Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 649

Chapter 647, Ten Years of Wandering

. Su Lie could actually sense Gu Hang’s “reality.”

His presence didn’t seem like an illusion. Although he possessed powerful psychic reflexes, he was nothing like a demon, nor did he seem like a demon in disguise.

Previous illusions created by “Him,” or demons that had assumed various forms at His command, were nothing like the Gu Hang he now saw.

Furthermore, the psychic power Gu Hang wielded was violent and ferocious, but it lacked the irritating, nauseating, and inexplicably longing feeling of a Warp demon. Instead, it possessed a sense of cleansing evil.

This all sounded like a legitimate psychic, consistent with the rumored Gu Hang.

But despite all this, he couldn’t believe it.

Rather than believing that Gu Hang, a figure from countless galaxies away and a distant entity, could appear to save him, it was better to believe it was just a new tactic devised by the enemy. All his real feelings were simply a further advancement in their deception techniques.

However, after testing the quality of the weapon himself, his thoughts shifted.

Gu Hang displayed immense strength.

Their recent clash, though brief, had been fierce. Su Lie considered himself to have used all his strength, yet still failed to inflict any damage on Gu Hang. Gu Hang looked a bit discomfited, but Su Lie could sense that he had initially underestimated his opponent.

If both sides engaged in serious combat… Su Lie felt he had a chance of victory, but it wasn’t very strong.

This proved that the person before him was indeed the legendary Gu Hang, a formidable psychic.

While it wasn’t impossible to rule out the possibility that this was a powerful demon disguised as such, on closer inspection, that seemed unlikely.

In a high-intensity battle, it was difficult to maintain a facade. Just like Gu Hang, who initially attempted to control him with force field psychic power, but once he realized his underestimation, the intensity of the situation mounted and he had to unleash his true strength: his raging thunderbolts.

It was a common sense.

Even a great demon, Su Lie doubted it could maintain its disguise under his pressure and not reveal its true abilities.

Various angles, objective facts, were used to convince Su Lie.

But ten years of repeated inducements and deceptions had taught him not to trust blindly.

To trust wrongly, in this warp, would be irreparable.

Yet, they had indeed reached a point of near-death.

After ten years of navigating the warp, the engines, long inactive, had begun to malfunction, and the Geller field was gradually losing its

effectiveness. These were normal conditions, but the more troubling aspect was that ten thousand years had passed since the era of direct use of the warp for space travel. While the ship did retain the maintenance techniques for these devices, the operators had changed over hundreds of generations, and no one currently alive had actually operated or maintained these ancient devices.

Everything was learned from scratch, from ancient technical documentation.

Learning, of course, comes with a price.

While the maintenance personnel and Adeptus Mechanicus monks were becoming increasingly proficient, the process of mastery inevitably came at a price. Under the current circumstances, these losses are irreparable; they can’t find space in the Warp to perform thorough repairs.

The problem isn’t limited to the ship’s equipment; the greater issue lies in navigation.

The Astronomican on Holy Terra still burns brightly and can be observed in the Warp. However, using the Astronomican to navigate the Warp requires extremely demanding skills, and after ten thousand years, this profession has disappeared.

The Chapter’s Librarians, as well as the ship’s astropaths and psykers, have been drafted into this task.

It’s a forced task, but there’s no other way.

For the past decade, they’ve diligently sought a path back to the real universe, but nearly every attempt has failed. Often, those paths not only fail to bring the Phoenix Crest back to reality, but instead lead them deeper into the Warp.

Although there’s no evidence, Su Lie suspects that this isn’t just the navigators’ incompetence, but also the result of malicious intent deliberately misleading their psykers.

But even then, what can be done?

Every time the think tank or psychic claimed they’d found a plausible path, Su Lie, no matter how skeptical he was, no matter how many times he’d scrutinized it. Ultimately, as long as he could be sure the psychic proposing the plan hadn’t been seduced or corrupted, he’d most likely follow the proposed route.

But who could guarantee that the investigation would reveal corruption? Even if there wasn’t corruption, who could say the psychic hadn’t been deceived? Even if there wasn’t corruption or deception, who could be sure the navigator hadn’t made a mistake?

The multiple risks involved were truly devastating.

Although Su Lie maintained his unwavering faith, and he continued to ensure the same unwavering faith among the over a hundred surviving Phoenix warriors, the mortals aboard the ship couldn’t rely solely on encouragement. Amidst the occasional whispers and the frequent, terrifying, and paranormal events, the mortal crew inevitably began to crumble.

The ship’s problems, the navigational issues, the morale issues… all weighed heavily on Su Lie’s mind.

He knew that no matter how resolute he might have been, objectively they could no longer hold out, heading for inevitable destruction.

He had even prepared for the worst: at the last moment, he would slaughter every defeated soul on board, every demon that had invaded. He would take his chapter’s most steadfast warriors and remain with his ship for eternity, until they, too, were deprived of supplies and reinforcements and succumbed to the endless siege of the enemy. That would mean his duty to the Emperor was complete.

But then, Gu Hang appeared.

He could now confidently believe it wasn’t a deception, an illusion.

Was that… a turning point?

Despite preparing for the worst, being able to lead the chapter out was certainly preferable.

Though his face remained wary, his heart was already pounding.

…

Across from him, Gu Hang, seeing that the Phoenix Lord had finally stopped his unreasonable attack with his sword, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He quickly explained the situation.

Gu Hang didn’t mention how he had found the Phoenix Crest Feather. The system definitely couldn’t tell, but if it didn’t mention it, it would be a lie. Gu Hang felt that lying was definitely a very bad option under the current circumstances.

