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

The first round of orbital bombardment landed evenly along the planet's equator, melting large areas of the surface into dark red, glassy depressions.

The heatwave spread to both sides along the molten rock layers, forming spiderweb-like cracks on the ground, which were still clearly visible from high above the orbit.

The ground remained quiet for about four minutes.

Then an extremely low vibration, almost imperceptible to human hearing, was transmitted from deep within the planet's crust, passing through tens of thousands of meters of rock layers, and entering the fleet's passive sonar array through structural conduction in the vacuum.

Zhao Zheng's spiritual senses tensed up the moment the tremor occurred.

That was the "bone tremor" emitted by the space necromancer when it was disturbed by external forces from its deepest hibernation, similar to the fine, long moan of a metal structure when it releases stress.

He had never experienced the awakening of the undead before; the entire planet was emitting this sound, like an ancient behemoth slowly turning over in a long slumber.

Han Xin issued his orders immediately after the first wave of sleepers' groans were heard.

"The fleet will form a circular encirclement formation. The main guns will be recharged. The target will be locked on the area where the vibration was most intense. The second round of railgun preparation will begin, and the full-scale fire will commence in three minutes."

He also ordered ground assault troops to postpone their landing, waiting for orbital fire to suppress the surface energy transmission nodes before entering.

The second orbital firepower beams were denser than the first, precisely targeting the epicenter areas and digging tens of meters into the ground, revealing the underlying layers of black metal with green veins, exhibiting extremely regular structures.

Under the beam of light, the metal surfaces had an unsettling matte texture, with almost no trace of being burned by the high temperature. No, it's not that there were no traces of burning, but the metal was slowly repairing itself, and small specks of light could be seen moving around on the surface.

Han Xin stared at the scan data displayed on the holographic tactical platform, his brows furrowing slightly.

"The energy absorption efficiency is close to 100%. Traditional light and heat strikes have limited effect on this material. Switch the main gun to kinetic energy projectile mode."

Within minutes, the main guns of the Great Wall-class battleships switched ammunition. The precisely calculated high-mass kinetic energy projectiles were fired from the gun barrels and struck the planet's surface at dozens of times the speed of sound, creating a crater several kilometers in diameter on the Earth's crust.

The destructive power of the kinetic energy projectile began to manifest. Under the repeated impact of the shockwave, cracks appeared in the dark metal layers, and some areas began to break off, exposing the deeper structure beneath.

But at the same time, faint green light began to seep from the cracks on the planet's surface.

The light was very faint, but it seeped out of the crack very quickly, like a thin layer of fluorescent liquid flowing in the dark rock crevices.

It then began to converge into a band of light, which spread and extended along the surface of those metal layers.

A massive obelisk rose from the ground, and low-ranking undead warriors emerged from it one after another.

The obelisk rose very quickly.

Those massive black structures simultaneously emerged from cracks across the planet's surface, their surfaces etched with intricate, glowing green patterns, resembling rows of awakened ancient sentinels against the dark backdrop of rocky strata.

After their tips rise to a certain height, they begin to release high-frequency energy pulses outward, and the passive sensor array of the Qin fleet is almost instantly overwhelmed by those pulse signals.

Han Xin's order reached the entire fleet almost at the same moment the obelisk was raised.

"Switch to energy weapon, lock onto all obelisk bases, fire three rounds simultaneously, aiming at their junction with the earth's crust."

The main guns of the Great Wall-class battleships were recharged in just over ten seconds, and then three consecutive waves of dark red beams accurately hit all the obelisk bases.

The bases shattered and crumbled under the beam of light, and some obelisks began to tilt and fall, but most obelisks remained standing. The brightness of the green patterns actually increased after the beam struck, staining the entire planet's surface with an eerie dark green fluorescence.

More cracks opened up on the planet's surface, and layers of black metal poured out from them, turning the entire area into a sophisticated geometric hell composed of dark prisms and green bands of light.

The number of undead warriors emerging from the cracks was increasing, and they began to deploy in formation towards the landing force, advancing in dense ranks. Their movement was steady, but each step precisely maintained the spacing between ranks, like a silent metallic tide rising.

