The Emperor Closes His Eyes and Does Not Save the World

After an unknown amount of time.

Carly woke up groggily, feeling something patting her. She opened her eyes to see a seal using its tail to slap her arm.

Looking around...

It was a dark place, like a dungeon. The corridor outside the iron bars wasn't long, and she could see a magnificent, golden venue, similar in structure to the Tyrant's Gate arena.

The seats surrounding the venue were filled with people in luxurious clothing.

In the center of the venue, Carly saw a mother and son—the same mother and son she had brought down to treat in Manros.

The young boy was chained to a guillotine. His mother was being beaten by a group of guards wielding iron rods, desperately clutching the chain that controlled the guillotine's blade. As long as she didn't let go while being beaten, or if her arm was broken, the blade would fall.

Cheers erupted from the audience seats around the venue.

And at the edge of the venue, a grand and magnificent statue of the Emperor overlooked the entire area.

But like the other statues she'd seen in the Governor's mansion, the Emperor's statue had its eyes closed. In this situation, it seemed as if it couldn't bear to watch.

"Let them go!" Carly yelled, gripping the bars, but her shouts were immediately drowned out by the cheers.

She quickly calmed down, realizing the futility of her actions. She turned to look elsewhere, searching for something that could help her open the prison door.

At this moment, Carly noticed that the animals she had seen at the banquet were all locked up with her.

A rooster, a seal, a dog...

They all had the same look in their eyes, no different from humans.

The rooster was weeping, holding its own feather in its beak. The blood from its previously broken beak had turned into ink, and it was writing a line on the ground.

[We were all human before.]

[A noble from a spire modified us. It's a family craft, a tradition... They made us for their amusement...]

Carly's face turned pale, her breathing rapid. She subconsciously looked up.

There was also an Emperor statue in the prison.

Just like the other statues, its eyes were closed.

[I'm the slave who bought a painting from you before. Do you remember me?]

After writing this, the rooster looked up at Carly.

Carly instantly remembered—after annihilating the Botulism Gang, people had set up stalls on the hangar deck to sell food. Onaas had even brought out her family heirlooms to sell. At that time, a fat noble's slave had quietly returned and purchased a painting of the Chapter Master.

Sensing "she remembers" from Carly's eyes, the rooster didn't explain why it was modified. Instead, it continued writing the information it had carefully considered while Carly was unconscious, information it believed Carly absolutely needed to know.

[Before I was modified, my master and I received an Inquisitor. That Inquisitor brought a Legion with him.]

[In the audience hall, when all the nobles gathered, the Inquisitor asked if my master had seen a Legion called the Fierce Angels before. My master answered.]

[After that, we slaves were driven out. We don't know what they plotted.]

[Anyway, after that incident, we were all turned into animals.]

Carly looked at the other animals.

They all had tears in their eyes and let out low growls that were not human sounds.

One of the seals crawled over, took the feather quill, and continued writing.

[I was brave and eavesdropped during that meeting... I heard the Inquisitor questioning the nobles about why Manros's nest had so many portraits of traitor Space Marines.]

Lu Jin's exorcism paintings were precisely what Carly had given to the slaves.

A tremendous wave of sadness and guilt erupted within Carly. She hadn't expected her actions to lead to so many people suffering.

[So I think the paintings are related to us being turned into animals. Perhaps the nobles thought the paintings were passed into Manros through the slaves, so they punished all the slaves of the nobles who participated in the transaction.]

[The paintings spread throughout the lower and bottom nests. The nobles hated the paintings, so they ordered that all the Fierce Angels Chapter Masters depicted in the paintings must close their eyes.]

Only then did Carly understand the aftermath of her giving away the paintings.

Lu Jin's paintings had spread like wildfire throughout Manros, and the nobles, disgusted by them, had ordered that all the Lu Jins in the paintings must close their eyes.

Just like the Emperor statues.

[People resisted this order.]

[Massacres and suppression began.]

[In the end, the people submitted...]

[The one who resisted until death was a psion, his eyes were gouged out, and before he died, he left a prophecy.]

The seal wrote out the prophecy.

The blood formed a crooked line on the ground.

[The Emperor closes his eyes and saves no one, Lu Jin opens his eyes to slaughter beasts]

More information was then written.

