Warhammer Cultivation: Cultivating the Tao Te Ching in the 40K Universe

Hector did not begin his explanation immediately, but slowly walked up to the thirty Dao Guards who, though physically exhausted, were more focused than ever before.

He didn't speak, but simply gazed at them one by one with his eyes as calm as an abyss.

In his view, the real material world loses its color, and in its place is a more realistic picture composed of countless flowing "qi" full of life information.

The thirty Dao Guards before them were the thirty black flames on this painting, each with the same base color but different shapes...

The underlying color of the flames was uniform. It was a deep black, like congealed blood, born from the burning of Monakia, the "perfect city," a mixture of betrayal, despair, and endless sorrow.

This is the source of all their power, the cornerstone of their Dao heart, and also... the heaviest shackles binding their souls.

But beneath this unified backdrop, the way each person's "hatred" burns is completely different.

His gaze first fell on the leader, Barrow.

Barrow's "qi" is the most profound and also the most "dull" among all the Dao Guardians.

That black fire of hatred was not like others, a violent, outward-burning form. It was more like a vast, slowly flowing lava lake inside a giant volcano. It did not erupt, it did not roar, but rather, with unstoppable force, it accumulated terrifying energy enough to turn the entire continent into scorched earth.

Outside this lava lake, there was an incredibly thick layer of "rocky aura," its color a deep black iron. That aura was filled with resilience, stubbornness, and a guardian's unwavering determination to be crushed rather than retreat a single step.

“Defense is stronger than offense, and its nature is earth. It can be the core of a formation and a strong shield.” A thought arose in Hector’s mind.

Then, his gaze shifted to another Dao Guard who had been the swiftest and most ruthless in the previous battle. His name was Kyle, an orphan who had lost all his family in the ashes of Monakia.

Kyle's "qi" took on a completely opposite form. His "vengeful fire" was not lava, but a black lightning bolt forcibly compressed within the scabbard! That flame was filled with extreme speed and penetrating power, constantly searching for an outlet.

Beyond that black lightning bolt, enveloping him was a bluish-gray "gale-force aura" that, like the vast grasslands, could invisibly cleave everything in two, imbued with a sense of "killing" and "swiftness."

"Its offensive capabilities surpass its defensive strengths, and its nature is like the wind. It can be used as a sharp blade or as an assassin."

Hector's gaze continued to wander.

He then saw a thin Taoist guard whose "hatred fire" was like a charcoal ember about to go out in winter. Although weak, it exuded a chilling resentment that could freeze the soul and penetrate to the bone.

He also saw a taciturn, towering man whose "hatred" was like a piece of raw iron that had been repeatedly forged and had long since lost all its impurities—hard, cold, and filled with an absolute "rejection" of everything external.

Thirty people, with many completely different forms and types of "qi".

Hector suddenly felt a sense of clarity.

He knew he could not, and should not, turn them all into copies of himself.

What he wanted to do was not to force a uniform "template" onto them, but rather to... categorize and assign tasks.

He recalled the 17,000 failed "perfections" he had seen in the "Solar Arsenal".

Their failure was not due to a lack of strength, but rather... a lack of "inclusivity." They all attempted to solve all problems with an extreme "Tao," and ultimately, due to their own "imbalance," they all perished.

And the core of Hector Kane and the "Tao" he inherited is "balance".

“A fire burns in the hearts of all of you.” Hector spoke slowly, his voice not loud, but clear, reaching the ears of every Dao Guardian. “This fire originates from Monakia. It is your pain, your shackles, but at the same time, it is also your most powerful weapon.”

“In the past, you let it burn, and it will turn into ‘karmic fire’ that harms both yourself and others, burning your souls to ashes.”

"And now, what I'm going to teach you is how to become the most skilled 'craftsman'."

“Your bodies are ‘furnaces.’ Your wills are ‘bellows.’ And the fire of hatred in your hearts is the ‘true fire’ that can forge supreme divine weapons!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he slowly took a seemingly simple but infinitely mysterious starting stance in the center of the empty training field.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, and arms wrapped around your chest as if embracing an invisible "circle" that fills the entire universe.

