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

This is very important. You may not see much of its ability in the early stages, but its importance will become more and more apparent as time goes on.

Even if Zhao Zheng were in Warhammer, or even if he traveled to another place, he would still do this if he had the ability.

This is the true cornerstone upon which a world can establish a complete order.

The first batch of students at the military academy totaled 30,000, all of whom were young and strong men selected from various regions. They possessed excellent physical qualities and a learning motivation far exceeding that of ordinary people.

The first lesson was about reading tactical maps and basic formation changes; the second lesson was about disassembling, assembling, and maintaining explosive rifles; and the third lesson was about going directly to the field for live-fire training.

As for the political academy, it is only in its infancy at present, since such matters can only be taught by those shrewd and experienced court officials.

Those young people are really good. The training standards at the military academy are actually very strict because Zhao Zheng expects them to be treated as reserve candidates for Astartes.

Although he knew that these people actually had no chance of becoming Astartes, it didn't matter. Zhao Zheng would work hard to research genetic engineering later. Even if they couldn't become Astartes, he had a way to create a cheap modification surgery.

Because he thought of his good friend, whom he remembered very well.

Zhao Zheng already had the idea in mind about cheap genetic modification technology and equally cheap interstellar armor.

The cost of Astartes is still too high, and they are very selective in their personnel, which has resulted in a persistently low number of Astartes. Even with the same rigorous and even pathological selection mechanism as the Primarchs, the failure rate of Astartes surgery remains extremely high.

Even the most successful Iron Warrior only has a 25% success rate. This doesn't even include Iron Warrior's unstable mutation rate. If you take in the somewhat defective Space Marines, then this 25% could probably be lowered.

This is the difficulty of modifying Astartes. As long as there is one Primarch, the Geneseed is indispensable. However, the modification surgeries and whether a person can withstand the hardships of becoming a Space Marine are the real challenges.

Therefore, the Astartes were destined not to become the main force in the war; they would only become special forces specializing in decapitation and boarding operations.

The foundation of the empire will always be mortals and the Mechanicus; the canned goods will always be just a sharp knife, a blade in the emperor's hand.

Zhao Zheng already had the idea of ​​upgrading these mortals in his mind, but he didn't have the conditions yet and still needed to develop it further.

Zhao Zheng placed the sketch about the transformation of mortals at the bottom of his desk. These things can't be rushed; you have to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.

His mind was constantly racing with thoughts, from simplified organ enhancement techniques to neural reflex acceleration programs, exoskeleton power frames to cheap combat elixirs; every frame flashed and surged in the still of the night.

Machine gunner, medic, assault soldier...

Zhao Zheng's "Fifty Good Brothers" plan has gradually taken shape. He wants to create an elite force that is somewhere between mortals and Astartes, a mortal elite that is even stronger than the Sun Auxiliary Army.

Basic physical abilities and reaction speed are enhanced through inexpensive mass gene enhancement surgery, coupled with lightweight powered exoskeletons and standardized explosive weapons.

The cost of a good brother shouldn't be too cheap. After some selection, the training cycle can be shortened to less than half a year. The physical requirements for candidates are also far lower than the strict standards of Space Marines. If the price is low enough, Zhao Zheng can even promote the good brother to his entire legion.

Most importantly, this modification is unlikely to cause rejection because it does not involve the implantation of gene seeds, but only the enhancement of the mortal body.

This is where the real value lies; the mass production of Good Brother is incredibly cost-effective.

And then there are those engineering ships, research vessels, colony ships, battleships...

He wrote down all his ideas and manufacturing methods, stuffing them page by page into a specially made metal cabinet, waiting for the right time to promote them.

He named this idea the "Red Guard" plan.

This will be Zhao Zheng's plan throughout the endless wars to come.

Chapter Four: Genetic Modification

A year after Zhao Zheng came to this world, the morning mist in Chiyang City no longer carried the scent of soil and vegetation.

There was no other way. In the pursuit of rapid development, it was impossible to balance environmental protection and nature. This planet, similar to Terra but much larger, was thus polluted.

Fortunately, Zhao Zheng has a way to solve this. After all, with his knowledge, solving these problems would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, it's not possible right now.

In the underground of Chiyang City, the lights burned all night long. Zhao Zheng stood in front of the sterile observation window, his gaze falling on the metal operating table in the inner room.

The air was filled with the mixed smell of medical ozone and disinfectant, along with the faint hum of an electric current.

The conditions in this laboratory are not good; in fact, they can be described as rudimentary. But this is the best Zhao Zheng can do given the available resources.

In just one year, Zhao Zheng has accomplished a remarkable feat: transforming a war-torn feudal era into a stage where genetic modification is possible.

But he didn't think so himself, because he knew that his time was very tight, so he demanded that everything be done as quickly as possible.

Only by developing to a sufficiently powerful level can one better survive in Warhammer and avoid being wiped out by the Emperor along with all those connected to them.

Therefore, while developing science and technology, Zhao Zheng also put a lot of effort into gene modification.

