Slaughterhouse

The interior of the transport ship was eerily silent.

It was not just Fu Qinghai; the leader, Gult, also felt that something was wrong.

He took the initiative to slow his pace.

The Space Marines, armed with various weapons, searched the dim corridors with meticulous care.

At this moment, Fu Qinghai could not help but wonder: what kind of supplies were the Word Bearers transporting on this ship?

Guns and cannons? Ammunition and supplies? Or power armor?

The internal structural diagrams and other tactical information for the transport ship had already been projected onto the Space Marines' visors.

This was a standard Imperial-pattern transport ship, and its internal structural design was uniform.

In theory, as long as they followed the arrows on their visors, Stinger Squad would be able to reach their target—the engine control room.

Unlike a Lunar-class cruiser, which possessed several power control halls, the Abominable Worm—despite being similar in size to a Lunar-class cruiser—only had three engine control rooms in total. If they destroyed two of them, this transport ship would never be able to fly into space again.

However, the situation was always beyond the plan.

Stinger Squad was blocked by a wall.

The Word Bearers had not only decorated the ship's hull in a chaotic manner, but they had also modified the internal structure.

According to the tactical information, there should have been a passageway here, and after turning three corners, they would have reached the engine control room.

"Blow it open." Gult made the decision.

The makeshift bulkhead would certainly not be as thick as the ship's outer hull, so Gult did not choose to take a detour.

Several Ultramarines were fixing high-explosive charges onto the steel bulkhead, which was covered in blasphemous paintings.

This kind of small task did not require the Techmarine Fu Qinghai to intervene. He looked up, wanting to see what the traitors had drawn on the bulkhead.

At the very top was a symbol of "Ⅷ".

Below it, the wall was densely packed with carved incantations. Fu Qinghai scanned them; he could not understand most of them, but a few words seemed to be written in High Gothic.

When he entered the Warhammer 40K universe, Fu Qinghai, like other reincarnators, had been granted the skill of High Gothic.

Fu Qinghai looked at those words, silently reciting them in his heart:

Praise... the great... brass... Lord of Brass?

Fu Qinghai was struck with horror and immediately realized what it meant.

"Ⅷ" was the Roman numeral 8.

The one known as the Lord of Brass, whose sacred number was 8... Khorne!

This bulkhead was covered in text praying to Khorne, one of the four Chaos Gods!

Fu Qinghai did not want to count whether the number of characters in the prayer was exactly a multiple of 8; he had a very bad premonition in his heart right now—

Then, what was behind this bulkhead?

"Fall back, prepare to detonate," Gult said loudly.

Fu Qinghai did not know whether he should stop Gult at this moment. This was a transport ship of the Chaos Space Marines; it was normal for text worshipping Khorne to appear, and it was normal for text worshipping any of the Chaos Gods to appear.

He could hardly say that he had been frightened by a wall.

Fu Qinghai followed the Ultramarines back to a safe distance.

"Boom—"

The explosives detonated.

Before the flames and smoke raised by the explosion could dissipate, the members of Stinger Squad followed Gult and rushed into the fire.

Gult, who was charging at the front with a chainsword, almost stepped into thin air after breaking through the smoke and dust, but fortunately, Fu Qinghai grabbed his shoulder from behind.

However, Gult did not have time to turn his head to thank him; he looked at the scene before him with a look of horror, completely stunned.

Fu Qinghai stepped past a warrior to the front and was also stunned by the situation before him.

What a hellish scene this was!

Behind the breached bulkhead, the Word Bearers had converted the space into a vast and complex slaughterhouse.

Countless naked humans were placed on a killing assembly line. They were already dead, yet their corpses still had to pass through rotating blades, be cut into pieces, be thrown into the gears of a slowly inward-turning crusher, and be ground into meat paste.

Drips of blood flowed along the gaps in the various pieces of equipment, overflowing from the crusher and dripping from the sharp blades.

This blood fell onto the floor and, following the complex and mysterious grooves carved into the ground, gathered into streams of blood, flowing with a gurgling sound.

"They are all psykers," Gult said in a low voice.

Startled out of the scene by Gult's voice, Fu Qinghai turned to look at him.

Gult pointed to one of the corpses and said:

"Look, there is still an eye on his forehead."

Fu Qinghai looked in the direction Gult was pointing and saw, sure enough, that it was someone from a Navigator house.

These corpses all had some degree of physical mutation.

So, the so-called "supplies" the Word Bearers were transporting... were living human beings.

