Chapter 636: Witchcraft Ceremony

The Great Demon Klias of Tzeentch has been captured by the Chaos Demigod Vashtor, but the Marcus King sector is still shrouded in the subspace storm. This matter is very strange and may cause panic among the people in the sector, and even the Space Marines will become suspicious - which means that everything Fu Qinghai has done before is in vain.

However, when Fu Qinghai brought out the Emperor, all the doubts and panic disappeared. Qingshan Khan actually met the Emperor? The Emperor also conveyed his will to him? What an honor, what a responsibility? The vast majority of the citizens of the Empire, including the Space Marines, have never set foot in the Imperial Palace in their entire lives, let alone enter the Emperor's Sanctuary to pay homage to the Lord of Mankind on the Golden Throne.

But as for the specific details of the meeting with the emperor.

Qingshan Khan remained silent and seemed unwilling to say more.

Even so, this answer was enough to restore everyone's confidence. After the meeting, the senior officers of the regiment returned to their respective bases according to the previous arrangement. Regarding the future of the Iron Pagoda, Qingshan Khan seemed to have a rough plan in mind. This plan was based on a certain agreement between him and the Emperor, and outsiders were all unaware of it.

…

Schwerin Hive World, Great Library.

This ancient relic building in the steel forest of the hive city, with the main structure of the honeycomb suspended in the air, is like a tumor-like nodule growing on the main nest. After so many years, it still looks like a black tree tumor among the towering buildings.

This is a well-known place where evil originated. The upper nest nobles, the Zeddu family, who were originally responsible for guarding the Great Library, fell into Chaos after reading some secret books in the Great Library and collectively transformed into Tzeentch believers. During the period when the warp storm enveloped the Schwerin Hive, the Tzeentch demon army also chose to break through the veil from this building and descend into reality.

In the past, Fu Qinghai could have chosen to demolish the Great Library, but he didn't want to destroy the secret books. According to rumors in the Hive City, many of the books in the Great Library were unique copies left over from the Old Night or even the Dark Technology Age. However, he didn't dare to explore this ancient building at will, and finally had to choose to seal it up and wait for the conditions to mature in the future.

Today, the conditions were met, and Fu Qinghai was finally going to take action on the Great Library. He strode on the wide steel bridge leading to the Great Library, followed by five Silent Sisters. They wore the Armor of Oath and held the Execution Swords, and their steps were light, firm, and sonorous. The Silent Sisters were familiar with dealing with places that were suspected of being contaminated by the Subspace.

Fu Qinghai came to the towering iron gate.

He looked up at the intricate relief patterns on the iron door, as well as the intertwined iron chains and interlaced seals, and kicked it hard with his right foot. With a loud "bang", the iron rings broke and the seals tore apart, and the door of the library was kicked open. The dark space appeared in front of everyone. This ancient building that had been sealed for several years welcomed visitors again.

Fu Qinghai walked into the dark and gloomy library surrounded by five silent sisters. The eyes on the silent sisters' masks were alert and sharp. They slowly spread out to form a formation, holding long swords and passing through the rows of bookshelves and towering corridors. The bookshelves were filled with dusty books, and some whispers seemed to be echoing in the quiet and dark space.

Follow the Sister of Silence as she walks through these bookshelves.

The whispers lingering in my ears suddenly disappeared.

No, they didn't disappear. The whispers suddenly turned into shrill screams, so heartbreaking, and totally unlike the sounds that human vocal cords could produce. Along with the wailing, wisps of black smoke floated from the cracks of some books, and some of the books' covers began to twist and wriggle, shrinking into a human face with its mouth opened and screaming silently.

The Sisters of Silence are purifying the Great Library.

The six people swept back and forth along the corridor a few times, and the evil malice hidden in the books was completely destroyed as the soulless force field unfolded. Sister Cassoline turned around and looked up at Fu Qinghai, and began to gesture.

"Some Tzeentch demons have been banished."

Fei Yi translated for her teacher and said:

"The building is clean now, Khan."

"Very good, thank you for your hard work."

Fu Qinghai nodded and said.

The four silent nuns didn't say anything more. They quietly retreated to the corners around the library and stood there with swords in hand. Only Feiyi was still following Fu Qinghai. Fu Qinghai turned and walked towards the bookshelves he had passed by before. Relying on his memory, he pulled out all the books that had emitted black smoke one by one, and then opened them one by one to read.

The first book, "The End of Torment".

