Chapter Summaries

Xiang Qian negotiated with Dr. Pym, offering help against Darren Cross and a safe place to work in exchange for Pym’s cooperation. Pym remained wary, but Xiang Qian’s claims about Janet and the Quantum Realm shook his resistance as they agreed to deal with Lauren Krauss first.

• Dr. Pym demanded to know what Xiang Qian wanted and what he could offer, while Tony mocked him about Darren Cross and Hope.
• Xiang Qian warned Pym that his plan to infiltrate Krauss Industries could leave him and Hope hunted by powerful enemies afterward.
• Xiang Qian offered Pym a safe hiding place and technical equipment, then said they needed to verify the Quantum Realm and find an entrance.
• Xiang Qian suggested that Janet might have survived because time could pass differently in the Quantum Realm, deeply affecting Pym.
• Xiang Qian proposed dealing with Lauren Krauss before discussing their partnership further, and Pym realized Xiang Qian was also threatening to keep him within reach.

Xiang Qian helped Dr. Pym reclaim his company after Lauren Krauss’s schemes collapsed, but an intruder attacked the newly built Quantum Lab. Xiang Qian trapped Ava Starr, recognized her connection to Pym’s past, and decided to hold her until whoever sent her made contact.

• Tony and Xiang Qian undermined Lauren Krauss’s company, and Lauren tried to flee with the unfinished Wasp Suit before Xiang Qian imprisoned him in subspace.
• Xiang Qian gave the Wasp Suit to old Pym, who expected to return and lead the company as Pym Industries.
• Tony called Xiang Qian for help after a gray-and-white-clad intruder broke into the Quantum Lab and fought him.
• Xiang Qian sealed the building and captured the intruder, Ava Starr, in a looping spatial maze.
• Xiang Qian told Tony and old Pym that Ava’s phasing came from a particle experiment and that her father, Elihas Starr, had once worked with Pym before dying in an accident.
• Xiang Qian called Ava an innocent victim of Pym’s harsh treatment and proposed keeping her confined until her associates revealed themselves.

After Ava’s capture, Xiang Qian learned that Berkeley professor Bill Foster was helping her and sought to understand his connection to the break-in. Foster revealed that he was raising Ava as his daughter and hoped Pym’s quantum experiments could save her, leaving Xiang Qian aware of the tragic history behind Project Goliath.

• Bill Foster contacted Dr. Pym about Ava, and Xiang Qian and Tony identified him as a former Project Goliath scientist.
• Xiang Qian advised moving the laboratory and took charge of meeting Foster because Dr. Pym was poor at communicating with people.
• Foster admitted that he had asked Ava to watch Hope and that Ava broke into the laboratory to examine the planned quantum experiment.
• Foster explained that Ava’s molecular ruptures were worsening and that she needed treatment before her body collapsed.
• Foster told Xiang Qian that Ava was his daughter and recalled how he had brought Pym into Project Goliath, a decision he and Xiang Qian regarded as disastrous in other respects.

Xiang Qian helped Professor Foster arrange treatment preparations for Ava and began a Quantum Realm experiment with Dr. Pym. The experiment went wrong, and Dr. Pym returned with Janet Dane's mind entangled with his, leaving her with urgent information to share.

• Xiang Qian agreed to let Foster join the experiment and promised to design a treatment experiment for Ava in exchange for Foster's unwritten Project Goliath knowledge.
• Ava attacked Xiang Qian after he released her from Subspace, so he spun the space until she was too sick to fight; she then agreed to undergo an examination.
• Xiang Qian, Foster, Pym, and the others completed preparations for the Quantum Tunnel, and Dr. Pym volunteered to enter it first to find his wife.
• The experimental pod vanished, and Dr. Pym returned without it, using the Pym Particle regulator instead of the Quantum Tunnel.
• Hope greeted her father, but Xiang Qian realized that Janet Dane's mind had returned entangled with Dr. Pym's and invited her to deliver her urgent message.

Janet Dane gave Dr. Pym safe coordinates in the Quantum Realm, and Xiang Qian insisted on joining the mission to explore them. As Xiang Qian and Dr. Pym entered the Quantum Realm, Xiang Qian’s magical power expanded while his Infinity Stones stopped working.

• Janet Dane briefly took control of Dr. Pym’s body, gave the group coordinates to her hiding place, and said goodbye to Hope and the others.
• Dr. Pym and the group prepared a second experiment, but Xiang Qian insisted on joining so they could establish a forward base in the Quantum Realm.
• Dr. Pym reluctantly allowed Xiang Qian into the experimental pod, and the two traveled into the Quantum Realm.
• Xiang Qian felt his magical power break free of its restraints and spread through his body upon entering the Quantum Realm.
• Xiang Qian discovered that the Infinity Stones he carried could no longer provide any energy.

