Chapter 66: Terra of Ancient Times Was Truly Full of Talent

Thus, deceit spread through the court; alchemists brewed poisonous elixirs, and soldiers grew ever more desperate for military merit and war.

Leina followed Zhou Yun, moving with the vast tide of people toward District One, continuing her tale:

“Though the passage of time, the burdens of governance, and disputes with his heirs drained the Emperor’s vigor, he remained as fierce and sharp as a wolf or an eagle.”

“He ultimately resisted the most vicious corruption and uncovered countless schemes of Chaos.”

“He burned the corrupted texts, buried alive scholars secretly devoted to the Lord of Change, and used ignorance to shield his people from the encroachment of knowledge.”

“He executed the alchemists who offered false elixirs, rejected the blessings of the Plague God, and instead built great ships to sail overseas in search of the secrets of the Immortals.”

“He erected towering walls spanning the empire’s borders, curbed the bloodthirsty blades of the God of War, and protected his realm with a thousand-year barrier of stone.”

Leina whispered:

“Chaos never ceased its assaults upon him and his empire; he often awoke in terror from nightmares, endlessly sought truth in delusions, and meticulously sifted through bamboo slips for signs of corruption. Chaos inflicted great wounds upon his empire—but he still endured, weary and struggling.”

“He even defeated the madness surging from the Highest Heaven, personally banishing a great demon from the Sea of Souls with an ancient psychic bow.”

Personally shot and banished the great demon

At these words, Zhou Yun’s eyelid twitched slightly,

as if he saw a black-robed Emperor standing on the prow of a ship battered by waves, firing a bow glowing with psychic energy to slay a great demon invading from the Warp,

as absurd as some medieval knight charging on horseback to defeat a void dragon and imprison it on Mars.

Was ancient Terra really so full of talent?

“But his empire still collapsed,” Leina said, head bowed. “Not in his hands—in his son’s.”

Hearing this, Zhou Yun’s inner sarcasm surged even more,

an emperor who ended the era of division, a grand campaign for unification,

roads linking the empire built in its later stages, all while plagued by constant Chaos incursions,

yet this great empire was destroyed by the emperor’s own son,

though broadly true, Zhou Yun sensed, from the storytelling’s tone, the Emperor’s overwhelming personal emotion.

You’re slipping in your own bias, you yellow-skinned bastard!

“The Emperor resisted Chaos’s corruption throughout his life, struggling to maintain his empire.”

“But he did not know that his eighteenth son had already been corrupted and infused with the power of the Three Gods of Chaos.”

“He did not know that one of his eunuchs was the Lord of Change in disguise, waiting to bring chaos to his empire.”

“They concealed the Emperor’s death, forged a false imperial edict, and sent it to the heir on the empire’s frontier.”

“The false edict, in the Emperor’s name, commanded the heir to commit suicide.”

“The Emperor had intended to warn the heir that this was a treacherous plot, but the heir, deceived by the Lord of Change’s sorcery within the edict, took his own life.”

“Thus, the Emperor’s empire was corrupted by Chaos and plunged into chaos.”

Leina finished her tale and looked timidly at Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun regarded her with interest,

he knew this story well, but the Warhammer version had a distinct flavor,

“So, what is this story trying to tell me?” Zhou Yun asked, ruffling Leina’s hair.

“Always remain vigilant against Chaos’s corruption—even after death, remain vigilant,” Leina whispered, head bowed.

Zhou Yun nodded slightly in agreement, then tapped the small insect beside his ear: “Did you hear that?”

After a few seconds of silence, the insect vibrated its wings, forming a precise sequence of words:

“I didn’t understand a single thing you just said.”

Zhou Yun paused, then remembered he had been speaking to Leina in Chinese,

Mogge couldn’t understand a word of it.

“We’re praising your intelligence,” Zhou Yun said. “Leina speaks nothing but admiration for you. She urged me to trust you more.”

“I believe you, you ghost,” Mogge cursed.

Then a burst of noise came from Mogge’s end,

“I’ve slipped into the front of the line. I can see District One.”

Hearing Mogge’s voice, Zhou Yun lifted his head and gazed into the distance,

the narrow path between the pipes suddenly opened into a vast underground space,

the space was cylindrical overall, stretching roughly sixty to seventy meters from the rubble-strewn floor to the ceiling tangled with pipes,

at a glance, it resembled a vertical shaft reaching from the earth’s depths to the heavens,

at its center stood a simple town enclosed by steel walls,

the walls bristled with weapons and force-field generators, and gene-thieves patrolled along their surfaces,

at the town’s heart rose a tall, boxy building adorned with a portrait of the Four-Armed God-Emperor, its surface uniformly sheathed in metal, radiating a distinctly sci-fi aura,

overlooking this structure was the earliest human colony on Asford: District One of Fedia City,

all the colony’s structures retained their appearance from ten thousand years ago—neat, uniform, nearly perfectly preserved.

No wonder Mogge and its kind had bred so many plague zombies and still couldn’t overcome the gene-thieves,

a colony preserving intact pre-Great Crusade technology—no mere cultists, not even a full squad of Cadian Shock Troops, could easily breach it.

A direct assault would likely reduce them to ash beneath the city’s high-tech weapons.

Without the Gellar Plague, Mogge and his followers of the Father could never defeat the gene-thieves.

Zhou Yun’s eyes narrowed with a strange expression,

but if Mogge and its kind were willing to perform mass sacrifices to summon the Gellar Plague…

the Gellar Plague fused the infected with nearby metal and machinery, creating unique zombie forms,

in District One, saturated with ancient technological relics, it would be devastatingly effective,

combining the gene-thieves’ flesh with ten-thousand-year-old technology, Zhou Yun could easily imagine how powerful the Gellar Plague zombies would become,

yet in Zhou Yun’s memory,

when the Tyranids descended upon Asford, not a single plague zombie existed in Fedia City.

Could Mogge and Malakit really have been so easily crushed by the gene-thieves?

And where was the triangular sword sacrificed from the entire Old Eighth District?

As Zhou Yun pondered whether his own presence had altered Asford’s historical trajectory,

the insect beside his ear vibrated slightly, transmitting Mogge’s voice:

“I’ve entered District One. I’m now mingling among the first group of initiates undergoing baptism.”

(End of Chapter)