Feast of Shadows

The doors of the private elevator slid open silently.

There was no anticipated wall of guns, nor any corpses littering the floor.

Appearing before Li Wei was an absurdly large office.

Or rather, it was a private museum.

The floor was laid with thick, deep-red plush carpeting that felt like walking on clouds, or perhaps... like stepping upon the mossy tongue of some giant beast.

The surrounding walls were hung with massive oil paintings.

The artistic style was eerie and twisted, dominated by shades of violet and deep indigo.

Most of the figures in the paintings were faceless, possessing only countless arms reaching toward the sky, as if yearning for some form of salvation from the stars.

The room was dim, the single light source coming from a massive black-wood desk at the far end.

An oil lamp of bizarre design burned there, its fuel seemingly laced with some special spice, emitting a very faint hissing sound as it burned.

"You brought 'silence' into my house, guest."

An elegant, even slightly magnetic voice came from behind the desk.

Li Wei narrowed his eyes, adjusting to the dim light.

Sitting in the shadows of that oil lamp was a person.

Master of Works Valorian.

He was not the grease-smeared black-market thug Li Wei had imagined, nor did he look like a monster the way that half-breed bouncer Gore did.

Instead, he looked... too perfect.

He wore a tailored robe of purple silk, his golden hair combed meticulously without a single stray strand.

His skin was so pale it was nearly translucent, the purplish-blue veins beneath it clearly visible.

At that moment, he was holding a small silver knife, gracefully slicing a piece of steak on a plate.

The steak was also raw, blood slowly tracing the patterns of the silver platter.

"Gore, dismiss yourself," Valorian said softly without raising his head. "Your mind is too noisy. I wish to enjoy some rare peace with this... special guest."

That two-meter-tall half-breed bouncer, Gore, trembled uncontrollably upon hearing those words.

The look he cast at Li Wei's back was filled with dread, yet his obedience to Valorian's command was absolute.

Like a disciplined hound, he bowed his head and retreated into the elevator, the doors closing slowly.

Only two people remained in the room.

Along with something unseen.

Li Wei did not move.

As a Pariah, his senses were not as acute as a psyker's, but a prey's instinct made every hair on his body stand on end.

There was something wrong with this room.

The shadows here seemed thicker than elsewhere.

In those hidden corners, something appeared to be watching him.

Yet he felt no malice.

Or rather, that malice had been suppressed by another, higher emotion—curiosity.

"Please, sit." Valorian pointed at the chair opposite him with the blood-stained silver knife. "Care for some? This is the heart-meat of a Grox imported from a dead world, exceptionally tender."

Li Wei walked over to the chair and sat down.

He still wore his sunglasses to conceal his constantly shifting gaze.

"I'm not hungry. And I can't digest something so extravagant."

"A shame." Valorian sliced off a small piece of meat, popped it into his mouth, and chewed slowly.

His movements were as elegant as performing some religious ritual. "In this vulgar hive city, far too few people understand how to appreciate the beauty of 'life'."

He swallowed the morsel and picked up a napkin to dab at the corner of his mouth.

Those pale purple eyes finally turned to look at Li Wei.

What strange eyes they were.

Deep, calm, yet terrifyingly hollow.

When he stared at you, you felt as though he wasn't looking at you at all, but rather at the void behind you, or at that nonexistent soul within your body.

"The half-machine fat man in the black market said you have something I'd be interested in," Valorian smiled, a smile so perfect it looked painted on. "He said it was a bomb."

Li Wei reached inside his coat, moving very slowly.

He pulled out the data slate bearing the Inquisition's insignia and placed it gently on the expensive black-wood table.

Metal struck wood with a dull thud.

"Not a bomb." Li Wei's voice echoed in the spacious room. "A verdict."

Valorian looked at the data slate.

His pupils contracted into pinpricks for a fraction of a second before quickly returning to normal.

Yet he did not display the panic of that shopkeeper.

Instead, he stretched out a slender finger, gently stroking the metal casing as if caressing a lover's skin.

"The Holy Ordos..." Valorian murmured softly. "A pack of madmen who have never known freedom or ecstasy in their entire lives."

He raised his head, looking at Li Wei. "Do you know what is inside this?"

"Genestealers." Li Wei dropped the word directly. He stared intently at Valorian's reaction.

No screams, no denials. Valorian actually laughed. It was a low, resonant chuckle, as though the very shadows in the room were trembling in response.

"Such a crude name." Valorian shook his head, sounding somewhat regretful. "The Imperium always loves giving such unflattering names to higher beings they cannot understand."

"We prefer to call them—the Children of the Stars."

Li Wei's heart skipped a beat.

He had guessed right.

The boss here was indeed no longer human.

No matter how perfect his appearance seemed, his soul had long since been sold to that star-devouring Hive Mind.

"Since you are a devotee, you must know what this thing implies." Li Wei forcefully suppressed the urge to draw his gun, keeping his voice hard and level. "Names. Coordinates. Infection nodes.

The moment this falls into the hands of the Inquisition, or even if it merely reaches the planetary governor's ears—"

"Pyre. Purification. Exterminatus." Valorian finished for him, his tone still light. "The entire Atalos Hive will be reduced to ash. Including myself."

"So, are you afraid?" Li Wei asked.