Fu Qinghai understood.

During the Horus Heresy, besides using Warp storms to disrupt the Imperium's transport and communications, the traitors had gradually begun attempting to bring Warp power directly into reality to aid their cause.

Through the mass slaughter of civilians, supplemented by dark sorcery left over from the ancient Age of Strife and a series of complex sacrificial rituals, the Word Bearers achieved their goal; they were the legion that first summoned Warp daemons into reality during the Horus Heresy.

Compared to ordinary humans, psykers—who were born with the ability to commune with the Warp—made better sacrifices, allowing rituals to be completed with fewer numbers.

Otherwise, if the traitors wanted to summon a common Khorne Bloodletter, they might have had to slaughter an entire city.

These grooved patterns on the floor formed a complex diagram, eventually converging toward a single direction.

This was a precision-engineered altar of blood, composed of gears, drive shafts, incantations, and evil rituals.

Fu Qinghai raised his head, his gaze passing over the layers of slaughtering equipment to look toward where the blood was gathering.

His goggles automatically zoomed in and focused.

At the end of the blood flow, Fu Qinghai saw a Word Bearers Space Marine chained and fixed to a humanoid recess in the wall.

The area around the wall recess was filled with twisted, evil reliefs and totems, fangs, spikes, and skulls; above the head of the humanoid recess were two "U"-shaped daemon horns.

And the two humanoid recesses next to it were already empty.

Fu Qinghai stared fixedly at the scene, shouting aloud:

"This is an altar! They are performing a sacrifice; they are going to summon... a Possessed Marine!"

"No~ our name is... the Possessed!"

A sinister voice rang out from the side.

Fu Qinghai quickly retracted his gaze, drew his blade, and slashed toward the source of the sound.

"Clang!"

A crisp explosion of sound was accompanied by a spray of sparks.

Fu Qinghai's power sword was clamped by a large, crab-like pincer.

Fu Qinghai pulled his blade back and retreated.

"Maintain formation, open fire!" Gult roared from the side.

The monster that had appeared on the side of the corridor raised its large crab pincer to block the incoming bolter fire and lunged rapidly toward Stinger Squad.

This was a terrifying Chaos Space Marine; two curved horns pierced through his helmet, growing out from both sides of his head. His entire Power Armor had been twisted by the surreal power of the Warp, fused together with bloated, hyperplastic blood-red flesh.

Countless bone-white keratinous spikes grew from the armor and the exhaust vents of his power pack. The wedge-shaped grille of his faceplate had twisted and mutated into a large mouth composed of sharp teeth, from which a purple-black forked tongue flicked.

One hand had transformed into a huge, elongated red claw, while the other had become a crab pincer covered in serrations and thorns.

This Possessed Marine showed no fear of fighting one against many, waving his claws as he slaughtered his way into the formation of Stinger Squad.

Mass-reactive bolter shells caused only minor damage when they hit him, while the Possessed Marine's elongated claw had already plunged deep into the weak point of an Ultramarine's neck armor.

Fu Qinghai ducked to avoid the swinging pincer and delivered a diagonal slash that severed two of the Possessed Marine's red claws.

"Use melee weapons!" Fu Qinghai shouted.

The Ultramarines threw down their bolters one after another and drew their chainswords and power swords.

"Vroom," the sound of rapidly spinning teeth rang out. The Ultramarines of Stinger Squad formed a seamless melee combat formation, surrounding the Possessed Marine.

"Ugh... urgh... hrr~ hrr~"

Accompanied by an indescribable, low growl emanating from the depths of a throat.

Another twitching, staggering Possessed Marine appeared at the entrance of the corridor.

Another one!?

Fu Qinghai cursed inwardly, twisting his body to disengage from the fight with the first Possessed Marine and heading toward the second.

"I'll take care of that one!" Fu Qinghai roared.

He knew that the Ultramarines, who excelled at tactical coordination, surely had their own melee combat formation; if he insisted on joining them, he would only disrupt the tight coordination of the Stinger Squad warriors. It was better for him to hold one off alone.

He dared not claim a guaranteed kill, but he could strive to hold him back!

The second Possessed Marine appearing at the corridor entrance seemed not to have completed the full fusion with the daemon inside him yet; his neck twisted left and right at exaggerated angles as he stood there, shivering and twitching.

This was an opportunity!

Fu Qinghai took a long stride and launched a fierce charge; he had no gentlemanly manners that would lead him to wait for the enemy to finish transforming before starting the fight.

