Zhou Yun's expression turned somewhat annoyed.
Before the knocking began, he had failed to catch the footsteps outside the door.
This body's physical condition was not particularly good.
The golden flames from the Golden Throne had remolded this body down to every cell, but they had merely restored it to a healthy state, eliminating the damage alcohol and a sedentary lifestyle had inflicted on the Scholar's body. They had not improved his physical abilities.
This body was inferior to the Diviner who had fought and scraped his way through the Underhive of the Hive City before undergoing Greyfax's rigorous training, and it was even further beneath the forest hunter's body.
That forest hunter's body... looking back on it now, it truly had been extraordinary.
Back then, Zhou Yun's senses had been sharp enough to detect the faintest sounds in the forest, distinguish the footsteps of every beast, leap easily onto tall trees, and run fast enough to compete with agile animals... yet that had supposedly been an ordinary forest hunter.
Awakening a body's memories often required external stimulation. There had been nothing in that forest but an endlessly stretching jungle, so Zhou Yun had not awakened much of the hunter's memories.
Thinking it over carefully now, that forest full of bizarre giant beasts and wild animals, along with the hunter's superhuman physical abilities—could it have been Caliban, the homeworld of the Primarch Lion El'Jonson?
The moment he realized that hunter's body had belonged to a Caliban superhuman, Zhou Yun suddenly felt that the Scholar's physical condition was perfectly reasonable.
That damned place was filled with gigantic beasts warped by the Warp's influence. Even a demigod among men like Lion El'Jonson had to put in some effort to kill one. Even Kairos Fateweaver, Tzeentch's chief Greater Daemon who had attacked him, had been mistaken by Lion for an ordinary Caliban Beast. That showed just how absurd Caliban's difficulty scaling was.
And the coming-of-age ceremony for Caliban's local mortal knights was actually hunting a giant beast... To hunt those beasts, those forest-dwelling knight lords had even learned to handcraft power armor, power swords, chainswords, and boltguns.
No wonder the hunter's physical abilities and hunting skills had been so terrifying if he could survive as a hunter in that hellhole.
Zhou Yun thought as he waited.
The knocking outside became increasingly urgent.
After Zhou Yun focused his mind, the hunter's skills began functioning again, while Greyfax's teachings helped him make a judgment.
The breathing outside, the force of the knocks, and the pacing footsteps born of impatience all wove an image of the person outside the door in Zhou Yun's mind.
The person outside should be female, between sixteen and twenty years old, around 1.7 meters tall, weighing roughly forty-five kilograms, and in good health. Her knocking was both urgent and hesitant, as if she was unsure whether anyone was inside.
Only when the knocking stopped, and the person outside seemed to conclude that no one was home and turned to leave, did Zhou Yun step forward and open the door.
It was not that he was being cautious. He was just traumatized.
When he had been a Diviner, that awful woman Greyfax loved launching sudden attacks on Zhou Yun for no reason, training his precognitive abilities.
Still, Greyfax's training had saved Zhou Yun several times... though in the end, his own precognitive abilities had screwed him over anyway.
When the door opened, the woman outside's back was revealed to Zhou Yun.
She was indeed around 1.7 meters tall, tall and slender. Her long black hair draped over her white fitted tunic, falling all the way to her waist before being gathered at the ends by a hair tie, swaying lightly with her movements.
Upon hearing the door open, she froze for a moment before quickly turning around.
Zhou Yun saw concern on her still-youthful face.
But the instant she saw Zhou Yun, her expression turned furious.
"You're back? Why didn't you open the door? Did you go gambling again last night?!"
The girl immediately rushed at Zhou Yun, trying to grab his collar.
Zhou Yun instinctively stepped back and twisted aside. The girl brushed past him and charged into the room, her footing slipping as she nearly fell to the floor.
Zhou Yun reached out and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from falling.
The girl clenched her teeth and glared at Zhou Yun with a look of frustration and fury.
"Let go of me," she said sharply.
"Did you say thank you?" Zhou Yun asked without changing expression.
The girl's face instantly twisted up. She shook her wrist, trying to break free of Zhou Yun's grip, but unfortunately, she failed.
Zhou Yun merely watched her.
"...Thank you." The girl forced out those two words as though they weighed a thousand pounds.
