The Banquet

"Don't move. If your bowtie is crooked, those old fossils will think you came to declare war."

Aurelia stood in front of Li Wei, personally helping him adjust the elaborate deep black velvet formal suit.

This outfit was clearly priceless, with genuine pearls embedded in the cuffs and the intricate crest of House Atalos—a predatory double-headed eagle—embroidered in gold thread around the collar.

Li Wei stood stiffly, feeling like a packaged sacrifice.

"This clothes are way too tight," he complained. "And this collar is choking me to breath. Is this some kind of torture too?"

"It's etiquette." Aurelia stepped back to inspect her handiwork.

"Besides, the lining of this suit is woven with ceramic fiber, which can stop daggers and low-power lasers. For tonight, that matters more than oxygen."

Right now, Li Wei looked just like a genuine, indifferent Imperial scholar.

To cover up his identity, Aurelia had fabricated a new background for him: Kairos, a senior advisor from the academically renowned Scholar Star, specializing in the handling of heretical technology reclamation.

"Remember your persona." Aurelia put on a pair of black velvet gloves that reached her elbows, covering the hands that had killed people.

"You're a reclusive scholar with severe germophobia. You don't like to talk, and you don't like to be touched. That explains why people around you will feel uncomfortable."

"Then how am I supposed to identify those 'cockroaches'?" Li Wei asked.

Aurelia walked up to the mirror, looking at her cold, breathtaking yet murderous face.

"No need to speak." She picked up a folding fan from the dressing table—the ribs were polished from some sharp Xenos bone. "When you see someone who looks wrong, gently tap your wine glass with your finger, three times."

"Leave the rest to me."

The air-speeder passed through the clouds, flying toward the very top of the Hive City—the Crown of Atalos.

That place had already escaped the filth of the atmosphere, and through the reinforced glass window, one could even see the pitch-black starry sky and the brilliant Milky Way.

But in the Warhammer 40K universe, the starry sky did not represent romance.

That was a place where Warp storms raged, and the breeding ground for countless terrifying Xenos fleets.

The vehicle door opened.

Greeting them were not guards, but rows of Cherub modified to the highest standards.

They were flying servitors made from cloned infants, with mechanical wings stuck to their backs and flower baskets or censers in their hands.

They hovered in the air, emitting a spine-chilling giggling sound.

Li Wei felt a wave of intense physical discomfort.

This was the aesthetic of the Imperial nobility: both sacred and profane.

"Head down. Stay close to me." Aurelia hooked her arm into Li Wei's.

Li Wei could feel her muscles tensed like a rock.

This was no family banquet at all; this was going to the battlefield.

The banquet hall doors—a pair of massive gates standing ten meters tall and cast from a single block of adamantium—slowly opened.

Waves of sound, waves of heat, and fragrances instantly poured out.

In the huge banquet hall, at least a hundred people gathered.

The men wore military dress uniforms or silk robes that were somewhat ridiculously ornate, while the women wore exaggerated jewelry and masks.

Countless long tables were laden with delicacies transported from all over the galaxy: still-twitching sashimi, soups brewed from endangered creature brain matter, and mountains of piled Grox meat steaks.

In this world where bottom-hive people could kill for half a block of Corpsestarch, a single meal here was enough to buy a mid-level district in a hive city.

When Aurelia walked into the hall with Li Wei, the originally noisy crowd fell silent for an instant.

Countless gazes cast over.

There was mockery, contempt, and deep malice.

This was the status of the illegitimate daughter and garbage-disposal supervisor in this family.

"Yo, look who's here." A harsh voice sounded.

A young man wearing a scarlet military uniform and medals all over his chest walked over.

He held a glass of red wine, his frivolous gaze sweeping over Aurelia and finally stopping on Li Wei.

"Our 'cleaner' younger sister, bringing her... what is this? Is this also a pet you picked up from the garbage dump?"

Li Wei clearly sensed that as this man approached, the surrounding air did not become "clean."

His constitution had an impact on this man—the man frowned, subconsciously touching his nose as if he smelled a foul odor.

That was all, though.

This was just the reaction of an ordinary person.

Not a cockroach. Li Wei expressionlessly refrained from tapping the cup.

Aurelia looked coldly at the other person. "Brother Valerius. If you spent the time you waste finding prostitutes on managing the family guard, the riots in the bottom hive might have been quelled long ago."

"You!" Valerius's expression shifted, and he just wanted to flare up.

"Enough." An old, majestic, yet decaying voice came from the throne at the end of the hall.

The crowd automatically parted.

Li Wei raised his head and saw the ruler of this planet—the Planetary Governor: Tiberius van Atalos.

He was too old.

So old that he was like a mummified corpse.