As the undead warriors advanced, the Astartes and Red Guard troops on the ground began firing with precision, and explosive shells detonated on the metal bodies of the undead warriors.

But more and more undead warriors emerged from the obelisk, and they were not afraid of being consumed.

As long as the main control core is still there, they can never truly die.

The ranks of the undead warriors were breached by the bombardment of the explosives, but the warriors in the back immediately filled the gaps without the slightest delay.

They walked out of the obelisk in a line, almost taking turns, without stopping at all.

Zhao Zheng stared intently at the holographic screen on the bridge of the Lishan, his fingertips slowly tapping on the armrest.

He could see clearly that the necromancers were "producing" their units faster than expected, and that the energy consumed in the process was clearly coming from the power supply network of the obelisks deep underground.

As long as the tomb dynasty below still exists and the main control core is not destroyed, once the undead of this dynasty are fully revived, Zhao Zheng will have no chance at all.

The core of control must be destroyed before this dynasty is fully restored!

"Han Xin, change tactics."

Zhao Zheng's voice was transmitted directly to Han Xin's communication terminal via an encrypted channel.

"Don't get entangled with them on the surface. Cut off all the obelisk energy nodes. The main control core is under the underground dynasty of these obelisks. Find it and destroy it."

"clear."

Han Xin's orders were immediately relayed throughout the combined fleet. A portion of the escort ships in the fleet array descended to low orbit and used precise point-fire to cut off the energy transmission nodes around the obelisk base one by one.

Meanwhile, Huo Qubing on the ground quickly adjusted his attack direction, leading a team of Astartes equipped with heavy cutting gear to bypass the main line of the Necromancers and rapidly penetrate towards the nearest obelisk base.

Huo Qubing's assault team encountered a small group of undead warriors while crossing a crack blasted open by artillery fire.

The warriors sprang from the metal walls on either side of the crack, their bodies twisting at incredible angles, as Gauss rifles fired dark green beams at extremely close range.

He sidestepped the first beam of light, his power spear tracing an arc in his hand as it precisely sliced ​​into the neck joint of the nearest necromancer, ripping the metal head off his torso.

Huo Qubing's brothers followed closely behind, rushing into the crevice and using explosive guns and chainsaws to smash the remaining undead warriors one by one.

But at that moment, thousands of dark green beams of light, seemingly from hell, shot out from underground and pierced through the advancing raider formation on the surface.

Thirty Raider armored vehicles exploded violently under the penetration of those beams of light, and the shockwave sent the surrounding Red Guard soldiers flying.

The necromancer's Gaussian weapon launchers rose from the underground structure, the weapons embedded in the prisms of dark metal, unleashing a barrage of fire at the Qin Empire's ground forces at an extremely high rate of fire.

Zhao Zheng stood up from the throne on the ship's base.

"Open the armored windows on the bridge."

At his command, the armored window slowly opened, and the six-meter-tall figure stood at the edge of the open window, his psionic energy focused on the surface of the planet, like an invisible film covering the outermost layer of the necromantic defense array.

The psionic energy condensed into an invisible force field, covering a battlefield area of ​​at least several hundred kilometers in radius, blocking all the Gaussian beams that surged from the ground.

When the beam of light struck the surface of the force field, it produced a dense burst of green flashes, like a downpour hitting a calm lake.

Zhao Zheng did not withdraw his spiritual energy; he maintained the stability of his force field while simultaneously transmitting instructions to Han Xin through the communication channel.

"Lead the ground troops from that area toward the main core. I will keep this gap open and not waste time."

Han Xin commanded his ground troops to quickly pass through the area covered by Zhao Zheng's psionic barrier, heading straight for the region beneath the planet's surface where obelisks were most densely distributed.

The first batch of Xuanwu armored warriors quickly formed a defensive line after landing, unleashing firepower towards the direction of the undead warriors' attack. Their shoulder-mounted twin-barreled micro-missile pods and high-energy cutters inflicted sufficient damage on living metal in close-range firefights, providing the necessary space for the Red Guards and the Marauders' formation to regroup.

