Chapter 170: Golden Angel and Dark Angel

In the vast yellow sand, an entrance to a pipe was looming.

The edge of this pipe was broken, slanting out of the desert; the material was some kind of black metal, full of scratches left by time, but strangely, this metal was not rusted at all, as if it had been thrown into the desert shortly after being newly cast.

Zhou Yun, wearing the face of a Genestealer, stretched his hand out from under his robe and touched the pipe made of metal.

Long before humans colonized Baal, this planet had once been inhabited by a kind of xenos creature.

With the passage of time, these xenos disappeared into history, and the civilization they forged dissipated with the wind; only the ruins of many cities were buried under the vast yellow sand.

The pipe in front of Zhou Yun was clearly a remnant of the ancient xenos civilization, now occupied by the Genestealers, becoming their headquarters.

If according to what those two Genestealers said, the scale of this headquarters was not small.

Zhou Yun straightened the robe draped over his body, dragged the fire scorpion behind him, and walked into the pipe.

The pipe was thick enough for this fire scorpion, which was four or five meters wide, to be dragged into it. According to what those two Genestealers said, Zhou Yun began to shuttle between the complex pipes, and before long, a heavy circular gate appeared in front of him.

Strangely, this gate was inverted in the pipe.

Complex patterns were carved on the gate. Zhou Yun tilted his head to look at the patterns on this gate.

The Genestealers had sprayed a lot of paint on the gate, but the carvings on the gate were deep enough that the paint could not completely cover them.

Zhou Yun still faintly saw that the patterns on this gate were two winged angels circling each other.

Those two angels, one gold and one black; the golden one was sacred and pure like the morning sun and fire, the black one was angry and crazy like bloody black clouds.

The two angels seemed to be engaged in an eternal struggle, but their wings faintly overlapped, seeming to imply the commonality between the two angels.

Zhou Yun knew this was the faith of that extinct xenos race.

That group of xenos who first lived on Baal worshipped two angels, Gold and Darkness; these two angels were engaged in an endless struggle in the Sea of Souls.

Later, this xenos race disappeared into history, but the human race that subsequently colonized Baal was still influenced by this faith.

What really made Zhou Yun feel strange was... the angels in the xenos carvings on the gate had human faces.

Logically speaking, when this carving was completed, humans should not have arrived on Baal yet, and that group of xenos was unlikely to look exactly like humans.

Zhou Yun's eyes narrowed slightly.

Some people believe that the Dark Angel in this faith represents the curse entangled on the Blood Angels—the Black Rage and the Red Thirst.

Before Zhou Yun could think more, the gate opened slightly amidst a slight trembling sound.

"Password." A sharp voice sounded from behind the door.

Zhou Yun's expression remained unchanged, and he whispered to the back of the door: "The blood of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius lives forever, the soul of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius is entrusted forever."

This was the password he learned from the mouths of those two Genestealers.

This implicitly contained the faith of the Sheath-Winged Sanguinius sect.

They believed that the blood of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius flowed in their blood vessels, and that blood, in addition to carrying the genetic sequence of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius, also carried fragments of the soul of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius.

This is also why every descendant of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius can hear the whispers of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius.

Of course, Zhou Yun knew that the voices they heard were just the voices from the Tyranid Hive Mind.

The gate creaked open.

A massive mutant was standing behind the door, pushing the door open for Zhou Yun.

This special type of Genestealer has a larger size, but relatively lower intelligence.

Beside this huge mutant, there was also an ordinary Genestealer wearing a robe.

"Logens?" That Genestealer seemed to know the owner of the face Zhou Yun was using.

It looked Zhou Yun and the fire scorpion behind Zhou Yun up and down, and asked: "Where is your brother Karl Jian?"

Zhou Yun's expression immediately revealed appropriate sadness, and his body trembled slightly at an appropriate frequency, as if suppressing the pain in his heart.

"He is dead." Zhou Yun's voice was hoarse, looking like he didn't want to talk too much, but his eyes glanced at the fire scorpion behind him.

That Genestealer opened its mouth, seemingly thinking that Karl Jian had died in the process of hunting the fire scorpion.

But looking at the sadness on Zhou Yun's face and listening to the hoarseness in his voice, the words it wanted to ask got stuck in its throat and couldn't be spat out.

Finally, that Genestealer could only nod, signaling that Zhou Yun could put down the fire scorpion and enter the stronghold.

Zhou Yun put down the fire scorpion and, according to the information he knew from those two Genestealers before, pretended to be skilled and walked toward the entrance of the stronghold.

That was a circular manhole cover lying on the ground. Zhou Yun reached out and lifted the manhole cover, drilled into it, and landed on a small path built of rusted metal under the manhole cover.