The cover was slightly old, the edges were badly worn, and it looked like an ordinary book. Fu Qinghai casually opened the title page and saw a line of beautifully written black characters in the middle:

"I would like to use this book to commemorate the great victory against the Colchis Covenant. The faith in the God-Emperor will live forever."

Look at the following line of text:

"Aurelian Lorgar, the Word Bearer."

"hiss..."

Fu Qinghai took a breath of cold air.

The secret library is indeed full of hidden talents.

The first book was actually written by Luo Jia.

Fu Qinghai knew what the "Covenant of Colchis" meant. The planet where Lorgar landed was called "Covenant", a feudal, ignorant, barbaric and backward world. There was a cult called "Covenant" there, and they believed in and worshipped the so-called "Old Gods" (actually the Four Chaos Gods). Lorgar showed his missionary talent at a young age, but he refused to believe in the Old Gods and insisted that "the Emperor would definitely come to save Colchis", so the Covenant cult wanted to kill him. The Primarch then led the Covenant followers who had converted to him to rise up in resistance and eventually won.

This was the event that led to the rebellion against the Colchis Covenant.

Colchis is the homeworld of the Word Bearers.

Fu Qinghai speculated that this book should be a handwritten copy, because if Lorgar really signed it himself, he would not have added "The Great Speaker" in front of it, which seems a bit too narcissistic - just like Robert Guilliman never called himself "Lord of the Five Hundred Worlds". "The Great Speaker" should be the honorific title given to Lorgar by the later copyists. Lorgar and Magnus are both scholar-type Primarchs, and both of them can be said to have written many books. This book "The End of Torment" is very likely the prequel to "The Book of Lorgar", and it can be given to the hermit Tristan to study.

Fu Qinghai put the book away.

Then, the second and third books.

"Cronochet's Anatomy".

"Anthology of Vivisection".

Just looking at the titles, one would mistakenly think that these are two books on studying alien creatures. However, after a cursory study, Fu Qinghai discovered that these two books definitely belong to the category of the Dark Mechanicus. The anatomical objects studied in the books are... actually demons!

"Kronochet Anatomy" is a demon illustration book that details the material and non-material characteristics of the Warp Demon. "Living Anthology" is a technical manual excerpted from the evil research and experimental records collected by a Dark Mechanicus sect called "Demon's Heart".

Compared with the obscure theological maxims and hymns in "The Finale of Torment", these two books were written by Black Oil Man. Fu Qinghai had no difficulty reading them. He quickly flipped through the pages and quickly read through the general contents of the book, and gained a preliminary understanding of the two heretical books.

The Dark Mechanic Cult of the "Demon's Heart" creatively uses psychic sorcery combined with a special Geller stance to perform vivisection on Chaos Demons. It has perfected the technique of summoning demons to possess the body, commonly known as "demon possession". It has improved the technique of binding demons to machines, also known as the "demon engine". It has simplified the technique of combining demons with weapons, allowing for mass production of demonic weapons.

The above three attempts to use demonic technology, whether demonic possession, demonic engines or demonic weapons, are not rare in the Warhammer 40K universe. However, the special thing about the "Demon Heart" sect is that in the past, these demonic knowledge was almost entirely monopolized by Chaos Wizards, who studied these things from a subjective and idealistic perspective. The works of the Black Oiler are full of dialectical analysis and experimental thinking of inductive deduction.

Fu Qinghai is very comfortable to read.

"Interesting."

Fu Qinghai touched the stubble on his chin.

The Goblin Armor is a typical demonic weapon. If Zhang Yuning's process of making the Goblin Armor is called a "ritual" or "ritual", then the process in the book of Heijiyou Lao should be called a "procedure", a batch of efficient enchantment procedures, which is much more efficient than any enchantment ritual. Through dissection, they deeply understood the profound knowledge of the combination of spirit and flesh, and through continuous experiments, this process gradually reached perfection.

"Good book, good book."

Fu Qinghai put away the two books.

Then he looked at the last book.

This is a heavy tome, larger than the previous books combined, with a black leather cover made from multiple layers of tanned human skin, and painted with a few large, recessed, gold-plated characters:

The Book of Witchcraft.

Fu Qinghai narrowed his eyes slightly.

This name sounds pretty awesome.

…

"What? The Book of Witchcraft?"

Danjur took the book from the Chapter Master and exclaimed.

"Do you recognize this book?"

Fu Qinghai immediately asked.

"I've heard of its name."