Chi You and Xiang Ji broke through the Necromancer's front line in the middle, while Li Cunxiao and Meng Tian's team advanced from the flanks, further compressing the Necromancer's formation.

After a series of intense battles, the undead offensive was finally suppressed, and the ground forces began to advance into the depths of the cracks on the planet's surface, entering the upper structure of the underground catacombs.

The walls on both sides of the passage are inlaid with a large number of sealed metal chambers, each containing dozens of dormant undead.

These undead beings have not yet fully awakened, but their energy systems are already operating at low power, and green indicator lights are flashing slowly along the bulkhead.

"Ignore all that, find their control core immediately and destroy it."

Xiang Ji and Chi You immediately led their company to the forefront.

We need to find that thing and destroy it quickly, otherwise many more brothers will sacrifice themselves.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Fragments of the Star God

The passageways in the underground tombs are complex and fraught with danger.

When Huo Qubing's assault team bypassed the third level of the tomb, they encountered the first real undead defense line. Undead warriors poured out from the hidden doors on both sides of the wall, forming a dense network of fire in the narrow passage.

Gaussian rays refracted back and forth in the passage space, which was less than ten meters wide. Each impact caused dark green ripples to appear on the living metal on the rock wall surface.

The losses were rapidly escalating, and what was even more troublesome were the undead warriors and destroyers constantly emerging from the walls and ceilings, like mold seeping from the walls, pouring out in an endless stream.

Zhao Zheng's psionic barrier continued to cover the combat zone on the surface, maintaining a relatively safe passage for the subsequent landing forces. However, as he got closer to the Tomb World, a reaction that made Zhao Zheng somewhat uncomfortable began to appear beneath that planet.

This made Zhao Zheng realize that something was wrong. Logically speaking, with his spiritual energy strength, he should have been able to crush the undead on the surface, but there was no sign of that happening.

He always felt that his power was being blocked by another force, making his psychic abilities feel ineffective.

Zhao Zheng stood in front of the armored window, his gaze falling on the devastated surface of the planet in the distance, feeling somewhat uneasy.

His psychic perception encountered a strange blind spot above the planet. The living metallic structures of the undead and the energy fields of the obelisks created a thin layer of resistance on some level. Although not completely isolated, it caused a significant reduction in the depth and accuracy of his psychic penetration.

Zhao Zheng had a rough idea of ​​what this power was, but it was basically impossible for it to wear down the souls of his offspring. What really worried Zhao Zheng was the group of "good brothers" who had only undergone genetic enhancement, as well as the necromancer dynasty that was gradually and fully recovering.

The fully formed Necromancer Dynasty is no joke. Don't be fooled by the fact that those Astartes and the old guys seem to be able to easily destroy a tomb world. In reality, it's because these tomb worlds haven't fully recovered at all.

Otherwise, those Destroyers and Scorpion Lords alone would be enough to give them a hard time.

In other words, the data consciousness of these undead is gradually being eroded, and they are also being constantly eroded by the Skinner virus. Even if they are not infected, the undead are actually not doing well now.

Zhao Zheng felt that he was being too greedy. With his current strength, taking over a necromantic dynasty would really come at a great cost.

Zhao Zheng concentrated his spiritual energy further, and went deep underground along the crack, penetrating layer by layer along the trajectory of the ground troops' advance.

He crossed the seventh burial chamber and seeped deeper into the passageway through the gaps in the walls and floors on either side.

However, on the ninth underground level, his psychic powers once again encountered a substantial obstacle.

The spatial structure of the ninth underground level is completely different from that of the upper level.

The passage narrows abruptly here, and the walls are no longer covered with the usual living metal patterns. Instead, they are covered with a completely smooth, dark black material with green veins that reflects almost no light under dim lighting.

When Zhao Zheng's psionic energy touched this material, his first sensation was not resistance or friction, but rather a feeling of weightlessness similar to gliding without friction.

His psychic powers did indeed penetrate the barrier, but the information transmitted back after penetration became extremely blurry, like trying to discern a distant figure through a thick fog.

