The spear was entirely black, without any luster, showing no special characteristics of a legendary weapon.
The spearhead was tri-edged and spiraled towards the end.
At the joint of the spear shaft and handle, there was a lifelike fire dragon.
The spear handle was covered with scale-like patterns, which improved the grip.
The end featured a two-headed eagle with folded wings.
Alex reached out and grasped the spear; it was heavy and substantial.
As he held it, the previously inert spear came alive.
The pitch-black spear shaft glowed, like a red-hot iron, shedding its original dark metallic patterns and weaving intricate, ancient crimson runes.
A feeling of telepathy emerged in his heart, making Alex smile involuntarily.
He casually swung it in his hand, and it produced a sharp whooshing sound.
The sharpness of this spear was beyond imagination.
"This weapon is so handy. I wonder who forged it."
As soon as he finished speaking, a golden light screen appeared, revealing the spear's name and its forger.
Name: Dragon's Tooth (Legendary)
This is a weapon forged by a father teaching his child, containing immortal power and might.
After Vulcan returned to the Imperium, he did not immediately reunite with his legion but stayed by the Emperor's side, personally taught by the Lord of Mankind for several years.
During this time, in addition to military strategy, astronomy, geography, and other knowledge, the Emperor also taught Vulcan how to forge weapons imbued with mystical power.
Vulcan hunted an ancient fire dragon that lived in the lava on Nocturne.
He took its teeth and combined them with various arcane metals.
Finally, he forged this spear of terrifying power.
When Dragon's Tooth is swung, scorching flames will rise from the spear tip, and its high temperature can melt metal, making its destructive power astonishing.
"Hehe, hurry up and use this spear to poke Magnus's single eye and burn Fulgrim's butt."
"Silently recite the enemy's name, then throw it out, and then it will..."
"Idiot, of course nothing will happen. Do you think it's the Spear of Gungnir, you big idiot? Just hold your weapon and fight properly."
Seeing that last sentence, the smile on Alex's face froze.
That damned Yellow Old Man!!
"Ignore the last sentence; don't let that scoundrel affect your mood."
Alex muttered to himself, bringing his attention back to the spear in his hand.
From the information provided by the light screen, he learned that this weapon was a legendary artifact forged by Vulcan.
As the master forger among the Primarchs, it was not surprising that he created this weapon.
Alex walked to the open space in the office and gracefully wielded the spear.
The heavy spear felt weightless in his hands, wielded with effortless ease, and was very handy.
The spear tip turned red, and flames suddenly surged, burning brightly.
"It feels a bit like the Fire-tipped Spear."
Alex mumbled, then held the spear and thrust it out fiercely.
A faint, ethereal dragon's roar sounded.
Immediately after, a fire dragon swept out.
It instantly set several bookshelves in the office ablaze.
"Holy crap!"
Alex hurriedly put away Dragon's Tooth and used his psychic power to extinguish the flames.
Noisy footsteps came from outside the door.
Accompanied by the hum of the force field disengaging and the hiss of hydraulic mechanisms, the closed office door opened to both sides.
A squad of Primaris Space Marines rushed in, quickly forming a defensive formation to protect Alex from all directions.
"Saint, we received an alarm. Are you alright?"
The captain vigilantly scanned the surroundings while cautiously asking.
Alex: "..."
Are you guys being overly cautious!!
You rushed over so fast!!
Fortunately, there's a dimensional space; otherwise, you would have found me playing with fire.
A dignified Saint playing with fire and burning down the house...
If that got out, his reputation would be ruined.
"During meditation, there was a slight accident, which caused my psychic power to go out of control."
"Cancel the alarm, and by the way, find someone to help me repair the bookshelves."
Alex made an excuse to prevaricate and sent the guard squad away.
The damaged bookshelves were quickly removed and replaced with new ones.
Afterward, Alex sent everyone out. He no longer fiddled with his weapon but got busy with the reforms.
The first thing, naturally, was to bring over the successful experiences of the Calixis Sector.
Establish the Imperial Bank, with Terra as guarantor for currency issuance.
The importance of controlling the purse strings goes without saying; he had to firmly control it himself.
The second thing was to increase military welfare.
For soldiers to wield their weapons well, A5 Wagyu beef at every meal is indispensable.
The third thing was to encourage public entrepreneurship, improve production efficiency, and encourage technological innovation.
Productivity is the key to all policies; if the pie isn't made bigger, it's useless how it's divided.
Alex issued a series of laws.
These included improving the welfare of the lower classes and increasing education spending.
Invest in areas such as finance and commerce.
At the same time, he vigorously combated corruption and improved administrative efficiency.
Suppress vested interest groups and provide an upward path for middle and lower-class individuals who have talent but no power.
Alex's series of actions were drastic.
A slight misstep, and the Imperium would directly collapse.
But given the current state of the Imperium, if it was unwilling to undergo painful reforms, its demise would only be a matter of time.
The High Lord of Terra were stunned.
The amendment bills Alex introduced in one day were more than they had discussed in a year.
More critically, he hadn't consulted them at all, merely informing them of what they should do.
Such authoritarianism and domineering naturally aroused strong protests.
Opposition voices rose one after another.
With their self-interests harmed, even though Alex was the God-Emperor's envoy, these people lost their reverence.
Many church personnel even secretly labeled Alex as an emissary sent from hell.
They claimed he had deceived the Emperor and the Primarchs with flowery words, descending upon Terra to cause destruction.
Power corrupted loyalty, and it corrupted oaths.
