How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 324 The murder weapon is your name

The Inquisitor, who had temporarily given up reading at the Grey Knight's signal, felt uncontrollably worried: the task itself and its current progress were already worrying, and the fact that she could not do anything to occupy her attention for the time being made the negative emotions in Maran's heart swell even more.

As a Lord Inquisitor, she certainly had enough experience and the necessary organic transformation to know how to coexist with these negative emotions. She calmly accepted the psychic examination of another Grey Knight Terminator - the experience was uncomfortable, but it made her know that she was still pure and loyal, and had not been subtly contaminated by the enemy, so it was worth it.

After Malan finally received a nonsensical "Congratulations, you are still yourself", it was somewhat surprising that Captain Stern was still reading the report that did not seem very long. This was too slow for an Astartes, perhaps indicating that the Captain was cautious. Being cautious was a good thing, but it also forced Malan to continue doing nothing for a short period of time.

A buzzing sound of communication reminder came from the sound array system - not from the Fortitude Power, but from the bridge of the Shadow Hammer, which was connected to the communication. Maran looked over. She thought Hastings would cut off the incoming communication, but obviously, the source of this communication made him hesitate for a second. Through the video image, Maran could not see the control panel in front of Hastings, but he did apologize and said that it would not take too long, and then he connected the audio communication to another channel.

If this communication was really important enough to be answered, Hastings could have directly connected the other party to the current channel. But the judges should not laugh at each other. Maran could understand the other party's caution in dealing with other unrelated matters - perhaps, but so far, she would rather believe that this matter has nothing to do with what they are discussing at the moment. Besides, the fact that he did not cut off the video also showed some of his sincerity.

A good Inquisitor should know how to read lips, a skill they will surely learn while serving their mentor as an acolyte.

Maran continued to stare at the video and didn't know who was on the other end of Hastings' communication or what he said to him, but she could "see" what Hastings was saying. So, she knew through lip reading that the communication came from a person who might be called "Lamarro" or other similar pronunciations, who might be in charge of some work related to the state religion. This communication was probably because of an unexpected "psychic phenomenon" (at least that's how Hastings characterized it in his summary) that required an experienced psychic inquisitor to make a judgment as soon as possible, and the latter decided to contact the Blood Angels and inform them of the matter.

Maran was not sure why Hastings made this decision. Was it because he had to continue the "review of the Wilczak case" and couldn't get away? Or was it for some other reason? In any case, Hastings, who ended the conversation in two minutes and transferred the audio communication back to the Fortitude Power, was indeed wearing an unconcealable mental fatigue.

This episode did not divert their attention from the main point they should be focusing on. Thirty seconds after the audio communication between the two sides was reconnected, the angry voice of Captain Stern resounded through the bridge again: "You just wrote the real name of a demon at the end of the appendix?! And this is an electronic file without any protection??!!"

Hastings was calm about this, as if he had expected to be questioned in this way: "Considering that the demon with this name is dead, I don't think it's a very dangerous thing."

"The Unborn are not dead," the Grey Knight roared the basic knowledge of demonology that should not need further explanation, "They are just temporarily exiled from the real universe! When they are reborn in the warp, they will naturally be able to influence again through their true names-"

"——In order to save time, please forgive me for being so rude." Hastings interrupted this basic knowledge lecture, "I apologize for the misunderstanding caused by my imprecise wording. What I wanted to express just now is: for some reasons, these real names can no longer correspond to a so-called "demon" now, in the future, or even in the past. They are now just a bunch of garbled codes that are difficult to pronounce and do not represent any exact meaning. They only appear there for archiving."

Stern took a step forward aggressively, almost completely blocking Malan's figure behind him: "I won't ask where you got this real name from - but where did this nonsense conclusion come from?!"

"Let's not beat around the bush. I used this real name to set up several demon summoning rituals under different conditions. A total of five times." Hastings responded calmly, "The first two times, I summoned some little demons that had nothing to do with it and were just imposters. You must know that sometimes what emerges from the summoning ritual may be completely different from what the caster wants. The third time and thereafter, the ritual was no longer successful. Based on this, I confirmed that the demon had been "killed" and it no longer existed even in the subspace with a different time sequence from reality."

Stern stared at Hastings in an evaluative manner, as if he was trying to find clues from the video that "he was lying". Unfortunately, after five seconds, facing Hastings who was calm and composed, he had to admit that he had failed. Either the judge really had a clear conscience, or he was an excellent actor - Stern didn't remember that Hastings had such a specialty, but his thinking still tended to the latter.

"I will copy your method to verify the authenticity." He threatened, "but I also need to know, before you decide to do so and get the results, what did you do with the name?"

