13: Chapter 13 Listening to you is like drinking fine wine

Cheng Yu turned his head and gave the Rogue Trader an approving smile. "Well said."

He pulled a small packet of salt from his pocket and tossed it onto Ivankov's flatbread. "Tomorrow, you will come and teach my people how to repair the Lance Array."

The Rogue Trader Ivankov held the flatbread, nodding and bowing like a fawning dog.

Inquisitor von Drake felt a wave of nausea in his stomach and spat on the ground.

"It doesn't matter if you don't hand over the codes; I'll just dismantle your ship."

Cheng Yu knew that Inquisitors were tough, and he never intended to make the man surrender in such a short time.

According to Inquisitor von Drake's adjutant, his superior was a sanctioned psyker with high resistance to corruption from Warp.

To deal with such a damn talent, one needed the patience of a falconer.

No rush; let's play with him a while.

"The Corpse Emperor has sent me a wise man; you all should chat with him when you have nothing to do."

Cheng Yu said, feigning seriousness to his clones.

"Yes, My Lord!"

The clones also pretended to be normal biological entities.

...

Cheng Yu stood on the bridge of the "Wrath of the Emperor," his feet resting on the skeletal remains of a dismantled Imperial battleship.

The armor plates of twelve Lunar-class cruisers lay scattered in the orbit of Cheng Yu Planet like peeled orange peels, forming a graveyard of metal.

"Report the losses." His consciousness vibrated through the shared network.

"Recovery rate is 78%," a clone reported, standing before a data terminal. "Macro-cannon array integrity is 63%, plasma engine core retention is 41%, and the hangar bay—"

"I want the crew data," Cheng Yu interrupted.

The holographic projection flickered, revealing a dense cluster of green dots—3,421 Imperial Navy personnel were being held in makeshift detention cells, of which 807 were Tech-Priests.

The corners of Cheng Yu's mouth curled up; it was more than expected.

He turned and walked to the other side of the bridge, where Aria was using an Aeldari dagger to whittle a piece of starch flatbread, carving a mocking version of the Imperial Aquila into it.

Although she hated Cheng Yu, she hated the Human Empire even more.

"I need your psychic skills," Cheng Yu said.

Aria didn't even look up. "Don't even think about it; mind control is a trick of the Drukhari."

"So you're not a Drukhari?"

Cheng Yu waved his hand, and two clones brought in a crate of salted flatbreads, the salt grains sparkling like diamonds under the lights. "What about these 'tricks'?"

The Aeldari woman's pointed ears twitched slightly.

"I am a free Aeldari; I only fight for my own survival."

"The monkeys... the humans of the Corpse Emperor Empire live in poor conditions. It's not hard to turn them. I can use my psychic powers to enter their subconscious and make them recall their miserable lives and their fear of death."

"Then, if you use some gentle methods, these people will be yours."

Aria used this technique on one of Cheng Yu's clones.

Sure enough, the main body immediately felt a very faint sense of pain; Cheng Yu recalled the agony of his poor college entrance exam results in his past life.

This was the pain diluted by hundreds of millions of times, and it still had such an effect when fed back to the main body. If one were to bear it directly...

"Aria, your voice is as melodious as a lark. Every time I hear you speak, it is truly like drinking fine wine, intoxicating."

This Aria is truly delightful; it was indeed the right decision not to kill her.

"What is a lark?"

...

After Aria's painful brainwashing, the vast majority of the Imperial soldiers surrendered.

Cheng Yu did not execute the few diehards.

He locked them in the underground Hive City; a few days of hunger would make them behave.

Cheng Yu had different assignments for these newly joined Imperial soldiers.

Those familiar with combat techniques were assigned to various warbands as adjutants, responsible only for training and having no command authority.

Those with mechanical knowledge were assigned to warships to continue as Tech-Priests, but they had to be managed by the early surrenderers under the Rogue Trader.

According to the intelligence provided by these new surrenderers, Cheng Yu Planet was located in the southern part of the Tempestus Sector, belonging to the most barbaric of barbaric lands.

The Corpse Emperor Empire had limited interest in such border regions. If it weren't for the need to capture the Rogue Trader Ivankov, who had committed grave crimes, a noble like Inquisitor von Drake would never come to such a place for official business.

Inquisitor von Drake had come with two missions: investigation and pursuit. The ship was his family's private property, and the navy was recruited with his own money on his own planet.

In short, he bought the ship and hired the men; no one would investigate for a short time.

...

Since that was the case, Cheng Yu turned his attention back to Zhao Zhen Planet.

At the outpost base there, the Necron guards had already devoured and dismantled dozens of warbands.

It actually helped Cheng Yu relieve a lot of the pressure from the population explosion.

But that was it. Having dismantled the advanced weapons of the Imperial Navy, the brand-new "Flower Blooming Wealth" warship had already been equipped with orbital macro-cannons.

"Invite all our guests out to watch the ceremony; I want to blast open the shell of this iron turtle."

A group of diehards, including Drake, were invited to the viewing platform, which was actually just a makeshift scaffold.

Cheng Yu even prepared various delicious flour-based pastries for them, but no drinking water.

Most of the diehards cursed incessantly on the way, hoping to provoke Cheng Yu to seek a quick death and return their souls to the Corpse Emperor's Golden Throne.

How could Cheng Yu be so easily provoked? He just magnanimously ordered hundreds of clones to beat them up.

The only one who didn't get beaten was Inquisitor von Drake; he couldn't bear to hit this man.

In Cheng Yu's plan, this was the future "Zhou Yafu," "Han Xin," and "Li Si" of his own empire; he couldn't treasure him enough.

"Necron Dynasty, you shouldn't have provoked such a thing."

The footage from the front line was relayed with a delay by the "Auntie Sun from the Neighborhood Committee" warband.

"Oh?"

Main Body's main body swirled his red wine glass, his lips stained with the blood of a Grox steak.

"Does Inquisitor von Drake have some profound insight?"

Inquisitor von Drake immediately transformed into Xu Shu, remaining silent.

"Aria, do you have any thoughts?"

Aria was also on the viewing platform. This arrogant Aeldari still hadn't truly surrendered, only agreeing to some limited cooperation.

"I haven't seen the Necron Dynasty, so I dare not speak nonsense to deceive the Emperor."

Little girl... still daring to tease me. Cheng Yu immediately had a clone remove the delicacies in front of her.

The "Flower Blooming Wealth" fired its macro-cannons. This powerful orbital weapon immediately blew away the guards at the entrance of the Necron tomb.

The guards had clearly noticed the orbital weapon approaching.

But the clones kept distracting them, preventing them from retreating into their own sturdy fortress.