121: Chapter 121 The Empire's Highest Security Prison

The assassin Alex was neither tortured nor interrogated. It wasn't the first time Main Body had been assassinated, just the first time someone had managed to get so close to him.

Regarding assassins, Main Body's policy had always been not to kill, not to interrogate, not to release, and not to question. These assassins often had complex backgrounds and mental abnormalities; interrogation rarely yielded anything of value, and it was easy for them to make wild accusations that could lead to major cases.

Soon, the newly formed Imperial Custodes escorted Alex to the Imperial Maximum Security Prison, located at the highest point of the "Licai" Hive City, where the most dangerous prisoners were kept.

Aside from terrorists like Alex, there were also some highly corrupted Cheng Yus Clones. Although they still maintained their loyalty to the Emperor, the Emperor found them deeply repulsive. Since he couldn't banish them to other planets to cause more trouble, he exiled them here to fend for themselves.

The maximum security prison used special technology to strip all sound from its interior. While the prison guards could communicate using headsets, the prisoners couldn't hear a single thing... except for their own heartbeats and the rushing of blood through their veins. This was to prevent the prisoners from whispering to each other all day and plotting an escape.

The moment Alex entered the prison, he felt as if he had been suddenly plunged into deep water. His ears felt as though they were covered by a thick hood, and there was even an illusion of suffocation in his lungs.

Then there was the cognitive filter. There was a unique Warp field inside the prison, where ordinary creatures would gradually lose their self-awareness, imagining themselves as the figure most deeply imprinted in their minds.

This cognitive filter had little effect on Cheng Yus Clones. The person they had seen the most and were most impressed by was themselves... all kinds of themselves. If a clone lost their sense of self and became another clone, what did that prove? It proved absolutely nothing. So, back to serving your sentence.

But this cognitive filter was terrifying for outsiders. For the rest of their lives, they would constantly lose their sense of self, occasionally imagining themselves as someone else, only to snap awake, repeating the cycle over and over, enduring this mental hell until the end of their days.

In the words of Main Body, what is there to fear about death? Death is a cool summer night, allowing one to sleep peacefully without worries. For those who oppose Us, wanting to die won't be that easy.

Here, the assassin Alex encountered someone he had met before—Brother Talos of the Ecclesiarchy. However, the two could not communicate at all; even gesturing was useless. Talos couldn't remember who Alex was, let alone who he himself was. He simply knelt by the wall, silently reciting the lectitio divinitatus—not the Cheng Yu Empire's version, but the original.

Alex shook the other's shoulders frantically, his silent roars like whispers deep underwater—unheard, yet deafening.

The mealtime indicator light turned on. The assassin Alex was indeed lucky to have arrived just in time for a meal.

The food in various prisons within the Cheng Yu Empire was notoriously good—not in an ironic way, but genuinely good, to the point where prison cafeterias could even open to the public and turn a profit.

However, although the meals provided to the inmates were exquisite and delicious, the portions were extremely small. Inmates with big appetites would finish them in just one or two bites, much like intermittent fasting. In fact, this was called a calorie deficit. Inmates didn't need to be too full; being too full made it too easy for them to start overthinking.

Giving you a couple of bites of good food to keep you in a pleasant mood while you lay there and passed the time was quite enough.

Alex had no appetite, so his food was snatched away by other inmates in an instant. Although Talos couldn't remember who he was, he still looked at him as if he were an idiot.

...

Main Body's first son was born.

Actually, before the Emperor himself, many clones had already had children. This was also the first baby boom of the Cheng Yu Empire, though it wasn't on a massive scale, since the clones who managed to find a partner were still in the minority.

Main Body had already thought of a name for this child beforehand: Cheng Biao. His title would be the Prince of Wu, and his fief would be on the recently conquered Paradise World. He had even planned out the generation names for the Prince of Wu's descendants, copying them from Old Zhu. The generation names were: 'Yun Wen Zun Zu Xun, Qin Wu Da Jun Sheng, Shun Dao Yi Feng Ji, Shi Liang Shan Yong Sheng'.

Every time Cheng Yu read the "History of Ming" and saw the words "Yun Wen Zun Zu Xun" (Yunwen obeys the ancestral instructions), he couldn't help but laugh. Was Old Zhu doing it on purpose? Probably not; when he set these generation names, Zhu Xiongying was still alive.

Furthermore, the second character of the Prince of Wu's descendants' given names also had to be created using the radicals of 'Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood', completing a cycle every five generations.

Old Zhu was truly a genius. This way, no matter how many descendants he had, just by looking at their names, one would know exactly which branch they belonged to, and there would be no confusion whatsoever.

Moreover, Main Body had absolutely no preference for boys over girls; sons and daughters were treated equally, with their own fiefs and titles. The naming rules were exactly the same. Having a boy or a girl made no difference—daughters would also pass down the lineage, and maternal grandchildren were still grandchildren, continuing the rule. As for sons-in-law, they would just marry into the family. With our family's wealth and status, why worry about not finding a suitable live-in son-in-law?

Main Body was holding his son, happily imagining how his descendants would multiply across the galaxy, passing down their wealth and glory to the second, third, and even ten-thousandth generation, when the Eldar midwife responsible for the delivery suddenly rushed out in a panic.

"Save the mother... No, wait, what happened?" Main Body was dumbfounded.

"Your Majesty, there is another... there is another child." The Eldar midwife, probably finding her own words absurd, knelt on the ground, trembling with fear.

"You..." Main Body handed the child to an Eldar wet nurse. "What do you mean 'there is another'? What's going on? Was there a mistake in the prenatal checkups?"

Main Body thought about it and felt it was impossible. There was definitely only one child in Vera's belly. Multiple doctors had examined her, and Main Body himself possessed powerful psychic energy, so it was highly unlikely he wouldn't even be able to sense how many fetuses there were.

"Could it be a monster born of Warp? Bring it to Us." Cheng Yu's imperial murderous intent flared. He indeed couldn't afford to provoke the Chaos Gods, but if they truly pushed him too far, he would go defect to the Corpse Emperor right now, turn around, and launch a full-scale assault on Abaddon. If I can't beat you gods, can't I at least disgust you?

The Eldar midwife brought out a baby girl. Sensing with his psychic energy, Main Body confirmed that this child indeed carried his bloodline. He was also somewhat bewildered. Could it be that Vera had a unique constitution with some psychic talent, or was this child a born demon who was immune to his psychic scans?

"Since the bloodline is correct, she shall be temporarily designated as the First Princess. We will have to think further on her title and name."

Main Body still hadn't completely dismissed his doubts, but he wasn't cold-hearted enough to reject the child. He was just somewhat uneasy, and indeed caught completely off guard, unprepared.