Recaps

Xiang Qian and Tony investigated the suspicious deaths of Howard and Maria, tracing the likely cover-up to a mole within S.H.I.E.L.D. After visiting Peggy Carter in London, they learned that Alexander Pierce had personally led the original investigation, and Carter agreed that he should have noticed evidence of tampering.

• Tony told Xiang Qian that Obadiah Stane’s testimony showed he had leaked Howard’s whereabouts before Howard and Maria died, and Xiang Qian argued that S.H.I.E.L.D. should be investigated for covering up the murders.
• Xiang Qian explained to Zheng Xian that he suspected the same S.H.I.E.L.D. moles had helped the Mandarin attack the meeting where Xiang Qian’s parents were killed, and Zheng Xian approved his travel application.
• Xiang Qian and Tony traveled to London to visit Peggy Carter, secured their conversation against surveillance, and showed her Obadiah’s statement.
• Carter said Alexander Pierce had personally led the investigation into Howard and Maria’s deaths in 1991, while she and Howard had trusted him after recommending him as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Director.
• Carter warned that investigating Pierce required strategy, then agreed with Xiang Qian that someone had tampered with the investigation and Pierce should have noticed.

Xiang Qian and Tony planned a cautious investigation into Alexander Pierce, then Xiang Qian sensed infernal magic in London and went to the London Sanctum to investigate. He and Mordo learned the pulse might be connected to Kaecilius, whose allegiance to a Hell Lord remained uncertain.

• Xiang Qian rejected involving official forces in Tony's investigation and proposed using the hacker group the Rising Tide as a distraction while keeping the real investigation secret.
• Xiang Qian warned Tony that investigating Howard's murder could endanger Pepper, Happy, and others, and Tony left for his flight while Xiang Qian stayed behind.
• Xiang Qian sensed a faint magical pulse from London's DC District and opened a portal to the London Sanctum.
• Mordo told Xiang Qian that Kaecilius had reportedly been seen in London, and a Sanctum sorcerer said the pulse resembled an amateur ritual.
• Xiang Qian revealed that the pulse carried pure infernal energy, and Mordo explained that Kaecilius might have pledged himself to a demon while gathering followers.

Steven and Layla were rescued from Arthur’s Hell Jackal by Mordo, who questioned Steven about the conflict. Xiang Qian forcibly separated Steven and Marc’s spirits, then tried to make Marc cooperate by threatening to leave Steven in control of their body.

• Xiang Qian and Mordo watched Steven and Layla face Arthur’s Hell Jackal from the Mirror Dimension.
• Mordo pulled the alley into the Mirror Dimension and destroyed the Hell Jackal, warning Arthur to stay away from the mortal world.
• Mordo questioned Steven, but Steven’s personalities struggled over control and Marc prevented him from answering.
• At Mordo’s request, Xiang Qian struck Steven and separated Steven and Marc’s spirits from his body.
• Xiang Qian pressured Marc to talk by suggesting he would send Steven back alone, then teased Marc about Steven’s feelings for Layla.

Mark explained Ammit’s plan to break her seal, and Khonshu urged Kamar-Taj to intervene, but Xiang Qian and Mordo refused to take sides without evidence. Xiang Qian sent Steven and Mark back together, then revealed that a third, more powerful personality was hiding inside them before Mordo confronted him about his motives.

• Mark told Xiang Qian and Mordo that Arthur and Ammit’s followers planned to break Ammit’s seal, while Khonshu and Mark opposed them.
• Khonshu warned Kamar-Taj that Ammit wanted to judge people before they committed crimes and devour souls, but Mordo refused to blindly support him.
• Xiang Qian questioned Khonshu’s motives and removed him from the Mirror Dimension when he grew tired of his curses.
• Xiang Qian let Steven choose whether he and Mark would return together, and Steven chose to bring Mark along so they could face Arthur and protect Layla.
• Xiang Qian returned Steven and Mark to their body, gave Steven a phone number he could use once in an emergency, and sent him out of the Mirror Dimension.
• Xiang Qian told Mordo that a third, stronger personality was hiding inside Steven and Mark, and Mordo demanded to know what Xiang Qian hoped to gain from the conflict.

