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

Chapter 325: The demons' heads are not made of iron either. You are wrong about them.
Joscelius walked quickly with two secretaries and think tanks among the carved beams and painted buildings of the Cathedral of Baal.

Unlike the Cathedral of the Holy Blood in the Angel Fortress of Araxes, this church, which is also located on the planet Baal Prime and does not even have a well-known official name, actually has little history.

You know, although humans set foot on the three Baal systems long before the Great Crusade, compared to the first and second Baal systems, which were already paradises on earth without any transformation, the main Baal system, which has always been just a barren desert, is really not attractive. People don't want to colonize such a planet: at first, it's because it's not necessary; later, it's impossible because of the civilization and technology regression caused by the nuclear war between the stars; later, after the Empire came to this system and provided the corresponding technology, it was unnecessary because of the sparse local population. Therefore, in the long time of thousands of years, this huge planet covered with dark red sand has never been visited by anyone, even though the Blood Angels Legion built a fortress here as a military base thousands of years ago.

But now it is different. As the hub of the dark side of the Empire, after repelling the Tyranid Hive, Baal Star soon had to begin to carry a population far beyond the upper limit of the population carrying capacity of the three death worlds. In order to temporarily accommodate the floating population (pilgrims, troops who reconnected with the Empire and reported, political or religious dignitaries, merchants, and the entourage of servants, etc.), and to arrange temporary housing and jobs for the population that suddenly grew on Baal (these people are often refugees extradited by the Blood Angels from other disaster-stricken dark side worlds), even on the barren Baal Prime, a series of temporary housing facilities gradually formed a small city with the planning of the Ministry of the Interior over time. This church was born to meet the religious needs of the residents of this new city - it has only been less than 20 years since it was a small square where the state religion believers gathered spontaneously to become what it is now. The main building of the church in a practical sense has long been completed, but according to the standards of the state religion, it is still far from being "completed", so it does not deserve a formal name.

As a Blood Angel, Joscelius could barely understand the logic of the state church in this matter: look at the religious murals on the wall that were obviously rushed, look at the unfinished mosaic caisson on the ceiling, look at the bare columns and sparse sculptures. This building can indeed meet the functions that a church should provide, but its artistry and completion have obviously not reached the expected level in the plan.

However, even with the "simple conditions", it still became the temporary residence of the Archbishop of the sub-sector, Reg Trolipo. In fact, the Archbishop did not need to "condescend to be so noble and humble". The State Church would certainly equip the bishop-level figures with a sufficiently gorgeous ship to show their status. Even if the need for long-distance commuting existed objectively, in this era, a distinguished Archbishop naturally had countless comfortable and fast methods to choose from to travel between his residence and his destination.

But he still lived in this "unfinished" church. Not for any reason, just because it was located on the main planet of Baal. This was a political act with a clear purpose, just like the archbishop had to ride in a gorgeous sedan made of gold and pure gold every time he went out, carried by dozens or even hundreds of devout believers who vowed to asceticism, and there had to be a priest in front of him burning incense and chanting scriptures to clear the way - this was all an act of "showing it to others to convey a certain signal."

It would be too long to elaborate on the disputes between the governor and archbishop of the Barr sub-sector, the three Barr Stars and the Blood Angels. In short, there are no major conflicts between the three in many aspects such as military, politics and religion. However, due to the extremely high level of autonomy of the three Barr Stars, sometimes there will be some friction on some "details" that the Blood Angels don't care about very much (such as the household registration of the population, the qualifications of the faction in missionary work, etc.). This Archbishop Trolipo, relatively speaking, is one of the ones who cares more about these "details". This time, after hearing the news of the saint, he immediately rushed over from the shrine world where he sat in the hall. It doesn't require too much official emotional intelligence. It is easy to understand what he wants to do with this matter to enhance the state religion, or his own reputation and power.

If Heselius had not met this archbishop before - most purely diplomatic missions were not assigned to the think tank, and the archbishop had not asked for help from the Blood Angels during his term of office - his impression of Trolipo was based entirely on the basic files passed to him by the scribes, as well as hearsay from several clerks responsible for recording the history of the chapter. Generally speaking, if Heselius profiled Archbishop Trolipo from these things, he was a slightly arrogant person; not particularly shrewd, but by no means a fool; a "mediocrity" who was a little ugly when fighting for power, but still within the tolerance range. Trolipo was qualified as an archbishop, but in terms of status, it was estimated that he would end up as an archbishop after receiving the position of archbishop in this life, and there was no hope of further advancement.

The Archbishop's own personality led to some possible speculations and inferences about his final outcome, but speculations and inferences were not facts after all. To find out the truth, more information was needed, and even Joscelius had to obtain them through on-site investigation and questioning.

Another significant obstacle in this matter was that one of the Archbishop’s most trusted subordinates, the last person to talk to him and even to be present at the scene when the incident occurred, the Reverend “Confessor” Comte, also died within the next few hours. It is unknown what kind of shock he suffered, but he made a simple mechanism in his room and strangled himself with a ribbon tied to the head of the bed.

