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

There was no explosion of light, no shockwave of energy.

There was only one... an absolute "annihilation" that could devour even the light itself!

The area created by the collision of laws was like a sphere that had been "erased" out of thin air. In an instant, it turned the few remaining unlucky Starbone Warriors, along with their bodies filled with forbidden genes and their wailing souls, into the most basic and meaningless particles!

Meanwhile, in the void outside the crystal platform, those representatives of the old nobles who were originally preparing to reap the benefits were like fragile sailboats hit head-on by an invisible tsunami originating from the level of laws. Their psionic shields, their genetic modifications, and their self-righteous and noble bloodlines were as fragile as paper in the face of this higher-dimensional storm!

Before they could even utter a scream, the dissipating, gold and black intertwined aftershocks of the law, along with their souls filled with greed and conspiracy, were completely wiped out of this universe!

When that "annihilation" sphere of light, powerful enough to obliterate stars, slowly dissipated, the entire "Myriad Realms Star Chart Pavilion" was already a scene of utter devastation.

That once brilliant sea of ​​stars, as dazzling as the center of the universe, has been completely extinguished, leaving only a few dim stars, clinging to life like candles in the wind, trembling in the endless darkness.

The circular platform, constructed of transparent crystal and suspended in the void, had long been shattered, leaving only a small, island-like remnant less than ten meters square.

On this isolated island, Hector Kane still stood silently. His grey Daoist robe, constructed from golden core essence, remained completely unblemished even amidst the aftershocks of the storm of laws. He seemed to be the only unchanging "origin" in this devastating catastrophe.

Opposite him, Orionus, the patriarch of the Navigator family, lay sprawled on the remnants of the void. His third eye, once capable of distorting reality, had now completely lost its luster, leaving only a deathly stillness like charred charcoal. In that head-on clash with the will of order, his "eye" had been utterly destroyed.

But, he is still alive.

Because at the very center of that clash of laws, Hector, with his newly formed Dao body, acted like a pillar stabilizing the sea, bearing and dissolving most of the energy aftershocks that were enough to level the entire spire.

"Why...why did you save me?" Orionus stared at Hector in disbelief with his shrunken, human eyes, his voice hoarse as if two pieces of rusty metal were rubbing against each other.

“I did not save you, Chieftain,” Hector replied calmly. His strange eyes, one like eternal night and the other like a star, did not look at the Navigator Chieftain who had long since become a cripple. Instead, he slowly raised his head and looked at the huge spatial rift that had been forcibly torn open by the golden Guardian Spear.

What I'm saving is 'cause and effect'.

His voice, though not loud, was clear and resonated deep within Orionus's soul.

“If you die here, the wrath of the Navigator family and the old nobles of Terra will surely be directed at the ‘Intercepting Cult Academy.’ An avoidable internal conflict will be prematurely ignited in the heart of the Empire. That is not in accordance with my ‘Way’.”

"And if you live, you will forever bear the crime of 'attempting to murder the Imperial Regent's Envoy'... Only by living can you be powerless to do anything... and die forever."

For the first time, a despair deeper than death was revealed on Orionus's face, which was constantly "melting".

He knew he had lost. He had lost miserably.

Just then, a tall figure, as majestic as a golden mountain, slowly stepped out from the spatial rift.

He wore a relatively simple, unadorned power armor of the Imperial Guard, the surface of which was covered with countless tiny scratches left by the long years. He was not wearing a helmet, revealing a face as weathered and majestic as an ancient Roman sculpture.

Marcus Aurelius, the instructor of the Imperial Guard. Beyond the crack stood a whole column of Imperial Guards in formation.

His gaze did not fall upon the remains of the nobles, long since turned to cosmic dust, nor upon the navigator chieftain collapsed amidst the ruins. Instead, his eyes immediately fell upon the mortal youth standing on the isolated island, his figure slender yet upright like a pine tree.

He could clearly sense that the child had changed.

If, six months ago, he was a sharp sword concealed in its sheath, then now, he is that sword, completely merging with the furnace that forged it, the land that bore the furnace, and the sky that shrouds the land…

He is a universe unto himself.

"It seems I'm too late." Marcus Aurelius's deep, steady voice echoed through the ruins, devoid of any emotion, yet carrying a hint of relief.

“No, Instructor.” Hector bowed slightly to the ancient warrior who was like a teacher to him. “You’ve come at just the right time.”

That crack not only broke the physical confines.

More importantly, it allowed Hector, for the first time after forming his golden core, to reconnect with that familiar yet unfamiliar, turbulent place...

Subspace Ocean!

An indescribable torrent of information, so vast it could drive any Star Speaker mad, instantly surged into his senses through the crack!