Xiang Qian monitored the Egyptian gods’ conflict while putting off a World Security Council meeting, and Xiang Tian confronted him about his relationship with Jean Grey. After learning that Arthur had killed Steven and Mark and was heading to unseal Ammit, Xiang Qian faced a choice about intervening in Egypt.

• Xiang Qian argued with Mordo about black magic, then returned home and avoided requests to attend the Project Deicide consultation meeting.
• Xiang Tian confronted Xiang Qian in his lab, where he explained his suspicion that Ammit came from Hell and was monitoring Khonshu’s avatar in Cairo.
• Xiang Tian insisted that Jean Grey meet her, and Xiang Qian’s awkward explanation made her suspect he had another lover.
• Alexander Pierce told Agent Sitwell not to disturb Peggy Carter and arranged to keep Nick Fury occupied by directing General Ross toward Bruce Banner.
• Xiang Qian waited as Steven and Mark’s tracking signal disappeared, then received a call from Layla saying Arthur had killed them and taken the figurine containing Ammit’s seal.
• Layla urged Xiang Qian to reach Cairo and stop Arthur before he returned to the altar and unsealed Ammit.

Xiang Qian found Steven's corpse and learned from Taweret that Arthur was trying to resurrect Ammit, while Khonshu had been sealed by the Ennead. He followed Arthur's followers into the altar's hidden dimension, where Ammit was resurrected, and recognized the Hellish aura in her bloodline.

• Xiang Qian found Steven dead in a tomb, where Taweret possessed his corpse and asked him to stop Arthur from breaking Ammit's seal.
• Taweret explained that Khonshu had been sealed after causing a solar eclipse and that Mark and Steven might be revived to serve as his avatars.
• Xiang Qian went to Cairo and entered the altar's other dimension after Arthur opened a passage into it.
• Xiang Qian noticed Layla slip away from Arthur's followers as Arthur fought and killed the Ennead's earthly avatars.
• Arthur shattered a doll and triggered Ammit's resurrection, while Xiang Qian watched from the Mirror Dimension and detected a Hellish aura in her bloodline.

Xiang Qian watched Ammit’s judgment ritual, discovered that it let her devour only souls judged guilty, and waited until Khonshu and Ammit began fighting before intervening. After a voice from his Soul Realm accused him of coldness, Xiang Qian exposed the gods’ battle to the world, then pulled them into his Mirror Dimension, leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. and Kamar-Taj scrambling.

• Layla became Taweret’s avatar while Ammit’s followers judged people across Cairo, causing guilty souls to rise and be devoured by Ammit.
• Xiang Qian realized Ammit needed the judgment ritual to devour souls, while Mark returned and joined the fight against Arthur as Khonshu reappeared to battle Ammit.
• A sinister voice from Xiang Qian’s Soul Realm taunted him for letting people die, and Xiang Qian strengthened the barrier that kept it contained.
• When Ammit gained the advantage over Khonshu, Xiang Qian revealed their battle in the Superposition Space, allowing cameras worldwide to capture the gods.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. cut off the broadcasts as Kamar-Taj sorcerers panicked, and Xiang Qian concealed his face before trapping both gods inside his Mirror Dimension.

Xiang Qian trapped Ammit in the Mirror Dimension, confronted her about her origins, and fought off her soul attack. When Khonshu’s avatar and Layla began sealing Ammit at the altar, Xiang Qian disrupted the ritual and threatened the Ennead’s statues, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Xiang Qian kept Ammit and Khonshu trapped in the Mirror Dimension despite Ammit’s attempt to break out, then dismissed Khonshu from the space.
• Xiang Qian questioned Ammit about being a creature from the Hell Dimension brought to the Egyptian Divine Realm by Anubis, and she answered with a soul attack that failed against him.
• Xiang Qian attacked Ammit with mirrored pyramids, distorted reflections, and quicksand as she fought back by damaging the Mirror Dimension’s structure.
• Divine power from the altar began to destroy Ammit’s body as Mark and Layla chanted beside the injured Arthur, prompting Ammit to beg Xiang Qian for help.
• Xiang Qian interrupted the sealing ritual and threatened to destroy the Ennead’s statues, while Khonshu warned him to stop and the fissures continued spreading.

