Although the grammar used by the author of this book was somewhat eccentric, as an outstanding graduate of Peking University, Shen Yufei could still discern that this was a book related to religion.
"Lord!"
Shen Yufei prayed in a low voice. She realized her loss of composure, but for some reason, this book seemed to possess a certain magic, drawing her fingers to flip through its pages.
As her fingers brushed over the ancient paper, a sudden wave of drowsiness surged like a tide. In a daze, Shen Yufei vaguely perceived the surroundings shifting abruptly.
She seemed to be standing in a trench, her body trembling uncontrollably from cold and fear. Suddenly, the roar of an explosion erupted beside her.
She instinctively threw herself to the ground. In her ears, the hoarse screams of a commander rang out.
"Major General Lin! ... Observation Station 06 reports, front of Position 1437, thirty-seven M1A2s, average interval sixty meters!"
"Forty-one Bradley APCs, 500 meters behind the M1A2 vanguard. Twenty-four M1A2s and eight Leclercs are flanking Position 1633, having already crossed the junction with 1437."
"1437, 1633, 1752, prepare to engage the enemy!"
Shen Yufei watched helplessly as the last two survivors of a missile squad to her front-left fired their final two Vanguard missiles.
One wire-guided Red Tassel missile accurately struck an Abrams, while the other—a wireless-guided missile that had been jammed and was streaking diagonally upward, losing its target—suddenly seemed to gain a life of its own under Shen Yufei's gaze. It struggled, trailing a crimson exhaust flame, and screamed as it dived toward an Apache in the sky.
What on earth is going on!
While Shen Yufei was still dazed, an officer behind her, holding a Type 95-Modified rifle, gave her a shove.
"Do not fear, soldier. The motherland is calling you."
At some point, the officer addressed as "Major General Lin" was standing behind her, looking grimly at the "NATO" tanks charging toward their position under the cover of artillery fire.
"For the Emperor!"
A voice echoed in Shen Yufei's mind.
Just five hundred meters from her position, a smoking Bradley APC stopped beside the advancing tanks. Two squads of American soldiers dressed in blue-and-white winter camouflage leaped out, advancing in infantry-tank coordination.
What was this? It was that book!
Shen Yufei's eyes snapped wide. While she was still reeling, facing the dark muzzles of those American soldiers, she suddenly found herself firing a Type 56 carbine one-handed in a manner only a comic book character would use, charging forward fiercely.
At this moment, a phantom appeared before her eyes, and her body moved at an astonishing speed.
The light and shadow before her cried out:
"For the King upon the Throne! Slay the traitors and punish the wicked!"
"Great! Holy crap, it's an Ecarchy Saint! ... Not good, full-spectrum jamming!"
At this moment, David, who had just clicked on [Lectitio Divinitatus (Deducing)], twitched his mouth as he observed Shen Yufei's "Otherworld Fantasy Adventure."
"Coordinates 11-45-14-13."
David spread out the star map and located the position of this planet. "It's less than 45 light-years from Earth."
Looking at the coordinates on the star map, David fell into thought. Clearly, the generation of a world that was almost a replica of Earth was no accident. Recalling the characters he had captured earlier from The Devourer (God's Maintenance), the matter became obvious.
"This is a sister planet of Earth, another human world created by the God Civilization."
The God Civilization—the former rulers of the galaxy and the creators of humanity. In the novel The Devourer, they appeared as a god-tier civilization that had declined so utterly they had lost almost all combat capability. They had not only lost their technology but couldn't even understand Earth's middle-school physics. They relied solely on the legacy of their ancestors to travel the galaxy at the speed of light, begging among the civilizations they had once created.
Considering their extremely long lifespans? Understood. They were basically Old Ones whose brains had been fried by Slaanesh.
The Old Ones did not just sow humanity on Earth. From the novel, it was known that there were at least six human civilizations, including Earth. Currently, only four existed; two had been annexed by civilizations the God Civilization called No. 1 and No. 3 in the same star system.
Among them, Civilization No. 1 was the most advanced, having reached 1/10th the speed of light with a travel distance of thirty light-years. Their technological level seemed similar to Trisolaris, slightly higher in terms of travel range.
Earth had the lowest technological level among these four—wait, perhaps those two civilizations hadn't been destroyed yet at this time, David suddenly thought.
The world Shen Yufei was being taken to by the Lectitio Divinitatus seemed slightly more primitive than Earth, roughly at the level of the 1990s Gulf War.
Could it be that as the Swordholder, my first command will be to order the fleet on a 45-light-year crusade to unify humanity?
Huh? This is really going to become a Great Crusade!
"Okay, off work. Time to see how my Night Lords are training."
David thought to himself. As experimental products, and since the side effects of the Gene-Seed were unclear, the current recruits were primarily heavy criminals from prisons around the world. As for supplementing the Astartes with "good men" of Earth, that would wait until David's techniques were refined.
"It looks like I really have to become the Swordholder now."
David rose from Chang Weisi's large recliner and stretched.
"Otherwise, the nations of the world aren't blind. Building a Legion requires at least tens of thousands of Astartes. Considering the failure rate... even hundreds of thousands of people might not be enough."
"Only by becoming the Swordholder can I make Earth provide enough manpower for me to use."
At that moment, his phone rang.
David reached out and patted the virtual head of the cyber-puppy—the avatar of the Digital Demon. Seeing Shi Qiang's name on the caller ID, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Finally, it has come to this step after all, Professor Ye."
"It is time to put a complete period on this part of the story."
Thinking of this, David took a copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus and the Imperial Truth from his coat. He laid them flat on the desk. Beside them was a photo Yang Dong had given him—the one they took together at Ye Wenjie's house.
David didn't intend to kill Ye Wenjie. He was planning to arrange for her to go to Trisolaris to serve as the "Star Governor," overseeing the labor reform of the Trisolarans.
David pressed the answer button.