But Zhou Yun still did not release her. He simply continued, "What do you call me?"
"..." The girl took a deep breath. "Thank you, Uncle Zhou Yun."
Uncle...
That word triggered Zhou Yun's memories. His fishing for information had worked.
He remembered. This girl was his niece, the child of his elder brother who had died in battle.
Zhou Yun's brother's wife had died early. Her father had then been conscripted into the war against the Illyrium Barbarians, following Consul Conor into battle. He had died in that far northern land without even leaving behind a corpse, leaving only a pension and his then-nine-year-old child—the girl standing before Zhou Yun.
"Tita." Zhou Yun released Tita's hand.
He also noticed something else. The girl called him Zhou Yun.
That was interesting. It seemed it was no coincidence that the Diviner had also been named Zhou Yun.
Presumably, this was the Emperor's mighty power.jpg.
Zhou Yun's existence had likely completely replaced that Scholar in everyone's perception.
That was normal. The Warp was a dimension of will, and for the Emperor, whose psychic power was nearly infinite, twisting such a minor perception was effortless.
He had no idea how broad the replacement's scope was, but Zhou Yun guessed it was probably worldwide.
If he had a choice, Zhou Yun would rather that immense psychic power be used somewhere more practical—such as giving him psychic abilities on the level of the Primarch Magnus right now...
Tita put some distance between herself and Zhou Yun, then kicked the wine bottle on the floor as if venting her anger. The bottle struck the corner of the room with a crisp clatter.
At the same time, Tita spotted the half-length of rope on the floor... Her expression stiffened. She looked up and saw the other half hanging from the ceiling beam.
Finally, she turned and saw the clear strangulation marks still visible on Zhou Yun's neck.
"What were you trying to do?" Tita's voice became very quiet, filled with fear.
"I opened a little door to the Golden Throne. Only after sticking my head through did I realize the rest of me couldn't fit." Zhou Yun sensed the air turning gloomy and tried to lighten the mood with a joke.
Tita clearly did not understand what the Golden Throne meant, but Zhou Yun's tone enraged her.
She let out a resentful growl, instantly reminding Zhou Yun of the beasts in Caliban's forests. Then she charged at him with astonishing speed, her open palm flying straight for his face.
Zhou Yun had intended to let her slap him to vent her anger, but unfortunately, the hunter's instincts and Greyfax's training kicked in, making him dodge automatically.
If I don't uninstall this damned dodge button, it'll get me killed sooner or later... Zhou Yun thought as he watched Tita brush past him again, lose her balance, and stumble toward the wooden table by the window.
Zhou Yun stepped forward, wanting to steady Tita, but she braced herself against the tabletop and regained her footing on her own. She turned to look at Zhou Yun.
A trace of guilt appeared on Zhou Yun's face as he considered how to apologize.
"It's fine." Tita noticed the apology in Zhou Yun's expression, and the anger on her face finally faded into helplessness.
She sighed, turned around, leaned against the table's edge, and supported herself with both hands on its surface.
Her slightly chubby oval face wore a faintly bitter smile, her thin lips pressed together lightly.
"If not for..." Tita pointed at Zhou Yun's neck. "If not for that today, you'd at least be in much better shape than you were these past few days. You didn't even spend the whole night at the casino. I couldn't even find you at school."
Better than the past few days... Zhou Yun's expression froze. In his memories, he saw Tita trying to stop the Scholar from going to the casino, only for the Scholar to elbow her in the face and knock her to the ground.
Bro, was he really that committed to the Mamba mentality?
No, that was not right. In Zhou Yun's memories, the Scholar had treated Tita fairly well before. How had things deteriorated so quickly over the last few months?
Was gambling really that harmful? Sure enough, gambling and drugs were things you could never touch!
Just as Zhou Yun figured out how to apologize, Tita's fingers resting on the table touched that stack of IOUs.
She turned back in confusion and picked up the stack.
"These are IOUs? How much do you owe..."
The moment Tita saw the amounts written on them, her expression froze.
"Over a thousand Denar for a single IOU? The first repayment date is the twentieth of next month?"
"Are you insane?! Do you want to become a debt slave?"
"Wow, so slavery exists here too!"
(As usual, updates are still every night at 8:08.)
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