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

An indescribable, resolute will to "live in the face of death" exploded like a thunderclap in the core of his dying soul!

He wants to burn everything here, at this moment!

In this "Dark Realm" that isolates him from fate and denies existence, he will unleash his most brilliant, and also... final, strike at the Foundation Establishment stage!

He no longer tried to suppress his physical body, which was on the verge of collapse due to the erosion of the laws, nor did he try to maintain the long-dried-up ocean of true essence.

He voluntarily gave up all resistance!

He gave away all his remaining life essence (essence), that parched and pale ocean of true energy (qi) like a salt lake, and that Dao heart (spirit) that had long been tempered into perfect harmony under the crushing force of the four Primarchs' wills...

Use it all as fuel!

Without reservation, it was poured into the deepest part of his dantian, into that natal magic weapon that had been sleeping like a giant dragon since he established his foundation, and which he had never truly used on his own initiative!

—The Invisible Needle!

A faint, primal hum, not belonging to this dimension yet seemingly echoing throughout all of time, past and future, erupted from Hector's body!

The "law code" formed from his own essence, energy, and spirit, carrying all the causes and effects of his two lifetimes, was completely activated at this moment!

It is no longer a dormant "singularity".

It became something that could devour everything, deconstruct everything, and restore all things to their most fundamental "Tao"...

Outside, the pressure of the laws of that "Dark Realm" and the centripetal collapse of the "singularity" inside miraculously combined to form a perfect, closed, and absolute "alchemy" environment in that 0.01 second!

Hector's long-dried ocean of true essence, his shattered fragments of divine consciousness, and even the four primordial runes that had already merged into his sea of ​​consciousness and represented the will of the original body, were all absorbed, reshaped, and refined by the awakened "invisible needle" in this "dantian universe" constructed by himself, like a whale swallowing its prey, frantically and greedily!

Loka's "piety," Magnus's "seeking knowledge," Feralus's "materialism," Horus's "glory"... these powerful imprints of will that once almost tore him apart are no longer lofty "stars" at this moment, but have been completely shattered and absorbed, turning into the most fundamental nourishment full of contradictions and harmony that builds that "invisible needle"!

Hector raised his right hand high, the only one he could still move, the one that held the "Two Elements Sword".

At this moment, the "vessel" crafted by Alkan finally welcomed its true master and witnessed its first and only moment of complete blossoming!

The tai chi diagram inlaid with silver wire on the sword no longer emitted a soft, clear light.

It lit up!

It was as bright as the last ray of white before the end of the world!

The black and white energies flowed wildly across the small sword, no longer playing harmoniously, but transforming into a miniature, perfect force field capable of devouring and releasing everything!

Hector focused, projected, and manifested the "invisible needle" that had awakened and transcended matter through the "Two Elements Sword," his only "prism" in the real universe!

He did not make any further unnecessary movements.

He didn't look at the Starbuck Warriors and "Punishers" who were rushing towards him from all directions, exuding an aura of death and slaughter.

He didn't even look at the horrified faces of the old nobles and navigator chieftain Orionus outside the platform.

He simply, with himself as the center and the sword as the radius, calmly drew a perfect, closed circle within that encirclement constructed of death and slaughter, a circle filled with the meaning of "end" and "rebirth"...

"Understanding the Dao and Moving with Ease"

He spoke softly, as if reciting a final eulogy for himself and for this already predetermined tragedy.

An invisible, intangible, lightless, and dark sword mark, like a law rift that was "erased" from the canvas of the real universe, instantly spread outwards in all directions from its center, like ripples on water!

Time seemed to have been muted at that moment.

Space seemed to freeze completely at that moment.

All the Starbound Warriors and "Punishers" touched by this "circle," their murderous, charging postures, their ferocious metal masks, their raised weapons of law powerful enough to tear apart reality...

Everything was frozen in that eternal moment of 0.01 seconds!

There was no explosion, no flash of energy.

Not even the slightest sound was uttered.

The next moment, under Orionus's incredulous and horrified gaze, those powerful killing machines, constructed from dark technology and forbidden genes, began to collapse "logically" from the most basic material level, like ancient sand sculptures weathered for millions of years!

Their armor did not shatter, but rather, as if its most fundamental molecular bonds had been broken, it turned into basic, meaningless metallic powder, which scattered and fell down.

Their flesh and blood did not rot, but rather, as if time had been reversed, they were restored to their most primitive organic matter, which constituted life, and turned into wisps of smoke in the air.

The "cause" that sustained their existence was forcibly severed by Hector's sword, which he had risked everything for!

When the last enemy to come into contact with this move turned into dust and dissipated into the blood-red, distorted sea of ​​stars, the crystal platform once again returned to its chilling silence.

Hector remained in that stance, sword in hand, drawing his final circle.

But he also... "died".