Unfortunately, humans are simply too weak; without some genetic modification, they are no match for those ferocious aliens.

Without sufficient numbers and a certain degree of modified elite troops, the empire's mortal auxiliary forces would find it difficult to contend with the aliens.

Space Marines are war machines created by the Emperor in response to the dire situation of interstellar warfare.

Primarchs were supposed to be the military leaders of these Space Marines, but unfortunately, apart from Alpharis, most of the other Primarchs have now been scattered throughout the galaxy.

Zhao Zheng wouldn't dare say he could develop a modification surgery similar to Astartes, but he was more than capable of performing genetic modifications to enhance the physical fitness of his human subjects.

After all, Zhao Zheng has an excellent experimental subject here.

Is there anything in the physical universe more advanced than the biotechnology of a Primarch?

Therefore, Zhao Zheng extracted a lot of blood and genetic material from himself to use as experimental material.

Zhao Zheng's blood and genetic material were sealed in thousands of specially made quartz ampoules, each of which was wrapped by Zhao Zheng with a psionic shield and stored in a temperature-controlled warehouse at the deepest part of the third underground level.

He still remembered the first time he cut himself to draw blood, the doctors in Chiyang City almost popped their eyes out.

The dark golden liquid shimmered within the glass tube, like condensed stars in the night sky, possessing a visibly otherworldly texture.

They didn't know what to do with these things at first.

It was Zhao Zheng who personally taught them how to dilute, how to separate active factors, and how to maintain the spatial configuration of those complex macromolecules without disintegration at ultra-low temperatures...

He taught while observing, noting down any possible deviations in each step, and then writing down the solutions to correct these deviations in the increasingly thick manual.

He stood in front of the observation window, his gaze calmly penetrating the glass and landing on the person on the operating table.

Lying on the metal table was a sixteen-year-old boy named Chi You, from a noble family three hundred miles east of Chiyang City. He had been in the army for half a year, and his physical fitness test scores had consistently ranked among the top of all new recruits of his cohort.

The other two were named Xiang Ji and Li Cunxiao.

These three children were all among the top three in the military academy, and were the most likely among them to survive the reformation.

Zhao Zheng still needs experimental data, so he can only use these children who have the best chance of success for the experiments. After all, even if the experiments fail, he can still save them.

These names were chosen by the boys themselves.

After the implementation of the new script education in Chiyang City, the first batch of literate young people spontaneously flipped through all the ancient Terran names that Zhao Zheng had casually written on the title page of the textbook, picking out those that they thought sounded nice or auspicious for their own use.

Chi You lay quietly on the operating table, his chest rising and falling gently and regularly, his heart rate hovering at 68 beats per minute.

The anesthetic had spread throughout his body, and his brain had entered a deep dormant state, with his body temperature maintained at a constant 36.2 degrees Celsius.

After checking all the monitoring data and confirming that there were no abnormal fluctuations, Zhao Zheng nodded to the attending surgeon next to him.

The chief surgeon was Hua Tuo, 26 years old, one of the best graduates of the first class of Chiyang City Medical College. His understanding of anatomy and pharmacology surprised Zhao Zheng.

After all, it is extremely rare for such a talent to emerge in this closed-off feudal era.

He was wearing a white sterile gown, and his eyes above the mask were calm and focused. The syringe in his hand was steadily aimed at the puncture point of Chi You's jugular vein.

When the needle pierced the skin, it caused almost no tissue displacement. The pale golden liquid slowly flowed down the transparent tube and merged into the boy's bloodstream.

At the same time, Zhao Zheng released a psionic probe. The psionic energy, like an invisible net, covered Chi You's head and instantly pierced through the boy's entire body.

In the psychic vision, the golden liquid was surging and spreading in the blood vessels, like a luminous stream branching from the main channel into countless tiny tributaries, penetrating the capillary walls and seeping into the interstitial spaces, carrying the precisely purified active signals from the drug, knocking on the membrane receptors of every target cell at the molecular level.

Chi You's limbs began to twitch visibly. The anesthesia had not worn off, but the first batch of gene signals had opened the receptor channels on his skeletal muscle cell membranes.

This was a very painful thing, because Zhao Zheng had no intention of performing surgery on him, but instead wanted to use a medicine made from his own genetic material to improve his physique.

The risks of the modification surgery were too great, and I didn't have the technology of the Empire at present. Rashly activating the knowledge in my mind could very well cause these children to die innocently.

Although he could simply increase the quantity, Zhao Zheng did not intend to do so, because after a while, he would replicate a modification surgery similar to Astartes.

It doesn't make sense that the scientists on Terra could do it, but we couldn't.

Gene seeds are nothing; he has plenty of them, and creating more wouldn't be difficult. Even cultivating superhuman organs using gene seeds wouldn't be difficult for Zhao Zheng.

But he had some new ideas.

He wanted to improve the children's physical condition first before performing the modification surgery, which might give them a better chance of survival and make them stronger.

Zhao Zheng first used Chi You in his experiments to determine whether the components of these medicines should be further diluted.

