41: Chapter 41, Second Floor of the Underground Shelter: The Restoration Material for the Emperor Appears

The period of calm following the liberation of the eastern half did not last long, but Lin Mo utilized this time for one thing: he reopened the sealed earth covering the metal wall in the North Mountain Hills.

The Ark Key was already in his possession—the silver crystal seized from the corpse of the Slaanesh vanguard Commander and the one Alice had discovered months ago were resonating on the same table. Lin Mo brought them both to the metal wall.

The keyhole was in the exact center of the wall. As he brought the two crystals close, the flowing patterns on the surface automatically converged toward the center, forming a diamond-shaped groove. He embedded both crystals simultaneously—an extremely low rumble echoed from deep underground, like a giant beast that had slept for countless years turning over before being awakened.

When Lin Mo embedded the two crystals into the groove together, an extremely low rumble echoed from deep underground. It wasn't the sound of machinery—it was more like a giant beast that had slept for countless years turning over before being awakened.

The metal wall did not rise. It slid open to both sides.

Behind the door was a passage extending downward, the wall material identical to the metal wall, carrying a slight warmth. At the end of the passage was a circular secret chamber of about several dozen square meters—not large, but the items inside were enough to make him stand at the entrance in silence for a long time. In the center of the chamber was a transparent cylindrical storage unit, inside which floated a tube of gold-red liquid. Small characters were engraved on the base of the storage unit: emperors gene repair fluid · Batch 17 · Backup.

Alice stood behind Lin Mo and saw those words. Her pupils contracted slightly—not because of the content of the words, but because she recognized the handwriting. It was the standard script of the Imperial Star Whisperers Court, from the same template as the foundry marks she had seen on the inside of the suppression ring.

On both sides of the secret chamber were several rows of storage racks holding a few items: a data slate, a pistol of unfamiliar design, and a folded set of deep blue uniforms. Each item was sealed in a radiation-proof transparent container, and each was preserved better than they should have been if exposed to the aging of an open-air environment.

He didn't touch anything. He just stood at the entrance for a long time, his gaze lingering longest on that line of text. That line, 'emperors gene repair fluid · Batch 17 · Backup,' reminded him of the serial number on the inside of Alice's suppression ring, the words the metal wall spoke when identifying her psychic signature, and the momentary silence Guilliman had when he saw Alice. He pieced these fragments together in his mind; it wasn't complete, but the outline of a line emerged. The end of that line pointed to an answer he wasn't yet certain of: there was a connection between Alice and this shelter deeper than 'coincidence.' And once this connection was revealed, the relationship between the two of them might never go back to the way it was.

As he closed that metal wall, he heard a very faint vibration from deep underground. It wasn't a response, nor a warning—it was more like a machine that had slept for a long time emitting a brief hum after someone finally flipped its power switch.

No dust fell when the door opened,

Lin Mo shifted his gaze from the map and looked out the window. Under the gray-purple sky, the Arsenal's chimneys were still quietly emitting smoke. Every day he spent on this planet told him the same truth: in this universe, there are no permanent victories, only defense that never slackens for a single day.

It was as if someone had just cleaned the place a few days ago.

emperors gene repair fluid — Batch 17.

On the third day after that tube of emperors gene repair fluid was discovered, Lin Mo made a decision—not to tell Alice for the time being. It wasn't that he didn't trust her—it was that he himself didn't yet understand what this thing meant. emperors gene repair fluid. Batch 17. Backup. Combined, these words pointed to a secret Imperial history he lacked the knowledge to understand. He needed to figure some things out first before deciding how deep to involve her.

He moved the storage unit of the original liquid from the shelter to the Intelligence Center, placing it on a shelf where he could see it every day but others wouldn't notice. Every night after finishing the day's documents, he would look up in that direction—confirming the original liquid was still there, confirming it wasn't something he had imagined out of thin air. It was still there. That meant the clues he had inferred—about the Emperor, about this shelter, about the real reason he was sent here—were all real.

The night after the emperors gene repair fluid was discovered, Lin Mo sat in the Intelligence Center for a long time. He combed through the entire matter from beginning to end—the appearance of the silver crystals, the metal wall's identification system, the text 'emperors gene repair fluid · Batch 17 · Backup'—there was a faint line connecting the clues. The starting point of that line wasn't Blackstone Village, nor Hope Star, but somewhere much earlier.

