Thought It Was Barbarus Stinking Shit

Guilliman's Wrath—the meaning of this card was the judgment of order, the descent of authority, and the anger of a sovereign.

But the card Zhou Yun had drawn was reversed.

It signified the collapse of order, the dissipation of authority, and the death of a sovereign.

Yet Zhou Yun's intuition told him that beyond these underlying meanings, the Guilliman's Wrath card revealed something far more straightforward.

Cicero and the cultists behind him had a true objective deeply connected to Roboute Guilliman.

Zhou Yun had merely happened to stand in their way.

Zhou Yun rose to his feet and paced back and forth through the room.

His thoughts gradually became clearer.

Clearly, Cicero wanted to become a tutor to the Marcus Guilliman family because of something deeply connected to Roboute Guilliman.

But the scholar had taken first place in the initial hiring process through his knowledge, making Cicero feel threatened.

He had deliberately approached the scholar and lured him into gambling—the scholar's rapid descent likely involved some Warp sorcery.

Perhaps even the scholar's suicide had been encouraged by Warp sorcery.

The Warp veil had been relatively thin on the night the scholar killed himself. That had clearly not been a coincidence, but a time chosen by the cultists.

But... what exactly was Cicero and his cultists' goal? What was their actual plan?

Zhou Yun searched through the memories of his past life. Macragge's future seemed to contain no trace of Cicero or these cultists.

Could it be that they had failed?

That would have been perfectly normal.

After all, Macragge's veil was so thick that even the gods could exert only limited influence over it...

No, they had most likely succeeded, at least in part.

Zhou Yun's expression darkened.

The thick veil not only blocked the Warp's influence, but also made the cultists easier to hide.

From the scholar's memories and what Zhou Yun had seen today,

Macragge's security was excellent. City guards established by Governor Conor could be found everywhere.

Those guards were all warriors who had once followed Conor on his expedition to Elyrium.

Yet in the future, the soldiers who should have defended Macragge became immersed in the madness brought by alcohol and the temptation of wealth, plunging Macragge into chaos and riots. Conor himself died in that riot, killed by an assassin sent by the other governor, Jarlan.

That was clearly abnormal...

Reversed Guilliman's Wrath... it symbolized the death of a sovereign.

Could the cult behind Cicero have been Governor Jarlan's faction?

At that moment, Zhou Yun had never missed Inquisitor Greyfax more—missed that mentor who dealt mercilessly with cultists.

When the nation was in peril, one thought of great generals; when the world was in chaos, one remembered loyal ministers.

Greyfax, I miss you!

Zhou Yun let out a breath, calmed himself, and sat back down before the wooden table. He clasped his hands together and pressed them against his brow.

First of all, his previous idea of fleeing into the deep mountains of Macragge was completely unworkable.

His appearance could very well produce some butterfly effect.

If history deviated from its original course and Roboute Guilliman became corrupted by Chaos, then everything would truly be over.

The intensity of the Horus Heresy would definitely not surpass that of the Guilliman Heresy.

In the future, Guilliman's Ultramarines Legion would be the largest of all the Legions, numbering a full two hundred and fifty thousand men.

Yet that was not the limit of Guilliman's ability to manage things. It was merely the limit permitted by the Imperium.

After suffering devastating losses in the Battle of Calth and the Shadow Crusade, Guilliman could effortlessly restore the Ultramarines to a strength of two hundred and fifty thousand. That alone proved it.

Beyond that consideration, there was also Tita.

If Zhou Yun ran away, the debt would probably be pinned on Tita.

Tita was a good child. She should not be treated that way.

For that reason, Zhou Yun had to find a way to improve this body's strength.

He needed to cross the "Realm" and allow this body's psychic talent to truly come into play.

And besides improving his psychic abilities,

Zhou Yun actually had another method that was more effective and had a higher ceiling...

A method he had always wanted to try, but had never had the opportunity to attempt due to the unsafe conditions of the Hive City and Caliban Forest.

Zhou Yun slightly withdrew his consciousness from the scholar's body.

The searing heat of the Golden Throne almost immediately coiled around Zhou Yun.

The intense pain nearly made Zhou Yun suspect that his very will had been set ablaze.

Zhou Yun's face twisted into a knot, but he remained conscious. His perspective was also split in two.

One part remained inside the scholar's body, while the other rose into the Warp, looking down from the Golden Throne upon the soul-fires of all living things.

Zhou Yun panted heavily and clutched his chest. His body went limp, and he fell straight out of his chair.

"Ah!" Tita, who had just finished cooking the soup and was pushing open the door with a bowl in her hands, let out a startled cry. The bowl slipped from her grasp, spilling soup all over the floor.

She hurried over and helped Zhou Yun up as he lay on the ground, his body trembling without stop.

"So hot!" Tita felt heat radiating from beneath Zhou Yun's skin and cried out in alarm.

It was as if flames burned within Zhou Yun's body, making his skin scorching hot to the touch.

Tita's face turned pale with fright.

"Uncle Zhou Yun, hold on! I'll go get a doctor right away—"

"No." Zhou Yun caught Tita by the wrist and gently shook his head.

He took several deep breaths. His expression calmed, and the temperature of his body gradually returned to normal, as though the earlier burning heat had merely been Tita's illusion.

It worked...

Zhou Yun looked at the two perspectives before him and blinked. The perspective atop the Golden Throne gradually faded, and the intense pain ebbed away as well, becoming a nerve-burning sensation like background noise. It was still tolerable for Zhou Yun.

Just as he had guessed.

Zhou Yun's soul was actually still upon the Golden Throne. What controlled the scholar's body was merely an extension of his will, like a hand he had stretched out.

When a person used one hand, he could still use the other.

In theory, Zhou Yun could control two or even more bodies at once.

Zhou Yun now divided his attention between two tasks. Most of his will still controlled this body, but he had left a small portion atop the Golden Throne.

That small portion of will could only do simple things, such as searching the Warp for new, usable bodies.

It would still cause Zhou Yun pain, but the degree of pain was proportional to how much will he left upon the Golden Throne. This level was completely acceptable to Zhou Yun.

As long as he could find a new body, Zhou Yun could not only gain new skills, but also retain a usable body after this one died.

"I'm fine. I just got burned by the candle flame." Zhou Yun wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and smiled at Tita.

"R-Really?" Tita was still somewhat worried.

"Of course. What, do you think I became the stand-in for some dried corpse sitting on the Golden Throne's torture rack?" Zhou Yun deliberately said in a teasing tone.

"What are you even talking about?" Tita could not help shaking her head, but seeing that Zhou Yun was fine, she still let out a sigh of relief.

"Be more careful next time." Tita stood up and looked at the spilled bowl of soup. "See? Your dinner's gone."

"The soup spilled, so what am I supposed to eat?" Zhou Yun rose from the floor, scratched his head, and looked at Tita.

"Go hungry!" Tita nodded and huffed.

"I have to go hungry too?"

Tita glanced at Zhou Yun, then finally sighed helplessly. "I'll give you half of mine."

"Yay."

A moment later...

"What did you put in the soup?"

"The Talassar fish sauce you bought."

"I thought it was Barbarus stinking shit!"