Chapter 264: The Master of Ten Thousand Changes of Humanity!

The battlefield, which had just been in uproar, suddenly fell silent.

The traitors of the Black Legion seemed restrained by their own power armor, stiffening one after another in place.

All armored vehicles and tanks stopped on the spot as if invisible hands had reached out from the void and drained the power from these machines.

Achela seemed to truly see those hands: white, round hands with blue arms, reaching out from beneath the veil of reality to cut off the power of all machinery belonging to the Black Legion on the battlefield.

Only the Daemon Engines could move under the control of those hands, but even so, they were powerless to launch an assault on the fortress of the Ultramarines.

Achela felt a chill run down his spine as he gazed at the scene before him.

What exactly was happening? A conspiracy of the Chaos Gods, or an accidental miracle?

How should he respond to this situation?!

It wasn't written in the Codex either!

But soon, what happened next made Achela lean toward believing it was a miracle.

A burning golden meteor crashed down from the sky, plunging into the ranks of the Black Legion, its scorching flames incinerating the bodies of the traitors.

The wings of the Living Saint Celestine spread across the earth, while her Twin Saintess soared above, holding her silver blade high.

Then, Astra Militarum soldiers clad in Cadian uniforms marched onto the battlefield, shouting "Cadia Stands!"

A girl with a scar on her face hovered in mid-air, her eyes flickering with psychic fire; with a sudden raise of her hands, the out-of-control Hell Dragons in the sky burst apart under the psychic power, raining down as chunks of blood.

Afterward, the Knights arrived. Before these massive machines, the immobilized Black Legion was like living targets, falling one by one under their crushing advance.

Commanding the Knights was a towering Machine Priest draped in a deep crimson robe, his entire body covered in metal and machinery.

Achela knew that within the Adeptus Mechanicus, the less flesh one had, the higher one's status; this figure must be at least a Magos.

This was a reinforcement.

Achela quickly made his judgment.

But what happened next made him hesitate slightly.

Among the "reinforcements" slaughtering the Black Legion, two figures appeared that were almost blasphemous.

The Aeldari.

An Aeldari woman, draped in a long skirt and radiating a pale aura of death, wielded a strange bone longsword, claiming the lives of the Black Legion.

Beside her followed an Aeldari warrior clad in scarlet armor.

How could those blasphemous xenos be mixed with the Living Saint, the Cadian warriors, and the Adeptus Mechanicus?!

The Black Legion outside the church had been swept clean by the Ultramarines and these reinforcements.

Yet the pressure within Svatius Achela's heart did not lessen at all; he looked at these people before him with hesitation.

From the fall of Cadia to the flight of Klasis of the Ice Moon, and then to that holy cargo.

Svatius Achela already knew the purpose of these people.

The Archmagos Belisarius Cawl had an appointment with the Lord of Octarius, transporting a holy cargo to Macragge.

And the Aeldari, hoping to ally with humanity, had assisted the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl along the way.

The Aeldari, xenos full of lies and unworthy of trust.

Especially the Farseer Yvraine, upon whom was clearly entwined a blasphemous power not belonging to the material universe, pale as death itself.

The power that could halt all machinery also made Achela suspicious, but the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl explained it was the power of the Machine God.

Had it not been for the presence of an Inquisitor and a Living Saint alongside them, Achela truly could not have trusted them.

Now, this suspicious expeditionary force sought the help of the Ultramarines, requesting a voidship to take them to Octarius.

Achela began to ponder whether he should trust them.

If his Company Commander Sicarius were here, he would undoubtedly make the judgment with pride and confidence.

Execute the xenos, imprison these suspicious individuals.

But Achela had followed more than one Company Commander.

He still remembered his former Second Company Commander, Lord Titus, a far more humble warrior.

Company Commander Titus seemed to believe that many things in this universe could not be answered by the teachings of the Codex; he was willing to act in ways that somewhat defied the Codex, even bordering on rebellion, as long as it was for the Hua Di Huang, the Imperium, and humanity.

If it were him, he would likely temporarily trust this expeditionary force and guard them on their journey to the Hera Fortress on Macragge.

Svatius Achela asked himself what judgment he should make.

Sicarius's, or Titus's?

Achela fell silent for a long time, then slowly turned his gaze toward this expeditionary force before him.

"The Blade of Glory is in orbit; I will send men to guard you to Macragge."

If he made the wrong decision, let the Hua Di Huang punish him.

Soon, a squadron of Stormbirds descended from the sky, carrying the expeditionary force to the Strike Cruiser Blade of Glory in orbit.

But the Stormbirds had limited capacity; the majority of the army's forces had to be left behind on Laphis.

The Knights of the Taranis family chose to garrison here, defending this Temple World; the warriors of the 184th Cadian Regiment, apart from a small elite contingent, were also stationed here.

And the situation for the expeditionary force boarding the Blade of Glory was not good either.

Under the watch of the guards, they were locked into the Restricted Zone.

It was a chamber deep within the ship, wrapped in steel, dead silent inside, and filled with the smell of machine oil produced by running machinery.

