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

Time has lost its meaning. No one knows how much time has passed—perhaps a moment, perhaps a century.

Just as Karen felt her will was about to be frozen into an eternal sculpture, she "heard" it. A crisp, clear sound, like a glacier cracking, seemed to come from the deepest part of the universe—

The last bulwark has crumbled.

That raging torrent of ice seemed to have finally found a channel to vent its fury!

They were no longer destructive forces, but rather flowed with a joyful rhythm along the newly opened passage that ran through the entire body!

The Ren and Du meridians are now open!

A complete and harmonious cycle took shape within her! It was no longer a raging glacier, but a gentle, flowing, small galaxy radiating the light of life!

One small circulation has been completed!

At that very moment, her soul, which had become incomparably dazzling due to her breakthrough, was completely exposed in the dark ocean of the warp!

"Entered the second stage: Inner Demons. Due to the increase in energy level, the soul of the tribulation transcendent will flash for a moment in the subspace, attracting the gaze and whispers of chaos. With the help of the external environment and the Dao Heart Jade Talisman, the flashing will be contained and the Dao Heart will be restored to stability."

Alkan said calmly, his eyes only on the massive amount of data he had collected.

In the subspace, countless beings lurking in the depths of darkness were instantly drawn to this newborn light of soul.

They emitted silent, chaotic whispers, full of malice and temptation, like cold venomous snakes, instantly invading the depths of Karen's consciousness through her still unstable soul connection!

The whisper instantly transformed into a chilling wave of spiritual energy, imbued with the meaning of "annihilation" and "end," completely enveloping her.

Karen was instantly plunged into absolute darkness and deathly silence! She felt as if she had been transported back to that desperate past when she was imprisoned by the black warship!

She could "hear" the silent, self-loathing screams emanating from the "monster" deep within her, a monster that had harmed her loved ones due to its uncontrollable power.

On the screen, the data line representing her mental state fluctuated wildly like the surface of a stormy sea. The gray-blue spectrum representing "fear" and "sadness" instantly surged to the red alert line.

However, just before the "Fear" demon was about to devour her, the "Taoist Heart Jade Talisman" on Karen's chest suddenly burst forth with a soft and pure moon-white light!

That light was not a flame, and could not dispel the cold, but it was like an ever-burning lighthouse, guiding travelers through the blizzard! This was precisely the power of the "Dharma Protector" described in the Foundation Building Scroll!

Under the protection of this light, Karen's Dao heart, which was about to be overwhelmed by fear, found an "anchor point" that had long been ingrained in her bones!

Instead of fighting the cold, she chose to "observe"!

She "saw" it! She saw that her pure intention to protect all life and the "fear" of freezing everything due to her uncontrollable power were not inherently opposed! They were two sides of the same coin!

Her past mistakes were not due to her "coldness," but to her "stubbornness"! Her mentor once said that the true "Tao" lies in "non-action."

The cycle of the four seasons is a universal law. The freezing of winter is not "death," but rather the earth accumulating strength to prepare for a more splendid "rebirth" in the next spring, making the deepest "protection."

At the end of "coldness" lies "life".

When this thought arose in her mind, which had been cleansed and made clear by the Daoist principles—

Her out-of-control, death-inducing icy power seemed to be transformed by her pure heart of "protection" at this moment, and a pure, stable, aurora-like brilliant white light shot up from the core of the spectrum!

The data line continued to fluctuate, but at the center of the fluctuation, an absolutely stable baseline, like the horizon, appeared.

Her fear of demons transformed into the annihilation cold wave that could freeze everything, but under the protection of the Dao Heart Jade Talisman, she finally broke through the opposition between cold and life, pushing the Profound Ice Technique to a whole new level!

The tribulation has ended, and the foundation is now stable.

When Karen stepped down from the throne, all fear vanished from her azure eyes, leaving only the clear tranquility of a sky after the rain.

Hector smiled at one of his two chief disciples and said softly, "Go to the prepared meditation room to cultivate in seclusion and stabilize your cultivation level."

