---o---
"Good. Not a cultist. But this could be an invitation to corruption. I need to be careful. I need a plan. I absolutely cannot let this place turn into a Grand Free-for-All. I have had more than enough of those."
Zhou Ye regarded the view ahead of him.
The woman's back was bare from the shoulders downward, and the line of it continued in a way that left very little to the imagination. He confirmed her status in the same moment. No corruption. As for the personal shield she had been carrying, it had been dissolved in complete silence, the moment she turned her head to lead the way giving him exactly the fraction of a second he needed.
He had seen everything there was to see.
Nothing to worry about from a Chaos perspective, at least. Fine.
"Appears to be a legitimate merchant great family. This woman is simply their reception representative. Even the person sent to greet strangers carries a miniaturized personal force field. For an Astartes it would be equivalent to tissue paper, but the gesture tells you something about the organization."
He followed her inside, running the assessment in the back of his mind.
The room held a composed middle-aged man. The woman settled into a seat beside him.
"Excellent wine. Considerably better than anything out of Baal, in my assessment." The middle-aged man held the glass up and regarded it with the studied nonchalance of someone for whom displaying interest openly would be a tactical error. "Name your terms, young man. What do you want."
What the man's face showed was indifference. What his mind contained, as Zhou Ye read it without effort, was considerably more energetic.
Find out where this wine comes from. Monopoly on the source is the most profitable business there is. If this young man is sensible we can reach an arrangement. If not, he has only himself to blame for what follows. No one in this entire sector, no noble house, no commercial interest, outweighs this family. Not a single one.
"Excellent. An heir of an ancient Rogue Trader Dynasty. The largest Dynasty in this sector, with roots deep enough in this region to be genuinely immovable."
This was the truly fearsome aspect of the Authority of the Herrscher of Sentience. At a moment like this, Zhou Ye had already excavated the man's lineage back eighteen generations without any visible exertion. Included in what he found were a number of the Dynasty's core operational secrets. The man himself did not know all of the details, but what Zhou Ye extracted confirmed one thing that mattered above everything else: they possessed an extraordinarily old Rogue Trader Warrant, issued in a glorious and distant era. The precise nature of that Warrant was beyond this man's personal knowledge.
An excellent target. Zhou Ye decided it was settled.
Not corrupted either. That simplified everything considerably.
So.
"That is an open question. Raw materials, labor resources, even select rare technologies could all be considered. What specifically would suit you?"
Zhou Ye said it pleasantly, the smile not departing from his face.
The Imperium nominally had the Throne Gelt as its currency, but practical interstellar commerce in Warhammer's era ran on barter by necessity. The nature of the environment made it so. When ships traveled between star systems through the Warp and the journey itself was measured in months or years of variable duration, abstract currency held limited meaning. Even the Imperial Tithe was collected in goods and bodies rather than coin.
"I need large-scale agricultural equipment. And it cannot be the kind that saturates the environment with radiation and leaves the land unusable. The Omnissiah's blessing, if you understand my meaning, is something I cannot afford to absorb."
What Zhou Ye meant by the Omnissiah's blessing was radiation.
The outer zones of many Forge Worlds carried radiation levels that would not merely kill baseline humans and Astartes. There existed categories of Tyranid organism that would be dissolved by the ambient output of a standard Forge World's industrial fringe before they had evolved sufficient resistance. The products manufactured in those environments, evaluated against the standards of Earth in a previous century, would be uniformly classified as lethal. The reason this created no particular controversy in the 41st Millennium was that the baseline human body in this era was, by any reasonable prior standard, an athletic marvel of resilience.
After ten thousand years of living inside a civilization powered by controlled nuclear fusion at every level of infrastructure, the human frame had quietly adapted to match.
The middle-aged man's thoughts were already running three moves ahead of the conversation.
This young man has a mysterious planet somewhere. Good. I dispatch the family's armed trade convoy to follow him. If I can secure a world that produces fresh fruit and wine of this caliber, my position within the Dynasty is permanent. The great houses on Holy Terra and the High Lords themselves will view our family differently. The sectors around Titan will take notice.
