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

The emperor paused for a moment.

"The Ninth Legion and some other legions are extremely vulnerable to the influence of the warp. There have been several cases before. The solution is to isolate and cleanse them afterward, but this is not a sustainable solution and it is impossible to succeed every time."

"I understand your concerns and difficulties, but given the current situation, I still believe that it is not advisable to disclose some subspace information."

"However, I can establish a limited notification mechanism within the legion to provide sufficient information to the commander of the designated legion, provided that the threat is confirmed to exist."

"But this scope needs to be strictly controlled and cannot be expanded to ordinary members."

The emperor made some concessions, which was already an unexpected result.

Zhao Zheng also knew that, given the Emperor's caution, it was impossible for him to easily change his stance on the issue of the subspace. The fact that he had received such a limited promise already showed that the Emperor was indeed seriously considering the issue raised by Zhao Zheng.

"Okay, then we'll do it your way."

The golden spiritual energy receded from the edge of his perception, and the rest room returned to its usual quiet.

He leaned back in his chair for a while, his fingertips tapping lightly on the edge of the armrest, his gaze fixed on the Milky Way outside the porthole.

Zhao Zheng knew that the emperor was stubborn and had a long-term plan, and that he could not possibly persuade the emperor.

Because the Emperor was immortal, having lived for countless years, experienced the Iron Man rebellion, and witnessed the peak and collapse of human civilization, his judgments were based on countless experiences and failures.

Such a belief, shaped by experience, is almost impossible to shake with a single conversation, let alone the fact that Zhao Zheng is his son.

But at least Zhao Zheng secured a limited information reporting mechanism.

Although it is only a small step, it does open a crack for information sharing on some major issues in the future.

Zhao Zheng now only hopes that there will be fewer misunderstandings among the brothers in the future, that Xiao Ma won't be so naive, that Koz won't be so crazy, that Perturabo won't be so conflicted, and that Ryan won't have so many suspicions...

The conversation they had just had was still lingering in his mind. The Emperor's discourse on the truth of the Empire and his restrained attitude toward information from the warp were indeed reasonable.

But Zhao Zheng also knew that this logic was based on the premise that "human beings can maintain their neglect of subspace for a long time".

In the Warhammer universe, this premise is inherently extremely fragile.

He did not delve further into the matter. The emperor had already made concessions and established a limited information reporting mechanism, which was better than completely concealing the eventual revelation in official history.

Zhao Zheng stood up, walked to the porthole, and looked out at the deep space starry sky.

Bai Qi's experience in the command center made him start to think about a serious problem.

The offspring did indeed inherit Zhao Zheng's traits at the genetic level, possessing a natural aversion to and resistance to warp space, but the Space Marines of other legions and those mortal auxiliary troops did not have this privilege.

If attempts at corruption by Chaos begin to emerge frequently in all directions of the Great Crusade, will the Empire's current methods of response—isolation, purges, and post-incident handling—truly be sufficient to deal with such situations?

Moreover, the four Chaos Gods coveted Zhao Zheng very much. If it weren't for Zhao Zheng's special nature, he would probably have become the second Puff by now.

However, this endless harassment also made Zhao Zheng quite annoyed.

Zhao Zheng decided to put the matter aside for the time being and stop worrying about the problems that had not yet arisen.

He still had many matters to attend to: the exploration plan for the space ruins was about to officially begin; the construction of the Forged World required subsequent resource allocation and personnel replenishment; the perimeter patrol of the increasingly vast territory of the Great Qin also needed regular review; and there were issues such as concealing the identity of the Ironborn and falsifying the number of the Imperial Dragon Legion...

Zhao Zheng returned to the control panel, opened the communication panel, and pulled up the latest progress report on the space ruins.

The exploration team, led by Zhang Heng and Zu Chongzhi, has completed all preparations for departure.

The modified exploration ship completed its final round of system debugging in the engineering dock in the orbit of Qiankun Star. Its interior was equipped with a reverse analysis system based on the ancestral core structure scanning protocol.

According to the preliminary plan, the exploration team will first conduct an external scan of the ring-shaped main structure to confirm the stability of its overall structure and the distribution pattern of its internal compartments. Then, the Ironborn unmanned engineering vessel will enter the interior from several predetermined entrances to conduct more detailed exploration.

After reading the report, Zhao Zheng wrote a brief confirmation reply in the approval column at the end, and then closed the data panel.

While awaiting the preliminary exploration results from the exploration team, Zhao Zheng turned his attention to the existing defensive layout of the Qin Dynasty.

Every year, he invests new resources and manpower in major factories, shipyards, and casting worlds, builds more military bases and defense platforms on various planets, and has a vast number of arsenals. All of this is in preparation for the future of the Great Qin.

Three weeks after the exploration team set off, the first batch of data was transmitted back to Qiankun Star.

The circular ruins from the dark age of technology were more intact than the initial orbital scans showed. Although the outer armor of the main ring had undergone slight twisting and collapse over the long years, most of the compartments remained airtight.

