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

Hector's voice, as calm as the eternal starry sky, rang in her ears, "Your great mentor is far more polite than you."

Echo's body suddenly stiffened!

Incredulously, she slowly turned her head to look at the deepest, darkest corner of the quiet room, a place where even the light seemed to be swallowed up.

What did she see?

She saw that the darkness, which should have been absolutely empty, now distorted slightly, like the surface of a calm lake tossed with a stone.

Immediately afterwards, a figure that was almost integrated with the darkness itself, whose gender could not be discerned, and whose physical form could not even be determined, as if it were composed of pure shadows, slowly seeped out from that void!

Its appearance did not cause any energy fluctuations, nor did it stir up the slightest sound.

But the entire order of the quiet room was forcibly overridden the moment it appeared by an invisible yet unstoppable will!

This place is no longer the Wenxinzhai (Studio of Inquiry).

This place has become the Kingdom of Shadows!

In Echo's frozen purple starry eyes, a trace of genuine fear, emanating from the deepest part of her soul, was revealed!

She knew who it was.

The supreme leader of the Imperial Assassin Court, the chief mentor of the six great temples, the one who only exists in legends, known as Lord Shadow!

He actually came here in person?

Moreover, it seems they have been there for quite some time?

And he, the empire's top assassin, was completely unaware of this?!

A chilling feeling, not from talent but from pure failure, instantly overwhelmed her!

"Interesting, really interesting."

The figure, constructed entirely of darkness, slowly spoke. Its voice seemed to be composed of countless different voices superimposed simultaneously, filled with an undefinable, abyssal echo.

"An being immune to nothingness. A mortal who can even see through my ultimate veil."

Chapter 145 Isabel (Bonus Chapter 4)

His face, which was obscured, turned to Hector. That gaze, so intense that it could make even the Imperial Guard tremble, now held a complex mix of wariness and excitement.

“Hector Kane,” he said slowly, uttering the name. “You are more interesting than I imagined.”

Hector did not answer immediately.

He simply and calmly withdrew the hand that had been resting on "Echo's" shoulder. Then, he nodded slightly to the figure that seemed to be the embodiment of the abyss, as if welcoming an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time.

"You flatter me, sir of the Assassin's Court." His voice, though not loud, was clear and resonated throughout the area shrouded in the Law of Shadow, carrying no trace of awe, only an equal and composed demeanor imbued with the essence of the Dao.

"I just happen to have a slight understanding of the nature of shadows."

He slowly raised his hand.

At this moment, his dojo, filled with harmony and balance, silently revealed a sense of emptiness that was extremely similar to, yet completely different from, the ethereal aura emanating from Lord Shadow!

"All things under heaven are born from existence, and existence is born from non-existence." His voice, like that of the most learned philosopher, was expounding the most fundamental truth of the universe. "You are the ultimate nothingness. You have transformed yourself into absolute darkness and absolute nothingness to hide yourself. This is the pinnacle of art."

“But,” he changed the subject, “you seem to have forgotten something. Nothingness is not non-existence. On the contrary, it is the root of existence…”

He slowly opened his palms.

"And I do not pursue nothingness."

"I am nothingness."

As he uttered his last word, his dojo, in an instant, swept away that shadow realm filled with negation and nothingness, unstoppably...

The Shadow Lord's body, the figure constructed from pure darkness, trembled violently!

It felt as if its invincible ultimate veil, capable of deceiving any scanner and psychic perception, had crashed into a universe even emptier than nothingness itself!

"You..." His voice was filled with an indefinable, abyss-like echo, tinged with an undisguised shock!

“It seems the meeting can begin now.” Hector smiled and gently pushed the cup of tea, which had been prepared for “Echo” but had never been touched, to the center of the quiet room.

"Please sit down, Your Excellency Grand Master. I think we have a lot to discuss regarding the future of the Jiejiao Academy and your esteemed court."

In the shadows, the figure, almost blending into the darkness, remained silent for a long time.

A long time, a long time.

That deep darkness, as if it had gained a physical form, slowly writhed, and finally, on the futon that originally belonged to "Echo," it coalesced into a blurry human figure sitting cross-legged.

"Your 'path' is indeed... beyond my expectations." The Shadow Lord's voice rang out again, but it contained less of a condescending scrutiny and more of the solemnity of an equal player. "State your conditions, Hector Kane. You know that we, the Assassin's Court, never engage in meaningless 'talks'."

