Chapter 447: Sanguinius Stoking the Fire

The battle in the arena had ended. The Primaris had suffered over a dozen casualties, killing dozens of the combat servitors Cawl had meticulously designed.

This performance could not be called terrible, after all, they were only permitted to use the simplest combat knives while facing the servitors' plasma weapons and power blades.

Yet, Sanguinius could not call it excellent, and Guilliman frowned, feeling somewhat dissatisfied.

Rigid. That was the biggest problem.

This group of warriors was too rigid, stiffly executing identical, dull tactics and conducting identical combat; even the coordination between them revealed a sense of mechanical artifice.

Belisarius Cawl was indeed an excellent Adeptus Mechanicus Magos, but he was not an excellent tactical master. He had merely recited the knowledge of combat and poured it into the Primaris' minds—nothing more.

Knowledge is not equivalent to wisdom, and even less so to capability. Magnus had already proven this point.

These Primaris still needed training. Furthermore, there was another point: these Primaris had all been domesticated by Cawl into identical things.

Hmm, it looked like they were still trained according to the Codex template that Erebus-raised Guilliman had authored.

This severely limited the manifestation of the Primaris' talents.

Astartes were also human, and being human meant having different talents. Only by utilizing the talents one excelled at and avoiding one's weaknesses could a person exert their full power.

Instead, the Primaris were restrained within a single template. Their talents were not utilized, their powerful bodies were not leveraged, and they were, in fact, no longer distinguishable from the original Astartes.

But the Primaris did not realize this. These warriors truly believed Cawl's words, feeling that they were comprehensively superior to the old generation of Astartes, that they were replacements and iterations of the Astartes.

This was both pride and inferiority. They were not anyone's replacement, nor would they phase out the old Astartes. They were new warriors, a new power.

Sanguinius hoped the Primaris would realize this point—that they could possess the humility to learn from the old Astartes, while also being proud enough to break through limitations and manifest their own talents.

Additionally, he also hoped the old Astartes could understand the indispensability of the Primaris, not to reject them, but to accept the power of the Primaris.

But how to do it?

Just as Sanguinius was thinking, Guilliman nodded calmly and spoke: "You have performed excellently; I am speechless."

Guilliman could display this calmness; he hoped to position himself as a sympathizer of the old Astartes.

"You have given me an army," Guilliman said softly.

"An army?" Cawl sensed Guilliman's calmness, but he laughed loudly, seemingly feeling that Guilliman was dissatisfied with the quantity: "No! My dear Lord Guilliman, not an army!!"

Cawl's voice rose sharply, and he spread his arms as if announcing the arrival of a climax.

"What I have given you is a Legion! Legion after Legion!"

"Please, you, please the Omnissiah, please witness it, Saint Doraemon—this is the entirety of my talent."

As Belisarius Cawl's voice rose high, the roar of machinery followed, and the entire cargo hold was illuminated by bright lights.

At the same time, the surrounding walls opened, connecting with other cargo holds, and countless gravity platforms descended from above the cargo hold.

In an instant, the arena where everyone was located became a high platform, and surrounding the high platform, on those cargo holds and gravity platforms revealed before them, were all Primaris Astartes.

They were dense, like the Legions of the ancient past reappearing in the forty-second millennium of humanity.

The yellow of the Imperial Fists, the white of the White Scars, the blue of the Ultramarines, the green of the Salamanders, the red of the Blood Angels, the grey of the Space Wolves—these warriors stood tall all around, letting out a single battle cry.

"For the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang! For Terra!"

"For Unity! For Roboute Guilliman!"

No matter which Primarch's progeny they were, they all shouted the same words.

Seth looked at the warriors in Blood Angels paint shouting for Roboute Guilliman, and immediately felt a chill, trembling fiercely.

"Does he hope so much that we die early, so his Ultramarines can replace us?" Seth's voice was drowned out after the Primaris' battle cry, but Sanguinius still heard it.

Although Seth's words were excessively blunt, they were indeed the thoughts in the hearts of many warriors.

"A group of unremarkable recruits," Kharn's evaluation was more practical.

"I can count that there are twenty-four thousand here, but this is not all, right?" Guilliman interrupted the Primaris' cheers with a calm voice.

"Of course not! This is just the tip of the iceberg! Every ship I brought has five thousand, and there are more, more, more sleeping on Mars."

"There are also many in every corner of the galaxy, in those places where I have worked hard! This is my ten thousand years of work."

"How many exactly?" Guilliman asked.

Belisarius Cawl smiled slightly and gently spat out a number.

A wave of panic and astonishment spread among the high-ranking officials of the Empire; even the Astartes, even the battle-hardened Chapter Masters, Captains, and Chief Librarians stood stunned in place.

