Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yun used his prophetic talent to help Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax locate a Corpse Grinder Cult hideout, but a vision led him into the path of a cultist’s cleaver. He died and returned to the Golden Throne once more.

• Greyfax ordered Zhou Yun to divine the source of blood inside a building, and his vision revealed a Corpse Grinder Cult.
• Greyfax offered to train Zhou Yun as her apprentice and said he might become an Inquisitor or inherit her Rosette.
• Greyfax and the Tempestus Scions stormed the hideout and killed the cult leader, then prepared to destroy the cult’s blasphemous objects.
• Zhou Yun foresaw a cultist attacking Greyfax and moved closer to her, accidentally placing himself in the path of the cleaver.
• A Scion killed the cultist, but Zhou Yun was fatally struck, and Greyfax gave him an Aquila Pendant as he died.
• Zhou Yun’s soul returned to the Golden Throne.

Zhou Yun revealed that he was the Emperor of Mankind, trapped in agony on the Golden Throne but able to escape by inhabiting the recently dead. After leaving the throne and being reborn in another corpse, he discovered that its previous owner had died by hanging.

• Zhou Yun’s consciousness returned to the Golden Throne, where its machinery inflicted unbearable pain on him.
• Zhou Yun remembered that he had transmigrated into the Emperor of Mankind and had twice escaped the throne by inhabiting dead bodies.
• Zhou Yun searched the Warp for a dying soul and followed its pull back into reality.
• The Emperor’s psychic flames burned away and restored the corpse, allowing Zhou Yun’s consciousness to inhabit it.
• Zhou Yun opened his eyes, felt a rope tightening around his neck, and realized the corpse’s previous owner had hanged himself.

Zhou Yun escaped death by using psychic power to burn through the rope around his neck, then began recovering the memories and skills of the Scholar whose body he inhabited. He discovered that he was on Macragge, but the notebook’s silence about the Imperium and its figures left the era uncertain.

• Zhou Yun struggled against the rope choking him and used psychic power to make a candle flame burn through it.
• He recovered fragments of the Scholar’s memories and learned that the body’s former owner had been a teacher named Aulus who had fallen into gambling and drinking.
• Zhou Yun saw four moons outside the window, including one marked by scarlet fissures, and found that psychic power was harder to use on this planet.
• He lit a candle with psychic power and opened Aulus’s notebook, where a golden flame replaced the name Aulus with Zhou Yun.
• Zhou Yun recognized Macragge as the planet’s name and noticed the notebook contained no mention of the Imperium, the Emperor, the Primarchs, or the Astartes.

Zhou Yun discovered that he had entered the body of a scholar on ancient Macragge, thousands of years before the Imperium, and considered how he might use the opportunity to change the Emperor’s fate. He found the scholar’s enormous gambling debts and an invitation to House Guilliman, just as someone urgently knocked at the door.

• Zhou Yun learned from the scholar’s memories and coins that he was on Macragge in the era of Conor Guilliman and Jarlan, long before the Emperor’s Golden Throne.
• Zhou Yun realized his will could travel through time via the Warp and saw the scholar’s body as a chance to change the Horus Heresy and live safely on Macragge.
• Zhou Yun explored the scholar’s memories and learned that the scholar was a respected grammar teacher whose skills he was gradually acquiring.
• Zhou Yun discovered the scholar owed more than four thousand denars after becoming addicted to gambling and decided that fleeing his debts might be easier than repaying them.
• Zhou Yun found an invitation from Abbas, steward of House Guilliman, asking the scholar to visit on March twenty-second, but an impatient visitor knocked before he could finish reading.

Zhou Yun opened the door to find his niece Tita, who confronted him about his gambling and discovered evidence of his attempted suicide. The chapter left Tita shocked by the enormous gambling debts written on his IOUs.

