Chapter 168

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Lin En

Lena

For believers of Yi Su, fear of the unknown was never merely fear.

It was also rare, undeveloped knowledge.

Luna stared at that recording, watching it three full times.

Those ridiculous movements and inexplicable incantations—every detail she pondered over repeatedly.

Trying to find some hidden pattern or undiscovered detail within.

But she found nothing; it looked like a circus performance.

At the scene back then, not a trace of Warp fluctuation could be felt.

But she knew this was absolutely not simple trickery.

Because after the ritual, the Precept Ruler really was healed.

Upholding the truth that thinking ten times is not as good as doing once.

She decided to try it herself.

"You few, come over."

Luna pointed at several Mechanical Priests, her tone unquestionable.

Those priests did not move, their faces full of reluctance.

"Regent King Adult, this..." the leading priest spoke, his voice halting.

"This is against the rules; we are formal members of the Machine Cult, how can we do this kind of, this kind of..."

He wanted to say "embarrassing things," but did not dare say it out loud.

"This is a command." Luna looked at them coldly.

The priests exchanged a glance, and finally responded reasonably.

"Sorry, Regent King Adult." said the leading priest.

"We are people of the Machine Cult, following the truth bestowed by the God of All Machines."

"This kind of unreasonable request, we must refuse."

After speaking, they turned and left.

Luna's face immediately darkened.

But she had no choice; these oil men were not entirely her own subordinates.

She sighed, and changed to several Attendants.

These Attendants did not have the courage to refuse her.

They stood nervously in front of Luna, listening to her explain the key points of those movements, their expressions uglier than crying.

"Understood?"

"Un, understood, Regent King Adult."

"Very good."

"Don't worry, I will participate too." she supplemented

The Attendants stared with eyes wide in disbelief.

Thus, the contemporary Regent King of Saint Galus, the Clan's Technical Lord.

And the other identity that no one stated clearly, but everyone tacitly understood.

Luna Saint Galus.

Leading a group of trembling Attendants, standing at the bow of the Precept Ruler, she began the ritual.

"Urgent urgent as per law and order, mommy beibei hong..."

Luna's right hand middle finger and thumb hooked together, flesh eye and mechanical eye forcibly squeezed into cross-eyes, muttering words in her mouth.

Her movements completely one-to-one restored every detail in that recording, serious like a student taking a final exam.

The Attendants around imitated, following along.

The scene was once very ridiculous.

Emile Sage stood not far away, watching this scene; even with only the upper part of his face, one could tell he was very conflicted.

The Mechanical Priests and Saint Galus clan attendants beside him even more wished to bury their heads in their chests, pretending not to know this Regent King.

Luna felt those gazes.

She was also very embarrassed.

But she forcibly endured it.

For knowledge, to figure out what trick Lin En was playing, what did this bit of sacrifice count as?

She continued chanting, continued doing, continued squeezing cross-eyes.

However, there was no feeling at all.

No feedback from the machine spirit, nor any form of Psyker Fluctuation, completely unlike the process she was familiar with for soothing machine spirits.

This ritual was like an empty shell, only form, no content.

Luna's eyebrows wrinkled.

"Could it be, she was played?"

Just as Luna doubted herself, inside the Governor's Office.

"Isud" suddenly covered her mouth.

Her shoulders began to tremble, lightly at first, then increasingly violently.

That face, usually clear and cold, was now flushed red from holding back.

Lin En raised his head, looking at her with some curiosity.

"What's wrong?"

Isud said nothing.

She only reached out and pointed to her own head, indicating Lin En check through the Consciousness Link.

Lin En closed his eyes and connected to Lena's consciousness.

He also saw that scene.

Luna Saint Galus, wearing a set of Regent King's Robes, stood at the bow of the Precept Ruler.

Her right hand pinched her middle finger and thumb, her eyes squeezed into a cross-eyed look, and she muttered under her breath.

Behind her followed a group of attendants making the same motions.

The scene was so bizarre that he instantly broke down.

"Pfft~!!!"

Lin En couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.

In the office, the two of them just held their bellies, laughing until they could barely catch their breath.

"She, she really... hahahaha~~!"

Lin En wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes with a handkerchief, laughing so hard he couldn't speak a complete sentence.

Lena, through Isud's mouth, also let out a clear laugh.

The laugh was still a bit awkward, after all she was still learning human ways of expression, but that joyful emotion was real.

"I didn't expect it either," she said, her voice carrying a smile.

After feeling a bit better, Lin En shook his head.

"I roughly know why that one chose her."

After the two finished laughing, the ritual also ended.

The Precept Ruler immediately began its sixth test flight.

This time, everything was normal.

The main engine was stable, the auxiliary engine had no problems either, and the Precept Ruler was stable as a brand-new ship fresh from the factory.

Emile Sage and the Mechanical Priests looked at the data on the screen, puzzled.

"Could it be... that it really works?"

"Impossible, this is illogical!"

"Omnissiah above, I must have gone mad."

Luna stood at the dock, watching the warship that had successfully returned, likewise falling into thought.

What they didn't know was that Lin En's little trick was actually simple enough to make one's hair stand on end.

From the beginning, Lin En had guessed that Luna would focus her efforts on Bug Race-related abilities.

Chicken Thief Infiltration, Psychic Destruction, Gene Infection.

These were all signature methods of the Bug Race, and also things Luna and the Machine Cult were most wary of.

So Luna and the Machine Cult put all their energy into screening for Chicken Thieves and Psychic Residue.

But they never expected that Lin En hadn't used the Bug Race at all this time.

Or rather, hadn't used the Bug Race to pull tricks.

He had simply bribed a few managers responsible for supplying fuel to the generators.

The method was also simple: first kidnap their families, then offer them food rations they simply could not refuse.

Under threats and inducements, those few managers quickly submitted to Lin En's dignity.

As for the specific operation, it had even less technical content.

For a warship of the Precept Ruler's class, both main and auxiliary engines had to use highly purified hydrogen isotopes, with combustion precisely controlled.

These rare fuels were regarded by the Machine Cult as "Holy Relics," strictly controlled by designated personnel, and Lin En's informants couldn't touch them at all.

But ordinary fuel for the generators was different.

That could only be considered ordinary frontline supplies, and loose management would be slightly loose.

The informants didn't need to risk replacing or adding impurities; they just needed to lower the fuel concentration a little bit.

Low enough that routine checks wouldn't detect it, yet enough to cause insufficient power supply after the generator had been running for a certain time.

The engine's power would naturally drop.

The method was low-end to the extreme.

But it was exactly such a crude method that, right under the noses of the Tzeentch Wizards and the Machine Cult, toyed with them for a whole week.

Because they simply couldn't imagine Lin En would use such a "primitive" method.