"Hah, finally done. Klee, I'm leaving the rest of the execution to you all. Phew, that was exhausting. Did I forget something? Right, where's Ahriman?"
After finally finishing his work, Zhou Ye let out a long sigh of relief. It was only then that he remembered he had forgotten something important.
He had completely forgotten about the superweapon that was Ahriman. There was no helping it; there had simply been too much to do. And that guy had been far too quiet, not causing any trouble at all.
"Captain, Ahriman was strung up and thrashed by his brothers."
Upon hearing Zhou Ye's question, Ai-chan's cheerful voice rang out.
"Huh?" Zhou Ye was taken aback, completely bewildered.
"They saw the blasphemous symbols on their bodies and learned what Ahriman had done. Many of them had no idea what had happened and are still loyal to the Golden Throne."
"Pfft…"
Hearing this, Zhou Ye nearly burst out laughing. The world truly was a bizarre place. Who would have thought that Ahriman, now Tzeentch's chosen champion, would get beaten up by his own men? It was a miracle they hadn't killed him.
"It's been half a month. Where is he now?"
A beating for a couple of days was understandable, but they couldn't have been at it this whole time.
"He bought a plot of land and is growing grapes."
"Still dreaming about planting grapes with that genius Magnus, I see. Let me think… Ah, forget it. The guy is covered in Chaos blessings, let him be. Arrange for the other Thousand Sons to be assigned as professors in the various academies. Also, see if any still have their gene-seed. If so, get them assigned to the academies as well."
He had secretly added his own "ingredients" to these Thousand Sons. The ones Ahriman had brought with him weren't tainted by Chaos and had virtually no psychic power, so Zhou Ye had simply absorbed them into his ranks. He felt incredibly clever right now. All things were beasts of burden. Chaos worshippers and traitors were no exception.
As for Ahriman, he hadn't touched him. The cost of adding his "ingredients" to that guy was too high; it simply wasn't worth it. Besides, if he dared to pull any stunts, a single Imaginary Power Slap would surely put him in his place. The main issue was that the man was covered head to toe in Chaos blessings, even if he himself didn't believe in them. And Tzeentch's intentions for him were subtle and strange. Zhou Ye decided it was best to observe him for now.
After all, it was a well-known fact that from the Primarch down to the last Space Marine, the Thousand Sons were all "geniuses." They possessed a mountain of knowledge but acted as if they weren't very bright. This was especially true for the number one genius in the universe, Magnus, and his good son, the number two genius in the universe, Ahriman.
"Ai-chan, have someone transport some Genestealers over. I plan to run some experiments."
Looking at the report in his hand with a headache, Zhou Ye decided to make a bold attempt. He wanted to see if he could corrupt some Genestealers and then throw them onto his newly established forge world.
Before the Tyranids arrived, Genestealers were praised as model laborers. So, Zhou Ye planned to see if he could use Imaginary energy to brainwash them, re-engineer their genes to ensure they couldn't produce pure-strain Genestealers, and then block their connection to the Great Devourer. They would become beasts of burden that knew no fear of death.
The environment of his newest forge world was incredibly harsh. If this were the Imperium, the cogboys would probably find a planet that couldn't pay its tithe, convert its trillions of inhabitants into servitors, and dump them all there.
But ordinary people wouldn't fare well. Genestealers, on the other hand, would be perfect. Those things were truly durable. He planned to throw them on the planet and see what happened.
As his domain expanded, a single forge world was no longer enough. He needed more forge worlds to meet the massive demands of his own forty worlds and the surrounding regions. Genestealers could be truly useful.
---o---
Svartalfheim 1, Zhou Ye's forge world.
It was the first mining world he had discovered, a place where the local Immaterium was exceptionally stable. There were no Mandeville Points to speak of, so it was a world undiscovered by the Imperium. This was where he had frantically mined resources and pieced together his first Emperor Titan.
