Chapter 243

The north wind was biting, the cold snow was like a blade, the cloud layer pressing on the entire planet was as heavy as lead, and the snow underfoot was boundless, blurring the boundaries between the earth, mountains, and sky.

All of this constituted the planet under Xiang Xiang Leina's feet: Crassus, the ice moon of the Cadian system.

Xiang Xiang Leina walked on this snowfield, following behind this silent team.

Whether it was the mechanical friction sound from Archmagos Belisarius Cawl, the buzzing sound of the power hammer of the Blood Angels' 1st Company Captain Karlaen, the footsteps of the soldiers of the Cadian 184th Regiment, the sound of the Living Saint Celestine's wings flapping gently, or even the sound of the towering Knight Titan strolling in the snow, all were absorbed by this sea of snow.

Standing on such a snowfield, Xiang Xiang Leina even forgot the existence of the galaxy, almost mistakenly believing that the entire universe was just boundless snowfields and mountains.

But the roar that the wind and snow couldn't cover broke this illusion.

Xiang Xiang Leina raised her head and looked at the firmament behind her.

Fire burned through the cloud layer, which was so heavy it almost seemed solid, and a falling ship shining like a star streaked across the firmament of Crassus.

That was Archmagos Cawl's Ark Mechanicus, the Iron Soul.

The Ark Mechanicus was one of the most massive types of ships in the Imperium of Man, and this one of Archmagos Belisarius Cawl was especially massive.

By virtue of its own massive mass, it even briefly turned into a satellite of this cold planet, circling on the skyline.

Inquisitor Greyfax once told Xiang Xiang Leina: Every Ark Mechanicus is a great achievement of the Machine God, the afterglow of the technology of the Golden Age, and an ancient ship that is almost mythical.

Just to awaken the machine spirit of an Ark Mechanicus, the Mechanicus could even be willing to let an entire Forge World be destroyed.

But now, the Iron Soul had fallen in the struggle with the Vengeful Spirit.

Xiang Xiang Leina couldn't see any emotion from that Archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The remaining half of his face was hidden under a scarlet hood, and the rest was entirely composed of steel machinery; Xiang Xiang Leina sometimes even wondered if this Archmagos before her could still be considered human physiologically.

But Xiang Xiang Leina quickly banished these messy thoughts from her mind.

According to the plan, it was time for her to act.

The fall of the Iron Soul meant that the last stand of Marshal Amalrich of the Black Templars had also ended.

That Marshal of the Black Templars stubbornly chose to stay behind on the Iron Soul to cover the retreat.

But now that the Iron Soul had fallen, the Despoiler Abaddon and his Black Legion would step onto Crassus to hunt down Xiang Xiang Leina and her party.

The Knight Titan of House Taranis was so massive, and the Triaros transport carrying Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's precious holy relic was also not small in size.

Although the ion shields on the Knights and the fortress-level void shields installed by the Archmagos on the transport vehicle allowed them to avoid orbital bombardment, they also made them easy to expose...

Xiang Xiang Leina's psychically enhanced perception heard the roar of beasts coming from the skyline; it sounded like the voice of a giant dragon.

Abaddon's lackeys had arrived.

Xiang Xiang Leina settled her heart and mobilized her psychic power.

She felt the surging waves in the Empyrean.

Since the fall of Cadia, the tides in the Warp had risen to a terrifying level, almost pressing tightly against the veil of reality.

Xiang Xiang Leina now only needed to move her spirit slightly to mobilize the power in the Warp, much easier than before...

It was just that when mobilizing these powers, Xiang Xiang Leina could always hear dark whispers coming from the Warp.

Those words contained many inexplicable terms, seemingly containing treacherous dark knowledge, inducing Xiang Xiang Leina to accept this knowledge.

As long as Xiang Xiang Leina accepted it, her psychic power could go a step further and solve all the dilemmas before her.

Xiang Xiang Leina could vaguely hear such temptations coming from the tides rising and falling in the Warp.

But Xiang Xiang Leina was quite helpless.

She couldn't understand them!

She couldn't understand a single word of those obscure psychic theories and could only rely on pure instinct to mobilize psychic power.

Xiang Xiang Leina raised her hand gently, and the overlapping towering mountains before her emitted moans.

The snow accumulated for ten thousand years on dozens of high mountains turned into roaring beasts, charging down from the mountains, forming an avalanche that submerged everything before Xiang Xiang Leina.

In an instant, from the horizon to before Xiang Xiang Leina, everything in sight was submerged by the vast snow tide, as if a sea of clouds had fallen from the firmament.

Xiang Xiang Leina didn't know a single advanced psychic spell.

She could only crudely use psychic power to trigger such a large-scale avalanche to submerge all the traces left by the team before.

Inquisitor Greyfax had examined Xiang Xiang Leina's psychic talent.

The evaluation was that Xiang Xiang Leina's pure psychic power had reached the level of a Level 16 Alpha-level in the Inquisition's standards, or even higher among the 16 Alpha-levels.

But her level of psychic application...

Greyfax evaluated it as the level where, if placed in the Schola Progenium, she would be executed by a drill-abbot with an alloy hammer on the first day of class for poor performance.

Xiang Xiang Leina actually had no awareness of her current psychic power.

Her previous understanding of psychic grading was limited to fragmented terms like Alpha-level and Alpha+-level that she had heard from Zhou Yun.

Until Inquisitor Greyfax briefly explained the psychic grading within the Inquisition to Xiang Xiang Leina.

Inside the Inquisition, psychics are roughly divided into forty-eight levels.