In his preliminary report, Zhang Heng mentioned that the spatial layout inside the ring structure exhibited a high degree of symmetry and functional zoning, which was very different from the empire of today.

The engineering fleet's structural scanning data identified thousands of channels running through the entire ring, connecting hundreds of thousands of independent compartment clusters. The function of each cluster is highly likely to be a specific type of industrial or scientific research purpose.

After entering the interior of the ring structure, Zu Chongzhi's engineering team systematically marked and mapped along the main passage, recording the entrance location and sealing status of each compartment cluster in a detailed exploration log.

This site is strange; the humans here must have taken a considerable amount of time to complete the sealing process, rather than being hastily evacuated due to a sudden disaster.

So what exactly did the people here go through? Why did they spend so much time sealing this place off, and then leave?

Zhao Zheng didn't know what was going on, but it didn't matter. Even Dorne and the Emperor didn't fully understand everything, did they? They still operated the Mountain Array.

Even if this ring-shaped ruin is unusable, the Qin Dynasty can still extract some practical value from it. If all else fails, they can bring it back and place it in the orbit of a planet to serve as a habitable world.

While the exploration work was progressing in an orderly manner, an unexpected message came from another direction on the border of Daqin.

During a routine patrol, the Qin Dynasty's border fleet discovered a new orbital anomaly located on the edge of the Qin territory.

It was a small planet covered by dense clouds, and from its orbit, it looked no different from an ordinary rocky planet.

However, when the reconnaissance units sent out by the commander lowered their altitude to conduct close-range exploration, they discovered several unusual thermal signals on the shadowy side of the planet.

The distribution of those thermal signals exhibits a clear network structure, unlike the distribution of heat sources generated by natural geological activities.

The small planet covered by dense clouds was temporarily marked as "Anomaly-023" in the reconnaissance log of the Qin border defense fleet.

The reconnaissance unit included a brief description in its initial report: "The thermal signal distribution has a network structure, which is inconsistent with the characteristics of natural geological activity, and is suspected to be the existence of a network of artificially maintained underground facilities."

When Zhao Zheng saw this report, he was on the Lishan ship reading the progress report on the third phase of the exploration of the circular ruins sent by Zu Chongzhi.

He set aside the report on the circular ruins for the time being, and pulled up the original scan data of Anomaly-023, examining it carefully.

Zhao Zheng stared at the heat signal distribution map for a while, his brows twitching slightly. There's something interesting about this place.

"Order the border fleet to send another unmanned reconnaissance ship with deep geological scanning equipment to scan all the structures within a 500-kilometer radius below the surface of this planet."

"All data is directly encrypted and sent back to Qiankun Star."

The reconnaissance ship completed the scan three days later and sent back complete geological structure data.

Deep scans revealed a vast network of artificial structures extending approximately three to thirty kilometers below the planet's surface.

It includes multiple interconnected passages, hundreds of large chambers, and several nodes with a significantly higher structural density than the surrounding area.

One of the node structures appears as a circular outline in the image, with a diameter of about two kilometers and a height of about five hundred meters. It looks like a large domed building buried underground and is quite well preserved.

In the deep geological scan, no obvious connection channels or sealed doors were found between the domed building and the surrounding structures.

Zhao Zheng couldn't understand what any of this was. There were countless monsters and demons in Warhammer, and if a human pocket empire suddenly appeared claiming to be a descendant of the Golden Men of the Golden Age, Zhao Zheng wouldn't find it strange at all.

Zhao Zheng decided to personally go to Anomaly-023.

The small asteroid, shrouded in clouds, took on an unnatural grayish-white hue as the Lishan approached.

Zhao Zheng stood on the bridge, watching the dense clouds slowly churn under the starlight, like a thick curtain frozen for tens of thousands of years.

On the day of his arrival, he landed on the planet's surface with a small ground formation composed of Ironborn.

The landing site was chosen near the area with the most concentrated heat signal, about three kilometers away from the surface projection point of the dome structure.

Zhao Zheng walked forward and stopped in front of an entrance that was mostly buried by rubble.

The entrance was a neat semi-circle with extremely clean cut marks on the edges, showing no signs of weathering or breakage.

Zhao Zheng squeezed in sideways. The passage was dark inside, but his spiritual senses covered the entire space as soon as he entered, confirming the direction of the passage and the distribution of the cabins along the way.

The walls on both sides of the passage were covered with a dark gray alloy, with no markings or decorations on the surface. The seams were extremely tight, with only very fine silver lines running through the entire surface.

After passing through a narrow passage, the view suddenly opened up before him.

The space inside the dome structure is much larger than the scan data shows, with a height of nearly 300 meters and a diameter of about 3 kilometers. In the central area stands a huge cylindrical device, covered with the same dark gray alloy, with a bundle of pipes running through the dome connected to its top.

Zhao Zheng's psionic energy swept across the cylindrical device's casing again, sensing an extremely faint low-frequency vibration continuously operating inside, like some long-dormant energy source slowly circulating.

He took a step forward.

Then he heard a sound, a heavy, even metallic footstep, coming from the side of the cylindrical device.