"Afraid?" Valorian put down his knife and fork.

He crossed his hands, resting his chin upon them, that pair of pale purple eyes flashing with a bizarre luster. "Young man, you've misunderstood one thing."

"I am not buying this to destroy it."

"I am buying it to... accelerate it."

Li Wei froze: "What?"

Valorian stood up.

With his movement, the shadow behind him suddenly elongated, projecting onto the wall.

That shadow... didn't look quite human. It possessed a hunched spine and two extra sets of arms.

"The Great Ascension is coming." Valorian spread his arms wide as if embracing the void. "But before that, we need chaos. We need the Inquisition's attention to be scattered.

We need... a detonator."

He looked down at the data slate, his gaze fanatical.

"Half the names on this list are our people.

But the other half... are those stubborn, corrupt nobles who refused to accept the 'kiss'." "If the Inquisition gets their hands on this, whom do you think they will purge first?"

It was a stratagem of killing with a borrowed knife. Li Wei instantly understood this monster's scheme. He wanted to use the Inquisition's hands to eliminate his rivals and completely seize control of the upper hive!

"You're a madman." Li Wei felt his throat go dry.

"I am a prophet," Valorian smiled, "and you, my guest. You are a true miracle."

He suddenly rounded the desk and walked toward Li Wei.

Li Wei instinctively wanted to back away, but found he couldn't move.

Not because he was controlled by psychic power—he was a Pariah, and psychic powers had no effect on him.

He was cowed by the sheer, apex-predator oppression radiating from biological perfection.

Valorian stopped a meter away from Li Wei.

At this distance, an ordinary person would have already vomited or collapsed due to Li Wei's "soulless aura."

Yet Valorian did not.

Though a trace of pain flickered across his face and his muscles twitched slightly, he maintained that flawless smile.

"So... quiet." Valorian took a deep breath, as if savoring Li Wei's scent. "Like the only voiceless void in a boundless universe."

"You know? For those of us who constantly listen to the 'Voices of the Gods,' your existence is practically a form of torture." "Like shoving a white-hot iron rod into one's eardrums."

Valorian reached out, that pale finger hovering beside Li Wei's cheek as if wanting to touch him, yet holding back.

"But I endured it." "Because we need you."

Li Wei's hand had already found the grip of the gun at his small of the back. "Need me for what? To be stuffed as a specimen?"

"No." Valorian withdrew his hand, turning to walk back into the darkness. "We need a messenger. A messenger the Inquisition cannot detect, cannot prophesy, and one even demons cannot see."

"I want you to deliver this data slate to someone." Valorian's voice dropped lower. "Not to the Inquisition. But to... the planetary governor's illegitimate daughter."

Li Wei frowned: "Why?"

"Because only she can ignite the civil war we require." Valorian settled back into the shadows, that single oil lamp flickering unevenly.

"As payment." "I will give you a ticket. A ticket that genuinely leads to Ultramar. That's what you've been dreaming of, isn't it?"

Li Wei fell silent.

He looked at the data slate on the table, then back at Valorian in the shadows.

It was a trap.

Without a doubt, it was a trap.

Yet did he have the right to refuse? In this den of wolves riddled with infiltration, if he uttered a single word of "no," he would likely be torn to pieces in the next second by whatever was hiding behind the wall.

And... the ticket. It was his only path to survival.

"How am I supposed to trust you?" Li Wei asked.

"You don't need to trust me." Valorian retrieved a thin metal card from the drawer and tossed it onto the table. It was a VIP transit pass bearing the logo of an interstellar shipping conglomerate.

"This is the down payment. Once the job is done, you'll receive the remaining identification codes."

"Also, don't bother trying to hand this over to the Inquisition." Valorian's smile turned icy. "That auspex you used in the bottom hive, and the footage of you killing people in the black market... I have all of it. In the eyes of the Inquisition, you are already one of us."

Li Wei looked at the passage ticket.

Once again, used as a pawn.

First the Inquisitor, now the alien cult leader.

He slowly reached out, picked up the ticket, and then scooped up the data slate as well.

"Deal." Li Wei stood up, tucking the data slate back into his coat. "But I have a condition."

"Name it."

"I don't like being stared at." Li Wei pointed at a painting in the corner of the room. "Tell the big guy you've got hidden behind that canvas... if it drools on me again next time, I'm going to vomit on its face."

Valorian paused for a moment, then burst into a gale of laughter.

"Hahaha! Interesting! Truly interesting!"

"It seems the 'Patriarch' really likes you."

Accompanied by his laughter, the painting suddenly moved.

A massive, purple, chitin-encrusted claw reached out from the hidden door behind the canvas, gently scraping against the wall and producing a teeth-setting grinding sound.

A terrifying aura, a hundred times denser than before, instantly swept across the entire room.

That was a true monster.

The Genestealer Patriarch.

Expressionless, Li Wei put on his sunglasses, concealing the flash of fear in his eyes.

He turned and walked toward the elevator, his steps steady, without the slightest tremor.

Not until the elevator doors closed, cutting off that room full of shadows and malice, did Li Wei lean heavily against the wall and gasp for air.

His back was completely drenched in sweat.

"Damn..." Li Wei tremblingly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"That was... a pureblood."

He had just shared a room with an apex predator powerful enough to solo a Space Marine squad.