174: Ultimate unit rush! 90% commission, summon Protoss!

Zhang Yuan tossed the datapad in his hand to Rory Swann beside him.

"Swann."

"Boss! I'm here!" Swann's cycloptic image flickered in the communicator. He snatched the datapad, and the probe on his mechanical arm eagerly extended towards the data port.

Zhang Yuan ignored his engineer's fanaticism, his gaze sweeping over the eight punisher Terminators standing like war gods, then glancing at the ancient model of the Leman Russ Tank on the datapad.

"These designs are too old. Integrate the main gun data of the Leman Russ with our siege tank chassis designs."

"I want to put our own, wilder heart into the Imperial iron shell!"

"Integrate?" Swann's image paused, then his single eye burst with terrifying light. "Haha! I like this! A big, crude iron shell with our baby? I'll take this job! Give me half a day, boss, and I'll whip up a brand new monster for you!"

The communication cut off.

Zhang Yuan turned to a shocked Calgar, who was still immersed in his declaration of "half a month."

"Chapter Master, my engineers need absolute quiet."

Calgar snapped out of his shock. He glanced at the mountain of resources, then at Zhang Yuan, and finally just nodded heavily.

He turned and strode away with his Honor Guard. He had to report this groundbreaking development to the Primarch immediately.

Zhang Yuan watched Calgar's Thunderhawk Gunship ascend, then turned and walked towards his Command Center.

He didn't watch how Swann mobilized the SCVs to frantically build new production lines, nor did he pay attention to the resource numbers frantically jumping on the system interface after being devoured by the Conversion Matrix.

All of that was just a show for outsiders.

The real feast was just beginning.

"Horner, the factory's production sequence is entirely Swann's responsibility," Zhang Yuan ordered the holographic image in front of him, sitting back in the command chair.

"Understood, supreme commander."

"Authorize him to use ten percent of the warehouse resources."

Horner's image didn't move, just watched him silently.

Zhang Yuan knew what he was waiting for.

"The remaining ninety percent, convert it all. I need to see the numbers."

"Yes, supreme commander."

Horner's image disappeared.

The roar of the Conversion Matrix at the bottom of the Command Center suddenly increased by several levels. The mountain-like alloys and lake-like fuels moved from the Ultramarines' ten-thousand-year armory were disappearing at a terrifying speed into the Conversion Matrix's eerie blue glow.

Zhang Yuan looked at the system interface.

[Vespene Gas: 11,589,400]

[high-energy gas: 7,876,500]

What Calgar sent was not just resources.

This was clearly a key, a key to unlock a new era!

He naturally had to charge a "commission fee" for producing equipment for the Ultramarines.

One-tenth of the materials were used to fulfill orders; the remaining ninety percent were fuel for his system!

With this immense wealth, what he wanted to do was far more than just be an arms dealer.

He stood up and walked out of the bustling Command Center alone.

A jet-black Banshee fighter silently glided out of a hidden hangar and hovered before him.

The cockpit canopy opened, and Zhang Yuan leaped in.

The fighter's engines spewed blue afterburners, instantly accelerating and disappearing into the sky.

Dozens of minutes later.

Deep in a canyon on a remote satellite of Macragge.

It was desolate here, with only rugged strange rocks and the eternal sound of wind.

The Banshee fighter landed smoothly.

Zhang Yuan stepped out of the cockpit and stood in the center of the canyon.

He took a deep breath and opened the system interface. This time, he didn't click on the Terran tech tree.

It was an icon shrouded in gray mist, filled with mystery and nobility—Protoss.

Now, he had enough resources to light it up.

[Protoss Tech Tree unlock conditions met.]

[Warning: Unlocking the Protoss Tech Tree will consume a massive amount of resources and may trigger unpredictable psychic events. Please choose carefully.]

Zhang Yuan didn't hesitate for a moment.

He knew very well that Terran technology was his foundation, the best disguise when facing the Imperium.

But the Protoss, with their ultimate psionics and technology, were his true trump card for contending with those cosmic evil gods and this dark galaxy in the future.

He needed a guide.

A legend who could help him wield this nascent power, who could guide his future Protoss forces.

He skipped the regular unlock options and tapped his finger on the "Hero Unit" summon list.

Among countless gray avatars, he found the name he needed.

[Dark Templar]

[Hero Unit: Zeratul]

[Summon Requirement: Vespene Gas 50000 high-energy gas 30000]

In the past, this would have been an astronomical sum, enough to empty his entire fortune.

But now it was merely a drop in the ocean, and Zhang Yuan knew it was all worth it.

"Summon."

He issued the command with his consciousness.

The resource numbers on the system interface poured down like a waterfall.

The light in the entire canyon seemed to be sucked away at this moment.

Not mere darkness, but a deeper, more profound void, as if it could swallow light itself.

A distorted shadow quietly materialized before Zhang Yuan.

No thunder, no explosion.

It simply appeared from nothing, as if it had always been there, only now choosing to reveal itself.

The shadow coalesced into a tall, elegant, and agile figure.