The incident happened late at night the day before. According to the servants who were standing outside the Archbishop's bedroom door, waiting to be summoned, the Archbishop wanted to have a private conversation with the priest, so he dismissed his attendants and closed the door. The soundproofing of the room was specially strengthened after the Archbishop's arrival, so no one knew what happened in the room. The servants only knew that about twenty minutes later, the door was suddenly opened from the inside, and the frightened priest rushed out and shouted "fire out", while the Archbishop had turned into a burning torch.

The servants quickly brought water, sand and fire extinguishers to try to put out the flames on the archbishop as requested by the priest, but this was just an instinctive act of following orders - subsequent investigations showed that the archbishop was likely dead before the servants put out the fire. Moreover, more importantly and more terrifyingly, as if foreshadowing something, even though the servants tried their best, the flames kept burning very stubbornly, as if they were rooted in the fat of Archbishop Trolipo, and did not spread to other furniture or fabrics as the victim struggled or fell to the ground, but they did not go out until the victim was completely drained into a scorched corpse.

Seeing this, the "Confessor" Conte was almost frightened to the point of being unable to stand. However, because the incident happened suddenly, everyone present was in a panic, so no one paid special attention to it. Then, he ordered his servants to block the news and immediately contacted the Star Region See to report the incident. Finally, he said that he needed to stay alone in the room for a while to calm down. For a state church priest with a little leadership, this was also a normal handling and reaction, so no one was suspicious.

The servants waited for several hours, but the priest remained in his room. After dawn, the suspicious people tried to knock on the door repeatedly but got no response, so they forced the door open and found that Conte had strangled himself. The other priests who accompanied him immediately became confused without a backbone, and finally had to spread this scandal that should have been kept within the state church.

——The above information all comes from the case investigation report provided to him by Lanmalok, the Grand Mentor of the Dark Angel Fire Wings who is currently serving Chaldea and who somehow received the news earlier than the host Blood Angels.

Because of this, Joscelius was filled with anger, which became even more uncomfortable when he saw the other party's plain black armor and realized that he had to greet him politely.

"Welcome everyone, I'm glad that there are finally some 'professionals' here." Lan Malok said after the simple courtesy of introducing each other, "After we confirmed that the case involved psychic phenomena, the investigation came to a standstill."

If Heselius tried to persuade himself to interpret this as a gesture of goodwill, an act of cautiously showing weakness in front of the host to show respect, then he failed, unable to convince himself, and could only continue to suppress the growing anger and reply sarcastically: "It seems that we are still late. I thought we should be the first team to arrive."

Lanmaroc chuckled twice without any emotion. "Please forgive our sensitivity, but the last group of people Archbishop Trolipo saw before returning to his residence last night included the saints of Chaldea."

He paused, and seemed to have some specific political reasons to explain. However, considering the relationship between the two parties present, Lanmarok still swallowed a large part of the middle part and jumped directly to the conclusion: "At least, we are all here to understand the truth of this matter, in order to prevent possible misunderstandings from damaging the diplomatic relations between the parallel institutions of the empire and causing unnecessary conflicts."

Joachim nodded. He was still unhappy about Chaldea, or rather, the Dark Angels' subtle behavior of conducting an investigation in advance. But he had to admit that the other party was right.

The investigation went smoothly, with both parties not very happy but still able to maintain rational restraint. Lanmaroc led John Heselius and his party to the tower that the archbishop had planned for himself in the church, and continued to discuss the details of the case while climbing the spiral staircase: "Did any witness mention the color of the flame?" John Heselius asked a very detailed question.

Lanmarok paused: "Is this important?"

Successfully questioning the other party brought Joscelius a little bit of "turning the tables", but this was not the point. "If the fire was caused by psychic phenomena, this is indeed an important detail that laymen can easily overlook." The Blood Angels think tank said, "We may have to question the servants who witnessed the scene, or use some psychic means to extract their accurate memories at the time."

"Okay." Lanmarok's voice sounded a little annoyed, but these emotions were not directed at Jorge Luis. "The witnesses are currently under our supervision, and your needs can be met at any time. So now, let's take a look at the scene first, in case there are really any evil creatures in the subspace that use this incident to sneak into reality."

"That's impossible." Realizing that he was facing a complete layman, Jorge Celius had to use all his patience to explain the problem. "It's not the first day that Archbishop Trolipo arrived in Baal and met with His Excellency Fujimaru Ritsuka. They also had long and close contact in public. I believe that no evil tricks in the warp space could have lurked in front of this saint for a long time until yesterday. Even if we don't mention the talented people around her, she was just standing there, which was equivalent to purifying the surrounding space."

"Or maybe, it just happened last night?" Lanmalok made some other unfounded guesses, "The Archbishop requested to have a secret talk with his confidant, but he was actually performing some heretical ritual, and then something went wrong..."

