Chapter 16: Corpse Guild

After Zhou Yun stepped into the PDF base, his eyebrows couldn't help but furrow.

Within the PDF base, several corpses lay beside the buildings.

They wore the uniforms of the Ashford Star Planetary Defense Forces, their faces marked by emaciation, bite marks, and signs of decay.

Most of the corpses were missing parts; one could imagine that after the Governor ordered the bombing of Old District Eight back then, the PDF soldiers buried beneath the rubble likely resorted to cannibalism.

But this was not what concerned Zhou Yun.

Consuming corpses in a hive city was not something that burdened one's psyche greatly.

After all, within the famous Corpse Starch, a portion was made from the bodies of the dead.

The Corpse Guilds responsible for producing Corpse Starch would use hearse fleets and mobile factories to collect the dead, using these corpses to make Corpse Starch.

Many hive city residents had consumed this kind of Corpse Starch.

What truly made Zhou Yun furrow his brows tightly was that these corpses had been lying here for at least a hundred years.

Yet they were merely rotting, not having turned into piles of white bones.

A hint of vigilance arose in Zhou Yun's heart; he extended a finger toward one of the corpses in the pile.

"Boom!!!" He uttered a single syllable from his mouth.

The corpse's head burst like a watermelon smashed by a hammer; red, green, and white pus splattered onto the wall behind it, forming a twisted painting.

After long ages of decay, these corpses' heads had become soft and rotten; even the shockwave from an air pistol could shatter them.

However, the other corpses nearby showed no movement, appearing as if they were truly just dead bodies.

This, this isn't right, is it?

He furrowed his brows again and extended his finger once more.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Three more corpses' heads burst, yet the remaining corpses still did not rise from the ground and turn into living dead as Zhou Yun had suspected.

He turned his head, glancing at Margit and Mohg behind him.

Margit nodded slightly to him.

As expected, this fellow did something.

Zhou Yun nodded to Margit, and then—

He waved his arm; the mechanical hand above his head moved accordingly, sweeping across the corpses beneath the wall.

The heads of those corpses were crushed and burst one by one, leaving a trail of interwoven red, green, and white marks on the wall.

Only after clearing all the corpses within his line of sight did Zhou Yun smile at Margit and walk calmly toward the PDF warehouse.

Watching this scene, Margit couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, saying, "Truly cautious."

"Is he worried that I might awaken these living dead?"

"Brother, did he realize that you used the rune bestowed by the 'Angel' to put the living dead to sleep?" Mohg asked in a low voice.

There was surprise in Mohg's tone; he seemed unable to comprehend how Zhou Yun knew these corpses were living dead.

"He understands us very well, perhaps even better than we understand ourselves," Margit said in a deep voice.

"Who exactly is he? Lion Russ, a name that sounds obviously fake..." Mohg said, looking in the direction where Zhou Yun had departed.

Margit fell silent; he recalled those screams of terror from the "Angel."

Most of the time, the "Angel's" voice was filled with a joy that seemed never to fade.

This was the first time he had heard the "Angel's" voice so terrified.

And the information revealed within those terrified screams—

"Perhaps there is some truth to that name."

Margit said solemnly:

"The 'Angel' said his face looks like, looks like..."

Mohg noticed the hesitation in Margit's tone, as if he were considering whether or not to speak that name.

"Like who?" Mohg couldn't help but press further.

"That demigod of the First Legion during the Great Crusade ten thousand years ago."

Margit took a deep breath and said:

"Lion El'Jonson—his face is almost exactly identical to Lion El'Jonson's."

"But the build is wrong, and the personality doesn't match either."

"Lion Russ looks like a Primarch?" Hearing Margit's words, Mohg gasped sharply.

He couldn't help but think of many possibilities, each one somewhat horrifying.

"Don't dwell on these things; since he didn't probe deeply into our secrets, we shouldn't probe deeply into his either."

"Finding the whereabouts of that relic is the most important thing for now."

Margit shook his head as he spoke; he looked around, gazing toward the office location of the PDF base.

He patted Mohg on the shoulder, and together they walked toward that building.

The Empire had many mediums for storing information, the most common being parchment and data-slates.

Important and precious information would be stored on more reliable and safer parchment.

The rest would be stored on data-slates.

Mohg rummaged through the data-slate in his hands, searching for the information the two of them wanted.

Margit, meanwhile, sorted through the parchment.

"Found it," Margit said, pointing at a piece of parchment.

On this piece of parchment, rows upon rows of Low Gothic letters were written densely.

This was the PDF's detailed record of the plague from back then.

It clearly recorded the plague situation in Old District Eight.

Margit waved at Monge: "Find me a data slate with a map of Old District Eight."

Monge picked one out from the data slates he had just rummaged through,

having specifically selected this one because he had promised Zhou Yun to help him find a map.

Margit looked at the map of Old District Eight on the data slate and used his finger to mark the locations where the plague had appeared back then.

These small dots marked by Margit formed a patch that was sparse at the edges and dense in the center.

Looking at the map covered in marks, Margit fell into thought.

"Back then, the plague spread across half of Old District Eight; this half is very likely where the source of the plague was located."

"According to the PDF records from that time, the earliest locations where the plague appeared were these."

Margit looked at the area where the small dots were most dense; that was where the plague had first begun to spread.

He reached out and connected the earliest plague locations together, forming an irregular circle.

He looked at the buildings within this circle and soon found a suspicious target.

"The Corpse Guild."

Margit pointed to the location of the Corpse Guild,

which lay almost exactly in the center of the several earliest plague outbreak sites.

"It seems that over a hundred years ago, it was the Corpse Guild that spread the plague, drawing the power of the garden where the 'Angels' reside into the physical universe."

"According to what the 'Angels' said, that power was injected into an ancient artifact."

"But before that artifact could be truly completed, the Governor, having detected these activities, bombed the entire Old District Eight, burying everything beneath."

A hint of excitement flowed into Margit's tone,

"But that nearly completed artifact is very likely still within the Corpse Guild!"

"As long as we find that artifact and then locate that warp engine in the Underhive, we can save all of Ashford."

Actually, not every hive forms a monopolistic Corpse Guild.

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(End of Chapter)