Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 281 Investigation
"Aliman has indeed lived up to my expectations, successfully sealing away a bloodthirsty demon and completely resolving the core issue of the rebellion." Chen Xi put down the latest battle report from the Tribunal, his nerves, which had been tense for many days, finally relaxing.

He leaned back in the high-backed chair in the command room, letting his tired body sink into the soft leather.

The moment the rebellion was quelled, the court sent him a formal notification via encrypted Star Language communication.

In that unusually polite letter of thanks, the judges made no secret of their gratitude for Ahriman's timely intervention—after all, these experts who had dealt with Chaos for years knew all too well the devastation that a fully-formed, bloodthirsty berserker could cause to wreak havoc in the hive world.

The lingering fear conveyed throughout the battle report made Chen Xi feel the relief of the court.

After all, the appearance of a Chaos Demon in a star sector capital would keep the Inquisition busy for years with the subsequent purification work and crisis of faith.

The holographic projector in the command center flickered, displaying the real-time battle situation at the Rostov front.

Chen Xi's gaze swept over the fluctuating data. The timely suppression of the rebellion meant that the star sector's administrative system remained intact, which was crucial for the logistical support of the expeditionary force.

He got up and walked to the strategic map, tapping his finger on several major supply routes connecting Rostov with the rear star sector.

“If the sector descends into prolonged chaos,” Chen Xi muttered to himself, the worst-case scenario flashing through his mind: supply fleets delayed, ammunition reserves running low, and frontline soldiers forced to conserve every bullet.

While the local military factories in Rostov could provide some supplies, their production capacity was far from sufficient to support a full-scale war against the awakened Necromancer dynasty.

On the projector, the green dots representing the undead forces are expanding continuously.

Although their own defenses had firmly blocked their advance into the Imperial-controlled areas, they could not stop the undead forces from expanding into other areas of the subsector.

Chen Xi knew that with his current forces, he might be able to gain an advantage in local battles, but facing a fully awakened Fearful Death Dynasty, without continuous replenishment of troops and equipment support from the star sector, a protracted war of attrition was simply not going to work.

In particular, the precious heavy equipment—the support of the Titan Legion, the Knight families, and the team of technical priests from the Forgeworld—all depended on coordination and deployment from the rear of the sector.

This is why, when news of the sector rebellion first came through the encrypted Star Language channel, Chen Xi approved the State Religion's request to recall the Holy War Army without hesitation, and even took the initiative to send Ahriman back to provide support.

He knew better than anyone that the rebellion had to be nipped in the bud.

Any delay could paralyze the sector's administrative system, thereby jeopardizing the entire logistical lifeline of the expeditionary force.

Now, Ahriman has lived up to expectations and completed his mission, and the situation in the sector has stabilized again.

But Chen Xi understood that the real crisis might have only just begun.

In this galaxy, while interstellar communication usually requires a dedicated interstellar speaker as a medium, for a psionicist of Ahriman's caliber, sending targeted interstellar messages directly is not difficult.

Moreover, Chen Xi himself is also a psychic, so establishing a private psychic communication channel between the two is a piece of cake.

Therefore, Chen Xi's sources of intelligence went far beyond the official announcements from the Inquisition—Ariman would transmit everything happening in the sector to him in real time via psionic links.

It was through this special channel that Chen Xi learned of the mysterious person's existence the moment the Bloodthirsty Demon was sealed away.

This news made him frown deeply—the being who could accurately know the true name of the Great Demon was no ordinary person!

He fully agreed with Ahriman's concerns; this figure who suddenly appeared and then mysteriously disappeared was likely a greater threat than the Bloodthirsty Demon.

After careful consideration, Chen Xi instructed Aliman to formally report this intelligence to the court.

As expected, the court took the matter very seriously and immediately formed a special investigation team. However, the clues were extremely scarce; apart from Ahriman's eyewitness account, there were almost no traces to follow.

In addition, with the rebellion just quelled, the Inquisition was severely short-handed and lacked manpower and resources, making it difficult for even the most elite Inquisitors to make any breakthroughs in a short period of time.

This makes it difficult to locate this person even though the court knows of their existence and takes the matter very seriously.

Therefore, Chen Xi ordered Aliman to remain in the star sector capital, a decision made after careful consideration.

On the one hand, it was to have him continue to monitor the situation in the star sector capital.

Although the Blood Oath Order's main stronghold has been destroyed, it's hard to guarantee that there won't be any survivors lurking in the shadows.

These fanatical cultists are like weeds; they can easily reignite if not handled carefully.

Moreover, no one knows whether other Chaos factions might take advantage of the power vacuum and stir up trouble during this period.

With Ahriman present, he can at least serve as a deterrent, not to mention that he can forcibly seal the power of the Great Demon at crucial moments.

On the other hand, and most importantly, it's about keeping an eye on this mysterious person.

Since that brief encounter, this mysterious person has vanished as if into thin air.

But Chen Xi had a strong premonition that since this guy was able to appear in the heavily guarded star sector capital without anyone noticing, he would definitely appear again!

This premonition made Chen Xi restless and unable to eat or sleep.

Chen Xi was very uneasy about this mysterious person.

He even performed multiple psychic readings in an attempt to find clues about the other party.

But disturbingly, the divination result was completely blank; nothing could be seen.

This undoubtedly deepened Chen Xi's worries.

In the realm of psychic powers, being unpredictable often means that the other party either possesses powerful anti-divination abilities or that their very existence transcends conventional destinies.

In either case, it demonstrates the unfathomable nature of this mysterious person.

What alarmed Chen Xi even more was that he didn't foolishly try to divine the mysterious person directly—that would be too easy to detect—but instead cleverly attempted to find traces left by the mysterious person by conducting macro-divination of the future of the star sector, trying to find traces left by the mysterious person from the fluctuations of the river of fate.

Even so, Chen Xi's psionic vision remained shrouded in mist.

The future of the sector is as if it is completely obscured by some force, and all possibilities are blurred.

This discovery sent a chill down Chen Xi's spine.

An entity capable of influencing the fate of an entire star sector likely possesses a power level far beyond imagination.

This further strengthened Chen Xi's determination to uncover this mysterious person.

(End of this chapter)