120: Chapter 120 Assassination of the King

After a long journey, thousands of Cheng Yu's Clones arrived at Nurgle's Garden. The environment here was absolutely not suitable for normal living beings, but fortunately, they had prepared special hazmat suits in advance, and Nurgle had also thoughtfully relaxed the corrupting effects of the garden's exuberant vitality upon them.

In Nurgle's Garden, where flowers bloomed and colors churned, foul-smelling warm mist wrapped around spores, slowly settling into the sticky air.

Half-melted lumps of flesh in the mud swelled like mounds, with colorful maggots churning within them. Twisted vines hung down with flower calyxes dripping pus, and giant flies buzzed with the beating of their wings.

Rot and rebirth intertwined crazily here. Every breath, even after being filtered multiple times by their gas masks, still felt like swallowing a mouthful of cloying, rotting liquid.

"Praise the Lord of Life and Prosperity." Thousands of Cheng Yu's Clones chanted in unison.

"My children, enter the gate of prosperity from me, step onto the stairs of eternal life from me, and begin to comprehend the true meaning of life from me."

The Old God Nurgle did not make a sound, but every one of Cheng Yu's Clones heard this message in their minds.

They... began to truly mutate.

...

In the Hive City's technology research institute, the shared neural network was also analyzing the information regarding Nurgle's Garden.

Even though the agents of the Cheng Yu Empire were far away in the real universe, after directly facing this soul-reaching audio, mushrooms began to grow on their heads. Some grew Termitomyces, some grew Lanmaoa asiatica, and a few particularly clever clones even grew Lingzhi mushrooms on their heads.

These were all money, so the clones scrambled to stuff the mushrooms growing on their heads into their backpacks.

Meanwhile, in the imperial palace, Main Body also heard this sound. Of course, after being diluted and filtered by the mental capacity of his massive number of clones, it was already quite weak by the time it reached him.

However, a lump of Tai Sui still grew on top of his head. Main Body carefully plucked the Tai Sui, had it placed in purified water to be well-tended, and planned to use it as a reward or state gift once more grew.

At that moment, Main Body was lecturing the new candidates for the imperial examination. Fortunately, as everyone was seeing the emperor for the first time, they were all kneeling to listen to the lecture, so few people saw the strange sight of the Tai Sui growing on the emperor's head.

This imperial examination did select some excellent economic talents who advocated for investing the massive funds in the Hive City Bank into infrastructure construction and establishing state-owned enterprises. This coincided with Main Body's own thoughts. The so-called "being favored by the Emperor" does not mean the Emperor likes you as a person; it means what you do aligns with the Emperor's will.

Using a large amount of funds for the economic construction of newly conquered planets could not only consume the massive amount of funds accumulated in the Hive City Bank and create a large number of jobs in a short period but also alleviate the increasingly large population pressure of the imperial capital.

Speaking of which, among the candidates this time, there was a candidate named "Alex." He had managed to make it to the palace examination, and as long as he wrote something decent on the exam paper, he would have earned a rank, but he actually handed in a blank sheet.

Handing in a blank sheet at the palace examination could be considered being overly nervous and lacking decorum before the throne at best, or, at worst, an act of contempt for imperial power and a provocation against the sovereign.

However, Main Body was in a good mood today, so he did not choose to have the person dragged out. Instead, he ordered him to be brought closer, intending to ask him about the situation in a friendly manner to project an image to the world of valuing scholarly talent.

"You, scholar, I pity the hardship of your studies and cannot bear to strip you of your scholarly status. I assume this is your first time seeing the Emperor, and you are just trembling with fear, is that not so?"

The candidate was trembling as he lay on the ground, "This subject is guilty. Please, Your Majesty, forgive me, and please give me a chance to be interviewed."

"Impudence! His Majesty values literary talent; how could he interview a nobody like you?" A palace censor immediately rebuked him.

"No matter, no matter," Main Body waved his hand. "My minister, how can you know that a nobody of today will not become famous throughout the world in the future?"

"Come, come, come, come forward." Main Body lay half-reclined on the Throne of Thorns in a relaxed posture. "Then let me ask you, how well have you studied my 'Book of Sacred Words'?"

Main Body had been adding the classics from his past life that he could recall into the "Imperial Truth." However, as his shared neural network grew stronger and he could recall more and more, the content within the "Imperial Truth" began to become uneven in quality, and the sheer volume was too large, making it no longer suitable as a textbook.

Therefore, he ordered Grand Scholar Cassius to select the essence beneficial to imperial rule from the "Imperial Truth" and compile it into the more refined "Book of Sacred Words." If you were not an official, this book had nothing to do with you, but if you were an official, you had to study it.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, this subject is most proficient in the 'Book of Sacred Words'."

Just at this moment, the attendant clone serving by his side suddenly felt a faint, almost imperceptible killing intent. Although extremely subtle, it was sharp enough to cut a hair.

"Your Majesty, be careful!" This sentence was not shouted out but was a warning sent directly to the main body through the shared neural network.

Main Body's modified hands moved much faster than his brain could process. Before the candidate named Alex could fire the hidden weapon in his mouth, he had already been slapped to the ground by Main Body's mechanical hand.

"Who ordered you to kill me?"

"You tyrant, everyone has the right to kill you."

The assassin Alex had a ferocious expression, clearly about to crush the poison sac under his teeth to commit suicide.

"I did not give you permission to die."

Main Body stared deeply at the other party, and Alex lost all consciousness of resistance.

This was an ability that naturally emerged after the shared consciousness became strong enough. The main body could instantly draw upon a small portion of the mental power of all the clones and then use this overwhelming power to manipulate other living beings, whether by directly using a mental shock to turn them into idiots or by hypnotizing them to do certain things.

However, Main Body rarely used this ability, always feeling that it was a bit indecent.