Business Principles of a Divine Son

The ruined little chapel was packed with believers whose features had been blurred by windblown sand and hardship. The wavering light of kerosene lamps cast their uncertain shadows onto the rusted metal walls like looming ghosts.

Zhou Beichen stood before a statue pieced together from discarded parts, cradling the infant wrapped in silver cloth. He merely stood there quietly, his gaze sweeping across every face below.

"Brothers, sisters." His voice was not loud, yet it carried a peculiar, unquestionable force that pierced through the wind outside. "Just now, we witnessed a miracle."

He raised the infant in his arms slightly. As if sensing something, the baby stirred gently. In the dim light, those faintly violet eyes seemed to glow on their own.

"Look at those eyes!" Zhou Beichen's voice suddenly rose, trembling with emotion. "Could they belong to this desert abandoned by the gods? Look at that perfect body. Does he resemble us mortals struggling in the dust?"

A wave of suppressed gasps and whispers rose from below.

"Look at those violet pupils."

"That snow-white, strong little body! Heavens!"

"That... is too beautiful..."

Dozens of eyes locked onto the infant, their initial confusion gradually turning into astonishment, then into a near-mad reverence.

This infant, Lorgar—his very existence was the strongest argument, as well as Zhou Beichen's calling card. On this ugly, barren land, any perfection beyond the ordinary was enough to be revered as a miracle.

"He has not abandoned us!" Zhou Beichen emphasized at just the right moment, his eyes blazing. "He heard our prayers and sent down His messenger, His own child—to lead us out of this boundless sea of suffering!"

"The Divine Son!"

"The Divine Son has descended!"

Someone in the crowd shouted first, setting off a frenzy of agreement. The people fell to their knees, directing their most devout, most humble gazes toward Zhou Beichen—or more precisely, the infant in his arms. In those once-numb eyes now burned a fire Zhou Beichen had failed to kindle even after half a year of preaching.

Watching it all, the icy desert within Zhou Beichen's heart softened slightly, rippling with a trace of satisfaction.

"Excellent. Market sentiment successfully ignited, and the new product launch was a smashing success."

Zhou Beichen thought to himself.

Speech after speech continued to ignite everyone's emotions, and amid the crowd's praise, Zhou Beichen concluded today's sermon.

When he returned to his resting room, which could barely keep out the wind and rain—really just a tiny corner partitioned off by several thick tarps—Zhou Beichen carefully laid Lorgar on a low couch covered in clean coarse cloth.

The clamor outside gradually subsided, but something invisible called hope had already begun to take root in this little chapel.

This was a good start.

Zhou Beichen knew that from tomorrow onward, the offerings he received would no longer be those pitiful filter cartridges and rations, but more tangible things—perhaps some carefully hoarded energy cells, or even old-world tools that certain tribes had kept hidden away and could still be started.

He crouched down, meeting Lorgar's clear violet eyes, so pure they made one uneasy.

The infant neither cried nor fussed, only looked at him quietly, as though waiting.

"Do you see, Lorgar?" Zhou Beichen's voice returned to its usual calm, even carrying the rigor of a lecture. "That is the power of faith. It can make people forget hunger, forget pain, even forget themselves. It is... the most effective whip and sugar for driving this flock of sheep."

He extended a finger and lightly tapped the metal nameplate on Lorgar's chest, engraved with "Lorgar."

"They need a god, something to pin their hopes on. And you are the most perfect product I can offer them." He paused, seeming to weigh his words, considering how to explain the cruelest and truest law of this universe to an infant.

"Faith is the highest-risk investment in the world, but it may also bring the richest returns..." he said, almost in a whisper. "What people invest is blindness, fear, and hope. What it produces is power, resources, everything needed to survive."

"I sell them hope, and they pay me in loyalty and supplies. This is a transaction, Lorgar—the most primitive and effective transaction." The corner of his mouth curled in his usual mockery, yet his eyes were exceptionally serious. "And right now, you are the core asset in this deal. I will shape you into the Divine Son they need, make them obsessed with you, make them mad for you, make them offer up everything for you."

Looking into Lorgar's seemingly half-understanding eyes—or perhaps eyes that understood everything—he continued instilling his business principles from another world.

"But remember, Lorgar, never truly believe in what you sell. Just as I never believed any stock would rise forever when I worked at the exchange. We must use this power, but we cannot let it consume us. Understand?"

The infant blinked, his tiny hand unconsciously grasping Zhou Beichen's outstretched finger. The touch was warm and soft, brimming with vigorous life.

Zhou Beichen froze for a moment. Somewhere in his heart, that innocent touch seemed to prick him lightly. But he swiftly suppressed that strange feeling.

A rare commodity.

This was only an investment, a desperate gamble concerning life and death—and the future.

He looked at Lorgar as though he were looking at an incomparable treasure, an infinitely powerful weapon, a... most extraordinary commodity into which he had poured his entire fortune and life.

Outside the window, the light of the Colchis Twin Stars was gradually fading, and the long night was about to arrive.

If this was the Warhammer Universe, with a Primarch in hand, at least I wouldn't die too miserably, right?