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

The Geller field resonance detector carefully probed Hector's seemingly calm but unfathomably deep spiritual sea with its invisible psionic probe!

Mars, with its most powerful "scalpel," capable of dissecting even the gods, is attempting to thoroughly quantify and analyze the impending "ripples" at the most fundamental particle level!

However, Hector remained standing there quietly.

His simple gray monk's robes, under the countless cold, probing scanning beams, remained utterly devoid of any human warmth.

He slowly raised his right hand.

With his index and middle fingers joined together, he resembled the most elegant calligrapher, sketching the trajectory of the "Tao" that had long been integrated into his soul in the air before he could wield his brush.

Then, he put down his pen.

His fingertips did not condense any visible energy, nor did they radiate any earth-shattering power.

He simply touched the cold, black obsidian from the Nocturn volcano with a light touch.

At this moment——

"Alarm! Alarm! Alarm!!!"

The piercing, grating electronic alarm sounded like a chain reaction that had been triggered, instantly echoing throughout the entire laboratory!

Those dozens of precision instruments, which should have been operating stably and represented the pinnacle of Martian technology, seemed to have fallen into the most thorough and incomprehensible collective "epilepsy" as if they had seen mortals witnessing the descent of gods!

On the screen of the quantum fluctuation scanner, the data curve that should have been smooth instantly turned into a meaningless chaos full of logical paradoxes!

All the optical sensors in the time-series spectral analysis array instantly turned reddish-brown due to the overloaded data stream, emitting wisps of black smoke filled with the smell of burning!

Meanwhile, the Geller field resonance detector that was trying to probe Hector's mental sea let out a mournful cry of being overwhelmed. Its core crystal matrix was as if it had been crushed by an invisible hand, and it exploded with a bang, turning into a sky full of crystal powder that was flashing with electric arcs!

"impossible!"

A tech priest in charge of monitoring the data let out a scream filled with disbelief and horror!

His cold, hardened mind, honed through countless logical exercises, was utterly shattered at this moment.

“The data… the data is overflowing! All the models have crashed! We… we can’t ‘see’ anything! There… there’s a ‘blank’! A… absolute blank that’s swallowing up all ‘logic’!”

Alcana's massive cyborg body froze completely.

His compound eyes, composed of dozens of optical sensors, were fixed on the terrifyingly calm figure who was still tapping his fingertips.

His logic engine did not crash, but it fell into an unprecedented, absolute silence.

He understands this phenomenon because he witnessed it when the "Taiyi Core" was born.

But he couldn't accept it!

He thought that with more sophisticated instruments and better preparation, he could capture that fleeting truth, but it was all in vain.

He "heard" that his most prized possession, the "All Things" protocol core deeply connected to his soul, was sending him its first...

— A distress signal.

That was not a machine malfunction.

It's a deeper kind of instinctive fear that arises from logic itself when faced with the Tao, which cannot be defined by logic!

At the end of science lies metaphysics.

Hector ignored the chaotic and collapsing steel forest around him.

His entire being was already immersed in that purest ritual, filled with the beauty of "creation".

He could clearly feel the vast ocean of true essence within his dantian flowing along the meridians of his arm, like the gentlest spring tide, slowly pouring into the cold obsidian at his fingertips.

He was neither "carving" nor "inscribing".

He was "resonating".

He engaged in the deepest "dialogue" with this stubborn rock from the volcanic world, which was filled with the fierceness of "fire" and the weight of "earth," a dialogue that transcended the boundaries of matter and energy. This rock had long been refined by the will of four original beings and was now perfectly integrated.

He "heard" the "rage" that the stone had accumulated during its millions of years of being tempered by the earth's fire.

He also "senses" the stillness that the stone, in its eternal silence, is nurtured.

Then, with his Taoist essence full of "harmony" and "balance," he gently, yet irresistibly, linked these two diametrically opposed attributes together, like weaving a Tai Chi diagram.

When the last wisp of true essence was injected, the volcanic obsidian, which should have been as black as ink, became like a sacred object whose inner "divine fire" had been ignited, and its entire body shone with a warm, jade-like soft luster.

The jade talisman is complete.

Hector slowly withdrew his finger.

He slowly opened his eyes, looking at the mess in front of him, at the laboratory where all the instruments were emitting black smoke due to overload, and at the technical priests who were in great shock due to the collapse of their faith. A helpless and knowing bitter smile appeared on his face.

He underestimated the terrifying extent of the "dimensional reduction attack" that his Golden Core realm "Dao" could cause in this purely "materialistic" universe.

"It seems that the 'ripples' are bigger than I thought."

He slowly turned around, looked at the sage Alkan who was still frozen in place like a statue, as if even his logic engine had completely crashed, and calmly spoke.

“Sage,” his voice, like a gentle breeze, dispelled the acrid and chaotic air in the laboratory, “now, do you understand?”

“You have been trying to analyze the material of the ‘pen,’ the composition of the ‘ink,’ and… the fibrous structure of the ‘paper.’”

"But you will never be able to decipher the true 'soul' of that painting from these cold data."

"Because the real core is never the 'tool'."

Hector's gaze became incredibly profound.

"But rather, it's that fleeting moment when 'holding the pen'..."

"--'meaning'."

These words, imbued with Eastern Zen philosophy, struck like a thunderbolt, shattering the chaotic core of Alcantara's mind, which was already riddled with countless error codes!

That will that cannot be quantified or defined, yet is real and undeniable, belongs to the "creator" himself!

He recalled the oldest and most fundamental dogma of Mechanics.

He remembered that place they prayed for day and night, yet no one could ever truly understand its existence...

—Machine Spirits!

Chapter 193 Unsolvable and Nameless

"Machine Soul..."

