Warhammer, I really didn't intend to form a second empire!

"The frequency and intensity combination of the fifth group is currently the optimal choice."

Hua Tuo stood beside Zhao Zheng, his voice somewhat hoarse, as he had barely slept for the past few days.

"If the intensity is increased further, irreversible damage at the cellular level may occur. However, below this threshold, the effect of the psionic pulse field on the efficiency of gene seed expression is positive, and its mechanism of action is non-coercive, but rather it stimulates the potential of the receptor itself."

Zhao Zheng nodded. So it seems that the first phase was a success.

Let's begin the second phase of the test.

The second phase of the experiment officially began twelfth day after Zhao Zheng's approval.

This time, the scale was several times larger than the first phase, with the candidate list expanding from 120 to 1,200 people. All of them were offspring who had been transferred from various expeditionary fleets and had completed the Astartes modification surgery more than a year ago.

Their physiological data have been fully recorded over the past eleven months, including gene expression curves, fluctuations in physical fitness test scores, and changes in hormone levels in blood samples...

These are all stored in the database of the Qiankun Star Central Research Institute, forming a huge baseline for comparison.

Each group is irradiated with a psionic pulse field of determined optimal frequency and intensity five times a week, each lasting four hours.

The experimental period was set at six months, which was sufficient to observe the manifestation of structural changes at the cellular level at the macroscopic level.

Zhao Zheng did not keep a close watch on the entire process aboard the Lishan. He returned to Chiyang City on Qiankun Star on the third day after the experiment started, entrusting the daily supervision of the experiment to Hua Tuo and Bian Que in shifts.

He receives daily updates of experimental data via encrypted communication, but spends most of his time elsewhere.

The surface of Qiankun Star underwent visible changes during this period. The industrial cities that were originally supported by steam engines and railways have shed their rough exteriors and been replaced by a giant industrial complex that is integrated with the planet's surface.

A massive ring of stars encircled the outer perimeter of Qiankun Star, and an orbital defense platform covered the entire planet.

The building materials were all mined from Qiankun Star, as were the fleet, mechs, weapons, and heavy vehicles, because the mineral deposits on Qiankun Star were of the highest quality.

Although even Zhao Zheng didn't quite understand how much ore could be mined from Qiankun Star, and how corresponding mineral veins could be generated according to his needs, it would be foolish not to use resources.

Even if problems arise in the future, that's a future matter; we'll deal with it when the problems occur.

The underground of Chiyang City has been excavated to the two hundredth level. Each level is encased in a sophisticated ventilation system and structural reinforcement devices. The first fifty levels have been designated as workshops for the production of weapons, mechs, and vehicles.

One hundred and forty floors were allocated to production lines for new armor and core ship components, while the remaining floors were used as an expanded laboratory for the Central Research Institute and a gene seed reserve.

Zhao Zheng went to the underground gene seed storage facility. The gene seed samples, packaged in temperature-controlled ampoules, were arranged on hundreds of storage shelves, each labeled with a number and collection date.

Some were extracted and cultured from Zhao Zheng's genetic material, while others were dug out from his offspring.

The reserves are sufficient to support the Astartes remodeling needs of tens of millions.

There was no other way; Zhao Zheng liked to plan ahead, so he cultivated a huge number of gene seeds.

But his focus now is not on quantity. He selected several samples from Xiang Ji among these gene seeds and brought them back to a private laboratory in the upper echelons of Chiyang City to conduct some preliminary experiments.

Xiang Ji was the most physically outstanding among the first batch of offspring to undergo Astartes modification surgery, and his genetic map showed the highest degree of convergence when compared with Zhao Zheng's baseline sequence.

Zhao Zheng unfolded a new set of petri dishes on the experimental table and cultured Xiang Ji's gene seed sample in a new combination with active factors extracted from his own genetic material.

He wanted to see if there was some kind of instinctive attraction or repulsion between the two genetic materials without the assistance of a psionic pulse field, and whether this relationship would spontaneously converge during long-term co-cultivation.

The experimental results came out on the third day.

Under the continuous influence of active factors, the gene seed samples in the petri dish showed an extremely slow but clearly visible growth trend.

