Guilliman's expression was a little strange when he heard "Necron. Growing the machine spirit."
He himself had a subtle view on "The machine spirit" and the soul of machines, which clearly carried animistic overtones.
Guilliman did occasionally sense the existence of the machine spirit, but this feeling was vague, weak, and indirect, unable to directly prove the machine spirit's existence.
He also knew that many Tech-Priests didn't fully understand the principles of the machine spirit, and their understanding of it was at a primitive, irrational level of faith.
In other words, Guilliman's view of the machine spirit was closer to it being a superstition, or perhaps a Warp effect?
After all, most machinery should be isolated from the Warp.
The Necron were an example; this mechanical race was isolated from the Warp.
But now Alexander was telling Guilliman that a Necron had grown a machine spirit.
This made Guilliman feel his worldview crumbling slightly, feeling that materialism had once again ceased to exist.
Guilliman sighed inwardly, as if from a certain point in time, materialism had frequently ceased to exist.
"I can confirm that I traveled with Anrakyr across the galaxy for several years, and I believe Anrakyr has a spirit," Fulgrim said with a faint smile.
"That was absolutely not faked, nor was it the false emotions brought about by the Necron's broken obsessions. That was a true soul."
"I've seen Anrakyr alone, gazing at the stars in the deep night more than once. How could soulless, spiritless machinery be attracted to the night sky?"
Guilliman didn't put much trust in Fulgrim's words; he only turned his questioning gaze towards Alexander.
Alexander, of course, knew exactly what was going on.
In tens of thousands of simulations, he had already thoroughly researched this.
When he was on Ashford, he had already established a preliminary link with the Malicious Art domain. Anrakyr's machine spirit was born under the influence of the Malicious Art domain.
The Warp reflected the emotional tides of all living beings in reality, and these emotions naturally contained various forms of creativity. This creativity directly formed the Malicious Art domain, and since the Malicious Art domain originated from the creativity that created those machines, it naturally encompassed those machines.
Just as bacteria and viruses, these simple life forms, inherently do not possess emotions, should not have a link to the Warp, and should not produce souls.
But life's fear of disease, fear of decay, and desire for survival are all closely related to these microorganisms. The moment these emotions prompted the birth of Nurgle's domain, these microorganisms naturally also established a connection with the Warp and gave birth to souls.
And the reason why the machine spirit is not yet a true soul is entirely because the Malicious Art domain has not truly formed, and the connection between the Warp and these machines is not deep enough.
If the revered deity of the Malicious Art domain were truly born, perhaps all machinery in the galaxy would begin to possess true souls.
Alexander simply explained this to the three demigod Primarchs.
This made Guilliman raise his eyebrows slightly; he felt that Alexander's understanding of the Warp was much deeper than before. Was this the meaning of slumber?
Sanguinius' gaze, however, was slightly lowered, seemingly with some sadness, some self-reproach.
"Do Necron desire to obtain souls?" Guilliman said, a faint glimmer in his eyes. "Can Anrakyr represent the Necron and cooperate with humanity?"
Guilliman did not ask if Trazyn could represent the Necron; he had heard some of Trazyn's deeds from Cawl and knew that Trazyn was widely disliked within the Necron.
"Indeed, a large portion of them desire to obtain souls," Alexander nodded in agreement.
"Most Necron consider themselves to be the Necron of the past. From their perspective, they were suddenly infused into these cold mechanical bodies, losing their true ability to perceive everything, with only boundless emptiness remaining in their minds."
"They long for the warmth of the living, they long for souls to fill themselves, they want to reverse the biotransference and become Necron again... because they now find that, compared to a short but flavorful life, a hollow and lonely cold eternity is more tormenting."
"And I, coincidentally, have the ability to grant them souls."
Alexander's words invigorated everyone present, as if they saw hope.
But Alexander quickly poured cold water on them: "If it were a few hundred years ago, Anrakyr could indeed represent some Necron, but now he cannot."
"The Silent King, putting aside everything else, indeed has some skill in internal political struggles. Anrakyr's political power has basically been completely dissolved by the Silent King."
"What about the Silent King himself? Is there a possibility of him cooperating with us?" Guilliman asked, frowning.
"There's some, but... you don't understand the Silent King," Sanguinius hesitated for a moment before saying, "I formed a certain degree of friendship with the Silent King ten thousand years ago."
"Ah?" Fulgrim exclaimed, undisguised.
Lion and Guilliman also looked at Sanguinius in unison, a little incredulous.
You, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, secretly colluded with xenos??