"Echo" stared blankly at all of this; her heart, which had been frozen for centuries, was completely overturned at this moment.

She had always believed that her great mentor was the closest being to nothingness in the universe. But now she understood that true nothingness was not about becoming darkness.

Instead, it can silence even the darkness, and even... make people sit down and drink tea.

“My conditions are simple,” Hector replied calmly, as if he had already foreseen the course of this conversation. “The Intercepting Cult Academy will become the strongest backing for all assassins in the Empire. We will provide you with the safest sanctuary, and most importantly…”

His gaze shifted to the silver-haired female assassin beside him, whose posture remained tense.

"A path that will enable you to truly become the masters of your own power."

He slowly laid out his conditions, his bargaining chips that were enough to drive the entire Assassin's Court mad.

“I will research for your court a ‘mental technique’ that will allow the Churisas assassins to use their abilities more stably and even ‘controllably’. A ‘method’ that will allow you to control your ‘nothingness’ at will.”

“In exchange,” his gaze sharpened, “I need to share your court’s intelligence network. I need to know all the unseen undercurrents hidden in the deepest shadows of the empire.”

This is a silent contract.

A sacred covenant that completely binds the Tao of the East with the shadow of the Empire.

"...The contract is established."

After a long period of contemplation, the Shadow Master's voice finally gave an affirmative answer.

Then, the condensed humanoid black shadow, like an ink droplet merging into water, silently dissipated into the absolute darkness, as if it had never existed.

A silent confrontation between two shadows, a confrontation that could shake the entire Terra, quietly came to an end in this small, quiet room.

In the quiet room, only Hector and the silver-haired female assassin, still in a state of great shock, remained.

Hector didn't say anything more, but simply pushed the cup of warm tea toward her again.

As the female assassin's figure finally vanished into the shadows of the quiet room as if she had never existed, she slowly turned her head just before completely merging into the darkness.

Her icy, purple, star-like eyes gazed deeply at the figure who remained seated cross-legged on the futon, as serene as the universe itself.

“Isabel…you can call me…Isabel.”

Hector could clearly see that the corners of her pale, sculpted mouth were slightly upturned, forming an extremely subtle and awkward curve.

It was a smile.

A facial movement that she had long forgotten.

When Hector was completely alone in the quiet room, he looked at the spot where the figure had disappeared, glanced at his hands, and a mixture of helplessness and amusement appeared on his face.

"It seems... the effect is a bit too good."

Chapter 146 Dao Wei Pleads for Help (5 Extra Chapters)

Terra, Wenxinzhai.

Several standard months have passed since Hector Kane returned from the storm of laws that overturned the understanding of the old noble and navigator families of Terra.

This sky garden, suspended in the eastern seventh district of the Imperial Palace, is no longer simply a place for cultivation.

It's more like a sophisticated "thought furnace" operating at high speed, independent of the Empire's massive war machine. Screening reports about wild psionicists from all corners of the galaxy pour in like snowflakes. After passing through the cold and rigorous triple filtration of the "Legal Ruler," only less than one percent of the "potential talents" are qualified to step through the gate constructed of moon-white jade.

To the outside world, the Jie Sect's Dao Academy remains mysterious, low-key, and even somewhat aloof. But to those within it, it is the only sanctuary in the entire dark universe where the soul can find true peace.

At this moment, in the private meditation room on the top floor of Wenxinzhai, which belonged only to Hector, time seemed to have lost its meaning.

The golden elixir has been formed, and the Dao body has begun to take shape.

Heck sat cross-legged on the futon carved from white jade, his entire being seemingly merging with the dark alloy wall surrounding him, which absorbed all light and energy fluctuations. He didn't consciously circulate his cultivation technique, but the golden core within his dantian, like a miniature universe, was spontaneously and slowly rotating in a mysterious rhythm perfectly synchronized with Terra's revolution period.

Each rotation triggered the vast ocean of true essence within his body, which underwent a gentle yet profound baptism along the "small circulation" path that had already connected the Ren and Du meridians.

His physical body is being transformed, little by little, from the most basic particle level by this energy originating from the source of life, into a higher-dimensional "Tao body" that lies between energy and matter.

