Chapter 630: Vashthor: Fortunately, Zhou Yun Has No Desire to Become a God

Before Vashthor floated a profane planet, its entire surface composed of roaring machinery, steel, pipes, and factories—a scene straight from a mechanical demon’s realm.

This planet bore many names: Long Linxing, Discordant Engine, Ancient Sage Artifact, Caliban, Key.

But Vashthor knew the artifact’s true nature: it was the tool the Ancient Sages used to tear the continuity of spacetime, to carve the Webway between the Warp and reality, and also the key to unlock the Ancient Sages’ secret vault and retrieve the “Weapon”—the very ladder Vashthor needed to ascend to godhood.

Vashthor was busily assembling the artifact, desperately exhausting his own computational power to comprehend the Ancient Sages’ wisdom.

Yet even amid such labor, when Orykan across the stars unleashed his wisdom, manifesting miraculous ideas upon the cosmos, Vashthor was still drawn in.

For he was a demi-god of inventors, engineers, scientists, and craftsmen, embodying creativity stripped of morality, the dark extreme of thirst for knowledge—curiosity was one of his innate instincts.

He craved knowledge, craved creation, craved turning his mad fantasies into true reality.

In this regard, Orykan’s deeds aligned perfectly with his tastes.

He cast his gaze from the Soul Forge, piercing through the infinite nested Shindu Galaxy, using the power of the Warp and the Ancient Sage Artifact to behold the scene within.

The stars of the Shindu Galaxy had gone dark; the very fabric of the cosmos had dissolved into pure energy, which the ribbons of light swirling around Orykan absorbed—energy drawn from the annihilated galaxy—and forged them into blades that sliced through the Deceiver’s body.

The Deceiver’s living-metal skin was effortlessly torn open; molten energy roared forth, carrying the primordial heat of creation, burning away the current universe.

The Deceiver struggled, Ningju a zero-dimensional point in his hand; matter and energy around him collapsed inward, and he hurled this singularity at Orykan’s body.

But Orykan merely waved his hand—the zero-dimensional point instantly unfolded into a two-dimensional plane, then expanded into a three-dimensional cube within a blink, discarded carelessly to the side.

He tore apart the Deceiver’s metallic body with claws of light; the living metal boiled into vapor and vanished, exposing the Deceiver’s original form of pure energy.

The Deceiver seemed to beg, attempting to manipulate Orykan with words and lies—but it had no effect.

Orykan tore apart the Deceiver’s energy-wracked body; the newly partially reformed star-god shattered instantly into countless fragments.

He pinched each fragment between his fingers, like a vampire draining all its energy, then swallowed the hollowed shards whole.

Vashthor watched this scene and let out a quiet sigh of admiration.

He had glimpsed the general principle behind Orykan’s ascension, awed by Orykan’s wisdom and talent.

Yet unfortunately, this path was utterly unlike his own, and could not achieve what he sought—it offered no useful reference.

At the same time, Vashthor felt a sliver of relief.

Such a genius Necron had pledged allegiance to Saint Doraemon, to Zhou Yun.

Had Zhou Yun desired to seize the throne of the Malevolent Arts, Vashthor’s path to godhood would have been excruciatingly difficult.

But fortunately, that one knew well: becoming a god was no blessing, and had no interest whatsoever in godhood.

To become a true Chaos deity meant becoming the first sacrifice upon that deity’s altar.

Were it not for his own craving, Vashthor would never have pursued godhood.

At that moment, Vashthor sensed a tear had pierced the reality dimension near the Du Na Galaxy—things constituting the world itself had been altered.

A powerful tearing sensation ripped through Orykan’s body; the instant he swallowed the Deceiver, hundreds, thousands, countless voices whispered and screamed within Orykan’s will.

They were the lingering wills of star-gods once devoured by the Deceiver, and fragments of souls he had consumed.

These two intertwined, relentlessly attempting to tear apart Orykan’s will.

The Deceiver’s voice began whispering in Orykan’s ear, softly trying to drown him.

This was the Deceiver’s final deception, his only hope of survival.

He sought to deceive Orykan, to make Orykan believe he was the Deceiver, to accept the Deceiver’s will and become the Deceiver.

In this way, the Deceiver could be reborn as a new, complete star-god through an alternate means.

The Deceiver’s will began slowly seeping into Orykan’s will, attempting to corrode it.

The lingering wills of the star-gods and souls the Deceiver had devoured also surged toward Orykan’s will; under the Deceiver’s whisper, they developed the same impulse as the Deceiver.

The Deceiver’s whisper grew increasingly frantic; his will had already infiltrated Orykan’s self-governing region—once he twisted this part, he could make Orykan believe he was the Deceiver.

But this was also the hardest step—it required answering the question: What is “I”?

“Two point masses, m1 and m2, moving uniformly while sinking at velocity a into a standard pocket dimension model, undergoing rotation and vibration—calculate their dimensional momentum, Xie Mohe momentum, and Xie Mohe equation.”

Orykan’s will spoke calmly.

A question mark slowly emerged on the Deceiver’s forehead.

“Channel five standard Ancient Sage units of Warp energy into the Black Stone Obelisk, then propel the obelisk through the rift between reality and the Warp at velocity a past stellar system C—derive the functions describing the changes in reality strength and Warp strength within stellar system C.”

“This is a simple spiral model, two hundred twenty billion light-years in diameter, containing six hundred eighty-nine billion stars. The spiral galaxy is merging with the Milky Way at velocity a—calculate the orbital trajectories of every star, planet, satellite, and asteroid within it.”

“Where in the Necrontyr Grand Archives, behind which book on which shelf, was Tarasyn’s childhood imperial primer stored?”