Firecrackers buried under the toilet??

What was that...?

It was a hazy, indistinct shadow hanging behind Zhou Yun, who sat upon the Golden Throne. He could barely make out its dark brown-black color, like something charred by coals. It crouched behind him in an ugly, hunched posture, and the shadow it cast nearly engulfed Zhou Yun completely.

What was that?

Zhou Yun wanted to see it clearly, but he could not. Even with all his psychic power concentrated in his eyes, he still could not make out what that blurry thing was.

+What are you?+

Zhou Yun questioned the dark brown-black shadow.

+...Man...you...+

A fragmented voice came from atop the Golden Throne. Every word carried the searing heat of a star, falling from the heavens and crashing into Zhou Yun's will, burning every one of his nerves.

It was pain nearly on the same level as sitting upon the Golden Throne. A silent scream escaped Zhou Yun's throat.

He was falling, falling toward the ground, falling back into reality.

A loud crash rang out. The candlestick toppled, the flame went out, wax cooled on the floor, and the incense in the burner had long since burned away.

In the dim triangular room, Zhou Yun clutched his head. His clothes were nearly soaked through with sweat, and his legs trembled faintly.

Phantom pain, suffering, dizziness, fear... all kinds of chaotic emotions surged from Zhou Yun's mind.

What was that...?

Behind the Golden Throne, behind Zhou Yun, there was still something crouching there, its body almost completely covering him.

Behind the Golden Throne, behind Zhou Yun—or rather, behind the Emperor—how could something like that be there?

Zhou Yun rubbed his temples, trying to ease the pain in his head.

Whatever it was, it was not something Zhou Yun could see clearly right now.

His psychic power was still far too weak. Just one glimpse of that thing's vague silhouette, just hearing its fragmented voice, had made his soul feel as though it were burning.

If he wanted to see what it truly was, he would probably have to keep increasing his psychic power.

Actually, Zhou Yun had a vague guess as to what that thing was, but he did not dare think too deeply about it.

He dared make jokes about the Four Gods because he believed they did not have the ability to break into the Golden Throne.

But that thing... if it really was what Zhou Yun thought it was...

Dark King... The name flashed through Zhou Yun's mind for an instant.

That Yellow Skin from Piyang could not have really left him with a landmine like this, could he...?

What did this feeling resemble?

It was like the previous person using the toilet had not flushed, then stuffed a firecracker into the shit—and that firecracker could explode at any moment.

What made it even worse was that he did not even know whether the shit was really there.

Zhou Yun gritted his teeth. Fuck it.

If it really blew up beneath his ass, then everyone could die together. Zhou Yun believed that when the time came, some people would be far more anxious than he was.

With that thought, Zhou Yun shook his head, cut off the train of thought, and tried to shift his attention elsewhere.

He had successfully crossed the Realm. At that moment, a true connection had formed between Zhou Yun's body and the Warp. He had become a gateway wedged between the Warp and reality.

Or rather, every psyker who truly awakened their talent was a gateway.

Under normal circumstances, they could use it to draw upon psychic power from the Warp.

But if they lost control, they themselves would become an entrance through which daemons could invade reality.

Zhou Yun was not too worried about that, however.

The lesser reason was that the Warp around Macragge was relatively stable, so it was not that dangerous.

The main reason was that while stronger psykers were more likely to become gateways for daemon invasions, he had never seen any suicidal daemon try to pass through the Emperor's door.

Zhou Yun could not use the Emperor's psychic power, but he could pull the will and psychic power within this body back onto the Golden Throne at any time, leaving behind only a hollow, soulless corpse.

And any daemon that tried to enter through Zhou Yun's door would, nine times out of ten, be dragged onto the Golden Throne along with him to enjoy itself.

Zhou Yun controlled Warp energy as it slowly flowed into his body. His senses became sharper than before.

Not the ordinary five senses, but a sense that transcended reality itself, allowing him to vaguely glimpse the future.

This was the psychic talent of a Diviner. According to the Inquisition's classification, he belonged to the Foresight type of psyker.

Such psykers specialized in seeing through the torrent of time and fate, foreseeing the future's course, manipulating probability, and inflicting some form of misfortune upon their enemies.

Besides that,

There was the Biomancy School, which specialized in the path of flesh and blood, using will to shape their own bodies or those of others, mastering cells, and controlling the inner energies of living beings.

The Pyrokinesis School, which controlled flames and thermal energy, excelled at burning enemies with Warp fire, and could even turn themselves into pure flame.

The Telekinesis School, which excelled at converting psychic power into pure physical force, moving objects with thought, generating force fields, and releasing kinetic energy.

And the Telepathy School, which excelled at infiltrating the minds of others, establishing mental communication, altering perception, twisting memories, and even turning others into puppets—Scholar might previously have been controlled by this type of psyker.