"I thought, 'It's better to kill any demons I can,' so I gave a copy of the real name to Fujimaru Ritsuka." Hastings almost unconsciously performed the Sky Eagle Salute, "The rest is the power of the Emperor."

"what?"

"One of her titles is 'Grand Master'." Hastings put down his hand. "Even if I explain it in detail, you will not believe it. After all, I didn't believe it when I first heard about it. I thought it must be a Chaos trick. I can only say that she is indeed worthy of the actual meaning of this title."

Facing the other party's questioning gaze that he could clearly see through his helmet, Hastings no longer wanted to waste any more useless effort on words: "Whenever you think it is appropriate, you can always hold a summoning ceremony in the way you are more accustomed to to verify my statement. The events related to demons and the enemy of chaos are indeed beyond our expectations, but please don't forget that the event that brought us together here to discuss was supposed to revolve around the 'accidental' death of Lord Inquisitor Michaelia Wilczak."

"The problem at hand is that you cannot convince us by saying this." Stern said bluntly, "We cannot believe any statement from an 'untrustworthy person'. I now require to check your status in person, immediately after the ship enters a stable berth."

Faced with these expected doubts, Hastings sighed tiredly.

"So I told Fujimaru before that it's useless to be so anxious." He complained in a voice close to talking to himself, "It's better to find a large block of time to invite people over to meet and talk. It will save me a thousand words... Please connect the subspace transmission protocol with the Fortitude Power for me, yes..."

After a series of fairly quick dispatches, Hastings turned back again and asked the other end of the line in a more straightforward manner than expected: "Will you two bring your men to the Shadow Hammer? Or should I go?"
-

"...The plot of land has actually been decided. I'll show it to you on the map when we get back to the ship. But there are civilians scattered in the circled area, probably tens of thousands of people. I've been coordinating with the Ministry of the Interior on their relocation and resettlement these days." Fujimaru Ritsuka held a teacup and sorted out the preparations for the current project with Debbie. "It was easy to negotiate with the Mechanicus. In exchange for some of the principles of the Chaldean Lighthouse on the Forge World Mezoa, they provided me with large-scale engineering equipment and corresponding operation and maintenance personnel for free."

"Mezoa." Debit subconsciously repeated the name he was familiar with. It was often seen on ship components such as macro cannons, light spears, engines, and Geller force fields. The evaluation of related equipment within the Iron Hands was also mixed. "In my impression, this planet seems to be mainly used for shipbuilding."

"If you can make aerospace engines, you can make electronic keyboards." Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't even blink as he fired a dart at a "musical instrument" company that had been around in the 20th century. "We don't need them to come up with the design anyway. What we need here is the execution side, so it doesn't matter as long as they have the corresponding engineering level. By the way, the decisive factor in Mezoa winning the bid is that they are close and run fast."

"Isn't this a bit too much of a joke?" Hill complained indifferently, and Fujimaru Ritsuka waved his hand indifferently. "At the beginning, I wanted to let the people from Mars do it, but after calculating with the Emperor, I found that Mars' production capacity and computing power still had to be used in larger-scale construction projects. I had to settle for the second best and randomly arrested people on the spot. Anyway, I only asked them to build a tower shell in the first step, and everyone started researching from scratch in the second step. The technicians there were in charge, and the results were pretty much the same."

Debbie was not very interested in the above details. He just continued to ask, "What's next?"

"Don't worry about building materials. Baal has its own quarries and metal smelting plants, and the shortage of rare materials can be easily supplemented by the caravans." After saying this, Fujimaru Ritsuka's expression revealed a little sadness, "The problem is manpower. God knows why people are still needed for pure physical labor such as moving bricks that does not require brains. My original plan was to ask the state religion to transfer some pilgrims to do these simple physical jobs - anyway, there are usually many people coming to Baal for pilgrimage, so this is very convenient. Both heads of the double-headed eagle are involved in this matter, and the establishment of the Astronomican does have some religious significance - but the sub-region archbishop Trolipo may have some different views on this matter."

When Debbie just understood the meaning of "we didn't reach an agreement", Hill's train of thought had already jumped to the next step: "Does he think too many people have contributed or too few?"

"He wants to kick the Mechanicus out." Fujimaru Ritsuka leaned on the armrest of the sofa, supporting his head, looking like he had a terrible headache. "If I hadn't fenced this piece of land in Baal, I think he would have wanted to kick the Blood Angels out."

Hill was shocked. He might not understand the state religion, but he did understand power and politics: "Obviously he wants to increase the influence of the state religion in the sub-sector, but he can't do it by himself. This guy is too clueless. Didn't you give him a warning?"