A tall silhouette emerged from the shadows, about ten meters high, with a humanoid form. It was an artificial intelligence robot somewhat similar to the Ironborn.

However, the proportions were greatly enlarged, with broad shoulders and thick arms, limbs covered in dark gray armor plates, and a flat panel in place of the head, without eyes or other obvious sensor openings.

His right hand held a huge, long-handled warhammer, the diameter of which was almost as large as Zhao Zheng's body. The surface was covered with fine silver-gray patterns, which shimmered with a silvery light.

In Zhao Zheng's psionic perception, the warhammer exhibited an extremely high energy density, containing a slowly activating energy core with astonishing power.

Zhao Zheng looked at the warhammer, then at the metal giant who was half a meter taller than him, and his lips twitched slightly.

Tsk, have things been going too smoothly for me lately, causing me to trigger the Warhammer cesspool theorem?

No one explained to me why I could stumble upon the complete Iron Man black technology left over from the dark age of technology just by casually exploring a planet!

Chapter 56 Oh wow, this planet seems pretty interesting!

The Qin Dynasty continued its expansion along the edges of its empire, and the star systems that were once marked as gray areas were lit up one by one in front of the Imperial Dragon Legion's expeditionary fleet.

Ironborn patrol fleets shuttled between various regions under the Qin Dynasty's command, the production line of the Forging World steadily delivered new ships and mechs into service, and the Astartes warriors of the Imperial Dragon Legion were also using expeditions as a whetstone to continuously improve their combat power.

The situation of the Empire's Great Expedition is also constantly improving, and the various legions are making their names in the galaxy, showing great signs of human revival.

Zhao Zheng engages in a thrilling battle of wits and cutting-edge technology with the fully-fledged Iron Man at the Star Ring Ruins.

Everything is thriving, and everyone has a bright future.

However, a small exploration fleet of the Great Qin Dynasty discovered a particularly eye-catching planet in a sparsely populated region at the edge of the extreme star field. This planet appeared as a deep, dark green on the scanner screen.

From orbit, it appears almost entirely covered by a vast, boundless jungle, with dense canopies like a thick velvet carpet covering the entire planet's surface. Occasionally, the silhouettes of massive mountains can be seen rising from the forest beneath the rolling clouds.

The fleet commander frowned.

“Something’s not right here. Almost all life signs are exhibiting a kind of…highly active aggression. Notify the detection team not to enter the atmosphere yet. Use ultra-long-range sensors to conduct a deep scan. I need to know what’s hidden beneath this jungle.”

Further scan data was alarming.

This planet is practically a miniature hell.

The atmosphere is filled with a variety of deadly spores, toxic pollen that can corrode air filters is everywhere, and countless deadly predators roam beneath the ground.

Plants, animals, and even the air itself contain deadly anesthetics.

The jungles below are teeming with terrifying creatures, such as one tentatively named "barking toad," which contains a high-energy reaction within its body. Once startled, its explosive yield is comparable to a small nuclear bomb, enough to turn an area within a one-kilometer radius into a dead zone.

"What a hellish place. Notify the fleet to maintain the orbital blockade. No one is allowed to land without my order."

But at the same time, an encrypted report sent to the Lishan was also transmitted almost simultaneously.

……

When Zhao Zheng received the encrypted report, he was on the Lishan ship processing the latest exploration briefing on the Iron Man ruins.

His fingertips stopped on the armrest, his gaze fixed on the dark green planet, and his lips twitched slightly.

Have I gotten used to things going smoothly all along? Why am I causing myself so much trouble these past few days?

I just filmed an Iron Man movie, and now I've discovered another one, Katachon.

Zhao Zheng could tell at a glance what kind of planet it was.

Katachon, a notorious death zone in the Empire, is so extreme that newborns are taught to fire a gun before they can even call for their mother.

This godforsaken place was found so early, and it just happens to be on the edge of Zhao Zheng's territory.

He had no intention whatsoever of conquering the planet.

In a place like Katachan, the cost of establishing rule is too high, so high that any strategic value would be negated.

In this death world where green-skinned creatures are considered lolis, Eldar are considered bean sprouts, and even Zerg fleets will run away on their own when they arrive, Zhao Zheng doesn't think he can squeeze anything out of this place.

But the Catachan are themselves one of the most terrifying weapons in the galaxy.

The Katachans were among the most formidable mortal warriors in the Imperial Astral Army, capable of taking on ten men single-handedly in the jungle. They could set up booby traps with their bare hands that were even more deadly than servant traps, and even the Oglins had to think twice before looking at their clumsy heads.

Moreover, although Zhao Zheng will not rule Katachon, it doesn't mean he can't establish a military academy there!

At that time, the Katachans, the remnants of the Dragon Kingdoms, the Slavic human clans that he had migrated from Terra, and all the various races under his command...

I could put some new recruits who had undergone genetic modification and surgical modification on it to train first, and then pull them into the battlefield as assault decapitation squads and boarding squads.

Zhao Zheng believed that Katachon would not disappoint him.