He didn't tell anyone the results of his analysis. He just took another look at the gold-red liquid floating in the transparent storage unit before locking the Intelligence Center door late at night. The color of the liquid glowed faintly in the darkness—not fluorescence, but a deeper light, like a piece of charcoal that had burned for a long time and still maintained its temperature after the oxygen was exhausted. He locked the door and left. The tube of liquid was placed in a cabinet in the deepest part of the Intelligence Center; no third person knew about it besides him and Old Tom. But it stayed there, like a heart beating heavily in the depths—waiting for the moment to be awakened.

The map of the Eastern Star Sector hanging on the wall of the Intelligence Center already had dozens more annotations than a few months ago. Every annotation was a trajectory of Blackstone Town's expansion—new outposts, new farms, new settlements. But these expansions also meant a lengthening defense radius, meaning more gaps for Chaos to cut into. Lin Mo would sometimes stare at that map for a long time, not looking at the occupied areas—but at the blank spaces that hadn't been annotated yet. Blankness isn't a no-man's land. Blankness is the unknown. And in this universe, the unknown is often not empty.

—The first line of notes written by Lin Mo after returning from the underground shelter.

Lin Mo discovered something else in the underground shelter—a corner overlooked by previous explorations, an inconspicuous metal plate. The surface of the metal plate was engraved with a series of numbers and a segment of encrypted text. He wrote down the numbers and took a photo of the encrypted text. After returning to the Intelligence Center, the mirror of the emperor helped him translate the encrypted text—

—This facility is Node No. 003 of the Human Civilization Survival Plan. Function: Gene Repair and Psychic Research. Authorization Level: Emperor Direct Line. Precautions: The extraction and use of all samples within this facility require joint authorization from the Star Whisperers Court and the Custodes.

"Emperor Direct Line." Lin Mo repeated these four words in a low voice. This meant the construction and operation of this shelter were not products of the regular Imperial bureaucratic system—it was an order directly issued by the Emperor himself, or the Emperor's innermost circle. And 'joint authorization from the Star Whisperers Court and the Custodes' meant that the number on Alice's suppression ring might not be a registration number for an ordinary Astropath—but an internal number specific to this facility.

Lin Mo returned to the underground shelter alone late at night. He didn't open the secret chamber door—he just stood in the corridor, pressing his palm against the wall. The temperature from the metal wall was slightly lower than body temperature, but not cold—it was like the warmth brought by the slight rise and fall of a sleeping person's chest while breathing. The mirror of the emperor flashed at the edge of his vision—not a prompt, but more like a resonance. He stood for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, then withdrew his hand. A faint print remained on his palm—the temperature of the metal surface had risen slightly where he had pressed it. Had he influenced the wall, or had the wall responded to him? He wasn't sure. But he was sure of one thing—this shelter was still operational, just waiting for a signal to start.

Lin Mo stayed in the underground shelter for another entire night. Not because he was reluctant to leave—but because he needed to know the full capacity of this facility. The emperors gene repair fluid was just one item. There were other sealed containers on that row of storage racks, each marked with a number and a date.

He looked through them rack by rack. Containers No. 1 through No. 16 were empty—taken away, or never filled in the first place. No. 17 was that tube of gold-red original liquid. No. 18 through No. 20 were full, but the container surfaces were covered in a thick layer of frost; he couldn't know what was inside without breaking the seal.

Then he saw container No. 21.

Unlike the other containers, container No. 21 was open. It was empty inside. But at the bottom of the container was a tiny slip of paper—if the mirror of the emperor hadn't drawn his attention to that bit of golden reflection, he would never have seen it.

He took the paper out and unfolded it under the light. There was only one line on the paper, written in the same handwriting as Batch 17:

"Sample No. 21 has been deployed. —K"

K. In the Imperial naming system, this letter was usually an abbreviation for 'Khan', 'Kurze', or 'Konor'. But the mirror of the emperor gave him a different prompt at this moment:

—K: Codename. Emperor Direct Line Project Name: Human Genetic Diversity Protection Plan. Sample No. 21: Deployed. Deployment Coordinates: Eastern Star Sector · Hope Star · Shelter No. 17.

Lin Mo's hand shook slightly. Sample No. 21 'Deployed'—this meant Alice might be the product of that sample. And 'K'—the person who wrote that note—was the one who personally deployed the sample into Alice's body.

He folded the paper carefully and put it into his inner pocket. Then he walked out of the underground shelter. The sky outside was almost light. He stood at the shelter entrance, watching the streak of gray-purple on the eastern horizon gradually brighten.

He needed to think clearly about one thing: once Alice knew her origins, what choice would she make?

[Dare not speak in a loud voice, for fear of disturbing the dwellers in the heavens.]

—Li Bai, 'Staying Overnight at a Mountain Temple'. Memory fragment from the mirror of the emperor.