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Valyrian Steel Sword... Valyrian Steel Sword... What was Valyrian Steel Sword...

Fu Qinghai, kneeling on the ground, mulled over the term.

The woman standing opposite him looked slightly puzzled.

He had finished showing off, delivered his last words, and answered her question before he died.

Why hadn't he kicked the bucket yet?

"Crack!"

A pair of enormous iron hands covered in gauntlets suddenly clamped around her slender, snow-white neck.

"Ugh..." The woman's eyes widened in disbelief as she grabbed Fu Qinghai's arm and struggled desperately.

But the Astartes' hand was like a hydraulic vise. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't budge it in the slightest.

Keeping one hand around the woman's neck, Fu Qinghai slowly rose from his kneeling position.

With his other hand, he gripped the black longsword embedded in his chest and began to pull it out, inch by inch.

Fu Qinghai lifted the woman into the air with one hand. She stared at the scene in disbelief, her long legs clad in tight leather pants kicking frantically.

She had seen zombies walking around with half their heads missing, but she'd never seen a living person stand up with their entire heart shattered.

At last, Fu Qinghai slowly pulled the longsword—half its blade buried in his chest—free with his left hand.

Thick, red-black blood continued to flow from the wound as the blade came out.

Holding the woman aloft by the neck with one hand, Fu Qinghai lowered his head to examine the weapon in his other hand—the one that had pierced him through. He casually toyed with the ancient-looking longsword.

Valyrian Steel. At last, he remembered.

It came from A Song of Ice and Fire.

Unlike Adamantium, Vibranium, Beskar, and other metals famed for their hardness and sharpness, Valyrian Steel wasn't the product of some special alloy-smelting technique.

As the characters in the original story had hinted, Valyrian Steel was forged through blood sacrifices and other cruel blood-magic rituals, which gave it a sharpness beyond that of ordinary weapons.

If the Reincarnation World really were a game, then defending against Adamantium or Vibranium would mean calculating armor, while defending against Valyrian Steel weapons would mean calculating magic resistance.

Strictly speaking, this was a magic weapon.

Fu Qinghai spat out the blood in his mouth, then looked up at the woman in his hand. Grinning and baring bloodstained white teeth, he asked:

"Has no one ever told you that Astartes have two hearts?"

"Heartbreaker... Alicia?"

Unwiped blood still clung to Fu Qinghai's mouth and chin as he smiled, making his grin look especially sinister.

What?

The woman let out a shocked "Mmph, mmph," but Fu Qinghai's merciless iron grip tightened around her neck, making it harder and harder for her to breathe until she could barely make a sound.

At last, the woman Fu Qinghai held aloft by the neck rolled her eyes back and stopped struggling. Her hands fell limply to her sides, and her long legs ceased kicking.

Fu Qinghai threw Alicia the Heartbreaker's corpse to the ground.

Then he drove the black longsword in his hand into Alicia's chest.

He had shattered the Heartbreaker's heart with the Heartbreaker.

Fu Qinghai had always made a habit of finishing off his enemies, especially Reincarnators with their strange and unpredictable methods.

The Reincarnation World announced the Assimilation Points awarded for killing an enemy-faction Reincarnator.

Fu Qinghai pulled out the sword and staggered forward a couple of steps, gripping it in one hand and pressing the other against the wound in his chest.

Pain. Excruciating pain.

Although his second heart had quickly taken over the first heart's function and started pumping blood through his body at an increased rate, his first heart had still been shattered for real.

Back on Earth in his previous life, young couples often said things like their hearts had shattered after a breakup.

This time, Fu Qinghai had genuinely experienced what it felt like to have his heart broken.

In the literal, physical sense.

The worst part was that he hadn't died after his heart shattered. His other heart kept him alive, forcing him to continuously endure the agony of having his heart torn apart.

Pain so intense even painkillers couldn't fully suppress it.

Fu Qinghai now looked back and carefully reviewed what had happened.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that this Reincarnator, Alicia the Heartbreaker, was bold, cautious, and exceptionally clever.

