Chapter 247

Celestine fell into a brief and eerie silence; she lowered her wings, her figure looming, her gaze wandering, seemingly in a state between dreaming and waking.

Xiang Xiang Leina couldn't help but cast her gaze toward Celestine; she could sense that the Warp nature of Celestine was becoming obvious; she seemed to be diving into the Warp.

Xiang Xiang Leina saw it.

She saw Celestine's body falling bit by bit into the dim yellow firmament, falling into the battlefield and the mortuary.

Countless skeletons were piled into mountains; what made Xiang Xiang Leina's hair stand on end was that every skeleton had Celestine's face.

It was as if every time this Living Saint died and was resurrected, she would leave a corpse on this mountain of skeletons.

"My Lord!" Celestine shook the orange-red firmament like dusk and prayed loudly: "Please enlighten me!"

The skeletons began to squirm; those pieces of flesh, viscera, and skeletons that filled the entire world piled up layer by layer, nesting into each other like puzzles to form a flesh-and-blood idol.

Xiang Xiang Leina's body couldn't help but tremble.

Looking at those shriveled skin fragments attaching bit by bit to the flesh-and-blood idol, giving this idol a form,

Xiang Xiang Leina was also able to see the identity of this idol—this was the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's idol, an idol pieced together from skeletons and death.

This posture made Xiang Xiang Leina couldn't help but think of the Death-Worshipping Sect on Ashford.

How could the sacred Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and the Living Saint be in such a posture?

Could it be that the Death-Worshipping Sect's worship of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang was the correct one?

Or, was it really as Inquisitor Greyfax said, Celestine was actually corrupted by the Warp?

That idol slowly opened its eyelids composed of human skin; a pair of hollow, black-tinged eyes were like two pitch-black, cold suns.

Xiang Xiang Leina vaguely heard the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's voice.

"Prime Mover."

"Doraemon."

"The Triple Will of the Omnissiah."

Doraemon?

Xiang Xiang Leina was stunned for a moment, then widened her eyes slightly.

Zhou Yun?!

But before Xiang Xiang Leina could think carefully, Saint Celestine, hanging in mid-air, slowly opened her eyes.

Those overlapping hallucinations also disappeared before Xiang Xiang Leina.

Celestine looked at Belisarius Cawl, but her gaze carried some hesitation, seemingly not understanding the revelation she had received from the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang herself.

"What did you see?" Inquisitor Greyfax's gaze pierced toward Celestine sharply: "Those lasers, was that inexplicable help the hope you spoke of?"

Celestine was silent for a moment, then shook her head: "No."

"We received help, but it did not come from the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, nor did it come from the hope you were leading us to seek."

As she spoke, Celestine's gaze fell on Belisarius Cawl.

"This help came from the one you worship."

"... The Hua Hua Hua Di Huang is the Omnissiah." Belisarius Cawl responded plainly.

As a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Belisarius Cawl had firmly believed for ten thousand years that the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang was the Omnissiah.

"Have you forgotten that the Omnissiah has a Triple Will?" Celestine shook her head and asked Cawl softly.

Belisarius Cawl was clearly stunned for a moment.

Xiang Xiang Leina had once heard Zhou Yun talk about it.

The so-called Triple Will of the Machine God, three in one.

The Machine God is a void and abstract existence, a collection of all data, knowledge, laws, and technology, an unnamable non-material existence.

The Omnissiah is the incarnation of the Machine God in the material universe, supervising the operation of all machines and laws in the material universe; most members of the Adeptus Mechanicus believe that the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang is the Omnissiah, or that the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang is partially the Omnissiah.

Finally, the Prime Mover, an existence that goes without saying, the power source of all living things and machines, the first driving force of the universe's birth.

The Prime Mover was called Doraemon by the flesh-and-blood God-Hua Hua Hua Di Huang in the hallucination that Celestine sank into.

In Xiang Xiang Leina's memory, this strange name Doraemon seemed to have only been used by Zhou Yun.

Could it be that Zhou Yun is really one of the Triple Wills of the Machine God? This seems to explain the origin of Zhou Yun's strange tools.

Also, is Zhou Yun really nearby?

Just as Xiang Xiang Leina was trying hard to think, Archmagos Belisarius Cawl seemed to accept Celestine's statement and nodded slightly.

The snowstorm ceased, and the ground troops of the Black Legion had not yet had time to move toward the expeditionary team; the expeditionary team was able to gain a brief respite and moved quickly toward the target guided by Celestine.

