Chapter 741, Individual Power
Gu Hang certainly did not deceive the Prime Minister.
Lying about something like this is truly foolish. Qi Bodu has plenty of ways to verify whether Gu Hang's words are true or false.
The Psychic Order does indeed possess this technique of the 'Sixth Rejuvenation Surgery'.
However, the reason it hasn't become widely popular is because it's too difficult.
Rejuvenation surgery can extend a person's lifespan, up to a maximum of five times. Each time, it can extend lifespan by 60 to 100 years. Combined with the normal human lifespan, if the rejuvenation surgery is performed to the maximum extent, it is not a problem for a human elite to live to four or five hundred years old.
But that's the limit.
Going any further, the rejuvenation surgery will inevitably fail.
Human beings have their limits.
The power of psychic energy can help mortals break through this limit.
However, this is a theoretical study. It is said that when the Imperial Chancellor was still alive, he was able to personally perform this incredibly difficult sixth rejuvenation with his supreme power, second only to the Emperor.
However, no one has been able to achieve a similar effect since him.
A technology that had no successful cases for ten thousand years was thus shelved.
But who can blame them when another Gu Hang emerged in this era?
Gu Hang could try things that ordinary S+ level psionicists couldn't do.
Does Qi Bodu care?
He cares about it extremely!
He is about to undergo his fifth rejuvenation surgery.
Although their lifespan is calculated to be at least sixty or seventy years, and sometimes over a hundred years, it is ultimately limited.
Was he content with this? He had served as Prime Minister of the Empire for over sixty years, and in the last thirty years, he had shed his former title of Sun Lord and become the de facto most powerful minister. Moreover, he was still moving towards truly absolute power, aiming to bring the Inquisition, Space Marines, the State Religion, the Mechanicus, and so on, into his own hands.
How could a lifespan of a few decades, or at most a hundred years, be enough for him to accomplish such a magnificent undertaking?
Even if he did complete it, how could his remaining lifespan be enough for him to enjoy the glorious life that followed?
He felt sad at the thought that people would eventually die.
Now, although Gu Hang has not given him the immortality he most desired, at least the sixth rejuvenation surgery will allow him to live another hundred years!
The temptation is greater than anything else!
In the latter part of the conversation, nothing else mattered; the two talked about this matter for a very long time.
The main thing was that Qi Bodu was asking questions, and Gu Hang was answering them.
They didn't mention the Alliance Plan until the very end.
Qi Bodu did not object anymore.
...
Gu Hang was relatively satisfied with the various activities he participated in during his trip to Sacred Terra.
There were difficulties and setbacks. The Prime Minister's malice, the psionic matters, and even the warning from the Assassins' Court before his arrival—it's still unclear who assigned the Assassins' Court to do it.
Gu Hang also tried to see Clement, the Grand Master of the Assassin Court, but he still refused to see him.
This problem will remain a thorn in our side until it is resolved.
Gu Hang always held a certain amount of awe for the Assassin's Court. Their standard methods were already quite terrifying. Gu Hang wouldn't be threatened with that level of assassination, but those were still just standard methods.
The Assassin's Court has a history spanning millennia, and they even have a track record of successfully assassinating a corrupt Son of God. Using these trump cards might just be the right move to truly harm him.
Especially in Holy Terra, this is not their territory.
Gu Hang believed that he was now quite strong.
But I don't think I've reached the level of being a son of God yet... right?
He wasn't quite sure.
He was certain that he had long since transcended the realm of psionicists.
A psionicist, by using psionic energy, is essentially using a 'loophole' to connect the warp and the real universe, drawing psionic energy out of themselves. As for the many variations, techniques, and even their own power, while it's true that these depend on the psionicist, this doesn't change their fundamental nature.
This applies to both the lowest grade and the so-called A-grade and S-grade.