He didn't mention the word "Tai Chi." He knew that for these people, who had long been steeped in the iron-blooded culture of the empire, this mysterious term from a foreign civilization would only become an obstacle to their understanding.

He simply used the most straightforward and essential language to explain the most fundamental "principle" hidden within this set of boxing forms.

“This is the ‘foundation’ that all of you must master.” Hector’s voice became distant and profound. “I have named it the ‘Embracing the Origin Stance’.”

“Look,” he slowly shifted his weight from his left foot to his right, “everything in the universe has yin and yang. Left is yin, right is yang; emptiness is yin, fullness is yang; stillness is yin, movement is yang…”

"The core of the stance training you practiced in the past lies in 'stillness' and 'guarding.' That is only the 'yin' aspect. True strength lies in the 'mutual support of yin and yang.' You must learn to find the vitality of 'movement' in absolute stillness; and you must also learn to guard the foundation of 'stillness' in the most violent movement."

As he spoke, he slowly demonstrated the set of boxing techniques that had become ingrained in his very being. His movements were sometimes as fluid as flowing water, sometimes as imposing as a mountain; sometimes like a serpent emerging from its hole, sometimes like a tiger descending a mountain. It was not merely a set of moves, but a philosophy about dynamism.

"These fundamental skills are the key to controlling the 'furnace' within your heart. When you can find that absolute 'balance point' between movement and stillness, illusion and reality, you will no longer be slaves to the flame, but... masters of the flame."

Chapter 99 The Two-Element Battle Strategy

After imparting this fundamental mental technique that everyone must master, Hector's gaze once again fell upon Barrow.

"Barrow, step forward."

Without any hesitation, Barrow walked heavily to Hector.

“Your ‘qi’ is as heavy as a mountain, unbreakable.” Hector gazed at him. “Your ‘dao’ lies in ‘guarding’. But your ‘guarding’ is too rigid. Too much rigidity is easily broken. From today onwards, I will teach you the methods of ‘mountain’.”

He no longer used a sword, but instead used his bare hands. He slowly thrust out a palm towards Barrow.

"The core of the mountain's method has two aspects. The first is 'inheritance'."

His hand, seemingly moving slowly, carried a weight as heavy as the earth, bearing the weight of all things. Barrow instinctively tried to block with his best technique: brute force. But the moment his arm touched Hector's palm, he felt that the other's strength was not a "push," but rather a kind of... "accommodation"!

All his power was absorbed and neutralized by the opponent's seemingly fragile hand, like a clay ox sinking into the sea!

“True protection is not about braving the storm,” Hector’s voice echoed in his ears, “but about becoming an earth wider than the storm itself. Let it rage, I will remain unmoved. This is the true meaning of ‘immovable as a mountain.’”

Immediately afterwards, Hector's palm suddenly changed! That "accommodating" force instantly transformed into a "bursting" force full of explosive power!

"Secondly, it is 'collapse'!"

Barona's massive body once again uncontrollably staggered back several steps!

"Mountains can not only bear weight, but also... collapse!" Hector's voice boomed like thunder. "When the enemy thinks you can only defend and puts all their strength on you, that's when you return all the weight you bear, along with the weight of the mountain itself, to them! This is the power of 'mountain collapse'!"

After showing Barrow the way to the "mountain," Hector turned his gaze to the agile guardian, Kyle.

"Kyle, step forward."

Kyle's figure appeared in front of Hector in an instant, like a ghost.

“Your ‘qi’ is as swift as the wind, penetrating everywhere.” Hector looked at him. “Your ‘dao’ lies in ‘attack’. But your ‘attack’ is too sharp; too much sharpness is easily damaged. From today onwards, I will teach you the methods of ‘water’.”

He extended two fingers and gently guided Kyle's power sword, which was thrust at him like lightning.

"The essence of the water method has two parts. The first is 'entanglement'."

His fingers, like living seaweed, touched and circled the sharp blade! Kyle felt as if his sword, capable of piercing everything, had pierced into a viscous, swirling stream of water, and all his power was being deflected into nothingness by a subtle and ingenious "gravity"!

