30k Yang Xiu?

"...Wait, you knew?" Old One-Eye looked at Zhou Yun in surprise.

His expression seemed to say: I waited all this time for a chance to show off, and you just stole it from me?

He shook his head. "The Emperor taught us humility. Looks like I haven't learned enough."

Zhou Yun's mouth twitched slightly.

What puzzled him was how Old One-Eye knew about this person.

Ignace Karkasy, a poet from the Great Crusade ten thousand years ago.

He had been one of the chroniclers Lord Marshal Ma sent to record the history of humanity's expedition, following the 63rd Fleet of the Great Crusade.

Following a Great Crusade fleet and documenting the fleet's and the Astartes' glorious conquests was, for a poet, an honor almost beyond asking for.

Even more honorably, the fleet's main force had been the Moon Wolves among the Space Marine Legions, later renamed the Sons of Horus.

Most, most, most honorably of all, its commander had been the answer to the Imperium, the pinnacle of the primarchs, beloved by all: Horus Lupercal.

Not long before, he had been granted the title of Warmaster by The Emperor and made leader of the entire Great Crusade.

What more could a poet possibly ask for?

Without Erebus, perhaps that really would have been so.

Before launching his grand birthday greeting toward Terra, Horus had nearly slaughtered every chronicler in the entire 63rd Fleet.

And Ignace Karkasy had been among the earliest to die.

If Zhou Yun had to evaluate Ignace Karkasy, he would call him the 30k Yang Xiu.

Ignace Karkasy's insight had been extremely sharp. The problem was that it had been too sharp.

He had three famous quotes in his life.

"The empire we build will collapse in an instant! Remember my words! It is inevitable!"

"Even an actress as extraordinarily gifted as Lady Hecuba could scarcely match Erebus's magnificent performance today."

"First Captain Abaddon, when you met with Erebus, what was that silver coin you gave him?"

From that alone, Zhou Yun could sense both the poet's sharp insight and his nearly insane talent for courting death.

If you saw through it, then you saw through it. Why did you have to say it out loud?

Those three statements could almost offend the loyalists and rebels alike at the same time.

As for the last one, he had said it right in front of Abaddon himself.

Abaddon, the First Captain of the Sons of Horus, had nearly snapped his neck on the spot.

Later, he wrote a pamphlet titled We Only Seek Truth, mainly condemning the Sons of Horus for their hypocrisy and contempt for mortals.

That successfully drew the Warmaster's attention, and he was fortunately assassinated by the Warmaster's killers.

"At that time, words of loyalty and truth still existed in our ears. Alas, pride made us close our ears to them."

The winged figure within the white light sighed regretfully.

"If he'd followed a Blood Angels fleet, he might have written We Only Seek Bloodthirst and Ghouls instead." Zhou Yun shrugged and muttered softly.

Ignace Karkasy had not been a loyal man. His only reason for writing and saying those things was that he believed them to be the truth and wanted to say them.

Throw him into any Legion, and he would not have met a good end.

A deathly silence filled the air.

"...If you became a chronicler, you might not even live as long as he did." The winged figure in the white light shuddered as he spoke.

Zhou Yun glanced at the white figure within the glow, who was trying hard to play Sanguinius.

He remembered that on the day of the Siege of Terra, when Sanguinius fell, the Blood Angels had witnessed his soul being devoured by the Four Gods.

In other words, unless the Four Gods vomited back what they had eaten, and The Emperor painstakingly pieced his soul fragments back together one by one,

there was no way Sanguinius could still exist intact in the 40th Millennium and converse rationally with him.

A whole, complete Sanguinius might possibly exist in 40k, but a whole, complete Sanguinius existing in 40k was a little too impossible.

As for whether he was a Tzeentchian scheme, some Chaos hallucination, or a Warp entity worshipped into existence by humanity, Zhou Yun could not say.

"Either way, he doesn't look like the original Archangel." Zhou Yun shook his head and muttered quietly.

"What?" Old One-Eye blinked when he heard Zhou Yun's words.

"Nothing. So—what about Ignace Karkasy?" Zhou Yun waved a hand.

"One of Ignace Karkasy's notebooks may be in Old Sector Eight. Someone wants to buy it for a high price," Old One-Eye said in a low voice.

Zhou Yun nearly laughed. "Fine, Rager asking me to find equipment for his PDF unit was one thing."

"You want me to search an entire collapsed district for one tiny notebook? That notebook may have crumbled to dust over the past hundred years."

"It's not entirely without leads. You should know that this job came from Upper Hive."

"The lords up there like studying this sort of thing, so their intelligence is very thorough."

Old One-Eye pointed upward.

"It's a fifty-page quarto notebook, bound in black lambskin. Supposedly made on Terra ten thousand years ago, and it was well preserved when it was last seen."

"It was placed in a device specifically designed to preserve ancient books, with an independent power supply and stasis inside. Its shell is ceramite, and in theory it could operate steadily for centuries."

"They say the notebook's last owner belonged to the Corpse Guild. It may be in one of the Corpse Guild's branches in Old Sector Eight."

Zhou Yun raised an eyebrow at that and looked Old One-Eye up and down.

Upper Hive? Those middle-class people in Upper Hive could not have investigated things this clearly, nor could they afford a relic made on Terra ten thousand years ago.

Zhou Yun guessed that this job had most likely come from nobles in Apex Hive, and probably no ordinary nobles at that.

Old One-Eye could actually connect with Apex Hive?

Zhou Yun could not help looking the bar owner over again.

There were many rumors about this bar owner in the nearby district.

Some said he had once been a legendary gang leader who had led his gang in an invasion of Upper Hive. Some said he was an escaped rebel hiding in this bar. Some even claimed he had once been part of the PDF.

In short, the stories got as bizarre as possible.

"The pay is generous. I know you need money, and I think you're the only one who can pull this off."

Old One-Eye lowered his voice.

"I won't take much from you. Just ten percent. Once it's done, even ten percent will be enough to make a fortune."

Zhou Yun considered it. He had to go there anyway, so he might as well investigate while he was at it.

He gave Old One-Eye a slight nod. "All right. I'll look around the Corpse Guild."

"Thanks. I'll arrange a vehicle for you tomorrow." As he spoke, Old One-Eye took another bottle from the liquor cabinet and poured it into Zhou Yun's glass.

"This one's on me. Here's to bringing that notebook back, and to the two of us getting rich together."

The crimson wine fizzed in the glass. Zhou Yun smiled, raised it, and drained it in one gulp.

That's all for today. I'm off to paint the Tyranid Prime!