Chapter 342: Guilliman, I

Crack——————

The sound of a dimensional door opening echoed in Robert Guilliman's office,

Guilliman swiftly shoved the draft of the Imperial Codex into a hidden compartment of his desk and regarded the door without expression,

Zhou Yun stepped out from the vacuum of the dimensional door, his face showing signs of fatigue,

"How many more batches?" Zhou Yun rubbed his temples and asked.

The exhaustion from relentless work weighed on Zhou Yun—the fleets needing to reach Terra were too numerous, and he possessed only one four-dimensional pocket,

To cram all the fleets into the four-dimensional pocket as quickly as possible, Zhou Yun had even begun using both the Acceleration Gear and the High-Efficiency Pills,

In the end, he could not escape Robert Guilliman's curse of overtime,

Zhou Yun had begun to suspect that forcing himself and everyone around him to work overtime was some manifestation of Guilliman's warp nature.

"You'll need to make about two more trips," Guilliman replied promptly: "How is the Webway holding up?"

Hearing this, Zhou Yun's headache worsened,

Lately, the Webway had also become unstable,

Even the Eldar Webway was not an absolutely safe place,

Long ago, during the War in Heaven, the Star God Burner Niyadrasa had burned through the Webway with his eternally blazing substance-fire, allowing the Necron legions to invade it,

In the long centuries since, the Eldar have lacked the capacity to maintain the Webway; many sections have collapsed or been damaged, and numerous entities from the Warp have infiltrated it—what the Eldar could do was only to seal off and avoid the fallen sections,

If that were all, it might still be manageable, for the Webway's labyrinthine structure makes it difficult for demons to mount effective invasions without guides,

But Alpharius, the Chosen of Tzeentch, possessed a copy of the Eldar's Book of Labyrinths,

Unlike Zhou Yun's navigational guide, the Infernal Atlas, the Book of Labyrinths was a collection of maps painstakingly drawn over centuries by Eldar wanderers,

With this Book of Labyrinths, Alpharius moved through the Webway as comfortably as in his own home—he had been wandering near Macragge's Webway even before the Reclamation of Ultramar ended, occasionally emerging on flying discs to snatch up Eldar at random,

Worse still, Alpharius, as one of the top-tier warriors beneath the Primarchs, could come and go as he pleased,

He was as annoying as a Grotz who went around snatching blue imps,

If it were just him, Alpharius alone could not cause much trouble,

But now it seemed Alpharius had likely allied with Magnus—the demons of Tzeentch were ravaging the Webway near Macragge.

Zhou Yun calmed himself slightly, and the scene before him shifted—suddenly he stood atop the Fat Tiger Daemon in the Webway,

The Eldar Death Guard, the Doraemon Legion composed of Blood Angels and Space Wolves, and five hundred Black Templars fought shoulder to shoulder, battling fiercely within the Webway,

Tzeentch's demons surged forth like a tide from the other end of the Webway, manifesting as the ever-shifting tides of the Warp, roaring as they hurled colorful flames and lightning at the Imperial forces,

These arcane spells produced effects utterly beyond expectation—turning men into screaming glass statues, transforming them into butterflies with wailing human faces, or into old men, infants, or writhing heaps of grotesque flesh,

Fire daemons spewed dull yellow flames that clashed with the Death Guard's whispers, their flickering light illuminating the entire Webway,

Endless Dreadnoughts clashed with Robert Guilliman's sons—each Pink Dreadnought slain split into two Blue Dreadnoughts,

Bat-fish-like Screamers soared through the sky, dueling Blood Angels wearing bamboo propellers, their deaths raining down ethereal droplets like rain,

Tzeentch's Changelings clashed with the sons of Dorn and the Black Templars, heirs of Sigismund, as blasphemous and holy prayers echoed simultaneously across the battlefield,

Behind the Tzeentchian horde, a colossal Tzeentchian Daemon, mountain-sized, stood firm, swinging his staff and pouring torrents of searing fire across the Webway,

Sharp, mocking laughter rang ceaselessly from the mouth of the Lord of Change,

The Fat Tiger Daemon drew a deep breath, raised his blazing, straight baton like a microphone to his lips,

The Eldar Death Guard and Astartes saw this and immediately retreated backward using the bamboo propellers on their heads,

Before the Tzeentchian forces could react, they saw the Fat Tiger Daemon slightly open his mouth,

"Yours is mine! Mine is still mine!"

The roar erupted from his mouth—the Eldar Death Guard and Astartes who had retreated instantly felt their power draining, sensing their strength flowing into the Fat Tiger Daemon's body,

The Lord of Change's expression turned to horror—his sensitivity to fate made him sense something.

"I am Fat Tiger! I am the King of Children!!!"

"The Invincible!!! Man!!!"

