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

The officer on duty relayed the instructions.

This matter needs to be considered carefully. Let's see what Zu Chongzhi, Zhang Heng, and other great sages think. Zhao Zheng only knows that these things are definitely quite valuable.

Zhao Zheng stood in front of the porthole on the bridge, looking at the deep starry sky outside, his gaze falling on the coordinate markers in the gray area.

A remnant of the dark age of technology in space, and a pulse beacon that has been emitting signals since ancient times.

It must be very valuable!

Regardless, he intended to go and take a look.

If we find anything of value, then this exploration will be worthwhile.

Chapter Fifty-Four: Blood God? You dare to make me submit?

That remnant of the dark age of technology still floats silently in the gray star field, and Zhao Zheng has already arranged the follow-up plans for the exploration team and the engineering fleet.

Zu Chongzhi was conducting final equipment checks on the first batch of exploration ships arriving in the engineering dock on the orbit of Qiankun Star, while Zhang Heng was organizing the structural scanning protocol extracted from the ancestral core in the laboratory of the Academia Sinica, preparing to adapt it to the process of relic exploration.

Everything is proceeding in an orderly manner, and Zhao Zheng has no plans to personally go to that gray star field for the time being.

But while he waited for the exploration team to complete their preparations for departure, intelligence from another direction began to frequently appear in the Qin Dynasty's communication network.

……

Bai Qi was the first to set off when the expedition resumed, and he did the same thing along the way.

The heavy artillery barrage is followed by a ground landing, where Odin and Thor's charge completely overwhelms the enemy's defenses, ensuring that every alien is hit by a volcanic cannon and an electromagnetic cannon. Then, the armored legions rush in and crush them into dust.

Bai Qi never wanted prisoners; the drawbacks were too great. He didn't want to waste time turning them into mechanical servants, so after thinking it over, he decided it was better to just kill them.

For many years, he has basically led his fleet on expeditions by himself. Few people from other legions are willing to go on expeditions with him. Even the Ninth Legion, which is bloodthirsty and has a thirst for blood that makes them want to gnaw on the corpses of their enemies, does not dare to follow Bai Qi.

He exuded an overwhelming sense of pressure. Despite his unremarkable appearance and power armor that was no different from the other marshals', the only difference being that the crimson-gold power armor looked somewhat sinister.

But even if Bai Qi just stood there and did nothing, very few people were willing to approach him.

The same goes for the soldiers in his fleet; most of the generals are taciturn, but once on the battlefield, they become bloodthirsty killers.

It's not easy for people within the Qin Dynasty to comment on Bai Qi's fleet, but people in the other legions have something to say.

In essence, this group is even more taciturn than the Imperial Fist and the Twilight Raiders.

Bai Qi's expeditionary force made contact with the alien pocket empire eight months after the Qin Dynasty restarted its expeditions.

That star region was not officially named on the Imperial Star Map, but only had a string of temporary coordinate codes marked by reconnaissance ships. It was located in a sparsely populated area in the northwest of the Qin territory, about an eight-day journey from the nearest supply node.

The initial orbital scan results did not reveal many anomalies.

The alien orbital defense platforms had a crude layout. It was the first time Bai Qi had ever seen a legitimate imperial power with such a "sloppy" style as the Greenskins.

The density and distribution of the turrets are consistent with a medium-sized alien civilization. About eight hundred escort ships are suspended in orbit, in a scattered formation, and none of them have long-range combat guns.

Those warships were almost entirely made of blood-red alloy, and their rams were almost comparable to those of the Empire's naval fleet.

Although it was somewhat strange, it didn't stop Bai Qi from wanting to exterminate these aliens.

The Milky Way is so vast, and there are countless bizarre and peculiar alien creatures. Bai Qi doesn't care about killing just one more.

He completed the first round of orbital strikes according to standard procedures, then used the "Starbreaker" cannon to bombard the hastily assembled fleet three times before ordering the fleet to proceed to the landing phase.

As the airdrop pods penetrated the atmosphere and Stormbirds and Thunderhawks began transporting armored forces to the surface, unusual signs began to appear on the surface as ground troops deployed on the equatorial plains of the alien supernova.

In those alien cities, crude totems made of welded bones and metal stood everywhere. Each totem was topped with a string of skulls, some human, some from the aliens themselves, and some from unknown creatures.

The bloodstains spread across the ground in large patches of dark brown, and the air was thick with the smell of rust.

The alien defenders put up a fierce resistance against the advance of the Emperor Dragon Legion.

Their warriors are not particularly tall, but beneath their blood-red armor they roar with fanatical fury. Their fighting style is extremely frenzied, and they seem almost unafraid of casualties.

Even with limbs severed by explosives, they would still drag their broken bodies forward, attempting to harm the soldiers of the Imperial Dragon Legion with their teeth or claws.

"Blood sacrifice to the Blood God! Skull offering to the skull seat!"

With that phrase in mind, they charged fearlessly toward the Emperor Dragon Legion and their comrades, but unfortunately, the vast majority of them couldn't even get past the Heavy Steel Armor Ironborn.

