Chapter 202

The swarm above the sky was so numerous, like a torrent falling from the firmament.

Anti-aircraft fire was still roaring; countless artillery shells exploded in the air, and plasma fluids and lasers both flashed with blinding light, illuminating the area around the Angel Fortress like daylight.

Thousands of the swarm turned into charred corpses in the air and fell, smashing straight into the moat, and the remaining swarm also threw themselves into the embrace of the Water of Thirst as if committing suicide.

And on the ground, the Tyranid behemoths, covered in heavy bone armor, charged against the torrent of lasers in the position.

They crashed into the moat, splashing up a silver-white spray, and tumbled to the bottom of the water.

The Water of Thirst, which had been used by the Officio Assassinorum to assassinate Horus, kept emitting crackling sounds, drawing the moisture from within the swarm, leaving behind shriveled corpses, and constantly self-replicating.

But the swarm seemed completely indifferent to death.

The swarms gathered together, piled up together, like a tidal wave, throwing themselves at the moat without fear of death.

In an instant, both the Blood Angels and the mortals felt that they were not fighting some alien enemy, but rather a cold and ruthless natural disaster.

The swarm advanced its lines coldly and cruelly; it seemed to have deliberately compressed the moisture within those behemoths, using more hard bone to support their bodies, leaving larger remains in the Water of Thirst.

The speed at which these remains piled up on each other even surpassed the speed at which the Water of Thirst self-replicated. The low-level Tyranid creatures roared; they guarded those behemoths as they fell into the water, and a bone dam pierced out of the surface of the Water of Thirst as the corpses piled up.

"Attack the dam!!!!"

A roar filled with anger came from the mouth of the Blood Angels chaplain:

"For the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang! He relies on you to achieve victory! He relies on your will and strength! Do not let them down!"

The torrent of lasers and bombardment were all concentrated on that bone dam. The explosions raised several times, collapsing the bridge built by the swarm's corpses, but more of the swarm soon replenished it, using their newly bred, low-moisture bodies to serve as a new bridge.

These swarms would soon die, but their corpses, covered in heavy bone, were something the Water of Thirst could not absorb.

That dam was getting closer and closer to the Imperial line. The swarm was constantly advancing on the road built with death, and the mortals and Astartes behind the defensive line roared as they blocked the swarm.

The whistling sound of plasma suddenly rang out, but it did not ring out from behind the human defensive line——————

Tyranid behemoths carrying biological heavy cannons appeared on the opposite bank of the moat, and from their heavy cannons, they fired clusters of blinding azure plasma.

"Ion Cannon Bugs!!!!" Luo Si let out a sharp roar.

Any survivor who had lived through Axi would not forget this kind of behemoth; it was they who had broken through layers of defensive lines throughout the city of Fudia.

"Quick, take cover!!!!"

The scorching plasma burst on the defensive line, the azure light overflowing like a new star, illuminating every part of the defensive line.

Yu Ji had just retreated a few steps when he saw the place where he had just been suddenly burst. The crackling plasma burned the steel-cast defensive line directly into molten iron, which spilled scaldingly onto the ground.

The artillery fire behind the defensive line suddenly rose, and countless artillery shells directly destroyed the Ion Cannon Bugs on the opposite bank of the moat.

But the gap had already been created. Screaming Hormagaunts roared, crossed the waves of the Water of Thirst, pierced the riverbank with their sharp claws, and climbed onto the defensive line by force.

Yu Ji hurriedly raised the laser rifle in his hand to shoot, but he was too close to this group of Hormagaunts, and these creatures, born for slaughter, were too fast; the mortal simply could not aim at them.

Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!

Three sharp bolter rounds exploded from mid-air. An Astartes chaplain stood beside Yu Ji, holding his bolter high.

"You have already completed your mission! This defensive line has been lost!"

The chaplain stood in front of Yu Ji like a pitch-black wall, blocking the swarm's attack for him:

"Now, warrior, take your weapon and retreat!"

Almost the moment the angel gave the order, the mortals on the defensive line began to retreat.

The mortals began to run on the sandy ground, greeting the hellish scene as they passed between the Space Marines, retreating into the void shields in the rear.

"May Saint Doraemon bless you!" Yu Ji seemed to hear Luo Si shouting at the Astartes chaplains: "May the machine spirits of your bolters be forever joyful."

The chaplain nodded in response, then held his bolter and took the place of the mortals.

Yu Ji clutched his weapon in terror, dragging his foolish son as he retreated toward the void shield in the rear.

But his steps were slow. Yu Ji lived on Baal's moon, Baal II; that planet had lower mass and smaller gravity. The gravity of the main planet Baal was too heavy for him and his son.

They dragged their not-so-fast steps, weaving through various tanks, Space Marines, and war machines, breathing air filled with the sour stench of Tyranid creatures, running hurriedly toward the void shield.

His son was crying and howling in terror, his footsteps not stopping but his body trembling. Yu Ji dragged him, panting for breath for a moment.

