"The Ecclesiarchy has a great deal of autonomy; they might not be willing to obey your Lordship's orders," Phicris said with some concern.
Guilliman smiled, "I will make them listen to me. I am the Emperor's son, the Emperor's best spokesperson. Even a Saint of the Ecclesiarchy would not dare say they are more qualified to be the Ecclesiarchy's spokesperson than I am."
"What if they feel their interests are harmed and become unyielding?"
"Then we'll tie those heretics to the stake," Guilliman paused, looking at Phicris, "Speaking of stakes, go have the tech-priests on the ship weld a few for me. Perhaps we'll need a few stakes to show those bishops what will happen if they defy me."
"My Lord," Phicris hesitated for a moment, "Is this really appropriate? It doesn't seem to align with your usual style. Don't you advocate for everything to follow regulations and pursue rational thought?"
"Only when dealing with you do I advocate for rational thought and acting within established frameworks, because you are rational and understand what is right and wrong. Rules can help you restrain your inner arrogance and laziness, making you understand why you do everything.
But those fanatics don't have this awareness. They only fanatically follow the faith in their hearts, willingly becoming tools of religion."
Guilliman started pacing, organizing his thoughts before continuing, "What do you think is the success rate of me persuading them to abandon their faith? Be honest, Phicris, don't flatter me. Just speak based on your past understanding of the Ecclesiarchy."
"Persuade them to abandon their faith."
Phicris fell into deep thought. He had quite a bit of contact with the Ecclesiarchy, observing self-flagellating ascetics, various cruel killings of sinners, and other acts of madness.
After contemplating the Ecclesiarchy's behavior, Phicris found his answer.
"The success rate is 0. They cannot possibly abandon their faith; faith is their everything. Persuading those believers to give up their lives is much simpler than persuading them to abandon their faith."
"This is the problem. I cannot persuade them to abandon their faith, nor can I simply issue a ban to abolish the Ecclesiarchy. That leaves me with very few options. Controlling them is the most stable path.
As long as I control them, I can reform the Ecclesiarchy in a new wave, just like I reformed the administrative system and the Imperial Army, restricting the power of the bishops and guiding those believers onto the correct path."
"To make them willingly accept my reforms, I must have a legitimate identity, an identity that makes the believers feel that I am one of them.
Only then will they believe that my reforms are correct, that the Emperor guided me to do this. Those who oppose me are enemies of the Imperium, their enemies, agents of Chaos."
"My Lord, this is a bit too complicated."
"Phicris, you must continue to learn. Besides combat, you must also learn other things. Only then can you help me better. We face not only the battlefield that is visible, but also the unseen battlefields.
We must achieve victory in all of them to save humanity, otherwise salvation is just an empty phrase."
"Chaos will interfere with us, traitors will deceive us, and those who are dissatisfied will also become obstacles to us.
Some are in the open, some are in the dark. Use strength to defeat the enemies in the open, and then use our minds to solve the hidden enemies. Only in this way can we save the Imperium."
"I understand, My Lord."
"If you understand, then go out. I need some quiet. Report other matters to me in ten minutes."
Phicris nodded and walked out.
Guilliman remained in the room alone, contemplating Espandor and how to control the Ecclesiarchy.
The Ecclesiarchy's fanatical faith was terrifying, but it wasn't without its benefits.
Guilliman could use this faith to help him promote the new system and fight against daemons.
Of course, this was only a temporary measure.
The Ecclesiarchy could not exist forever; it could only exist temporarily.
Once all areas of the Imperium burst with vitality under his new technology and new ideas, the belief in the Emperor would naturally fade away.
In the Middle Ages, during the dark age ruled by the church, the Pope's power once greatly expanded.
Ultimately, it gradually declined due to the Renaissance.
After the Renaissance, people viewed God more with scrutiny, criticism, and as a source of spiritual comfort, rather than fanaticism and ignorance.
In the Warhammer universe, denying the existence of gods is unrealistic.
But the status of humans and gods should be equal; there should not be blind kneeling and fawning.
Guilliman did not have the Emperor's skill and courage to directly eliminate all religions and tear down those temples and shrines.
The only thing he could do was proceed slowly, taking a gradual approach like boiling a frog in warm water.
Under Guilliman's command, the fleet recalibrated its course and turned towards the missionary world - Espandor.
A week later, the fleet exited the warp and appeared outside the Espandor system.
This system was filled with preacher communication satellites, constantly broadcasting various encoded Emperor's hymns and prayers.
These satellites not only broadcast in the real universe but also used augur arrays to broadcast into the warp.
The fleet received a large amount of communication information before even entering the real world.
After entering the real world, they were even more submerged in an ocean of electromagnetic communication signals.
The cogitator heads processing the communication information showed signs of pain, and the servitors used for calculations twitched uncontrollably due to the immense computational load.
The secondary systems were clogged by the massive volume of communication, emitting noisy and piercing warning sounds.
Most of this communication information was useless, merely the fanatical prayers and hymns of believers.
This forced the fleet to choose to block most of the information to prevent the cogitators and servitors from overloading.
In the Espandor system, there were dozens of pilgrimage arks, several dozen kilometers long, dragging Emperor statues up to a hundred kilometers tall, cruising throughout the system.
The arks were filled with prostrate fanatics and ascetics, who whipped themselves day and night to daemonstrate the Emperor's radiance.
The Espandor system has two terrestrial planets.
Espandor I is the main populated planet in this system.
On the surface of the planet, there are more than a dozen towering Emperor statues that pierce the sky.
The planet's atmosphere is filled with the scent of incense, and in the giant cities, devout believers can be seen everywhere, carrying incense burners and sacred banners.
Among these believers, the number of fanatics is very large.
The way these fanatics express their piety is extremely extreme.
Some wealthy fanatics not only have scriptures carved on their bodies, but they are so fanatical that they use Mechanicus technology to carve scriptures on their bones.
There are also some who whip themselves with thorns until they are covered in bruises and blood, some places even showing bone, and they are unwilling to stop, dripping blood as they walk.
In front of the Emperor's churches, there are also iron cages hanging.
These iron cages hold those whom the believers consider heretics.
Those heretics are tied to iron pillars, and the bruises and bloodstains on their bodies indicate that they have suffered long-term torture.
In the middle of the iron cages, there are also flamethrowers, which are activated along with the prisoners' screams.
The high temperature melts part of the iron pillars, and the molten iron flows onto the heretics, causing them to scream in pain.
There are also some heretics whose throats are cut by fanatics, lying on the ground twitching, their blood soaking the earth. Some believers smear the blood on their faces, kneeling on the ground and declaring that they have cleansed the Emperor's enemies.
This is a world of madness.
This is a world that has lost its reason.
The scenes captured by the radar arrays and augur arrays made Guilliman's heart palpitate.
The madness of the Ecclesiarchy was more terrifying than he had imagined.
"I hope everything goes smoothly," Guilliman thought to himself.
As soon as Guilliman's fleet appeared, it was discovered by the believers in the Espandor system.
The news of the Primarch's arrival spread throughout the system within a few hours, and countless believers cheered, regarding it as the Emperor's reward for their piety.
A grand welcoming ceremony was held an hour after Guilliman's fleet entered the Espandor system.
A large number of pilgrimage ships joined Guilliman's fleet to daemonstrate their piety.
Several bishops even expressed their request to board the Macragge's Glory and meet the Primarch.