Noah waited for the Imperium of Man to collect taxes from him, but in the end, he never received a tax collection from the Imperium of Man.
The war on Cadia was lost.
The Thirteenth Black Crusade was victorious.
With things having progressed to this point, how could the Empire's tax collection ships possibly pass through the Warp anymore?
Terrifying Chaos energy was pouring out from the Eye of Terror.
In the face of such terrifying Warp and the energy of the Chaos Gods, half the galaxy was enveloped by them.
Now, it was impossible for any Imperial tax collection ships to reach this star sector.
Noah keenly felt the surging waves of Warp energy, and the chaotic Warp energy, like a great river, flowing in.
"Activate the high-energy shields to block this sh*t-like Warp energy on the planet's surface; don't let it in."
Noah immediately issued an order, commanding his troops to activate the high-energy shields at once, isolating this sh*t-like Warp energy outside the planet.
Noah himself was not afraid of this Warp energy, but the citizens of the Imperium of Man were different; they would be corrupted. Noah had seen this, so the high-energy shields were activated immediately.
Before the Chaos energy reached the planet, a massive planetary shield appeared on the surface of the Bethel.
A contest of energy unfolded between the terrifying Chaos energy and the high-energy shield, but in the end, the Chaos energy flew directly past the high-energy shield.
A high-energy shield with several zero-point reactors was not something ordinary Chaos energy could directly corrupt. After failing to corrupt it, the Chaos energy continued its advance to other regions.
Noah himself continued to stand on the governor's palace, watching this scene unfold.
He was unclear what exactly was happening in this universe, but he could feel that the Chaos energy was disgusting enough.
Now Noah felt some doubts; he wanted to understand why such a drastic cataclysm had occurred in the world. What exactly had happened in the universe?
Since the Imperium of Man had no communication equipment capable of transmitting communications and could only rely on Astropaths, Noah had no choice but to go to the Astropathic Choir.
To be honest, such a communication method was utterly primitive in Noah's eyes.
He truly couldn't understand why an interstellar civilization had no communication equipment and had to rely on such a communication method; it was simply too archaic.
Leaving aside other things, even an interstellar civilization that had just entered the galaxy should have the ability to communicate unimpeded across the entire galaxy without delay.
What exactly was the situation with this strange Imperium of Man now?
Had their tech tree gone awry?
If they didn't have the ability for real-time communication, how did they manage to bring the entire galaxy under their rule?
Noah's doubts grew more intense; on one hand, he was complaining about the Imperium of Man's bizarre technology, and on the other, he was reluctantly accepting such primitive communication.
Noah quickly arrived at the Astropathic Choir, but the scene there exceeded his expectations.
Even though he had activated the super-energy shield to resist the invasion of Chaos energy, a large number of Astropaths inside the Astropathic Choir were still collapsed on the ground, wailing loudly.
And these were the lucky ones; those with worse luck had already gone completely mad, shouting and screaming like lunatics.
At the moment Noah stepped into the Astropathic Choir, his pupils constricted slightly at such a sight.
Inside the hall, dozens of Astropaths lay on the ground, some curled up in a ball, hands clutching their heads, emitting painful groans.
Others frantically clawed at their skin, as if wanting to tear open their flesh and dig out some unseen corruption.
The most severely affected had completely lost their minds; they knelt on the ground, laughing maniacally, muttering blasphemous Chaos prayers, with black foul blood seeping from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
"Chaos corruption…" Noah frowned tightly and immediately activated a psionic scan.
In his perception, the entire Astropathic Choir was saturated with Chaos energy, and the souls of those Astropaths were like being entangled by countless tentacles, twisted and deformed.
Their minds were torn apart by the Warp's tidal wave, some having completely collapsed, becoming puppets of Chaos.
"Your Excellency, governor!" The Astropathic Choir's supervisor—an elderly Astropath—barely maintaining his sanity, stumbled and crawled over, "The Warp… the Warp is roaring! We heard… heard…"
His words cut off abruptly, his eyes suddenly widened, a gurgling sound came from his throat, and then he suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood and fell straight down.
Noah could not stand by and watch his citizens die in front of him, so his immense psionics was also mobilized, beginning to obliterate all surrounding Chaos energy.
When Noah's high-level psionics poured out, all the surrounding Chaos energy was purified.
The Chaos energy was instantly dealt with directly.
Then a large amount of psionics surged into the bodies of these Astropaths, restoring them.
But even with Noah's energy, they were still groaning.
After largely restoring these citizens under him to normal, Noah frowned and withdrew his psionics, then turned to his bodyguards and instructed them.
"Go get 10 purifiers now and place them here in the Astropathic Choir to purify this Chaos energy, to process and purify it.
These sh*t-like things must not be allowed to appear on my planet."
"The super-energy shield will not be turned off; it will remain on, absolutely not allowing that Chaos energy to enter.
Now, all factories are to work overtime to produce Warp energy purifiers; this energy must be purified before it can be let in."
Noah's expression was extremely ugly, as if he had run into a pile of sh*t.
And in reality, it was like that; when he released his psionics to solve these problems, for him, it was equivalent to directly stirring his hand in a pile of sh*t.
Noah's orders were quickly carried out.
10 Warp energy purifiers were urgently transported to the Astropathic Choir. As soon as these devices, shaped like giant metal obelisks, were activated, they immediately emitted a soft blue light, gradually breaking down and purifying the residual Chaos energy.
The Astropaths finally stopped their painful groans, but their minds had been severely damaged and would not be able to resume work for some time.
"Your Excellency, governor, the purifiers are operating normally." The AI adjutant reported, "But Chaos energy is still continuously infiltrating, and the concentration outside the shield is still rising."
Noah stood in the center of the Astropathic Choir, his gaze stern.
Alright, now the only people who could communicate and connect with the outside world were gone.
Noah really wanted to grab the person in charge of the Imperium of Man and give him a good beating. He really wanted to ask how this interstellar civilization had developed its technology.
He tolerated the reliance on the Warp for faster-than-light travel.
After all, the Warp was acceptable and indeed effective.
But why was there no way to conduct proper communication, only relying on Astropaths?
The Imperium of Man's performance, especially in terms of communication, was even worse than a common interstellar civilization that had just entered space, in Noah's opinion.
Sometimes he really doubted how such a civilization had endured for 40,000 years; wasn't this ridiculous?