Illegal Psykers!

At noon the next day, Zhou Yun finally dragged himself out of bed.

He rubbed the dark circles under his eyes and washed his face with recycled water from the pipe to freshen up.

The gang fight last night had dragged on until the latter half of the night, filled with curses, gunshots, and wails that echoed incessantly.

But in the end, only the dying moans of the fallen remained.

Zhou Yun massaged his temples, trying to clear his head a little.

He stood behind his door and looked out at the street through the narrow, finger-width peephole.

Corpses. The entire street was littered with them. Some were local gang members, some belonged to the Ark Gang, and others were ordinary residents who hadn't made it home in time.

Zhou Yun blinked.

He noticed a group of people wearing linen robes, their faces marked with ink resembling a tailed flame spaceship, carrying the bodies of yesterday's dead through the street.

They moved like a group of diligent worker bees.

"The Ark Gang?"

Zhou Yun frowned.

These people must be members of the Ark Gang. They were actually cleaning up bodies; how considerate of them.

Did the Ark Gang win last night's battle?

He had just supplied the local gang with three hundred PDF-issue automatic rifles, and they were defeated overnight?

That's just too pathetic.

He took out the Psykana Cap from his Fourth-Dimensional Pocket and put it on his head.

Then, he focused his attention on his eyes and looked at the Ark Gang members outside the door.

Their linen robes, their flesh and blood, were all laid bare before Zhou Yun's eyes.

"They're human."

After confirming that the low-level Ark Gang members outside were all human, Zhou Yun breathed a sigh of relief.

He took off the Psykana Cap and pushed open the door, stepping out into the street.

The Ark Gang members, busy collecting bodies, paid Zhou Yun no special attention, merely seeing him as one person in a bustling crowd.

Even after last night's battle, the streets of the Hive City were still crowded.

Busy workers bustled through the narrow streets.

The remaining corpses on the ground were stepped over by people with a sense of near-numbness.

Many bodies had already become half-embedded in the mud from being trampled on all morning.

Bloody gang wars were a common sight; the workers were long accustomed to it.

As long as you're alive, you have to go to work at the factory.

Sometimes, even death isn't the end of work.

In the galaxy, only the Emperor and work are eternal.

Zhou Yun noticed that on the muddy ground not far away, a gang member's head was facing him, the back of its skull exposed.

There was a gruesome bullet hole in its neck, clearly severed by a bullet.

Its muscles were shriveled and gray, looking aged. The visible part of its cheek still faintly showed the emblem of the local gang.

Beneath the trampling feet of passersby, the head had sunk halfway into the mud, like a stinking, hard rock protruding from the ground.

"Come on, make some room for me."

Zhou Yun waved his arms, carving out a small space in the surrounding crowd.

He reached down and pulled the head out of the ground.

Half of the head's face was crushed, and half of an eye dangled out of its socket. Exposed bone gleamed through the flesh.

Looking at the ugly head, Zhou Yun shook his head with a mix of regret and resignation:

"As expected, it's not that old fox Rag."

He glanced at the horrifying head in his hand.

"But he's still a bit better looking than Rag."

Then, he casually tossed the head into the bag of an Ark Gang member who was collecting bodies, just to prevent pedestrians from tripping over it.

The Ark Gang member glanced at the head thrown into his bag and bowed his head in thanks to Zhou Yun with great politeness.

Watching his actions, Zhou Yun's eye twitched slightly.

The more pure and innocent these Ark Gang members appeared, the more he suspected they were part of a Genestealer cult.

He looked out at the street, feeling a strange atmosphere pervading the air, as if some sort of unreal mist was drifting invisibly around them.

"There are residual psykana energies in the street," a winged figure in white light suddenly said softly.

"Psykana."

Zhou Yun froze for a moment, his brow furrowing even tighter.

No wonder, no wonder the local gangs were wiped out overnight.

The Ark Gang actually has psykers. This is getting more and more suspicious.

Zhou Yun shook his head and walked west along the crowded street. After passing through an archway made of scrap iron, he saw a three-way intersection dominated by a giant statue of Sanguinius.

Many passing residents were prostrating themselves at the feet of the Sanguinius statue, praying devoutly.

Zhou Yun shook his head and looked in the direction pointed by Sanguinius's sharp spear.

Old One-Eye's tavern was open for business.

Zhou Yun pushed open the door and heard a cacophony of noise from inside.

A half-drunk worker, standing on a table, loudly recounted what had happened last night:

"The Pontiff of the Ark Gang and his subordinates took down the local gang's stronghold in just half a night."

"But no one expected that the boss of our local gang had three hundred Agrippina-manufactured infantry automatic rifles!"

The worker noticed the disbelieving expressions of those around him:

"Don't believe me, I saw it with my own eyes last night, exactly three hundred Agrippina Type 3 Infantry Automatic Rifles. When I was young, I was lucky enough to see the PDF use them."

"With just two or three bursts, the Ark Gang suffered countless casualties, and they couldn't take this last stronghold for a while."

He took a deep breath and said in a low voice:

"But at that moment, the Pontiff of the Ark Gang came out alone, without a single weapon."

"She recited the Scripture of the Word, and all the gang members holding the infantry automatic rifles were stunned in place."

"The Pontiff raised her hands and shouted at the top of her voice, 'Lay down your weapons!' and the gang members dropped their assault rifles in unison."

"The Pontiff declared: This is the Emperor's punishment for the faithless. She has received the Emperor's blessing to establish the Ark Gang and help the people of Asphodel be redeemed from the hands of the star devils."

Listening to the worker's boasts, Zhou Yun sat down at the tavern's bar and looked at Old One-Eye.

Old One-Eye wiped a glass and poured Zhou Yun a cup of blood-red, bubbling wine.

"Did you find that notebook?" Old One-Eye asked, handing the drink to Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun took a sip of the wine and shook his head, saying, "It's not that easy. I haven't even gotten into the Corpse Guild."

This was the absolute truth; he really hadn't gotten in.

Old One-Eye sighed, "If you can't find it, you can't find it. It's indeed not easy."

"If even you can't find it, then this job is hopeless."

Saying that, Old One-Eye waved his hand and glanced at the worker who was boasting on the table.

"What do you think?" Old One-Eye asked Zhou Yun.

"What does the gang's business have to do with us?" Zhou Yun said, pouring more wine into his mouth.

Old One-Eye grinned, cautiously glanced around, and leaned close to Zhou Yun's ear, whispering:

"Don't be as ignorant as them."

"You heard it, right? Psykana. That Pontiff of the Ark Gang is actually an illegal psyker."