Blood of the Primarch

"It would be my honor!"

Cawl bowed deeply, and a thick mechanical tentacle extended from behind him.

At its tip was not a delicate surgical instrument, but a gigantic puncture needle as thick as a forearm, gleaming with cold light.

Rather than a needle, its size made it look more like a steel core sampler meant for extracting concrete.

Guilliman remained expressionless. Calmly rolling up the sleeve of his casual uniform, he extended an arm whose muscles rose and fell like mountain ranges.

With his current regenerative ability, such a puncture would heal in an instant.

"Forgive me, Lord Guilliman." Cawl offered an apology, then drove that "steel bar" toward Guilliman's arm with enough force to pierce Thunderhawk armor!

Clang—!

A crisp, teeth-grating sound of twisting metal rang out!

The supposedly indestructible giant needle bent and warped visibly at the tip the instant it touched Guilliman's skin, as though it had struck a Vibranium barrier of infinite density!

The mechanical arm behind Cawl let out an overloaded creak. Its gears and servo motors spun madly until they exceeded their limits, before bursting with a puff of black smoke and becoming completely disabled.

There was even a faint trace of resentful, profanity-laced psychic fluctuation from a machine spirit in the Warp dissipating into the air.

The workshop fell briefly silent.

"Uh... I forgot about that." Guilliman slapped his forehead, suddenly recalling the nearly instinctive absolute defense field beneath his skin, formed from Viltrumite Smart Atoms. He could not fully deactivate it without deliberate control.

"No matter. If steel bars won't work, my own teeth certainly will." Guilliman smiled casually and brought his right index finger to his mouth, biting down hard.

Crack. After a soft, brittle sound, the incomparably tough Primarch skin was finally broken by even stronger Primarch teeth. A drop of blood, shimmering with faint golden-red radiance as though it contained starlight, seeped out.

Cawl immediately presented a specially made sterile gene-storage container with utmost respect.

Understanding at once, Guilliman held his finger above the container and squeezed the wound.

Yet after only three or five drops fell, the tiny wound instantly healed under his astonishing regenerative power, becoming smooth and unblemished once more.

"..."

Guilliman looked at the container, then at his finger.

Helpless, he had no choice but to put his finger into his mouth again, bite it open forcefully, and continue dripping blood.

It healed, then he bit it open again; it healed again, then he bit it open again...

For a while, the workshop contained only the periodic, scalp-crawling soft crack of teeth, along with the drip, drip of blood falling into the container.

The process repeated a full fifty times before the small container was finally filled.

When the last drop of blood entered the container and Cawl swiftly sealed it away, Guilliman let out a long breath, nearly collapsing as he leaned back in his chair.

"Drained... I'm really drained..." he muttered softly, raising the index finger that had already healed without leaving a single trace, his expression complicated.

Even as a Primarch, voluntarily biting open the same finger more than fifty times in two minutes was absolutely not a pleasant experience. More than pain, it brought a peculiar kind of mental exhaustion.

But when he looked at the gleaming vial of blood in Cawl's hands, carrying the blueprint for a new evolution, all fatigue vanished from his eyes, leaving only boundless anticipation.

"Then I'll leave it to you, my Archmagos." Strength returned to Guilliman's voice. "Use this 'new blood' to forge true 'Future Sons' for me, for the Imperium."

Cawl cradled the container tightly, as though holding the future of the entire Milky Way. His mechanical voice was solemn and fervent. "I shall not fail your trust, my Primarch.

"A new era shall begin with this vial of sacred blood!"

Guilliman returned to his chambers, enveloped by an unprecedented sense of ease.

The complicated affairs of Macragge and even Ultramar were now nothing more than children's puzzles before his Primarch superbrain and Viltrumite super-speed.

Not only did he not feel tired, he actually felt a little too idle.

In just half a standard hour, he had finished all scheduled business for the day.

In two minutes that morning, he drafted and issued a document titled <Meeting Minutes on Macragge Armament Construction and the Safety and Welfare of Military Personnel>.

The document made full use of a certain ancient and exquisite linguistic art, covering every aspect while highlighting the key points.

Its core principle was to serve every Ultramarine with "high standards, high efficiency, and high precision."

At the same time, it called for "comprehensive and focused" administrative investigations.

It ensured that "not one coin, not one resource, not one citizen" would endure unnecessary oppression.

He ordered the minutes circulated to every Ultramarine and required them to study them thoroughly.

Over the following twenty minutes, he dealt with all the paperwork that had accumulated from the previous day.

From fleet deployments to border disputes, he reviewed everything and left uniquely insightful annotations on every document.

For the remaining eight minutes, he leisurely held a cup of flower tea and stood on the terrace of his chambers, admiring the morning sunlight falling across his private garden on Macragge.

In the garden, several Eldar women brought by Yvraine were carefully tending the flowers while dressed in skintight outfits and stirrup stockings.

Their style of dress was bold and elegant. What should have been revealed was revealed, and what should not have been revealed was revealed too.

In a world filled with iron-hard burly men with two hearts and three lungs, they truly made for an exceptionally beautiful sight.

After noticing Guilliman's gaze, Yvraine, who was playing with the Eldar beauties, smiled faintly.

Then she began strolling through the garden, displaying the graceful curves of her body through all manner of movements.

Though it left the second Guilliman somewhat parched, it also made Guilliman's morning rest quite pleasing to the eye.

After dealing with "serious business," the idle Guilliman summoned the [Strongest Regent System] interface.

Upon looking at it, he was mildly delighted to see that his governance points had increased by 2,000.

His total had reached 10,950. Guilliman had bought a faster-than-light engine and an incubation pod, spending 1,050 governance points.

(So that's how it is. The reward does not come only at the moment power is seized; maintaining rule and carrying out one's duties can continuously bring in points as well.)

He understood the rule. It meant that a stable and efficient system of governance was itself a sustainable "vein of ore."

With a hint of curiosity, he browsed the system shop.

It seemed that anything existing in the Invincible universe could be exchanged there.

Before long, two options firmly captured his attention.

Under the "Biology" category, an entry called "Viltrum Ecological Improvement Crop—Omnipotent Blue Corn" stood out.

The description stated that this crop, native to Vitruum, grew to a height of ten meters. Every part of the plant—from roots to leaves to fruit—was edible, with extremely high nutritional and energy density.

It took only two months to grow from seed to maturity.

Most importantly, its fruit.

A single kernel of Blue Corn, as large as a human head, was enough to sustain an ordinary adult for an entire week!

Even more astonishing was its vitality: radiation-resistant, drought-resistant, cold-resistant, heat-resistant...

In summary, it could survive anywhere Viltrumites could survive.

And as everyone knew, aside from the core of a star, there was almost nowhere in the universe that Viltrumites dared not go or could not survive.

Even in a black hole, Viltrumites would dare to reach in and fish around.

If this thing could be widely promoted, the hunger problem among the Imperium's lower classes would be fundamentally alleviated.