By now, Fu Qinghai had more or less figured out her entire plan.

Since he was using a communications device stripped from the Word Bearers' armor, he and the Aeldari girl Salamandruslan could only communicate through the public channel when discussing their tactics.

When Space Marines were operating normally, their communications devices only had the internal channel open. Alicia the Heartbreaker had likely happened upon a communications device on a dead Space Marine with the public channel open.

That was how she heard Fu Qinghai talking to the Howling Banshee and guessed his plan.

She had then quietly followed Fu Qinghai all the way to the area outside the Bloody Worm's Number Three Engine Control Room.

Or perhaps she had been hiding nearby all along.

Then she had struck just as Fu Qinghai killed the powerful enemy Helbrute, when he was at his most relaxed and his guard was down.

She had run a sword through his heart.

She had certainly been bold enough to take a risk.

Judging by the Assimilation Points reward, this woman, Alicia the Heartbreaker, was a "high-level player," like Takakura Yuki, the leader of the Kotohira-gumi, according to Asano Jinan.

It seemed these so-called "high-level players" weren't much stronger than him after all.

But they were Reincarnators who had unlocked more features.

Fu Qinghai still didn't know what the requirements were for unlocking them.

Fu Qinghai staggered toward the hatch. The painkillers built into his Power Armor were spreading through his body, making him feel a little better.

Alicia's assessment of the Valyrian Steel Sword's damage had been incomplete.

In fact, the sword had pierced not only the Power Armor on Fu Qinghai's chest, but also the Black Carapace beneath his skin and the closed plates of bone in his rib cage.

The Black Carapace offered little protection, but an Astartes' bones weren't made of the same hydroxyapatite as an ordinary human's. Their Ossmodula fused metal and ceramic into their bones, making them far harder than a mortal's.

By contrast, the ceramite armor on Fu Qinghai's chest had already suffered extensive damage in his previous battles and was on its last legs.

Fu Qinghai wiped the blood from his mouth and chin, then walked out through the hatch.

That last sword thrust had pierced one of his hearts and also cut into his third lung, causing blood mixed with air to keep welling up through his trachea.

So Fu Qinghai really had been spitting blood. He hadn't been acting.

Fu Qinghai slowly made his way along the corridor, toward the transport ship's portholes.

Through the porthole, he saw the occasional battle still raging outside.

Some Ultramarines squads had only just broken through to this area, while a few Word Bearers stragglers were still putting up a desperate fight.

Even now, the battle wasn't over.

Fu Qinghai sighed.

Suddenly, he saw a fresh force join the fight.

Three uniquely shaped Jetbikes came racing in from the distant horizon.

The front of each Jetbike featured a distinctive, sharp, trapezoidal ram shaped like a ship's prow. Their riders wore bone-white Power Armor edged in red, with flamboyant crests fluttering from the tops of their helmets.

The White Scars had arrived!

They had landed on this planet too.

They were a little late to the party.

But Fu Qinghai was still glad to see them.

The outcome was all but decided, and the situation was clear—but who knew what strange schemes and tricks the Word Bearers and Horus-faction Reincarnators hiding here might still have up their sleeves?

Enduring the pain, Fu Qinghai hurried toward the hatchway.

He didn't want to keep tangling with the enemy here. He just wanted to get back into orbit as quickly as possible and level the place with a saturation bombardment.

Outside the Bloody Worm transport ship.

The Jetbikes sped through the complex caves and tunnels, their White Scars riders' expert piloting skills on full display.

The three Jetbikes roared past just over the Ultramarines' heads.

One warrior focused on steering and shooting. The large-caliber bolter mounted on the front of the Jetbike spat out a volley of Mass-reactive Bolter Shells, suppressing the surviving Word Bearers' counterattack.

The warrior riding pillion raised the Power Glaive high.

The Jetbike swept past the Word Bearers' loose formation.

"Clang!"

A flash of white light.

A splendid helmeted head, along with a great spray of blood, flew high into the air.

