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Chapter 1037 The Grand Finale (Part 1): Becoming a God
Gu Hang sat quietly in the empty hall.

This is the most magnificent hall in the Holy Terra Imperial Palace. Ten thousand years ago, the Emperor received the Sons of God, commanders, prime ministers, and lords of the Empire here, announcing the start of the founding expedition.

Then, the Emperor stepped out of the palace, where the largest plaza within the palace grounds, the Visionary Plaza, connected to the Eternal Avenue, lay before him. There, the original Space Marine legions, the Imperial Guard, and the most elite mortal warriors were reviewed by the Emperor, proudly and majestically beginning the grand founding expedition.

And later, Gu Hang will also be presiding over a similar ceremony.

This is the time to wait.

Logically speaking, there should be many ministers and attendants accompanying Gu Hang now, making various preparations for the event.

That was indeed the case before, except that Gu Hang had asked everyone to leave temporarily a dozen minutes ago.

The moment of becoming a god was calmer than I had expected.

Unlike when the Slaanesh were born, when an entire Eldar empire, the dominant race of the universe, was sacrificed, causing turmoil in the warp for millennia and resulting in a massive catastrophe that affected almost the entire universe.

When the emperor ascended to heaven, the commotion was much smaller than that of Slaanesh.

According to records, at that time, golden light could be seen in the sky throughout the entire empire, and the phantom of the divine emperor ascending to heaven moved trillions of people to tears and made them kneel in worship—of course, this may also be a myth created by the state religion.

But regardless, there must have been some activity at least in Holy Terra at that time.

At that moment, without any external commotion, Gu Hang became the one. He clearly felt that the thin layer of paper that had stood in his way for quite some time had quietly shattered.

Humanity thus gained a new deity who protected and guided them in the subspace.

Now, thirty years have passed since the Forge of All Things was swallowed up by the Storm Kingdom.

Gu Hang finally took that step and entered the top level of both subspace and the physical universe.

His ascension to godhood was not truly without any activity.

However, not now.

Thirty years ago, Bassol, the lesser god who had the best chance of becoming a great being in the subspace, fell. When his divine realm, the Furnace of All Things, was smashed and devoured by Gu Hang, that was the 'movement' of Gu Hang's ascension to godhood.

Offering a sacrifice to the strongest chaotic deity below the Four Gods is actually quite a significant sacrifice.

If that wasn't enough, then ten years ago, Gu Hang faced a challenge of considerable scale.

By then, he had already completed the analysis and mastery of the authority of the 'Creator'.

And the key that Bassol painstakingly collected and forged over hundreds of years, the Rain Star created based on the ancient Knight Star, is also in Gu Hang's hands.

Although he didn't create it himself, after gaining control of the 'Creator' authority, it wasn't difficult for Gu Hang to analyze and manipulate the key. He completed it in less than two years.

After obtaining the key, the next step is to search for the so-called ancient weapon.

But in reality, this is a trap—a trap set by Tzeentch.

He fooled Bassor; one piece of information related to the ancient weapon was false.

A simple lie wouldn't be enough to make Bassor risk his life for it. But as the god of lies, Tzeentch wouldn't stoop so low as to deceive another god, especially not to the point of death.

Leaving aside the many clever lies Tzeentch told that gradually drew Bassor into complete entanglement, the most important thing was that the ancient weapon existed, was incredibly powerful, and could truly make Bassor a god.

This information is true.

Only true information could successfully deceive Bassor.

The problem is that a clever lie often contains a fatal falsehood interspersed within the truth.

This ancient weapon comes from an ancient cosmic race. During the time when that race was active, even the warp was not what it is today.

For this ancient weapon to function, the warp must be restored to its original state from the time it existed.

But that's impossible.

Unless, of course, Bassol can destroy the Four Gods, plus the Emperor.

Even after becoming a great being, they still couldn't eliminate the other five beings of the same level. After all, the eternal game between the four gods lasted for an eternity, and they fought each other to the point of exhaustion, yet their positions never changed.

Even becoming a god is impossible, let alone Bassol, who hasn't become a god yet.

Even if Bassor had successfully obtained the key and activated the ancient weapon, he would never have become a god.

