Within the towering Hive Cities of the Empire, millions of lives are born and perish daily amidst the roar of machinery.
Most of these ant-like, insignificant lives are destined for the same end after death—to become yet another cog in the machine that sustains the Empire.
Few deceased individuals are granted the right to a complete burial; this requires the deceased to have held a prominent identity, a lofty status, and most crucially—ample wealth during their lifetime.
In this Empire built upon countless corpses, every corpse is a valuable resource. For ordinary citizens to find a resting place after death is harder than seeing sunlight in the Bottom Nest of a Hive City.
Nobles construct lavish family cemeteries on their private estates, where generations of family members rest in tombs adorned with exquisite statues.
Some particularly favored retainers might even find a resting place in a corner of their master's cemetery.
But for the common populace, such treatment remains an unattainable dream.
When an ordinary person's life comes to an end, they often face only two choices.
Either they are transformed into semi-mechanical Servitor, continuing to serve the Empire in another form.
Or they are dragged away by the Pale Guild's recovery vehicles, turning into grayish-white powder in roaring crushers, ultimately becoming "corpse starch" on the plates of Hive City residents.
This is the most common fate for Imperial citizens—to labor for the Empire in life, and to contribute their last value to the Empire even after death.
(Miss corpse guild, when you see her, you will most likely be dragged away to be made into corpse starch.)
(Pale Guild)
When 32 arrived at the Pale Guild in the Hive City, a fully loaded transport vehicle had just pulled up to the guild's main gate. The heavy metal doors slowly opened, and several workers in stained protective suits were busily unloading.
She watched with cold eyes as hundreds of corpses were roughly dragged out of the vehicle, piled onto trolleys like discarded goods, and then quickly transported to the processing workshop.
Dark red bloodstains remained on the ground, the dragging trails extending deep into the factory building.
Among those corpses, a few seemed to be weakly twitching, their fingers unconsciously scratching the ground, their throats emitting dying groans.
However, the Pale Guild staff paid no heed, skillfully grabbing their limbs and throwing them into the processing line without hesitation.
"Those people aren't dead yet, are they?" 32 frowned, asking in a calm tone.
The head of the Pale Guild, standing beside her, immediately put on a fawning smile and explained in a low voice: "Respected Sage, those are Bottom Nest gang thugs. Their injuries are beyond saving.
In a place like the Bottom Nest, severe injury is equivalent to death; no one would waste medical resources to save them."
While his words were somewhat exaggerated, they accurately reflected the brutal reality of the Bottom Nest.
There, injured people either relied on their own vitality to pull through, or they slowly rotted away in dark corners.
To ensure a stable supply of raw materials, the corpse guild would even actively intervene in gang wars, taking corpses recovered after battles as payment.
However, they were not always willing to wait until the fighting ended.
After all, the losing side might not even leave behind corpses, and winners sometimes hacked enemies into pieces, resulting in poor quality "raw materials" for recovery.
Therefore, the Pale Guild staff preferred to enter directly during the most intense fighting, dragging away those dying injured individuals, and after a simple assessment, sending them directly to the processing workshop to ensure "freshness."
32 merely shook her head slightly at this explanation, saying nothing more.
She knew very well that this was how the Empire operated—cold, efficient, and cruel. Even if she forcefully ordered these people to spare those half-dead gang members, it wouldn't change anything. The laws of the Bottom Nest would not waver due to her momentary pity.
Moreover, she had more important things to do than this.
"Take me inside to see." 32 said coldly.
The head of the corpse guild dared not delay, quickly leading 32 into the guild.
Two Kaslan Intellect-Controlled Mechs followed closely behind her, protecting her safety under the control of an Intellect-Control Artisan.
32 had originally intended to bring Death Annihilation Mechs, but their size was simply too large. Using them within the Hive City would result in excessive power and many terrains being impassable.
After all, a single Death Annihilation Mech was almost as large as a knight titans, and even bigger than a Retainer Mech.
Relatively, the smaller Kaslan Mechs were much more agile.
Within the Hive City, although 32 wasn't worried about encountering trouble herself, if she did uncover something, these Intellect-Controlled Mechs could protect her, eliminate enemies, or buy time.
The internal operations of the corpse guild revolved entirely around corpse processing. The dim factory buildings were lined with various rusty cutting machinery and grinding devices.
The recently delivered corpses were being skillfully segmented and processed by workers wearing decorative respiratory filters. Sharp saw blades cut through stiff limbs, internal organs were sorted and removed, and bones and muscle tissue were sent to different processing lines.
The entire workshop was filled with a strong smell of blood, dark red liquid flowed in the drainage troughs on the ground, and the air was thick with the sticky sound of flesh being crushed by machinery.
This environment naturally fostered cult beliefs—the pervasive smell of blood, mountains of piled corpses, the oppressive atmosphere of death, and even illegal executions secretly carried out by some workers, all could become bloody sacrifices to Chaos Gods.
Once cultists secretly performed corruption rituals during the processing stage, the consequences would be terrifying.
Because these processed corpses would undergo high-temperature grinding and purification, ultimately transforming into grayish-white corpse starch, which became the primary source of protein for the Bottom Nest.
They were pressed into synthetic food blocks or high-calorie energy bars, distributed through the rationing system to various social strata, sustaining the lives of billions of Hive City residents.
If raw materials contaminated by Chaos were mixed in, the toxins would quickly spread through the food chain, ranging from triggering large-scale mutant plagues to directly plunging the entire Hive City into the abyss of Chaos corruption.
For this reason, both the Ecclesiarchy's purification priests and the Hive City Governor's Adeptus Arbites strictly monitored the corpse guild, regularly inspecting production lines and testing finished product purity.
As for those Hive Cities that neglected oversight… when a Hive City began to see Nurgle zombies, or when cults started large-scale sacrifices, the rulers would understand the price of their dereliction of duty.
However, perhaps because this Hive City was the Star Sector Capital, or because a previous cult rebellion had already been purified by the Inquisition and the Adeptus Arbites, 32 found no traces of corruption here.
The entire Pale Guild was very clean, and even the workers who processed the corpses were devout followers of the Ecclesiarchy.
However, while speaking with the corpse guild staff responsible for collecting corpses, she obtained a clue: the number of corpses produced in the Bottom Nest recently had decreased by about 5% compared to before.
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