Slash!!

Suddenly, Yu Ji's son pushed his father hard. Yu Ji was thrown a meter or two away, falling onto the sandy ground.

Before Yu Ji could turn his head to scold his child, he heard the sound of sharp claws cutting through the air.

A Hormagaunt, a Hormagaunt among the Tyranid creatures, had somehow broken through the defensive line formed by the Space Marines and pounced in.

If it hadn't been for Yu Ji's son reacting quickly just now, this Hormagaunt's sharp claws would have cut Yu Ji's throat.

The Hormagaunt raised its hideous triangular head on the sandy ground and looked at Yu Ji's son.

Clearly, Yu Ji's son's body was sturdier and more full of biomass, attracting the Hormagaunt's attention.

"No!!" Yu Ji's trembling hand gripped the laser rifle. The moment he gripped it, the laser rifle's firmness seemed to be transmitted into Yu Ji's heart.

As a mortal, it was almost impossible for him to keep up with the Hormagaunt's speed and shoot this dangerous creature.

But Yu Ji felt as if the gun were guiding him, firing a sharp laser at the Hormagaunt.

The laser pierced the Hormagaunt's head in an instant, and the bursting laser swallowed its skull.

Yu Ji gasped for breath, looking at the laser rifle in his hand in disbelief.

He... he seemed to hear this laser rifle excitedly chirping in a low voice, feeling agitated about something.

Not only the laser rifle in his hand, but the void shield not far away also seemed to become brighter, the sound of bolters on the battlefield seemed even more deafening, and the speed at which tanks and various war machines moved also became faster.

It was as if thousands of machines were chirping at the same time—Yu Ji even heard a crackling sound surging from the moat.

The Water of Thirst, countless Water of Thirst, seemed to surge from the riverbed as if boiling, swirling and evaporating in mid-air, turning into clusters of silver-gray tiny particles swirling about.

"The Gray Storm," Yu Ji thought blankly, remembering the prophecy made by his mother-in-law.

Zhou Yun felt his consciousness being dispersed, being pulled very long and very large, so large that his vision could see the entire Baal tri-star system.

He could see the Blood Knights and the Flesh Tearers holding their ground on Baal I, bathing in blood—he saw this through the chainsword in the hands of the roaring Yor.

He could see the Crimson Blades Chapter holding their ground outside the astropath station on Baal II, through the newly replaced power sword in the hand of Chapter Master Goren.

He could see the water seller Yu Ji lying on the sandy ground, clutching a laser rifle in his hand and gasping for breath—he saw this through the thousands of machines on the battlefield.

Zhou Yun seemed to be able to feel the spirits inside these machines roaring, could feel their simple consciousness, could feel these things cast from steel as if they were extensions of his own soul.

Zhou Yun slowly reached out his round hand, gently stroking the billions of machines on these three planets.

He could touch the void shields, touch every laser rifle and bolter, touch the tiny nanomachines at the bottom of the river. Hmm? Nanomachines?

Zhou Yun was slightly stunned for a moment, faintly feeling a burst of excitement transmitted from those nanomachines at the bottom of the river, feeling their intelligence reviving, and hearing a series of complex mechanical sounds.

But before Zhou Yun could study these nanomachines carefully, Zhou Yun felt as if some foreign object had appeared within his body.

It was as if some ill-mannered person had stuffed a lump of corpse meat into Zhou Yun's body.

Zhou Yun uncomfortably shifted his gaze away from reality and looked into his own body.

Slightly hot dust sprinkled on Zhou Yun's face, the sun was shining in the cloudless sky, and the Sakaya River was flowing murmuringly, shimmering with silver light.

"Nephew."

A kind of ancient, simple language that Zhou Yun had never heard before rang out on the riverbank, but Zhou Yun understood it inexplicably.

"What kind of person do you want to become when you grow up?"

A dark-skinned adult man wearing a black robe asked in a low voice.

"... Kind..."

A clear, simple, and immature voice rang out from the riverbank. It was a boy's voice, without a trace of impurity.

"... A good person, a kind good person."

As if with some stubbornness, the child emphasized again.

The man in the black robe seemed to have heard something quite interesting, laughed low twice, and then slowly left.

Following his departure, Zhou Yun was able to see the child by the river clearly.

The child was wearing simple clothes, had long brown hair, and was washing a beast's bone in the water with his hands.

He slowly raised his head, looking at the bone covered in water droplets.

Zhou Yun was able to see his face clearly—it was a Central Asian face, with slightly brown skin, brown eyes, and a laurel wreath made of laurel branches pinned to his head.

"Hua Hua Hua Di Huang?" Zhou Yun spoke softly.

"..." The boy did not speak, just lowered his head, seemingly thinking about something.

"Yellow Weasel?"

The boy still did not respond.

Zhou Yun stroked his chin, considering whether to just kick him with a flying kick.

(End of chapter)