If the product exists then the planet is probably underdeveloped, he continued. Common enough situation. And from what he is asking to buy, the environment sounds intact. Sounds like a Garden World with abundant natural fruit, not yet opened up. He is here buying equipment for cultivation. Still young. Careful enough in his words, yes. But the products he brought are honest signals and they have told me a great deal. So. Young man. This fortune is too large for your hands. Allow me to take it off them.
...
Zhou Ye clapped his hands once.
A figure in the appearance of an attendant came forward pushing a large cart.
"That is a fine Geneforged labor-construct. Where did you acquire it?"
Sokk Oliveira looked at the towering figure behind Zhou Ye with genuine interest. He could feel the concentrated physical force radiating from the construct. That was unusual even for the category.
"A considerable expense to acquire. And well outside the scope of what we are trading today."
Zhou Ye deflected with a laugh.
Sokk had begun to formulate a follow-up but it dissolved the instant the container was opened. His pupils contracted by a fraction.
The question of the labor-construct stopped existing in his mind entirely.
Geneforged constructs were useful enough in their category, certainly. Large, physically powerful, potentially rivaling an Astartes in raw strength. But in everything else they were liabilities. Real Astartes could slaughter them like ordinary soldiers given the opportunity. Nothing to dwell on.
What was in that container occupied every part of his attention.
Brightly colored fruit of varieties he had not seen assembled in one place, alongside bottles of wine in the ordinary amber and deep red that one associated with fine vintages. Sokk's entire body registered a tremor. Behind the composed exterior, the interior of his mind was undergoing something much closer to catastrophic upheaval.
If this had been a standard underdeveloped agricultural world he would have been interested but not destabilized. But fresh fruit in the 41st Millennium was not a standard agricultural product. This was the supreme luxury of luxuries, the category of goods that larger Dynasties than his own would go to war over.
A great man once wrote: with ten percent profit, capital is employed everywhere; with twenty percent, it becomes animated; with fifty percent, positively daring; at one hundred percent, it will override all human laws; at three hundred percent, there is no crime it will not dare, even at the risk of execution.
The return on what he was looking at could not be expressed as a percentage followed by three zeroes. He would have needed to keep adding zeroes until the number became meaningless.
Under circumstances like these, even Astartes protection might not be enough to hold it. Something at the scale of a full founding Chapter would be the minimum. The wealth represented by a world like this was simply that vast.
Sokk's internal planning had already resolved to a clear objective: secure this world as the Dynasty's core holding. Deploy the most powerful fleet assets available. Protect it with everything the family possessed. A fresh, undeveloped Garden World generating high-value fruit in abundance.
That was the chain of conclusions that had formed from the moment he first saw Zhou Ye walk in. He had already decided to move.
First: hold him steady. Keep him comfortable.
"Leave the arrangements to me. I will reach out to a nearby Forge World and commission a specialized batch of cultivation equipment designed to work without environmental damage. As for your fruit, it is not ideally positioned in your hands at the moment. Let me introduce you to several buyers of suitable standing. The wine I will take entirely, consider it a deposit on our future arrangement."
"Hmm."
Zhou Ye looked at him for a moment, then nodded.
"Good. I look forward to working together."
Sokk's expression was warm. What he was thinking behind it was known only to himself and to Zhou Ye.
"Likewise."
Zhou Ye's own smile was entirely genuine.
He had, admittedly, set this situation up as a sting. But that was fine.
"I would like to know which major families carry real weight in the Quintus system. We will be conducting business here regularly in the future, so it is worth understanding the landscape."
"The Altera Dynasty. Wealthiest family native to this system. Even the Lord Sector extends them some deference. They hold several key worlds in this sector. I have heard that a number of Planetary Governors have been submitting fresh fruit to them recently. I assume that was from you."
"Correct. Simple trade agreements."
Zhou Ye was unsurprised. That had been part of the design. The visible pattern of fruit moving through those Governors was intended to signal that he had limited manpower and was looking to expand his reach outward. It had drawn this man here as intended.