Guilliman could no longer maintain his calm expression, and the corners of his mouth could not help but curl into a smile.

Although the quality did not meet Guilliman's requirements, in terms of numbers... Cawl's work was completed so well it could be called a miracle.

Kharn also couldn't help but gasp slightly: "I feel a bit sorry for Abaddon."

"He prepared for ten thousand years, finally approaching the destruction of the Empire, only for the Empire to inexplicably grow these Primaris... they are almost like Orks growing out of the ground."

Zhou Yun couldn't help but click his tongue; the number Cawl exploded out was truly too explosive. In terms of numbers alone, it was absolutely enough for humanity to have another Great Crusade. Zhou Yun did not believe that there was no help from the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang mixed in.

But the corners of Sanguinius's mouth flashed with a slight smile.

"Cawl!" He raised his hand slightly, signaling Cawl to look at him: "Your Primaris are indeed very good, but I heard Saint Doraemon's two guards feel disdain for this."

"They seem to think the Primaris are inferior to the old ones, those Space Marines."

A silence enveloped the entire hall. Kharn and Seth noticed that the surrounding gazes were all focused on them.

Those twenty-four thousand Primaris Space Marines were all staring fixedly at them.

But both were battle-hardened; Kharn was disdainful, and Seth let out a provocative cold snort.

Cawl was in a panic, hurriedly looking at Zhou Yun, bowing deeply to Zhou Yun.

"My lord, I recognize the Omnissiah's great creation, yet my Primaris were originally created by absorbing the Omnissiah's wisdom and innovating."

"We stand on the shoulders of giants, and that is why we can reach the stars, isn't that so?"

Zhou Yun looked at Sanguinius speechlessly, wanting to figure out what Sanguinius was planning.

"Cawl, I understand your love for your creations."

Sanguinius raised his voice slightly, smiling as he said to Cawl:

"But I think that now, standing in this hall, all the non-Primaris Astartes feel unconvinced in their hearts."

"You want to prove the advancement of the Primaris, and the non-Primaris Astartes want to prove that they have not been surpassed."

"Why don't we have a sparring match?"

Guilliman raised his eyelids slightly, looking at Sanguinius with some surprise.

This move by Sanguinius was indeed... a bit interesting.

A sparring match between old Astartes and Primaris Astartes...

Through such a sparring match, the old Astartes could clearly perceive the power of the Primaris, letting them understand that the Primaris were an indispensable power for the future.

It could also break the arrogance the Primaris had developed from Cawl, break the idea that the Primaris thought they were replacements for the old Space Marines, and let them clearly recognize that they had not comprehensively surpassed those excellent old Astartes, and even had huge gaps in many aspects.

This was good; such a method could even be promoted, using sparring and gladiator combat to integrate the new and old Astartes.

Sanguinius chuckled once or twice.

The inspiration for this method was actually from the Great Crusade era, when the Blood Angels, Luna Wolves, Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's Children, Word Bearers, Imperial Fists, and World Eaters often sparred in the World Eaters' gladiator pits, and warriors from several Legions built cross-Legion friendships through these sparring matches and gladiator bouts.

As for why Guilliman didn't know... of course, it was because they didn't bring the Ultramarines to play together at the time; Guilliman's popularity was not very good.

"I also think it's possible."

Zhou Yun chuckled twice, and said with a thick skin:

"Since my two guards look down on the Primaris."

"Then Cawl, let your Primaris beat them into submission."

Sanguinius and Guilliman, who knew Kharn's identity, were both shocked by Zhou Yun's ability to say such things without blushing or skipping a beat.

Originally, Sanguinius's plan was for the Blood Angels to send Seth, and the Ultramarines to send Sicarius, which would be enough to beat the Primaris into submission.

He didn't expect Zhou Yun to actually plan to throw Kharn up. What level was Kharn?

Kharn had accompanied Angron for so long without being hacked to death, once took a slap from Dorn without dying, and later took a spear from Sanguinius without dying.

Three Primarchs served him alone, and he was still alive; his strength was evident.

Kharn sensed the strange atmosphere, and after a moment of silence, said dryly: "I am not good at gladiator combat."

This was the truth; Kharn's record in the Great Crusade era when fighting the First Blood was very poor, but this was because...

"I am prone to hacking people to death," Kharn said sincerely.

So when Kharn fought the First Blood, he was always cautious, fearing that he would beat the First Blood into Dead Blood.

But to the Primaris, this was pure provocation, and they cast hateful gazes at Kharn one after another.

"Don't look at me with such hatred."

Kharn had a headache, shaking his head and advising:

"If I get angry, I won't be able to help but hack you to death."

This was also the truth.

But how did Zhou Yun feel that Kharn's mouth was comparable to Seth's?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 448 =====