Xiang Qian discovered that a Rune signal in the Quantum Realm carried a message left by the Ancient One, apparently pointing to a person and possibly hinting that something was wrong with time. After Janet reacted warily to the symbol, Xiang finished tracing it and prepared to follow the signpost, describing its target as little more than a mailman to him.

• Old Pym reached the Quantum Realm, where he reunited with Janet after she stopped his body from shifting between reality and illusion.
• Xiang Qian sensed a recurring resonance with his Rune magic and realized it was transmitting a fixed pattern of Runes into his mind.
• Xiang Qian connected the signal to a message from the Ancient One and wondered whether it indicated that something was wrong with time.
• Xiang Qian questioned Janet about the symbol, recognized that she was lying, and explained that he believed it was a signpost left by his teacher.
• Janet accused Xiang Qian of seeking a universe-ruling schemer, while he finished tracing the symbol and said its intended person was probably just a mailman to him.

Xiang Qian refused to leave the Quantum Realm with the Pyms, fearing the magical message from the Ancient One might disappear and that its discovery had drawn the attention of powerful beings. After a clash of priorities, he subdued Janet and Dr. Xu Ai, then sensed the message-bearing rune approaching as the feared Postman arrived.

• Janet insisted that Xiang Qian leave the Quantum Realm with her and Dr. Xu Ai, but Xiang Qian refused because he needed to reach the Ancient One's message.
• Xiang Qian bound the experimental pod with Magic Chains and drew a Magic Circle around it and the Pyms, while Janet advanced and attacked him with energy blasts.
• Xiang Qian absorbed Janet's attacks through his Magic Embodiment and struck her with Dream Magic, leaving her frozen in place.
• Dr. Xu Ai tried to intervene, but Xiang Qian put him into a dream as well.
• Xiang Qian sensed the rune carrying the Ancient One's message approaching and recognized that the Postman had come to deliver it.

Xiang Qian used White Magic to destroy the Conqueror of the Quantum Realm’s army and capture his command ship, then questioned him about the Sorcerer Supreme marked by the Ancient One. The Conqueror admitted he did not know the man’s identity, leaving Xiang Qian to investigate the mysterious rune-user.

• The Conqueror’s army arrived and indiscriminately attacked everything around Xiang Qian’s magic circle, but the circle remained intact.
• Xiang Qian recognized the scar on the Conqueror’s face as a magical mark left by the Ancient One and questioned him about Asgard and the unknown rune-user.
• Xiang Qian’s White Magic eroded the army’s weapons and soldiers, overcame the command ship’s shield, and pulled the ship from the sky.
• Xiang Qian bound the Conqueror and asked about his encounter with the mysterious Sorcerer Supreme.
• The Conqueror said the man was neither Odin nor Thor, though he used Bolimei script, and claimed he had killed more than one Sorcerer Supreme.

Xiang Qian questioned Kang the Conqueror about the attack that left him stranded in the Quantum Realm, while using magic to uncover a message hidden in Kang’s scar. After learning how Kang had been attacked and lost equipment, Xiang Qian restrained him and prepared to read the letter from the Ancient One.

• Xiang Qian asked Kang the Conqueror when and how he had been attacked, and Kang explained that an assailant had knocked him unconscious and left a scar on his face.
• Xiang Qian identified the scar as part of a complex magical array and suspected that the attack had been carefully planned.
• Kang the Conqueror said that mercenaries had attacked him after he woke, forcing him to flee in his ship after losing some equipment.
• Xiang Qian questioned Kang about his conflict with Janet and inferred that it had helped leave him stranded in the Quantum Realm.
• Xiang Qian summoned a magical image of the Ancient One, ended the interrogation, and restrained Kang with a White Magic spell that froze his soul.

Xiang Qian met a brief spirit-fragment of the Ancient One, who explained how Eternity brought the Soul Universe into his soul and why it had become a source of conflict. The Ancient One suggested Eternity had developed a Personality and that Xiang Qian’s soul now stood between Eternity and the universe he sought.

• Xiang Qian reunited with the Ancient One’s incomplete spirit, which warned that its fifteen-minute fragment would not last long.
• The Ancient One explained that Eternity had used the Space Stone and his own power to bring the Soul Universe from another world into their universe, where it fused with Xiang Qian’s soul when he was an infant.
• The Ancient One said Eternity’s use of power had disrupted spacetime and likely alerted Death, who opposed his actions and clashed with him.
• The Ancient One connected Death’s description of Eternity as fearful to the possibility that Eternity had developed a Personality, much as Xiang Qian had resisted being ruled by his Divinity.
• Xiang Qian reasoned that Eternity’s fear might stem from a desire to survive and that Xiang Qian’s soul was now the final obstacle to Eternity acquiring the Soul Universe.

