Medical Station

After establishing contact with the rebels, Li Qinwu planned to head back.

The rebels transported him into the war zone on a beast that looked like a horse but was actually some kind of bio-modified animal. After that, he made his way back to Second Lieutenant Rudosen's camp on foot.

When he finally met Second Lieutenant Rudosen, Li Qinwu pulled him into the military tent and whispered, "It's done. I've established contact with the rebels. From now on, as long as we give them one PDF Automatic Gun, they'll return three tons of food.

"I need to return to the Lower Hive immediately. Drive me there."

A pile of things Li Qinwu had scavenged last time, along with the Hideout upgrade items he had bought from Double Serpent Clinic, were still sitting with Second Lieutenant Rudosen. He needed to take them back quickly.

Those items were all in Second Lieutenant Rudosen's tent, untouched by anyone. Li Qinwu picked them up and carried them on his back, while Second Lieutenant Rudosen had already prepared his open-top military vehicle and intended to take Li Qinwu into the Hive City.

"Don't go into the Hive City. Head out. There's a ventilation duct outside. I'm going back from there."

Li Qinwu stopped Second Lieutenant Rudosen from driving toward the Hive City. With all these bags and packages, it wasn't safe to return to the Hideout through the Great Elevator. It might attract rats trying to rob him.

He wanted to teleport back to the Hideout from the ventilation duct extraction point. It would be faster and safer that way.

Second Lieutenant Rudosen did not understand why, but he still did as instructed. He drove out of the PDF Camp and headed toward a secret ventilation entrance somewhere outside the Hive City.

After arriving, Li Qinwu took his bags of junk out of the vehicle. Second Lieutenant Rudosen handed him something that looked like a radio.

"This is a high-power Bird Spectrometer communications radio. Even if you're twenty kilometers underground, the two radios can still contact each other.

"If anything happens, I'll use it to reach you. Our encrypted channel is 350234kmyy."

Li Qinwu hugged the radio and nodded.

"Keep an eye on Lieutenant Winchester's movements. If an opportunity comes up, contact me. I'll take him out!"

Second Lieutenant Rudosen nodded, then drove the open-top military vehicle away. Li Qinwu watched him disappear into the distance before slowly walking toward the massive Hive City ventilation opening.

However, he did not immediately step onto the Ceramite-hardened zone to begin the countdown for extraction. Instead, he set down his things and turned toward the forest nearby, where there was an underground maintenance station.

The iron door to the underground maintenance station was half-open. Li Qinwu knocked, pushed it open, and was immediately hit in the face by the pungent stench of blood.

The Silent One, whom he had not seen for several days, was sitting cross-legged on the ground. Strange symbols had been drawn in a circle on the floor in white lime, resembling a magic array.

On the magic array lay the corpse of a cat-sized alien creature. Its belly had been cut open and its intestines pulled out. The Silent One stared unblinkingly at those intestines, as though trying to uncover some cosmic secret within them.

Li Qinwu clicked his tongue and looked around the maintenance station.

He had searched this place before and taken away quite a few tools. Aside from being a little damp, it had once been fairly tidy.

But after the Silent One moved in, the place had completely changed. The walls and floor were covered in chaotic, bizarre graffiti that made anyone who looked at it deeply uncomfortable.

Small animal corpses had been tossed everywhere, seemingly serving as divination materials. The underground maintenance station reeked of blood and rotting animal flesh.

Li Qinwu slapped the Silent One on the shoulder.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?"

The Silent One slowly raised his head and looked at Li Qinwu with shadowy eyes.

"I am exploring the mysteries of this world. I am investigating the future. I am performing psychic divination!"

Psychic Power was such a wondrous force. Not only could it unleash highly destructive spells, but it could also be used to divine the future.

Some powerful Psykers really could see scenes from the future. Of course, whether those visions were accurate was another matter.

Li Qinwu kicked the animal corpse aside, hooked an arm around the Silent One's neck, and said:

"Come on, man, can't you act a little more decent? This world is so beautiful, yet you insist on making yourself look like some evil Chaos Wizard. Aren't you afraid a few righteous companions will randomly spawn beside you and chop you to pieces while shouting about love and peace?

"I'm just saying, shouldn't there be a little sunlight in your heart? It's not like you watched Tiga fight Ergasstan as a kid and gave away all the light in your heart. Why are you making yourself so gloomy?

"We don't have any dark, heavy secrets. Everything is light and cheerful, understand?"

The Silent One looked at Li Qinwu with a blank, innocent expression. The terrifying scars on his face were scabbing over, and together with the damp, gloomy surroundings, the evil graffiti on the walls, and the stench of rotting animal corpses, he looked like an utterly innocent serial killer.

Li Qinwu sighed, feeling that the kid was beyond saving.

He dragged him out of the underground maintenance station, breathed in the fresh air outside, and handed him all the Holy Biscuits from his bag.