His consciousness underwent a qualitative change at this moment. It was no longer the kind of "perception" that required active external projection during the Foundation Establishment stage, but rather transformed into a "domain" that was perfectly integrated with his own "Daoist field" and constantly exchanged information with the outside world.

Within this realm, he could "hear" the steady hum of the biological core within the Imperial Guards, like a furnace; he could "see" the photons flowing through the energy conduits, surging like magma from the earth's veins; and he could even vaguely sense, in another, deeper spire of the Imperial Palace, the will of the Imperial Regent Macado, as deep as an ancient well, yet carrying a trace of eternal weariness.

This was an unprecedented, almost omniscient sense of control. He was like a true god, looking down upon the small "Garden of Eden" he had created with his own hands.

However, it was precisely in this extreme tranquility that a jarring noise, not belonging to this world and filled with "disorder" and "despair," forcibly invaded his perfect "dojo" without warning through an absolutely encrypted communication line directly from the "silent cellar."

Hector slowly opened his eyes.

His dark, abyss-like, calm eyes reflected a holographic projection in the center of the quiet room: a "data ghost" that was violently pulsating, filled with snow and gibberish.

That was not a standard Imperial intelligence document.

That was... a will.

A fragmented, encrypted message in Astronomical language, delayed for several Terran days, was painstakingly captured and recorded by the Seeker's crew amidst the raging waves of the Warp, and then subjected to hundreds of millions of data reconstructions and decryptions by the Silent Cellar's super logic engine before finally appearing before him.

The core of the message is an audio clip.

Hector recognized that voice all too well. It was the leader of the Dao Guard, the man with the hideous scars on his face, the one who buried all of Monakia's sorrow deep within his heart—Barrow.

But at this moment, that voice, which was as steady as a rock, was filled with unprecedented urgency and exhaustion, as if every word was squeezed out from burning lungs with the last bit of strength.

"...Mentor...zz...zz...it's...a trap..."

Barrow's voice was fragmented by waves of malicious psychic static electricity that sounded like the wails of souls.

"...The Bonebreaker...sizzle...Tzeentch...the entire lower nest...sizzle...they've all gone mad..."

When that name, like the hiss of a venomous snake, emerged from that fragmented audio, Hector's Dao heart, which had long been as still as a deep well due to the completion of his Golden Core, stirred for the first time with a chilling ripple!

“...They are...building...an...'altar of lies'...coordinates...zz...zz...sent...that thing...like a...resonating obelisk...alien creation...it is...distorting...reality…”

On the holographic projection, accompanied by Barona's intermittent calls for help, a similarly incomplete star map, riddled with data gaps, was painstakingly pieced together. The coordinates pointed precisely to the depths of the Lower Nest world, Necromonda, a hellish place where the sun never rises.

"...The law enforcement officers...are their men...We were...betrayed...and plunged into...a deadly battle...Brothers...half killed, half wounded..."

Barrow's voice grew weaker and weaker, as if it would be completely swallowed up by the violent psionic noise at any moment.

"...We...retreat...to...coordinates...an abandoned...forge...this is...the...last...line of defense..."

The message ended with a deafening explosion and Barona's final roar, filled with determination and boundless rage.

"—For Monakia!!!"

Then, communication was completely cut off.

All that remained was a deathly, ominous busy signal.

The entire quiet room fell into a deathly silence even deeper than that of the "Darkness Zone".

Hector sat there quietly, his handsome face, imbued with the essence of Tao, expressionless. But his dark pupils seemed to transform in an instant into two slowly rotating, ultimate black holes, capable of devouring all light and hope.

Delayed for several days...

what does this mean?

This means that when he heard Barrow's final, resolute roar, the battle might have already ended.

This means that his thirty followers, who regarded themselves as their only faith and "protection" as their final destination, may have already turned into thirty cold, forgotten corpses in that steel jungle overwhelmed by lies and betrayals.

A chill ran through me, a feeling of being fooled and then suddenly becoming clear-headed, straight to the top of my head!

He remembered his mission: to investigate, and... purify.

It turns out that this was not a simple "investigation" task from the very beginning.

This is a... sacrifice.

The Empire's "dark side" wouldn't just target him personally, forgetting the other unique military force within the Dao Academy.

They didn't need to prepare anything in advance; they only needed to act after the Dao Guards revealed themselves.

For him, for this "outlier" who has just jumped off the chessboard, a "welcome ceremony" full of malice and mockery was carefully prepared!