At the entrance to the Terra Sub-Warp Webway, a group of villagers were farming the land, their entire bodies radiating the power of time.
Under the effects of time, the marks left behind by age on the surrounding buildings also restored back to the way they looked when they were just built.
Buzz...
A strange sound echoed, and a burst of resplendent radiance bloomed from within the originally pitch-black Webway.
The blown-up Webway was completely repaired once again.
The continuous stream of demons within the Webway became like rootless duckweed, and a group of Adeptus Custodes drenched in blood along with Doom Slayers walked out from within the Webway.
Several Adeptus Custodes collapsed onto the ground and lost all signs of movement. Two months of continuous fighting made them recall the First War for the Webway; the difference was that this time, they won.
"Tsk tsk, to be able to hold out for such a long time without life-steal, this bunch of Adeptus Custodes really aren't human..."
Having similarly upgraded to the Cleric tier, this group of Adeptus Custodes were completely capable of thrashing the Doom Slayers.
It was just like reinforcing equipment; it was the same +10 reinforcement, but the equipment attributes of Level 1 and Level 10 were completely different.
Right at this moment, a wave of power swept across the entirety of Terra and even the Solar System, announcing one thing to absolutely everyone:
Humanity, your Emperor has returned!
A golden sun rose above the sky of the Imperial Palace of Terra. Everyone who witnessed this sun knelt down on one knee and lowered their heads.
He was a natural Perpetual and Psyker, as well as a practitioner who continuously refined and trained his cultivation throughout his journeys; he viewed humanity as his children and himself as a strict father, granting all of humanity the most vast and severe love.
He was an eternal scholar; the so-called Omnissiah was merely a biased, one-sided praise from the Adeptus Mechanicus.
He was the doctor and nurse for all of humanity. When the Dark Age of Technology collapsed and the entirety of humanity plunged into the tragedy of shattered ideals and fratricidal slaughter, he comforted the wounds of the people and gathered humanity once again under a unified banner.
Furthermore, he was the pioneer of a new era and the gravedigger of the old era. His left hand turned its back on the bleak past, his golden claw terminating a cruel war that had persisted for dozens of centuries, while his right hand pointed toward a bright future.
He was the Emperor, a deity who was unwilling to become a god!
Now that he had left that most terrifying torture machine in history, the hope of humanity became concrete once again.
Yang Tao raised his head and looked at the figure in the center of the 'sun'.
Unlike the skeleton-man on the Golden Throne, the current Emperor had already put on a suit of golden armor, with a wreath of green thorns worn upon his head.
The aura upon his body was as vast as the sea, and at the same time, that black sun in the Warp had also completely turned into a golden sun.
It shone in the sky over Yang Tao's boundless domain within the Warp, while simultaneously continuing to serve as the Astronomican for humanity.
The big guy very quickly dropped down from the sky, arriving beside Yang Tao.
"Thank you."
Two simple words were spoken from the Emperor's mouth. Yang Tao merely smiled indifferently, while summoning a wooden door to let his villagers leave, speaking to the Emperor:
"No need for thanks, after all, I am taking payment."
The souls of all humanity in the Imperium were the bargaining chips for this transaction.
In Yang Tao's view, they were bargaining chips, but in the eyes of the Emperor or entities who understood a bit of the truth of Chaos, what Yang Tao did was pure salvation.
No need to worry about souls being corrupted or tortured, and even possessing a chance at resurrection—was this not standard behavior of a benevolent god?
"Guilliman has already utilized the technology I bestowed to greatly improve the Imperium's communication and transportation, but there are still some Imperial parasites that you need to handle yourself."
Is the Imperial Tithe high?
In reality, it wasn't high.
From the ancient Qin Dynasty up to the Republic of China, there had always been tax collections: poll tax, household tax, land tax, as well as corvée labor, military service, and so on.
In addition, there were some other chaotic taxes; they even collected taxes on double eyelids.
The Imperial Tithe wasn't high, but because the transportation loss rate was extremely high, this resulted in certain planets needing to treat three-tenths or even half of their output as taxes to guarantee the normal collection of the Imperial Tithe.
Why was it that with such a massive tax collection, places like the Space Marines, Astra Militarum, and Hive Cities lived such a miserable life?
When tracing it back to the root, it was still a transportation issue.
Some food had already expired and rotted before it could even be processed, and some canned rations were even older than the ages of the Astra Militarum soldiers.
The Emperor stared with a pair of 24K glittering golden LED pay-to-win large eyes, making it completely impossible for Yang Tao to see his gaze. Hearing his words, he also merely nodded lightly and said: "Even though many people already know that nowadays humanity has become lambs kept by Chaos, they are still stubbornly striving for those non-existent things, indulging in pleasure and ultimately becoming the henchmen of Chaos..."
For example, many high-level officials of certain Hive Worlds had already been corrupted by Slaanesh without being aware of it themselves.
"This kind of thing cannot be avoided, but with the Stargates and Teleport Waystones you provided, this kind of thing can be drastically reduced..."
"In addition, the enemies of the Imperium do not consist only of Chaos, there are also the Tyranids and the Necrons; one of them wants to devour all of humanity, and the other wants to restore the former glory of the Necrontyr..."
The Orks?
There was no need to care about the Orks; at most, it was just launching a war.
The Imperium could not be without enemies.
And a pure enemy like the Orks was the best kind of enemy.
Yang Tao nodded lightly and said: "The Imperium of Man is yours, you can handle it however you want. I am currently just waiting for the force of faith to meet the standard to summon a Titan to descend. At that time, everything in the Warp will no longer be an issue."
The Emperor handled the matters of the material universe, while he handled the Warp; this wave could be described as a win-win.
As for who lost, Yang Tao didn't care.
The force of faith inside his body was entirely infused into the body of the Paladin · Mutant Iron Golem beside him, but the surging force of faith was like a clay ox entering the sea, failing to cause any Transformation in the Mutant Iron Golem.
The Emperor's gaze looked at the Paladin · Mutant Iron Golem, and a feeling inexplicably rose within his heart that he seemingly wasn't the opponent of this iron fellow.
"I have not stood up for a long time; there are some matters that I need to personally handle."
"I am leaving as well. When the Titan descends, I will look for you again."
Having said that, Yang Tao led the Mutant Iron Golem over to the side of the Teleport Waystone, turning into a streak of white light and leaving humanity's homeworld, Terra.
The news of the Emperor standing up spread across the Warp in an instant, and a certain fellow waiting for the Emperor to become the Dark King almost directly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died from anger.
Meanwhile, Yang Tao also returned to the planet Grizetta, which was loyal to him. The current Grizetta was no longer that uninhabited scenery.
This insignificant little star in the galaxy had become lush and green; compared to other planets of humanity, this place could already be counted as a paradise.
Inside the Planetary Fortress.
Yang Tao sat on a chair, feeling the force of faith continuously emerging inside his body, and let out a somewhat helpless sigh.
"The spent force of faith is enough to craft two Paladins, but now there isn't even a sound. Can this Titan really come out?"
However, Yang Tao also made up his mind deep down; if it couldn't come out, he would find a way to spawn the Titans mod.