Now, this world was one of the pillars supporting his forty-world domain, providing them all with a rich supply of materials. The planet possessed vast mineral wealth; Zhou Ye's initial excavations were nothing compared to the planet's total reserves.
Named after the world of the dwarves in Norse mythology, it was the wealthiest world in his domain aside from Trailblaze itself. Trailblaze was the political, economic, and cultural center, while this was unquestionably the industrial heart.
Unlike Zhou Ye's other worlds, here, rivers of fire and molten rock flowed across the planet's surface. It was the blood of the Omnissiah, and also the fury of the Lord of Trailblaze.
The Mechanicus here was completely loyal to Zhou Ye. Aside from the Fabricator-General and a few other key positions held by artificial humans Zhou Ye had created from scratch, most of the Tech-Priests were originally human.
Back on Aestia, Zhou Ye had engaged in a grand academic exchange with a group of Dark Mechanicus Tech-Priests. The results of that exchange were significant. In the end, because their academic theories were inferior to Zhou Ye's, the Dark Mechanicus members offered their souls to him. Of course, the truth was that Zhou Ye had secretly swiped their souls.
Zhou Ye had no interest in torturing souls. He simply shattered their consciousness with a single slap, then extracted and copied the useful parts of their memories into Memory Bubbles. Just as he had done with the Rogue Traders, he forcibly created a large batch of new Tech-Priests.
Naturally, these Tech-Priests were absolutely loyal to Zhou Ye. This wasn't just because he had added his little "ingredients." It was because these individuals, in their pure devotion to technology, had witnessed Zhou Ye create an STC production line template from scratch. From that moment on, they no longer saw him as an avatar of the Omnissiah. They believed he was the Omnissiah.
Hand-crafting an STC template? Could the Emperor do that?
So, in Zhou Ye's domain, the Mechanicus wasn't the other head of the Imperial Aquila; they were simply Zhou Ye's dogs.
Now, under Zhou Ye's command, countless products rolled off the assembly lines. With the boost from his Imaginary energy and the help of the supercomputer Prometheus, the entire world had erupted with terrifying productivity.
Unlike other forge worlds, you wouldn't see any of the things that made Zhou Ye's skin crawl, like servitors, servo-skulls, or cherubim.
In a residential district belonging to a certain manufactorum…
Kssshh!!!
With the opening of a safety gate, a team of workers in heavy protective suits walked in. After passing through several decontamination procedures, they removed their suits. One by one, they slumped into corners, panting heavily and gulping down purified water from a dispenser.
Unlike other forge worlds, besides the standard 996 schedule, they also had two shifts. However, their living quarters were located in special residential zones with dedicated air and water purification systems capable of internal recycling. While they still needed some imports, for the wealthy forge world, it was a drop in the bucket.
Even so, they had to wear protective gear when heading to the manufactorums. The radiation on a forge world was no joke, even though Zhou Ye had already reduced it significantly. As for how other forge worlds managed? They didn't. They just relied on the super-resilience of 40k humans to endure it.
Sam dragged his exhausted body back to his room. The production lines of the forge world, once started, never stopped. So they worked in two shifts. Zhou Ye had actually wanted to implement a three-shift system, but when he, disguised as Magos Omega 010, discussed it with the workers who had been relocated from other industrial worlds, the group started wailing and crying.
They believed the great Lord of Trailblaze was questioning their loyalty and dedication. They wanted to perform a sacrifice to prove their devotion… which completely baffled Zhou Ye. In the end, he dropped the matter, though he still felt quite like a beast for even suggesting it. Feeling guilty, he increased the rations for every family.
"Dinner's ready. The children are asleep."
As the weary Sam returned home, his wife immediately prepared their meal. Several hefty loaves of bread, a heavy, oily, and salty dish of chitterlings, some fruit, and a few vegetables.
"Praise the Lord of Trailblaze, the Omnissiah, and the Emperor!!!"