"This guess is better than the previous one. At least it makes sense logically." From Heselius' tone, it was clear that he did not believe this guess. "But the question is, why did the archbishop do this? Where did he get the knowledge? You know, it is not easy to set up an effective psychic ritual. It is almost impossible for two mortals who are not psychics to succeed within twenty minutes - unless something has already set its sights on them and happened to decide to take action on a whim during the ritual."

"That sounds like a possibility." Layman Lan Malok heard the mocking tone at the end of the sentence, but couldn't figure out why it existed.

"Now that Master Fujimaru Ritsuka is around this person and we have to meet him every one or two days for official business?" Joscelius asked back, "Our enemies in the chaos are indeed trying their best to get involved in reality, but they are not desperate for this matter. You know, even if they are the Immortals, they will indeed be 'dead' if they are caught by Master Saint."

Some time has passed since the Emperor's Dream arrived at Baal, and the person in the above topic, after appearing at the ball, had already spread his feat of killing demons on the spot with a piece of paper and a pen, at least in the think tank department of the Blood Angels.

If Heselius did not continue to think deeply about this issue, because they finally arrived at their destination. The scene of the incident was a large compartment on the top of the tower. It was originally planned to be used to store holy relics, but this church with little history was not qualified to store holy relics, so it had been vacant. After the archbishop arrived, this large compartment was requisitioned because of its excellent security system. Under Trolipo's order, his servants turned this empty warehouse into a bedroom that matched the archbishop's status and style within a few hours - of course, now that the incident has occurred, this room has been sealed as the scene of the incident.

In order to preserve holy objects or protect the safety of important people, the adamantine gate still dutifully blocked uninvited guests from the space behind it today. When Lanmalok, who currently controls the modified access key, arrived with the Blood Angels think tanks, he was somewhat surprised to find a mortal priest dressed as an ascetic monk standing at the door.

The man was wearing a long robe that looked gray because it was not dyed. The only thing that could be called "ornament" on his body was a cloth belt. He was barefoot, and his exposed skin was covered with rough cracks and calluses - in line with the appearance of an ascetic monk of the state religion. After he saw this group of Astartes, he naturally showed a kind of awe and fear that often appeared in mortals who faced the Emperor's Angels for the first time. However, unlike what most people would do, this ascetic monk did not choose to avoid them. Instead, he came forward with an expression of fearlessness and knelt directly in front of this group of space warriors, and saluted according to religious etiquette:

"My Lords, please forgive me for offending you." The man said tremblingly, "But no matter what happened to His Excellency Archbishop Trolipo, he is the Pope of the sub-sector. The Ecclesiarchate must also know what happened to this... Archbishop, so that it can make a fair judgment on his affairs after his death. I know that I am incompetent and too humble to even think about asking you, but I still have to ask you to let me see the place where the Archbishop died, so that I can make a true record of this matter based on the facts I saw with my own eyes."

Being interrupted like this, Heselius was a little angry, but he really had no reason to be angry. First of all, as a Space Marine, it was unnecessary for him to be angry at a mortal who was thrown out to take on this mission that was obviously far from a "good job" after obviously failing in the quarrel between the priests; secondly, as a Blood Angel, he could understand the persistence of the State Church itself as an institution that suffered direct losses in finding the truth in this matter. In any case, under the premise of following the teachings of Sanguinius, the Blood Angels think tank should not embarrass a mortal - but the Dark Angels obviously did not have similar concerns:
"If someone had dared to speak like this in front of me in the past, he would have died the moment he finished speaking." Lanmarok sighed and murmured, "You look unfamiliar. Wasn't it Reverend Goldana who was supposed to represent the state religion as a witness?"

"Reverend Goldana suddenly developed a fever half an hour ago." Out of natural nervousness when facing Astartes, or natural nervousness when facing the threat of death, the man leaned down even more, almost sticking himself to the ground. His tone was trembling, but his words were fluent: "According to the instructions of the adults, the church has isolated those who may be sick. Reverend Goldana was unable to show up in time, so he temporarily ordered me to replace him."

Ruheselius glanced at Lanmarok inexplicably: "You ordered the quarantine of those who might be sick?"

Lanmarok shrugged. "I admit that some things that might cause disease did leave a deep impression on me some time ago. But that's not the problem here."

"First of all, there is no 'Reverend Goldana' who has agreed with me on this matter." The Dark Angel Fire Wing Grand Master coldly exposed the other party's lie, "Secondly, there is no such person as 'Reverend Goldana' in the local clergy of the Baal Cathedral, nor in the entourage brought by Archbishop Trolipo. Yes, this period of time is enough for me to remember the names and information of all these people. So, once again-"

"Your face is not in any of the above records." Lanmarok looked down at the man's body that was shaking more and more violently, and said ruthlessly, "I won't ask you who you are or how you got in. But you still have to tell me, who do you work for?"

(End of this chapter)