He did also genuinely need people. If this excursion failed to produce an acceptable target, he was prepared to bring another population migration to New Tillius. The Imperium had no shortage of people. His planet had capacity for a billion or two, and current population was nowhere near that ceiling.
"All of the Governors have been directing their fruit to the Altera Dynasty. Their Lady of the House, from what I understand, requires a fresh supply every six days. Deliver on time and she is generous. Fail to deliver and she demonstrates what generosity in reverse looks like."
"Ah."
Zhou Ye kept his expression neutral.
That was not a problem. It was, in fact, part of the plan. He had a strike element already prepared, loaded with Centurion and Terminator units, sitting at readiness. He had absolutely no intention of letting this develop into another Grand Free-for-All.
This was not some rural Agri-world. This was the administrative capital of an entire sector. A Grand Free-for-All here would produce consequences that he genuinely did not want to calculate.
So he had prepared carefully. Any Chaos presence that showed itself would receive an immediate and terminal response from above.
"Your fruit could be divided into several portions. More than enough to keep that greedy Lady satisfied for a considerable time."
The man clearly did not know the specifics of what was actually happening. He was simply reporting what he knew.
"Oh. One more thing. This is an invitation. The Altera family is hosting a grand banquet tonight."
Sokk gestured to one of his people, who unloaded the wine from the cart that Zhou Ye's disguised Astartes had been pushing, and set the bottles to one side. The message was unambiguous. The wine's profits would flow to Sokk.
This was merchant greed on display, and it was intentional. Two people meeting for the first time: if he appeared too eager it would create suspicion rather than trust. The wine revenue was meaningless to him in the broader picture. What he wanted was the planet behind Zhou Ye.
"Tch. Should I report this to the Inquisition..... No. Those obsessives would be more trouble than they are worth. Very well then. Scalpel operation it is."
Zhou Ye looked at the invitation in his hand and ran his thumb along the edge.
The invitation itself was clean. No Chaos resonance anywhere on the physical object.
He had two options. Report to the Inquisition. But the information he had was imprecise. Six-day delivery schedules were not actionable evidence on their own. And the fact that they were comfortable enough to discuss this openly in front of a stranger meant they had sufficient cover to send any investigation away empty-handed for now.
Or he dropped a Terminator squad directly onto the problem.
That was the more appealing option. Purging heretics required documented evidence. Purging Chaos required knowing the location and the time.
This banquet was almost certainly a large-scale conversion event. He might as well attend and observe exactly what they were selling before he made his move.
"Ai-chan. Prepare the teleportation. On my command, drop one Terminator squad. A single sector noble house is not a significant obstacle."
He contacted the Hyperion directly. He did not personally need the teleportation. The Authority of the Herrscher of the Void could pull the squad from the ship's hold to his position directly, in a location this free of Warp distortion, as easily as drawing breath.
He had made his decision. At the first confirmed sign of a cult, they died. He was not doing another Grand Free-for-All. He was very likely already logged in the golden fellow's awareness, which meant staying low was a priority.
"My plan is perfect. A minor Slaaneshi infestation, probably still in the early stages of corruption. I will eliminate them with overwhelming precision before they have time to escalate."
Zhou Ye was fully confident in this assessment.
He left the building with his two disguised Astartes flanking him.
"Poor fool. He is going to be stripped down to nothing."
"Tch. Does the young one not understand that displaying wealth openly invites disaster."
"Heh. Has no idea what is about to fall on his head."
He heard the laughter quite clearly as he walked out. The two Astartes flanking him had already begun quietly running their thumbs along the edges of their combat blades.
Zhou Ye had warned them. They said nothing.
The three of them reached the temporary lodgings they had rented nearby. Zhou Ye found himself genuinely impressed despite himself. The Warhammer universe presented its characteristic blend of primitive and advanced layered on top of each other in the same breath, but the genuinely luxurious establishments here were not meaningfully different from what he remembered of a previous life.