Chapter 407: Is It Possible the Wetware Has Malfunctioned?

"My Lord, a few days ago I heard the nuns preach that you are the Prime Mover, one of the Triple Will of the God of All Machines."

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien walked quickly beside Zhou Yun, complaining like one pouring out bitterness:

"Could you not discuss with the Fabricator General to have him reduce his size a little?"

"Even if it were only to the size of the Grand Magos Belisarius Cawl."

"His size is too large; usually, when the High Lords meet, they must tear off the entire roof of the hall, use six cranes to stuff him in, and then seal the roof back up."

"In the hall, the other High Lords often occupy half the space, while he alone occupies the other half."

"Every time he comes to the meeting, it is an astronomical expense."

As he spoke, the expression on Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien's face turned bitter.

As Imperial Prime Minister, he is the convener of the entire High Lords' Council; although he holds no voting rights, the convening of the entire High Lords' Parliament is directly his responsibility; he is the gatekeeper of the High Lords' Parliament.

This has left Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien deeply troubled by the massive, difficult-to-transport Fabricator General, what was his name again?

Zhou Yun pondered for a moment and also recalled the specific name of that Mars Fabricator General; it was, after all, a very long, High Gothic name, extremely difficult to pronounce.

In short, that Fabricator General was causing Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien great worry.

This visit to the Mars Fabricator General was also mediated by Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien as the intermediary.

That Mars Fabricator General, almost immediately upon arriving on Terra, submitted a document of condemnation to Guilliman, accusing him of being ambitious, using Belisarius Cawl to spread the false faith of Saint Dora A-Me, intending to interfere in Martian politics and shake the Treaty of Olympia personally signed by the Omnissiah.

Therefore, facing Zhou Yun, this false god, he naturally would not be as extremely enthusiastic toward Zhou Yun as the Rogue Trader representative Kanya Kania Danda.

In fact, his attitude could be described as cold, with almost no reception at all.

Only a few Servitor Guards, acting mechanically, stood at the door, waiting for Zhou Yun and Imperial Prime Minister Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien.

This made Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien feel somewhat fearful deep in his heart.

That Mars Fabricator General, relying on the unique position of the Adeptus Mechanicus, has always maintained an aloof attitude.

Other High Lords, even if they opposed the Primarchs in their hearts, dared not expose their true attitudes on the surface.

But the Mars Fabricator General was different; the Fabricator General held the Treaty of Olympia and did not even show the due respect to the Primarchs.

Or rather, in the eyes of the Fabricator General, the only one he ought to respect was the Omnissiah.

A direct visit to the Mars Fabricator General like this would likely escalate the conflict, even further creating a rift between Terra and Mars.

Now that two Primarchs have returned, everything is a time of change; under normal circumstances, Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien would surely cry out that this is political suicide.

But this is the decision of the Primarch and Saint Dora A-Me.

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien looked at Zhou Yun with fear, wondering if Saint Dora A-Me was about to demonstrate his authority as the God of All Machines.

If that is the case, then let us hope that Udd Udiya Laski is not blinded by pride, failing to see the radiance of Saint Dora A-Me.

The Servitor Guards slowly opened the heavy sliding doors; Zhou Yun, bringing Nobi Huang Daxiong, and Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien together walked into the dim room behind the doors.

Scalding, dim-yellow steam swept past Zhou Yun's ankles; the walls around were completely devoid of the Gothic decorations of the Imperium, containing only some pipes, valves, and gears twisting; all the sounds emitted by these mechanical structures resonated according to a harmonious and orderly precise rhythm.

Combined with the scraping sounds of the Tech-Priests dragging their non-human bodies across the floor, the splashing sounds of lubricating oil mixed with holy oil, and the murmurs from the mouths of those half-human, half-machine servitors, they blended into a low mechanical hymn.

And at the center of this mechanical hymn was a dwarf, pitifully short.

That dwarf wore heavy crimson robes of the Adeptus Mechanicus; the robes were painted with a twelve-toothed gear pattern, and beneath the robes were two grotesque faces.

One face was decayed and rotting, with black flesh fixed by iron wires; the other was covered in smooth bronze, using translucent green glass as eyeballs.

His two withered claws were curled beneath the robes, twisting the two heads to look at Zhou Yun.

"Master of the Machine God's Faithful, Grand Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Lord Udd Udiya Laski, Fabricator General of Mars."

The Tech-Priests standing around spoke simultaneously, precise as machines, introducing the dwarf's identity.

This actually made Zhou Yun slightly stunned.

According to the information Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien and Zhou Yun had learned from others, this Mars Fabricator General had long since gone far down the path of mechanical modification; his form was massive like a mechanical fortress, more hideous than Belisarius Cawl, almost impossible to be called human.

Zhou Yun was therefore confident and unafraid.

If the part of mechanical modification is large? That is excellent; he wields the power of the Malefic Arts domain, possessing unparalleled control over machines and machine spirits; with just a slight movement of his mind, he can control the operation and power of machines.

A person with such extensive modification as the Mars Fabricator General, in front of Zhou Yun, would be a hard-working slave, not even requiring a whip.

But standing before Zhou Yun was a dwarf with little mechanical modification; the power of the Malefic Arts domain has little control over someone with so much flesh.

Just as Zhou Yun intended to reach into his four-dimensional pocket to take the Heavenly Punishment Whip and tame this Fabricator General by physical means, he suddenly noticed that countless cables extended from behind that dwarf.