Karen, who was at the Foundation Establishment stage, bowed deeply to her mentor.

Next up is Grol.

As his massive body sat on the device, the entire crystal chair groaned under the strain.

"The ascension ceremony begins. Phase One: Breakthrough."

A suppressed roar exploded from Grol's throat.

He felt that his meridians were no longer flesh and blood, but fragile pipes forcibly filled with magma from the Earth's core. Every cell was melting and carbonizing in extreme heat, an intense burning pain that could ignite and incinerate even the soul.

But he did not back down. Instead, he regarded this violent energy, which was enough to burn everything, as the "forge of the gods" that forged him.

He activated the "Rock Solid Mind Technique," focusing his will into a single point, desperately guarding the last vestige of clarity in his dantian.

Finally, after a deafening roar within his body, the last barrier was brutally breached.

The Ren and Du meridians were suddenly connected.

A small circulation of Qi has been completed.

"Phase Two: The Tribulation of Inner Demons"

Unlike the chilling gazes drawn by Karen's soul light, Grol's soul, as fiery as the rising sun, burst forth with unparalleled light and heat in the warp, instantly attracting those chaotic entities that craved war and slaughter.

Countless chaotic whispers, filled with rage and destructive desires, like boiling magma, instantly overwhelmed his reason, igniting the beast within him that represented "out of control," transforming it into a raging demon that consumed everything.

A murderous urge powerful enough to incinerate the stars instantly overwhelmed his will. On the screen, the crimson spectrum representing "rage" instantly spiked, its intensity far exceeding Karen's previous peak.

However, just before the rage was about to completely engulf him, the "Dao Heart Jade Talisman" on his chest suddenly emitted a thick, steady, dark yellow light.

The light was not as gentle and guiding as Karen's; instead, it transformed into an invisible, majestic divine mountain that suppressed all ages, forcibly fixing a "stabilizing needle" in his raging sea of ​​consciousness.

Under the oppressive weight of this sacred mountain, Grol's reason, on the verge of being consumed by rage, found its final anchor. He abruptly slumped his shoulders, his spine straightening like a great dragon. He didn't suppress it, nor did he roar; he simply tightened his muscles in a most instinctive posture.

He "saw" it; he saw the beast within himself, weakened by fear that had "lost control."

"I am not a withered tree burned by flames. I am the volcano itself, bearing the surging magma."

On the screen, the crimson spectrum did not weaken; instead, it burned even more intensely.

However, in that raging crimson core, a black iron-colored light spot, like steel forged through countless hammer blows and gleaming with a tenacious light, suddenly appeared.

It is Grol's indomitable "warrior's heart," the most solid and stable foundation of that volcano.

The data cable continued to jump wildly, but all the jumps could no longer break through that absolutely solid bottom line constructed of black iron-colored light spots.

After a long while, all the abnormal fluctuations subsided, and the warriors returned to complete calm.

After giving Hector a warrior's salute, the Foundation Establishment monk Grol walked into the meditation room.

Their success stunned all the spectators.

Even from behind Kelbo Hall's cold, brass mask, a startled, electric sound emanated.

But he remained confident.

Because he knew that the real "killer move" was only just beginning.

Chapter 187 The Logician

The final moment has arrived.

It was the turn of the Martian Technologist, Tectus-19. With the precise steps of a sergeant, he walked expressionlessly onto the black crystal throne.

He held the warm, smooth "Dao Heart Jade Talisman" tightly in his hand, but deep in his eyes, an unresolvable madness, a logical paradox, still burned.

"The ascension ceremony begins. Phase One: Breakthrough."

Unlike the arduous journeys faced by Karen and Groer, the Tectus-19's breakthrough was remarkably "smooth."

That enormous torrent of energy flowed freely through his meticulously modified body, which had undergone countless mechanical modifications.

His body was a mixture of flesh and machine, fused with psychic energy. The fused version of the "Ren and Du meridians" that operated on psychic energy seemed to have long been accustomed to this high-intensity energy impact, and was easily opened up almost the instant the energy injection was triggered.