Looking around his hundred-square-meter apartment and at his seven sleeping children, Sam offered his pre-meal prayer. His wife was heavily pregnant again. Their family of eleven was living on a tight budget, but it was a life he could never have dreamed of before.
The benevolent Lord of Trailblaze had even enacted a special leave law for pregnant women. Every expectant mother could enjoy two months of leave, one before and one after giving birth. They were also given a certain amount of compensation. While it wasn't enough for Zhou Ye to raise the child for them, it was a significant help.
He needed people, a massive population, a virtually endless population. Subsidized by the enormous profits from his Rogue Trader fleets, this welfare policy could be successfully implemented. Although Zhou Ye still felt like a monster, his population was growing at an explosive rate.
"Sigh, I heard they're going to establish a second forge world. But the environment on that world is supposed to be terrible. I wonder if I should apply for a transfer with the whole family."
Sam shoved a piece of fatty sausage into his mouth, then vigorously wiped a piece of bread in the grease rendered from the cooking, and ate that too.
Zhou Ye's demand for resources was now practically infinite, so he was planning to open a second forge world. A skilled worker like Sam was just an ordinary laborer here, but if he went there, he would become a foreman.
The difficult part of the decision was his seven children. They were at a critical point in their schooling, especially his second son, who was preparing for a crucial exam. If he could achieve a score in the top one-hundred-thousandth of this forge world's population, he could leave for Trailblaze Prime. He might even have a chance to become a Tech-Priest.
To prevent the Mechanicus from losing control, Zhou Ye had retained some of the training rights from the forge world. Their Tech-Priests often had to study at Zhou Ye's Academy of Mechanics for a certain period before they could return here to serve.
His eldest son was the brightest of all his children. To learn more, he sometimes slept only two or three hours a day. So, in addition to their daily food, Sam had to find a way to provide him with nutritional supplements to prevent his child's body and mind from breaking down.
But if they moved, his children's education would definitely be affected.
The other problem was that their family was not doing well socially. In fact, they were heavily discriminated against.
Because one of his sons had become a heretic—a psyker. The day his son's powers awakened, he had nearly blown up the entire building.
They were devout believers, worshipping the Lord of Trailblaze, the Omnissiah, and the Emperor. For such a blasphemous heretic to appear in their family was a source of shame. His other children were shunned because of it.
So, Sam and his wife were considering moving, but the future was uncertain. His wife was only a month away from giving birth and was resting at home. The merciful savior had granted his wife two months of maternity leave. This was unimaginable on their old world, where women had to go back to work the day after giving birth. If she took even one day off, the whole family would go hungry for a day. Three days off, and the family would be in real trouble.
But he felt immense guilt for making his family live under the constant scorn of others. As for that son, he had selectively forgotten him. If the nearby Tech-Guard hadn't reacted quickly with a time-stasis shell, it would have been a disaster.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Just as the family sat in silence, a series of heavy knocks echoed from the door.
When he opened it, he saw a group of people standing there.
"Sam, quickly! Come quickly! The Angels of the Emperor, the messengers of the Savior, are asking for you by name!"
"Huh?"
Sam was completely stunned. He immediately woke his seven children. They quickly tidied themselves up and put on their best clothes. When they stepped outside, they saw that the entire residential plaza was filled with kneeling people.
In the center of the plaza stood three knights in silver armor—Grey Knights, sworn to Zhou Ye.
Seeing them, Sam immediately prepared to kneel with his family. But as he bent his knees, an unseen force stopped him. They didn't know what a Grey Knight signified, but they knew this was a holy Astartes.
"Family of the sublime one, hold your heads high. I have come by order of my Father, the Lord of Trailblaze. Your son, John Milton, sacrificed himself to destroy the heretic in the most perilous of moments. His name is forever engraved upon the stone monument of the most sacred Platform of Sacrifice in the Royal Palace. And now, his remains shall return to his homeland!!!"
---o---