The cells in those culture dishes divided and proliferated at a rate about 30% faster than the control group, and formed a visible pattern of arrangement during synchronous culture.

Zhao Zheng stared at the newly formed tissue in the petri dish for a long time, then sealed it in the incubator and wrote a note in the experimental log.

"This tendency of spontaneous organization is likely related to convergent mechanisms at the cellular level. If this tendency can be amplified to a sufficiently macroscopic scale with the assistance of a pulse field, it may be possible to further accelerate the rate of convergent evolution."

He saved the logs into an encrypted database and then turned off the screen.

The second phase of the experiment is still ongoing, and Zhao Zheng plans to try it out on some of the new humans who have joined the Qin Empire.

After undergoing a period of genetic enhancement, these individuals are directly cultivated as promising offspring.

The Qin Empire has a promising future.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Generals of Qin

Ten months after the order to slow down expansion was issued, the territory of the Qin Empire finally broke through three hundred star systems during its slow expansion.

The expanding arrows lit up again on the star map, but this time the speed and manner of their advance were completely different from before.

Each expeditionary force is accompanied by a complete administrative framework and engineering capabilities.

Zhao Zheng didn't pay much attention to the progress of the star map. He sat on the throne on the Lishan ship's base and glanced at the real-time footage being transferred from the holographic screen in front of him.

The image is from the 13th Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by Han Xin.

This son of Zhao Zheng, who was promoted to expeditionary marshal by special appointment, is leading a fleet on a routine expansion operation in the W-9 star system, outside the southwestern border of the empire.

Han Xin was very young, with a handsome and refined face, bright and piercing eyes, and his overall demeanor resembled that of a refined scholar.

But among all the expeditionary marshals of the Qin Empire, Han Xin was arguably the most "unconventional" in his military tactics.

At this moment, his expeditionary fleet was hovering in the shadow of a gas giant planet, its hull blending into the background of the surrounding starry sky. All active detection systems were shut down, with only passive sensor arrays continuously receiving external signals.

Less than a light-hour ahead, a medium-sized alien civilization is orbiting the second planet in the W-9 star system.

Their appearance resembles the upright form evolved from some aquatic creature, and their skin has a deep blue-gray, watery sheen, covered with a fine scale structure.

Han Xin temporarily named this species "Scale Clan". In terms of civilization level, the Scale Clan has developed a stable interplanetary travel capability and a medium-sized orbital defense system.

By the standards of the human empire, this level of alien civilization would be a formidable opponent for any expeditionary fleet. It is neither too large nor too small, and its defensive system is robust enough to impede conventional orbital assaults. A sufficient force would be needed to suppress it.

However, on Han Xin's tactical board, the color of this alien civilization has been set to light green.

"Marshal, the outer perimeter scan is complete. The Scaled Race has a total of forty-seven defensive platforms distributed in orbit, all concentrated on the sunlit side of the planet, forming an arc-shaped defensive array."

"There is a noticeable gap at the center of the defense array, about two thousand kilometers wide, which corresponds to the zenith region above the large city on the planet's surface."

"That city is their main industrial center, and the peak of the Scaled Clan's total energy consumption signal comes from there."

Han Xin didn't look at the data board handed to him by his adjutant; he already had a plan in mind.

He drew a circle over the gap and then filled in a blue-marked flight path.

"They concentrated most of their defensive resources on the skies above the main cities on the sunny side to protect the core industrial areas from orbital strikes, but what about the cover for the secondary colonies on the shaded side..."

Han Xin paused.

"Move all the light cruisers of the second squadron over here and cut into low orbit from the 40 degrees south latitude region on the shaded side. Use ion cannons to continuously suppress the Scaled race's ground communication nodes and prevent them from launching an organized counterattack."

"At the same time, the transport ships of the third formation turned on their communicators after the second formation began suppressing the enemy, and broadcast a surrender message in the language of the Scaled race, telling them that as long as they lay down their weapons and surrender, their civilization could be preserved. The time limit is fifteen minutes."

"Marshal, will those Scaled Clan members... surrender?"

Han Xin smiled slightly and called over a young man from the bridge.

This young man was named Huo Qubing. He was 3.1 meters tall, with a rugged face, and was one of the most energetic and valiant generals under Han Xin.