His black suit, already torn to shreds by the aftershocks of the battle, had long since turned to ashes in the unbearable torrent of laws unleashed in that final strike.

Beneath it lay a body, like a cracked piece of ancient parchment, on the verge of collapse.

His skin, devoid of all color and luster, tightly enveloped his bones, resembling a mummy that had been dried for tens of thousands of years and excavated from an ancient pyramid.

All the light in his once calm, abyss-like black pupils has vanished, leaving only an absolute stillness, like the heat death of the universe.

Only the "Heart of Silence," bestowed by the Emperor and passed on by Aurelius, emanated a faint yet unwavering pure golden light belonging to the highest order of the human empire. Like a lonely lighthouse in a stormy sea, it barely held his soul, which was on the verge of dissipation like a candle in the wind, from utter nothingness.

He is like a statue standing alone in the afterglow of the apocalypse, watching over the ruins of civilization, filled with endless tragedy and loneliness.

Chapter 123 Dantian Singularity

A deathly stillness, purer than a vacuum and deeper than a tomb, enveloped the entire "Myriad Worlds Star Chart Museum".

That blood-red star sea, constructed of laws and filled with chaos and rage, still surges and twists silently. But in the center of that once noisy stage, filled with slaughter and destruction, only a solitary "statue" remains, filled with endless tragedy and loneliness.

Hector Kane.

Or rather, it was his "remains," like a mummy that had been dried for tens of thousands of years, long since devoid of all signs of life.

He remained in the same posture, sword in hand, drawing the final circle. The Yin-Yang Sword was still tightly gripped in his hand, which had long since withered like a claw.

The Tai Chi diagram on the sword, which was once as brilliant as the first ray of light at the beginning of the universe and was composed of black and white energies, has now completely disappeared, restoring its simple, unadorned, black and white original color.

His skin, devoid of all color and luster, tightly wrapped around his bones, appeared a dry, cracked, grayish-white.

He seemed to be "dead".

In the void outside the platform, the representatives of the old Terran nobles who had survived the silent "Daoist liberation" were staring at this perfect "trophy" with a distorted gaze that was a mixture of extreme fear and morbid ecstasy.

"Is he...is he dead?" A fat nobleman dressed in a magnificent silk robe and with gold ornaments implanted in his chin wiped the large beads of cold sweat that had seeped from his forehead with a silk handkerchief. His voice trembled slightly due to the excessive emotional fluctuations.

“Logic core determination: the target’s vital signs… have returned to zero.” Beside him, a representative from a technologically advanced aristocratic family, whose body was more than half replaced by gleaming mechanical prosthetics, answered in a cold electronic voice.

His mechanical eyes, flashing red light, were rapidly scanning a series of data streams filled with error codes and logical paradoxes. "But... around it, there exists a 'field' that cannot be scanned or defined by any known instrument. My scanning probe, the moment it touches that area, is... erased by 'logic'."

“I don’t care what that was!” another nobleman with a sinister face and eyes like a venomous snake said hoarsely, “The result is good! That damned ‘dean’ who appeared out of nowhere is finally dead! He and his ‘heresy’ that tried to overthrow the foundation of our millennia-old rule will all become dust in history!”

But their gaze quickly shifted from the relief of surviving the ordeal to a deeper, more insatiable desire.

Their gazes were all focused on the ancient navigator chieftain who still stood in the void, like the mastermind behind this tragedy.

“Chief Orionus,” the obese nobleman said in a tone filled with obsequiousness and longing, “Congratulations. You are about to obtain… an ultimate relic that will grant immortality to the entire Court family, and indeed, to the entire Navis Nobillit!”

On Orionus's face, which was constantly "melting" due to genetic mutation, a silent smile full of victorious arrogance appeared.

His enormous, black gem-like third eye was fixed on the "silent" body on the platform, its gaze filled with the undisguised greed of a gluttonous beast that sees the most delicious offering and wants to devour it whole, skin and bones!

Although the process was somewhat unexpected, and the cost far exceeded his expectations—his most elite legions of "Star Warriors" and "Punishers," born from dark technology and forbidden genes, were almost completely wiped out in this brief conflict, which could hardly even be called a "battle."

But so what?

All I need is the brain of this mortal man before me!

If only we could obtain his secret to transforming raging spiritual energy into pure "Tao"!

Let alone a mere private army, he would gladly sacrifice half of the Court family's wealth!

Orionus slowly raised his hand, which resembled a withered claw, and gave the final, cold command to the remaining Starbone Warriors on the platform who had narrowly escaped the impact of the previous "Dao-Jie" attack.

“Perform the ‘surgery.’ Be careful not to damage that…perfect head. As for the remaining fragments…” His voice was filled with disdain for flesh and blood, “…let them turn into dust in this sea of ​​stars.”

"Yes, my lord."

