Borrowing a Chicken to Lay Eggs, Reinforcing Baal

The most painful thing in the world is dying before you've spent all your money, but even more painful is living on but losing all your wealth.

"Waaaah, you bunch of wicked people, you didn't leave me a single thing! I've been so good to you, building houses and ships for you and even providing aid, and you all ganged up on my youngest son."

My poor Tom, separated from his father at a young age, and then met you bunch of useless uncles, struggling to support the entire legion, no, the Chapter all by himself.

Yes, you guys even dismantled my legion. And in the end, we still have to pay you a share of the profits? That's outrageous!

Zhuang Sen, you heartless bastard, have you forgotten that I was the one who brought you back to the Empire? If it weren't for me, the Dark Angels would have collapsed when fighting Rangdan."

"Stop talking, stop talking, how can you blame me?"

Seeing Mordred rambling on and on like a shrew, Zhuang Sen felt a chill run down his spine. He didn't want to suffer the consequences of his actions either, and besides, was it his fault?

"The Great Heresy was orchestrated by you, Horus, and my father. Heaven knows why you all messed things up yourselves, and why didn't you tell us beforehand?"

Moreover, you are the one who has caused the greatest harm to the empire. Compared to the damage caused by Horus, it is just a drop in the ocean.

"You're talking nonsense. Who knew those Four Merchants would pull this stunt out of their minds? I'm a victim too. I haven't eaten a single bite in 10,000 years. I've been living like a complete idiot."

And why wouldn't I tell you? Ask your own kids! You're all like problem children. Telling you would be a disaster; they'd be stuffed like cream puffs on the spot."

Mordred glanced at Zhuang Sen beside him, narrowed his eyes, and secretly mocked:

"I don't know who it was, but after returning to the legion, they were shot in the back, causing widespread resentment within the legion. It's one thing for them to act like a saint, but they're also forcing the legion to be like them."

If you had spoken up and argued back then, the Dark Angels wouldn't have split.

You're there every day, and Fealty that isn't absolute is absolute Fealty. You think Fealty is the best reward? You're even Pepe Peipei, just wallowing in self- Moved!

Seeing Mordred reveal his past, the Lion King didn't hold back. He was the elder brother of all the Primarchs; you're not giving me any face at all!

"Oh ho, you have the nerve to talk about me like that? I wonder who it was that just returned to the empire and was bombarded by his offspring, blown to bits like a crispy chicken."

Among brothers, every single one must, even if they have a little secret, openly adhere to the Imperial Truth. You're an exception, Collusion with Xenos and Collusion with Chaos.

Don't think I don't know, you, Second Brother Mordred, have Dark History. You've even sent gold coins to the Adeptus Custodes Guard, and half of the Council of Terra is your people. What are you planning to do?

As for that rumor that circulates in the Sea of Souls, I won't go into it. Anyway, I'm not anyone's illegitimate child, and I won't say who it is.

You call us problem children, but you're the abnormal one, and you even have violent tendencies.

At least we don't beat up our brothers, but you bite everyone you see. I saw you shoot Perturabo in the face with Titan and beat her up like a spinning top for three days and three nights.

And Luojia, I've had a feeling something was off about her for a while now. Don't you dare do what Fulgrim Ferrus did!

You're slandering me!

"Do I need to slander you?"

The eldest brother laughed at the Second Brother, the Second Brother criticized the eldest brother, and Mordred and Zhuang Sen were there, exchanging words and frantically digging up each other's Dark History.

If we were to pinpoint the biggest difference between the empires of today and those of 10,000 years ago, it would undoubtedly be the prevalence of feudal superstition.

During the Great Crusade, the Empire adhered to Imperial Truth, at most spouting some Great Astartes Doctrine, and even then, it was still criticized by a bunch of people.

Nowadays, the Imperial Cult is prevalent, the Primarch is a god, and with the name of the Primarch, it is the Primarch God, and above the Primarch God is the Yellow Skins God-Emperor.

Time can indeed change many things. Ten thousand years ago, the Legion was incredibly arrogant. If it weren't for the Gene-Seed, a bug-like product, the Primarch, with his anthropomorphic personality, would have been shot in the back long ago.

Under the long-standing indoctrination of the Imperial Cult, the current Astartes are just a Holy Church Army. They have no independent thought, no rebellion, and they all live like Word Bearers.

Watching the two demigods digging up dirt on each other was something even the more dutiful Dark Angels had never seen before. Their worldviews were shattered. They secretly discovered that these two scoundrels were actually Primarchs, one of whom was even their father. How pathetic!

On the contrary, those Mordred brats in Sammael think this is the true style of our Gene-Father; they are indeed ruthless and cunning.

They argued for a full half hour, neither able to win an argument, and eventually they calmed down.

"Forget it, let bygones be bygones. Anyway, now that the Great Rift has opened, you can't go back to Serenity. You might as well stay with the Dark Angels. I'll give you some of the candidate slots within the Chapter. Let's get the Atlas core first."

No matter how powerful you are, you're still just a commander without troops.

"It's not that no one is there!"

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Sen saw Mordred display a very unsettling expression, and a group of Dark Angels walked up behind him.

Looking at the 300 Dark Angels, the Lion King didn't react at first, wondering why his Ravenwing had ended up with Mordred. Then he saw the same silly look in the eyes of the Space Marine as Mordred.

"It's that batch of Gene-Seed, and the Blood of the Source Repository. Mordred, you bastard, you're pulling this trick again."