This displeased the Aeldari; the Thousand Faces, who had always guarded Yvraine, began to complain first.

He kept muttering things like "ill-mannered monkeys," but the guards merely stood silently around the room, staring fixedly at every move the expeditionary force made.

This made Xiang Xiang Leina slightly worried.

She leaned against the transport vehicle carrying the holy relic, surrounded by dozens of elite warriors from the 184th Cadian Regiment.

One of the warriors said nothing, but simply sat down beside Xiang Xiang Leina.

"The guard is strict," Xiang Xiang Leina couldn't help but sigh, then looked at the 184th Cadian Regiment warrior beside her.

Or rather, looking at Zhou Yun, who had smeared body clay on his face to change his appearance and mixed into the 184th Regiment,

Zhou Yun's build was no different from that of an ordinary Ashford person, so it was easy to disguise himself as a mortal using body clay.

"Not trusting Spirit Race trinkets was the right call."

"You don't know how disgusting the Spirit Race is. These aliens style themselves a superior race, but in reality they do nothing but filthy things."

Zhou Yun glanced at the surrounding guards and the two Spirit Race members and said:

"Otherwise, the dark prince-like filthy evil god wouldn't have been born from their race either."

Zhou Yun's voice wasn't very loud, and the surrounding guards might not hear it clearly, but the Spirit Race members with hearing far beyond ordinary people could definitely hear it.

The Thousand Faces beside Ifreann, that guard, suddenly cast his gaze toward Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun merely shrugged and continued speaking to Xiang Xiang Leina: "For example, look at that guy in red armor beside Ifreann."

"Thousand Faces Visachi. He was once Larian Songstar, the Avenger Chaplain of the Blade of Yea-Tan Silent Edge Shrine, Ifreann's teacher."

"Through his teaching of Ifreann, a certain different feeling arose in his heart — you could say he fell in love with his own student."

"When Ifreann left the Silent Edge Shrine, his heart nearly shattered. Later, when he heard that Ifreann had run off to fight in the gladiatorial arena at Komor, he didn't hesitate at all, abandoned everything, and disguised himself as a nightmare warrior to guard by Ifreann's side."

"Of course, Ifreann actually didn't feel a thing for him. Thousand Faces was simply simping."

As Zhou Yun spoke, Thousand Faces, standing to one side, gripped the Howling Silence Sword Asuvar tightly in his hand.

Ifreann's face twitched at first; her expression toward Thousand Faces shifted from awkward to an indifferent coldness.

Xiang Xiang Leina noticed this scene and couldn't help but click her tongue slightly: "The Spirit Race sure are emotionally rich."

"But it's precisely because of these two Spirit Race members that the Assault Terminators are very wary of us — can we sneak out?" Xiang Xiang Leina asked softly.

Zhou Yun shrugged his shoulders; this posed him not the slightest difficulty.

Although Zhou Yun didn't plan to go directly through the Arbitrator's Gate to resurrect Ji Li Man, the map still had to be obtained.

That way, many things would be much more convenient to handle.

The raccoon cat tail hidden beneath Zhou Yun's clothes twitched slightly, and the raccoon cat glasses beneath the body clay flickered in and out of view.

This prop called the Raccoon Cat Set rapidly wove an illusion, shrouding Zhou Yun.

Borrowing the illusion produced by the Raccoon Cat Set, a Cadian 184th Regiment soldier with a face identical to Zhou Yun's current one crawled out of the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket.

Zhou Yun had disguised himself as that soldier's appearance. The instant the soldier crawled out, Zhou Yun swiftly pulled a Blind Spot Star from the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket and pinned it to his chest.

In everyone else's line of sight, Zhou Yun nearly vanished on the spot.

But in the eyes of the guards deceived by the illusion woven by the raccoon cat glasses, nothing had changed at all.

This trick was something Zhou Yun had learned from Morpheaston.

Relying on the Phantom Thief DX Set's built-in sound-dampening and concealment functions, paired with the Blind Spot Star's nearly flawless hiding ability, Zhou Yun soundlessly made his way to the wall of this confinement area.

The walls surrounding this confinement area were all thick ceramite plates; under normal circumstances, it was nearly impossible to pass through them.

But for Zhou Yun, obstacles on the purely physical level simply did not exist.

He casually pulled the Arbitrator's Ring from the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket and placed it against the wall, then dove straight into it.

When he poked his head out, he found himself already standing in the corridor of the Blade of Glory.

Zhou Yun swiftly and without a trace stuffed the Arbitrator's Ring back into the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket, then gave the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket a shake.

Hirandri Veilwalker, wearing the Blind Spot Star, hurriedly crawled out of the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket.

Hirandri Veilwalker had been silently watching everything outside from within the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket the whole time.

She couldn't help but look at Zhou Yun and sigh:

"Boss, with you around, what do we need Sigour for?"

"What kind of human Grim Reaper are you? Aren't you the human Changer of the Ways?!"

(End of this chapter)