That was the scream of countless souls, the echo of the birth and death of billions of civilizations, a chaotic symphony formed by desire, hatred, hope, despair... all emotions magnified a hundred million times!

However, this time, Hector felt completely different.

He no longer felt the "rejection" and "danger" that he used to need to carefully filter through a "silent domain," as he had in the past.

He felt a void he had never experienced before!

Chapter 128 The True Golden Core Tribulation (Bonus Chapter 4)

A kind of instinctive, primal "hunger" that a black hole feels when faced with a sea of ​​stars filled with matter and energy!

Within his dantian, the newly formed golden core, which resembled a perfect, self-circulating "mini-universe," reacted like a hungry infant the moment it came into contact with the violent subspace energy, emitting a silent cry filled with greed and longing!

It was frantically and actively absorbing the "link" between him and the subspace!

It wants to... "eat"!

A momentous realization, like the first lightning bolt of creation, cleaved through the last fog in his mind!

He understood it completely!

What he formed was merely a "pseudo-elixir"!

A half-finished product, like a greenhouse flower, that has only completed its "internal circulation"!

They possessed a perfect "Dao Body" and an inexhaustible "True Essence," but they lacked the most crucial and final step!

The final and most dangerous step for a true Golden Core cultivator is to gather all the "spiritual energy reflections" that shine like lighthouses and are as brilliant as stars in that turbulent subspace ocean into their own body!

The vast universe outside, belonging to "Heaven" and filled with infinite variables, and the small universe within oneself, belonging to "humanity" and filled with absolute order, are completely and perfectly merged into one!

Those who achieve the Great Perfection of the Golden Core will no longer be the dazzling "sun" that everyone can see and attack at the subspace level!

He will become something within the subspace that cannot be observed, cannot be locked onto, can devour all light and darkness, and can attribute all cause and effect to himself...

This is the ultimate embodiment of the "way of silence"!

This is the true meaning of "harmony between man and nature"!

This is the most perfect "stealth" posture for cultivators in this dark cosmic forest filled with hunters and prey!

"I see."

Hector slowly closed his strange eyes, one like eternal night and the other like a star.

His face showed no fear, only an absolute calm as he prepared to face his final trial.

He knew that his true "golden elixir" was now...

The "Heavenly Tribulation" has just begun.

Marcus Aurelius, the instructor of the Imperial Guard, spoke in his deep, steady voice amidst the ruins that had survived the catastrophe, for the first time tinged with a hint of confusion.

He saw that the mortal boy, who had just been like a god reborn from the ashes, exuding an awe-inspiring Daoist aura, was now once again becoming "illusory," his "Daoist body," which had just taken shape and seemed almost tangible.

That is not dissipation, but a deeper, inward collapse of "annihilation".

It was as if his newly formed body, full of harmony and vitality, was being swallowed up by a "black hole" that was more greedy and more terrifying, located at the core of his existence!

His gray Daoist robe, constructed from the true essence of the Golden Core, lost its luster, returning to its simple and unadorned state. His strange eyes, filled with a beauty of contradiction and harmony, slowly closed, as if resealing two universes that were annihilating each other beneath his eyelids.

He sat down quietly, cross-legged.

On that desolate island, built with the Navigator family's most advanced dark technology and filled with an aura of death and betrayal.

Before that spatial rift, torn open by the purest loyalty of the Imperial Guard, and constantly spewing out golden light of order.

Under the astonished protection of that ancient warrior who had lived for centuries and represented the strongest military force of the Imperial Guard.

Hector Kane, the seeker from afar, chose to undergo his tribulation on the spot!

Marcus Aurelius did not ask another question.

His eyes, as cold as an icy lake, simply gazed silently at the mortal before him, a man he could not comprehend at all.

He didn't know what the "Golden Core Heavenly Tribulation" was, but his intuition, which had been tempered by countless baptisms of blood and fire and had long been integrated with the battle itself, was screaming sharply!

He could clearly feel an indescribable, terrifying malice originating from a higher dimension, flowing along the spatial rift like millions of hungry star sharks that had smelled blood, frantically converging on this small, seemingly defenseless soul!

He didn't try to close the crack. Because from Hector's terrifyingly calm face, he recognized a familiar will—the will of a true warrior.

To live in the face of death, with no turning back!

He simply and slowly tightened his grip on the Guardian Spear, which had long since drunk the blood of countless gods and demons. His massive figure, like a golden mountain, silently stood between Hector and the ravaged ruins. He transformed himself into an unyielding, silent "Wall of Sighs."

He didn't know what the child was going to do.

But he knew that he had only one responsibility—

No "disturbance" of any kind is permitted until he finishes.

