19: Chapter 19: A Thousand Beasts Invade, and After a Great Victory, Surrounding Areas Submit.

The second ork attack occurred one month after the great fire. The scale was slightly smaller than the first, about a thousand or so—but for Blackstone Village, which had just lost its granary and was rebuilding, the timing perfectly struck the weakest link in the supply chain. Locke wrote one line in his reconnaissance report: They know we just burned our granary.

Locke abandoned the idea of holding the first two lines of defense, deploying all his mobile forces directly behind the first line. He set up blocking posts at every road leading to the village, forcing the orks to pay a heavy price in casualties for every step forward. Simultaneously, he ordered people to dig a shallow, sloping trench outside the village, diverting a nearby stream—creating a shallow marsh along the main ork advance route.

The battle lasted two days and one night, nearly half as long as Lin Mo had estimated. The firepower and discipline of the Blackstone garrison had improved by more than a level compared to three months ago. Messengers from border settlements poured in one after another, not to request submission, but to request formal trade relations. Representatives from seven settlements in total arrived. Lin Mo gave a uniform reply—trade is possible, but prices and rules must be on our terms. He didn't impose any harsh conditions, only appended one clause to each trade agreement: in the event of an ork invasion, the response time for coordinated defense must not exceed a specified limit.

The chaos attention level rose to fifty. Lin Mo, Locke, and Alice stood together in the Archon's office, conducting war games around a map for over three hours. Alice drew a curve on a blank sheet of paper—not a numerical curve of the chaos attention level, but a coordinate axis of 'threat level versus response level.' She said if the attention level reached sixty, Chaos would begin to dispatch small-scale elite units possessed by warp-spawn to probe. Above seventy, there was a possibility of sending a squad of Chaos Space Marines for targeted elimination.

Locke asked how she knew so clearly. Alice said she had seen it three times during her service with the Astral Knights. The result of those three times was the complete fall of three planets.

Lin Mo wrote those three numbers—sixty, seventy, eighty—on the wall of the Archon's office. The chaos attention level was steadily rising, but that didn't stop him from arming himself to the teeth during this time.

*Alice drew a curve on the paper with a pencil,*

*She said: Above sixty, elite units possessed by warp-spawn begin to mobilize.*

The adjusted line of attack achieved a breakthrough in less than tens of minutes. The Chaos defenders, having suffered a feint on the eastern side, shifted their main force eastward—falling into Locke's trap. The vanguard flanked from the western side and broke through from the rear, creating a pincer attack. After the battle, Locke discovered a pile of Imperial standard prefabricated components welded with Chaos runes in the ruins. He kicked over a rune-covered plate; on the back was an inscription: 'Eastern Star Sector · 30th Border Battalion · Standard Issue.' It was the Empire's own equipment.

Lin Mo opened his notebook under the kerosene lamp. Since the first day of his arrival, he had recorded every event he deemed important: ork weaknesses, the Empire's bureaucratic structure, fluctuations in underground energy, temperature changes of the octagram pendant. These records seemed chaotic—but in his mind, they were slowly forming a web. Each piece of information was a thread in this web. He believed that one day, when enough threads intertwined, he would see the complete picture of this web. He added today's events to it. Then he closed the notebook and locked it in the desk drawer.

After the Chaos stronghold was breached, Locke tallied two things: prisoners and equipment. There weren't many prisoners—most Chaos cultists chose suicide over surrender at the last moment. There was, however, plenty of equipment—Imperial standard-issue weapons, unopened ammunition crates, several well-maintained communication devices. Locke picked up an Imperial prefabricated component welded with Chaos runes and turned it over to look at the back. The casting number was clearly visible: Eastern Star Sector · 30th Border Battalion. This equipment wasn't made by Chaos—it was intercepted from the Empire's supply lines. Looking at that inscription, he had a bad premonition.

After the Chaos stronghold was breached, Locke led his team in searching the ruins for nearly an hour, gaining far more than expected. That stronghold wasn't just a rallying point for Chaos Forces; it was also a fairly large supply depot. The stored materials included: a batch of unopened Imperial standard-issue weapons, large quantities of ammunition crates, several well-maintained communication devices, and a crate of neatly stacked military rations. The storage method was extremely orderly—not the haphazard piling typical of Chaos Forces, but the classified stacking method required by Imperial logistical standard operating procedures.