To firmly push through reform policies and implement various laws and regulations,
Alex's first target for reform was the Adeptus Arbites.
He wanted to first clear out the parasites within the Adeptus Arbites and then use the Adeptus Arbites to promote his reforms.
To prevent the Department of Justice from collapsing, Alex adopted a strategy of suppressing some while winning over others.
Factionalism and the exclusion of dissidents were common in the various departments on Terra.
Which family that had managed to remain on Terra until now didn't cultivate assassins or loyalists?
Once there was a conflict of interest, they would resort to various political suppressions against their enemies, and it was not uncommon for them to even make their opponents physically disappear.
Therefore, many families harbored grudges against each other, often blood feuds that would never end.
Alex exploited this hatred.
He divided, won over, and suppressed, and after dealing with one group, he would then divide new adversarial targets from the survivors, continuing to win them over and suppress them.
This process was continuously cycled until the entire Department of Justice was purged.
All high-ranking officials of the Department of Justice who colluded with Hive City gangs, abused their power, coerced confessions, maliciously fabricated wrongful cases, and even secretly supported smuggling were dismissed and stripped of their property and political power.
Many hereditary families in the Department of Justice were completely overthrown by Alex.
The citizens of the Hive City watched in stunned silence.
Many 'big shots' who were once high and mighty instantly fell into the dust, to the point where even stray dogs on the roadside could bark at them.
After the reforms touched the interests of the entrenched elite, many people harbored deep hatred for Alex.
Assassination attempts against him also increased.
They ambushed him on his inevitable routes, waiting for an opportunity to assassinate him.
They disguised themselves as petitioners, acting as human bombs.
They poisoned his water supply.
However, Alex still withstood the pressure and completed the reform and restructuring of the Department of Justice.
Subsequently, he had the restructured Department of Justice forcefully push through the reforms.
However, the reforms for the entire Terra soon met with resistance.
"One-third of the Charter Captains refused to unload, unless the Saint was willing to retract the absurd policies."
"Protest marches erupted in BT145 District; they demanded enough food."
"Some officials in the Ministry of Interior went on strike, demanding that you abolish the reform plan concerning the Ministry of Interior."
A series of messages announced the severe resistance encountered by the Terra reforms.
This string of bad news made Alex experience the same headache Guilliman once had.
And this was Terra after a wave of purges.
When Guilliman first arrived on Terra, the situation was probably even worse.
Facing a Terra with such an intricate web of interests,
forcefully pushing through reforms would inevitably lead to rivers of blood, corpses strewn everywhere, and even civil war.
But if reforms were not pushed, the Imperium would still collapse.
Even a Primarch could only choose to build a new logistics department to procure the necessary supplies for the Indomitus Crusade.
It was imaginable to what absurd extent Terra's bureaucracy had reached.
Even a Primarch felt despair upon seeing it.
This network of interests was deeply embedded within the Imperium's body; whether it was pulled out or not, death was certain.
Now, it was just the beginning, and the other side had already instigated strikes.
Terra had long lost its ability to be self-sufficient.
All food and water needed to be transported from other planets to sustain the citizens of Terra.
The Charter Captains were the main force responsible for this work.
Once they chose to strike, Terra would quickly fall into a deep pit of material shortages, followed by a great famine.
They seized upon this point, daring to play the strike game with Alex, hoping to force him to compromise.
"Mobilize more transport ships, maintain shipping routes, and prepare to replace those Charter Captains."
"Send someone to tell those Charter Captains that if they don't want to be Charter Captains, they should never be one again."
"I will only give them 24 hours to consider; if the time runs out and they still passively resist the Terra government by not unloading and occupying port berths,"
"they will all be arrested for treason against the Imperium, and their entire families will be wiped out."
"If even one person starves to death because of them, I will turn their entire families into bio-starch."
"Tell those striking fellows in the Ministry of Interior: if you want to work, work; if not, we'll replace you. Immediately order nearby troops to be stationed at the Ministry of Interior. Anyone found maliciously causing destruction will be immediately executed."
"Those who don't want to work will be immediately dismissed. Promote capable people who want to work. Threatening me won't get you anywhere."
"The only way to make me retract those reform policies is to rush in here with a bolter and blow my brains out."
"Also..."
Alex's orders were very firm.
Even if half of Terra's population had to be turned into bio-starch to feed the other half,
this reform had to be pushed through.
A short pain was always better than a long one.
If one refused surgery and did not remove the tumor out of fear of pain,
that tumor would continue to draw nutrients from the Imperium to strengthen itself.
The tumor would not stop when things got better; it would only grow larger and larger.
The best way was to endure the severe pain and excise it.
Doing so would certainly shed a lot of blood, but the wound would heal, and the Imperium would be reborn.
At this moment, Inquisitor Galen, led by a guard, passed through the busy crowd and arrived before Alex.
"Saint, the investigation into the Fifth Fleet has made preliminary progress."
"We found several special intermediaries; they tried to commit suicide, but we stopped them."
"By reading the memories of those intermediaries, we obtained some very urgent intelligence."
"A large-scale rebellion is brewing on Terra, possibly led by several current or former High Lord, and over 50 families may be involved in this matter."
"Additionally, there is another very important matter: the Minotaurs Chapter has entered the Sol System. They claim to have returned to Terra for replenishment, but I suspect they were instructed by a malicious High Lord."
"The enemy possesses very powerful forces; once a conflict erupts, the entire Terra will be plunged into civil unrest, and it might even affect the entire Sol System."