That realm, composed of pure emotions, ideas, and possibilities, is what mortals call the "Ocean of Chaos."

Here, there is no time, no space, only an eternal "existence" filled with contradictions and changes.

When the barrier that isolated cause and effect in the "Land of No Light" was forcibly torn apart by the spear of the Imperial Guard, which was filled with the will of order, assembled by Aurelius, an unprecedented and dazzling "singularity" suddenly erupted without warning in this eternal ocean of darkness!

That was not the birth of a star.

It was more like a lighthouse that had been suppressed for hundreds of millions of years, filled with absolute "order" and "harmony," and in an instant, it released all its light and heat without reservation!

The light was so pure, so "discordant," that the viscous chaotic energy surrounding it, composed of the wails of countless souls and the whispers of desire, was silently and massively "purified" as if it had encountered a natural enemy, revealing a brief, absolute "vacuum"!

This is Hector Kane's "pseudo-Dan," a "pseudo-reflection" in the warp!

In this dark forest filled with hunters and prey, how dazzling, how... a cultivator who has not yet achieved "unity with nature" and whose existence has not yet completely subsumed into "silence" is...

In an instant, four ancient and vast wills, slumbering in the deepest part of this chaotic ocean, acted simultaneously, as if they had been waiting for a long time!

Chapter 129 Quartet 1 (Bonus Chapter 5)

First Tribulation: Raging Blood Sea!

Just as Hector's consciousness sank into the vast subspace ocean that was connected to his newly formed Golden Core, a scorching wave filled with endless killing intent and destructive desire crashed down upon him!

The world before his eyes instantly transformed into an eternal battlefield constructed of blood and brass!

The sky was a dark red dome, constantly dripping with viscous blood. The earth was an endless plain paved with mountains of pale skulls from billions of different races. The air was thick with a nauseating, sweet-smelling stench of scalding blood, burning brass, and ignited fury!

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Billions of roars filled with madness and bloodlust, like tangible sound waves, violently assaulted his soul! He "saw" countless hideous demons of various shapes, clad in brass armor, engaged in an endless, meaningless bloody slaughter on this boundless plain!

They wielded their enormous, blood-dripping battle axes, severing the heads of their enemies and ripping out their hearts! They reveled in the throbbing of flesh, the clatter of bones being crushed, and the ultimate ecstasy of dragging everything into pure, irrational violence!

A primal, uncontrollable rage, like ignited explosives, erupted uncontrollably from the depths of Hector's Dao heart!

He wanted to tear these monsters that had blasphemed the word "battle" to shreds, along with the ugly god sitting on the brass throne behind them!

His newly formed "Dao Body" began to uncontrollably emit a violent, reddish-brown halo, like burning charcoal! For the first time, the harmonious operation of the warm "Dao Seed" within his dantian showed a violent tremor, indicating "imbalance"!

This is the tribulation of Khorne!

It doesn't seduce you, it doesn't deceive you. It simply... ignites you!

It twists and amplifies all your innermost thoughts about "justice," "anger," and "protection," turning them into the purest, most irrational killing!

However, just as Hector's Dao heart was about to be completely consumed by this endless rage, and he was about to become another "contributor" to that mountain of skulls—

The "earth" within the dantian's inner universe rumbled loudly.

He recalled the silent, mountain-like figure of Marcus Aurelius, the instructor of the Imperial Guard, within the "Arsenal of the Sun." He remembered Ferrus Manus, the solitary and obsessive Lord of Steel who upheld the principles of "flesh and blood, suffering and weakness."

"Anger is inefficient."

A voice, not his own yet crystal clear, as cold as two anvils clashing together, echoed in the deepest recesses of his soul.

"It is merely a quantifiable, flesh-and-blood chemical reaction produced by the excessive secretion of adrenaline acting on the cerebral cortex. It is full of variables and uncontrollable factors. It is a 'weakness'."

This absolutely rational, steely will, like a bucket of ice water made of liquid nitrogen, poured fiercely onto Hector's raging fury that was about to be ignited!

His eyes, which had turned bloodshot with anger, instantly regained a sliver of clarity!

"I... am not angry."

Looking at the endless sea of ​​blood before him, at the demons reveling in the frenzied slaughter, his Dao heart, which had been consumed by rage, was now covered by a higher level of "reason".

"I am analyzing."

He no longer "felt" that rage that could burn the universe to ashes.

He began to "deconstruct" it.

He deconstructed that raging roar into the most basic sound wave frequencies.

He deconstructed the splattered blood into its most primitive chemical formula.

He deconstructed the so-called "battle" into a series of inefficient energy exchanges filled with logical fallacies and devoid of any tactical aesthetics.