Xiang Qian cut the Egyptian Divine Realm off from Earth with the Dimensional Barrier, forcing Khonshu to agree that Xiang Qian could settle matters with Ammit before handing her over if she survived. After subduing Ammit, Xiang Qian discovered that she was an infernal being and began searching her for the mark of death within her soul.

• Khonshu called on the Ennead to protect the altar, but their intervention faded when the Sorcerer Supreme used the Dimensional Barrier to sever the Egyptian Divine Realm’s connection to Earth.
• The Sorcerer Supreme told Xiang Qian to continue, and Khonshu agreed to let him deal with Ammit before taking custody of her if she remained alive.
• Xiang Qian struck Ammit with a magical javelin and used the Mirror Dimension’s quicksand and spatial attacks to trap and weaken her.
• After Ammit lost consciousness, Xiang Qian examined her with magical needles and found an energy mass instead of a biological brain, along with an infernal being beneath her divine shell.
• Xiang Qian concluded that Ammit was an infernal being and focused his investigation on finding the mark of death in her soul.

Xiang Qian lured Death out of Ammit and tried to bargain for the truth about the Soul Universe. Death offered to reveal it only if Xiang Qian accepted the rules of death, then withdrew, leaving Xiang Qian to investigate Galan and hand Ammit back to Khonshu.

• Xiang Qian sent his soul fluctuations through Ammit and provoked Death into taking control of Ammit’s body.
• Xiang Qian fought Death with Phoenix Fire until Death agreed to talk, then asked for the truth about the Soul Universe.
• Death offered the truth in exchange for Xiang Qian accepting the rules of death and said Xiang Qian might become a second Galan.
• Xiang Qian asked whether Death’s conflict with Eternity gave him leverage, but Death refused to answer and withdrew.
• Xiang Qian wondered whether Galan also had a universe in his soul, then returned Ammit to Khonshu, who realized Ammit had lost its divine power and no longer needed to be sealed.

Xiang Qian fitted Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor with a new casing that stopped palladium from entering his bloodstream while storing its radiation as usable energy. As Tony and Xiang Qian tested the modification, Rhodey warned that Congress was preparing to seize the Mark Armor, and Xiang Qian promised to demonstrate a fatal weakness in it.

• Xiang Qian told Pepper Potts that Tony’s Arc Reactor was poisoning him, prompting Pepper and Tony to argue about his secrecy.
• Xiang Qian replaced Tony’s reactor casing with a device that intercepted palladium radiation, and tests showed no palladium entering Tony’s bloodstream.
• Tony and Xiang Qian tested the stored energy through a mechanical arm, which fired a powerful laser and released some radiation into the air.
• Rhodey warned Tony that Congress was preparing a case to seize the Mark Armor, and said he would try to lead the military investigation.
• Xiang Qian offered to help by demonstrating the Mark Armor’s fatal weakness, then went to retrieve equipment while Tony encouraged Rhodey to test the armor himself.

Xiang Qian tested his EMP Rifle on Rhodes’s Mark Armor, disabling it and trapping Rhodes inside. Tony then accidentally triggered the rifle’s large-area EMP burst, blacking out the mansion, and Pepper arrived furious as Xiang Qian and Rhodes made Tony face the blame.

• Tony persuaded Rhodes to wear the Mark Armor for Xiang Qian’s EMP Rifle test, and Rhodes agreed after Tony teased him about his courage.
• Xiang Qian fired the rifle in low-power mode, striking the armor and disabling its electrical systems without penetrating it, leaving Rhodes trapped inside.
• Xiang Qian explained the rifle’s ammunition and high-power mode to Tony and Rhodes, then Tony accidentally triggered its large-area EMP burst and shut down the mansion’s appliances.
• Pepper confronted the three men about the blackout, and Xiang Qian blamed Tony while Rhodes asked her for tools to remove the armor.
• Xiang Qian said Pepper was angry but probably would not take it out on him or Rhodes, leaving Tony as the likely target.

Xiang Qian and Tony discussed Tony’s plans for the Stark Expo and his undercover approach to The Rising Tide, while Rhodes and Pepper left the mansion. After learning that the meeting would be in Washington, Xiang Qian planned to meet the group’s contact, Skye, once his World Security Council work was finished.

