Chapter 318: The Lust God Laughed Heartily (Seventy-Seven Praises to the Merciful Father!)

Zhou Yun silently stared at the skull placed before him by Xi Gaoqi.

From Imperial humans to the Eldar, from the Eldar to various sub-humans.

"According to the Emperor's greeting, the Eldar are clearly just another sub-human species!" Xi Gaoqi chuckled in Zhou Yun's ear.

Zhou Yun stared at Xi Gaoqi with horror.

When the Eldar fought the War in Heaven alongside the Old Ones in deep space, human ancestors were still nothing but Proconsul apes—millions of years away even from Australopithecus.

So, are the Eldar also descendants of Earth's apes?

"Your Eldar have three deoxyribonucleic acid strands; ours have a double helix. Genetically speaking," Zhou Yun instinctively rebutted.

"You want to talk genetics?" Xi Gaoqi laughed aloud: "Inside the Black Library, there are still two giant Macapuno bananas preserved in stasis fields—delicious, and sixty percent genetically similar to ancient Homo sapiens."

"Humans in the Golden Age were too active—each one tinkered with their genes more than the last. Some didn't even use DNA as their genetic base. Even the ancestors of Eldar blood-kin once studied at human labs."

Zhou Yun rubbed his temples, though Xi Gaoqi's words contained exaggeration and jest, most were true.

Humans in the Golden Age had been too active—technology exploded in every field, especially genetics.

Even the Emperor, a geneticist himself, could no longer distinguish a population as human by genetic markers alone.

He could only crudely judge whether a group belonged to the human lineage by examining their skull.

After all, Golden Age human genetic modifications still used humanity as the template; the skull retained more traces of ancient Homo sapiens. Lighter modifications preserved more of the original form; heavier ones erased them.

Though this method was flawed, steeped in the crude pseudoscience of phrenology, it was practical enough for the Imperium during the Great Crusade.

But Xi Gaoqi had somehow found the flaw.

Human skulls and Eldar skulls looked strangely similar—though their composition and internal structures were utterly different, they appeared nearly identical at a glance, making one wonder if humans and Eldar truly shared kinship.

Yet the Emperor never imagined the proud Eldar would one day claim to be a human subspecies, a sub-human on par with the Ogrons.

"Won't you at least show some dignity, given the Eldar's former glory?" Zhou Yun's face tightened, his eye twitching.

"I'm a jester. Why would I need dignity?"

Xi Gaoqi said with utter indifference.

"Besides, in my millions of years as a god, I've discovered the secret to Eldar ascension."

"It's clinging to the big leg, leaning on the big tree!"

"Our first fortune came from clinging to the Old Ones. Only after they went bankrupt and the Dead Gods slept did the Eldar truly rise."

"For a long time, the Eldar relied on the remnants of the Old Ones and the protection of the Pantheon. When the Pantheon was sealed off and the Eldar had no big leg to cling to, they destroyed themselves."

Zhou Yun stared at Xi Gaoqi with a face full of disbelief as he attacked his own race.

Had the Eldar sunk so low that even their last remaining god despised them?

"Now, the Eldar have no hope of rising again. If not for the Imperium taking the bullets, Chaos would've devoured them long ago."

Xi Gaoqi ignored Zhou Yun's expression and continued:

"My demands aren't high. As long as the Eldar survive, becoming a human subspecies isn't unacceptable. The Laitrin's treatment looks fine to me."

"Those Death Guard kids are among the most normal branches of the Eldar—still decent. Just take them."

Zhou Yun's expression darkened slightly.

Xi Gaoqi was right—the Death Guard were among the few sane Eldar left. Even if they were the tallest among dwarves, outside the savage Eldar, only the Death Guard had slightly sane minds.

Add to that the agreement he'd already signed with Xi Gaoqi,

Zhou Yun rubbed his temples and said: "Fine. At least you didn't shove Gorm onto me."

Internal Imperial politics with Sanguinius would be easy—he'd likely agree for practicality—but the one seated on the Golden Throne… who knew what he'd think.

"I'll deal with Gorm myself," Xi Gaoqi suddenly stopped laughing, his voice dropping low: "Just watch over those Death Guard kids for me. That's all I'll ever ask."

Zhou Yun glanced at Xi Gaoqi with surprise—he'd never seen Xi Gaoqi so openly express loathing and rage.

The portion of the Eldar that directly drove their fall and ruin, and their descendants, now lurked within Gorm. No wonder Xi Gaoqi said he'd settle accounts himself.

