"So, next, I need to figure out what's going on with my sudden ability..." Swain frowned, rubbing his hungry stomach, then grabbed an entire block of Corpse Starch.
Crack...
The incredibly hard Corpse Starch, which normally required a sharp blade to cut, was bitten through directly. His teeth, comparable to steel, ground the starch blocks—which ordinary people needed to soak in water—into powder like a rock crusher. With a gulp, Swain swallowed the Corpse Starch, and his stomach acid rapidly digested it, quickly sending the converted energy to his limbs and bones.
In no time, Swain ate an entire stick of Corpse Starch, and it wasn't until three sticks had gone down that the hunger in his stomach finally subsided.
"Am I a bottomless pit?" Swain, who was picking up a piece of dried meat and gnawing on it, had only this thought in his mind. Ever since Corax arrived, he'd noticed his body's vitality had become increasingly high, and his physical strength was continuously improving. This was also why he snapped the bowstring when fighting the Cracked Skull Breakers.
"Something within the territory is being absorbed by me and then used to strengthen me?" Swain's long period of observation led him to this conclusion. At first, he just felt hungrier faster, but it became clear that later, his psychic power also seemed to be continuously strengthening.
"It's related to the population within the territory, the residents' own lifeforce, or rather, their prosperity." Swain reached this conclusion after eliminating many factors, such as types and reserves of ore. Initially, he thought it was because he was a mining prodigy; the more ore he accumulated, and the rarer it was, the faster his body would strengthen, making him a natural born ox-horse physique for more mining.
But every time Corax joined his territory, he found that it didn't seem to be the case. Mainly, when his strength, which had been stabilizing, began to explode with more exaggeration than any previous increase, he understood what was going on. It was only then that Swain realized that the camp's population and ore output were generally stable, and he couldn't perceive any subtle differences. It wasn't until Corax called him boss that he truly felt it.
In other words, something about Corax was immeasurably stronger than everyone in the entire camp combined, otherwise Swain would still be diligently mining. Simply put, Swain's cheat was that the larger his territory, the more people it contained, and the more elites there were, the stronger he would become.
"Heh, then in the future, won't I truly be able to punch the Four Chaos Gods and kick the Emperor in the balls?" Swain couldn't help but indulge in his daily fantasies again. Nothing else, if his guess was correct, then the Dark Raven Guard could also be considered his subjects, as well as the worlds recovered and managed by the Dark Raven Guard during the Great Crusade.
The feudal lords granted fiefdoms were still feudal lords of this nation, right? Could it be that the separated feudal states would no longer belong to the Imperium of Man? No one in this universe had that courage, because those who did would be purged. He dared not even imagine what this implied.
As the Emperor's top enforcers, the Primarchs held immense power; they had the right to establish their own feudal states in the worlds they conquered. As long as they paid taxes according to Terra's requirements and didn't delay the Emperor's tinkering with the Webway, the Emperor didn't care who was in charge, as long as the taxes were paid.
(Only the Primarch homeworlds enjoyed special tax exemption.)
Not to mention the Primarchs, even the Rogue Traders held immense power. The name Rogue Trader sounds ordinary, without much distinctiveness. But if you think of another name, everyone will surely know its true value: Military Governor.
Indeed, Rogue Traders are the Imperium's regional magnates, and the power of Imperial Blood Rogue Traders is especially boundless. They possess their own Rogue Trader dynasties, and even ordinary planetary governors often rely on them to revitalize their planet's economy.
They even possess their own armed fleets, and the highest armed force the Imperium allows a Rogue Trader to possess is the Lunar-class cruiser, known as the eternal enemy of the T'au. That is a terrifying behemoth, 5 kilometers long, with its hull covered in menacing macro-cannons and lance batteries.
However, most Primarchs didn't have the time or energy to establish feudal states. Most simply set up recruitment points on conquered planets or reached friendly cooperation agreements with Forge Worlds or worlds with special resources. Managing feudal territories consumed a great deal of time and energy, coupled with the Emperor's demands for the Great Crusade's progress, so they essentially focused only on killing. The aftermath was handled by the bureaucratic system of Malcador, the Sigillite, the Imperial Regent.
It was precisely because of this that Guilliman appeared so prominent in the eyes of his brothers; everyone thought he was overly ambitious. After all, while everyone else was just hacking and slashing, Guilliman was extensively establishing his own feudal states in the rear, and managing them in an orderly fashion.
Brother, by doing this, how can we not doubt your loyalty? It was definitely not because Guilliman had parents, was overly cultured and well-mannered, and seemed out of place among his other brothers.
"In that case, won't I eventually be able to kill my way to Sacred Terra, usurp the Emperor's wretched throne, and sit on the Golden Throne myself?" He slapped himself out of his reverie.
"Pah, pah, pah, stop, stop! I don't want to sit on that crappy Golden Throne; I won't be the Emperor but I can still be an emperor." Swain quickly reined in his thoughts. The Golden Throne was too terrifying; let the Emperor enjoy it, he couldn't bear such fortune.
However, Corax becoming the second Emperor is also a very big challenge. The Emperor still had 21 good sons. Although two were later lost, there were still 19. Even if the Great Heresy occurred as usual, with half falling to Chaos, there would still be eight and a half left.
"Don't think about such distant matters. Just live, take one step at a time. Who knows, maybe a Warp projection will appear for me in the future, or maybe I'll just suddenly kick the bucket one day."
Since Swain had roughly figured out the characteristics of his ability, he naturally understood that in the future, his own projection would inevitably be born within the Warp. However, before this Warp projection successfully materialized, he himself didn't know what abilities it would possess. Most importantly, he first had to face the omnipresent malice of this galaxy.
Currently, the veil between reality and the Warp is still relatively strong, so there's no need to consider Chaos factors for the short term. But none of the xenos in the material universe are to be trifled with; every existence that hasn't been exterminated in the galaxy's races is extremely powerful. Not to mention the Eldar, whose entire race are psychic masters, the Necrontyr, who possess the pinnacle of material universe technology, or the ubiquitous Orks, which are rogue existences. Even other lesser-known xenos are enough to give the Imperium of Man's Great Crusade fleets a hard time.
The Hrud, who control the power of entropy, possess unique time manipulation abilities that even caused the eternally-lived Primarch Perturabo of the Iron Warriors to grow white hair.