Those cables, like pythons, were intertwined and converged, wriggling to insert themselves into hundreds of nodes on the wall behind the dwarf; various strange and bizarre machines of Zhou Yun writhed on that wall; energy converters, oxygen evolution devices, Cogitator Arrays, wire coils, and steam engines together pieced together this machine hidden behind the room's wall.

In an instant, Zhou Yun understood; this entire room was the true Mars Fabricator General.

Over hundreds of years, he had constantly modified himself, constantly expanding his body, finally accumulating into this huge, heavy, and bizarre Cogitator Box before them; that flesh-and-blood dwarf was merely a terminal extended from him.

But this made it much simpler.

"Fabricator General Udd-Ura," Zhou Yun spoke softly.

That massive machine emitted a buzzing vibration, as if this Fabricator General was expressing dissatisfaction toward Zhou Yun.

But Zhou Yun's will also penetrated into the body of the Mars Fabricator General at this moment, his body entering those tens of thousands of complex mechanical components.

In an instant, every cable, every component, every coil of the Fabricator General was exposed before Zhou Yun.

The will of the Fabricator General and the machine spirit were mixed together, so powerful, so fierce, even stronger than the machine spirits of the ships and Titans Zhou Yun had tamed before.

But Zhou Yun now had the faith of almost the entire Terra supporting him; he used a little power and directly wrapped his will around the will of the Fabricator General.

Zhou Yun felt everything of this Fabricator General; his remaining primitive flesh tissues, still floating in the iron can, trembled slightly.

Fine cables pierced into the Mars Fabricator General's remaining one-fifth of a brain, extending his thoughts throughout the entire Cogitator Box.

Zhou Yun could read these thoughts, cut off these thoughts, and impart power to these thoughts.

He read the deepest fear of this Mars Fabricator General.

"The Golden Wang Zuo is about to fail."

This Mars Fabricator General discovered this point hundreds of years ago; he felt fear because of it.

"Within five hundred and thirty-seven standard Terra years, I have made no progress, while the functions of the Golden Wang Zuo continue to degrade."

"I estimate, in the best-case scenario, it will completely fail within a few centuries."

"If it fails, then it is over."

"The end of all things."

Zhou Yun read the thoughts of the Mars Fabricator General.

"In the name of the Omnissiah, I will never let the Golden Wang Zuo fail, never let the end of all things come."

"I need wisdom, I need more, more, more wisdom, I need to be closer to the Omnissiah."

For hundreds of years, the Mars Fabricator General had constantly attempted to repair the Golden Wang Zuo; he had made many sacrifices, consumed many resources, even dared to employ the dark wisdom of xenos, but ultimately achieved no effect.

Thus, he believed this was because his wisdom was insufficient, he was not close enough to the Omnissiah; he must acquire more wisdom, must further modify his flesh and blood body, using machines and Cogitator Arrays to expand his mind.

His body was discarded, unimportant parts of his brain were excised, countless machines were implanted around him, constantly expanding his mind.

He was like a bloated, grotesque queen, immersing himself in the center of a cold, dark hive, merely producing thought outward.

He could not move, could not feel, could only survive relying on the care of servitors, no different from an Astartes stuffed inside a Dreadnought.

These were not what caused the Fabricator General the most pain; the act of transforming oneself into machinery was undoubtedly approaching the Omnissiah, which was an honor for members of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Even if physically painful, he was mentally satisfied.

What truly drove the Mars Fabricator General to despair was: he had become so close to a mechanical form, yet still could not touch true wisdom.

He still knew nothing about how to repair the Golden Wang Zuo; he could not even find where the true problem lay.

This was not his fault, not this Fabricator General's fault.

Because the mechanical parts of the Golden Wang Zuo actually had no problems; Zhou Yun had already confirmed this with the Emperor. If there were problems, he would have used an item to fix them long ago; this was not difficult for him.

Zhou Yun continued watching the Mars Fabricator General's thoughts.

He feared Belisarius Cawl would seize his power, because once he lost the positions of Fabricator General and High Lord, he would be unable to obtain enough resources to maintain his massive body, unable to continue seeking a way to repair the Golden Wang Zuo.

He despised the Saint Dora A-Meow cult propagated by Cawl, but Zhou Yun still discovered a tiny bit of expectation, a tiny bit of fantasy in his heart: if Saint Dora A-Meow were truly the Prime Mover, then he must be able to repair the Golden Wang Zuo, preventing the end of all things from coming, right?

Zhou Yun gently grasped this thought, using the power of the Malevolent Arts Domain to endow this thought with momentum.

Soon, this thought, this idea, constantly expanded, occupying the vast majority of this Mars Fabricator General's mind.

"Mars Fabricator General Wuwula!" Zhou Yun shouted loudly.

The Tech-Priest beside him revealed an angry expression: "How dare you call the Fabricator General Wuwula?! How dare you—————"

"I am the Fabricator General Wuwula!"

A voice filled with excitement rang out from the room; that pygmy body knelt before Zhou Yun:

"My Lord! Fabricator General Wuwula salutes you. For ten thousand years, the Adeptus Mechanicus has lacked the will of the Machine God to guide us, like children without a father."

"However, today, you have finally descended before us."

"We beg you to bestow the great authority of the Machine God, repair the damaged Golden Wang Zuo, and delay the arrival of that final moment."

"Uh."

Zhou Yun hesitated for a moment:

"Not being able to repair the Golden Wang Zuo is actually not your fault."

"Have you considered that it is not the mechanical parts that have a problem, but the wetware parts?"

(End of this chapter)