, flames erupting across its body, the powerful shockwave hurling Kabanha backward.

The light lasted only two or three seconds; Adalia, as a machine, was too complex, and the prototype mechanical device could replicate its power for only a few seconds.

But it was enough.

Under the force of Zhou Yun's stellar flame, Kabanha plummeted like a burning meteor toward the Warp rift leading to the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket.

"NOOOOOO!"

Kabanha sensed danger, flapping its charred, ruined wings midair, struggling against the shockwave of the stellar explosion, while angrily lashing out a whip toward Zhou Yun, trying to grab him.

But Zhou Yun pressed another button on the mechanical device—his arm instantly shimmered with a faint golden glow.

He had copied the ability of the blade Dian Guang Wan; with an expert flick of his arm, he deflected Kabanha's whip.

Then Zhou Yun moved—his speed, enhanced by both the Accelerator Spring and the Ghost Thief DX Suit—carried him instantly before Kabanha.

His super-gloved fist smashed into Kabanha's face with full force; Kabanha screamed in agony, its nearly burned-away wings unable to withstand the shockwave laced with the Emperor's psychic power, and was flung into the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket.

【Item: Bloodthirsty Demon. Kabanha】

【Origin: Warp—Brass Fortress】

【Evaluation: One of the eight Bloodthirsty Demons of Khorne's First Blood Host, the mightiest Greater Daemon under Khorne, yet repeatedly defeated by the Archangel Sanguinius. Known as the Angel's Curse for his decade-long obsession with Sanguinius and his progeny; said to be the Blood God's domain's foremost artist, skilled in constructing satellite-scale structures from skulls. Due to his obsessive behavior, initiate Child-Rearing Program: Behavioral Correction and Re-education.】

【Production Time:???】

【Status: Well Done】

【Value: 188, 88, 88 credits】

【Proceed with Child Behavioral Correction and Re-education?】

Watching Kabanha still roaring as he fell into the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket, Zhou Yun stepped directly through the Gate of Anywhere back to reality, then clicked "Confirm."

Over a hundred million credits was an absolute fortune for him now.

Kabanha's form vanished from the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket, his whereabouts unknown.

But according to Zhou Yun's experience, Kabanha would never return to humanity's forty-thousand-year universe again.

Suddenly, Zhou Yun noticed Mephiston's grave gaze; the Librarians' eyes subtly avoided his.

"Don't worry—Kabanha can never return to the material universe," Zhou Yun smiled. "I've dealt with him."

"No," Mephiston's eyelid twitched slightly.

In his Warp vision, Zhou Yun looked… slightly odd.

Centered on the pocket on Zhou Yun's abdomen, a searing, sulfurous flame—resembling the Blood God's power—burned continuously.

Within that sulfurous flame, Kabanha shrieked in agony, his existence slowly dissolving, leaving only pure Warp energy surging within, as if re- Yunyu ing something new.

"Oh shit, where's my money? Why hasn't it been credited?!"

Zhou Yun froze—he realized the money from selling Kabanha hadn't arrived; instead, a strange progress bar had appeared.

【Child-Rearing Program: Behavioral Correction and Re-education Progress: 8%】

【No additional child-rearing materials available】

Child-rearing? What child-rearing? Zhou Yun paused—then suddenly, a sharp pain struck the back of his skull, as if something had hit him.

"Ow, damn it, who's so rude?!"

(End of Chapter)