Locke picked up an Imperial prefabricated component welded with Chaos runes and turned it over to look at the back. The casting number was clearly visible: Eastern Star Sector · 30th Border Battalion. This equipment wasn't made by Chaos—it was intercepted from the Empire's supply lines. Standing before that pile of supplies, Locke thought of a question: if this equipment was captured from Imperial forces, why didn't the Chaos Forces that captured it use it on their own front lines? Why was it neatly stored in a warehouse instead of being consumed at the front? One possibility surfaced in his mind—these things weren't captured. Someone placed them here. Placed here, waiting for a certain force to collect them.

Locke's search yielded even more than he had anticipated. That batch of Imperial standard-issue equipment inside the stronghold—judging by the serial numbers, belonging to the Eastern Star Sector's 30th Border Battalion—if it were captured goods, shouldn't have been neatly stacked in a warehouse; if it were traded supplies, the handing-over party certainly wasn't a remnant of defeated soldiers, but a fully functional organization. Locke crouched before the pile of supplies, picked up an unopened lasgun, pulled back the bolt to check the chamber—no signs of use. Brand new, unopened equipment. Original goods straight from the Empire's production lines, delivered directly here.

He placed that lasgun back in the crate and closed the lid. He had a clearer inference about the situation ahead—Chaos's supply lines in the border region were far more complex than Imperial intelligence knew. Someone within the Imperial system was providing logistical support for Chaos. That Chaos stronghold was merely a transit point. And the person operating this supply line likely once served in an Imperial border battalion.

After the Chaos stronghold was cleared, that batch of Imperial standard-issue equipment stored in the warehouse was transported back to Blackstone Town overnight by Locke. The transport convoy arrived before dawn, several carts laden with supplies filing into the town in the morning mist. The inventory of the first batch of equipment took place in the open space behind the Town Hall. Locke personally opened the first ammunition crate, took out a round, and inspected the primer and casing in the morning light. Confirming there were no issues, he placed the round back in the crate and said to Lin Mo standing beside him: 'Enough for two battles.'

Lin Mo bent down and picked up a lasgun from the crate. The gun body still had its factory-applied protective oil coating, shimmering with a thin gloss in the morning light. He raised the gun and aimed at a distant tree trunk—comfortable grip, balanced weight, a well-regarded model among Imperial standard-issue lasguns. He lowered the gun, turned to look at the distant piles of supply crates stacked like small hills—the weapons inside were enough to equip the next expansion of the Blackstone Town garrison, also meaning the next battle would escalate to a more brutal intensity. He placed the gun back in the crate. These weapons could be used to defend against Chaos, but if one day the Empire decided to stop being a bystander, this equipment intercepted from Imperial supply lines would become a kind of original sin for Blackstone Town.

During a relatively quiet moment, he went alone to the Arsenal, took a small piece of high-temperature alloy, brought it back to his office, and studied it for a long time. Then he did one thing—he marked these alloys with their source and date and locked them in a dedicated box. He didn't need to use them now—but he had to know how to explain the origin of these supplies before that day came.

*After those three times, three planets vanished from the Imperial star charts.

*Under the night sky of Blackstone Village,

*The guards changed shifts, one after another.

*The light in Lin Mo's office remained on.

*He was waiting for a signal—

*Not from the sky,

*But from the direction of that metal wall.*

*Under the night sky of Blackstone Village,*

*—Lin Mo · The Night Before the Metal Wall Was Discovered*

Late at night. The lights of Blackstone Town went out one by one, leaving only the torches on the watchtowers swaying in the wind. He stood by the window for a while, then returned to his desk to continue writing his plans.

He silently calculated in his mind: how many days' worth of food reserves remained, how much ammunition had been consumed, how many people were needed for the next patrol. These numbers meshed together in his mind like gears, each number connected to three others—change one, and everything had to be recalculated.

---

When Locke placed that brand new, unopened lasgun back into the crate, he suddenly stopped and asked Lin Mo: 'If that batch of stuff wasn't captured, but intentionally placed there by someone—then why did they let us get it?' Lin Mo looked at the crate of weapons and said something that wasn't a direct answer: 'Because they know that after we get these—we will definitely come looking for more.' Locke remained silent for a long time.

*[Dark clouds press upon the city, the city about to crumble; armor gleams toward the sun, golden scales open.]*

*—Li He, 'Song of the Governor of Yanmen.' A memory fragment of the mirror of the emperor*