• Xiang Qian teased Tony about the Mark Armor’s filtration system, and Tony revealed he was planning a new Stark Expo because he wanted to leave something behind.
• Tony refused Xiang Qian’s advice to remove the shrapnel near his heart, while Xiang Qian hoped Tony could eventually find himself without relying on it.
• Xiang Qian announced the EMP Rifle as the first Stark Expo exhibit, and Rhodes recognized that it could help his investigation report.
• Rhodes and Pepper left Tony’s mansion late at night, and Xiang Qian warned Tony that Pepper’s anger would worsen with time.
• Tony showed Xiang Qian an encrypted message from The Rising Tide, and they decrypted the Washington meeting details after discussing Tony’s hacking tests.
• Xiang Qian concluded the leaked financial information made a law-enforcement sting unlikely, then planned to meet The Rising Tide’s contact, Skye, after his World Security Council business.

Xiang Qian challenged Project Insight at a World Security Council hearing, arguing that its Helicarrier would provoke an international crisis and proposing safer alternatives. After detecting an electronic eavesdropping operation and helping authorities locate it, he learned that the hackers included The Rising Tide's leader.

• Xiang Qian confronted Alexander Pierce and warned that Project Insight would cause geopolitical turmoil, while suspecting the hearing might be a trap.
• Xiang Qian told Gideon Malick that the Helicarrier would be detected near the Indian Ocean and could destabilize Project Deicide, then offered to present alternatives.
• Xiang Qian discreetly alerted Malick that the hearing room's electronic devices had been compromised and asked him to stall while he traced the eavesdroppers.
• Xiang Qian pinpointed the signal near the White House, and Malick and the Council's security chief arranged for U.S. authorities to investigate.
• That evening, Xiang Qian learned that authorities had captured two hackers, including the leader of The Rising Tide.

Xiang Qian evaded S.H.I.E.L.D. and his companions to travel secretly to Washington and meet the Rising Tide. At the café, he watched a conspicuously nervous young woman arrive, fail to find the expected connection, and rush back out.

• Xiang Qian learned that American agencies would not share details about the Rising Tide leader’s arrest and ordered Lao Hong to withdraw their people.
• Xiang Qian told Lao Hong he would stay behind in the United States, but Lao Hong tried to report the plan to Zheng Xian.
• Fang Zheng and the bodyguards stopped Lao Hong, supplied Xiang Qian with a nanomaterial disguise, and helped him slip off the plane unnoticed.
• Xiang Qian changed disguises at the Wude Group’s American branch and traveled quietly to Washington.
• Xiang Qian waited at the café while his encrypted program ran through a hacked public computer, then watched a nervous young Asian woman enter and leave.

Xiang Qian tracked down the Rising Tide member who had gone to meet him and discovered that she was Skye, a rookie whose leader Miles had vanished during a secret operation. After learning the group feared Miles had been arrested, Xiang Qian offered to help her investigate and urged her to leave Washington.

• Xiang Qian used Spider-Bots and hacked surveillance cameras to follow the young woman from the café to her van.
• Xiang Qian climbed into the van, disarmed Skye when she tried to use pepper spray, and revealed that he was the contact she had arranged to meet.
• Xiang Qian criticized Skye's conspicuous behavior, then questioned her until she explained that Miles, the Rising Tide's respected leader, had disappeared after a secret operation with Finley.
• Skye said Sarah and the others had left Washington because they feared Miles was arrested, but she stayed to investigate and make sure the meeting was not a trap.
• Xiang Qian offered his group's resources to help find Miles and warned Skye to leave Washington; she agreed to drive away and introduced herself as Skye.

Xiang Qian recruited Skye and members of The Rising Tide to investigate Miles’s arrest, offering help with his case and access to powerful computing equipment. After Skye became the technical lead, Xiang Qian revealed that the team had only a week to use what he claimed was a supercomputer before their safety could no longer be guaranteed.

• Skye accepted Xiang Qian’s invitation after he promised access to advanced equipment and told her that Miles had been arrested with another hacker.
• Xiang Qian persuaded Skye to join the investigation by offering legal help and money for Miles’s case, and she agreed to recruit Sarah and other hackers.
• Skye brought two men and Sarah to Xiang Qian’s safe house, where he proposed a technical test to choose the mission’s lead.
• Xiang Qian challenged the hackers to locate a server, and Skye correctly found it in Hong Kong while the others gave wrong answers.
• Xiang Qian named Skye the technical lead and claimed the team could use a supercomputer for a week before their safety was at risk.