The towering body, still holding its bolter, was left with nothing but a bloody stump of a neck before it crumpled to the ground.

Fu Qinghai had just stepped out through the hatch and witnessed the scene.

For a moment, it was as if he'd glimpsed ancient cavalry in the age of space warfare.

With the White Scars' support, the surviving Word Bearers were soon wiped out.

Fu Qinghai waved frantically at the three Jetbikes.

The White Scars saw him and all turned around, sweeping through the air in an arc as they headed his way.

The three Jetbikes had barely come to a stop in front of Fu Qinghai when one of the towering warriors leaped off. The bikes weren't even steady yet.

"Thank goodness, Qingshan, you're alive!"

Fu Qinghai had spread his arms, ready to give his comrade a big hug. At those words, his face immediately darkened.

That sounded familiar.

Why couldn't you people ever say anything nice?

Fu Qinghai grumbled to himself.

Talal took off his helmet and carefully looked Fu Qinghai up and down.

"You're in bad shape, Qingshan. What on earth happened to you?"

Fu Qinghai shook his head. "I'll tell you once we're back. By the way, who sent you down here?"

Fu Qinghai remembered that Set Vlahos had initially declined Ogedei's offer to coordinate their operations.

"It was the Sotharan," Talal explained. "After the teleportation was interrupted, the Sotharan kept trying to contact the surface. They didn't get a response for quite some time. In the end, Vlahos's adjutant contacted us and asked us to come down and provide support."

Fu Qinghai nodded. Faced with the sudden loss of contact with their ground forces, the Lunar-class Cruiser in orbit clearly hadn't just sat around doing nothing.

They had also been actively contacting the accompanying Sword-class Frigate for help.

They had just arrived a little late.

"Qingshan!"

Just then, Fu Qinghai heard Gult shout from nearby.

Fu Qinghai turned to look. Vlahos had woken up in Gult's arms. The Astartes' self-healing ability had brought him back from the brink of death.

"Bzzt... Qingshan, communications with the Sotharan have just been restored. We're taking the commander back to the ship by teleportation now. The Sotharan will send a Stormbird to pick up the warriors whose Teleport Homers were damaged." Gult's voice came through the comms.

"Understood," Fu Qinghai replied.

Gult's words reminded him of something.

The enemy's method for disrupting teleportation!

They still had no idea what the Word Bearers had done to stop the Ultramarines squads from teleporting back to the Cruiser.

Fu Qinghai voiced his question to Talal.

"Teleportation also uses the Warp for short-range jumps," Talal said. "Strictly speaking, teleportation is magic. It's just magic that the Tech-priests have put to widespread use. As far as I know, many Psykers and Legion Librarians can interfere with the teleportation process."

"But I've never seen anyone disrupt teleportation over such a wide area before," he added.

Fu Qinghai rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

It could have been an ancient human technology or an anti-magic device from some other xenos civilization. But as they had already reasoned, valuable strategic equipment shouldn't have been carried by just three transport ships without any warships escorting them.

And a psychic power that could cover such a vast area would have to come from at least a Gamma-level psychic entity, according to the Imperium of Man's positive psychic-level scale.

If the enemy was a Psyker of at least Gamma level, why hadn't they come out and fought the Ultramarines directly?

There were all kinds of possible explanations...

A psychic specialist? Out of psychic power? Afraid to die?

But the likeliest possibility was... that the opponent was a Reincarnator!

If they were a Reincarnator, everything made sense.

Reincarnators could have all sorts of strange and unusual abilities. They couldn't be judged by the conventional power system of Warhammer 40K.

Reincarnators weren't exactly loyal to Horus or the Chaos Gods. They were just trying to earn Assimilation Points.

It was understandable that they'd be afraid to die.

Fu Qinghai turned his deep gaze toward the Bloody Worm transport ship's gray hull, covered in profane symbols.

Apart from the Black Valyrian Steel Sword in his hand, the three transport ships still held many secrets.

A suspected Reincarnator, who had never shown themselves and could use an anti-magic field.