Tenjur said as he flipped through the pages,

"The original version of this book is believed to have been written in the Old Night Era, and that original version has probably been lost. However, in the following thousands of years, many feudal worlds where sacrificial culture prevailed have kept handwritten copies of this book."

The Golden Age refers to the era when humans created gold men, stone men, and iron men and gradually conquered the Milky Way, but it is officially called the "Dark Technological Age" by the Human Empire. The Old Night Age refers to the era when the human regime in the Golden Age collapsed for some unknown reason, the various human colonies in the Milky Way lost contact with each other, and the Earth fell into a melee of technological barbarians and warlords.

According to Tenjur, this copy of the ancient grimoire contains historical records of humanity and many alien races, and the content completely contradicts the advocacy of the Imperial Truth. During the Great Crusade, the preachers of the Clarification Order had searched and burned this book on a thousand worlds. I didn't expect that there was still a copy hidden in the Great Library.

"The Order of Clarification? What is that?"

Lin Yu asked with a confused look on his face.

"Another organization of Malcador the Sigillite."

Qiao Shida snorted and said lightly.

All veteran Space Marines who participated in the Great Crusade, such as Qiao Shida, Kalamanda and Satfaran, have heard of the "Clarifying Order". New recruits like Lin Yu, who were promoted to Space Marines after the rebellion, did not know this name. Fu Qinghai knew about the Clarifying Order because he had read the original novel, and Danjur knew about it because of Amon's memory.

During the Great Crusade, each expedition fleet would set up two special mortal positions: recorders and preachers. The former was responsible for recording the expedition process using various artistic forms, praising the justice and legitimacy of the human empire's recovery of the former colonies. The latter was responsible for preaching and promoting the truth of the empire to the space marines in the expedition fleet and the people in the former colonies.

The protagonist of the Horus Heresy trilogy, Gavial Loken, has two close mortal friends: Yovradi Keeler, a recorder who later became the first living saint of the Empire, and Kyril Hindman, a preacher who later became one of the founders of the Inquisition.

The preacher belongs to the Order of Clarification.

Their work is not only about giving speeches everywhere, but also about shouldering a secret mission: to collect and find the superstitious books and magical texts left over from the Old Night Era, and then destroy them all by all means at all costs - this is related to the Emperor's plan to starve the Chaos Gods to death by eliminating all religious beliefs. The "Witchcraft Codex" is on the list of books to be destroyed, and this book was once widely circulated.

"This vile work contains the incantations and procedures necessary for a ritual that brings horrors from the depths of the Warp into the present. During the Heresy, desperate and unscrupulous Space Marines within the Traitor Legions came into possession of a copy of this book - though even they knew it was a vile object best left forgotten by Mankind."

Tenjur went on to explain:

"This is what Amon said about the book."

"Oh, the Thousand Sons have also read this book?"

Fu Qinghai asked curiously.

"I have."

Danzhuer nodded and said:

"The Thousand Sons Legion will not let go of any magic book. Amon commented that the magic in the Tome of Witchcraft is huge but messy, and has not been systematically organized. In addition to magic rituals, it also records many psychic events and historical materials. Amon believes that the Tome of Witchcraft is worth referring to, but its contribution and value are not as good as the Book of Magnus."

The Book of Magnus!

Fu Qinghai had heard of this book.

It is said to have collected almost all psychic magic.

There are two extant copies of the Book of Magnus.

One is in the Harlequin Eldar's Black Library.

One is in the hands of Azak Ahriman.

"Can you recall and reproduce the entire contents of the Book of Magnus?"

Fu Qinghai asked immediately.

"cannot."

Tenjur shook his head and said:

"The content of that book is really too much, and a lot of magic cannot be described in words. Amon himself has only read it a few times."

That's right. Not to mention Amon, even Magnus, the author himself, could not remember the entire contents of the Book of Magnus after he was shattered into soul fragments and pieced together by the Thousand Sons Legion and resurrected as a demon prince. How could Tenjur possibly copy this book?

"You will personally lead people to search and organize the Great Library, and store all the books that are worth noting in the Classics Library of the Suzheng No. 1. You will be in charge of the Classics Library from now on."

Fu Qinghai instructed Danzhuer.

"Understood, Khan."

Danjur nodded and agreed.

The harvest this time was quite significant.

Think Tank Director, Think Tank Director, as the name implies, this "think tank" must have books in it, and only then can Tenjur be called a "director", otherwise he is just an empty shell director. With the "Rituals and Psalms" seized from the Zhelas Space Station, the library of the Austerity has slowly begun to be enriched.

......

(End of this chapter)