After entrusting Xi Gaoqi with a task, Zhou Yun departed the Black Library through an arbitrary gate.

Xi Gaoqi exhaled heavily—he'd finally fooled Zhou Yun.

A flicker of confusion passed through His eyes: why had Zhou Yun's absorption of Inard been so smooth? Why had Inard's dissolution within Him produced so little effect?

Was Zhou Yun's essence simply too vast?

What kind of being was He?

And what exactly had happened in the twenty-second century? Xi Gaoqi still had many unanswered questions. Wait—why was the Black Library getting hot?

His face twisted sharply as He looked toward the Webway beyond the Black Library.

A cold yet blazing, hollow yet radiant, black yet golden sun hung suspended in the Warp near the Black Library's Webway.

The sun burned fiercely; demons and other entities lingering nearby, seeking this Eldar repository of knowledge, screamed in terror.

Before they could flee, they were reduced to ash by the star's searing light.

The four gods of the Immaterium all turned curious eyes toward it, wondering which poor fool had angered this one again.

Near the Black Library? That jester? How did He provoke the Emperor?

Tzeentch chuckled, his ever-shifting eyes radiating unchanging curiosity.

Nurgle stirred his cauldron of weeping broth, watching with keen interest.

Khorne longed for a bloody battle to erupt.

Only Slaanesh, who perhaps understood everything, clutched his belly and laughed uproariously on his bed.

The damned jester got his comeuppance?

Xi Gaoqi trembled, cowering in a corner of the Black Library.

Even if the Emperor couldn't enter the Black Library, having such a cold, silent, dead star hanging outside His door made Xi Gaoqi instinctively fear.

And with this thing blocking the entrance, Xi Gaoqi's clowns dared not leave the Black Library.

"By the Jester God, when will He leave?" one clown quivered.

"How should I know? Don't you know how stubborn and petty He is?" Xi Gaoqi cursed the Emperor inwardly, trembling as He stared at the star outside.

So what if I hired Zhou Yun as the Eldar Death God? Does He need to make such a spectacle?

"What do we do now? Xi Gaoqi seems useless again!"

"We can't even leave the Black Library. This is so boring."

"Hey! I've got an idea—we've got more than one Eldar god now. Let's pray to Doraemon!"

"Yes! Yes!"

Digris radiated thick Warp energy—cold and heavy, his skin writhing with some energy from the Immaterium, as if wrapped entirely in Warp shadows.

Nearby battle-brother servants recoiled in fear, keeping distance from Digris.

Leina also felt instinctive dread; Mephiston watched Digris's demeanor and nodded unconsciously.

Zhou Yun's expression turned strange.

How long had it been? Why was Digris's psychic signature so pronounced now? He looked even more sinister and eerie than Mephiston—had processing the Second Empire's history really been this mentally torturous?

Only Guilliman seemed oblivious, frowning instead at the scene beside Digris.

The Many-Faced and Iyanna knelt reverently at Zhou Yun's feet.

"Praise! Great Eldar Death God, Exalted Doraemon!"

!

"You have finally returned to the Pantheon."

Zhou Yun's face twitched uncontrollably.

Inard had been consumed by him; all of Inard's influence over Eldar fate had been overwritten by Zhou Yun.

At least in the eyes of the Eldar, Zhou Yun and Inard were equivalent.

"Do you still remember Inard?" Zhou Yun asked tentatively.

"Of course—we remember. Inard is part of you," Iyanna replied reverently.

Zhou Yun couldn't help but rub his temples.

Beside him, Leina clenched her fists at Iyanna's words.

After consuming Inard, Zhou Yun not only gained control over the Death Guard, but also some influence over his human followers.

He could sense, to some degree, the thoughts within his believers.

Leina wanted to refute Iyanna's claim that Doraemon was the Eldar Death God—but she couldn't yet form coherent words.

". What is this?"

Guilliman's face twisted in confusion as he gestured toward Iyanna.

Zhou Yun having been the human Death God was something Guilliman had begun to accept.

But how in one night had the Eldar Death God also become Zhou Yun?

Zhou Yun fell silent, gathering his thoughts.

Then slowly, he pulled from his fourth-dimensional pocket the skulls of humans, Eldar, Ogrons, and several other sub-humans.

"First, look—this is the skull of an Imperial human."

"This is the skull of an Eldar."

"Don't you think they look similar?"

". Huh?" Everyone in the room except Leina, who still hadn't grasped Zhou Yun's meaning, let out a stunned, involuntary cry.

(End of Chapter)