Phew!
*Crack!*
"A-a-a-a-a!"
*Crack!*
*Crack!*
"Wait! Spare me…"
Three bodies already lay motionless. Li Qingyu himself was wounded: a knife stuck in his stomach, ribs broken, his body covered in blood. He was on the verge of death.
But despite the pain, he hummed carelessly. He slung both backpacks over his shoulders, took the rifle, grabbed an antique sword, and headed for the breach.
The evacuation countdown began: ten, nine, eight, seven…
*Whoosh!*
Li Qingyu disappeared, teleporting to the Sanctuary. The knife vanished, his bones healed, his body returned to its perfect state.
That's how the magic of the Sanctuary worked – you could return as a cripple, but you'd leave whole.
"Ah! There's nothing better than my own home!"
He stretched, opened the backpacks, and began sorting the loot, checking what the Sanctuary itself had produced.
He sent the syringes to the medbay for processing into materials.
He took a bottle of holy wine from the Emperor's altar and loaded ordinary wine.
Then he dealt with the rifle. After a hundred shots, the Machine Spirit demanded respect.
Clamping the weapon in a vise, he disassembled, cleaned, and lubricated it. Soon, the rifle shone like new. Before the next battle, of course, it would have to be re-zeroed.
Having finished, Li Qingyu headed to check the distillery.
But as soon as he opened the door, he saw Quiet. He was squatting by the threshold, drawing something on the door with black paint.
Li Qingyu's face hardened. Quiet flinched, hiding the can behind his back.
"Oh, you didn't leave? Where did you come from?"
He stretched his neck, trying to look inside. Li Qingyu slammed the door shut right in front of his nose with a bang. The door had warp-style graffiti on it.
"I told you not to mess around while I was gone! What did you do, smartass, this time?!"
Li Qingyu's voice made Quiet flinch. He mumbled:
"I just got curious… Your room… it's strange!"
"Yeah? And what's strange about it?" Li Qingyu narrowed his eyes.
"It doesn't exist in our world!"
Quiet spoke faster, getting carried away:
"I tried to open the door in dozens of ways – useless! Even with psi-power! It's like a black hole there. I looked through the warp – and it's empty! This room has no projection, you understand? It just doesn't exist!"
The psyker trembled with excitement. He suspected Li Qingyu had many secrets, but not on this scale.
Space outside the world. Absolute territory, where neither human nor demon could penetrate… A true paradise.
Li Qingyu smirked. In the game "Loot and Evacuation," the Sanctuary was a separate instance, invulnerable to raids. In the world of Warhammer, such a place indeed seemed unreal.
"Please! Let me see! I'm going crazy with curiosity!"
Quiet's eyes burned, but Li Qingyu pointed his finger at the door:
"Stop talking nonsense and quickly erase this abomination!"
Quiet grabbed his hand and whined:
"Just let me have a peek! I'll do anything you say!"
Li Qingyu looked with disgust. The Sanctuary was his fortress. How could he let just anyone in?
"Get lost. My home is not a public thoroughfare. Get out!"
Seeing that his pleas were useless, Quiet almost burst into tears.
The warp demons had been driving him mad for a long time. Space outside the world had become a dream – a place where he could hide from the whispers of darkness.
"I'll just stand at the threshold! Just a glimpse! If you allow me, I'll teach you the coolest psi-techniques!"
Li Qingyu froze. The idea was tempting. But after a pause, he shook his head:
"No. I won't let anyone in. But if you teach me psionics – I'll give you something that really gets you high. Better than holy food."
The psyker sighed heavily, but gave in:
"Alright. Let's go find a place without witnesses. I'll teach you to control gravity."
Someone might ask: why doesn't Quiet just twist him around? After all, he's a psyker!
But it wasn't about strength. No matter how powerful he was, he remained a human at heart who needed understanding.
Since childhood, his gift had made him an outcast. As an adult, demons tormented him. He craved normal communication.
Li Qingyu was different. He entered little Joel's life with confidence and without prejudice. Little Joel's family also accepted him – Sansa even fed him delicious food. For the first time, the Silent One felt like part of a family. And he couldn't destroy this with violence.
In short, the Silent One was slowly turning into a character from "Fast & Furious": for him, family was now the most important thing.
They left the distillery and headed into a dark dead end – to attend to their "dirty business."
On the way, Li Qingyu noticed Knife and Big Joel building a shack out of boards – obviously, housing.
Seeing the boss, Knife ran up. Li Qingyu handed him a bundle with a spine of fury and a piece of tattooed skin from a toxic drug addict.
"Find time, take this to Nepal, sell it."
Knife nodded. At that moment, Sansa approached, holding a bowl of meat soup.
"Sir, the soup just finished cooking. Try it."
Fat and vegetables floated in the broth, and pieces of meat at the bottom. Madam Sansa had stuffed one of the gu-gu.
Li Qingyu drank the broth, fished out the meat with his fingers, and ate it.
Returning the dishes, he said:
"It's delightful, madam. If you need spices – tell Knife. If they're not in the lower hive, write a list, and I'll get them in the middle hive."
With these words, Li Qingyu and the Silent One went out the gate and dissolved into the darkness.