His skin was shriveled like parchment, stuck all over with life-support tubes, and a massive mechanical device hummed on his back to assist his breathing.

It was rumored that he had lived to be a hundred years old, relying entirely on expensive life-extension surgeries to hang on to a breath.

Yet inside that rotting shell, Li Wei could still feel a suffocating pressure belonging to a superior being.

"Today is a family banquet." The old governor's voice spread across the entire venue through a loudspeaker. "Aurelia, since you've come, take your seat."

Aurelia bowed slightly in salute, leading Li Wei toward the end of the long table—the spot belonging to the marginalized.

The banquet began.

There was no warm pleasantry, only hypocritical flattery and probing filled with hidden barbs.

Li Wei sat beside Aurelia like a mute, a glass of blue liquid whose name he didn't even know placed in front of him.

He didn't eat food, nor did he drink water.

He merely observed every single person at the long table coldly through his sunglasses.

He was waiting. Waiting for that moment of "disconnectedness."

Suddenly, Li Wei's gaze paused.

That was a woman sitting in the front row of the long table.

She was the governor's eldest daughter, Aurelia's eldest sister—Isabella.

She looked to be in her forties, extremely well-maintained, wearing a backless light purple evening gown, and chatting and laughing merrily with a bishop beside her.

When Li Wei's gaze swept over her, or when the invisible "silence field" on Li Wei diffused in her direction—

Isabella's hand cutting the steak suddenly trembled.

A very subtle twitch.

If one didn't look closely, they might even think it was just a slip of the hand.

Immediately afterward, however, a crack appeared in her smile.

Her originally elegant gaze suddenly turned sluggish for a brief instant, just like lagging and freezing on a network connection.

Following that, her pupils contracted violently, and the veins on her neck twitched in an extremely unnatural manner.

She seemed somewhat panicked, looking left and right like a child who suddenly couldn't find their mother in a crowd.

Signal interference.

Under the influence of Li Wei's aura, she briefly lost her link to the Broodmind.

Li Wei's heart tightened fiercely.

The governor's eldest daughter.

A strong contender for first-in-line succession.

She was an infected.

Li Wei didn't move immediately.

He continued to observe.

Following Isabella's abnormal reaction, two people sitting beside her—one an uncle in charge of family finances, and the other a senior officer in charge of the Planetary Defense Force—simultaneously put down their knives and forks.

Those three people turned their heads at almost the exact same time, looking toward the direction where Li Wei was.

That kind of gaze. It was no longer human disgust.

Instead, it was a ferocity and vigilance like a beast whose feeding was interrupted.

Along with that familiar killing intent to tear Li Wei to pieces.

Li Wei counted.

One, two, three.

Just at this table, there were three high-ranking "cockroaches."

If one added those who hadn't shown it yet or were too far away to be interfered with... this so-called governor's family was probably rotten to the core.

Aurelia was looking down and drinking soup.

At that moment, she heard the sound coming from beside her.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

Crisp glass collision sounds.

Li Wei's fingers gently tapped the wine glass three times.

Aurelia's soup-drinking motion stopped.

She didn't raise her head, maintaining her elegant posture, but the knuckles of the hand holding the soup spoon had turned white.

"Which one?" she asked in a voice only the two of them could hear, her lips barely moving.

Li Wei picked up his napkin to wipe his mouth, leaning forward slightly as if flirting with Aurelia to lean close to her ear.

"Your eldest sister."

"Your uncle."

"And that fat guy in the military uniform."

Li Wei paused, a trace of tremor in his voice.

"Aurelia, we've walked into a den of thieves."

"Half the people at this table might not even be human."

Aurelia's body stiffened for a full two seconds.

Then, she slowly put down the soup spoon.

She raised her head, a brilliant yet bone-chilling smile blooming on her face.

"Good," Aurelia said softly.

"Since everyone is here."

She suddenly stood up.

The chair scraped harshly against the ground, interrupting all conversation.

All gazes gathered on her once more.

Including those three "cockroaches" locked onto by Li Wei; dangerous lights flickered within their eyes.

"Aurelia?" The old governor spoke displeasedly. "What are you doing? It's not time to leave the table yet."

"Father." Aurelia picked up her wine glass, saluting the old man on the throne.

Her voice was clear and crisp, echoing throughout the hall.

"I just wanted to make a toast to everyone."

"To the prosperity of this family."

"And also to... those parasites about to die."

The moment her voice fell.

Li Wei saw the eldest daughter named Isabella turn pale as a sheet.

While Aurelia's other hand had already quietly reached toward the Bolter hidden beneath the dining table.

The banquet's atmosphere instantly shifted from extravagant to murderous.

He had originally thought this would be an assassination.

He hadn't expected this crazy woman to plan on flipping the table directly.