[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-warhammer-the-11th-primarch-the-black-emperor":3,"chapter-warhammer-the-11th-primarch-the-black-emperor-warhammer-the-11th-primarch-the-black-emperor-chapter-416":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Warhammer: The 11th Primarch - The Black Emperor",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1510715,1962,"Chapter 416 - 415: William of the Wood Caste","warhammer-the-11th-primarch-the-black-emperor-chapter-416",416,"\u003Cp>En route to the Mandeville point, Nareth received the Navigator leader, Aeden Visscher, in his private office aboard the Shadow's Sovereignty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aeden wore ornate jewels on his forehead, concealing his third eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nareth keenly noticed his body already showed some visible signs of mutation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His skin was slightly pale. Scale-like plates were on his wrists, hidden within his sleeves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Aeden, what is the matter?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Lord Nareth, the alliance the Visscher family established with the Legion is envied by many other Navigators. They wish to establish varying degrees of cooperative relations with the Legion.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I convey their requests to you, inviting you to visit Uranus as a guest.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within the Solar System, there were two major warp gates: Uranus's Elysian Gate and Pluto's Khthonic Gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the Great Crusade began, incorporating Uranus's settlements and moons into the nascent Imperium, void ships frequently entered and exited the Warp through the Elysian Gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Navigator families established their new domains on Uranus's twenty-seven moons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the scarce land on Terra, these new domains offered more space and were more convenient for hiding secrets beneath their glorious facade, secrets not for outsiders' eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nareth had originally planned to travel to the Sol System, having some members of his treasure-hunting teams join the Legion to play a role in the upcoming Gardinaal campaign.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After brief consideration, he agreed to Aeden's request.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I would be pleased to visit the Navigator families as a guest.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I will immediately chart a course, guiding the Shadow's Sovereignty to the Sol System.\" Aeden bowed slightly, saluted, and departed quickly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While the Shadow's Sovereignty traveled to the Sol System, Gardinaal System, Gardinaal Prime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William Wood sprinted across the wilderness. At nine years old, his clothes were tattered, holding only a rusted dagger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On Gardinaal, each person's fate was determined from birth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The caste they were born into decided their destiny, their social stratum, their profession, their food, everything about them...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For thousands of years, Wood had been the worker caste.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tens of thousands of Woods were all workers, without exception.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But William refused to accept this fate. Visions flashing before his eyes drove him to become a deserter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew that from the moment he left the shabby shantytown, he had only himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His caste, the higher-caste masters, would not tolerate him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If caught, his parents, his kin, no one would tolerate his transgression. Death would be his best outcome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Punishments like immersion in medicinal liquid followed by ant-feeding, flaying, and other tortures, methods he was told as soon as he could speak, were reserved for those daring to challenge the hereditary system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William bit his lip hard. He warned himself mentally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Between chemical plants B-12 and B-13, dozens of kilometers are filled with waste. I must find a hiding spot.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'No, one hiding spot isn't safe enough. At least three. A cunning rabbit has three burrows.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Wait... how do I know the phrase a cunning rabbit has three burrows'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Wood caste were workers. They had no right to education. Each Wood only needed to know numbers and the bolded words on the operation manuals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Phrases like \"a cunning rabbit has three burrows\" weren't something a Wood would use.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William ran, breathing heavily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His breaths were labored, yet he dared not stop, only able to distract himself by thinking of other things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, an image flashed in William's mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A grey figure, dripping sludge, charged swiftly towards him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William then felt the wind whistling behind him. A strange chemical odor assaulted him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having grown up in chemical plants, William was accustomed to chemical smells. But he was certain this sudden, intrusive smell wasn't any single chemical.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the mixed odor of many chemicals and residues, similar to the smell in the drainage channels he, as a child laborer with an undeveloped body, was responsible for cleaning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William's clothes clung to his back, soaked with cold sweat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without time to think, his body instinctively rolled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sound of fabric tearing, followed by something sticky slapping against his back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William felt a piece of skin torn from his back. He tumbled awkwardly, crashing onto a hill of piled chemical dyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The growls were no longer suppressed. The grey figure pounced repeatedly, stirring up waves of mixed garbage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William's body rolled continuously, bumping against the irregular junk piles, aching all over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But William ignored the pain. As he rolled, his mind raced, seeking a way to save himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, everything around him slowed down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As his back hit the ground, William clearly saw the grey figure's appearance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Overall, it resembled a wilderness hyena, but its body was caked in sludge, as if just pulled from a chemical pit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From its gaping, foul mouth, a bizarre odor wafted forth, nauseating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A cold glint flashed in William's eyes. He pushed hard with his arms, springing up, charging at the hyena.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Guessing the rusted dagger he grabbed while fleeing couldn't pierce the hyena's chemical sludge armor, he could only risk attacking its vulnerable eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William stabbed the dagger hard into the hyena's left eye. The shattered yellow eye, disgusting fluid mixed with blood, splattered over his right hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But to his shock, William found the hyena's movements didn't stop. Its claws swiped at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'This damned thing is really tough. Its still not dead.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William wanted to dodge, but the hyena was faster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'I don't want to die! I refuse to accept this!'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Can the worker caste never escape their fate?!'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the hyena's claws were about to touch William's body, an invisible force surged within him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a BANG, the claws struck a psychic shield and were deflected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though William didn't understand what happened, his quick reaction after the narrow escape was swift. He yanked the dagger out and stabbed it hard into the hyena's other eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once, twice...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until he was utterly exhausted, collapsing together with the hyena onto the garbage pile, sludge covering him entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William lay weakly on the garbage pile, breathing heavily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long while, his stomach growled. He wobbled to his feet, retrieving the dagger from the hyena's corpse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William used his hands and the dagger to scrape off the sludge, searching for the hyena's flesh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…....\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>October, 852.M30, Solar System. The Shadow's Sovereignty emerged from the Elysian Gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dust clouds filled the space around the Elysian Gate. In the roughly three-thousand-kilometer open zone, rows of fine particles shimmered uncertainly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nareth stood before an observation viewport with its protective shield open. Gazing at the drifting grey substance in the void, unlike its appearance, it shimmered with radiant spiritual light. A term surfaced in his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Siren's Dust.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nareth knew that for hundreds or thousands of years, starships entering the Warp from this location, upon exiting reality, would generate and scatter a drifting, soft grey substance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Navigator families and the Jovian clans had a specific name for it: Siren's Dust.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among them, stories circulated: Prospectors once tried to collect this dust. Upon truly touching it, they lost interest in any other substance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether true or not, this dust perpetually hovered here, slowly orbiting the Elysian Gate's space, like swirling smoke within a glass sphere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the similar space around the Khthonic Gate lacked such substance. Siren's Dust was unique to the Elysian Gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>....\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[email protected]\u002FDaoistJinzu\u003C\u002Fp>",1218,"2026-06-06T05:05:10.771Z",1,"novelbin.me","1f8e47336c1a0261b9c0979276e80b70dd5660515a6e58b65113bd5ac655a254","warhammer-the-11th-primarch-the-black-emperor-chapter-417","warhammer-the-11th-primarch-the-black-emperor-chapter-415",698,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fwarhammer-the-11th-primarch-the-black-emperor-cover.jpg"]