Seeing Ian's taciturn attitude, Gao Yi knew it worked. Gao Yi did not want to be a puppet, nor did he want to become a tool for those high-ranking Inquisitors to use; he needed to develop his own network of relationships and win over targets he felt were worth pulling to his side.
Having the system, Gao Yi did not intend to honestly remain a Rogue Trader forever. As long as he was given time to develop, he was destined to rise, and his dynasty would not be limited to these few planets of the present.
His recent major goal was to forge the Expansion Zone into a powerful star sector comparable to or even surpassing the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar.
The territories of the Empire already had masters, and if he wanted to do this within the Imperial borders, threats from either powerful xenos or the Empire would cause him to run into obstacles everywhere, whereas the Koronus Expansion Zone was simply a perfect place.
The strength of the enemies here was much lower.
Moreover, there were rules here, but also sufficient freedom. There were thousands of worlds in the explored areas, and the unexplored areas were countless.
Most importantly, wanting to enter the Expansion Zone normally from the Empire almost always required passing through the Warp route of the Great Maw.
Any threat from within the Imperial territory would first have to experience its initial test, and once the Koronus pocket world belonging to Gao Yi was successfully established, he could guard the Mandeville Point near the Wrath Nebula to intercept enemies. This natural hazard could bring Gao Yi enormous advantages.
It allowed him to advance to attack and retreat to defend.
At this moment, Zesta, who had already become a Mechanicus Thrall, was guarded by a full squad of Rangers. Ever since seeing such bizarre things as the Forge Fiend, even though Zesta had completely lost his ability to resist, still no one would underestimate him, fearing he might pull off some trick.
Seeing Gao Yi and Ian walking over dressed in lavish attire, Zesta was still shouting defiantly.
He excitedly cursed in binary language. Even if Gao Yi could not understand it, he knew it was nothing good.
Yet no matter how Gao Yi questioned him, Zesta refused to answer questions in Gothic.
This left them with no choice but to drag Pavian over from the Purification Workshop.
Pavian came to Zesta's side and pulled aside the robes on him. The priestly red robes, which should have been neat and magnificent, were tattered and stained with dried blood—all coming from those innocent people—while beneath the robes was a body modified with various heretical technologies.
What a blasphemous piece of technology.
Hearing Pavian's words, Zesta finally stopped cursing.
Regarding Pavian's degree of modification, Zesta sneered.
"An ordinary Tech-Priest? You simply don't understand how to wield knowledge, and technology should not be restricted at all! The decaying Empire destroys and bans knowledge, further restricts the spread of knowledge, and even kills those who explore the truth. Vashtor is the true Machine God!"
"Didn't you still fail? Didn't you hear the wails sent forth by the Machine Spirit? Demons devoured the sacred Machine Spirit and modified its perfect body to turn it into that blasphemous appearance. You are the one who is wrong. The Holy Machine is the maintainer of machinery; it protects us, and appeases and heals the Machine Spirit."
"The Holy Machine? What is that?"
"You are not worthy to know. You only need to know that the technology you desecrate is insignificant before Him. It is He who shelters us to withstand the invasion of your Corrupted Code."
"You, an ordinary priest, resisted the corruption of the Corrupted Code? That is absolutely impossible!"
The debate between the two sides was almost endless, and Gao Yi stepped forward to stop Pavian.
"There is nothing left to chatter about with these fellows who have given themselves to the Dark Gods. Translate for me; I want to know what on earth they did in my world!"
Yet facing the questioning, Zesta did not say a single word. He did not fear physical torture at all; as long as he cut off his sensory components, this body, which was almost entirely replaced by machinery, could completely ignore any torture.
Watching Zesta's impenetrable attitude, Gao Yi was momentarily helpless as well.
"Why not let me do it?"
"Hmm? Inquisitor Ian, do you have any good ideas?"
"He can ignore physical torture, but what about spiritual torture? As Inquisitors, the cultists we have encountered are numerous, and many people have the exact same ability as him!"
"Inquisitor Ian, you know quite a few things."
"Just a bit of know-how. In the Expansion Zone, the human enemies we need to deal with are truly too many. To protect the safety of the Empire, we must learn more knowledge, and interrogation is a compulsory course for every Inquisitor."
Ian looked at Zesta and revealed a trace of a smile.
"Then I'll trouble you."
"Consider this as my humble repayment."
Soon the group provided Ian with some vacant cabins, and before long, painful wails came from inside the cabin.
Ian was using his psychic powers to tear at Zesta's soul, probing into the deepest secrets within his heart.
While waiting for Ian to give the interrogation results, Gao Yi was also listening to the battle report.
The armor plating of the Golden Ram suffered a degree of damage, with multiple decks destroyed by the enemy's macro-cannons. Fortunately, due to the presence of SCVs, repairs were not a major problem. The Sword Rain and the Vanguard also sustained varying degrees of damage, but their technological advantage allowed them to fight or run when facing enemy frigates.
What made Gao Yi feel most distressed was the personnel issue. In this battle, the three naval warships lost more than three thousand men, and of the regular army soldiers who boarded the enemy, less than one in ten remained—the rest died fighting against the enemy's boarding actions and artillery bombardments.
The losses of shipworkers were not small either. Several of the enemy's assault ships drove right down into the Lower Deck, and before the reinforcement team arrived, these fellows killed almost all the shipworkers within sight.
If the Rangers had not moved fast enough, the losses might have been even greater. Human lives were terrifyingly insignificant in battles between war-vessels.
The greatest loss, however, was the tragic state on Omiron.
Originally, Omiron's population was over one hundred million. Under the destructive devastation and plundering by Canto's fleet over the course of a month, nearly sixty percent of the population died or was carried off, and with the remaining population, restoring Omiron's output was almost impossible.
"Captain, they emptied out all the stored grain. If they really started doing this a month ago, our food supplies have also run into a huge problem."
Veil wore a bitter smile.
"We have also run into food problems?"
"We prepared a large amount of food before departure, but now what about these 40 million people on Omiron? You said we should try our best to rescue these people, but the food required to feed these 40 million people is frighteningly huge. Of course it would be no problem if Omiron could still function normally, but now, we are utterly powerless.
If there weren't still some survivors of the Corpse Guild on Omiron using the corpses of the dead to make Corpse Starch, the number of deaths would probably be even greater, and we even discovered that when we found some survivors, cannibalism had already begun to appear.
My proposal is to abandon the survivors here, preserve the food on our own warships, and hurry to Agathos. Only by retaking the capital world as soon as possible can we have the capability to rebuild the agricultural world here."
"Then are we just going to watch these people starve to death?"
"I'm afraid so, Captain."
This chapter was suddenly lost, so I can only resend it. Sorry everyone, I am having the editor help me reorder it.
Before you continue