Zhou Yun withdrew his gaze from the Webway and looked at Robert Guilliman before him,

"The Webway will be cleared soon—what about Terra?" he asked.

Macragge had been trying to contact Terra, but humanity's only known faster-than-light communication method was through the Warp via Astropathic transmission, whose messages were easily disrupted by Warp disturbances,

Thus, communication between Macragge and Terra had always been unreliable.

Upon hearing Zhou Yun's words, Robert Guilliman wore an indescribably strange expression,

Without a word, he picked up a data-slate from his desk and handed it to Zhou Yun, then tapped to play a recording,

Static crackled from the slate, mixed with the chaotic murmurs of Astropaths, then the voice grew clearer:

"Guilliman, you're a fucking traitor! Remember what I said! I'm on Terra cursing you!"

"Guilliman, you didn't bring your damn Second Empire to Terra? I'm coming in the Mountain Array to blow you to pieces!"

"I, Rogal Dorn, am waiting for you on Terra—I'll use the Mountain Array to blow each one of you traitors into the sky."

"." Zhou Yun listened silently to the recording. "That is indeed Dorn's voice. Our first message from Terra claimed Rogal Dorn had returned to Terra, learned of the Second Empire, and was coming to Macragge aboard the Mountain Array to crush the rebellion."

Guilliman said with a helpless expression:

"It's not over—listen."

"Guilliman, don't be afraid—I'm Leman Russ. Though Dorn slipped away with a trick, Terra is now under my rule."

"If you make me Warmaster, I'll make you Regent."

"Guilliman, I'm Leman Russ—don't believe the previous messages; they're tricks of the Lord of Change. I've just returned to Terra—our father has become the Dark King. This is not home! This is not home!"

"Hello, Guilliman, I'm your future self—you've been deceived! The resurrected is not Sanguinius—it's Horus! Kill him now!"

"I'm Jaghatai—Alpharius has set up some ritual near the Webway. I advise you not to use it."

"I'm Angron—I'm actually a spy sent by our father to Khorne. I've already drugged Khorne with Nuceria's sedatives."

"I'm Lorgar—I never betrayed you. You can now call me the Golden Word Emissary!"

!

Guilliman turned off the communication and covered his face with his hands.

"The Lord of Change is still too active," Zhou Yun couldn't help but chuckle softly—clearly, these Astropathic messages were Tzeentch's interference.

Guilliman nodded helplessly in agreement,

"The true messages from Terra are likely few—I'm not even certain Terra knows that I and Sanguinius have returned."

"But fortunately, Macragge holds information on the current twelve High Lords of Terra—I can deduce and analyze how the current rulers of the Empire view us."

"The current Chief High Lord and Minister of Internal Affairs is a man who insists the Imperial Law is inviolable and unchangeable, believing everything in the Empire is the Emperor's perfect design—he will be a problem."

"Roughly half of the High Lords support him, half oppose him."

"The Forge Lord of Mars is the most unique among them—due to Mars's status, he is likely indifferent toward us, but he might care about Belisarius Cawl."

Guilliman offered a bitter smile—Belisarius Cawl had fulfilled Guilliman's mission excellently, but he had also made many enemies over ten thousand years.

"The Ecclesiarchy's Pope supports the Minister of Internal Affairs—he believes all Imperial Law is the Emperor's divine will. I think he will welcome Sanguinius, but you and I?"

Zhou Yun looked at Guilliman—he sensed Guilliman had already pieced together intelligence on the current Terra High Lords from fragmented messages, and likely already decided who to replace and who to keep.

"If that Pope resists any new ideas, we'd better replace him."

"I'm considering having Sanguinius directly assume the Papacy—it would give us better control over the Ecclesiarchy."

"The Forge Lord position clearly can't go to Cawl—I have no reason to interfere with Mars, and Cawl isn't suited for it."

Guilliman sensed Zhou Yun's gaze and understood what he was thinking, so he laid out his plans for the High Lords,

His tone was so casual, his few words already deciding the fates of the Empire's twelve most powerful High Lords—as if their authority were paper-thin before him,

Zhou Yun understood: Guilliman's combat strength was not outstanding among the Twenty-One, his military command had many rivals who could match or surpass him, his administrative skill led but hadn't yet reached the level of one man opposing the other twenty Primarchs,

But in politics, Guilliman was equivalent to a Chaos-corrupted Horus in a Primarch duel—meaning all twenty others combined couldn't defeat him alone,

That was why Guilliman could implement the Codex Astartes after the Heresy—other Primarchs' political abilities were child's play compared to his.

"By the way," Guilliman suddenly looked up at Zhou Yun: "The most critical position among the High Lords is still the Minister of Internal Affairs—the current Minister is unreliable."

"I plan to replace him—would you be interested in becoming Minister of Internal Affairs and Chief High Lord?"

"Huh?"

"Me? A High Lord? Seriously?"

(End of Chapter)