Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 777

Chapter 772: The War to Stop the War

. As a child, Gu Jing might have been naive about things like demons, Tzeentch, archdemons, and the Warp. But now, in his twenties, he fully understood the magnitude of the crisis he faced back then.

That was a great demon of the Warp, a monstrous demon lord!

Such a being could unleash a terrifying turmoil that would engulf an entire star system. They could always hide behind shadows, bewitching people, creating coincidences, and using cunning tactics to wreak horrific havoc without even appearing.

And even then, they’d target a tiny infant.

But precisely because of this, he fully understood the terrifying nature of his father.

Even the most dangerous demon, no matter how carefully he hid, was eventually captured.

In a dream, Gu Jing saw that demon, twisted into a knot by his father’s electric shock.

“If you like to accompany me to study, then spend the rest of your life with me.”

To this day, Gu Jing still remembers his father’s words.

Then, by his side, a small-scale “Lord of Change,” composed entirely of lightning, appeared. When he was young, he’d studied with him, breaking down knowledge and rapidly learning. As he grew older, he became his assistant, assisting him with his work.

It no longer possessed a will of its own, its demonic soul annihilated by the thunderbolt. Now, it was merely a re-creation within the Storm Kingdom, drawing upon its Warp essence. It shared a common nature with the many Heroic Spirits of the Storm Kingdom, retaining only a modicum of the knowledge and wisdom of Tzeentch’s demons.

Its behavior was rather rigid, lacking the ability to act proactively, like an intelligent assistant.

Yet, as a tool, it was quite useful.

This was his father’s intention.

Leaving even a trace of intelligence in a Tzeentch demon was unacceptable; it might cause trouble. Therefore, it was completely annihilated, ensuring it had no influence on Gu Jing’s decisions. Currently, this Lord of Change Heroic Spirit functioned like a calculator, a computer, or an analytical machine.

During Gu Jing’s earlier meeting with Yang Shiwei, he was able to quickly read and analyze thousands of pages of documents thanks to the help of the Lord of Change.

The cheat given by his father really works!

As for the psychic powers Gu Jing employed during the “slight” physical altercation later on, they were his own strength.

As Gu Hang’s son, he was naturally gifted with psychic abilities, and quite capable of them. Psychic training had been a prominent part of his studies since childhood. Mentors from the Psychic Order taught him specifically, and sometimes Gu Hang would personally train him when he had free time.

After the Lord of Change became his “cheat,” his psychic prowess reached a new level.

Of the four types of Warp demons, Tzeentchians are the most adept at psychic powers. As the pinnacle of Tzeentchian demons, the Lord of Change’s psychic powers are even more outrageous.

No human psychic could stand up to the Lord of Change.

Well… except for Gu Hang, who wasn’t considered human.

With the help of this Ever-Changing Demon Lord, Gu Jing, now only 23 years old, can easily unleash A+-level psychic powers. His psychic strength is still growing rapidly, and reaching S+ level in the future is a sure thing.

As for Alpha-level… he had received a stern warning from his father, forbidding him to summon such power. The upper limit was also sealed by Gu Hang himself. Becoming

an Alpha-level psychic isn’t a question of whether or not. With a little further development, Gu Jing could easily reach it. However, the biggest challenge with this level of psychic power is controllability.

And that’s the limit of humanity; control is impossible.

Unless Gu Jing dehumanizes himself and finds a way to master a portion of the Warp Essence.

That would be incredibly rare. Gu Hang happened to encounter a weak and primitive being, yet a true Lesser God of the Warp. With the help of a system, they merged and formed this Warp Essence.

The easy part in replicating this process is finding a portion of the Warp Essence.

Of course, not every planet has a thin veil of reality like the Wrathful Owl, prone to breeding native deities. But the universe is vast, so if you want to find something, you can always find it.

Similar things exist within the Alliance. Local religions and cults, which don’t believe in Warp demons or the Emperor, have spawned some bizarre creatures.

These creatures are generally weak, far from reaching the level of a Great Demon, at best a higher-level demon. However, due to the way they are created, they truly possess a portion of the Warp’s essence.

