Corpse Guild

Upon entering the PDF outpost, Zhou Yun couldn't help but furrow his brow.

Within the PDF outpost, near the buildings, lay several corpses.

They wore the uniforms of the Asphodel Planetary Defense Force, their faces marred by emaciation, bite marks, and decay.

Most of the bodies were incomplete. One could imagine that after the governor ordered the bombing of Old Sector Eight, the PDF soldiers buried under the rubble might have resorted to cannibalism.

But that wasn't what bothered Zhou Yun.

Consuming corpses in the Hive City wasn't something that carried a significant psychological burden.

After all, a portion of the infamous corpse starch was made from the bodies of the dead.

The Corpse Guilds, responsible for producing corpse starch, used hearses and mobile factories to collect the deceased and create the starch from their bodies.

Many Hive City residents had consumed this corpse starch.

What truly made Zhou Yun knit his brows was that these corpses had been lying here for at least a century, yet they were filled with rot and hadn't turned into a pile of bones.

A hint of caution arose in Zhou Yun's heart. He extended a finger towards one of the corpses.

"Bang!!!" He uttered a syllable.

The corpse's head exploded like a watermelon struck by a hammer, splattering red, green, and white pus onto the wall behind it, forming a twisted painting.

After long years of decay, the heads of these corpses had become soft. Even the shockwave from an air pistol could shatter them.

However, the other corpses nearby remained still, as if they were truly just dead bodies.

This, this isn't right?

He frowned and extended his finger again.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three more heads exploded, but the remaining corpses still didn't rise from the ground and turn into ghouls as Zhou Yun suspected.

He turned his head, glancing at Malkit and Monger behind him.

Malkit gave him a slight nod.

As expected, this guy did something.

Zhou Yun nodded at Malkit, then...

He waved his arm, and the mechanical hand above his head moved, sweeping across the corpses beneath the wall.

The heads of the corpses were then crushed one by one, leaving streaks of red, green, and white on the wall.

After clearing all the corpses within his sight, Zhou Yun smiled at Malkit before calmly heading towards the PDF warehouse.

Malkit watched this scene, couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, "So cautious."

"Is he worried I'll awaken these ghouls?"

"Brother, he realized you used the incantation gifted by the 'Angels' to put the ghouls to sleep?" Monger asked in a low voice.

Monger's tone was filled with surprise, as if he couldn't understand how Zhou Yun knew these corpses were ghouls.

"He knows us very well, perhaps better than we know ourselves," Malkit said in a deep voice.

"Who exactly is he? Ryan Russ, a name that sounds fake just by hearing it," Monger said, looking in the direction Zhou Yun had left.

Malkit, however, fell silent. He remembered the 'Angels'' screams filled with terror.

Most of the time, the 'Angels'' voice was filled with a seemingly unfading cheerfulness.

This was the first time he had heard the 'Angels'' voice filled with such terror.

And the information revealed in those terrified screams...

"This name might hold some truth."

Malkit said seriously, "The 'Angels' said his face resembles..."

Monger noticed the hesitation in Malkit's tone, as if he was considering whether to say the name.

"Resembles who?" Monger couldn't help but press.

"The demigod of the First Legion during the Great Crusade ten thousand years ago."

Malkit took a deep breath and said, "Lion El'Jonson. His face is almost identical to Lion El'Jonson."

"But his physique is wrong, and his personality isn't the same."

"Ryan Russ looks like a Primarch?" Hearing Malkit's words, Monger gasped, He couldn't help but think of many possibilities, each one somewhat horrifying.

"Don't think about it anymore. He didn't delve into our secrets, so we shouldn't delve into his."

"Finding the trace of that relic is still the most important thing."

Malkit shook his head and spoke, looking around at the office location of the PDF garrison.

He patted Monger's shoulder, and they walked towards the building together.

The Imperium had many mediums for storing information, the most common being parchment and datapad.

Important, valuable information was stored on more reliable, more secure parchment, while the rest was stored on datapads.

Monger sifted through the datapad in his hand, searching for the information they both wanted.

Malkit, meanwhile, organized the parchment.

"Found it," Malkit said, pointing to a piece of parchment.

On this parchment, a string of Low Gothic letters was densely written.

This was the PDF's detailed record of the plague from that year, clearly documenting the plague situation in Old Sector Eight.

Malkit waved to Monger, "Help me find a datapad that records the map of Old Sector Eight."

Monger took out a datapad from the ones he had just searched through.

He had specifically chosen this one because he had promised Zhou Yun he would find the map for him.

Malkit looked at the map of Old Sector Eight on the datapad, marking the locations where the plague had appeared that year with his finger.

These small dots marked by Malkit formed a patch that was sparse around the edges and dense in the center.

Looking at the marked-up map, Malkit fell into thought.

"The plague spread across half of Old Sector Eight that year; this half is likely where the source of the plague was."

"According to the PDF's records from that time, the earliest plague outbreaks were here."

Malkit looked at the most densely clustered area of dots, where the plague had first begun to spread.

He reached out and connected the locations where the plague had first appeared, forming an irregular circle.

He looked at the buildings within this circle and quickly found a suspicious target.

"The Corpse Guild."

Malkit pointed to the location of the Corpse Guild.

The Corpse Guild was almost directly in the center of the earliest plague outbreak locations.

"It seems that over a hundred years ago, the Corpse Guild spread the plague, channeling the power of the garden where the 'Angels' reside into the material universe."

"According to what the 'Angels' said, that power was infused into an ancient arcane artifact."

"But before the artifact could be truly completed, the Governor who discovered this bombed the entire Old Sector Eight, burying everything beneath."

Malkit's tone revealed some excitement.

"But that nearly completed arcane artifact is likely still within the Corpse Guild!"

"As long as we find that artifact, and then find that Warp engine in the underhive, we can save all of Asphodel."

Actually, not all Hive Cities had monopolistic Corpse Guilds.