Eager Thief?

By standard time, it was already the latter half of the night,

but beneath the hive city, night and day meant nothing.

This place lay deep underground. Aside from a few hive districts and abandoned hive districts near the city's edge, Ashford's poisonous binary stars could never be seen here.

Here, night and day were more an artificial concept used to distinguish workers' shifts.

The workers heading toward the residential district carried deep exhaustion, briefly freed from their daytime labor,

while those heading toward the factories had only just barely recovered from their previous shift, stumbling toward the next one.

Zhou Yun watched the crowds flow through the night until the lights in the hive city's residential district went out one by one, briefly surrendering All Things to darkness.

The workers either entered the factories to work through the night or went home for a brief rest,

and the hive city's streets also became temporarily empty.

Zhou Yun walked along the hive city's narrow streets, heading home.

His gaze swept across the alleyways hidden in shadow.

Wails occasionally rang out from those alleys, and Ark Gang members could occasionally be seen hurrying past.

He could even see members of other gangs from different districts infiltrating the area.

This brief night belonged to the gangs. They would wage bloody slaughter in the dark alleys.

There was some order amid the chaos; it was tradition and unspoken understanding between gangs.

But Zhou Yun still noticed that the vendettas and clashes in the night had become less bloody and violent than before.

The wailing in the alleys almost always ended after only a few cries.

Members of other gangs running through the streets would be dragged into the alleys in the blink of an eye.

All the fighting in the night was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Although Lena had some startlingly unconventional wisdom, the gang she had built was undeniably efficient.

After all, while other gangs were still pushing primitive, tasteless wolf-pack culture, she had already brought in religious faith.

Nothing united a group of people better than religion. The Imperium was held together by religion too.

"If Horus saw the scene now, how would he mock us?"

Zhou Yun murmured softly.

He recalled how that Warmaster had once accused The Emperor of driving all humanity into the abyss of religion and superstition.

The Four Gods had shown the Warmaster the future of the Imperium, a completely genuine future.

Horus could not accept such a future, but the Four Gods had deceived him with the truth.

It was precisely because he had launched the Great Heresy that the Imperium had no choice but to become what it was today.

"Good intentions. Many terrible paths across the galaxy were originally paved with good intentions."

The winged figure in the white light trembled slightly as he repeated Zhou Yun's earlier argument.

"I dare not imagine how despairing Guilliman would be when he awakened one day and saw the sight before him."

"But I still hope to bring at least a little hope back to this galaxy."

The winged figure in the white light spread his wings, and his form seemed to become a little clearer before Zhou Yun.

"Go to Baal, my friend."

"You must find my descendants. Tell them you came at my request, and have them take you to my remains—"

"Stop!" Zhou Yun waved his hand, hurriedly rejecting the tempting proposal from the winged figure in the white light.

"You just said that many terrible paths were paved with good intentions."

"Even if I could revive you—though I can't right now—would the one who returned definitely be Sanguinius?"

"What if the Four Gods created a corrupted version of Sanguinius? Fragments of Sanguinius's soul are in their hands."

"What if Horus returned by possessing Sanguinius's corpse?"

"What if some Warp entity descended through this?"

Zhou Yun fired off a string of questions at the winged figure in the white light.

The winged figure in the white light fell silent for a moment.

"Besides, is your prophecy reliable? If I went to Baal now, I really have no way to revive Sanguinius."

Zhou Yun said, glancing at the winged figure in the white light.

More importantly, he had no way to get to Baal for the time being.

Even if he did everything possible to sneak into Baal, he still would not escape the Tyranid swarm's claws in the end.

He needed to find a way to scrape together enough money for an Anywhere Door here in Ashford.

"Perhaps, probably, possibly, it is accurate."

The winged figure in the white light said quietly,

"Your future is far too chaotic, like three layers of fate intertwined together."

"Several times, I even saw you and The Emperor board the Vengeful Spirit, then turned around and saw that you and The Emperor had boarded the Glory of Macragge instead."

"Perhaps, just as you said, reviving me can only be accomplished further in the future."

Seeing the winged figure in the white light sink into silence, Zhou Yun did not press him any further.

He turned a corner, passed beneath an archway made of scrap iron, and headed toward his home—

Zhou Yun saw light.

A blaze so searing and brilliant that it scorched his eyes.

The light splashed before his home's heavy iron door, molten iron slowly running down its surface.

"Fuck?!"

Zhou Yun's eyes widened.

He saw a small cloaked figure holding a flame cutter, standing before a house and cutting through its steel door.

That seemed... to be his door.

Zhou Yun blinked, instantly recalling the Eager Thief that Old One-Eye and Lena had both mentioned.

A thief who used a flame cutter to cut through doors or walls to break in and steal, yet had never been caught.

"Damn it, he stole from me."

Zhou Yun's eye twitched as he silently took the Psykana Cap from his pocket and put it on.

He focused his mind on the small cloaked figure.

A powerful telekinetic force, like an invisible sledgehammer, slammed heavily toward the Eager Thief.

Yet just before Zhou Yun struck, the Eager Thief abruptly shut off the flame cutter.

As if he had anticipated it, he turned and ran, evading Zhou Yun's telekinesis.

"Trying to run?"

Zhou Yun vanished from where he stood in a blur, instantly appearing behind the Eager Thief.

"Every evil shall be brought to justice!"

"This is illegal! Come on, turn yourself in with me."

Zhou Yun reached for the Eager Thief's neck.

Yet the Eager Thief was as slippery as a loach, instantly slipping out of Zhou Yun's grasp.

Zhou Yun only managed to see a pair of black eyes flecked with gold beneath the cloak.

The Eager Thief darted aside and slipped beneath Zhou Yun's arm.

He vanished in a puff of smoke into the darkness of an alley, and Zhou Yun flashed after him,

but the Eager Thief disappeared in an instant amid the tangled, chaotic streets and alleys.

Zhou Yun looked at the hand that had failed to catch the Eager Thief, then toward the direction in which the Eager Thief had vanished.

He recalled Lena saying that the Eager Thief seemed to possess some kind of precognitive ability as well.

"Damn it, Ashford seems to have way too many talented people."

"Could this be some big shot's alt account again?"