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

Module 1: "Second Star Torch" - As the name suggests, it will be used as a navigation beacon in the subspace after completion;

Module 2: "Echo of Fate" - Derived from Chaldea's Fate Summoning System, it will become the base for the Cursed Army to appear in the material world, and can provide almost unlimited manpower required to protect the Torch.

Module 3: The Tower of Ends - a storm anchor that ties the stars together, isolating them from the influence of the warp and firmly nailing the "fabric" that symbolizes the "human narrative" to the surface;

Module 4: "Beautiful Journey" - a virtual navigation and transfer system that can be used to launch ships. As long as the Astronomican has been there, it can be reached instantly.

Module 5: "Longinus" - a god-killing weapon, a deterrent weapon to protect the Astronomican from Chaos. When it is actually activated, it can also act as a ground-to-orbit light spear in the material universe, causing devastating damage to ships that dare to stay in the orbit of Baal Prime.

Module 6: "Humanistic Foundation" - After the restraining force (Alaya consciousness) of this universe is gradually generated, the Emperor Fantasy is used as a model to fix the future of human prosperity and development;

——And module number seven, which has yet to be proven, or cannot be proven for the time being.

"I see." Having roughly guessed how the unwritten Module 7 would work, Debbie let out a long sigh, "You did come up with a plan that I would most likely oppose."

"After all, this is essentially no different from the Chaldeas Plan, both of which involve plundering certain resources needed by other species in the universe to maintain the survival and prosperity of mankind." Fujimaru Ritsuka pushed a cup of tea, sugar, and milk can towards Debit. "Since you are even willing to use extreme and radical means to stop that, I think you probably don't agree with mine either."

"You're wrong about that." Debbie put down the tablet for the moment and naturally began to add sugar to his tea. "Does Tezcatlipoca know about this?"

"Probably. I didn't tell him specifically, but I didn't hide from him when I was working on the documents. Although he hasn't said anything about it, I think it's safer to assume that he knows." Fujimaru Ritsuka answered calmly, "Whether he ultimately chooses to support or oppose it, it's a problem I need to deal with. Now I want to confirm your opinion."

"I don't have any particular inclination towards this." To Fujimaru Ritsuka's surprise, Debbie replied, "Marisbury's plan and your plan differ in the fundamental condition of 'cosmic environment'. From my (cosmic) perspective, if he succeeds, the overall development of the universe will inevitably stagnate; but if your plan succeeds, the cost is indeed very high, which may be a good thing for the universe - although I really don't understand where this whimsical plan of yours came from."

Fujimaru Ritsuka held the teacup and asked a seemingly irrelevant question leisurely behind the steam coming out of the cup: "Do you know what the Great Expedition is about?"

Hill, who was holding a small teacup, couldn't help but perk up when he heard this, ready to interject at the right time by virtue of his identity as a witness of the Great Crusade. He looked at Debit and nodded to Fujimaru Ritsuka: "I read a little bit about it in the history of the Iron Hands."

"The details are not important. It's enough for you to know that such a thing happened ten thousand years ago." Fujimaru Ritsuka's first sentence successfully extinguished Hill's enthusiasm, and the second sentence directly pushed him into the abyss. "In fact, for the Emperor, the Great Crusade in his plan is similar to the 'Second Astronomical Torch' you just saw in my plan. Both are troublesome preparations that have little to do with the plan itself, but must be done for the current well-being of mankind."

"Wait a minute." Hill felt he had to interrupt. "Is this something I can listen to? Or is this something I can just say casually?"

"It doesn't matter, right? Anyway, the Emperor's plan failed ten thousand years ago, so it can only be used as a negative example." Fujimaru Ritsuka was not nervous at all. "His idea at the time was to bring all humans under the unified government again, and then start promoting the 'webway' that isolates the warp as a means of superluminal interstellar transportation, and gradually through genetic adjustment and other means, make humans completely free from the influence of the warp and develop freely away from the shadow of the evil god. Overall, it was a plan to 'let humans leave the warp'."

Debbie nodded to show that he understood everything, although Hill felt that he understood nothing.

The Ultramarines wanted to say something, but before that, Debit had already blocked all his unspoken words: "This is what happened. Because the plan of 'letting humans leave the warp' failed, you are planning such a plan of 'letting the warp leave the universe'."

Hill began to feel that he understood nothing.

He didn't know how this conclusion was reached, and felt that he had a lot of questions that needed to be clarified, but Debbie didn't give him a chance to interrupt and continued to ask questions: "But even if you look at this plan from your perspective of 'only considering the survival of mankind', what about the Empire? Limiting or forcing a country to maintain its existing territory through means of communication and transportation, at least in the current era, must rely on the existence of the subspace. If your plan succeeds, the Empire, which lacks means of superluminal movement, will not be far from splitting up."

"I handed over the technologies of imaginary submersible navigation and plane moon navigation to the Empire." Fujimaru Ritsuka answered confidently, "After that, the Emperor said that it was his responsibility to consider the issues and that an underage girl like me didn't need to worry about it."

Debbie suddenly grasped a strange point: "Are you really still 'underage'?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka did not answer, but only expressed his attitude by glaring. Hill finally found an opportunity to interrupt the topic and asked in a slightly weak tone: "Excuse me, does my Primarch know about this?"