Xiang Qian recruited Rising Tide to break into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s servers for Howard Stark’s case files, while secretly assigning Shen Ran to investigate the people who might know how Howard really died. Xiang Qian planned to draw Nick Fury’s attention and let Rising Tide serve as a decoy as the deeper investigation began.

• Xiang Qian told Rising Tide that Howard Stark’s apparent car accident might have been a premeditated murder and directed them to search S.H.I.E.L.D.’s highest-security server for the case files.
• Xiang Qian claimed Howard had founded S.H.I.E.L.D. and urged Rising Tide to keep the investigation quiet until they obtained the files.
• After leaving the studio, Xiang Qian met Shen Ran, confirmed the Rising Tide members were secure, and learned S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had followed him after the World Security Council hearing.
• Xiang Qian gave Shen Ran a list of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel who had worked at headquarters and certain branches around the time of Howard’s death, instructing him to investigate them discreetly.
• Xiang Qian planned to make a public appearance to draw Nick Fury’s attention while Shen Ran searched for witnesses, leaving Rising Tide to act as cover and take the blame.

Xiang Qian met Mephisto at an airport, where their negotiations over Mephisto’s crisis led Xiang Qian to question the nature of Hell’s beings and their relationship to Death. Mephisto finally explained that his assistant Locke had stolen powerful souls and sent a Devil Embryo into the mortal world, and Xiang Qian learned why Mephisto needed his help.

• Xiang Qian avoided returning to Hu City and planned to lie low in Hong Kong, but Mephisto appeared beside him at the airport and asked for help.
• Xiang Qian asked why Death was watching him and challenged Mephisto to consider what Hell’s beings were; the question left Mephisto confused and frightened.
• Mephisto tried to bargain with Xiang Qian, who demanded protection from Death’s schemes and proposed that Mephisto stop entering the mortal world.
• Xiang Qian asked Mephisto to explain his crisis before settling on terms, and Mephisto revealed that his assistant Locke had betrayed him.
• Mephisto explained that Locke had stolen high-quality souls, created a Devil Embryo, and secretly sent it into the mortal world to implant it in a human woman more than a decade earlier.

Xiang Qian learned that Locke had stolen a fragment of Mephisto’s soul and was cultivating a Devil Embryo on Earth, then agreed to help deal with the threat despite Mephisto’s attempts to pressure him. On his flight to Hong Kong, Xiang Qian weighed the danger to Mephisto and Earth’s magical balance and decided to contact Sylph about searching Central Europe.

• Xiang Qian questioned Mephisto and learned that Locke had made a fragment of Mephisto’s soul his own, giving him the potential to challenge the Hell Lord.
• Mephisto explained that Locke would need to devour many human souls to gather enough power, while Xiang Qian suspected Mephisto’s damaged soul was the real source of his urgency.
• Xiang Qian asked why Mephisto had not sought Ghost Rider’s help, and Mephisto admitted that the Rider had gone out of control.
• Mephisto warned that Locke’s Devil Embryo scheme could encourage other beings to invade Earth, and Xiang Qian agreed to help while refusing to be rushed.
• After boarding his flight to Hong Kong, Xiang Qian considered the risks of Locke’s plan and decided to get in touch with Sylph about searching Central Europe.

Xiang Qian recruited Sylph to search Eastern Europe for a boy rumored to be a vessel for a great devil, warning her not to approach him directly. After Sylph agreed to gather leads, she asked Xiang Qian for weapons instead of money, and he turned the negotiation into a flirtatious demand that she pay him.

• Xiang Qian called Sylph, who was fighting in the Philippines, and asked her to help find a thirteen-year-old boy in Central or Eastern Europe.
• After Sylph arrived the next day, she and Xiang Qian rekindled their intimate relationship and discussed his search.
• Xiang Qian explained that the boy had been born without a man's involvement and might be used by a great devil to enter the human world on the winter solstice.
• Sylph deduced that her mercenary group should investigate strange urban legends and other people searching for the boy, but Xiang Qian warned her not to bring the boy or his mother to him.
• Sylph agreed to gather information and asked for weapons instead of payment; Xiang Qian said she would have to pay him.

