Chapter 437: Both Shots Fired at Erebus

"I must kill Erebus."

Zhou Yun said calmly, slowly, and with certainty to Sanguinius and Guilliman.

This was certainly due to anger,

if Zhou Yun had not long ago made backups of the flesh of Xiang Leina, Sanguinius, Guilliman, and other acquaintances in his four-dimensional pocket,

if the Time Cloth could not reverse some things back to their complete state,

Xiang Leina would truly have died in Erebus's conspiracy this time.

But it was not only because of anger,

Erebus's attempt to kill Xiang Leina naturally had a purpose,

and that purpose could only be Zhou Yun himself.

Zhou Yun did not understand what Erebus wanted to do, but Zhou Yun would certainly not sit idly by.

Furthermore,

whenever something bad happened in this galaxy, Zhou Yun suspected Tzeentch first, and Erebus second.

Zhou Yun confirmed with the Truth Machine that Erebus's actions were quietly driven by Tzeentch.

Although Zhou Yun often mocked Tzeentch's plans for always backfiring, that did not mean Zhou Yun could let Tzeentch's plans develop.

The last reason was,

according to the intelligence brought by Xiang Leina after her resurrection, the person who attacked Xiang Leina was Lu Se.

The adoptive father of Lion El'Jonson, Primarch of the Dark Angels, and the head of the Fallen Angels. According to Zhou Yun's memories from his past life, shortly after the Great Rift opened, the Fallen Angel Daemon Prince Malphas attacked the Fortress of Solitude and released Lu Se.

Lu Se was obviously the Penitent in the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's prophecy.

He indeed fit the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's prophecy: "He repents for the errors he committed, yet because of the repentance itself, he walks the wrong path."

The primary villain is Erebus, the Penitent is Lu Se, and the rest are the Avenger and the Jealous One.

Who is it? The person with a grudge against Lu Se is Lion and the entire Dark Angels, but Lion's emotions toward Lu Se are much more complex; one word like "revenge" is hard to summarize.

As for the Dark Angels, their numbers are truly too many.

Then is it the person with a grudge against Erebus? That is also too many.

If every person with a grudge against Erebus were given a bolter and let them each fire one shot at Erebus,

then just producing those bolters would require a hundred Forge Worlds to operate at full capacity.

Zhou Yun had not yet grasped the train of thought regarding the Jealous One; there are also many possible candidates.

In any case, according to the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's prophecy, the fate of the galaxy for the coming period focuses mainly on these four people.

Zhou Yun must confront them no matter what to find the path of the future.

So whether based on personal emotion or practical necessity, Zhou Yun must kill Erebus.

"I agree with that."

Guilliman nodded toward Zhou Yun and said approvingly:

"If I were given a bolter and two bullets, with Fulgrim, Khârn, and Erebus before me, I would—"

"You would fire both shots at Erebus?" Zhou Yun raised his eyebrows and asked.

"I would fire both shots at Erebus, then use the bolter as a hammer to knock Khârn unconscious, and finally pick up Khârn and smash him to death on Erebus." Guilliman smiled slightly, displaying his bizarre sense of humor.

"Then why not add Fulgrim, pick up Fulgrim's tail, and whip Erebus hard?" Zhou Yun asked with a slight curiosity.

Guilliman paused for a moment, then said in a tone so rational it was almost honest: "I probably couldn't beat Fulgrim."

No need for "probably"; you just can't beat Fulgrim.

Zhou Yun and Sanguinius, sitting beside him, almost simultaneously thought this in their hearts.

Whether Guilliman did not notice the two of them twitching in expression or deliberately pretended not to see, he simply continued speaking:

"No matter what method Erebus used, the fact that he could directly attack the Solar System, specifically Mars, one of the three most important planets of humanity, already shows that the threat he brings now is no less than ten thousand years ago."

"The assault of Chaos and the Traitors is more fierce than I anticipated; now we do not have much time to wait slowly and accumulate strength."

"Whether it is the campaign against Erebus or the Indomitus Crusade, both must begin simultaneously at the fastest speed."

Both Zhou Yun and Sanguinius expressed approval of this point.

Now, Chaos demons, traitors, mutants, and aliens taking advantage of the chaos to cause trouble are everywhere in the galaxy, chaotic as the Old Night of the past.

Without the Indomitus Crusade, going deep into such a galaxy alone to campaign against Erebus would require bearing too much pressure.

Conducting the Indomitus Crusade and the campaign against Erebus simultaneously can both share the pressure across the galaxy and create forces in different regions of the galaxy to support Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun possesses the Anywhere Door, and from Lu Se's actions, it seems Erebus's group also possesses some kind of Warp movement ability.

At that time, both sides chasing each other, a battle could erupt anywhere in the galaxy.

"Then how do you intend to deal with those opposition and conservative factions on Terra?" Sanguinius asked softly.

