Chapter 43: Brilliant! I

Terra Calendar, October 9th, the 282nd day of the year.

Zhou Yun stood outside Nama Kar’s home, wearing his Psychic Hat.

He focused his mind on his eyes, and the world before him gradually grew transparent.

Through the walls, he could see clearly inside Nama Kar’s home.

No one was there—at least, not by sight.

But there are too many ways to deceive the human eye; what you see is not reliable.

Zhou Yun closed his eyes, rubbed his brow, and eased the faint rising fatigue.

Scanning the entire house drained him significantly.

Of his three psychic abilities, he was least skilled in clairvoyance.

“Any findings?” Lei Na asked, standing beside Zhou Yun.

“On the second floor, left side—the study has a safe.”

Zhou Yun opened his eyes and looked at Lei Na.

“The flight records we’re looking for should be inside.”

As he spoke, Zhou Yun pulled the Anywhere Ring from his pocket and placed it against the wall; a tunnel leading into Nama Kar’s home instantly formed.

“Where the hell did you get these weird things?” Lei Na asked, staring at the Anywhere Ring in surprise.

Zhou Yun glanced at her, a smirk tugging at his lips: “Didn’t you claim the Emperor blessed you?”

“I didn’t claim it—I am blessed!” Lei Na glared at Zhou Yun, voice firm.

“Then how lucky—I was blessed by the Machine God,” Zhou Yun joked.

“Liar. You’ve got too much flesh—you’re clearly not from the Mechanicus,” Lei Na retorted.

The two slipped through the tunnel created by the Anywhere Ring and entered Nama Kar’s home.

Through the dim window light, they faintly made out the house shrouded in darkness.

It was a standard upper hive apartment: two stories, with a living room below and two bedrooms above.

Nama Kar had converted one bedroom into a study—the object of Zhou Yun and Lei Na’s search.

The first-floor living room was ordinary, tidy and orderly; Zhou Yun saw nothing unusual at a glance.

Against the left wall stood several small tables, each with neatly arranged paper and pens.

Zhou Yun approached the tables and opened one of the notebooks.

The pages were filled with dense mathematical formulas.

But unlike Nama Kar’s own notebooks, these formulas were comparatively simpler.

The most advanced reached definite integrals—relatively basic university-level math.

Zhou Yun, a former college student, could barely understand them.

“This is where Mrs. Nama teaches math to the neighborhood children,” Lei Na peered over, gazing at the notebooks with a hint of nostalgia.

The children around here.

During the two days Zhou Yun and Lei Na had trailed Nama Kar, they had seen those children come to learn.

The oldest were only eleven or twelve—and already studying advanced calculus?

Was Mrs. Nama’s teaching ability really that extraordinary?

Zhou Yun flipped through other notebooks on the tables.

Though not as extreme, they were all far ahead of what children this age should be learning.

And why would hive upper-class children need such deep instruction?

Zhou Yun frowned, sensing something odd.

He opened all the notebooks, searching among them.

387, 420, 489

Zhou Yun saw this sequence of numbers in several notebooks.

Different children had written it in different handwriting, in different locations.

Zhou Yun felt his mind suddenly stir—he sensed a pattern in these numbers.

“Zhou Yun?” Lei Na tapped his shoulder, interrupting his thoughts.

“Did you find something?” she asked.

Zhou Yun glanced at the numbers in the notebook and shook his head.

He only had a vague, hazy feeling.

Zhou Yun and Lei Na ascended the stairs to the second floor, carefully scanning the area before entering the study.

The study was messier than the rest of the house—papers littered the floor and desk, covered in complex mathematical formulas.

On the desk sat a small safe.

The safe was not large—smaller even than the Anywhere Ring.

Zhou Yun could not use the Anywhere Ring to retrieve its contents.

But fortunately, it was a common type, not hard to open.

Zhou Yun looked at Lei Na.

Lei Na stepped forward and gently extended a finger toward the safe.

The air around them suddenly grew colder.

This was the reaction when a psyker channeled psychic energy.

Lei Na took a deep breath and softly uttered a single word to aid her channeling:

“Thunder!”

ZZZT!

A bolt of lightning shot out, melting the safe’s metal casing and revealing the flight log inside.

Zhou Yun watched Lei Na’s actions and recalled the methods used on Black Ships to suppress psykers.

Suppressing most untrained psykers was simple: just put a gag in their mouth.

Most untrained psykers needed vocalization to channel their power.

Lei Na clearly was one of them.

Zhou Yun mused that if he ever fell out with Lei Na and they fought, he should try gagging her.

Lei Na had no idea what Zhou Yun was thinking—she was eagerly flipping through the log in her hands.

“It’s flight records from over ten thousand years ago! This is it!”

Lei Na, delighted, shoved the log into her pocket.

“That was too easy,” Zhou Yun frowned.

Too easy—it made him more suspicious.

“You’re really… cautious,” Lei Na shook her head.

“Didn’t we already confirm? Mrs. Nama’s only problem is she prays to the Emperor too little.”

As she spoke, Lei Na and frowning Zhou Yun exited Mrs. Nama’s study.

“Though she prays little, Mrs. Nama still visits the chapel devoutly every few days.”

“If she were truly corrupted, why would she go to the chapel and pray to the Emperor before the Imperial priests?”

Hearing Lei Na’s words, Zhou Yun nodded slightly.

Indeed.

Wait—every few days she prays.

Zhou Yun froze.

Augustus Flax’s file on Nama Kar stated her last prayer was seven days ago.

Two more days have passed since then.

Nama Kar’s last visit to the chapel was nine days ago.

Over four years, Nama Kar prayed 153 times total.

Today is the 282nd day of this year; add the previous three years.

That means in the past 1377 days, she prayed 153 times—once every nine days.

Zhou Yun stood still, his mind accelerating rapidly.

The number nine became clearer and clearer in his mind.

Six thousand five hundred sixty-one blood coins—6561 is nine to the fourth power. That was Nama Kar’s donation to the chapel—a number representing Chaos Undivided.

That means a portion of the Emperor’s chapel belongs to Chaos Undivided!

Zhou Yun suddenly understood.

She prays every nine days—not to the Emperor.

She prays to Chaos Undivided—to the Lord of Change!

387, 420, 489

Zhou Yun remembered the numbers, his eyes brightening with realization.

Brilliant! He was beginning to understand everything!

It was so simple—this nine-digit sequence is nine to the ninth power, the strongest symbol of the Lord of Change!

Praise the Lord of Change!

Join the group! Join the group! Win a Tyranid chess piece!

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(End of Chapter)