"We didn't talk about such a far-reaching strategic goal last time, but the Emperor should be able to tell..." Fujimaru Ritsuka reflexively let out half a sentence before remembering that the psychic signal of this unique Primarch was so poor that he couldn't even connect to the Primarch contact group in the Chaldean summoning room. He had been working overtime and had not slept at all, let alone receiving the Emperor's so-called "oracle" or "dream" or other signs.

After a brief pause, she sighed again, swallowed the first half of her sentence, and said with certainty: "Unless the think tank has told him, I think Mr. Robert really doesn't know."

-

"What did this demon host finally summon?" The Grey Knight Captain-Sister, who had read the third-to-last page of the first report (written by Hastings himself), shouted in a voice mixed with shock and anger of being played with, almost losing his composure.

This voice frightened many mortal crew members on the bridge of the Fortitude and Might, but that did not include Marlan, who was also a mortal. She was reading another report that was exactly the same as the one Stern was reading, but her reading speed was not as fast as his, so her eyes were still in the middle of the report. She quickly flipped through the electronic manuscript in confusion, but before she found the description that made the Grey Knight furious, Hastings' voice coming from the communication had already explained the answer to her:

"A small projection of the will of the Lord of Change." His tone was as steady and serious as ever, with a hint of fatigue, but only this sentence seemed to reveal a hint of gloating. "As a psychic, I am sure of this."

"If this is true, as a psyker, you deserve to die," Stern accused loudly. "Even if you survived by chance, you must have been contaminated by Chaos. Any pure warrior loyal to the Empire should ensure that you get the proper 'purification'!"

To the Grey Knight, the situation where this common sense question was overturned made him feel strongly offended, just as Hastings was confidently claiming in front of him that "one plus one equals three". When facing a slightly stronger demon, mortals are at risk of being implanted with evil thoughts and gradually corrupted, not to mention a psyker facing the Chaos God himself (even if it is just a small amount of power projected into reality). This cannot be explained by "good luck". In the world of psychic power, many times only one action, a simple glance, or even a little flow of consciousness is needed for Chaos's purpose to be achieved. If the fragile but bright soul of the psyker does not immediately fall into the control of the Warp Power, according to the Grey Knight's experience, then it must mean that some conspiracy from the High Heaven is secretly fermenting in him.

But Hastings did not show any of the emotional fluctuations that would naturally be revealed by someone who was provoked or questioned. He still advised the other party with a rock-like attitude and unwavering: "Regarding the matter of 'how the people present survived conscious', please refer to Appendix 2 at the back of the report. In short, Fujimaru Ritsuka protected everyone's soul with the Emperor's psychic power at the time, and protected everyone's consciousness and sanity with some kind of anti-memetic means. After careful research, I have discussed the detailed principles of this matter in Appendix 2."

Captain Stern stared at the image of the communication sent by Hastings via radio waves for a while. The Grey Knight's helmet with rigid lines and lack of decorations showed no emotion, but anyone could easily read the suspicion in his eyes. He raised his hand and turned off the display screen in front of Inquisitor Marlan beside him, indicating that she should not continue reading. Then he looked directly into Hastings' eyes and used some words:

"Last chance, Inquisitor Hastings. We have fought together before, and I cannot say how well I know you, but I am certain that it would be a great pity for the Empire to lose such a loyal servant as you."

Hastings, who of course understood what the words meant, did not follow the literal meaning, but answered according to the other party's true feelings: "That's a pity, Captain Stern. I understand your vigilance and concerns, but I promise that I have no plans to leave my current position in any form or accident for the time being. In the foreseeable future, you will have to endure the frequent appearance of a suspicious person like me in your work."

Stern said nothing more, just waved his hand outside the camera. Soon, a small part of the Grey Knight Terminator armor appeared on the edge of the image seen by Hastings on the Shadow Hammer. The sound array slightly picked up the sound of muttering spells, and the transmission signal was temporarily unstable due to the ebb and flow of psychic energy. Hastings didn't know what kind of spells the Grey Knights used, but he knew what they were guarding against: there were too many means in this universe that could subtly corrupt the will of others with just words. The Grey Knights were indeed more resistant to Chaos, but what if Hastings really wrote this seemingly harmless report at the instruction of Tzeentch himself? No one dared to bet that it was safe to read it themselves.

Hastings himself had no right to complain, but he did think Stern was overthinking. When he realized that he had such thoughts, he began to doubt for the umpteenth time whether there was really no memetic contamination on the Stormboundary.

I have to find a way to get off the ship. As Captain Stern continued to read his report as if facing a great enemy, Hastings continued to think so with a serious expression. Regardless of whether there is memetic contamination on the Storm Boundary, I have to find a way to stay away from this group of people - otherwise, sooner or later, I, an inquisitor, will forget even the most basic of the basics, such as mentality.

(End of this chapter)

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 nonchalantly, which earned him a wave of his hand indifferently:

"At first, I wanted to let the people from Mars do it, but after I calculated with the Emperor, I found that Mars' production capacity and computing power still had to be used for larger-scale construction projects. I had to settle for the second best and just grab people from the local area. Anyway, I only asked them to build a shell of the tower in the first step, and everyone had to research 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)

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."