Though there were some more unusual psykers whose talents lay in more dangerous and rarer fields such as daemonology, these five categories accurately covered the talents of most psykers... If this classification were not so obviously just the Thousand Sons Legion's five great academies from the Great Crusade under different names, Zhou Yun might have admired the Inquisitor who invented it.

Hmm... Zhou Yun tried several minor psychic spells Greyfax had taught him.

He successfully made the candlestick before him float, and successfully awakened a memory within his mind.

Telekinesis and Telepathy. Scholar's psychic talent mainly lay in the Telekinesis School, with a small portion in Telepathy.

That gave Zhou Yun a bit of a headache. He did not know many spells from either school. Telepathy was somewhat better, since Greyfax was skilled in it and had taught Zhou Yun some while instructing him in Foresight spells.

As for Telekinesis, Zhou Yun only knew a few minor psychic spells. He knew almost none of the higher-level spells, so he could not fully make use of Scholar's talent in the Telekinesis School at all.

Foresight, on the other hand, had improved considerably because Scholar's psychic power had merged into his own.

The Inquisition had two systems for grading psychic power.

One was a system that purely evaluated psychic level, using twenty-four ranks from Ω to A.

Among them, the seven ranks Ω, Ψ, Χ, Φ, Υ, Τ, and Σ were for negative psykers, otherwise known as Untouchables.

Ρ was Level 0, the baseline for ordinary humans.

Level 1 was Π, known as the dormant psychic level, and was not regarded as a true psyker.

Above that, Levels 2 Ο through 7 Κ were known as low-level psykers. In theory, they were supposed to be under Inquisition control, but because there were so many of them, it was simply impossible to manage them all. Fortunately, most of them posed no real danger.

Only from Level 8 Ι onward were psykers truly required to be taken away by the Black Ships for training and screening.

When Zhou Yun was a Diviner, he had originally been at the limit of low-level psykers, Level 7 Κ. After Greyfax discovered him and trained him, he reached Level 8 Ι.

Now that he had fused Scholar's and the Diviner's psychic power, Zhou Yun believed he was at Level 9 Θ, or close to that level.

Besides this ranking of psychic power,

The Inquisition's other classification system was aimed at psychic skill. The five common psychic categories were each divided into six levels.

Telepathy and Foresight, the two types closely tied to the mind, used the same rating system.

They were: Crimson Tier, Golden Tier, Silver Tier, Esoteric Tier, Silent Tier, and Umbral Tier.

Zhou Yun's Foresight could reach the third level, Silver Tier, while his Telepathy was at the second level, Golden Tier.

The Telekinesis skill rankings were: Grammarian, Rhetorician, Dialectician, Trivium Master, Quadrivium Master, and Supreme Grandmaster.

Zhou Yun's Telekinesis skill was probably at the first level, Grammarian.

Zhou Yun pressed a finger against his brow, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

Zhou Yun activated the Foresight psychic spell called "Foresight."

The effect of the spell was just as its name suggested: Foresight. Through a psychic perspective, it peered into the future, seeing a web woven from countless possibilities and catching fragments of future scenes from within it...

Shattered black stone... an obelisk... a Lighthouse... twinkling stars...

Fragmented images flickered before Zhou Yun.

He saw a towering mountain rising from verdant earth, piercing the clouds like a Lighthouse.

He saw a strong man with short golden hair walking ahead of him, raising his head to gaze at that mountain.

He also saw Tita, somewhat older than she was now, standing at his side with a clay tablet in her hands. Macragge's cuneiform writing was carved upon it.

"Lighthouse." Zhou Yun faintly heard Tita's voice.

Lighthouse.

A brilliant light suddenly flooded Zhou Yun's vision, and the shining radiance pierced through metal.

The mountain—the towering mountain—was looking down upon Zhou Yun.

That was...

Lighthouse.

We are the Lighthouse.

The Broken Lighthouse.

You are watching us.

We are also watching you.

The mountain's voice—something resembling a voice, yet different from one—rang out.

Zhou Yun could be certain that it was not psychic power. Rather... rather, someone was speaking through spacetime itself.

The skeletal cavity containing the material-nonmaterial interaction organ faces the light.

The incomprehensible words rang out, then gradually faded within the future Zhou Yun saw before disappearing entirely.

Zhou Yun slowly removed his finger from his forehead.

Lighthouse...

Zhou Yun turned the word over in his mind.

His first thought was the Astronomican that the Emperor would ignite in the future.

But what he had seen in that prophecy did not feel like the Astronomican—after all, he was far too familiar with that thing. It was so close to him, roasting him all day until his entire body hurt. It was as annoying as the Golden Throne.

If it was not the Astronomican, then was it something else?

Zhou Yun slowly let out a breath.

It seemed Macragge was also a place where heroes gathered!