“Wind is a straight line. Water is a curve.” Hector’s voice flowed in his heart like a stream. “A true assassin is not the one with the fastest sword, but the one who knows how to adapt to the ‘momentum’. When your enemy is like a stubborn rock, you become as soft as silk to smooth out his edges. This is the meaning of ‘flowing water’.”

Immediately afterward, Hector's fingers, which were "entwined" around the sword, suddenly trembled! A high-frequency, penetrating force, like water dripping on stone, instantly traveled along the sword to Kyle's wrist!

"Secondly, it is 'severance'!"

Kyle felt a numbness in his wrist, and the heavy power sword slipped out of his hand uncontrollably!

“Water, the softest of all, yet the hardest of all!” Hector’s voice turned icy. “When a crack appears inside a stubborn rock, that is when you transform into the sharpest water blade, piercing through its weakest point! This is the deadly power of ‘dripping water wears away stone’!”

Over the next few days, Hector, in this "silent cellar" filled with deathly stillness and rules, opened a door to a completely new world of martial arts for his thirty followers.

He did not teach any fixed moves.

He simply used the martial arts philosophy of "balance" and "harmony" that he had learned in the "Sun Arsenal" as the foundation of the "Baoyuan Stance" derived from Tai Chi, and taught them according to their individual aptitudes, pointing out the direction of their respective "paths".

Led by Barrow, ten Dao Guardians with profound auras will specialize in the "Mountain" Dao. They will be the team's most unbreakable "shield" and the team's "rock".

Led by Kyle, ten agile Dao Guardians will specialize in the "Water" magic. They will be the team's sharpest and most lethal "swords," the team's "blade."

The remaining ten Dao Guards, each with their own distinct aura, will combine the strengths of both schools. They will serve as a "bridge" connecting "mountains" and "waters," and are the "variables" within the team.

A complete system of martial arts and combat tactics, brimming with limitless possibilities, and the prototype of a brand-new military branch that will make the entire empire take notice, were quietly born in the deepest darkness of Terra.

When Hector finished the first and most crucial "transmission of the Dharma," he looked at the Dao Guardians, who, though physically exhausted, had an unprecedented burning desire for power and the future in their eyes, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

“Your ‘Tao’ has already taken root. Your ‘Technique’ has also found its direction.”

His voice became incredibly solemn:

"Their inner cultivation method is called the 'Tempering Technique.' It uses hatred as fire and oneself as a vessel to transform 'karmic fire' into 'furnace fire,' forging an indestructible soul amidst suffering. This is your unique inner cultivation method, the one you, from Monakia, possess."

"In the future, if there are more orphans from Monakia... I will allow you to pass on this mental technique to them without reporting to me!"

The guards were so excited upon hearing this that they could hardly contain themselves, but Hector reached out his hand to stop them from bowing.

"Its martial art is called 'Two Elements Combat Technique.' It takes Yin and Yang as its principles and hardness and softness as its applications, controlling the key to life and death between movement and stillness. It will be the combat philosophy that you—and perhaps all warriors of the 'Intercepting Sect Academy' in the future—must master."

"You will no longer be just 'shields' that only defend."

Hector's gaze sharpened like a knife, sweeping over every Dao Guard present, and finally landing on Barrow, piercing straight into his soul!

"You will become the 'sword' for me and the empire!"

"A weapon powerful enough to protect all the innocent in this universe, to sever all injustice and blasphemy..."

"The Sword of the Daoist Academy!"

Chapter 100 Demand for Talisman Weapons

Over the next few Terra months, the most peculiar scene unfolded at the Silent Cellar, the Empire's most secretive intelligence base.

Hector Kane, the abbot of the Intercepting Cult, practically considered this place his second home.

His Foundation Establishment cultivation granted him energy far exceeding that of ordinary people. He only needed to engage in brief periods of deep meditation each day to fully restore his mind and true essence.

This gave him almost all his time to simultaneously advance several initiatives that attempted to change the future of the empire.

By day, he transformed into the most rigorous martial arts master. He imparted his "Two Elements Combat Method," derived from the essence of Tai Chi, to thirty Dao Guards without reservation.

He no longer simply demonstrated as he had the first time. He broke down each movement into the most basic methods of generating, circulating, and releasing force, making them repeat them over and over again until the essence of "balance" was completely integrated into their very being.