He looked up at the Genestealer stronghold in front of him, his eyes narrowed slightly.

In front of Zhou Yun was an entire underground city. The buildings here were all cast from black metal, shaped like black bubbles, hanging down from the ceiling, revealing a unique aesthetic that was not human.

The most unique thing was that this entire city was inverted, as if it had been overturned. The pipe Zhou Yun passed through when he just entered this city was actually the city's sewer. Now, the ceiling was the road built by the ancient xenos civilization,

and the rusted metal road under his feet was clearly added by the Genestealers later, hanging between those inverted buildings.

And those ancient bubble-shaped metal high-rises became the pillars of this inverted city, supporting a space underground.

This was clearly the ancient city of the xenos, which had been overturned for some reason, but had been relatively completely preserved.

Later, the Genestealers discovered the entrance to this city from the complex pipes in the desert and transformed this place into their stronghold.

They called this place Sheath-Wing Fortress, treating it as their fortress monastery.

No wonder the Blood Angels didn't find the Genestealers' stronghold.

This city had probably been buried in the depths of the desert for who knows how many years.

Zhou Yun walked on the rusted metal road hanging in mid-air, looking around at this ancient city.

A statue stood in the center of the city, which originally should have depicted the Golden Angel descending from the sky and suppressing the Dark Angel.

However, the entire city had been overturned, and the scene depicted by the statue naturally became the Dark Angel on top and the Golden Angel on the bottom.

!. Read

"Lion El'Jonson on top, Sanguinius on the bottom?" Zhou Yun couldn't help but hook his mouth into a smile.

The winged figure in the white light seemed to twitch.

"... You... suspected of owing... Lion... head punch..."

A fragmented voice came from the Warp. Zhou Yun raised his eyebrows slightly.

He noticed that the winged figure in the white light became clearer. Was it because the barrier between the Warp and the reality here was relatively weak, or had he already recovered part of his strength?

"Hey hey hey, can you still talk?" Zhou Yun looked at the winged figure in the white light and said.

However, the winged figure in the white light just shook his wings lightly, and fragmented, unsystematic sounds flashed past Zhou Yun's ears.

Then Zhou Yun faintly saw a white light pointing to a building not far away.

He was stunned for a moment, curious about where the winged figure in the white light wanted to guide Zhou Yun.

He followed the direction pointed by the white light and walked along the metal road hanging in mid-air toward that building.

After approaching that building, Zhou Yun discovered that it was a restaurant transformed from a xenos building.

The entrance was a circular hole that had once been used as a window, and a sign was hanging on it, writing the name of the restaurant.

"Sheath-Wings and Claws." Zhou Yun read the name of the restaurant, then glanced at the menu of the day written on the side.

"Salt-baked fire scorpion, oil-braised desert rat, fried dry roots... quite rich."

Zhou Yun couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. It seems that this group of Genestealers had even developed a nearly complete social system underground.

When did the swarm start eyeing Baal?

He withdrew his gaze, pushed the door, and walked into the restaurant.

Then, Zhou Yun was slightly stunned.

The restaurant was full of people, and Genestealers were gathered in groups of three or five in front of the tables, chatting lively.

Most of what they discussed was the Living Saint Sanguineli who was about to descend on Baal.

But among this group of Genestealers, one person looked extremely conspicuous... so conspicuous that the corners of Zhou Yun's mouth couldn't help but twitch violently.

A man wearing scarlet armor, over two meters tall, with skin as pale as a corpse, hair like silver threads, and a cold and gloomy face was sitting alone in a corner of the restaurant.

The most terrifying thing was the armor on this man, which looked like the exposed muscle tissue of a skinned person, with clear texture, deep red like blood, as if it were beating low...

The corners of Zhou Yun's eyes twitched slightly because he found that the Genestealers in the restaurant seemed to turn a blind eye to the man in the corner, as if he were just an ordinary, solitary Genestealer.

Mephiston, Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels?

How could he be here?

Zhou Yun frowned slightly and immediately guessed that Mephiston should have used psychic powers to distort the cognition of these Genestealers, making him look inconspicuous in the eyes of the Genestealers.

But in Zhou Yun's impression, Mephiston should have obtained some prophecy from the Eldar at this time and was preparing for a ritual, trying to find a way to deal with Ka'Bandha...

He pondered for a moment, walked toward the opposite side of the table where Mephiston was sitting, smiled, and spoke to Mephiston, saying in an extremely sincere tone:

"By Sheath-Winged Sanguinius, this tribal brother, do you mind if I share a table with you?"

"As a brother who also flows with the blood of Sheath-Winged Sanguinius, you certainly won't refuse me, right?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 171 =====