360: Chapter 362 The Truth About the Brass Incense Burner! Mortarian's Trap!

Zhang Yuan ceased speaking.

The omni-directional vector thrusters ignited at full power.

Three blue-and-white exhaust plumes tore a path of light through the toxic fog.

One hundred meters, a single breath.

The speed of the archon power armor far exceeded the Death Guard Champion's predictions.

Just as the Champion raised his plague sprayer, Zhang Yuan was already before him.

The sanctified runes on the tip of the guardian spear erupted with platinum light.

The first strike.

The spear shaft swept horizontally.

The Champion raised his corrupted shield to block.

The Nurgle inscriptions on the shield's face flared with an ink-green light.

Platinum collided with ink-green.

The shield split down the middle.

The Champion was knocked back three steps, sludge splashing beneath his feet.

Without hesitation, he discarded the shattered shield and drew the plague Chainsword from his waist.

The chain-teeth whirred.

Tiny pustules grew on every single tooth.

The Champion slashed at Zhang Yuan's neck.

Zhang Yuan sidestepped.

He flicked the butt of his spear upward, striking the Champion's right elbow joint.

The ceramite at the joint was torn apart by the frequency of the living metal.

The Champion's Chainsword went wide.

But with his left hand, he had already drawn a rusted dagger.

The tip slashed toward Zhang Yuan's ribs.

Zhang Yuan did not retreat.

He stepped forward half a pace.

The left arm of the archon power armor rose.

living metal rearranged itself on the surface of the forearm.

The dagger stabbed into the living metal.

The tip sank in less than a centimeter, swallowed by the shifting metal.

The Champion froze for an instant.

That instant was enough.

Zhang Yuan pressed the spear tip down with his right hand.

Platinum psychic power poured from the spear tip into the Champion's left shoulder.

The shoulder armor shattered.

The bloated, rotting flesh inside was burned to ash by the sanctified power.

The Champion let out a roar.

He attempted to retreat and open up distance.

Zhang Yuan did not give him that chance.

The omni-directional vector thrusters fired laterally.

He circled to the Champion's right side.

The spear shaft struck the back of the Champion's knee.

The Champion fell to one knee.

He looked up.

The eyes behind his helmet's respirator were bloodshot.

The blessing of Nurgle surged frantically within him.

The wounds were healing.

The rotting flesh was regenerating.

Zhang Yuan did not wait for it to grow back.

Psychic power surged from his consciousness.

Not an attack.

Control.

An invisible telekinetic force clamped onto the Champion's nervous system.

The Champion's body stiffened violently.

A garbled, gurgling sound emitted from his mouth.

His limbs no longer obeyed his own will.

Zhang Yuan's psychic power clamped onto the Champion's nervous system like an invisible giant hand.

The Champion's body stiffened, but for only an instant, the blessing of Nurgle inside him surged back like boiling pus.

"The gift of Father Nurgle... is not something you can shake!" The Champion's will roared on the psychic plane.

His muscle fibers twisted beneath the rotting flesh, attempting to break free from the restraints.

Zhang Yuan's gaze turned cold, and he increased the psychic output.

"Then I will crush your Father Nurgle along with you."

The invisible pressure suddenly intensified, and the Champion's resistance, like an insect crushed under a boulder, shattered inch by inch.

His limbs completely lost control, stiffening like stone.

Zhang Yuan did not waste a second.

The guardian spear flipped.

The first strike.

Severed the Champion's right arm.

Corrupt blood sprayed out.

The second strike.

Sliced through the Champion's left elbow joint.

The entire arm, along with the Chainsword, fell to the ground.

The third strike.

The spear tip sliced below the Champion's left knee.

The lower leg separated from the body.

The fourth strike.

The right leg.

The Champion fell like a withered tree trunk being hewn down.

His torso slammed into the sludge.

His limbs lay scattered around.

Zhang Yuan stood before him, breathing heavily.

Not from physical exertion, but because his gaze was locked onto the brass censer at the Champion's waist.

It was right there.

The bronze surface was licked by ink-green flames.

A tiny, extremely faint light emerged from the small hole at the top of the censer.

The light was very weak.

Like a star on the verge of extinction.

Zhang Yuan crouched down.

His fingers touched the brass censer.

The brass surface was icy.

That cold was not the cold of metal.

It was a chill seeping from the depths of the Warp, corroding the soul.

He unhooked the censer from the Champion's waist and held it in both hands.

The sound of his heartbeat was amplified inside his helmet.

The sound of artillery fire in his ears grew distant.

"Ilaria. I am here."

The Champion beneath his feet suddenly made a sound.

Not a scream.

A laugh.

The laughter squeezed out from his severed throat.

Hoarse, viscous, with a bubbling, watery sound.

"You... have obtained it."

The Champion's head lolled to one side, the murky eyeball within the crack of his helmet staring feverishly at the brass censer in Zhang Yuan's hands.

"A great... gift... Father Nurgle's generosity... all prepared for you..."

"Quickly... open it... welcome... that sweet despair..."

Zhang Yuan glanced down at him.

A loser.

He paid him no mind.

He backhanded the guardian spear downward.

The spear tip pierced through the top of the helmet, penetrating the skull.

The Champion's laughter stopped abruptly.

The body twitched twice.

The green light of Nurgle's blessing dissipated from within him.

A corrupted soul was dragged back to the Warp.

