Veil looked at Gao Yi beside him. Having clearly never been to the bottom hold before, and even visiting this warship for the very first time, he was unexpectedly crystal-clear on the routes here.
It looked like Damon's group was scouting ahead, but whenever a choice of route was needed, Gao Yi made up his mind without the slightest hesitation.
As they pushed deeper, sounds drifted from the dim corridors.
The sound of soft whispering was exceptionally distinct in this kind of environment.
Having served the Rogue Trader for over a decade, Veil vaguely recognized the owner of the voice.
"Is that Lord Ludwig's voice?"
Just as Veil wanted to step forward, Gao Yi instantly stopped him.
"Lord Gao Yi, that's Lord Ludwig's voice!"
"It might be his voice, but whether the owner of this voice is still Ludwig is anyone's guess."
"Lord Gao Yi! What do you mean by that?"
"My meaning is that the Rogue Trader has likely been corrupted!"
"Impossible! Th... this is impossible?"
"This is why I didn't bring the others along. If anyone else saw the Rogue Trader's fallen appearance, word would inevitably get out, and that would have a massive impact on the dynasty!
Unless you choose to silence everyone."
Veil clearly still didn't believe Gao Yi's words; after all, he didn't know about Gao Yi's ability to read memories.
For all he knew, what Veil was thinking right now was that Gao Yi wanted to kill the Rogue Trader to take his place! Gao Yi was merely acting as captain at present.
"Attack formation! Commander, stay behind us! This is an extermination mission, there are no targets to rescue, no civilians, all targets can be killed! Switch to low-depleted-uranium rounds! Advance!"
Damon immediately began his deployment. Veil tried to block him, but Gao Yi shoved him hard against the wall.
Feeling the tremendous force coming from his chest, Veil found that he couldn't break free from Gao Yi's grip at all!
How is his strength this great!
The squad headed toward the direction of the sound. Along the way, all sorts of blasphemous symbols representing Chaos appeared on the walls.
The metal bulkheads were likewise replaced by living, beating flesh and blood.
When they forced open the unpowered airtight bulkhead door, Ludwig—who had been missing for a long time—was indeed inside.
"Lord Ludwig!"
Veil's cry seemed to awaken Ludwig, who was kneeling and sitting with his head bowed.
At that moment, Ludwig was soaked in a pool of green liquid. This pool of liquid was the source of the warp corruption across the entire warship, and the bubbles constantly rising from it released lethal viruses.
"Veil... it's you... why did you come here!"
"My lord, your body..."
Hearing Veil's words, Ludwig looked down at his own lower body.
His lower half, starting from the waist, was already gone, replaced instead by a pile of foul-smelling flesh and blood. Seeing this sight, Ludwig seemed to have his consciousness fully awakened as well.
"What is going on here! No! This is not what I wanted!"
"He's beyond saving! Finish him!"
Gao Yi gave the order to fire.
Dozens of C-14 pattern rifles spat bullets, and the firebats also sprayed flames, shooting toward that mutated flesh and blood.
The struck areas instantly burst with massive amounts of pus and blood, and the attacks from Gao Yi and his crew seemed to wake up this entire chamber of flesh.
The writhing flesh spat out one monster after another, and this pool of thick soup began to boil. Plague flies flew out from it, while this group of humanoid monsters still wore the armour of the Dynastic Guards.
Those elite soldiers who had accompanied Ludwig down here had turned into sacrifices at this moment.
The flesh they proliferated directly burst the carapace armour on their bodies, but they still knew how to use the boltguns in their hands to fight back.
"Ophelia? Gaspar? Why have you all turned out like this!!" Veil also recognized several of the monsters among them.
Now the original firepower suppression had abruptly turned into a fierce exchange of gunfire.
The combat suits couldn't handle the power of the bolts, and even though the impact generated by the explosions was blocked, the soldiers inside had a rough time of it.
Several bolts rushed toward Gao Yi, fortunately blocked by the forcefield shield.