He watched Barrow, that rock-solid man, as he gradually learned to use "Entangling Silk Force" to neutralize the shadow agents' ghostly attacks, starting with his initial fierce resistance.

He also watched Kyle, the assassin who moved like the wind, and how he gradually learned to conceal his killing intent, like an undercurrent beneath a deep pool, after initially displaying his sharp edge.

Daowei... was Hector's first "ambition"—perhaps one day he would need to possess the power of a legion.

At night, while the guards used the "Tempering Technique" he taught them to guide their "Flame of Hatred" to heal the hidden injuries left by the day's training, Hector would go alone into the deepest part of the cellar, to a secret room with the highest level of encrypted communication access.

This is the nerve center that connects the entire empire to him.

He knew that having the "way" alone was not enough. His warriors also needed the right "tools".

He formally submitted a request to Regent Macado of the Empire—to access all the basic blueprints of the Imperial Armament Department concerning "standard individual weapons." This included everything from the laser rifles most commonly used by soldiers to the explosive guns and chainsaw swords used by Space Marines.

This application would have seemed like a pipe dream to any other department. Yet, it received approval from the highest level of authority within three specified timeframes.

Soon, a vast torrent of data, enough to drive any sage of the Mechanicus mad, surged into the holographic projection in front of him.

Hector didn't delve into the most advanced, forbidden weapons belonging to the Imperial Guard or the Assassin's Court. His gaze fell solely on the most basic, widespread, and "simple" weapons.

Because he knew that the true "Tao" was never built upon the most complex "tools". On the contrary, the simpler the tool, the more it resembled a pure white sheet of paper, and the more it could bear the most profound true meaning of the "Tao".

He matched these cold, murderous engineering blueprints with the mysterious and enigmatic Eastern "talisman" arrays in his mind, embarking on an even more arduous and magnificent "translation" project.

Meanwhile, at the other end of this project, tens of millions of kilometers away, lies Mars, another heart of the human empire, shrouded in endless red dust.

"Logic...contains paradoxes."

On Mars, in a separate, secret forge named the "Silent Forge," the cold, electronic voice of the sage Alcana echoes through the empty laboratory.

His compound eyes, composed of dozens of optical sensors, were staring intently at a holographic projection in front of him—a “circuit diagram” he couldn’t understand at all.

That "circuit diagram" is not composed of straight lines and standard geometric shapes. It is a seemingly chaotic yet subtly ordered "circle" composed of countless curves full of life's rhythm, flowing like clouds and water.

This is the first "talisman" sketch sent by Hector Kane from Terra—the "Tai Chi Transformation" rune array.

“According to your ‘Tao-Qi Resonance Theory,’” Alkan’s electronic voice was filled with the rigorous skepticism of a scientist towards “heretical” theories, “any energy circuit must follow the most fundamental laws of energy conservation and conduction. Energy can only flow from a higher potential to a lower potential. But your diagram…”

His metal fingertip pointed to a marker on the diagram indicating the direction of energy flow.

"...Here, energy is actually circulating on its own, and even generating 'amplification' out of thin air! This violates the most fundamental second law of thermodynamics in the universe! Kane, are you asking me to create a perpetual motion machine?"

“No, Your Excellency,” Hector’s reply, transmitted calmly through encrypted channels, “I am not asking you to create a perpetual motion machine. I am merely reminding you that the ‘dimension’ you are observing may be too low.”

“You see this diagram as a flat, two-dimensional ‘circuit board.’ But have you ever considered that it might just be an incomplete ‘shadow’ cast by a higher-dimensional ‘energy model’ in our three-dimensional world?”

Hector's reply, as if possessing some kind of magic, guided Alcan's thoughts into a completely new realm:

"This seemingly self-circulating loop might, in the fourth dimension that you cannot observe, connect to a much larger, ocean-like energy source?"

"And that so-called 'increase' did not arise out of thin air. It simply 'draws' a trace of energy from that higher-dimensional 'ocean' and 'transforms' it into a form that our dimension can understand."

"This does not violate the law of conservation of energy. It simply expands the scope of 'conservation'."