"Go and reunite with your Father Nurgle."

Zhang Yuan straightened his body, holding the brass censer in both hands.

Ty Adronetus walked to his side.

The golden-armored Custodian did not speak, but the orientation of his aegis shield adjusted slightly, blocking any stray shots that might fly in from afar.

Kallista stood on the other side, spear held upright.

An anti-psyker field shrouded the surrounding ten meters.

Titus and Valorian stood guard on the perimeter.

The Deathwatch Squad repelled several Plague Mariness attempting to approach.

A brief window of safety.

Zhang Yuan took a deep breath.

His fingers hooked onto the lid of the brass censer.

He could perceive the glimmer of that soul inside.

Very weak.

Very small.

But still alive.

He twisted the lid.

The brass emitted a harsh, grating sound.

Ink-green flames darted out from the gap, repelled by the sanctified runes.

The lid opened.

A cluster of pure white light floated out from the brass censer.

It was a soul.

The corners of Zhang Yuan's mouth had just begun to lift.

Then, they froze.

That white light was not Ilaria.

Not a woman's form.

Not silver hair.

Not ice-blue eyes.

It was an old man.

Gaunt.

Hunchbacked.

The features were blurred, but the outline was clear.

The old man's soul hovered above the brass censer.

He looked at Zhang Yuan.

There was no hatred in that gaze.

Only helplessness.

And a weariness of one who had long since accepted his fate.

The old man opened his mouth.

No sound.

A soul cannot speak in the material realm.

But Zhang Yuan understood the movement of his lips.

"Run."

Zhang Yuan's pupils contracted sharply.

Deep within the old man's soul, the pure white light began to be eroded by ink-green.

That erosion was not a slow infiltration.

It was an instantaneous detonation.

The power of Nurgle had long been buried within this soul.

The soul was merely a container.

The brass censer was merely the fuse.

The brass censer in Zhang Yuan's hands was not a cage.

It was a bomb.

"Scatter—!" Zhang Yuan roared.

The omni-directional vector thrusters ignited.

His body ejected backward.

Ty Adronetus's reaction was only half a beat slower.

The aegis shield blocked in front of Zhang Yuan.

Kallista's anti-psyker field pressed with full force toward the direction of the brass censer.

It was too late.

The old man's soul shattered.

Ink-green light erupted from the fragments.

An explosion.

Not an explosion in the physical sense.

It was a deluge of Warp power.

Corrupting psychic energy spread from the center of the brass censer like a tsunami.

The shockwave slammed into Ty Adronetus's shield.

The golden runes on the surface of the aegis shield instantly dimmed.

The Custodian was pushed back five meters.

Cracks appeared on the edge of the shield.

Kallista's anti-psyker field forcibly shaved off half the impact.

But the remaining half was still vicious enough.

Zhang Yuan was overturned by the air wave.

The archon power armor flipped twice in the air.

The living metal struggled desperately to reorganize.

The sanctified runes operated at full capacity.

Platinum light and ink-green toxic flames tore at the surface of his body.

He slammed into the scorched earth.

A gash opened in his back armor.

The taste of blood welled up in his mouth.

It was not just a physical impact.

That wave of corrupting psychic energy carried some kind of message.

It pierced into his perception like a needle.

It was the voice of Mortarion.

Not transmitted physically.

It was poured directly into his soul.

"Every step you have taken has left clear footprints in my brother's garden." The voice was very soft, yet carried the bone-chilling cold of the winds of Barbarus.

"I did not even design any elaborate traps."

"I simply placed something you desire on the path you were bound to come."

"Your so-called determination, your so-called love, are nothing more than the strings of a more useful marionette."

"Look at you, for the sake of a false hope, you left your back exposed to my brother."

Zhang Yuan knelt on the scorched earth.

The system inside his helmet flashed red warnings.

Psychic overload.

Warp contamination index rising.

The sanctified runes were clearing the intrusion.

He gritted his teeth.

Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, automatically wiped away by the helmet's internal system.

Fulgrim's voice came through the channel.

"Zhang Yuan!"

"Your vital signs—"

"I am fine." Zhang Yuan interrupted him.

He stood up, bracing himself with the guardian spear.

His legs were shaking.

Not because of the injury.

Because of anger.

And fear.

Ilaria was not in the brass censer.

She never was from the start.

That Champion was bait.

The brass censer was a trap.

A soul bomb.

Mortarion was fishing for him using her whereabouts.

And he had succeeded.

Zhang Yuan had been fished away from Roboute Guilliman.

Fished into the depths of the toxic fog.

And had taken a soul-level blast.

He looked up.

He looked toward the center of the battlefield three hundred meters away.

Roboute Guilliman was locked in combat with the Septimus.

Golden flames and ink-green toxic flames intertwined.

Roboute Guilliman had the upper hand.

The Septimus was retreating.

Zhang Yuan's heart sank.

No.

The Septimus should not retreat so easily.

It came specifically to stall Roboute Guilliman.

To expose Roboute Guilliman's vulnerability.

And that explosion just now—could it have distracted Roboute Guilliman?

Fulgrim's voice confirmed his judgment.

"Roboute Guilliman turned his head to look in your direction when the explosion happened."

"Half a second."

Zhang Yuan's blood ran cold.

Half a second.

In a duel between a Primarch and a Greater Daemon, half a second is everything.