At that moment, Zhuang Sen understood everything. The oil painting hanging on the underground palace wall, the castle on the Golden Tree, the black box that guided them to Catachan, and the 987,600 Gene-Seed —it was all part of a plan, designed to use someone else's resources to their advantage.

"Hey, Zhuang Sen, what's the rush? You've taken so much from me, what's wrong with me earning some interest? Besides, didn't you just say you wanted me to fight Dark Angels with you?"

"I was just teasing you. Don't get your hopes up. I've seen through you now. You're a treacherous and cunning man, just like Guilliman — Ambition."

Although that's what he said, Zhuang Sen didn't dwell on it too much. Instead, he allocated another batch of equipment to Mordred on top of what he already had. Mordred was right; they all owed him this.

On the other hand, Zhuang Sen actually wanted to see the Chapter suffer, since the Dark Angels had absorbed very few Atlas back then, while 90% of the Iron Hands were Atlas.

As the saying goes, even a clever cook can't cook without rice. Before, when I was alone, I had no choice, but now that I have 300 people, I can use the tactics of 300 people.

Atlas's Gene-Seed originally required secondary pairing, primarily relying on seeds cultivated from the Blood of the Source Repository for secondary embedding, to cope with the intense warfare that consumed the Space Marine during the Great Crusade.

In contrast to this later improved version, Atlas's initial 10,000 men were not like that; they thrived by absorbing the soul fragments of other legions over a long period of time.

The downside of this model is that it's slow and lacks autonomy. Going to Dark Angels turns you into Secret Kid, going to Alpharius turns you into Agent Kid, and if you're unlucky enough to go to Earth Platform Fist or Great Hornet, you become a Civil Engineer.

However, it also has advantages, namely that it can become a specialist student, perfectly adapting to each legion to the point that even Alpharius cannot distinguish it, making it a specialized and enhanced version.

In short, Atlas, like Mordred, took the concept of "mixed" to its extreme, evolving adaptively from scraps of Mordred's original body.

But if that's all there is to it, Atlas is no different from any other legion; at best, it's an enhanced version of Alpharius.

Atlas's greatest strength lies in Mordred, the Primarch. Once Mordred evolves, with the dual connection of the Gene-Seed and the Mind Network, she can transform the Legion in a very short time.

However, just as nothing in this world is perfect, this characteristic is also a double-edged sword. If Mordred has a problem, Atlas will collapse instantly.

When a Primarch is corrupted, his offspring may survive, but this is not the case with Atlas. Although they are individual entities, they are more like a fragment of Mordred.

But none of that matters. What matters is having these 300 people. Once they regain some strength and embrace the Star God Power, Mordred can transform into a humanoid STC Template and use the Mind Network to gather Computing Power and farm like crazy.

Take the seemingly simple flashlight as an example. It requires the coordination of more than 700 related professionals and more than 8,000 related factories across nine industrial parks to build it from scratch, and most importantly, the production line must be built first.

But Master Mordred doesn't need that. With the property of the Star God Power to distort matter, he can directly handcraft it. Let alone a flashlight, he can even handcraft Titan or a warship.

But Mordred wasn't stupid. Although it was possible to craft by hand, the efficiency was questionable. With so many Dark Angels and the Stone Fortress having a foundry, he could simply use them as laborers and handle the key parts and build the production line himself.

The only unlucky ones are those 300 Canned One. After the Computing Power is diverted, they can only perform some basic physiological activities, even Ogryn, and might even be used by Mordred as mind control Servitor.

But it was all worth it. With the full support of the Dark Angels Chapter, Mordred became a human printer, relentlessly replicating a large number of the gadgets used by Atlas back in the day.

Things like man-portable nuclear rocket Rocket Launcher, Melta self-destructing mechanical dogs, space-freezing grenades, and miniature portable Divine Seal Terminal —not to mention precious items like Power Weapon— we've already made them all.

These are just individual weapons; there are also armored vehicles, but for greater efficiency, Mordred didn't build them from scratch. Instead, they heavily modified existing equipment, resulting in a design imbued with Orks.

They even ingeniously offered a trade-in service, refurbishing old equipment and supplying it to new recruits who shouldn't be wearing Power Armor, which greatly strengthened the overall strength of the Chapter.

But the one who felt the best was Zhuang Sen. With Mordred, Hero Unit that combined a recycling factory, a foundry, a research institute, a Ministry of the Interior, and super-powerful weaponry, he immediately began to clean up the surrounding world.

There's no need to use your brain at all; just start killing people. Or you don't even need to kill anyone. With such abundant logistical support, just unleash heavy firepower and spray bullets from Heavy Bolter.

With the Space Marine's superhuman reflexes, combined with the tactical mods built into their helmets, Number 76 with everyone unleashing their full potential—if you have a gun in the way, why wouldn't you shoot? That's just plain stupid!

But these happy days did not last long. Because it was located on the edge of the Stygian System, although there were many crazy people around, it was still relatively normal. A year was enough time to clean up the surrounding galaxies.

Just as Mordred and Zhuang Sen were discussing continuing their farming efforts, a wide-area communication was suddenly received by the Astropath:

"The Stygian Shield shatters, the Tyranid attack, and Dante, Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, activates the Ultimate Wall Protocol, sending all Scion Chapter to support Baal at lightning speed."

"Insects? It's like finding a needle in a haystack, only to have them fall into my lap effortlessly. I was just wondering where to get some biomass. Zhuang Sen, what do you think?"

"I'll stand here and watch!"

"Shall we go then?"

"Done!"