• Zhou Yun used his sharpened senses to identify the impatient visitor as a young woman and opened the door after she started to leave.
• Tita rushed into the room, and Zhou Yun recognized her as his niece, the orphaned daughter of his brother, after she called him Uncle Zhou Yun.
• Tita saw the rope and the marks on Zhou Yun’s neck, and he joked that he had tried to open a little door to the Golden Throne.
• Tita tried to slap Zhou Yun, but his instincts made him dodge, and she stumbled before regaining her footing by the table.
• Tita found Zhou Yun’s IOUs and was horrified to see that he owed over a thousand Denar on one note, with repayment due the following month.

Zhou Yun learned that his gambling debts could make him a debt slave and threaten his chance to become a tutor in Marcus Guilliman’s household. He sensed that going to school with Tita might bring good fortune, but they arrived to find Cicero waiting beneath the colonnade.

• Zhou Yun realized Macragge’s debt laws could enslave him and recalled that his tutor interview with Marcus Guilliman was scheduled for next month.
• Tita urged Zhou Yun to prepare for the recruitment and worried that his debt would stop him from attending the interview.
• Zhou Yun recognized Cicero as a rival for the tutor position and suspected that his debts had been timed to keep him from the interview.
• Tita took Zhou Yun to school, and Zhou Yun’s psychic intuition suggested the trip would bring good gains.
• Tita stopped angrily when she spotted Cicero waiting beneath a column.

Zhou Yun remembered a fragment of the Emperor’s past when Cicero threatened Tita, then knocked Cicero down and refused his invitation to gamble. He agreed to focus on Marcus’s interview, while Tita offered to lend him her dowry to cover the first debt installment.

• Cicero tried to persuade Zhou Yun and Tita to join him at a feast and gambling house, but Tita stood in his way.
• As Cicero reached for Tita, Zhou Yun recalled a memory of a mortal defending the Emperor and struck Cicero with a punch and a kick.
• Cicero accepted Zhou Yun’s refusal and argued that enjoying life mattered more than living longer before leaving the academy.
• Zhou Yun wondered whether the memory belonged to the Emperor and asked Tita if he looked like a god or a man.
• Tita offered to lend Zhou Yun her dowry for the first debt installment and demanded that he prepare for Marcus’s interview instead of gambling with Cicero.
• Zhou Yun promised to focus on the interview and asked Tita for a small favor.

Zhou Yun asked Tita to excuse him from school so he could investigate Cicero, then borrowed money to buy supplies. Tita chose to trust him after remembering how he had protected her, while Zhou Yun unknowingly gained a little psychic power and set out to ask the Emperor about his suspicions.

• Zhou Yun asked Tita to help him take leave, and she suspected he planned to gamble again.
• Tita explained Cicero's beliefs about seeking sensory experiences, increasing Zhou Yun's suspicion that Cicero was a heretic.
• Zhou Yun swore he would avoid the casino, then borrowed six Asses from Tita and promised to buy food and return home.
• After Zhou Yun left, Tita regretted offering to use her father's pension to pay his debts but chose to trust him because he had protected her from Cicero.
• Zhou Yun's psychic power and Warp reflection grew slightly brighter, though he did not notice the change.
• On his way to the market, Zhou Yun planned to buy papyrus or parchment so he could ask the Emperor about Cicero.

Zhou Yun shopped in Macragge’s market and reflected on how Old Night had left human civilization fragmented and technologically uneven. At the market gate, a girl preaching about the one true Lord approached him, and he answered by asking whether she would learn about the Emperor of Mankind on the Golden Throne.

• Zhou Yun entered the market and noticed its guards and the contrast between advanced weapons and ancient-looking surroundings.
• He recalled how the Men of Iron Rebellion and Warp storms had brought about Old Night and devastated human civilization.
• Zhou Yun bought parchment, bread, fish sauce, and fresh produce.
• Near the market gate, Zhou Yun noticed a girl preaching about the one true Lord and tried to avoid her.
• The girl approached Zhou Yun, who asked if she would be interested in learning about the Emperor of Mankind seated upon the Golden Throne.

Zhou Yun argued with a young Catholic girl about religion and the Imperial Truth, then returned to his apartment to practice divination. He left the girl’s invitation unanswered and began drawing patterns on parchment.