"People who have been in high positions for a long time can't think straight for a while. I reminded him at the dinner yesterday not to eat too many high-fat and high-sugar desserts in one go and to pay attention to his health." Fujimaru Ritsuka said very worriedly, "But because the traditional desserts here in Bar are indeed very high in fat and sugar, I don't know if he got my hint."

"..." Hill was obviously choked. "To be honest, this is a bit too euphemistic even for many of my brothers. I suggest you don't use such a suggestive approach. You need to be more straightforward."

"I don't know. I'll worry about this tomorrow." Fujimaru Ritsuka almost wrote his resistance to this topic all over his body. "Now, let's get back to the Star Torch, okay?"

Hill wanted to say something else, but at this time, Debbie, who was quick to follow suit, had already taken the opportunity to change the subject: "I took a quick look at the principles of the Astronomican part of your plan, and there are many parts that do not belong to the magic theory I know. Have you verified these?"

"I basically copied those from Terra's Astronomical Torch," Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "That one has been functioning normally for more than 10,000 years, so it can be considered verified."

"Since there has been a successful example, why don't we just copy it here one-to-one?" Debbie made the statement of a conservative magician, "Wouldn't it be easier to succeed if there was a precedent?"

"Because of some resource requirements and efficiency issues." Fujimaru Ritsuka said, "The Emperor is a typical magician of the Age of Gods. As you know, although the magicians of the Age of Gods are ridiculously strong, they have a common problem no matter what they do - it is a problem that they themselves often don't realize, but in our eyes it is very unforgivable."

"what?"

"What a waste." Fujimaru Ritsuka crossed his arms, as if he was about to protest. "After all, we are the 'root' and we are the 'subspace'. They have inexhaustible energy at their fingertips. The only thing that limits their output is their own talent. A magician or wizard who grew up in such an environment certainly wouldn't have the awareness of 'saving ether when casting spells'."

Debit was stunned for a few seconds before he spoke with difficulty: "It may be so in the eyes of modern magicians, but even for magicians of the Age of Gods, considering the effectiveness when performing a spell is also--"

"——He rolled a psychic Dyson Sphere with his hands and gave it to the Blood Angels. It is still in their secret vault of the celestial sphere." When this matter was mentioned, even a third-rate magician like Fujimaru Ritsuka wanted to slam the table in anger - she really slammed it, and even made the small celestial sphere on the table jump and fall over: "The Emperor used psychic energy to compress an entire star to a size of ten meters, stuffed it into a shell, and made it output energy stably, and finally used it to supply electricity to the entire Arax Angel Fortress."

She didn't go into too much detail on this matter, because at the moment, she didn't need Debit to understand how difficult the technology was - as long as he could feel how outrageous the input-output ratio was, it would be enough: "What can't be done with this psychic energy that is extracted from the concept of a star? What Ishtar's treasure fired was just the concept of a planet! In addition, we have to make a shell that can support the star. If you use this resource to make a hundred magic furnaces, wouldn't it be enough to provide enough energy for the Chapter Monastery? At least the remaining things can be used to make a psychic titan!"

Unfortunately, Debit didn't give a proper response after this complaint: he was still thinking about the technical difficulties of the "psychic Dyson sphere". On the contrary, Hill, as a layman, immediately felt how suffocating the input-output ratio of this action was when Fujimaru Ritsuka said "the rest can be used to make a psychic Titan".

But he couldn't say that there was anything wrong with what the Emperor did, he could only say that the Emperor must have his reasons for doing so. The Ultramarines had to rack their brains to find the right words to comfort him. But before he could really speak, the tablet that was temporarily placed on the coffee table suddenly lit up without anyone triggering it.

"New email." Debit glanced at it calmly, without further reading, and pushed it back to Fujimaru Ritsuka. While the latter dragged the device over in frustration, the former turned to help the magic gift that had just been knocked down and was ineffective. The principle of this thing was very simple. Debit only looked at it for two seconds to figure out the trigger method, and successfully reset it and put it back on the table.

But at the same time, Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was reading the email, subconsciously made a little nasal sound of doubt.

"What's wrong?" Hill asked habitually. After realizing what was going on, he added, "Of course, if you don't answer, we understand."

"There's nothing I can't tell you. Anyone can find out about this in a couple of days - it's just a little too coincidental." With a little bit of doubt, Fujimaru Ritsuka stared at the work email sent by Lan Malok and read it three times before looking up:
"The sub-region archbishop I mentioned earlier, Trolipo, died this morning." She still had a puzzled look on her face. "I don't think the people investigating this matter are in the mood to joke with me about this kind of thing, but the cause of the archbishop's death was spontaneous combustion."

Soon, this puzzled expression spread to the faces of other audience members.

(End of this chapter)