The few remaining Star Warriors, their electronic eyes flashing with a menacing red light, instantly recalibrated their target. With heavy, metallic steps, they cautiously approached the lifeless "statue" from three different directions.

In their hands, they no longer held the weapons of law used for direct combat, but instead, they had acquired sets of surgical instruments that gleamed with a cold light and were filled with various probes and cutting blades.

However, just as the leading Starbound Warrior was less than three meters away from Hector's withered body—

An invisible yet incredibly real "wall" appeared before him without warning!

A dull thud, like a battering ram striking the Wall of Sighs!

The massive mechanical body of the Star Warrior, constructed from pure violence and logic, was thrown backward as if it had crashed into an invisible mountain! His powerful impact, capable of easily tearing apart tank armor, couldn't even create a ripple in that invisible "wall"!

"Warning! Unknown repulsive field detected! Energy level...undefined!"

His cold, logical core instantly sounded a piercing alarm!

Switch to 'Blending' mode!

Without any hesitation, the other two Starbuck Warriors instantly retracted their surgical instruments and replaced them with two "piercing cones" that shimmered with gray energy fields and were specifically designed to dismantle energy shields!

"Fuck-"

Two streaks of gray energy pierced fiercely towards the invisible barrier!

However, a bizarre scene unfolded once again.

Those two law-based attacks, which were powerful enough to easily shatter any known energy shield, were instantly absorbed and evaporated upon contact with the barrier, like two drops of water falling into an endless desert, leaving no trace!

Outside the platform, the smiles on the faces of the old nobles who were preparing to celebrate their upcoming "harvest" instantly froze.

Chapter 124 A glimmer of hope

"This...what is this?"

"His corpse... was still resisting?"

"Impossible! This makes no sense!"

For the first time, a crack appeared on Orionus's twisted face, where the arrogant smile of a victor had been plastered on. The nebula in his enormous third eye suddenly began to spin faster.

they do not know.

Their barren imaginations, confined by the three-dimensional physical universe, simply cannot comprehend what kind of... creation-level cosmic explosion is unfolding within that seemingly "dead" body!

Hector's consciousness did not dissipate.

It simply... "sank".

At the moment he unleashed his final strike, "Dao Jie·You Ren," which consumed all his essence, energy, and spirit, his soul, which was about to be devoured by endless darkness and pain, was forcibly and brutally pulled into his own dantian by an irresistible centripetal force originating from the very core of existence.

This place was once a vast, tranquil, and vibrant ocean of true essence.

But now, here, is the "singularity".

It is the ultimate origin point that existed before the birth of the universe, a place that swallowed all light and darkness, time and space, existence and nothingness...

His consciousness did not dissipate, but was forcibly pulled into his dantian, where he "saw" a creation-level cosmic explosion!

His strike, which consumed all his energy and spirit, completely activated his "invisible needle," turning it into a "singularity" capable of devouring everything.

The isolation of the "lightless realm" created a "vacuum" environment, which, in relation to the Big Bang...

Isn't this exactly what the question should mean?

His long-dried-up ocean of true essence, the shattered fragments of divine consciousness, even the four primordial runes representing the original body's will that had already merged into his sea of ​​consciousness...

Loka's "devout devotion," that magnificent "perfect city" built by the faith of hundreds of millions of believers, collapsed the moment it was sucked into the singularity! All its "sacredness" and "meaning" were deconstructed by that absolute "nothingness," reduced to the most primordial fragments of laws filled with the meaning of "cohesion" and "protection"!

Magnus's "Pride of Knowledge," that surging ocean of data composed of infinite knowledge and mysteries, was instantly "evaporated" when it touched the edge of the singularity! All its "changes" and "possibilities" were unified by the ultimate "one," reduced to the purest primordial runes representing "exploration" and "creation"!

Ferrus's "material steel," that indestructible black iron mountain constructed of absolute logic and order, was forcibly "disassembled" at the most basic molecular level under the gravity of the singularity! All its "solidity" and "stubbornness" were reduced to the most essential material foundation, full of "existence" and "reality"!

Horus's "fire of glory," that blazing sun that could illuminate the entire galaxy, full of power and charisma, was extinguished the instant it was swallowed by the singularity! All its "light" and "heat" were reduced to the most primal form, representing "rule" and "responsibility"... the First Cause!

These absolute wills, which once nearly tore Hector apart and were powerful enough to be laws in themselves, are no longer lofty "stars." They have become the most fundamental "nutrients of law" that construct this new universe!

They were completely and mercilessly absorbed, refined, and taken over by the protagonist's "Dao"!

Seize the glimmer of hope! Seize all paths and use them for your own purposes!

Hector's consciousness realized... it seemed that this name... was also for himself?

When the last fragment of the Primarch's will was completely devoured and digested by the awakened "Invisible Needle," the "Singularity" finally reached a critical point.