Only Inquisitor Greyfax hummed coldly and said disdainfully: "That witch has deceived the servant of the Omnissiah again."

Upon hearing this, Xiang Xiang Leina, who was walking beside Greyfax, couldn't help but pause her steps: "What she said might be true."

"Perhaps it really was the Prime Mover who provided us with assistance..."

Greyfax was stunned upon hearing this, looking at Xiang Xiang Leina somewhat blankly.

"You even understand the faith of the Adeptus Mechanicus? You actually understand the faith of the Adeptus Mechanicus!" Greyfax looked at Xiang Xiang Leina with eyes that were simply like looking at an Ogryn who could do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Xiang Xiang Leina knew Greyfax had no ill intent, but she still felt a sense of being humiliated.

So angry!

If Zhou Yun were really nearby, she would have to ask him if he had any strange tools to improve intelligence.

If he really is one of the Triple Wills of the Omnissiah, making people smarter shouldn't be difficult, right?

Ah, Holy Doraemon above! Grant me wisdom!

Who the hell keeps muttering about me!

Zhou Yun couldn't help but frown; he could vaguely feel something muttering about him, and it was on this planet.

But he also felt that the person muttering about him was somewhat familiar, a bit dull and silly...

"My Lord! Kaso has brought that sorcerer kid back!"

Before Zhou Yun could study who the one who kept muttering about him was,

The Death Company Dreadnought "Kaso the Cursed" walked to Zhou Yun's side, carrying a Black Legion Terminator sorcerer whose head had been crushed.

Zhou Yun withdrew his mind and looked at this ancient warrior who had originally fallen into madness.

Kaso had once fought side-by-side with Zhou Yun in Ashford, together solving the Tyrant sent by the Tyranid Hive Mind.

In the later Battle of Baal, it was also he who held back Ang'rath in the Angel Citadel, persisting until Sanguinius's resurrection.

Since Sanguinius's resurrection, Kaso's mental state seemed much better.

Now, his mechanical arm shoulder was painted blue, becoming one of Zhou Yun's twenty-two Doraemon Chosen.

He wasn't equipped with too many tools; he just became an extremely terrifying god of war on the battlefield after being accelerated by Zhou Yun's acceleration spring.

A Black Legion entrenched in this fortress, which was as swift as an Aeldari Dreadnought, experienced the terror within.

Zhou Yun looked at the surrounding architecture while stuffing that Terminator sorcerer into his four-dimensional pocket.

This was a fortress, but the style was completely different from humanity's, revealing a delicate and slender beauty; various arches and spires that seemed to challenge the limits of physics were interspersed among the buildings.

This building was left behind by the Aeldari.

The area near the Eye of Terror was once the core of the Aeldari Empire, and Crassus, the ice moon, was also one of its colonies.

It was just that when Slaanesh was born, the entire Aeldari Empire vanished accordingly.

In Sanguinius's prophecy, the mountain peak under Zhou Yun's feet was named the Mountain of Morai-Heg in the Aeldari language, translated into human language as the Mountain of the Crone.

On it was the Webway Gate that once served as the traffic hub of the Aeldari Empire, and the fortress Zhou Yun was in now was the fortress on the only path to the Webway Gate in the past, and also the only path for the expeditionary team.

Abaddon clearly also noticed this place, sending a Terminator-armored Astartes sorcerer to lead a team of Black Legion to guard here in advance.

Logically speaking, this Aeldari fortress was easy to defend and hard to attack, and even the expeditionary team would have to have a bloody battle to pass through.

When Zhou Yun kept changing positions to shoot at the ships in orbit, he incidentally let his twenty-two guards clean up this place.

Astartes sorcerers were indeed troublesome; he was prepared and could even use his own psychic power to suppress the machine spirit to a certain extent and resist Zhou Yun's control over the machine spirit.

But Zhou Yun played a little trick, and with the Doraemon Chosen equipped with secret tools, he cleaned up the place in three or two strokes.

Most of the Black Legion corpses had already entered Zhou Yun's four-dimensional pocket.

But Zhou Yun still left one, placing it in the very center of the fortress, ensuring that the expeditionary team would see it at first glance after entering the door.

Zhou Yun didn't want to be someone who did good deeds without leaving a name; this corpse was left here to emphatically remind the expeditionary team that someone was helping them in the dark.

This would make it easier for Zhou Yun to gain their trust later... Of course, gaining their trust wasn't difficult to begin with.