Bai Qi stood on a command ship in orbit, observing real-time footage of the ground battlefield. He noticed something unusual after seeing the aliens' resistance methods.

What kind of chainsaw weapon could cut through the living metal and adamantite armor layers of the Ironborn?

Bai Qi was almost certain that those chainsaw weapons were made of the lowest-grade alloy, and even the auxiliary forces on the Empire's side were better than them!

But they used this ridiculous weapon to tear through the armor of the Heavy Steel Armor Ironborn. Fortunately, the Heavy Steel Armor Ironborn almost all had a size comparable to the Dreadnought, so this "minor injury" was almost negligible. But that doesn't mean Bai Qi could ignore it.

There's something strange about this world!

But he still didn't know what this anomaly meant.

The Empire proclaimed its imperial truths, and even psionicists were subjected to discrimination. Qin had not officially conveyed any information about the warp and chaos to the expeditionary fleet because Zhao Zheng believed it was not the right time yet.

Moreover, he himself held a contradictory attitude toward the existence of chaos. He did not want his descendants to be exposed to this information too early, which would cause unnecessary fear and confusion, but he also knew that they would have to face these things sooner or later.

That's why he initially wanted his offspring to possess some of his essence; at least that way he could ensure they wouldn't be affected by chaos.

Although he found it strange, Bai Qi didn't think much of it and continued to carry out the cleaning operation according to the standard procedures.

Although the aliens showed a very high fighting spirit in their resistance, they were still unable to organize any effective lines in the face of the Emperor Dragon Legion's heavy firepower.

They didn't know how to defend themselves at all; they just charged fearlessly towards the Qin ground forces.

Ground troops advanced steadily, clearing out the alien settlements and military installations area by area, gradually compressing their resistance into the city center.

However, upon advancing into that area, Bai Qi saw in the images piles of skulls pushed into cone shapes, as well as rough altars soaked in blood.

Crimson flames burned in the center of those altars, their shapes bizarre, pulsating with an unnatural rhythm even in windless conditions.

Bai Qi stood on the bridge of the command ship, looking at the images of flames leaping in the video, and frowned slightly.

He ordered the frontline troops to halt their advance and establish an observation post at a distance from the area, while simultaneously sending out unmanned reconnaissance units to conduct close-range scans of the altar area.

The crimson energy barrier suddenly reacted when the scanning signal from the unmanned reconnaissance unit approached. Ripples spread across the surface of the barrier, reflecting the scanning signal back to its source layer by layer, causing widespread signal interference and false alarms.

After the data link between the reconnaissance unit and the command system was jammed, it became unstable, and frequent noise and image tearing appeared in the returned images.

Bai Qi stood in front of the tactical panel for a few seconds, looking at the distorted images, and then ordered the reconnaissance units to withdraw from that area.

He then ordered an orbital bombardment of the altar area.

The beams of the warship's main guns precisely covered the area where the skull pile and altar were located, melting the ground into a reddish, glassy depression.

Bai Qi watched the flames seeping back from the cracks and made no further attempts. He ordered the fleet to maintain the orbital blockade, then re-established the encrypted communication link to Qiankun Star and compiled his observations into a brief report, which he sent back to the Lishan.

He wanted to order the ground troops to retreat. This planet was strange, and there was no need to continue fighting. Great Qin didn't lack so many star systems; they should just blast it to pieces with the "Star Shattering" cannon.

But just as the report was sent back, Bai Qi suddenly found himself being pulled to an unfamiliar place by some powerful force.

This is a dark red desert, boundless and stretching as far as the eye can see. Red sand flies everywhere, and Bai Qi can even smell the stench of blood and sulfur in it.

He didn't know why the desert smelled like this, nor did he want to know how he had been brought here. All he wanted to know was how to get out of there.

Bai Qi knew that he had probably been set up.

There is no horizon at the end of the yellow sand.

Bai Qi stood in the middle of the boundless desert, his feet treading on the red sand that had been baked brittle by the high temperature. The sky above him was a sickly dark red, like some kind of congealed blood slowly flowing in the air.

The air was filled with a strong smell of rust, mixed with the odors of sulfur and coke.

He tried to extend his psychic perception outwards, but found that this space greatly restricted his power. His psychic energy seemed to be thrown into a pool of viscous liquid, and its outward movement was extremely slow.

Bai Qi was somewhat surprised. Could it be that even α+ level psionic energy couldn't break through the illusion here?

He glanced down at his power armor. The crimson-gold surface of the power armor was still intact, without any damage. However, he could feel that he had just been pulled into this place by a savage and unreasonable force in the real universe.

He still remembers the feeling at that moment, as if an invisible giant hand had forcibly reached out from the depths of the subspace, grabbed his body, and dragged him into this dark red desert.

Bai Qi remained calm.

He took the power sword from his waist, held it in his hand, activated the power field, and looked around, his gaze sweeping over the rolling sand dunes.

His psychic senses told him that there was a slow-awakening will in this desert, omnipresent, lurking behind every grain of red sand and every wisp of hot wind.

