The Loyal Heretic

When Liu Zhipeng regained consciousness, the first thing he smelled was a mixture of disinfectant, old parchment, and expensive incense.

He felt his body. It was no longer the springy, chaotic lump of a Nurgling, nor was it the agile, mutated shell of a Genestealer. This was a... standard human infant's body. Fragile, soft, and filled with limitless potential.

He opened his eyes and saw an ornately decorated Gothic ceiling, painted with murals of the double-headed eagle and various Imperial saints. Gentle light streamed through stained-glass windows, bathing the entire room in a solemn, dignified hue.

A woman in luxurious silk robes, her face slightly haggard but her gaze tender, held him as she hummed a lullaby praising the Emperor. Beside her stood a man in an Imperial noble's uniform, with a carefully trimmed beard on his chin, looking at him with mingled pride and anticipation.

"Look, darling, he's looking at me," the woman said excitedly. "His eyes... how devout they are."

Liu Zhipeng blinked. His eyes in this life were a faint gold.

[Third Life: Begun]

[Current Identity: Imperium of Man—Gothic Subsector—Taranis Prime—Son of Baron von Lawrence]

[Current Location: Taranis Prime—Lawrence Manor]

"A noble start?" A ripple stirred deep within Liu Zhipeng's soul. This was far better than the "Chaos bean" and "underground schemer" of his previous two lives. At last, he had a chance to experience this familiar yet unfamiliar Imperium of Man from within.

The cold system prompt sounded immediately afterward, bringing with it the "inheritance" of his first two lives.

[Permanent Passive Ability Activated: The Father's Gaze and Love]
[Ability Description: In any form of life, you can instinctively radiate a peculiar affinity, causing weak, lowly, abandoned, or despairing creatures to develop inexplicable trust and fondness toward you. They will see you as a symbol of hope and opportunity, willingly following you. At the same time, you possess an exceptionally strong ability to adapt to your environment. No matter how harsh or filthy it may be, it cannot cause you substantive harm and may instead become an aid to you.]

[Permanent Passive Ability Activated: Heretic Leader]
[Ability Description: Your words and thoughts possess a natural bewitching power over intelligent beings. You can easily discover and exploit the internal conflicts and desires of a group or civilization, implanting your ideas and allowing them to take root and flourish until they ultimately become part of their faith. Your followers will display extraordinary fanaticism and self-sacrifice for you.]

Feeling that familiar "affinity" deep in his soul, representing Nurgle, along with that more dangerous power of "incitement" originating from the cult of the Four Gods as One, Liu Zhipeng—or rather, Alexander von Lawrence in this life—revealed the pure, flawless smile unique to an infant.

Time slowly passed beneath Taranis Prime's eternally gray skies.

Alexander von Lawrence grew at a speed that astonished everyone. He displayed intelligence and... "devotion" far beyond his years.

While other noble children were still crying and fighting over toys, he could already recite every prayer and saint's biography of the Imperial Creed word for word. He always found ways to ask his tutor "thought-provoking" questions with childish innocence that nonetheless struck at the heart of the matter.

"Teacher," five-year-old Alexander said, pointing at an illustrated edition of Love of the Imperium, "the book says the Emperor's light shines upon every human subject. Then why don't the children in the lowest levels of the hive even have a lightbulb?"

His tutor, an old scholar of great learning but rigid thought, was left speechless for a moment. He could only fob him off with that stale old line about "the Emperor's trials."

But Alexander merely tilted his head and looked at his teacher with those pure golden eyes. "I understand. The Emperor's light needs us to kindle it ourselves. We are the Emperor's lightbulbs!"

"..."

The old scholar was too stunned by this "lightbulb theory" to speak, yet he felt that these words... seemed to contain a certain simple yet profound philosophy of faith.

The ability, The Father's Gaze and Love, made him naturally endearing. The servants of the manor all adored the young master, because he never ordered them about. He remembered everyone's names, and on cold winter nights, he would secretly share his hot soup with the guards standing watch. The innate affinity he carried allowed these people from the lowest ranks of society to feel long-lost warmth and respect in his presence.

Meanwhile, the ability Heretic Leader filled his ideas with a peculiar infectious force. He reinterpreted those dry doctrines in his own way, making them vivid and passionate. He explained the grand concept of "sacrificing for the Emperor" as "protecting everyone you love by your side," and defined "loyalty" as "never abandoning your comrades and family."

This way of "personalizing" grand narratives earned him an almost worshipful trust from his peers, children who also came from minor noble families. To them, the "Emperor" Alexander spoke of was no longer a distant, cold deity upon a Golden Throne, but a great "leader" and "family" who stood beside them and understood their joys and sorrows.

Yet the path of fate would not be smooth merely because he was a model child.

When he was ten years old, a sudden orbital bombardment descended upon Taranis Prime. A band of space pirates, supported by Chaos forces, launched a lightning raid against the poorly defended planet.

Lawrence Manor was reduced to a sea of fire in the first wave of shelling.

Alexander's parents died beneath the bolter fire of Chaos Space Marines while protecting him. In their final moments, he saw his mother's gentle yet resolute smile, and his father's back before him—neither especially broad nor tall, but never retreating.

He survived. A unit of the Astra Militarum that had come to provide aid pulled him from the ruins.

He became an orphan.

Under Imperial law, the only path for a noble descendant like him, one who had lost both parents in war, was to be sent to the Loyalty Academy.

It was an institution dedicated to training Imperial elites. Most of the Ecclesiarchy's battle sisters, the Inquisition's inquisitors, and... the Astra Militarum's commissars came from there.