Even at the Alpha level, which is beyond human control, this fundamental nature remains unchanged. It's simply that too much warp energy is surging out, making it impossible for even the most talented individuals, despite learning the best techniques, to control it. Ultimately, they are twisted into monsters and tragically become the conduits connecting the warp and reality.
But Gu Hang is not like that.
He could no longer be considered a psionicist.
That was many, many years ago, before he even left the Angry Owl Star, when he devoured the Primordial Angry Owl, seized its divine kingdom, and turned it into his own.
Back then, the Primal Wrathful Owl was said to be a sub-god of the warp, but from today's perspective, it wasn't anything too difficult to deal with.
At least, they were not on the same level as the various monsters and demons that Gu Hang encountered later.
However, the help it provided to Gu Hang was significant.
In the years that followed, Gu Hang traversed the planetary seas for three or four decades, passing through countless worlds. He realized how rare it was to encounter a sub-space god like the Primal Wrathful Owl, a god born on a single planet. In thousands upon thousands of worlds, Gu Hang had only encountered two, and both were far from reaching the level of a sub-god in terms of strength and scale, barely qualifying as prototypes.
Of course, both of the things Gu Hang encountered ended up in his stomach.
After a moment of realization, Gu Hang belatedly discovered that the Angry Owl Star was a very special existence.
It was inherently unique; the veil between Wrathful Owl and the Warp was very thin. This brought Wrathful Owl great rewards in its early days—high-level energy mines like the Spiritified Gas Field were not easily found anywhere; but it also brought it profound disaster, as the Warp Demon invasion that nearly destroyed the entire world stemmed from this.
Only in such an environment could the simple love of a person from a single planet for a certain animal be used to create the rudimentary concept of a sub-god in a subspace.
But the more crucial aspect lies in the upgrade options for Gu Hang's personal panel within the system he inherited.
Without it, even the most powerful psionicist, who could obliterate the nascent form of a lesser god like the Primal Wrathful Owl, could not inherit its divine kingdom.
That's impossible.
That's something humans can't do.
It was only after acquiring this divine kingdom that Gu Hang truly experienced a qualitative change.
The so-called qualitative change does not refer to any explosive growth in his spiritual power—though there is indeed some, he has become stronger, even able to tear open the veil of reality and bring the Storm God Kingdom to its temporary and controllable descent, thus providing Gu Hang with a very powerful boost to his spiritual power.
But these are just application methods, minor tricks.
The fundamental change lies in the fact that Gu Hang now possesses a subspace essence.
This is the fundamental change.
With this subspace essence—directly manifested in his Storm God Kingdom—when he encounters monsters of that level, such as Great Demons, other minor god prototypes, neuronal worms, etc., Gu Hang can do more than just defeat or destroy them; he has taken a more crucial step: devouring them.
To devour the subspace essence they represent.
The biggest gain came from the Queen Zerg who perished after the victory in the last war, when Rheaduches was completely destroyed by the 'Geoblast Destroyer'.
Even now, Gu Hang has to admit that the Zerg are truly an absurd race. They are certainly not native to the Warp, and in fact, their very nature has absolutely nothing to do with the Warp.
They are numerous, devoid of thought and emotion, driven only by the instinct to devour. Even the advanced insects that exhibit any cognitive abilities are merely products of specialized evolution tailored to their specific needs.
For them, the brain is no different from other organs. As long as the battle requires it, some can be evolved in the next batch of creatures and placed on the node creatures.
The swarm will learn from combat experience and evolve accordingly, from weaponry to tactical thinking. This was already a piece of intelligence that the Empire's researchers were fairly certain of.
However, the fact that such evolution could produce psionic energy is already somewhat terrifying; they were even able to analyze the 'warp nature' from countless wars, and in order to produce more powerful psionic units, they were able to evolve it!
That's absolutely terrifying.
The Void Zerg are alien beings... an absolute cosmic enemy, perhaps even one of the most terrifying adversaries.
Their existence is quite terrifying.