For the first time, Alkan's electronic voice carried a genuine, trembling sense of bewilderment, belonging to a "human" being.

“We…we revere the Machine Spirits, we pray to them, we use the most sacred rituals to appease their ‘anger.’ But…but we, to this day, cannot use any logic to ‘prov’ its existence! Nor can we…mass-produce it!”

His seemingly indestructible "heart of steel," built from absolute logic and cold dogma, was ripped open at this moment by Hector using the most fundamental and unsolvable paradox in his own belief system, leaving a bloody crack!

Just as Alcanna's vast worldview was about to completely collapse, another voice, full of new life and harmony, acted as the most timely "patch," filling the fatal crack.

Technologist Tectus-19, at some point, had already emerged from that Martian camp filled with shock and chaos.

He, the former "logic bomb," the first mechanical monk to use "binary" language to understand "yin and yang," now stands calmly before his "predecessor," whom he once deeply revered but who is now equally bewildered.

He performed a standard, Mechanician salute to Alcan.

Then, he slowly recounted his experience of "passing through tribulation," an experience that was enough to overturn all conventional wisdom.

"Your Excellency the Wise One"

His voice still carried the coldness of electronic synthesis, but it also possessed a unique charm that belonged to someone who had "been there, done that," full of "harmony" and "balance."

"I, too, once tried to use 'logic' to solve an 'unsolvable' problem, just like you."

“I tried to calculate whether an ‘omnipotent’ Omniscient God could create a stone that ‘He Himself could not lift.’ My mind was utterly torn apart in that storm of paradox. I was about to be completely devoured by the ‘logic’ that I believed in.”

“Until, my mentor opened another door for me.”

He slowly raised his head, and his eyes, which had once burned with madness and pain and were hidden in the shadow of his hood, were now like two carefully polished obsidian stones reflecting the Tai Chi symbol, calm and profound.

He told me that "no solution" is itself an "answer".

"It is also mentioned in the Daoist Canon taught by my mentor."

Tectus-19 then shifted his tone, quoting ancient wisdom and words that were completely foreign to all the Mechanics present.

“A physicist from the time of ancient Terra once proposed a hypothesis called the ‘uncertainty principle’.”

"At its core, the act of 'observation' itself will inevitably affect the 'result' being observed. When you try to 'measure' the mentor's 'intention' which is full of 'harmony' and 'non-action' with your instruments full of 'logic' and 'definition', your aggressive act of 'observation' itself has already destroyed that 'harmony'."

"Therefore, all you can get is 'chaos'."

"And another classic quote from the mentor, in even more concise language, expounded the most fundamental truth of this universe."

The sound of the Tectus-19 became distant and profound, as if chanting a creation hymn from another universe.

"—'Nameless, the origin of heaven and earth; named, the mother of all things.'"

"Your instruments, all your science, can only measure things that are 'named'—"

That obsidian, already formed; that stable energy structure; that verifiable physical data… they are the 'mother of all things,' the 'result' that was already born.

"But you will never be able to capture that which exists before the 'result' is born, that which is full of infinite possibilities, that which cannot be defined by any language, that..."

"—The 'beginning of heaven and earth' of the 'nameless'."

“That is the mentor’s ‘intention’. That is the ‘soul’ of the machine soul. That is the ‘Tao’ itself.”

When Tectus-19 finished speaking, the entire laboratory was already deathly silent.

All the proud "data eyes" from Mars were as if struck by an invisible hammer, their seemingly indestructible cognitive barriers, built on absolute logic, were shattered.

Alkan was as if his skull had been cleaved open by a thunderbolt from the beginning of creation!

His cold, rudimentary mind, already filled with "logic" and "data," was completely overturned and reshaped at this moment by this new "algorithm," which was full of Eastern metaphysical charm yet subtly aligned with quantum physics!

He finally understood.

He finally understood why he could never "100% analyze" the "Taiyi Core" born in the Silent Furnace.

What can be "replicated" is the "everything" that has already been born.

The initial "nothingness" is unsolvable and nameless.

It is nameless and indescribable.

Existence arises from non-existence; if one can grasp "existence," why must one grasp "non-existence"?

"I understand……"

After a long while, Alkan's electronic voice sounded again, but this time, all the pride and doubt in that voice had faded away.

Only one remains... the pure humility and awe that comes from seeking truth after glimpsing a higher dimension of truth.

He slowly turned around and faced the figure who was still sitting cross-legged in front of the jade workbench, as calm as the universe itself.

He performed the oldest and most sublime ceremony he had ever performed, only for his teacher—the High Priest of Mars.

One, a student's courtesy to their teacher.

“Please…guide us, Dean Kane.”

Hector slowly opened his eyes, and in his dark pupils was reflected the enormous, inquisitive cyborg figure of Alkan. A relieved smile appeared on his face.

He knew that this war of "unifying thought" between "logic" and "metaphysics" had finally come to an end.

He didn't elaborate on any more profound theories.

He simply pushed the jade talisman, which he had just personally crafted and which shimmered with a warm luster, gently in front of Alkan.

“Abandon 100% 'analysis', Your Excellency.”

His voice, though not loud, was clear, pointing out a path full of infinite possibilities for Mars and for the entire Mechanicus.

"—From now on, let us work together to study... 100% 'results'."

Chapter 194 "Number" is essentially form

This is a reverse path of "seeking the Tao" that Arcana had never imagined, full of Eastern wisdom!

His compound eyes, composed of dozens of optical sensors, were fixed on the "Dao Heart Jade Talisman" that Hector had personally crafted, which lay quietly on the jade workbench.

All confusion and frustration vanished from those eyes, replaced by an uncontrollable, pure fervor and passion—the kind of enthusiasm a scientist has for finding a new direction in their experiments!

"...Logic holds true."