This was a brother he had "forcibly taken" from Wei Qing.

It can't really be called a direct robbery; it's just that since they were both young, they naturally admired each other and felt like they had known each other for a long time. Huo Qubing was also a general who liked to take risks, and Han Xin's bold strategies always inexplicably met his needs.

"Huo Qubing, you will lead your assault squadron to stand by on the periphery. Once the second squadron begins its suppression and the third squadron begins its surrender persuasion, immediately cut into the gap above the industrial city of that planet and destroy the entire ruling center of the Scaled Clan."

"The resistance of the Scaled Tribe on the surface is not worth mentioning. Remember not to kill too many of them after you go down. The resources and industrial facilities of the Scaled Tribe are what Father urgently needs right now, and we are also short of 'talent' here."

"understood."

The surrender message was broadcast after fifteen minutes. During this time, the Scaled Clan's orbital defense platform remained in an active scanning state, and their communication channels were silent for the first ten minutes without any response.

At the twelfth minute, an encrypted signal was transmitted from the large city on the planet's surface, passed through the orbital defense array, and arrived at the receiver of Han Xin's flagship. The decoded content was a short and sharp howl.

Han Xin's lips twitched slightly.

"Looks like they've taken the bait. Let's get moving. Qu Bing, take your assault squadron and attack that planet's orbital defense system. Break through the gap, and I'll coordinate the overall operation and draw their fire."

"Yes!"

Huo Qubing immediately gave the order: his assault squadron, a rapid strike group consisting of thirty high-speed assault ships and a cruiser flagship, broke free from the shadow of the gas giant planet, its engines spewing blue-white exhaust flames in the vacuum, and the squadron rushed straight toward the planet's shadowed side in a dense formation.

Meanwhile, the light cruisers of the second squadron cut into low orbit from another direction, and their ion cannons began to unleash fire on the communication nodes of the Scaled race distributed on the surface.

Most of those communication nodes were built on the mountain ridges on the outskirts of the city. The antenna arrays shattered and collapsed rapidly under the attack of the ion beams. After losing communication coordination, the Scaled Clan garrison stationed in the secondary colonies fell into a state of chaos, fighting their own battles.

Huo Qubing's assault formation moved in extremely quickly, taking less than 15 minutes from starting its engines to entering low planetary orbit.

His assault fleet had completed its orbital shift from the shadowy side to the sunlit side before the Scaled Clan's planetary defense array noticed the anomaly, precisely inserting itself into the gap in an arc that hugged the edge of the atmosphere.

The defensive platforms on both sides of the gap attempted to adjust their gun barrels to intercept, but their turning speed could not keep up with the angle of entry of the assault fleet, and the gun beams hit a blank area several kilometers behind the wake of the assault ship.

Huo Qubing's flagship cut vertically into the airspace above the industrial city.

The rapid-fire cannons on the sides of the assault ship opened fire simultaneously the instant he gave the order, and the barrage accurately covered the air-to-ground defense positions and communication base stations below the Scaled City.

The Scaled race's fighters also attempted to scramble from their surface air bases to intercept, but their climb rate was far slower than the descent rate of the assault ship formation.

Those aircraft that had just left the runway were precisely penetrated and destroyed by bombs and artillery shells in mid-air.

Soon, the Scaled Clan's surface communication and defense systems were paralyzed. Huo Qubing's troops landed on the outskirts of the Scaled Clan's ruling center, sweeping away the Scaled Clan guards who tried to organize resistance, and then destroyed their ruling center.

The Scaled Clan lost its ability to organize a counterattack in a short period of time. Their scattered resistance continued on the outskirts of some cities, but lacked unified command and coordination.

Han Xin did not rush to launch a full-scale ground landing. He ordered the transport ships of the third fleet to remain hovering in planetary orbit and to broadcast a surrender proclamation in the language of the Scaled Tribe every so often. Each proclamation was shorter than the last, with the last paragraph consisting of only one sentence.

"You have lost your own sky, and now all you can choose is whether or not to continue living."

The scattered resistance of the Scaled Clan gradually weakened within hours of the announcement being broadcast.

