Go Soothe the Machine Spirit!

"The machine spirit is displeased!!!"

Watching the excavator wildly swing its mechanical arm, the hive workers and gang members all descended into panic.

It swayed its body like a living creature, its tracks spinning as it sent rubble spraying across the ground.

"The excavator's gone crazy?!" The gang members backed away in terror.

They hastily raised their autopistols and poured bullets into the small excavator.

The bullets struck the excavator's low-grade ceramite-steel shell, throwing up showers of sparks.

Even a low-grade ceramite-steel shell was not something the gang members' autopistol rounds could penetrate.

All that barrage seemed to accomplish was driving the excavator even crazier.

Its mechanical arm lashed out, smashing into a nearby building. The house shook under the immense force, rubble flew everywhere, and the gang members scattered in fright.

"What the hell are we supposed to do?" the gang leader shouted at the hive workers.

Machines coming alive was something they had only heard of in rumors and stories. Their understanding of "machine spirits" went no further than knowing such a term existed.

The hive workers were equally dumbfounded. They knew a little about machinery, but they were completely in the dark about something as mystical and unfathomable as a "machine spirit."

".Shouldn't we soothe the machine spirit?" one hive worker suddenly said.

"Right, right, right! I remember now, this is when we're supposed to soothe the machine spirit!" Another hive worker nodded hard.

"That's what the stories I heard in taverns said too—soothe the machine spirit!" the hive workers chimed in all at once.

The gang leader nodded, casually grabbed a nearby gang member, and pointed at the deranged excavator.

"You. Go soothe the machine spirit."

"Me?" The low-ranking gang member pointed at his own face, utterly stunned. "M-Me, soothe the machine spirit?"

"For real?"

"Get moving!" the gang leader roared.

The low-ranking gang member shuddered and shakily stepped forward.

How could he possibly know anything about soothing a machine spirit? He could only hold out both hands and use the same skills he used to serve his woman at night, stroking the excavator's shell.

His movements were gentle and nauseatingly tender.

"Is that really going to work?" The gang leader watched with a frown.

As the low-ranking gang member rubbed it, the excavator actually came to a stop.

"It really worked?" The gang leader's eyes went wide.

The hive workers beside him also cried out in surprise.

"I-I can soothe machine spirits!" The low-ranking gang member looked overjoyed.

He turned around and gave the other gang members behind him a thumbs-up.

For a moment, the other gang members all started applauding.

Then, behind the low-ranking gang member, the excavator raised its mechanical arm high.

Bang!

The mechanical arm came crashing down. The low-ranking gang member's eyes rolled back, and he passed out.

The excavator's tracks began spinning madly again, its mechanical arm swinging wildly.

A sheen of sweat formed on Zhou Yun's forehead.

Controlling the excavator with telekinesis from so far away and making it look like the machine spirit had gone berserk really took a lot out of him.

Fortunately, the entire gang stronghold had fallen into chaos. Even the gang members guarding the water source had been drawn over, trying to subdue the crazed excavator.

This was exactly the opportunity they needed.

Zhou Yun glanced at Monger, and Monger immediately understood.

He used the red-rusted dagger to slice open his own arm, and bubbling blood flowed out.

Monger picked up a stone from the ground and dripped his blood onto it. Fine pits were instantly corroded into the stone, filling with his blood.

"Just throw this stone into the water reservoir," Monger said to Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun nodded, picked up the stone, and vanished from the spot in an instant. Moments later, he appeared beside the water reservoir in the gang stronghold and tossed the stone in.

Beneath the nearby mound of rubble, the excavator had stopped after losing Zhou Yun's telekinetic control.

The gang members stared at the excavator, shocked, exhausted, and drenched in sweat.

"That should do it." Zhou Yun gave a slight nod. His figure vanished from the reservoir's edge, and in an instant he was back beside Monger and Malkit.

"It's in." Zhou Yun nodded slightly at Monger and Malkit.

The three of them remained in the shadow of the building, watching the gang members and hive workers in the distance pant from exhaustion.

Before long, nearly all of them had drunk water laced with Monger's blood.

Then... then nothing happened.

Zhou Yun's eye twitched slightly.

A few gang members did start having diarrhea, and a few did complain that their stomachs hurt.

But... but most of them seemed unaffected.

Monger noticed Zhou Yun's twitching eye and said uncertainly,

"People's constitutions differ."

"Some people might drink improperly filtered water and get diarrhea immediately."

"Others might not feel any discomfort in their stomachs until half the day has passed."

At that, Zhou Yun's eye twitched even harder.

"No, man." Zhou Yun clutched his head and looked at Monger. "Is the toxicity of your blood really on the same level as unfiltered water?"

Monger nodded somewhat guiltily.

"The toxic components in my blood are secreted and stored by glands. There was never that much to begin with."

"And I used up quite a bit fighting you earlier. The toxicity might be a little low now."

"Just wait a little longer. Wait a little longer."

The more Monger spoke, the less confidence he had.

This really wasn't his fault, Monger muttered to himself.

Earlier, Leman Russ's horrifying face had startled him.

Unable to hold it in, he had squeezed most of the toxic substance from his glands into his blood and used it up. Now his blood's toxicity was a little too low.

"Just wait. You have to be patient." Monger looked at Malkit beside him. "Right, big brother?"

Malkit also seemed to find it a little embarrassing and could not help turning his head away.

Looking at these two pathetic cultists before him, Zhou Yun nearly broke down.

Which genius in Nurgle's Garden had corrupted these two pathetic cultists?

Other cultists were blessed by Nurgle, by the Grand Cleanse. Had the two of them been blessed by Nurglings instead? Why were they so useless?

Zhou Yun shook his head and held out his hand to Monger. "Lend me that dagger of yours."

"Huh?" Monger froze for a moment, then handed the dagger covered in scarlet rust to Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun weighed the dagger in his hand. He decided to solve the problem in a simpler, more direct way.

Before Monger's baffled eyes, Zhou Yun vanished from the spot in the blink of an eye.

He suddenly appeared behind the gang leader and pressed Monger's dagger across his throat.

The surrounding gang members were all startled. They raised their autopistols and aimed them at Zhou Yun.

"Don't move!"

"This dagger of mine is coated with deadly corruption venom. Even the slightest scratch will turn a person into pus, corrupt their soul, and cast them into the realm of daemons, never to return to the Golden Throne for all eternity."

I'll make a slight revision in the next chapter and post it ten-odd minutes later.