In Gao Yi's psionic vision, Ludwig's soul was long no longer his own.
Daemonhost? A daemon is inhabiting her body?
Gao Yi still remembered the feeling of being tortured by a daemonhost when he first played Darktide. Even though later on it was just a few hammer blows to smash it to death, it was genuinely sickening in the early stages; once startled, it would more often than not cost one or two lives.
And Gao Yi also saw clearly what kind of daemon was inhabiting Ludwig's body. It wasn't just a single daemon... but a whole group.
Clusters of densely packed nurglings were piled together, occupying Ludwig's body.
They chattered and laughed as if this were just a game, showing not the slightest concern about being discovered.
As the most numerous daemons in the Garden of Nurgle with endless numbers, a single nurling was not terrifying, but a group of nurglings was enough to bury an opponent by sheer weight of numbers.
As the avatars of Nurgle and the children favored by Nurgle, they often represented Nurgle's gaze to mortals.
The nurlings' greatest wish was to rack their brains to spread Grandfather's gospel for him. The characteristic of daemons returning to the warp after perishing in the material universe also meant they harbored zero fear of death.
Moreover, the exceptionally harmonious atmosphere within the Garden of Nurgle meant they didn't have to worry about suffering punishment from Nurgle upon failure, allowing these nurglings to carry out attempts with absolute unconcern.
Yet behind every single attempt at intrusion by this group of nurglings, there usually loomed the figure of a far more powerful Nurgle daemon.
Gao Yi was truly envious. If he wouldn't sprout weird things or rot all over, he really wanted to throw his lot in with Nurgle.
Gao Yi genuinely loved this kind of corporate culture! Where else could you find such a good boss, who truly treated the daemons around him like children!
"After all that fuss, it was a bunch of nurglings causing all these things?"
Ludwig's physical body was a conduit. As the warp's energy grew increasingly abundant in this place, the gellar field protecting the warship began to grow unstable.
The truly powerful Nurgle daemon behind the nurglings was attempting to force its way into this warship.
Seeing this scene, Gao Yi knew he couldn't wait any longer. You had to realize this warship was sailing through the warp; if that daemon really was let in, goodness knows what would happen!
And he was the only one here who could withstand the baptism of the psionic power!
Gao Yi activated his power sword, aiming the master-crafted boltgun in his hand at the two frontmost corrupted guards and pulling the trigger.
The massive recoil was fortunately offset by the marauder armour, and the targeted guards were blown into fragments in the explosion.
With his physical body already enhanced, Gao Yi burst forth with incredible speed even while dragging the heavy combat suit.
Bolt after bolt fired at him was blocked by the forcefield shield. After shoving aside a few blocking guards, Gao Yi charged forward, brandishing his power sword to stab at the completely corrupted Ludwig.
Watching Gao Yi leap high into the air, the nurglings inside Ludwig's body laughed with utter disdain.
Yet they immediately discovered something was wrong.
Their strength was being weakened... that divine might belonging to Grandfather was actually being sucked away by the fellow in front of them?
Even the sickening flesh and blood all around began to shrivel up, and the highly corrosive plague before them failed to block Gao Yi by even a fraction.
"Die! Daemon, this is my warship!"
The power sword pierced into Ludwig's flesh without the slightest obstruction, and by this point the nurglings truly began to feel fear.
Their inhabited fleshly vessel had collapsed, and they ought to have returned to Grandfather's garden, but instead they found that the fellow in front of them was actually devouring their souls!
They fought desperately to escape, but that terrifying suction pulled nurgling after nurgling into Gao Yi's warp projection.
When the last nurgling was swallowed up, those corrupted guards turned back into corpses once more.
Meanwhile, a Great Unclean One of Nurgle in the Garden of Nurgle looked in puzzlement at the closing conduit before it.
The conduit closing didn't matter; it was merely another insignificant failure, but how was it that not a single one of the nurglings had come back?
Afterward, the Great Unclean One scratched its massive backside and paid this matter no further mind.
Before you continue