Xiang Qian questioned the Ancient One about Eternity’s motives and learned that the Quantum Realm could shield events from cosmic beings. He confirmed Kang the Conqueror’s identity, killed him with White Magic, and sent the Rune couple home after using Kang’s blood in a spell.

• The Ancient One warned Xiang Qian that their meeting might be something Eternity wanted and explained that the Quantum Realm resisted the influence of beings like Eternity and Death.
• Xiang Qian concluded that Kang had committed no crimes in their world, then asked Janet to confirm that he was the war criminal she feared.
• Janet identified Kang, and Xiang Qian dissolved his body into a ball of blood with White Magic.
• Xiang Qian used the blood to affect the Rune couple, erased the magical traces, and returned the unconscious pair to their home in an experimental pod.
• Xiang Qian vanished from the Quantum Realm before the pod finished starting up.

Xiang Qian entered Muspelheim and found Hela imprisoned there, then used the Mind Stone and Hell’s source power to reach her and send a signal to Death. He challenged Death to kill him or interfere with Eternity’s plan.

• Xiang Qian teleported into devastated Muspelheim and approached the fiery prison where Hela was held.
• Xiang Qian entered Hela’s Soul Realm with the Mind Stone and imprisoned her consciousness before she could resist.
• Xiang Qian sent a mass of Hell’s source power into Hela to revive her spirits, while keeping control of the energy.
• Xiang Qian drew deathly mist from the Underworld and tapped its source power with a Rune, creating a boom that carried into a dark abyss.
• Xiang Qian called out to Death and offered a chance to kill him or ruin Eternity’s plan.

Xiang Hou questioned Death about Eternity’s plans for the universe inside his soul and whether Eternity feared total annihilation. Death revealed that Eternity’s personality was contending with him across the universe and that Xiang Hou might be a fragment of Eternity’s consciousness, leaving Xiang Hou seeking to understand Eternity’s intentions before choosing what to do.

• Xiang Qian met Death in Hela’s Soul Realm using only part of his consciousness and asked how Eternity intended to use the universe in his soul.
• Death questioned whether Xiang Hou was truly an intelligent primate or an avatar of Eternity, and said Xiang Hou would understand the truth when the time came.
• Xiang Hou proposed that the soul universe might be a refuge for Eternity from complete annihilation and argued that returning a universe to a singularity was not the same as destroying the multiverse.
• Death revealed that Eternity’s personality was still contending with him throughout the universe and dismissed Xiang Hou as, at most, a strand of Eternity’s consciousness.
• Xiang Hou described how white magic corroded a model universe and asked whether increasing entropy meant the universe would eventually face entropic annihilation.

Death explained that Eternity planned to preserve his individual identity through the universe’s annihilation and seize the power of the next Eternity. Xiang Qian recognized that stopping the plan could require him to become the Soul Universe’s Creator God, but the consequences of hastening the universe’s destruction left him weighing his own interests against the lives that would be lost.

• Death told Xiang Qian that Eternity intended to transfer his identity into the Soul Universe, then take the next Eternity’s place after the universe was reborn.
• Death explained that Eternity needed a vast universe with independent rules to preserve the power and identity he would carry across the multiverse’s annihilation.
• Xiang Qian learned that transferring Eternity’s power would accelerate the universe’s destruction and prevent many future lives from being born.
• Death said Xiang Qian could stop Eternity by becoming the Soul Universe’s Creator God, but Xiang Qian remained wary of the cost and of losing his independent consciousness.
• Xiang Qian realized that Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force, which contained the emotional power of future lives, might have a particular stake in resisting Eternity’s plan.

Xiang Qian questioned the origin of his aversion to Divinity while Death watched through Hela, then used a fire dragon’s enraged soul to probe and break through his Soul Realm. A familiar figure with Xiang Qian’s face emerged from the breach, and Xiang Qian greeted him with resignation.

• Death silently watched Xiang Qian and gathered power through Hela’s soul as he reconsidered his resistance to Divinity.
• Xiang Qian used White Magic to make a fire dragon’s agonizing death provoke a destructive evil spirit that attacked his Soul Realm.
• Xiang Qian controlled the fire dragon spirit’s attacks to probe the Soul Realm and locate a weak point in its dome.
• Xiang Qian sent the spirit crashing through the dome, leaving a breach from which a blood-colored droplet descended and formed a person with his face.
• Xiang Qian absorbed the fire dragon’s flesh, blood, and soul into his body, then told the familiar figure that he had not wanted to see him again.