Once the Indomitus Crusade begins, a huge amount of administrative and logistical pressure will be generated; Terra will become the key rear base and must not be lost.

According to Guilliman's previous plan, they would use the sausage-slicing tactic, piece by piece, to dismantle the conservatives imperceptibly.

This was not because Guilliman worried much about the conservatives.

Actually, whether conservatives or the Gaige Sect, they are a minority among billions of administrative officials; the truly majority are the silent moderates.

A direct, large-scale purge of the conservatives might cause the moderates to feel fear, thereby turning toward the conservatives or leading to an expansion of the purge, dealing another heavy blow to the Empire's already heavily burdened administrative system.

It is just that Erebus's sudden attack has disrupted the original arrangements.

Sanguinius looked at Guilliman, asking how Guilliman intended to handle the current situation.

If speaking of martial power, Sanguinius has nine ways to make Guilliman go back to sleep in a stasis field.

But if speaking of politics, Guilliman has nine ways to dismantle Sanguinius's Legion right in front of Sanguinius.

"To directly purge the conservatives, unless they act foolishly and launch an extreme offensive against us, causing the moderates to turn toward us," Sanguinius said thus.

Hearing this, Guilliman revealed a slight smile; he spoke calmly and softly: "Have they not already committed heinous crimes? For the sake of fighting for power and blocking the Indomitus Crusade, they betrayed the Empire and attacked Mars."

Saint Guilliman and Zhou Yun both froze for a moment.

"You," Zhou Yun vaguely grasped what Ji Li Man meant: "You're terrible."

"I need you to be a little terrible too," Ji Li Man said with a smile, looking at Zhou Yun. "Please have the Fabricator General immediately issue a condemnation of Terra."

"The content of the condemnation is this: based on the Adeptus Mechanicus' investigation, the former Master of the Administratum, Iltu, colluded with the current Imperial High Admiral, secretly controlling a large number of starships to ram the Ring of Iron, nearly causing catastrophic damage to Mars."

"This is slander!!! Out-and-out slander!!"

"It's a deliberate smear aimed squarely at me, at us, at the entire Administratum!!"

"This has to be something they staged themselves!!!"

In Iltu's private residence, inside a secret chamber, he howled and raged, so furious that he hurled the condemnation letter from Mars onto the wooden desk before him,

the Minister of Justice, Avellasha Drachma, High Admiral Merida Peres, and the Grand Master of the Assassin Temple watched this scene in silence,

the disaster that had struck Mars had taken them completely by surprise,

they had originally been gloating over the enormous blunder in the preparations for the Indomitus Crusade,

but what was even more unexpected was Mars' claim that the disaster had been deliberately caused by Iltu and High Admiral Merida to obstruct the Indomitus Crusade.

Iltu furiously denounced this as pure slander, a fabrication staged by Mars themselves,

but everyone present, Iltu himself included, knew that no one would believe them,

Ji Li Man could not possibly have destroyed so many fleets and wrecked a sixth of the Ring of Iron just to sling mud at them.

The most fatal point was that Merida, as one of the High Lords and the supreme leader of the Navy, could indeed have done such a thing.

And although the Minister of Justice and the Grand Master of the Assassin Temple had not been directly condemned by Mars,

if Ji Li Man wished, it would be easy to launch a simple investigation and sling the same mud onto the two of them as well.

"What shall we do, my lord!" High Admiral Merida said in a trembling voice,

if Mars' condemnation held, she and Iltu would effectively have committed the capital crime of betraying the Imperium and the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang.

"Damned lot of them!"

Iltu ground his teeth and slammed his hand hard on the desk before him:

"Ji Li Man has bullied me past all endurance!"

"There must be that evil Doraemon pulling the strings behind this too!"

"If we let them just kill us all off like this, the Imperium is finished."

Iltu's gaze swept over the Minister of Justice, the High Admiral, and the Grand Master of the Assassin Temple.

"We fight to the death!" Iltu said, steeling himself. "The Minotaurs Chapter is already very close to the Sol System!"

"Merida, redeploy the warships under your trusted subordinates."

"Avellasha, mobilize every enforcement unit within the Ministry of Justice that can be called up."

"And of course, the most important one is you, Fardix — I need your assassins."

"Even primarchs and Saint Doraemon are mere mortals!"

Iltu said in a tone that was almost savage:

"Bombed by fleets, shot by bolters, throats slit by assassins — they all die!"

The High Admiral and the Minister of Justice were both intimidated by Iltu's tone and trembled for a moment,

but after some hesitation, they still nodded gently, agreeing to Iltu's plan — at this point, fighting to the death was indeed their only option.

Only Fardix, the Grand Master of the Assassin Temple, was not cowed; he slowly and firmly nodded to Iltu.

"The assassins have long been ready," Fardix said.

"Really?" Iltu's face lit up with excitement. "Where are they?"

"Right here."

(End of chapter)