Fu Qinghai gripped his blade with both hands, the tip thrusting straight toward the opponent's head.

Take this from me... "Clang!"

Two twisted, ugly, knobby claws blocked the blade in an "X" shape.

"Hrr~ Blood God..." The Possessed Marine, who had crossed his claws to block Fu Qinghai's lethal strike, raised his head. A scarlet blood-light erupted from his protruding goggles, and a low growl issued from his mouth, which was filled with outward-turned fangs and teeth.

Fu Qinghai pulled his blade back and reset his stance.

The Possessed Marine before him did not seem to possess the ability to speak normally, capable only of "hrr~ hrr~" wheezing and a few simple, repeated words.

Yet his method of attack was devoid of any hesitation.

Bending his knees and coiling his muscles, he launched himself into the air, claws outstretched, pouncing toward Fu Qinghai.

It was the first time Fu Qinghai had ever seen such an exposed, reckless fighting style, and he was stunned for a mere 0.01 seconds because of it.

Fu Qinghai hurriedly dodged to the side, and while evading the Possessed Marine's pounce, he switched his long blade to a reverse grip, following through with a swift, sweeping slash.

A line of blood sprayed from the gap in the Possessed Marine's waist armor.

The Possessed Marine landed with a thud, turned around, and charged at Fu Qinghai once more.

As Fu Qinghai parried, he took a closer look: at the wound on the creature's waist, pale red tissue was squirming like tiny granules, already on the verge of healing.

No wonder this thing was fighting with such a reckless, trade-blows-for-blows mentality.

This self-healing speed was faster than the blood platelets of a Space Marine; how was he supposed to fight this?

Fu Qinghai parried the enemy's sharp claws with his blade, frantically recalling the data on Possessed Marines.

There is a barrier between the Warp and the material universe, also known as The Veil; Warp entities find it difficult to cross this barrier to interfere with or influence reality, and the Word Bearers were providing these daemons with a vessel to inhabit—a Space Marine who had willingly offered themselves to the Chaos Gods.

In other words, at least during combat, it was a Warp daemon controlling this body, not the Space Marine himself.

Fu Qinghai formed a rough hypothesis: he could not gradually weaken the enemy's combat effectiveness through cumulative damage, as the Warp's energy, which distorted reality, provided astonishing regenerative abilities. His attacks had to target the enemy's brain or heart to secure a one-hit kill, shattering the vessel containing the daemon's soul!

But enduring the attacks of a Possessed Marine alone was incredibly difficult; beyond its bug-like ability to heal minor wounds, the opponent was stronger than him, faster than him, and fought with a suicidal disregard for pain.

Fu Qinghai was forced to retreat step by step, his magnetic boots clanging heavily against the corridor floor, unable to find an opening for a killing blow.

With one long blade against two claws, facing a Possessed Marine alone, even though Fu Qinghai swung his power blade into a dense, impenetrable web, he could not remain flawless or retreat unscathed.

He sliced off a curved horn growing from the side of the Possessed Marine's cheek, missing by a hair's breadth—missing the chance to split the creature's head open.

The price was a claw raking across his chest plate.

Large chunks of Plasteel plating were torn away, the multi-layered composite Power Armor shielding Fu Qinghai from the brunt of the strike.

The outer shell of the Power Armor was a multi-layered composite of Plasteel and Ceramite, and like the teeth of a Chainsword, it was considered a battlefield consumable. However, given the frequency of the Possessed Marine's claw strikes, no matter how durable the consumable was, it could not withstand such attrition.

If he took two more heavy hits, Fu Qinghai's armor would be shredded through.

Fighting and retreating, Fu Qinghai gradually moved further away from Stinger Squad, disappearing from their line of sight after turning a corner.

The Possessed Marine leaped from the ground once more, its massive claws swiping toward the top of Fu Qinghai's head.

Fu Qinghai raised his blade to parry.

The bony, sharp claws slammed heavily onto the power blade, the edge coated in a ghostly blue Power Field biting deep into the palm of the claw.

A massive, overwhelming force traveled down Fu Qinghai's arms and into the soles of his feet.

In that very instant, the rusted corridor floor shattered with a loud bang under the pressure.

Fu Qinghai and the Possessed Marine both lost their footing simultaneously, plummeting into the space beneath the floor.

Now!

His mind remained undisturbed by the sudden weightlessness.

Fu Qinghai had found the one-hit-kill opportunity he had been dreaming of!