Chapter 423

Irtu's contradictory words made the High Lords present freeze for a moment, but they quickly returned to calm.

Isn't it normal for a High Lord to have some mental problems? Even among the high-level bureaucrats of the Empire, those without mental illness are a tiny minority.

Someone like Tiruien, who has served as Imperial Viceroy in such a high position for eighty years without any mental problems and even retains a conscience, is a rare gem that can't be found in ten thousand years.

Irtu's expression was slightly dull; he also realized that his words just now were a bit stupid.

He rubbed his brow fiercely, gritted his teeth, maintained his composure, and drove away the confusion brought by the nerve pain in his brain.

"Sorry." Irtu apologized for his loss of composure just now.

No one attacked Irtu for this; if losing composure at the High Lords' council should be blamed, the Fabricator General Uula, who occupied most of the council chamber and made a buzzing mechanical sound, should be the one blamed.

In fact, Irtu felt that he was in the best state he had been in for days.

The wave of reforms recently launched by Roboute Guilliman was too fierce, and this work would eventually fall on the Administratum. Whether Irtu opposed or supported those policies, he had to do more work.

Irtu even suspected whether Roboute Guilliman's goal was to work them conservatives to death at their posts to clear obstacles for his own reforms.

Monster, Irtu stared at Roboute Guilliman and thought in his heart, a twisted, ferocious, terrifying monster composed of overtime, administration, and pushing a new order with his own will.

Irtu once thought that Roboute Guilliman was just a mortal, but he had changed his mind now; how could he be worthy of being a mortal? He was a monster.

Although this was the first time Irtu had seen Roboute Guilliman with his own eyes, Irtu had seen all the decrees issued by Guilliman.

For an Administratum official like Irtu, looking at the decrees issued by a person could understand a person better than looking at the person himself.

Guilliman was a monster full of ideals, hope, and so-called enterprising spirit; he used his terrifying administrative ability that was almost blasphemous to force the order he formulated onto others.

If such a Primarch were willing to maintain Imperial law, how good it would be; then Imperial law would operate in the most rigorous and perfect posture, just like the most exquisite machine.

Irtu sighed in his heart.

But Irtu would not sit still and wait for death; as a mortal, he had to fight against Guilliman, this administrative monster.

He had a weapon, a weapon that could fight against Guilliman.

This weapon was forged by Guilliman himself ten thousand years ago.

Ten thousand years ago, after the end of the Great Heresy, Guilliman inherited the political legacy of the hero Malcador and built the current High Lords' council system.

This system was so rigorous that even Guilliman himself could not bypass the High Lords' council to push his own reforms.

Irtu wanted to use the High Lords' council, this weapon forged by Guilliman, to destroy Guilliman's own reforms.

"Diligent work is bound to make people exhausted; a small loss of composure should not be condemned."

Guilliman spoke at this time, smiled slightly at Irtu and said:

"And as Lord Irtu said, let us start today's first topic."

Irtu was slightly surprised by Guilliman's cooperation.

His gaze fell on Roboute Guilliman, and he noticed that this son of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang had an ordinary handsomeness.

Although Irtu called Guilliman a monster in his heart, compared to Sanguinius, who was just wearing a perfect smile and looked like a sculpture beside Guilliman, Guilliman did indeed look more like a human.

It was like the leader portraits on those ancient coins Irtu once collected, carrying a charm almost like a mortal monarch.

Even if Irtu regarded Guilliman as an enemy, he had to admit that he possessed an instinctive, convincing temperament.

But Irtu did not let his feelings affect his judgment; his fingers were placed slightly on the table.

This was a gesture, a gesture to launch an attack.

"My lord." The High Admiral of the Navy, Merida Pereth, spoke first: "The Navy has noticed that you are assembling a fleet in the shipyards in orbit around Mars, Saturn's moons, and Jupiter, and you have also submitted huge orders for war weapons and ships to the Adeptus Mechanicus."

"Based on my duty as the High Admiral of the Navy of the Empire, please allow me to ask the reason for you doing this."

Guilliman smiled; he looked more like a monarch portrait engraved on a coin.

His gaze did not fall on the twelve High Lords, but raised slightly, as if looking at the ceiling, at that expanse of sky inlaid with morning stars, waiting to be galloped across.

"You should not ask me the reason for doing this; you should ask me what this will bring us."

"I will bring you only one thing; this is my answer to this fragmented and decaying era."

"When I returned from death and woke from my slumber, all I saw was war and sorrow; I saw the Empire torn in two by the evil power of the Warp, I saw the galaxy ravaged by traitors, and I saw the human Empire on the verge of extinction again."

"If not for Saint Doraemon and my brother Sanguinius standing before my eyes, my eyes would be filled with nothing but despair."