• Zhou Yun countered the little girl’s preaching with the Emperor’s doctrine that gods and religion did not exist.
• The little girl persisted in trying to convert Zhou Yun, even after he asked whether her Lord was one of the four Chaos Gods or the dragon.
• Zhou Yun recognized the little girl’s silver cross and realized she was a Catholic.
• The little girl invited Zhou Yun to visit her church, which she said gave away fish sauce for free.
• Zhou Yun returned to his apartment, set down his groceries, and began drawing patterns on parchment to practice divination.

Tita worried about Zhou Yun’s finances and found him drawing strange cards, while Zhou Yun completed and blessed an Emperor’s Tarot deck. He drew four cards to begin a reading, turning over the first one.

• Tita recalled Zhou Yun’s fall into debt slavery and worried that his reduced wages would not cover next month’s expenses.
• Tita visited Zhou Yun and saw him drawing cards depicting ominous figures and scenes.
• Zhou Yun finished a card showing himself on the Golden Throne and explained that the Emperor’s Tarot could be used for divination.
• Zhou Yun blessed the handmade tarot deck with a prayer and felt certain it could reveal the future.
• Zhou Yun shuffled the deck, drew four cards, and turned over the first one.

Zhou Yun used tarot cards to uncover Cicero’s scheme and the Slaanesh cultists supporting him, learning that their real target was not the Scholar but someone connected to Guilliman. Meanwhile, Cicero’s allies argued over how to ensnare or kill Zhou Yun, and the chapter ended with the card Guilliman’s Wrath.

• Zhou Yun drew the Harlequin, Lost One, and Demon cards, which revealed Cicero’s conspiracy, his attempt to corrupt Zhou Yun, and the cultists’ ties to Slaanesh.
• Cicero confronted the Blind Witch at the Agate Baths and told her that Zhou Yun had survived her attempted suicide curse.
• The Blind Witch insisted her sorcery should have killed Zhou Yun, while Libo and Tull proposed exploiting his debt to trap him instead.
• Cicero said he needed to approach Zhou Yun when he was alone because his niece was an obstacle.
• Zhou Yun turned over the final card, Guilliman’s Wrath, and realized that he had merely stood in the way of the cultists’ true target.

Zhou Yun suspected Cicero and his cultists were plotting against Robert Guilliman and decided he had to grow stronger rather than flee. He discovered he could split his will between Scholar’s body and the Golden Throne to search for another body, then ended the evening sharing Tita’s soup.

• Zhou Yun reasoned that Cicero had used Warp sorcery to undermine Scholar and wondered whether the cultists served Consul Jarlan.
• Zhou Yun rejected fleeing because it might alter Robert Guilliman’s fate and leave Tita to bear his debt.
• Zhou Yun split his attention between Scholar’s body and the Golden Throne, enduring intense pain as he tested whether he could search the Warp for another body.
• Tita found Zhou Yun collapsed and burning with heat, but he calmed down and assured her he was fine.
• Tita offered Zhou Yun half her soup after he spilled his dinner, and he mistook the Talassar fish sauce for Barbarus stinking shit.

Zhou Yun enjoyed Macragge’s fresh air and learned that Consul Conor Guilliman had passed an agricultural tax reform to help small farmers. Tita brought him to meet his teacher Lucretius, who asked whether an unnatural force had driven Zhou Yun into gambling and debt.

• Zhou Yun praised Macragge as Ultramar’s foremost stronghold, and Tita challenged his description of the city.
• A drone announced that small self-cultivating farmers would be exempt from taxes on agricultural goods entering Macragge City, prompting Tita to discuss Conor Guilliman’s reforms.
• Zhou Yun and Tita discussed Macragge’s reliance on slaves and the power of its landowning nobles.
• Tita took Zhou Yun to Lucretius instead of letting him teach, saying she had arranged a different task for him.
• Lucretius showed Zhou Yun a clay tablet from a newly discovered ruin and asked whether an indescribable force had caused his gambling addiction and attempted suicide.