But all the spectators knew that this was just the calm before the storm.

Phase Two: The Tribulation of Inner Demons

Alkan's electronic voice took on a rare touch of solemnity.

"Om-!"

A psionic storm, completely different from the previous one, instantly enveloped Tectus!

That wasn't an emotional shock; it was a far more terrifying mathematical war, filled with logical distortions and data corruption.

Before Tectus's eyes, he was instantly plunged into a white data hell composed of countless contradictory logical algorithms running simultaneously!

He "saw" it!

He saw the two absolute fallacies, "1=0" and "0=1," forcibly imprinted into the core of his thinking in the form of universal axioms.

He saw an "omnipotent" Omniscient being trying to create a stone that "He Himself could not lift," and he had to calculate the result in 0.01 seconds.

He saw his already torn core of thought being repeatedly crushed and torn apart by that ancient and massive "artificial intelligence" machine soul with billions of higher-dimensional paradoxes that he could not understand!

"what--!!!"

A scream, inhuman and filled with extreme pain, erupted from deep within his throat!

On the screen, the data line representing his mental state instantly turned into a meaningless mess of gibberish and static.

All vital signs were plummeting at a visible rate!

"ended."

Kelbo's electronic voice is filled with a victorious, icy calm.

He had even prepared a report to the Regent detailing the experiment's failure.

However, just when everyone thought that Tectus was doomed to fail and was about to be completely devoured by his own inner "logic"—the "Taoist Heart Jade Talisman" on his chest burst forth with an unprecedented, dazzling moon-white light!

Within that light, there seemed to be a voice.

"Dao begets one, one life two, two begets three, three begets everything."

"The Tao understands all things, and allows for ambiguity."

This Daoist aura, like a "divine command" that cannot be defined by any logic, instantly pierced through the chaotic core of Tectus's mind, which was already occupied by paradoxes!

His soul, which was about to be completely torn apart, found its last "anchor point" under the protection of this power, a place he had long forgotten deep in the ruins of data!

He remembered his mentor's words.

"'Tao' is not the answer. It is just another door."

Yes... why bother "solving" that paradox?

He suddenly awoke, no longer trying to use his already corrupted logic to calculate an unsolvable answer.

He chose to "surpass" it.

The fact that there is no solution is itself an answer!

That obsessive heart of a tech priest, filled with "logic" and "data," merged perfectly with the "Daozang: Foundation Building Chapter," a book full of "harmony" and "balance."

Already possessing immense power, he became the first to use the "binary" language to understand "Yin and Yang"...

On the screen, a miracle occurred! The chaotic mess that should have completely collapsed and was filled with gibberish miraculously began to reassemble.

He reclassified and summarized those contradictory paradoxes using a completely new logic of "yin" (0) and "yang" (1)!

He used a brand-new algorithm based on "harmony" and "balance" to slowly smooth out and straighten out those raging data storms!

Ultimately, that chaotic swamp of data, at the core of his mind, reformed into a... perfect, slowly rotating image composed of countless "0"s and "1"s...

Binary Taiji Diagram.

This open and undeniable victory, like a hammer forged from the very law itself, shattered Kelbo Hall's seemingly impregnable fortress of "steel dogma"!

His body, that massive war husk, staggered backward uncontrollably.

His human eyes, burning with a wary flame, were fixed on the sacred pattern composed of "0" and "1," a pattern full of contradictory yet harmonious beauty.

All confidence and pride vanished from his eyes.

All that remains is an absolute... bewilderment after the collapse of faith.

Without a doubt, Hector won this war between "the Way" and "iron".

Chapter 188 The Aftermath of the Fulcrum

Terra, the cradle of tens of thousands of years of human civilization's glory and sins.

Under its eternal light, time seems to be twisted into two completely different flows by an invisible, transformative force.

For the empire’s vast, bloated bureaucracy, which moved as slowly as a prehistoric behemoth, several months was but a tiny fraction of the long journey of countless reports traveling between different departments.

It is a thin layer of dust, easily overlooked, on top of the mountain of parchment scrolls.