He would rather be honest and say that this matter couldn’t be discussed.

The key point from then on was how Gu Hang planned to help Su Lie.

Simply put, Gu Hang could give Phoenix Crown Feathers navigation coordinates within the Warp—actually, his Storm Kingdom.

Once they reached the Storm Kingdom, Gu Hang could tear through the Warp and lead them out.

It sounded simple, and actually… it was quite simple.

The prerequisite is that Su Lie believes it.

Sure enough, after Gu Hang finished speaking, Su Lie remained silent, his eyes fixed on him.

Being looked at like that made Gu Hang feel rather uncomfortable.

He realized that, from their meeting, their duel, and their subsequent conversation, he had been the only one speaking, while Su Lie remained silent, making one wonder if he was mute.

Having reached this point, Gu Hang was speechless.

He too fell silent, staring at Su Lie.

After a long moment, Su Lie finally spoke: “I’ll have my men try.”

“What?” Gu Hang was stunned.

But he quickly reacted: “That’s great. As soon as possible. I hope you can still make it to the final battle.”

At this point, Gu Hang also briefed Su Lie on the current state of the Iron Armor War, complaining about his successor and the reckless behavior of the commander-in-chief on the northern front. Su

Lie listened attentively, but offered no comment.

He rarely commented on things he didn’t thoroughly understand.

…

After returning to the real universe, Gu Hang was generally in a good mood.

Although there was a fight with no winner, he didn’t go to fight, but to rescue people.

Even if he couldn’t get Phoenix into his own hands, it was at least a friendly force. Gu Hang didn’t think much of more than a hundred Space Marines, even if they were elites of the founding regiment. No matter how good they were at fighting, could they all be company champions? Even the founding regiment couldn’t do it.

However, this Glorious Queen battleship was so tempting. It’s boring to fight alone, but if there is an entire escort fleet protecting it, it’s not an exaggeration to say that a Glorious Queen can defeat ten battleships.

Gu Hang didn’t quite understand how Phoenix, which had a Glorious Queen, lost the war with Iron Armor. He wanted to ask, but unfortunately the atmosphere of the previous meeting was not suitable. Su Lie didn’t fully trust him yet, so he couldn’t ask.

It doesn’t matter, there will be plenty of opportunities to find out later.

Even if the Glorious Queen couldn’t be acquired, being able to temporarily utilize it during the war would be a valuable asset.

However, Chapter Captain Su Lie seemed hesitant.

Before leaving, Gu Hang met with the Phoenix Librarians and left a navigational mark. The Storm Kingdom, of course, has little presence in the Warp, unable to serve the same navigational purpose as the Astronomican, the Warp-projected image of the Emperor’s Golden Throne on Holy Terra. While the specialized navigational route Gu Hang left behind, as the Lord of the Kingdom, couldn’t be used on a large scale, it could provide a reliable approach route for a single ship.

By correcting the navigational path, the Phoenix Crown could reach the Storm Kingdom. With Gu Hang’s psychic guidance, as long as their navigators remained steadfast in their direction, they would undoubtedly remain on track.

However, two questions remained.

First, were they truly willing to persevere?

So far, they had shown no sign of following the directions Gu Hang had left behind.

If they refused to follow Gu Hang’s route, refusing to believe it even at death… then so be it.

All that could be said was that the situation wasn’t critical enough yet, that they could still hold on, and that they still had options. When they were truly cornered, they would have to leave even if they didn’t want to. Gu Hang

wasn’t in a hurry ,

anyway. There was another issue that concerned him more .

It was the one who had set his sights on Su Lie and the Phoenix.

At first, Gu Hang had thought it was just some ordinary Warp demon, or a lesser god. He

wasn’t worried about an enemy of that magnitude.

However, once he truly felt those vague eyes watching him, he changed his mind.

This was no ordinary being.

It gave Gu Hang the feeling of being on the same level as that ‘kind father’!

It was one of the four greatest, most unspeakable evil gods in the Warp!

He was still far away, and while he coveted the Phoenix Crown and Chapter Master Su Lie, they were all, after all, the Emperor’s possessions, shielded by His might.

The lustful prince couldn’t directly seize it, fearing trouble. He wouldn’t even pay close attention, merely tapping at the edges.

However, he feared the Divine Emperor, but clearly didn’t fear Gu Hang.

If Gu Hang simply brought the Phoenix Crown Feather near his Storm Kingdom, wouldn’t that attract the lustful prince’s attention as well?

His kingdom couldn’t withstand the gaze of a truly great evil god!

To be honest, he’d experienced this once before. It was when he slew and devoured the Great Unclean One, Gowaga, that he’d caught the eye of the benevolent father.

Gu Hang had to thank the Emperor. Back then, it must have been the Emperor who shielded his kingdom from the benevolent father. Otherwise, Gu Hang wouldn’t have been able to progress so comfortably. His Storm Tribulation would have faced an endless onslaught of plague demons.

And this time, if he thoughtlessly brought the phoenix near, allowing beings of his own caliber to see it, Gu Hang’s Storm Kingdom would likely be swarmed by lustful demons.

Gu Hang had to think of a way to prevent this from happening.

What could he do?

He did have some ways to cover his tracks, but they only worked for himself. He couldn’t guarantee that he could hide an entire ship under the subtle attention of Prince Lust.

To do this, he still had to rely on the great Divine Emperor.

Gu Hang couldn’t contact the Divine Emperor directly.

But he had two indirect methods that he could try one by one.

(End of this chapter)