Xiang Qian confronted the hidden alternate personality within his consciousness and learned how it had separated itself from the malice personality. As Xiang Qian prepared a spell to eliminate it, the alternate insisted it knew no more about Eternity’s influence than he did.

• The alternate Xiang Qian explained that it began as a seed and grew after Xiang Qian split off his malicious thoughts, then secretly separated itself from the malice personality.
• The alternate said it had spent much of its time observing the Soul Universe, but Xiang Qian doubted that this explained why it had hidden for so long.
• Xiang Qian decided to remove the alternate personality, warning that it could pose a danger during his current turning point.
• The alternate said it was only a consequence of a thought Eternity had stirred in Xiang Qian and knew no more about Eternity or Death than Xiang Qian did.
• On the physical plane, Xiang Qian drew magical power from creatures dragged to him by the blood cocoon while he prepared to act against the alternate.

After cutting away a damaged part of his soul, Xiang Qian tried to negotiate with Death over how to stop Eternity without surrendering his independent personality. The five-minute window was nearly over, and they remained deadlocked over whether to awaken Eternity’s original Divinity or seek another solution.

• Xiang Qian endured the agony of precisely cutting his own soul, leaving his magic in disarray and part of his Soul Universe irreparably collapsed.
• Death warned Xiang Qian that he might need to act soon and urged him to master the Soul Universe’s rules, but he refused to give up his independent personality.
• Xiang Qian revealed that he had delayed the Pyms’ return from the Quantum Realm, buying himself more time before Eternity could learn of their meeting.
• Xiang Qian proposed awakening Eternity’s original Divinity to restrain his self-personality, while Death argued that finding it would take too long and that Eternity’s plan was near its critical stage.
• Xiang Qian offered to negotiate with Eternity and rent him the Soul Universe, but Death rejected the proposal, leaving them deadlocked as the five-minute window ran out.

Death left to search for Eternity's Divinity after warning Xiang Qian that he was running out of time. Eternity then attacked Xiang Qian and erased Muspelheim, leaving Xiang Qian resisting the spacetime rules while he tried to uncover Eternity's plan.

• Death warned Xiang Qian that she might fail to find or awaken Eternity's Divinity, then departed to search for it.
• Eternity erased Muspelheim with the power of spacetime and left only Xiang Qian and unconscious Hela alive.
• Xiang Qian transformed himself into a tiny Magic Great World and used its rules to resist Eternity's assault.
• Eternity told Xiang Qian that he would not survive to see Death return and kept weakening the Magic Great World's rules.
• Xiang Qian asked whether Eternity had tampered with the Time Stone and was indirectly controlling the Soul Universe.

Eternity tried to erase Xiang Qian and his Magic Small World across every level of existence, but Xiang Qian joined forces with Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force to transform the world and resist. Eternity was forced to start its assault over as their clash threatened the surrounding space-time.

• Eternity attacked Xiang Qian's Magic Small World, using time to undermine its rules and deny Xiang Qian's existence.
• Xiang Qian questioned Eternity about luring him into the Quantum Realm, but Eternity refused to answer and continued its assault.
• Jean Grey appeared beside Xiang Qian, and he joked that his greatest talent was living off women.
• The Phoenix Force poured into the Magic Small World, transforming it with the emotions and vitality of intelligent beings.
• Eternity reacted with shock as the Phoenix's power disrupted its infiltration, while the two worlds' rules collided and shook the Nine Realms.

Xiang Qian, Jean, and Wanda resisted Eternity as Wanda’s Chaos Magic disrupted his control of space-time. Eternity offered to preserve Xiang Qian and his loved ones in a new universe, but Xiang Qian remained determined to fight for the chance to awaken Eternity’s divinity.

• Wanda Maximoff appeared beside Xiang Qian and Jean as the Scarlet Witch, bringing her Chaos Magic into the confrontation with Eternity.
• Xiang Qian challenged Eternity’s divine airs and argued that resisting was better than accepting death at Eternity’s hands.
• Wanda’s Chaos Magic, Jean’s Phoenix Force, and Xiang Qian’s small magical world interfered with Eternity’s control, causing delays in his use of space-time power.
• Eternity threatened Xiang Qian and offered to preserve his consciousness and reshape the souls of his lover, family, and friends in a new universe.
• Xiang Qian rejected despair and continued to stake everything on stopping Eternity and awakening the divinity.