The Alliance has generally taken a crackdown on this. In the real universe, they crack down on cults and destroy all non-establishment and Mechanicus beliefs; in the Warp… Gu Hang has basically devoured all those primitive lesser gods.

Having devoured so many, leaving a portion for his son isn’t a big deal.

The key is, how can a mortal incorporate a portion of the Warp’s essence?

It’s impossible, not even Gu Hang can do it.

The Chosen Ones don’t count; if they wanted to, they could do it in a matter of minutes, without the need for Warp essence.

But the Chosen Ones can’t grant immortality.

Unless Gu Hang is even more powerful, he can create something like the Four Gods, which grants people demonic ascension and the rise to Daemon Prince.

However, that would result in the loss of one’s humanity, their soul completely reshaped, and they wouldn’t necessarily be the same person they once were.

It was still a bit of a headache.

But there was no need to rush.

Gu Jing was still young, with plenty of time ahead of him to consider his future path in psychic abilities. Maintaining an S+ rank wasn’t a bad option.

At least, safety would be guaranteed.

If all else failed, this Heroic Spirit, a version of the Ever-Changing Demon Lord, would provide Gu Jing with personal protection.

While slightly weaker than its ‘living form,’ it wasn’t any less powerful. It was still a great demon, with a wide variety of tactics, unlike a bloodthirsty demon who only knew how to hack and slash.

And right now, it was playing a valuable supporting role.

It could quickly polish the report Gu Jing had previously presented into a proper, official document, then quickly transmit it back through the subspace to the Alliance’s high-ranking officials.

After this, Gu Jing could only await a reply from Angry Owl Star.

He wasn’t so arrogant as to make such a crucial and important decision on his own.

The specifics of how this would be done would depend on the overall decision of the coalition government.

Once the decision was made, whether he would be expected to execute it was another matter.

However, he certainly wasn’t idle.

As a tax envoy, he still had to do his job.

However, this matter was not very challenging for him.

Even without the help of the Lord of Change, with his ability, it would be easy to complete this matter.

One of the two responsibilities of a special tax envoy, communication with the Imperial Taxation Department, was a no-brainer. He now had Yang Shiwei completely under his thumb. Until the Imperial Taxation Department replaced their head, Gu Jing was confident he would have immense influence over tax affairs on Lingze Star.

As for his other responsibility, supervising the Alliance Imperial Taxation Working Group, that was easy to do. He only needed to stay in charge, while the specific details would naturally fall to the elite team he brought in from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Audit Department of the Finance Department.

Generally speaking, there wouldn’t be any problems; the Imperial Taxation Working Group had been thoroughly scrutinized and investigated numerous times.

Even when it was tedious, Gu Jing would meticulously complete his work.

He had already made a good start; he would be remiss if he didn’t finish well.

…

Gu Hang soon received the report.

His son was reporting to his direct superior, the Minister of Finance, and the Alliance Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which oversaw external relations.

However, neither dared to make his own decisions on such a major matter.

They delivered Gu Jing’s suggestions, along with their own opinions, to Gu Hang’s desk.

After reading it, Gu Hang smiled broadly.

The young man was quite thoughtful.

However, Gu Jing didn’t have to bring this up.

Salihovic had a comprehensive preemptive plan, but until now, it hadn’t been put to use.

If possible, the Alliance didn’t want the current situation to change.

The past fifteen years had been a period of rapid growth for the Alliance. The sixteen trillion war expenses had been largely offset. Before that, the Alliance had only paid one trillion in taxes annually, the rest being the Empire’s debt to the Alliance for the Iron Armor War.

The Empire had already taken advantage of this.

The Alliance couldn’t even collect the interest on the sixteen trillion, yet the Imperial Central Government had to pay it over fifteen years. What else did they want?

That was fine. Now that the war expenses had been offset, the Alliance could return to its normal tax payment of 2.1 trillion, without any pressure, and at least it wouldn’t affect the Alliance’s development. Under these circumstances, maintaining stability would be ideal.

