109: Chapter 109 The greatest pleasure of being an emperor is reviewing memorials.

After settling Vera Istvan's affairs, Cheng Yu returned to his daily work.

He did most of his work at night; during the day, he had to meet ministers and attend events, which made it hard to focus.

Although Main Body had delegated the power to draft and approve memorials, he wasn't foolish enough to relinquish the final approval authority.

Even if he were to be deceived, he wanted to be the one to be deceived directly; he could never allow himself to be deceived without knowing about it.

With the continuous expansion of the empire's territory, all sorts of troublesome matters kept increasing.

In the past, when he only occupied a few planets, he could remain a mere spectator to many events in the Tempestus Sector.

That was no longer the case. The Corpse Emperor Empire, the Aeldari, and Chaos gangs—these local warlords who wielded guns as authority—used to be out of sight and out of mind; now, they were actually bringing the flames of war to the empire's borders, and he could no longer turn a blind eye.

Main Body authorized several border pacification operations, and then proceeded to handle secret reports submitted by intelligence agents.

Domestic intelligence reports were handled and followed up by dedicated personnel; what required Main Body's personal attention were conspiracies against the empire from the Corpse Emperor Empire or even more sinister entities.

In the past, these were mostly assassinations by the Assassins Court or decapitation strikes by elite Astartes, but these were not considered terrifying.

The terrain of Cheng Yu Planet was simply too complex; in addition to the towering Hive Cities, there were bunkers, hidden fortresses, secret passages, minefields, and poison gas traps scattered across the endless, desolate plains.

It wasn't that Cheng Yu's clones were more experienced in deployment or tactical literacy than these battle-hardened veterans of the Corpse Emperor Empire.

It was two words: stacking.

One day, a Chapter Master clone of Cheng Yu would have a sudden whim to set up a bunker cluster here and stuff five hundred thousand people inside.

The next day, another garrison general would have a brainwave, thinking that mere frontal fire wasn't enough and wondering if they should arrange another thousand sniper points here.

The day after that...

If not for the special permissions Main Body granted the military commanders within their shared consciousness, the various garrison troops in the imperial capital would likely have started fighting each other over digging up each other's fiber optic cables while idle, let alone dealing with foreign special forces.

Outsiders often couldn't even enter the Hive City districts before being worn down and killed on the periphery.

Coupled with the fact that the Cheng Yu Empire allowed the use of artificial intelligence, they were two orders of magnitude ahead of the enemy in terms of rapid response and material mobilization efficiency.

Therefore, in the last two years, such stupid and direct decapitation operations had become rare; instead, there was more dispatching of intelligence agents to cause sabotage.

Robbing a Hive City Bank branch one day, blowing up a biogas tank the next—they wanted to slowly drag down the Cheng Yu Empire through such frequent economic losses and social panic.

Little did they know, this just gave those evil clones an opportunity to balance the books or even loot during the chaos.

Every time a Hive City Bank branch was robbed, the Security Forces didn't end up fighting these Corpse Emperor lackeys, but rather a group of Underhive clone bandit gangs who often cooperated with the Hive City Bank staff to resist the advance of the Security Forces.

"Hmm?"

Today, Main Body actually saw an interesting piece of intelligence.

Kaelus, the Rogue Trader who had secretly defected to the empire during the "Odyssey" space station reclamation battle, had arrived at Holy Terra. By taking advantage of opportunities to expand business channels and build connections, he had made contact with some high-level figures and even befriended a High Lord.

This High Lord indicated that the Corpse Emperor Empire intended to pacify and co-opt Cheng Yu's forces at the High Lords' Council, but there was a disagreement on how to do so.

Some High Lords believed that the dark side of the galaxy had effectively broken away from the jurisdiction of Holy Terra, and since the dark side of the Tempestus Sector was already under the control of Cheng Yu, if Cheng Yu wanted to be a local warlord, let him be. Let him fight the Dark Crusade; either way, whoever died was a gain for them.

However, other High Lords believed that Cheng Yu was ambitious and harbored ulterior motives, daring to wage war on all sides and swallow up territory without the authorization of the Corpse Emperor Empire. Once the Corpse Emperor Empire appeased him, wouldn't he become even more powerful and unscrupulous? At that point, the threat he posed might be far greater than Abaddon.

After intense discussion, both sides finally decided to just kill Cheng Yu first, and then support Cheng Yu's son to ascend the throne.

Yes, the fact that Cheng Yu had a son was like Cao Cao killing Lü Boshe; it was clearly something that had just happened, but it was as if a public announcement had been made, and the entire galaxy knew about it.

The High Lords of the Corpse Emperor Empire had formulated a complete appeasement plan for Cheng Yu's son, Cheng Biao.

Kaelus's intelligence gathering had reached its limit here; he was, after all, not a true member of the Terra elite class, so he couldn't ask for too much.

As for what the plan targeting Cheng Biao actually was, it couldn't be discovered. It was only known that it should be a calculated pacification plan, not an assassination plan, as assassination plans only required ordering the Assassins Court and didn't need the High Lords to discuss for so long.

"I have received your intelligence. Your loyalty is commendable. Would your devotion to my son have cost you your life? The False Emperor usurps the sacred artifacts, and treacherous sycophants occupy Terra. Your situation is perilous; prioritize your own safety, do not force matters."

After closing the memorial, Main Body summoned Attendant Cheng Yu. "I hear that the people below have recently started calling you 'Old Ancestor.' How do you, this 'Old Ancestor,' plan to take good care of my son?"

Attendant Cheng Yu was terrified. "Within the empire, only the Empresses in the ancestral temple can be called 'Old Ancestor.' It is just the people below talking nonsense; this servant will go and punish them for their insolence."

Hearing this, Main Body remained noncommittal. Attendant Cheng Yu plucked up the courage to voice his thoughts:

"Your Majesty's divine might is peerless, and naturally, you do not fear petty villains. But the Prince is frail and not like Your Majesty. This servant requests that Your Majesty follow the precedent of the Corpse Emperor's bandit gangs and establish a Praetorian Guard directly under the Imperial family. These Praetorians must not only be selected for their loyalty, steadfastness, and shrewd, capable talents, but also…"

"Also need to undergo demigod augmentation, is that it?" Main Body understood the implication immediately. Attendant Cheng Yu was ostensibly advising him to assemble a superhuman Praetorian Guard, but in reality, he was advising him to undergo demigod augmentation first.

Main Body could certainly directly possess a clone that had already been demigod-augmented, but this body was his original one, and after using it for so many years, he had developed an attachment to it and did not want to replace it lightly.

"Issue a decree; invite the Archmagos of the Dark Mechanicum."

"As you command."