"Here. Food that resists Warp corruption. Like I promised."

The Silent One's eyes lit up. He accepted all the Holy Biscuits and carefully tucked them into his clothes as though they were treasures.

Li Qinwu said, "I'll come back in a few days to bring you more food. This is a rare opportunity, so keep using Warp energy to blast me and raise my Warp Resistance."

The Silent One nodded and sat cross-legged.

"Then get ready. I'm going to begin. If you can't endure it, or if a Daemon tries to pull out your soul, shout once and I'll stop."

The Silent One held his hand before Li Qinwu and slowly released Warp energy.

Li Qinwu once again felt the agony of his soul being scoured. A tiny crack opened before him, leading to the psychic sea of the Warp.

As Warp energy washed over him, his mental strength and Warp Resistance soared.

As he endured the pain of being scoured by Warp energy, the voice of the Daemon from last time echoed once more from the depths of his soul.

"Huh? That special soul from last time—you've returned?"

Li Qinwu could sense that, on a higher-dimensional level, a massive Daemon hand was slowly reaching toward the flame of his soul within the Warp, intending to seize it.

"Hehehe, unknown soul, you have set foot in the Empyrean many times. Is it to obtain power? Would you like to try serving my lord, so you can obtain unimaginable power much faster?"

The Daemon whispered its temptation to Li Qinwu, while Li Qinwu conveyed a single thought through his soul: "Who are you?"

"Hehehe, I am a blade beneath the Blood God's command. I please my lord with battle, blood, and the heads of enemies, and I have received a brief gaze from my lord. The flames upon my blade now burn several times brighter! Hehehehehehehe!"

After hearing the Daemon's description, Li Qinwu gave an acknowledging "Oh."

"So you're a Bloodletter. I thought you were some great figure. Turns out you're just a pathetic nobody."

Bloodletters were the core melee units under Khorne, one of the five Chaos Gods of the Warp—the most basic kind of Daemon.

They were red in appearance and wielded burning blades. They excelled in close combat, and their goal in life was to cut off enemy heads as sacrifices to Khorne.

This one said it had received Khorne's gaze once, which proved it had fought bravely enough for Khorne to notice it. Put simply, it had received a blessing.

The Chaos Gods bestowed blessings upon followers and subordinates who satisfied their desires, making them stronger.

Khorne loved the thrill of battle. As long as his followers killed to their hearts' content, Khorne would bless and strengthen them.

The Bloodletter's claim that the flames on its blade burned several times brighter was proof that it had been strengthened.

But a strengthened pathetic nobody was still a pathetic nobody.

When the Bloodletter heard Li Qinwu call it a pathetic nobody, it was furious for a moment. Yet because Li Qinwu's soul was too special, this creature that knew only how to chop, chop, chop actually suppressed its rage.

"Come, soul that craves power. Join the Blood God's ranks and fight for him.

"Slaughter all things, take their heads, forge streams from blood, ascend to Daemon paradise, and enjoy bloodlust forever!"

Li Qinwu asked, "Paradise? What paradise? J~M? Don't believe only one side of the story. I want to hear what the Daemonette on my right shoulder has to say."

Daemonettes were the basic Daemons under Slaanesh, another Warp Chaos God, and they had an irreconcilable relationship with Khorne.

Put simply, Khorne was an ultra-masculine maniac who chopped up everyone he saw, while Slaanesh's lot were a bunch of BDSM enthusiasts who liked making people. The two sides were outright enemies.

Mentioning Daemonettes in front of a Bloodletter was blatant provocation, and it instantly made this Bloodletter rage red-hot.

"You ungrateful insect, I'll crush you!"

It snapped. Li Qinwu felt, on the Warp level, a huge Daemon hand viciously grab toward the flame of his soul, intending to crush it.

Li Qinwu shouted "Light's Radiance!" and stuffed the Holy Biscuit he had been clutching into his mouth, placing himself in a Divine state.

The next instant, from flesh to soul, he was enveloped by pure golden energy. This was the God-Emperor's Protection, granted by the master of humanity.

To Warp abominations, that pure force was as incompatible as fire and water.

The instant the Bloodletter's Daemon hand touched Li Qinwu's golden soul flame, it was as though it had been burned by a branding iron. Its soul essence suffered unbearable pain. It let out a heartrending scream and vanished into the depths of the Warp in a flash. Li Qinwu's weak soul could no longer sense its existence.

At that moment, the Silent One stopped releasing Warp energy. Sweat covered his face as he staggered back several steps and stared at Li Qinwu in shock.

This guy had actually made a Daemon suffer and driven it away. Did Holy Biscuits have such a use?

Li Qinwu slowly came back to his senses. His vision had been extremely strange just now. His physical eyes could see the real world, while his soul could sense the psychic universe of the Warp.