"From the day I woke up, I have been thinking about what I can do, what I must do, how I should save this dark era, and how I should overcome all difficulties."

"And I have only one answer; High Lords, I ask you to listen to this answer on behalf of humanity."

Guilliman's gaze withdrew slightly from the stars and fell on the High Lords in the mortal world.

"Crusade, my answer is only crusade."

In an instant, the air was cold and silent, as quiet as the birth of the world, before anything had made its first cry.

Irtu was dizzy; the possibility he feared most had happened; this monster would give the Empire a cruel crusade and reform.

"My lords, why are you silent?"

Guilliman's questioning voice exploded in the council chamber like thunder:

"I will not glorify how honorable this crusade will be; this crusade will not be started for honor."

"This crusade is started to fight against the catastrophe of the eternal night, this crusade is started to fight against the malice in the galaxy, and this crusade is started for the survival of humanity."

"This crusade is started to declare the unyielding nature of humanity, and it is started to retake the stars."

"If you lords want me to abandon this crusade, then I will tell you, never."

"Horus could not make me yield, Lorgar could not make me yield, and Fulgrim could not make me yield; I will never yield."

"Just as the Dark Gods could not make humanity yield, xenos daemons could not make humanity yield, and the darkness of the Old Night could not make humanity yield; humanity will never yield."

"This is the Indomitable Crusade."

"We don't have enough ships, we don't have enough war weapons, we don't have enough soldiers and Astartes..." The High Admiral of the Navy, Merida Pereth, said to Guilliman stutteringly.

"If we don't have ships, we will build them; if we don't have weapons, we will forge them; if we don't have soldiers, we will train them; and as for Astartes, I have my own preparations."

Guilliman did not cast his gaze toward Merida Pereth, but continued to say:

"My lords, we will not be more destitute than the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang ten thousand years ago."

"Are you comparing yourself to the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang? Are you comparing yourself to a god?" The Minister of the Adeptus Arbites, Avilisha Drakma, said in near horror.

"... My lords." It was not Guilliman who spoke, but Zhou Yun, who was sitting behind Guilliman.

Zhou Yun's fingers brushed lightly over the Hot Performance Clapperboard & Robot Director in his pocket, looking at the High Lords who had cast their gazes on him.

The acting skills bestowed upon him by the prop gave him a convincing temperament, and Zhou Yun took this opportunity to speak slowly:

"Some of you are familiar with me, some of you are still relatively unfamiliar with me, but I believe you all know————some people call me a god."

"Although I am actually not, I do know more about what a god is than anyone present, and I also know more about the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang than you do."

"I will tell you now what a god is; a god is essentially not something greater than a human; a god is something worse, more bastardly, and more extreme than a human."

"Look at what the gods in this galaxy are; a delusional, split-personality, schizophrenic patient addicted to fitness; a supernatural toilet father cheated by numerology; a hemiplegic, super-masculine, hyperthyroid, antisocial lunatic on a brass throne; a drug-addicted and sex-addicted patient; two ADHD mushrooms; a sprout-version, schizophrenic, super-masculine, hyperthyroid, antisocial lunatic; a supernatural toilet's toilet; a lying clown; a loser beaten up by a medieval knight; a galaxy-level autistic patient; a grim reaper without a scythe; a loser worse than a clown; a multi-species weakling stitched monster; and a starving ghost from outside the galaxy."

"You actually compare the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang to those things? Have you considered what the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang himself thinks?"

"The Hua Hua Hua Di Huang has never—even if he really is a god—but he has never admitted that he is a god."

"On the contrary, he claims to be a human, the same human as you, and the same human as us."

"Humanity is the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, and the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang is humanity."

"It is not Guilliman comparing himself to the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, but the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang believing that humanity can be on par with the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang."

Zhou Yun's voice revealed a strange seductive power, as if he were the most excellent speaker:

"This is the will of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang; the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang believes that humanity is the most excellent race and has the manifest destiny to unify the galaxy."

"How dare you violate the will of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, violate the manifest destiny of humanity, and refuse a crusade for humanity to retake the galaxy?"

Zhou Yun's words left the Minister of the Adeptus Arbites and the High Admiral of the Navy speechless.

This kind of matter concerning faith should be refuted by the Ecclesiarch, but the Ecclesiarch Baldo Strate, who originally belonged to the conservative faction, was already dead.

At this moment, the three High Lords of the conservative faction suddenly realized that losing the Ecclesiarch was not just as simple as losing a High Lord's vote.

They had essentially lost the power to explain what the will of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang was.

Irtu's face was dark; he understood that he had to launch a more direct attack.

(End of chapter)