The blood wasn't inexhaustible. Every time the feather dried, the seal would smash its head hard against the ground and write line after line.

People turned into animals were passing feathers.

Then Carly learned more.

Because of this prophecy, psionics were executed. Afterward, the Inquisitor believed Manros must have more connections with the current Chapter Master of the Fierce Angels, so he stationed a Chapter named "Merciful Emissaries" on Manros.

Carly thought this Inquisitor might be trying to catch a bird that had already landed, waiting for the Fierce Angels to show up again to trade before capturing them all.

This meant the Space Marines, who might still be in the audience hall, were in danger.

Carly wanted to go back and tell Lu Jin everything about this planet, and about the Space Marine she saw... but she couldn't.

This information, along with the cries and sounds of beating from the boys on the field outside the passage, tormented Carly's mind.

But how could she escape when there wasn't even a stone in the prison cell?

"Please be patient for another two minutes, everyone. After this performance, the genius from the Salas family will perform for you—how to turn people into animals, and an animal free-for-all!"

More agonizing words reached Carly in the prison cell.

A sound of footsteps also approached.

A squad of guards arrived outside the prison, opened the cell door, and prepared for the next performance.

However, they had to wait while this performance was still ongoing.

At this moment, a guard looked into the prison cell, first sizing up Carly, then inexplicably saying, "It's already been spread."

"What?" Carly asked.

"News of Lu Jin's arrival," the guard said in a deep voice. "The noble slaves in the spires have already spread the word."

Carly looked confused and scrutinized the guard.

The guards exchanged glances, turned their backs to the prison cell, and slowly drew their swords.

Carly immediately realized these guards were on her side.

At the same time, she also thought... the slaves might have been interested in the Chapter Master's portrait because they were already brewing rebellion at that time.

Everything in this universe happens simultaneously in different places; it's not that things only start developing when someone arrives.

The arrival of the Fierce Angels on Manros would be a signal, igniting the existing grievances and resistance on this planet.

Lu Jin had already become a "symbol" for the locals.

The Inquisitor who devised the trap might not have anticipated this.

"The time to cleanse grievances is approaching."

Meanwhile.

The banquet in the audience hall had concluded, and the nobles had departed.

Before leaving, the Governor told Lu Jin to let the God-Emperor's angels stay in the audience hall.

As the nobles, led by the Governor, gradually left, Lu Jin saw their hurried departure and felt increasingly uneasy.

"Chapter Master," Kao approached Lu Jin and handed him a data slate. "The ship received an unknown communication signal from Manros. Someone sent us this information."

Lu Jin looked at the data slate, swiping through each page of images.

To his surprise, he discovered that the portraits the crew used for warding off evil were everywhere in the lower and lowest levels of the Manros hive, areas where no nobles resided.

However, these portraits, like the statues of the Emperor, had one thing in common: their eyes were closed.

"Why are there portraits of me here?" Lu Jin asked, swiping through the images, full of confusion.

Then he saw a photo of a group of Space Marines and an Inquisitor. This photo was clearly taken secretly, with a very strange and tricky angle.

Kao saw this photo, his pupils dilated, and he murmured, "Merciful Emissaries..."

Hearing this, the battle-brothers' expressions hardened, and their eyes glinted fiercely.

"Merciful Emissaries... the Chapter that acted as executioners when the Inquisitor lured us into a trap..." Kao said in a deep voice.

"So, this Inquisitor, whose back is only shown, might be the mastermind behind the trap that lured you?" Lu Jin pointed to a figure in the photo.

Kao's silence told Lu Jin: it was possible.

Lu Jin continued swiping through the images.

What followed were some horrifying and disgusting things.

There were photos of local nobles performing sacrificial rituals, nobles torturing and abusing slaves, and a group of nobles going on a rampage in the lower-level residential areas.

Some of these things were beyond Lu Jin's description.

After swiping more than ten times, Lu Jin's psychological resilience reached its limit. His face darkened, and his chest heaved violently.

Some of the photos even made Kao, a battle-hardened elite Space Marine, feel nauseous.

"Where did this information come from?" Lu Jin asked.

"It came from..." Kao swallowed hard, "the signal originated from the lower levels."

"We're not doing business anymore," Lu Jin took his warhammer and battle axe from his back and slowly stood up. "I can't bear to see this..."