Then the first crack appeared in the distance.

The crack appeared on the top of a sand dune about 800 meters directly in front of Bai Qi, extending upwards from deep beneath the ground, tearing a fissure about 800 meters long through the dark red sand.

The edges of the crack were charred black, as if they had been scorched by high temperatures, and were still emitting crimson flames.

Immediately afterwards, a second crack appeared on the left, followed by a third and a fourth. These cracks radiated outwards from Bai Qi's location, splitting the entire desert into countless fragments.

Something began to emerge from those cracks, first a crimson mist, as thick as the steam that condenses in the air after blood evaporates, and then outlines began to appear in that mist.

The demons crawled out of the cracks, their bodies covered with some kind of keratinized red carapace, their muscles exposed between the gaps in the carapace, appearing an eerie dark red, and two black horns growing from their heads.

They come in various forms, some are four-limbed reptiles resembling hunting dogs, while others are humanoid demons standing on two legs, each exuding a strong aura of malice and bloodlust.

They paused briefly after appearing, as if confirming their presence, before focusing their gaze on Bai Qi's direction.

Bai Qi adjusted the angle of his grip on the power sword in his palm, and the arcs of psionic electricity flashing on the blade gleamed with a deep red light under the dim red illumination.

The first wave of demons charged toward Bai Qi. Those crimson figures moved at high speed through the red sand, their movement pattern was not complicated.

Bai Qi observed their charge trajectory only once, and then reacted when they approached within a suitable distance.

His movements were concise and efficient, without wasting any extra energy. He gripped two power swords with both hands and completed an arc-shaped horizontal swing along his charge path. The psionic-enhanced blades sliced ​​through the demons' carapaces and muscles in an instant, separating their upper and lower bodies.

The demon's remains landed on the sand behind Bai Qi, and began to slowly burn upon impact, turning into a pool of charred ash.

Bai Qi did not stop. After completing the first swing, he did not pause at all. He then turned to the left and swung his power sword in the opposite direction, banishing several demons who tried to flank him.

The two demons shattered into several pieces in mid-air, which scattered on the sand and began to burn as well.

The first batch of demons was not many, and Bai Qi cleared them out in no time.

After clearing the demons from that direction, he straightened up, turned his head, and looked at the outline of the sand dunes in the distance.

New demons continue to emerge from those cracks, and their numbers are increasing, as are their sizes.

The second wave of demons was more numerous than the first, and they surged in from multiple directions simultaneously, creating a simple encirclement.

Bai Qi's power field briefly swept across the sand. He crushed the head of an eight-meter-tall demon at the front, then precisely pierced the chest cavity of another demon with his power sword, using the momentum to continue his forward charge.

The demons' attacks grew increasingly fierce and powerful with each successive wave.

Those crimson figures kept pouring out of the cracks, charging towards Bai Qi's position with extremely high density.

Their roars echoed continuously over the desert, merging into a cacophony that reverberated beneath the dark red sky.

"Blood sacrifice to the Blood God! Skull offering to the skull seat!"

It shouts exactly the same thing as those aliens outside, but it's much stronger, though it's not very resistant to psionic energy.

Bai Qi could feel himself getting stronger, and in the Blood God's subspace domain, in front of the bronze throne, a small black hole was constantly expanding, but it could never escape the Blood God's grasp.

He loved this Astartes so much that He was willing to pay a huge price to drag him into the Red Sands and corrupt him.

He believed that Bai Qi would soon bow down before Him, for no one could resist the erosion of the red sand, and His forces would soon have another terrifying demon prince to fight for Him and shine brightly in the war of gods.

To hell with those damn Bluebirds and that bitch's henchmen!

Khorne firmly believed that as long as he could obtain Bai Qi, he would definitely be able to obtain a greater demon than Shalasi the Demon Catastrophe and Skabrand!

Bai Qi fought silently, unaware of how much time had passed, only knowing that he had repeatedly wiped out those demons many times.

Whenever one of them was about to be breached, he would tighten his defenses, gradually compressing the demons' offensive back to the edge of the rift, and then clean it up again.

But he could also feel that his physical strength was being depleted, his body was beginning to feel slightly tired, and his movements were slowing down.

He subconsciously recalled how long it had been since he had felt this way.

It seems like there has never been a case where a weak psychic underwent genetic modification and surgical alteration, and then quickly became one of the first marshals, yet he almost never actually used his power.

That doesn't mean he was weak. Anyone who can become a marshal in the Qin Dynasty is at least a top-tier Astartes, and at least in terms of command ability, they are among the very best.

Xiang Ji and Chi You could have become marshals, but unfortunately, they were both too impulsive. Why would a commander always be at the forefront?

Just as Bai Qi was feeling exhausted, a voice began to appear in his mind.

The sound was not like language; it was more like a low-frequency vibration that acted directly on the level of consciousness, carrying a kind of primal emotion and allure.

“Speak it out: blood sacrifice to the blood god, skull offering to the skull seat.”