Over the past fifteen years, the Alliance’s GDP growth rate had remained consistently high. In recent years, development has reached a critical juncture, especially in the leading Dragon Eagle Star Region, where the average annual per capita output value has reached 11 tax coins. While still growing, it’s ultimately not as rapid as in previous years.

But that doesn’t matter. Even if the Dragon Eagle Star Region’s growth stalls, there are still other star regions.

There’s still plenty of room for growth.

Even if the growth rate has slowed, the sheer magnitude of the annual increase is still significant given the current scale of total output value, which has quadrupled or even quintupled compared to the past.

Gu Hang truly has no intention of opposing the Imperial Central Government. If the Alliance’s relatively peaceful development can be maintained for a while longer, that would be ideal.

But he absolutely does not want to raise taxes.

According to the memorandum that Yang Shiwei tried to trick Gu Jing into signing, Xu Fuzhen, or rather the Imperial Central Government, wasn’t overly harsh in raising taxes on the Alliance. It only increased from 2.1 trillion to 2.5 trillion, a mere 400 billion in tax revenue.

The Alliance could afford it.

However, 400 billion is a lot. This is all the tax revenue the Empire can collect from the average universe. And that’s only in areas where the Empire has strong control and can reduce tax costs. In some poorer or more chaotic universes, after deducting all costs, a return of 100 billion is considered good.

Moreover, compared to the Alliance’s previous tax revenue of 2.1 trillion, this represents a nearly 20% increase.

The Alliance can afford it, but it can’t.

We can’t set a precedent like this.

If we do it once, what if it has to increase again in a few years? What if

it goes even further? A nationwide development survey is conducted, and a strict 10% tax on gross output is imposed, raising the Imperial tax to over 5 trillion. What then?

The Alliance Plan would then be a dead letter.

Furthermore, seeing how lucrative the Alliance is and how easily it can be manipulated, wouldn’t greedy tycoons want to intervene in the Alliance’s various industries and take a share of the profits?

Once the bottom line is breached, it will be breached again and again.

Is it possible to raise taxes?

Yes, if the choice is between raising taxes and civil war, then the 400 billion should be paid without hesitation.

However, there’s a lot of gray area between raising taxes and fighting a civil war, and there’s plenty of time and space to negotiate with the Imperial Center.

The Alliance has enough leverage.

Let’s take our time.

Even if we end up paying the 400 billion, we must make the Imperial Center pay a sufficient price, make them feel the pain, and thus delay any further advances.

Retracting his thoughts, he focused on the present. This was Gu Jing’s first time out on his own.

The outcome, in Gu Hang’s view, was both expected and surprising.

The expected part was that the demon he’d captured that had dared to attack his son had, in a moment’s thought, been repurposed, and it had a truly remarkable effect. Originally

, Gu Hang had intended to devour the Warp Essence of the Ever-Changing Demon Lord. Although he no longer had the dramatic improvement he’d experienced in the early days by simply consuming a Greater Demon or a Neuron Worm, Greater Demons were still incredibly nutritious.

Going out in the Warp to actively hunt Greater Demons was dangerous, and it was easy to be captured by their masters. But it would be a shame not to take advantage of something that came right to him.

But… I’ll have to be sorry, for my son.

So far, it’s working. A bodyguard, a bonus to wisdom, and intelligent assistance—a triple advantage in one, it’s working perfectly.

With such a configuration, even at just 23 years old and lacking in experience, Gu Jing is definitely capable of standing on his own, and it’s no surprise that he’s making achievements.

The unexpected part is that the outcome of this Gu Jing’s work has been quite rewarding.

More importantly, it has provided Gu Hang with information that will fuel his decision-making.

The tax increase is no longer just a matter of public opinion within the Imperial Central Government. With Yang Shiwei’s attempt to discuss the issue with Gu Jing, the Alliance’s tax envoy, it has officially become a policy implemented by the Imperial Central Government.

Political peace, then, is a pipe dream.

The beginning of this war without gunpowder is inevitable.

Of course, war is just an adjective. In reality, all this is an effort for peace, to avoid actual war.

(End of this chapter)