“Accept our blessing and become our champion, or die here and now.”
In the darkest corner of the Warhammer 40K universe, Li Jue faces this choice. An accident sends him plummeting from modern society into Terra's abyss, where all four Chaos Gods mark him at once. Tzeentch grants him eyes that see through the truth, Khorne gives him the strength to tear anything apart, Slaanesh pushes his senses to their limits, and Nurgle bestows an indomitable life. But every “gift” comes with a price.
Within the forces of Chaos, he is a mistrusted “anomaly”; in the eyes of the Imperium, he is a “stain” that must be purged. The Blood Angels never stop hunting him, and power struggles within Chaos keep him on edge. Above it all, the shadow of the Horus Heresy looms over the heart of the Imperium of Man.
Li Jue discovers that his transmigration was no accident. The Four Gods chose him so that, when the Emperor and the Warmaster have brought each other to the brink of ruin, Chaos can use him as an “anchor” to fully enter reality. He is a key, a sacrifice, the most unusual piece on the board in the gods' game.
But he decides to make new rules.
Drawing on his understanding of Chaos and his knowledge of the Imperium's flaws, Li Jue walks a tightrope between the two sides. He saves Blood Angels soldiers and sabotages Chaos rituals; he passes information to the Inquisition and rescues innocents from the underhive. During the final Siege of Terra, when everyone thinks he must choose a side, he makes a third choice:
To become the guardian of Hell's gate.
“I was once Chaos's plaything and the Imperium's prisoner. Now I am the Eye of Chaos. I serve neither gods nor the Imperium. I serve only those who still strive to hold on to their humanity in the darkness.”
Warhammer satirizes so many things: the blindness of religion, the killings brought by ambition, industrial pollution and disease, the desire of Slaanesh, and the double-edged sword brought by technology; people are a mixture of stitched emotions, and I just long for "beauty". Now they are all projections of negative emotions in the subspace. I want to see the struggle between the pros and cons of the four gods (such as letting Tzeentch enter Nurgle, "authority" split, 🍉 Their children are called "life and new life")
Looking forward to the following plot, but I feel that the novel is not that simple and easy to understand.