He cannot destroy the Four Gods, nor can he alter the warp, so this ancient weapon is a powerful and exquisite piece of junk.

And Bassor wasn't the only one who was deceived.

Bassor's former collaborator, Chaos Warmaster Alchaton, was also a victim.

This guy actually took the ancient weapon thing seriously.

After losing Bassor as a collaborator, Alchaton had a new plan: he intended to seize the opportunity the moment Gu Hang acquired the ancient weapon, to get his hands on it first—the ancient weapon that was rumored to change the entire situation of the universe.

Of course, this could also be part of Tzeentch's scheme. In fact, Gu Hang should also be included in the list of victims.

However, relatively speaking, Gu Hang suffered the least loss in the scam.

Because he won the war.

Treachery is adept at intrigue, but not at executing it. This master of change has too many unpredictable, bizarre, and wildly imaginative ideas, making him impossible to guard against, yet he is also prone to contradictions and even mishandling.

After all that maneuvering, Tzeentch probably never imagined that Gu Hang would win the final battle against Bassor, and win decisively at that.

He did indeed engage in a bloody battle with Alchaton, who came to seize the ancient weapon, just as the deception had planned. The human forces suffered heavy losses, and even when facing Alchaton, who was empowered by the combined power of the four gods, Leon and Mattings almost perished together.

But none of this could stop Gu Hang from getting involved.

While he possesses immense power, it is also undeniable that he is still a 'human'. Since he has never ascended, he will always have an absolute advantage: he can more easily inject power into the real universe than the Four Gods or the Emperor, and even, when necessary, he himself can be present.

Gu Hang destroyed Alchaton.

The losses were heavy, but so what?

Ten years ago, the Unyielding Expedition and the Dark Side Expedition had already recovered more than 75% of the Empire's territory.

With a more powerful, efficient, and centralized system of rule than the old empires, humanity's war potential has reached an unprecedented and terrifying level.

No matter how great or heavy the loss may seem, it is just a drop in the ocean for a human empire of immense size; it is a wound that can be healed with time.

The old empire, which bled for ten thousand years and still survived, is even less likely to perish in the new empire that Gu Hang now controls.

Whether it's eliminating Bassol, devouring the All-Encompassing Forge, or destroying Alchaton and obtaining the ancient weapon, Gu Hang has won in all of these cases.

Even if the ancient weapons are useless, it doesn't really matter.

After all, even without the deception, Chaos is still Gu Hang's enemy.

These two things were originally on the kill list.

The scam actually made it easier for Gu Hang to take action.

Moreover, if that so-called ancient weapon was useless in Bassor's hands, would it be completely useless in Gu Hang's hands?

Not always.

Gu Hang and Bassor are different.

Bassor is merely the 'creator'.

Gu Hang is a top-tier secondary god, the guardian of humanity, plus the title of 'creator'.

Gu Hang, who was already just one step away from becoming a great being, was actually unable to take that step after consuming the 'Creator'.

In this matter, quantitative change seems unlikely to lead to qualitative change.

But in any case, Gu Hang has accumulated enough 'quantity'.

He is not like Bassol, who expects ancient weapons to elevate him to godhood.

What Gu Hang needed was that little bit of 'quality'.

He didn't care how powerful that so-called ancient weapon was. After acquiring it, he stored this spherical object, which was somewhere between a physical object and an illusion, into his Storm God Kingdom.

He certainly couldn't use this super weapon that was supposedly capable of destroying everything at will, nor could he recreate the environment of the warp.

But it doesn't matter.

After ten years of analysis, he had practically dismantled the thing, reducing it to utter junk.

Just to extract that little bit of 'quality'.

And today, he succeeded.

What was originally blocking his way was no longer just a step away, but merely a thin membrane of obstruction, which quietly broke through.

He became.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

I'll release the final chapter tomorrow or the day after.

The series has been running for two and a half years, totaling 346 million words, and it's finally coming to an end. I have many feelings about it.

I'll express my feelings properly in the author's closing remarks after I release the last chapter!

First of all, thank you to all the readers for making it this far!

(End of this chapter)