And not just colluding, but with a top-tier xenos like the Silent King??
And not just colluding with the Silent King, but doing so silently, unbeknownst to everyone??
Sanguinius! What deep schemes!
Lion placed his hand on the table, tilting his head slightly to stare at Sanguinius. He opened his mouth to speak—
"Lion, before you speak, I hope you think about how to explain the Dark Watchers on Caliban." Alexander interrupted Lion just before he could speak.
Lion's expression stiffened upon hearing this. The words on the tip of his tongue were forcefully held back, and after a moment of silence, he said, "I understand Sanguinius. Not every Legion is without secrets like the First Legion."
Guilliman's mouth twitched at Lion's words, but he also felt a little annoyed. Friendship with the Silent King ten thousand years ago? What about during the Second Imperium? Did they maintain contact? And the Pharos Beacon was a Necron ruin; was the Silent King involved in that matter?
For a moment, many suspicions arose in Guilliman's mind, and he began to wonder what Sanguinius had done with the Silent King.
"Guilliman, before you speak, I hope you answer me: Is the Eldar Death Guard useful?" Alexander once again interrupted him just before Guilliman could open his mouth.
Guilliman choked.
This question was really difficult for him to answer.
Honestly, they were very useful. The Eldar were truly a very useful race. During the Indomitus Crusade, Guilliman frequently used Harlequin and the Death Guard.
The Harlequin were relatively difficult to control and a bit mischievous. Sylandri Shadowseer, who led the Harlequin, always found opportunities to slack off.
But the Death Guard were excellent, especially the divine emissary Yvraine, who is now one of Guilliman's advisors, often helping Guilliman handle state affairs.
But how did Alexander know so clearly?!
Guilliman suddenly felt a bit of a stomach ache.
"You three, I finally understand. Each of you is more loyal than the last, more pristine than the last, and has more little secrets than the last." Fulgrim pursed his thin lips, tsk-tsking with a hint of sarcasm and teasing.
"Unlike me, pure, perfect, never with xenos—"
"Stab people." Alexander lightly uttered two words, and Fulgrim immediately stopped talking, closing his mouth and falling silent.
Fulgrim certainly didn't associate with xenos; he had transformed himself to be almost like a xenos.
Seeing the choked expressions of the others, Alexander's lips curved into a slight, imperceptible smile.
"Of course, I know you are all loyal subjects, not traitors who collude with xenos."
"What Dark Watchers? Just Warp-specialized halflings."
"What Eldar? Just Psyker-specialized sub-humans."
"What Necron? Just a metallic subspecies of humanity."
"They're all humans, no xenos!"
Watching Alexander's teasing words, Sanguinius couldn't help but let a small smile play on his lips.
"Let's get back to business," Sanguinius said. "Let me think about how to describe the Silent King."
"The Silent King is a person who is both suspicious and sensitive, yet easily deceived."
Both suspicious and sensitive, yet easily deceived... Sanguinius' description made the other two demigod Primarchs pause for a moment. How could these two words appear in the same person?
"These two together lead to the Silent King being a person who accepts all lies and slanders, but never listens to truths and loyal advice," Sanguinius said with a hint of helplessness.
"Based on my understanding of the Silent King, anything that is truly beneficial to the Necron or to himself, he will be full of suspicion."
"But if it's something harmful to the Necron or to himself, he will readily accept it."
"To cooperate with him, you must gain his trust while also guarding against him being deceived by others."
"That sounds like a lot of trouble," Fulgrim said, rubbing his hair with one hand.
"Unless the Silent King suffers a sufficiently harsh lesson, unless he gets a good beating, the Silent King will absolutely not cooperate with humanity," Alexander said faintly. "Even if the Silent King lowers his guard and cooperates with humanity, the probability of humanity being screwed over or nearly screwed over by the Silent King is no less than 65.5341%."
Even precise to four decimal places, the two demigod Primarchs, besides Sanguinius, had no idea how Alexander came up with that number.
"Let's leave the Silent King to set up his stage for now... After all, those two in the Warp have unleashed a considerable problem to delay our progress."
Alexander shrugged and said, "We need to first eliminate the Red Angel, that daemon born from the Blood Angels' ten thousand years of rage."
"If we completely ignore him and let him develop on his own, there's a 16.4431% chance that the Red Angel will completely replace Sanguinius' existence and become a powerful daemon Primarch."
"This probability isn't actually high, but if the Red Angel truly succeeds, we'll have to pick one unlucky fellow among you to board the Red Tears and be beaten to a pulp by the Sanguinius chosen by two gods."