He wore ancient Khalai warrior armor, yet was wreathed in dark energy. His face was obscured by a mask and cloth, revealing only a pair of eyes burning with green psionic light. A curved psionic blade silently extended from his wrist, emitting a deadly glow.

Zeratul.

This legendary Dark Templar had traversed time and space to arrive here.

The moment Zeratul fully solidified.

Zhang Yuan felt an unprecedented change.

A connection from the depths of his soul was quietly established.

It wasn't the Khala, the psionic network covering everyone, but a more private, deeper resonance, reaching the very origin.

As if a missing puzzle piece had finally found its lost other half.

Completeness.

Boom!

An uncontrollable surge of vast psionic energy erupted from within Zhang Yuan!

His body slowly rose uncontrollably, his feet leaving the ground, suspended in mid-air.

He opened his eyes.

The world before him vanished.

Once again, he saw the black sun hanging in the endless darkness.

That sun was the Emperor's essential projection in the Warp.

It was clearer than last time, and more... furious.

At the same time, from four directions, four gazes filled with greed, malice, desire, and despair instantly locked onto him!

Khorne's fury, Tzeentch's schemes, Nurgle's decay, Slaanesh's greed.

They surged towards him like four sharks smelling blood.

The black sun erupted with endless light and fire, trying to envelop and protect him.

But this time, Zhang Yuan's inner psychic energy was too vast, too turbulent.

The violent conflict of the two powers made him feel a pain as if his soul was about to be torn apart.

"Ah—!"

A shriek, not of human origin, burst involuntarily from Zhang Yuan's mouth!

That was not a sound.

It was a pure, condensed-to-the-extreme psionic energy, a violent release in the real universe!

An invisible shockwave, centered on Zhang Yuan, exploded outwards!

This shockwave ignored matter, ignored distance; what it swept away was the boundary between reality and the Warp.

Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, stirring up monstrous waves.

At the edge of the Macragge system, in the Warp lane that had become chaotic and violent due to the Great Rift.

Countless Imperial ships struggling and praying in the storm suddenly felt a strange "calm."

The Warp storm, which had been tearing at the hulls and eroding the Geller Field, was instantly smoothed out as if by an invisible hand!

A stable, safe passage briefly appeared for an instant.

"Navigator! What's going on?"

On the bridge of a Mars Ark Mechanicus exploration vessel, the Captain roared at the Navigator's tower.

"A... a passage! By the Emperor! A stable passage has appeared!" The Navigator's mutated third eye almost burst from seeing this miracle.

"All fleet! Maximum power! Charge through!"

At the same time.

Countless pilgrim fleets, rushing from all over the Imperium due to Guilliman's revival but trapped in the Warp storm.

Countless merchant ships, driven to desperation by Chaos pirate pursuit, on the verge of destruction.

Countless ancient fleets, lost for decades, even centuries.

At this moment, all saw that coveted golden passage leading to the real universe!

Thousands of ships, like a bursting dam, surged out of the Warp.

Macragge's system defense platforms were instantly swamped with a blizzard of alerts.

"Detecting large-scale Warp jump signals!"

"Quantity... uncountable! My heavens! The entire sector is lit up!"

"They're all coming from the same exit! In Sector G-34!"

Macragge's entire defense system was in utter chaos.

And Zhang Yuan, the instigator of all this, slowly descended from the air.

He gasped violently, his entire body soaked with sweat.

When he opened his eyes again, his whole body froze.

The canyon before him... was gone.

In its place was a huge, mirror-smooth circular basin, over several kilometers in diameter.

The mountains, the rocks, the Banshee fighter he used to land... everything was completely erased at a molecular level by that psionic shriek.

Only he and Zeratul in front of him stood unharmed in the center of the basin.

Zeratul's eyes, burning with green psionic energy, quietly watched him, as if scrutinizing a newly born god.

Just then.

A piercing roar came from the sky.

Several Thunderhawk Gunships, emblazoned with Ultramarines insignia, were flying rapidly towards this anomalous energy source.

"My presence will bring you unnecessary trouble," Zeratul's hoarse yet magnetic voice echoed directly in Zhang Yuan's mind.

Before he finished speaking, his figure began to turn transparent, like a shadow merging with the air, instantly disappearing.

Zhang Yuan looked up.

Several Thunderhawk Gunships were hovering above his head, their powerful searchlights firmly locking onto him.

The hatches opened, and hulking figures in blue power armor descended from the sky.

Leading them was none other than the Ultramarines Chapter Master, Marius Calgar.

He landed in front of Zhang Yuan, his massive power boots making no sound on the mirror-smooth ground. He surveyed the vast, unreal basin, feeling the lingering, unsettling psychic ripples in the air, and finally, his gaze, like a hawk's, locked onto the unharmed mortal in the center of the basin.

Calgar's rock-hewn face, for the first time, showed no expression, for no expression could describe his current feelings.

He closed his helmet's external comms channel, leaving only the private line with Zhang Yuan, his voice low and firm, as if trying to suppress something.

"Governor, I need an explanation."

He didn't ask "what happened," but directly demanded an "explanation." The difference of a single word represented a world of difference in attitude. This was not curiosity, but an interrogation.

"This energy... did you do this?"