Not only did the accuracy of psionic energy drop by an order of magnitude, but it also became much more difficult to perceive the location of Xiang Ji and the others.

He frowned. The properties of this material were quite peculiar, somewhat different from the living metal he had encountered in the upper chamber.

Judging from its structural features, the dark material was either a high-density alloy with an atomic arrangement that naturally blocked the penetration of the psionic field, or it contained a special component that he had not yet analyzed, specifically designed to interfere with the propagation path of psionic energy.

Zhao Zheng suddenly thought of the Exorcism Dead Zone and the World Engine.

If it's the latter, then the power of this tomb world might be much greater than he initially estimated.

Zhao Zheng did not withdraw his psionic energy. Instead, he adjusted the frequency and amplitude of the probe to analyze the dark material layer by layer with a more detailed scanning mode. The psionic probe repeatedly swept across the surface of the dark material with a smaller wavelength.

Judging from the anomalous pattern of the feedback signal, the psionic isolation effect of this material is structural, rather than a psionic activity characteristic inherent in the material itself.

This refers to physical barriers, and physical barriers are often the most troublesome.

Although Zhao Zheng also enjoys physically overwhelming his opponents, he doesn't like being physically overwhelmed by them, especially since they've forbidden him from using cheating methods.

Zhao Zheng did not linger in front of this barrier. He used psionic energy to transmit more precise location instructions to the ground troops, while maintaining suppression of the undead firepower on the surface.

His psionic power was strong enough to support this level of sustained output; what truly drained him was the burden of maintaining the psionic barrier and simultaneously performing high-precision penetrating scans.

The problem is that the necromancer's counterattack is also increasing in intensity as his psionic powers intervene.

The undead warriors who had originally emerged from the obelisk and the cracks in the ground began to actively adjust their attack direction, concentrating more firepower on the edge of the area covered by his psionic barrier, trying to tear a gap in that force field from its weak point.

Zhao Zheng could feel the pressure on the surface of the barrier increasing continuously, but it was far from reaching the threshold. What bothered him even more was that whenever he tried to extend the psionic probe deeper into the ground, the blurriness would intensify.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Zheng gave up and instead tried to find a solution from his own offspring.

If there's absolutely no other way, we'll have to blow up the entire planet.

Living metal is precious, but there are plenty of necromantic tombs in the world. We can just find an easy target to exploit later. There's no need to waste the lives of our offspring and "good brothers" any more.

As Zhao Zheng withdrew the psionic probe, he sent an encrypted command to Han Xin.

"Ground troops should halt their advance into the deeper areas and establish defensive positions on the spot. I need ten minutes to reassess the structure of this tomb world."

Han Xin's confirmation signal returned within seconds. The ground troops then began to slow their advance, and the assault formations that had penetrated deep into the entrance of the ninth level of the passage halted, constructing a temporary defensive line in the narrow passage with bomb guns and chainsaw swords.

Zhao Zheng stood in front of the armored window of the Lishan, his gaze fixed on the planetary surface stained with the green light of the undead, his fingertips rhythmically tapping on the edge of the window.

He was reassessing the cost of the entire operation. The Necromancer Dynasty was larger than he had anticipated, and its defense system was far more complex than that of ordinary tomb worlds. In particular, the place that could isolate psionic energy indicated that the dynasty had not actually entered a deep slumber.

If they continue their relentless attack, the Qin Dynasty will suffer unbearable losses.

However, if we retreat like this, leaving a necromantic dynasty that could fully recover at any time on the edge of the Qin Empire's territory, it would be tantamount to planting a bomb on our flank that could explode at any moment.

As he weighed the pros and cons of the two options, his psychic perception suddenly detected a subtle change emanating from the depths of the passage where Huo Qubing was located.

The psionic isolation effect there seemed to experience a very brief fluctuation, as if the energy supply system had experienced a slight power drop at a certain moment, resulting in a temporary decrease in the density of the protective layer.

Zhao Zheng's psionic probe seized that moment and pierced into the interior of that passage with maximum precision for a brief instant.

Although it was only for a moment, it was enough for him to capture some information.