After all, what he wanted were genetically modified, mass-producible, powerful soldiers, not an enhancement drug that might make soldiers stronger but had an extremely high lethality rate.

Zhao Zheng doesn't need this.

Chi You's limbs twitched more and more violently, but the amplitude was much smaller than Zhao Zheng had expected.

The anesthetic was still firmly locked onto his central nervous system, but the pale golden liquid was surging through his blood vessels too fast, so fast that some of his peripheral nerves were impacted by the overflowing signals even when they were blocked.

Chi You's consciousness and body were suffering from a double blow, causing the sixteen-year-old boy immense pain.

"Let's continue with the second injection."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Hua Tuo then took out a vial of purple medicine from the cold box next to him and continued to inject it into Chi You's veins.

Zhao Zheng's psionic probe was firmly embedded in Chi You's skull, sensing the direction of each strand of golden liquid. Then, the purple potion began to appear from it, dispersing some of the golden liquid and showing faint signs of combining with it.

Chi You's convulsions gradually subsided, but he was still trembling. Feeling a little better did not mean he was no longer in pain.

"continue."

Zhao Zheng did not hesitate. The medicine made from his genetic material was too potent. It would be necessary to supplement them with some milder medicine. It was necessary to neutralize the potent effects of the medicine and then slowly replenish the medicine's power into their bodies after the subsequent medicines had neutralized it.

Hua Tuo took out another blue medicine from the cold box and injected it directly. This time, Chi You's body calmed down. Not only was his heartbeat stable and his condition normal, but his body, which had been growing rapidly, also stopped its abnormal growth.

The moment the third dose of blue medicine was injected into the vein, Zhao Zheng's psionic probe detected an extremely subtle change.

The three-colored potions began to slowly cleanse Chi You's body, creating a strange sense of balance.

Zhao Zheng's eyebrows twitched slightly.

He didn't speak, but simply nodded to Hua Tuo again.

The fourth injection was taken out of the cold box; it was a tube of emerald green medicine, the liquid gleaming faintly inside the glass tube.

Hua Tuo's needle once again precisely pierced the vein on the side of Chi You's neck, and green liquid slowly flowed down along the transparent catheter.

Zhao Zheng kept a close eye on the changes in his psionic vision.

After the green potion entered the bloodstream, it did not neutralize the domineering nature of the golden liquid like the blue one did, nor did it subtly intertwine with the gold like the purple one did. Instead, it penetrated directly into the depths of the bones and muscles, like rainwater seeping into parched land.

Zhao Zheng's psionic probes clearly sensed that Chi You's bone density was changing, and the arrangement of the trabeculae was being rewoven at an almost insane speed, transforming from a loose and random network structure into a dense and orderly honeycomb structure.

His muscle fibers are also changing in sync. The number of myofibrils is increasing dramatically, and the cross-sectional area of ​​each muscle bundle is expanding. Moreover, this expansion is not just a violent increase in volume, but also a microscopic reconstruction of the arrangement of contractile proteins.

The green potion is like a gentle old man, speaking softly and slowly while modifying the body, but the golden potion is more like a hot-tempered and domineering young man, who almost tore Chi You apart with his youth and strength.

Zhao Zheng pursed his lips slightly. This balance was what he wanted, but he knew there was one last thing missing.

He instructed Hua Tuo to inject the last dose of medicine into Chi You's vein.

The moment the crimson liquid merged with the blood, Chi You's body tensed up abruptly.

All the balance that had been maintained was shattered in an instant. The golden potion reacted most violently, boiling in the blood vessels like a beast that had smelled blood.

The crimson liquid stormed into the battlefield in a more irrational way than the gold, crashing directly into the area where gold and purple were intertwined, shattering the delicate balance that had been in place for months.

These medicines were all extracted and made from Zhao Zheng's genetic material, so they naturally all carried some unavoidable subspace problems.

Zhao Zheng wasn't actually worried about that; what he was really worried about was whether Chi You could hold on, since the effects of those vials of medicine were exceptionally good.

At that moment, a point of darkness was born from the very center of the collision of the five potions.

The black mass was small, only the size of a grain of rice, but it released an extremely strong suction force the moment it appeared.

The surrounding five-colored energies offered no resistance, as if they had finally found their home, and rushed into the black mass.

The black mass, the size of a grain of rice, began to expand after absorbing all the energy. It spread outwards from the center of Chi You's chest cavity, along blood vessels, nerves, and bone marrow. Wherever it passed, Chi You's body grew rapidly, as if injected with a growth stimulant.

Chi You's condition eventually stabilized, but his tall and strong body, which was originally easy for him to lie on, became somewhat unbearable on the operating table.

Seeing Chi You's gradually stabilizing and rapidly increasing physical stats, Hua Tuo's face was filled with undisguised joy. He turned to look at Zhao Zheng.

"It's a success, Your Majesty!"

He nodded slowly, turned around and instructed Hua Tuo to record the data and arrange for recovery observation. Before leaving the sterile room, he looked back at the peaceful-faced boy on the metal table, who had already fallen into a deep sleep.