43: Chapter 43 Cross

As the Holy War Army led by Saint Sabbat entered the territory of the Burning Cult, they realized that the environment of the Burning Cult was vastly different from that of the Imperial Cult.

After crossing the border, vast stretches of grassland gradually disappeared, replaced by deserts and Gobi.

By the time they reached the core territory of the Burning Cult, trees were rarely seen, with the vast majority growing only on high mountains.

The trees that had grown on the plains had basically been completely felled, and one could only see thick smoke rising in the distance.

After the army led by Saint Sabbat entered the territory of the Burning Sect, they first encountered a small tribe.

Without the slightest hesitation, in the face of such overwhelmingly superior manpower and resources, this small tribe could not even stir up a ripple before being directly leveled by the God-Emperor Faction's army.

This was the first time the God-Emperor Faction had achieved a victory in an offensive against the Burning Sect.

The morale of the army was instantly boosted, and it was at this very moment.

They truly believed from the bottom of their hearts that Saint Sabbat was the saint who would lead them to victory.

Xia Xingchen was also in the tent at this time, organizing the collected intelligence; laid out before Saint Sabbat were images captured by probes from high altitude.

Saint Sabbat looked at the pictures in her hand; the most powerful tribe of the Burning Cult had a giant blood hand as its totem.

And judging from the intelligence transmitted back by the probes.

The Blood Hand Tribe had already conquered the Blood Skull Tribe, which was of comparable size, and they seemed to be preparing for some kind of ritual.

In the center of the Blood Hand Tribe, a massive altar built from stacked skulls had been erected.

Xia Xingchen looked at this picture, and without needing to think, he knew that this was definitely an altar to Khorne, the Blood God.

The Blood God never cared about the scale or shape of the altar's ritual; Khorne, the Blood God, only cared about one thing.

Whether there was blood on this altar, whether there was slaughter, and whether there was extreme violence.

Xia Xingchen pointed at the picture and said to Saint Sabbat:

"Our only choice now is to concentrate all our forces and completely crush the Blood Hand Tribe here.

As long as we win this decisive battle, the remaining followers of the Burning Sect will collapse without an attack."

Xia Xingchen wanted to fight a decisive battle to shorten the duration of the war and quickly seize control of the entire Lanshan Planet.

Saint Sabbat looked at the map and the intelligence, beginning her own strategic assessment.

She was an exceptionally brilliant strategist, and after combining all the information, Saint Sabbat agreed with Xia Xingchen's plan and commanded the army to advance at full speed toward the Blood Hand Tribe.

The few small tribes that blocked their path along the way were easily dealt with by Saint Sabbat.

The soldiers of the Imperial Cult captured several tribal leaders, and through interrogation, they finally figured out the current true situation of the Burning Cult.

A brutal war had broken out between the largest tribe, the Blood Hand Tribe, and the second-largest, the Blood Skull Tribe.

They had dragged almost every tribe into the abyss of war.

With the war ending the previous month, the Blood Hand Tribe had completely secured full control of the Burning Cult.

Since then, the Burning tribes had achieved nominal unification for the first time.

It was precisely because of this internal strife within the Burning Cult that several large tribes were wiped out in the war.

One must know that every battle of the Burning Sect was accompanied by cruel blood sacrifices and massacres.

Now, through the information from the probes and the confessions of the captives, it could be determined that the Blood Hand Tribe had just experienced a bloody battle, and their strength must have been diminished compared to their peak, making this the perfect time to launch an attack.

Saint Sabbat organized the army for a final rest.

At this moment, only a plain separated them from the Blood Hand Tribe.

But what were the people of the Blood Hand Tribe doing?

They had not the slightest sense of tension and were busy building the altar.

Even though someone had already reported the news of the Imperial Cult army's arrival to Kross.

Kross, who was the current leader of the Blood Hand Tribe.

The man whom Xia Xingchen had seen in the intelligence reports, whose height was almost equal to that of a Space Marine.

Upon receiving this news, Kross did not care in the slightest; there was only one thing in Kross's heart: to complete the blood sacrifice and receive the Blood God's blessing.

Kross could feel that the Blood God had been very satisfied with his offerings recently.

Soon, the Burning God would grant him new grace, and Kross would become even more powerful.

By then, even if more armies of the Imperial Cult came, he would be able to annihilate them all.

At this moment, Kross had fallen into madness and completely lost his sanity, with only endless slaughter remaining in his mind.

Such madness fit perfectly with the path of Khorne.

After all, the Primarch Angron had also eventually devolved into such an existence.

The next day.

The sun slowly set, and the sky was gradually shrouded by the sunset.

The blood-red sunset dyed the entire sky crimson, as if the great Khorne had slaughtered countless enemies over there, staining the entire sky red with their blood.

This was the perfect time for the blood sacrifice.

Kross had dragged countless captives onto the altar; they were all suffering, with blood constantly seeping out from their skin.

Kross had also assembled all his troops, intending to complete this blood sacrifice with his own hands in front of everyone.

Just as Kross was about to give the order to kill all the captives present.

A Chaos Cultist of the Burning God rushed in, flustered and panicked.

Kross was very dissatisfied upon seeing this and was about to immediately hack this Chaos Cultist who had disrupted the ritual to death on the spot.

But the Chaos Cultist shouted loudly before Kross could act:

"It's bad! The Imperial Cult army has attacked!"

Kross was stunned upon hearing this; he glanced at the altar and was just about to rush to complete the blood sacrifice when the sounds of battle and shouting outside already rang out to the heavens.

Kross still intended to keep his focus on the blood sacrifice, but just at that moment, an unspeakable sense of violence swept through his entire body.

Clearly, Khorne was very dissatisfied with his behavior of not participating in the battle.

For Khorne, any battle where blood could flow was one that a follower of Khorne must personally participate in.

After Kross sensed the Blood God's intent, he immediately ordered his subordinates to continue the blood sacrifice, while he himself went out to resist the Imperial Cult's army.