The inexplicable appearance of xenos.

Fu Qinghai firmly believed that an xenos nest was still hidden somewhere deep in the transport ship's cramped, gloomy passageways.

And then there was that bizarre old woman who called herself the prophet Agu...

But there was no more opportunity to investigate. The Ultramarines commander was badly wounded, the various squads were incomplete, and Fu Qinghai himself was still gravely injured.

The White Scars squad that had come to support them surely wouldn't want to complicate things further. Their top priority was still escorting Master Kunto to Mars.

Fu Qinghai had no chance to explore the transport ship or search its interior again.

He would let all those secrets sink beneath the Lunar-class Cruiser's guns.

Orbital bombardment would bury everything.

Fu Qinghai guessed Vlahos thought the same way.

Three Stormbird landing craft slowly descended, shielded by the surviving Ultramarines.

"Come on, Qingshan. The wounded Ultramarines are already aboard the Stormbirds. We'll take our own Jetbikes back to the Sword-class Frigate."

Fu Qinghai looked around, then lowered his voice. "Talal, I'll come back to the Sword-class Frigate with you. I need to get treatment from Master Kunto."

Ogedei had warned him not to reveal Master Kunto's presence to anyone outside the Sword-class Frigate.

With that, Fu Qinghai pointed to the black crusted blood on his breastplate and said:

"One of my hearts was shattered."

Talal frowned, his expression grave. He knew the injury was serious.

He glanced at the old-fashioned black blade in Fu Qinghai's hand. It was neither a Power Weapon nor a chainsword. Talal asked in a low voice:

"Is it because of that sword?"

"That's right." Fu Qinghai nodded. "At last, I've got something worthwhile in my collection of weapons."

After passing off the magic weapon as a collectible, Fu Qinghai said to Talal:

"I still have a few things to take care of. Wait here for a moment."

Talal nodded and watched Fu Qinghai walk around behind the transport ship.

Fu Qinghai went behind the engine nozzles and swept his gaze around.

A huge black, carbonized statue still stood there.

It was what remained of the Helbrute, carbonized by the engines' superheated plasma exhaust.

"I'm here."

A cool voice rang out.

Fu Qinghai looked up. A slender figure in close-fitting bone-white armor sat atop the highest set of engine nozzles.

The Howling Banshee leaped down and landed lightly in front of Fu Qinghai.

The fiery red mane behind her mask slowly settled.

Fu Qinghai stared at the savage banshee mask, trying to make out its wearer's expression and eyes through the visor.

He saw nothing.

Fu Qinghai cleared his throat and spoke quietly:

"We're returning to the warship. We've destroyed the transport ship's engines, so it can't get out of the atmosphere. After that, we'll carry out one or even several rounds of orbital bombardment here, until we level the place."

"What are you going to do?"

The Aeldari girl inclined her head and replied calmly:

"I understand. Don't worry about me. I have my own way."

Fu Qinghai nodded. He guessed the Aeldari woman had some way to contact her people and the Craftworld Fleet.

But that wasn't something they could discuss or disclose, given their relationship.

One human, one Aeldari.

Though they had faced life and death together and built trust on the battlefield,

they were still only temporary allies.

Seeing that the Aeldari girl had nothing else to say, Fu Qinghai nodded and turned to walk around to the other side of the transport ship.

"Wait."

The Aeldari girl's voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Fu Qinghai turned and looked at the tall figure before him.

The Aeldari girl, so decisive and ruthless in battle, now hesitated, unsure what to do with her hands. She moved them in front of herself, then to her waist.

She faltered, but finally spoke:

"I still don't know... what your name is."

Fu Qinghai smiled.

"Qingshan. My name is Qingshan."

Some readers have said my updates have been awful. I admit it: I really have been updating slowly these past few days. It's not that I haven't been writing; my application for a publishing contract was rejected last week. As a new author, I felt a little discouraged and have been wondering whether to submit my work to another site, so updates got delayed. I'll make up for it soon.