From -7 level Omega to -1 level Sigma, these seven levels are the levels of blanks, representing the level of anti-psychic power.

Level 0 Rho represents ordinary people with pure non-psychic talent.

Level 1 Pi to Level 16 Alpha represent psychic levels under conventional circumstances.

Level 17 Alpha+ to Level 22 Zeta+ represent the upper limit of psychics allowed by the material universe; this part and those above it are collectively referred to as Alpha+.

Level 23 Eta+ to Omega+ represent the upper limit of psychic power for those who are not purely material existences.

Xiang Xiang Leina is about Level 16 Alpha, which is the limit among conventional mortal psychics; only one is born among every billion people.

In most cases, it is the level where they would be executed by an Inquisitor with a gun.

At higher levels, most Level 17 Alpha+ are complete lunatics; there are several Inquisitors within the Inquisition at this level.

And the Level 18 Beta+ above that is already the theoretical limit that the human brain can withstand; no matter how powerful the will, they will gradually lose their sanity.

Level 19 Gamma+ is the highest level of all registered human psychics in the Inquisition's records.

Level 20 Delta+ and Level 21 Epsilon+ above that are almost just theories; mortals are almost impossible to reach.

Level 22 Zeta+ is the limit of material structure; the realms above that no longer belong to the material world.

Inquisitor Greyfax told Xiang Xiang Leina that the Emperor is speculated within the Inquisition to be an Omega+ level psychic, perhaps even better.

Tzeentch's chosen Ahriman is also considered by the Inquisition to be a Level 23 Eta+ or higher figure.

Inquisitor Greyfax, as an expert in dealing with psychics and a psychic predecessor, emphatically warned Xiang Xiang Leina not to continue pursuing psychic power.

Xiang Xiang Leina is now stuck at the high position of Level 16 Alpha, which is already extremely dangerous.

At the Alpha+ level, the probability of losing control and falling into madness will increase exponentially.

Xiang Xiang Leina was tearful about this.

This psychic power wasn't something she wanted to grow either.

When in Cadia, the sword of a Slaaneshi Greater Daemon scratched Xiang Xiang Leina's cheek, destroying the scripture tattoo on her cheek.

Subsequently, Xiang Xiang Leina inexplicably fell into hallucinations and a high fever; it happened that the Great Rift opened at this time, and Xiang Xiang Leina's psychic power began to soar inexplicably.

She almost relied on the impulses between flesh and blood to release powerful psychic power, forcibly tearing apart the material body of that Slaaneshi Greater Daemon.

Xiang Xiang Leina smiled bitterly; although dangerous, this psychic power happened to be indispensable now.

Even at the risk of further growth in psychic power, Xiang Xiang Leina had to use it.

She exhaled gently, and the psychic power in her body surged again, stirring up the heavy cloud layer.

In an instant, the snowstorm raged, and dense snowflakes submerged the entire world.

This should be able to temporarily avoid Abaddon's tracking.

But Xiang Xiang Leina couldn't maintain it for too long; mobilizing a snowstorm in an entire region was a significant burden on her spirit. If maintained for a long time, Xiang Xiang Leina might not be able to completely avoid the influence of the Warp.

If Zhou Yun were here, he would probably take out some useful strange technological creation, and Xiang Xiang Leina wouldn't need to bear the pressure from the Warp...

This thought inexplicably rose in Xiang Xiang Leina's mind; she didn't know how that old friend was doing now.

"... Your resistance to Warp corruption is truly excellent." Inquisitor Greyfax watched Xiang Xiang Leina through her psychic goggles.

Her gaze carried scrutiny and caution, as if she were monitoring Xiang Xiang Leina, ensuring she wouldn't fall into madness.

But after the scrutiny, there was also some care deep in the Inquisitor's eyes.

The experience in Cadia made this Inquisitor believe in Xiang Xiang Leina's loyalty and regard Xiang Xiang Leina as her ally.

Xiang Xiang Leina couldn't help but smile bitterly.

This Inquisitor, who had once been reduced to a collection of Trazyn the Infinite, the Necron, was actually quite a good person.

No excessive fanaticism or extremism, carrying appropriate caution, loyal but also able to make flexible judgments according to the situation.

It's just...

Living Saint Celestine opened her wings slightly, and pale golden light sprinkled into the sea of snow, guiding the way for the expedition team.

"Pah! Witchcraft!" Greyfax cursed when she saw Celestine.

She always felt that Living Saint Celestine was some kind of witch contaminated by the Warp...

Snowflakes the size of fists slapped against the pitch-black power armor.

Gloster watched the snowstorm before him with anger.

It should have been him leading the Raptor unit to descend from the sky, take the head of Archmagos Belisarius Cawl of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and offer it to Warmaster Abaddon.

However, this inexplicable snowstorm suddenly blocked Gloster's plan, and the jump packs of the Raptor unit could not be activated under these circumstances.

"Damn it, could it be that there is a psychic powerful enough to change the weather on the opposite side?"

Gloster sensed the strangeness of this snowstorm.

However, although there was the obstruction of the snowstorm, Gloster knew that a Terminator sorcerer unit of Warmaster Abaddon had also launched an action.

If Gloster could lead his troops to bypass this snowstorm, there would be a chance to sandwich Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's expedition team in the middle.

Gloster was pacing in place while thinking, and suddenly, a red-and-pink wooden door appeared before his eyes.

"It's so cold, cold as the heart of Ferrus after Fulgrim beheaded him, bone-chillingly cold."

The wooden door opened slowly, and a sigh came from the door.

(End of chapter)