25: Chapter 25 Who is the Great Devourer?

The vanguard fleet of The Great Devourer... has arrived.

Following closely behind is Drake, who has been engaging in guerrilla harassment the whole way.

Cheng Yu, in his original body, used a high-magnification telescope to feign observation of the situation in the sky, sighing:

"Drake is truly my Yuan Chonghuan, my Wu Sangui."

However, no matter how excellent Drake's attrition tactics are, The Great Devourer will not abandon its goal.

This thing's brain does not contain the concept of "giving up," only endless "hunger."

What a coincidence, the Cheng Yus are also extremely hungry.

It's just that I don't know if The Great Devourer can differentiate a few delicious biological units.

My clones are already ravenous.

"Why are they just circling and not coming down?" Main Body, in his original body, was very confused to find that the Tyranids / Tyranid fleet would not enter the anti-aircraft range.

"Original body, a warp rift has been detected in the nearby star sector."

"Oh?" Main Body, in his original body, rubbed his chin. "The newcomers are not friendly."

"Original body, we are also newcomers."

In the void near Li Yu Planet, the ships of the Corpse Emperor Empire's planetary defense forces appeared one after another.

They did not come for the Tyranids / Tyranid. Previously, when Li Yu Planet first started having Genestealer trouble, a group of quick-reacting nobles escaped.

Those nobles didn't understand the Genestealer situation; they thought it was a rebellion of the rabble in the Underhive, so they paid to bring in the PDF from nearby star systems.

"Hey, I thought it was the Space Marines, but it's just the planetary defense militia. Where is Priest Cassius?"

"This old servant is here. Please, Your Majesty, give your orders."

Priest Cassius had also been corrupted, mainly because he couldn't withstand thousands of clones repeating and repeating brainwashing to him every day.

The content of the brainwashing was the "Imperial Truth" personally written by Main Body.

"Please, Minister Holt, go and persuade them to surrender. Work with us to strike at the Tyranids / Tyranid, and I will grant them titles and wishes, everything they ask for. If they dare to resist, I can simply deal with them along with the Tyranids / Tyranid."

"Yes."

Cassius had his own little agenda.

If he contacted the other side directly and said that this was a rebel force in the frontier of the Tempestus Sector, and asked them to forsake the Emperor and join the rebels or something...

The other side would certainly not agree. Not only would they not agree, they would also fire a shot at him.

So, after Cassius connected the communication, he preemptively struck:

"This is High Priest Cassius Holt of the Ecclesiarchy. Who gave you permission to leave your garrison area and come here to cause trouble?!"

The leader of the other side was indeed intimidated and replied in fear, "Sorry, we will leave now."

"No, you cannot leave. Since you're already here, you will now be incorporated into Lord Drake's unit and follow his command to intercept the Tyranids / Tyranid vanguard."

"As you command, my lord."

The situation in space remained in small-scale offensive probes between the Tyranids / Tyranid and the human fleet.

At this moment, a secret report from a clone arrived: Sophia Moriarty, the wife of the Iron Fist Clan leader, was gathering old subordinates, attempting to launch a rebellion.

But the rebel army was currently lost in the Hive City. Under Sophia's leadership, this group had headed straight towards the toxic chemical waste pool, so the clones came to ask the original body... should they save them?

"Save them, how could we not? In ancient times, Zhuge Kongming captured and released Meng Huo seven times. Today, let... let Iron Fist go and manage his wife. It's embarrassing enough day after day!"

"Yes!"

...

When the Emperor's imperial edict was issued, the Iron Fist leader was cornering his wife in a ventilation duct of the Underhive.

He was holding a Gauss rifle, preparing to kill his wife to prove his path, but he didn't expect the original body's edict to be "Do not kill."

The Emperor's meaning was: As the Empire's first couple, you must be a model for all future couples; you cannot end up like Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Women, you know, beat them up a bit, then coax them, and it'll be fine. There's no need to take a life. Our surname is Cheng, not Tang.

Although everyone is essentially the same person, the positions they sit in are different, so their thoughts are naturally different.

"Reporting to the Duke, the rebel leader has been captured. Please give your instructions." The other clones were holding back laughter while acting.

"Take her back!" Iron Fist Cheng Yu said. "I will discipline her personally when I return. Lock the others in prison to await judgment."

...

"Fire!"

The Tyranids / Tyranid Leviathan finally stopped probing. Who knows what kind of biochemical reaction went on inside its brain.

In the end, it chose to ignore all enemies in space and landed directly for ground combat.

Hundreds of millions of biological spores were ejected by the Leviathan, beginning to contaminate the atmosphere of the entire Li Yu Planet.

Cheng Yu had already anticipated this. A large number of starch storage tanks were hidden in the orbit of Cheng Yu Planet.

As soon as the Leviathan launched the spores, the anti-aircraft firepower on the ground began to destroy these storage tanks.

Then came the dust explosion... Bang!

The explosion's fire lit up the night sky, causing the Leviathan's attempt to contaminate the planet's atmosphere and obscure the defense force's vision to fail.

"Good! This fire burns well, even better than the fire at Yiling!" Cheng Yu, in his original body, laughed wantonly and arrogantly.

The Leviathan failed one plan, so it conceived another. It began to continuously project biological landing pods to the ground. Because the quantity was extremely high, the anti-aircraft firepower could only intercept a small fraction of them.

The landing points of these biological pods were very precise, almost all falling on the weak points of the defense force's defense.

These biological pods contained the Leviathan's cannon fodder units: Termagants and Rippers. Their numbers were almost endless. Countless planets have been forced to run out of ammunition by this attrition tactic.

In the entire galaxy, the Tyranids / Tyranid's individual combat strength is not considered very powerful, but the cost of its troop production is too low, and the quantity is just too high.

How much does it cost the Empire to train one Space Marine, and how much does it cost the Tyranids / Tyranid to create a Tyrant-level Tyranids / Tyranid? Even if ten Tyrants are exchanged for one Space Marine, the Tyranids / Tyranid still makes a huge profit.

However, today... they have kicked an iron plate.

"Soldiers, we have extra food tonight. We're having an all-bug feast!"

When the Tyranids first released the spore fog, there were about 15 billion clones on Li Yu Planet.

And now... there are already 30 billion clones.

It's not a question of whether they can fight, but a question of whether there's enough to eat.

"Tyranids / Tyranid Leviathan, today I want to compete with you. Let's see whose troops can absorb more biomass. Kill them!!!"

Millions of battle groups poured out from strongholds all over the planet, killing towards those Tyranids / Tyranid cannon fodder units.

The Tyranids' movements were extremely swift, especially the Termagants, which were just like flying mantises, moving dozens of meters in distance with every jump.

But no matter how they moved, there were a large number of clones there holding sharp iron spears and wooden stakes, waiting to blast their rear ends.

...

Meanwhile, Iron Fist Cheng Yu was brawling with his wife, Sophia, at home.

Sophia had received professional training and was naturally more formidable, but her hands and feet were tied, so both sides were currently evenly matched.