The two visions had overlapped, leaving him dazed, but it was all over now.

He opened the system panel and checked his attributes. His eyes suddenly lit up.

His energy attribute had risen to 20 points. Warp Resistance had increased to 30 points, Psychic Resistance to 30 points, and Psychic Proficiency to 30 points.

It was different. Li Qinwu discovered that the world he could perceive was different!

The increase in mental strength had made his perception of the world much sharper. Not just the real world—if he focused slightly, he could sense traces of the Warp's existence.

Most importantly, he could notice the soul flame that belonged to him, constantly flickering within the Warp!

It was equivalent to someone being able to see their own soul. If this were a cultivation world, that person would have already taken their first step into cultivation.

Now that Li Qinwu could see his own soul flame in the Warp, it could also be considered his first step into Psychic Power.

He could slowly move that flame of his soul through his own will, and immense joy filled his heart.

Next, as long as he made that soul flame stronger, he could absorb Warp energy and release it into Realspace, casting all kinds of spells. Then he would become a Psyker.

Li Qinwu stood up. His face was filled with unshakable exhaustion, but his eyes and brows were brimming with delight.

He patted the Silent One on the shoulder and said, "I'm heading back first. I'll come find you again in a few days.

"Clean up where you live. Don't make it this filthy. In a while, I might bring people nearby to unload goods. It wouldn't look good if they saw this."

The Silent One silently nodded, then watched Li Qinwu shoulder his large and small bags, stand atop the ventilation duct, and vanish into thin air more than ten seconds later.

A flicker of hesitation suddenly appeared in his eyes. In truth, he had held something back when teaching Li Qinwu about Psychic Power. Many techniques for psychic spells could be taught to others, but he had not taught them.

Because he had realized that, aside from his shallow knowledge of psychic applications, he had nothing else to offer Li Qinwu.

He wanted to use this to retain the upper hand in conversations with Li Qinwu, making Li Qinwu continuously provide him with food that could resist Daemons, while he slowly released more psychic knowledge bit by bit.

He was terrified that one day he would become useless to Li Qinwu, and Li Qinwu would abandon him.

But now, after only two washes of Warp energy, Li Qinwu had already made a Warp Daemon lurking after souls suffer.

And the flame of his soul in the Warp was growing larger and larger. Before long, that soul flame, currently the size of an ordinary person, would surpass his own as a Psyker!

Looking at the ventilation duct where Li Qinwu had vanished into thin air, the Silent One's face darkened.

The only capital he had for speaking to the other party as an equal was slowly disappearing. What should he choose?

Meanwhile, Li Qinwu completed the countdown and returned to the Hideout. He set down the miscellaneous things he was carrying, then eagerly began constructing the Medical Station.

Chemical Purification Equipment, Temperature Controller, and Mixing Precipitator—the three core items required to build the Medical Station were all gathered.

He picked up his tools and tinkered for a while, dismantling and reassembling the three items. After a round of hammering and banging, he pulled electrical wires over and connected the power supply.

Ding! The Hideout has been upgraded. Medical Station Lv. 1.

Li Qinwu quickly checked what the Medical Station could do. This thing was impressive. Even at only level one, it had eight production slots and could produce eight items simultaneously.

This was actually because its core component, the Mixing Precipitator, contained eight test tubes, allowing it to produce or purify eight kinds of medicine at the same time.

The Medical Station Lv. 1 recipes were as follows:

Input: Poison Needle ×1. Output: Low-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×1. Production time: 20 minutes.

Input: Rage Drug ×1. Output: High-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×1. Production time: 30 minutes.

The above two were core materials used by the Medical Station. They could be produced by purifying the injections Li Qinwu found on the battlefield.

Then came the things it could actually make. The inputs and outputs were as follows:

Minor Strength Injection: increases Strength by 5 points for one day. Side effect: accelerated metabolism and faster hunger. Input: Low-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×2. Production time: 20 minutes.

Minor Endurance Injection: increases Endurance by 5 points for one day. Input: Low-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×2. Production time: 20 minutes.

Hemostatic, Painkilling, Antibacterial, and Anti-Inflammatory Injection: lasts 6 hours. Input: Low-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×1, High-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×1. Production time: 30 minutes.

Minor Blood-Producing Injection: Void Blood Pump. As long as the target did not die immediately, one injection could grow flesh and reconnect bones out of thin air. Duration: 20 minutes. Input: High-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×3. Production time: 24 hours.

Minor Medical Kit: Input: Low-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×1.

Minor Surgical Kit: Input: Low-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×1.

High-Purity Anti-Inflammatory Disinfectant Powder: Input: Low-Grade Medical Synthesis Material ×5. Production time: 20 minutes.

High-Temperature-Resistant Chemical Poison: Input: Poison Needle ×3. Production time: 20 minutes.