The Last Moon Wolves

"Ryan Russ, you bastard!"

Monger shouted at Zhou Yun, who stood outside the gates of the Corpse Guild.

"You shot at us with a laser rifle while we were still inside?"

A brilliant smile spread across Zhou Yun's lips. "What a coincidence that you two are here too."

Malkit picked up the rusty, decaying gladius from the ground and tucked it into his clothes.

He looked at Zhou Yun with a hint of speechlessness. This guy really knew that he and Monger were inside the Corpse Guild.

Malkit and Monger had always worn masks before, but Zhou Yun recognized them at a glance and wasn't even surprised that they were mutants.

This meant that Zhou Yun had been watching nearby when Malkit and Monger took off their hoods and entered the Corpse Guild.

Malkit couldn't help but shake his head.

Monger seemed oblivious, just grumbling a few curses about Zhou Yun being unfair.

Zhou Yun's smile, however, sent a shiver down Malkit's spine.

"Although I almost hit you by mistake, I also saved your lives."

Zhou Yun stood about two or three meters away from the Corpse Guild's gate and said to the two of them, "And the two of you being mutants, that's not good."

Twelve laser rifles suddenly rose behind Zhou Yun, pointing at Monger and Malkit.

Monger froze on the spot, and Malkit's body stiffened slightly.

"Ryan Russ, although we are mutants, we are not villains."

Malkit slowly raised his hands and shook his head, saying, "There was no lie in what I said before. We are indeed here to save Asphodel."

"We... we were guided by an 'Angel'."

"An Angel?" Zhou Yun visibly paused.

"Yes, an Angel," Malkit nodded emphatically.

"Which Angel?" Zhou Yun's lips curved into an amused smile.

"Who else could it be?" Malkit shook his head and said.

"Oh, what a coincidence. I was also guided by an Angel," Zhou Yun nodded with a smile.

This time, it was Malkit's turn to freeze. He looked Zhou Yun up and down.

"Doesn't seem like it," Malkit whispered involuntarily.

"I agree, it doesn't seem like it," Zhou Yun nodded in agreement.

Then, he looked at the Corpse Guild behind Monger and Malkit.

"Since I saved your lives, and we're both here guided by an Angel."

"Could you do me a favor?"

Zhou Yun said with a light chuckle, "Have you seen a safe with a miniature stasis field installed? Could you help me move it out?"

Hearing this, Monger and Malkit both froze.

Malkit glanced at Zhou Yun, who stood a good two or three meters away from the Corpse Guild's gate, arms crossed, with twelve laser rifles hovering behind him, and his mouth twitched slightly.

From the looks of it, he wasn't planning on stepping foot inside the Corpse Guild.

"Damn, it's heavy," Monger grumbled.

He and Malkit dragged the man-sized ceramic steel safe out of the Corpse Guild.

Zhou Yun reached out and gently stroked the ceramic steel exterior of the safe.

The true value of this safe wasn't its thick casing, but the miniature stasis field installed inside.

It was a remnant of humanity's research into temporal technology during the Golden Age, capable of creating a region where time was nearly stagnant.

Besides the field, this technology was also used to create weapons called "stasis bombs."

The Space Wolves' great deceiver, Lucas, had replaced one of his hearts with a stasis bomb.

If some unlucky soul killed him, the bomb would detonate, freezing both him and his killer in time.

According to the intel from Old One-Eye, the stasis field in this safe was a degraded version, only able to slow down the flow of time to a limited extent.

But it was enough to preserve a notebook.

He took out the Ring of Passage from his Fourth-Dimensional Pocket and attached it to the safe.

Through the circular opening created by the Ring of Passage, Zhou Yun saw what was stored inside the safe.

It was a notebook bound in thick, cream-colored paper, covered in soft black lambskin with an elastic band.

The Bonzman No. 7 Notebook was custom-made by Ignatius Carkas from a Hive City in Terra's polar region; only two hundred were produced.

Zhou Yun used Telekinesis to slowly retrieve the notebook from the safe.

Despite the passage of over ten thousand years, the notebook had clearly been preserved properly.

"What is this notebook?" Monger asked curiously.

He must have been interested in a notebook that required a stasis field for preservation, especially since it was found in the office of the Corpse Guild branch director.

"Most likely just a collection of poems," Zhou Yun said, shaking the notebook in his hand.

Glancing at the notebook, which indeed didn't look like a copy of ancient, blasphemous sorcery, Monger lost interest.

Holding the notebook, Zhou Yun began to recall the works of this poet from ten thousand years ago:

Ode to Unity, The Imperial Epic, Seas of Verse, Introspection and Hymns, and We Only Seek Truth, which had cost him his life.

He wondered which piece was in this notebook.

Zhou Yun opened the notebook, only to find a slip of paper tucked between its title page and the first page. It had clearly been torn from the notebook.

It was written in bold, powerful characters, seemingly not of mortal origin.

A sigh escaped the winged figure in Zhou Yun's peripheral vision.

"It's Captain Loken's handwriting," he said softly.

Captain Loken, Tenth Company Captain of the Sons of Horus, a member of Warmaster Horus's council of four, once stood alongside Abaddon by the Warmaster's side.

He was a loyalist Son of Horus, the last of the Moon Wolves from the Istvaan III graveyard.

This paper was a declaration of war, an oath that Astartes typically made before battle.

However, this oath was written by Captain Loken to the mortal Ignatius Carkas, asking him to keep a secret.

"I swear to Captain Garviel Loken, in the name of Terra and the Emperor, to strictly keep secret what happened tonight, and to reveal nothing to anyone."

Zhou Yun softly read the words on the paper.

Then he opened the notebook:

"Captain Loken asked me to keep a secret, but First Captain Abaddon almost broke my neck. I need to vent the fear in my heart."

"This is my personal diary. Writing down what just happened here shouldn't violate the oath, right?"

"As I told Captain Loken: 'Even the most talented actor could not match Erebus's exquisite performance today.'"

"Erebus said Governor Tamba betrayed Horus, not the Emperor. He turned this into a personal vendetta, and he's manipulating and deceiving the Warmaster."

"This is definitely not a good thing. First Captain Abaddon might also be involved."

"I saw him hand a silver coin to Erebus with my own eyes. It might be a token of some warrior cult."