As for the Queen of Insects, in order to fight against this top-tier psionicist, she paid an unknown price. Not only did she evolve many neuron worms, but she also evolved a subspace essence in order to hatch neuron worms and even to directly fight against herself.
It possesses something even higher than the neuron worm!
This highly nourishing meal truly made Gu Hang feel incredibly refreshed.
But these supplements obtained through consumption are only secondary.
For Gu Hang, the more important growth channel actually comes from the alliance itself.
As the alliance's controlled territory continued to expand, Gu Hang's image as the alliance leader inevitably became more deeply ingrained in the hearts of the people throughout the alliance, and the power of the Storm God Kingdom naturally increased.
People's feelings for him are not religious faith, but rather love, trust, and loyalty... These emotions, after gradually taking root in the hearts of millions of people, have an effect that is no less powerful than traditional religious faith.
This is his biggest foundation. His Storm Kingdom has also grown significantly along with the Alliance.
Moreover, a new path has recently emerged. As his personal image has spread widely throughout Holy Terra and even the entire Solar System, and he has gained popularity, this place will provide him with some new power.
This was an unexpected surprise.
At his level, he could vaguely sense and realize why the Emperor was so powerful. Why, in the subspace, was His golden, shimmering divine kingdom so dazzling and ostentatious, yet even the four greatest evil gods in the subspace dared not confront His might directly?
He only had the trust of the entire alliance, but the Emperor had the trust of the entire empire, of countless trillions of people.
Furthermore, Gu Hang was even able to speculate on the origins of those four ancient evil gods.
But that's a long way off, and there's no point in daydreaming about it.
Back to the present, Gu Hang himself doesn't really know how to define his own power.
It's hard to say.
But at least, top warriors like Mattings and Salis, who are a level above the Warband Champions and can almost be called Emperor's Chosen, are nothing more than stubborn rocks in his hands—it takes a little effort, but Gu Hang has a hammer in his hand, so after a few more hits and his hand goes numb, he can still smash them to pieces.
More importantly, since they are stubborn rocks, there is almost no need to worry about them being able to hurt you.
Top-tier warriors can suppress warp forces, slice through magic with their fervent blades, instantly close the distance, and slay psionicists, or even gods, with their swords.
But that's only true when people are at the same level.
Gu Hang is no longer on the same level as them.
As for the great demons of evil gods... all I can say is that if the great demons of the world are at the level of the Great Impure One - Govaga, he could kill a whole bunch of them by himself now.
The so-called sons of emperors, the sons of gods whom the Space Marines call their fathers, the figures in the mythology of the Empire, the former leaders of the Legion... Gu Hang couldn't make comparisons with such beings due to a lack of observational samples.
However, if you think about it optimistically, perhaps you have already reached that level.
It's simply a matter of whether you're considered strong or weak at this level.
Having acquired such strength, he actually had a strong desire to venture out into the warp to hunt down various great demons and lesser evil gods, thus enriching himself.
However, for now, it's just a thought.
He hadn't forgotten that his Storm Kingdom was under the protection of the Golden Kingdom. If he were to casually venture out, leave that protection, and enter the chaotic, untamed waves of the true warp, he would easily be targeted by those four terrifying beings. Gu Hang still dared not provoke them.
As for the worries that came with acquiring the Storm God Kingdom back then, he might have gone too far down this path and lost his humanity...
Now, there's no need to think about this anymore.
He has gone very far.
He couldn't sever this support along the way. Without it, he wouldn't have been able to overcome so many difficulties.
Given this situation, he could only hope that this path wouldn't lead to a dead end.
Regardless, he had to keep going.
Devouring other great beings and plundering to replenish the essence of the warp is ultimately a secondary, supplementary method. Forging a more powerful alliance is the true, viable path.
Now that Qi Bodu has been dealt with, the rest are no longer problems.
Gu Hang then found Luo Fei.
The Premier of the Executive Yuan, who is ostensibly the biggest obstacle to the progress of the Alliance Plan, is now powerless to resist.