Just letting them see Sanguinius would be enough; this was easy.

It was just that Sanguinius staying out of the four-dimensional pocket for too long carried the risk of being watched by the Four Gods, so he had to let them have the most basic trust and be willing to enter the four-dimensional pocket themselves first.

"My Lord."

Rafen jumped down from the watchtower with a Bamboo-Copter and landed by Zhou Yun's side.

"They are coming soon."

Zhou Yun nodded slightly and pulled his Anywhere Door out of his four-dimensional pocket.

When the expeditionary team saw that fortress, they were already prepared for a bloody battle.

The Despoiler Abaddon was a general tempered by ten thousand years of war; although the previous twelve Black Crusades seemed to have failed, Abaddon's command experience was real.

He wouldn't miss occupying this fortress; Greyfax even vaguely saw figures in the fortress.

However, when everyone arrived before the fortress, the situation was somewhat unexpected.

They didn't receive any attack; the fortress gate was open, as if welcoming them.

Harboring vigilance, Greyfax scanned the fortress with her psychic power and didn't find any traces.

Xiang Xiang Leina also released her massive psychic power, and the roaring psychic vortex directly twisted off several slender spires,

But there were still no traces of any enemies; this made everyone in the expeditionary army feel strange.

They entered the fortress hall vigilantly, but the entire hall was empty and silent; there were a few traces of battle on the ground, seemingly a battle that wasn't very intense had occurred.

And in the very center of the hall, a Black Legion corpse was lying.

From the paint on his body, it should be a scion of Lorgar Aurelian.

In Abaddon's Black Legion, there is no distinction of origin; scions of any Primarch can join it.

The expeditionary team was silent for a time.

A corpse, almost intact, and had just died not long ago.

His brain must have retained a large amount of memory, which could solve the mystery of the situation before them.

But the position where this corpse was placed was too deliberate.

Abaddon couldn't have sent only one person to guard here; clearly, someone had killed all the Black Legion in the fortress, cleaned up the other corpses, and specifically left one corpse for the expeditionary team to use to obtain information.

There might be a problem with this.

Looking at this scene, Greyfax frowned tightly.

"I'll go see what's in his brain—" Xiang Xiang Leina said.

"No." Greyfax immediately interrupted Xiang Xiang Leina's words: "You are a precious combat force."

Xiang Xiang Leina's combat force was too precious to be lost.

The most critical thing was, if there was Chaos corruption in this, letting Xiang Xiang Leina lose control—the loss of control of an Alpha-level psychic—might cause heavy losses to the entire expeditionary team.

There were quite a few in the team who could read memories.

Greyfax herself could, Archmagos Cawl could also through some technological means, and the Blood Angels led by Captain Karlaen could also read the memories in the gene-seed through the nerve sheath between the cervical spine and the spine... According to the records within the Inquisition, the Blood Angels' organ seemed unusually developed.

The problem was that Archmagos Belisarius Cawl couldn't take this risk, and the information that Captain Karlaen and his men could read from the nerve sheath was limited.

And there was a theory within the Inquisition that the Blood Angels might have deliberately concealed their mutations; this mutation might be related to the hunger for flesh and blood, but the Inquisition had no evidence to rule out that there might be traps related to this in this corpse.

Captain Karlaen and his Terminators were equally precious.

Calculating this way,

Greyfax herself was the least important one.

This made Greyfax couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Lacking herself was indeed the one with the least impact and the most controllable risk.

Xiang Xiang Leina, the Archmagos, and Captain Karlaen were the ones whose sacrifice would affect the entire expeditionary team.

"I'll explore his memory." Greyfax threw the seal of the Inquisition at her waist to Xiang Xiang Leina.

Before Xiang Xiang Leina could speak, Greyfax said: "If I show any signs of corruption, you must kill me immediately and then act as my Inquisitor."

"This power and duty will be maintained until you think it should be terminated, but if you want to truly master the power of an Inquisitor, you need to go to Terra in the future to report to the Ordo Hereticus and accept review."

"Also..." Greyfax glanced at Celestine; she knew Xiang Xiang Leina understood what she meant.

Xiang Xiang Leina held the seal of the Inquisition and nodded slightly to Greyfax.

Greyfax showed a satisfied expression.

She walked to the front of that corpse, slowly extended her finger toward the corpse's head, and psychic light points flickered at her fingertips...

"Warmaster, why did you come?!"

(End of chapter)