Xiang Qian oversaw The Rising Tide’s intrusion into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s servers, using the theft to draw out anyone connected to Howard’s death. He secretly copied Skye’s personal file, whose baby photograph stirred an old memory, and left the chapter wondering whether she was the girl he once knew.

• Xiang Qian learned that Skye was secretly searching S.H.I.E.L.D.’s servers for information about herself and ordered Jarvis to monitor her without alerting her.
• Sarah and the other members of The Rising Tide downloaded Howard-related files along with a much larger haul, while Xiang Qian secretly copied Skye’s file and erased it from her device.
• Xiang Qian warned The Rising Tide that S.H.I.E.L.D. was tracking them and gave them an escape plan with false identities and money.
• Xiang Qian told Shen Ran that the data theft was meant to provoke the person behind Howard’s death into acting, so Shen Ran could watch the possible witnesses.
• Xiang Qian examined Skye’s file, recognized the baby in its photograph as possibly familiar, and recalled that he might have once changed her diapers.

Xiang Qian tracked Nadia and Danny to Eastern Europe as the demon Locke's scheme drew him into a conflict with arms dealer Carrigan. After Sylph prepared the Wild Pack to attack Carrigan, Xiang Qian exposed Father Moreau's hidden knowledge and forced him to reveal where they could find Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze.

• Sylph told Xiang Qian that Nadia and Danny had sought protection from a religious group and that Carrigan was hunting the boy.
• Xiang Qian traveled to Sycaria while Kamar-Taj struggled to contain the Zealots and other threats, leaving him with little magical support.
• Sylph gathered the Wild Pack after Carrigan killed one of her mercenaries and threatened her in a video.
• Father Moreau offered the Wild Pack information on Carrigan, and Sylph ordered her mercenaries to hunt down his men.
• Xiang Qian broke Father Moreau's kneecap and accused him of hiding information about Danny; Moreau revealed that he knew where Ghost Rider was.
• Xiang Qian persuaded Father Moreau to take him to Johnny Blaze.

Xiang Qian and Father Moreau found Johnny Blaze and tried to recruit Ghost Rider to protect a missing thirteen-year-old boy. Xiang Qian separated Johnny’s soul and the Spirit of Vengeance from his body, but revealed that he could not sever their connection to each other or to Mephisto.

• Xiang Qian drove Father Moreau to Johnny Blaze’s abandoned factory hideout, where Moreau asked for Ghost Rider’s help protecting a boy hunted by a devil.
• Johnny refused until Father Moreau promised to free him from the Spirit of Vengeance, but Xiang Qian exposed Moreau’s lie and said Mephisto sent his regards.
• Johnny began transforming into Ghost Rider and attacked Xiang Qian, who knocked Johnny’s soul and the Spirit of Vengeance out of his body.
• Xiang Qian held the Spirit of Vengeance apart from Johnny and explained that he could not sever its deep connection to Johnny’s soul or their pact with Mephisto.
• Johnny realized Father Moreau had lied about being able to free him and glared at the priest.

Xiang Qian stabilized Johnny Blaze’s bond with the Spirit of Vengeance and sent him to find the endangered boy. After Johnny left, Xiang Qian forced Father Moreau to reveal that a bishop at the Sanctuary had taught him about Ghost Rider, then ordered the priest to take him there.

• Xiang Qian separated the Spirit of Vengeance from its Hellfire and concluded that its lost self-awareness had caused it to struggle with Johnny for control.
• Xiang Qian helped the Spirit of Vengeance develop a new self-awareness modeled on Johnny’s, promising that Johnny could retain his sanity for three to five years depending on how he used the Hellfire.
• Johnny confirmed that the Spirit of Vengeance had calmed down, then agreed to find the boy and use a signal transmitter to report his location to Xiang Qian.
• Xiang Qian questioned Father Moreau about how he knew Ghost Rider’s true nature and pressed on the priest’s knee until Moreau said a bishop at the Sanctuary had taught him.
• Xiang Qian learned that the Sanctuary trained people to fight devils and ordered Father Moreau to take him there.