Han Xin continued to deploy five more waves of ground troops to the planet's surface. The core force, composed of the Red Guards and raider squadrons, landed simultaneously in the major cities of the Scaled Clan to wipe out the remaining resistance.

Areas in the cities with complete industrial facilities and resource reserves were controlled first, while the remaining Scaled Clan defenders were besieged in a few unimportant neighborhoods.

By dusk of the following day, the core city of the Scaled Race on that planet in the W-9 star system had all fallen under the control of the Great Qin Empire.

The deep blue-gray buildings of the Scaled Race on the surface gleamed with a metallic sheen under the starlight.

Their urban layout is compact and orderly, their road network is highly precise, and the standardization of their industrial zones even surpasses that of several industrial node cities built by the Qin Empire in the early days of Yuanshuo No. 1.

The social organization of these scaly tribes exceeded Han Xin's expectations. Their accumulated knowledge in technology and urban planning, if properly guided and transformed, could be converted into a highly efficient industrial vassal state.

As Han Xin stepped off the bridge, his adjutant handed him an exquisite holographic image. It was a high-definition picture of the central square of the Lin tribe's city. In the center of the square stood a tall, prismatic monument, its surface covered with Lin tribe script and patterns.

The base of the monument is piled with a large number of metal objects and some kind of jewelry-like decorations, which gleam softly under the starlight.

"Marshal, the casting technology of those Scaled Clan is very advanced. Their metal processing precision and surface treatment technology clearly exceed the average level that their civilization should have. It is very likely that they have continued to use some kind of technology database that has been completely inherited since the Old Night Era."

"So, they're actually mutants?"

"It's highly likely, but further testing is needed."

"Compile these findings into a report and send it back to the Lishan, noting the technical characteristics of the Scaled Race in this galaxy, and ask Father to approve the establishment of a dedicated technical research team."

"Also, tell the ground troops to keep all factories and laboratories as they are, not to damage the equipment, and to wait for the research team to arrive before conducting a systematic evaluation."

"Yes."

At the same time, similar changes were taking place in two other directions of the Qin Empire's territory.

Sun Tzu's expeditionary fleet detected a peculiar space station structure on the outskirts of the K-3 star system. It was not large in scale, but its construction precision far exceeded that of other man-made structures in the star system.

Its shape is a flat disc about 20 kilometers in diameter, with its surface covered with a large area of ​​solar energy collection panels and some sophisticated equipment whose purpose cannot be identified.

The reconnaissance unit dispatched by Sun Tzu encountered very low intensity of automatic defense fire when it approached the space station, and no damage was caused.

Sun Wu transmitted images and data from the space station back to the Lishan, and attached a brief assessment at the end of the analysis report.

"The external structure of the space station is similar to some records left over from the Covenant era. The interior may contain technological data from before the Old Night era, and there is a low probability that it may also contain technological templates such as STC."

"It is recommended to postpone shipborne weapon strikes and instead conduct on-site data collection by having Marines board the ships."

Wang Jian's expeditionary fleet encountered a completely different situation in the G-2 star system on the northeastern border of the empire.

It was a planet inhabited by a large number of descendants of humans from the Age of Conflict, with a population of about two billion. They had developed a political system based on city-states, and their technological level was in the middle to late stages of the Steam Industrial Revolution. They knew almost nothing about the world outside their star system.

They had neither the ability to travel in space nor an orbital defense system to defend against external enemies. Even when Wang Jian's fleet appeared in a planetary synchronous orbit, the rulers of those city-states were still observing the ships with ground-based telescopes, regarding their appearance as an abnormal astronomical phenomenon.

It's a mystery how these humans survived from the Old Night Era. There are no hives here, nor the basic remnants of the Golden Age's technology. It's a miracle that these humans even exist here.

Could it be another contingency plan by the remnants of the Dragon Kingdoms?

But the detection results were obviously not the case. Zhao Zheng could only conclude that some humans had fled back then and, in order to leave a seed for the galaxy, had sown a lot of "seeds" on many planets. As long as a "seed" on a planet could survive, it would be a profit.

Wang Jian dispatched a ground contact team consisting of three light destroyers and fifty Red Guard soldiers, who landed in Banshee fighters in the central square of the planet's largest city-state and completed the first round of contact under the watchful eyes of the local residents.