Lucretius suspected Zhou Yun had been affected by ancient sorcery or possessed by an evil spirit, but Zhou Yun revealed no reaction to a Blackstone relic and kept it. Lucretius offered to help with Zhou Yun’s debt and sent him to seek a priest in the Temple District, where Zhou Yun also hoped to prepare for awakening his psychic talent.

• Lucretius questioned Zhou Yun about strange emotions, hallucinations, and thoughts, and Zhou Yun confirmed he had experienced them.
• Lucretius tried to press a Blackstone relic to Zhou Yun’s brow, but Zhou Yun tripped him and took the stone.
• Zhou Yun tested the stone and felt it suppress his psychic power, then learned Lucretius believed it could ward off sorcery and evil spirits.
• Lucretius gave Zhou Yun the Blackstone and explained that ancient sorcery was less dangerous than his debt to the Semuneta Temple.
• Lucretius wrote a note recommending a priest who might help Zhou Yun arrange more debt installments.
• Zhou Yun asked Lucretius to lend him money for his plans to awaken his psychic talent.

Zhou Yun explored Macragge’s Temple District, considering how its weakened veil might help him awaken his psychic power and suspecting a link between the War King Temple, Elyrium, and Khorne. He reached an ancient Catholic church to meet Lukeleis’s priest acquaintance and found a mosaic depicting a Silver Dragon and a Golden Knight.

• Zhou Yun left the Water Temple with thirty-five denarius silver coins from Lukeleis as an advance for translating newly unearthed cuneiform tablets.
• Zhou Yun sensed that the Temple District’s closeness to the Warp might help him cross the Realm, though he believed he needed a more important location and additional aid.
• Zhou Yun reflected on Macragge’s endless wars with Elyrium and suspected that both Elyrium and the War King Temple might be connected to Khorne.
• Zhou Yun passed the Semuneta Temple, which he considered his creditor, and continued deeper into the Temple District.
• Zhou Yun climbed to an ancient Catholic church and studied a mosaic of a Silver Dragon facing a Golden Knight before a priest greeted him.

Zhou Yun visited Macragge’s Catholic church to ask Bishop Agrippa for help with his debt to the Semoneta Church, but Agrippa said he could do nothing. Before meeting him, Zhou Yun experienced another fragment of the Emperor’s memories and noticed the name Ollanius on the church mosaic’s donor list.

• Zhou Yun bought bread from a sharp-tongued girl at the Catholic church and received a tiny tube of its homemade fish sauce.
• While eating, Zhou Yun saw a vision of a Golden Knight fighting a powerful dragon and briefly inherited the Emperor’s knowledge of 169 Roman phrases of love.
• Zhou Yun spotted the name Ollanius engraved beneath the church mosaic but could not place where he had heard it.
• Agrippa mistook Zhou Yun for a vision before sitting beside him and introducing himself as the church’s bishop.
• Zhou Yun explained his debt to the Semoneta Church, and Agrippa said his bad relations with the other temples left him unable to help.

Zhou Yun learned more about the old church’s history and the Semuneta faith, then tried to buy its holy relics from Agrippa. Agrippa agreed to sell the sacred items after Zhou Yun offered more money.

• Agrippa explained that his church had been founded before humanity left Terra and had lost followers because it rejected other gods.
• Agrippa shared his view that religious myths grew from ordinary historical events, while Zhou Yun recognized the mosaic’s Golden Knight as the Emperor of Mankind and its Silver Dragon as a fragment of the Void Dragon.
• Agrippa warned Zhou Yun against getting too close to the Semoneta Church and connected its Time of First Cry to the end of Old Night and the decline of the Witch Kings.
• Zhou Yun asked to buy the church’s holy relics, and Agrippa agreed after Zhou Yun offered more money.

Zhou Yun crossed the Veil into the Warp to awaken his psychic gifts, where he saw himself on the Golden Throne and glimpsed a vast shadow behind him. The chapter ended with him wondering what the shadow was.

• Zhou Yun prepared a ritual in a secluded room behind the church and used a golden-toilet-flushing vision to enter the Warp.
• Agrippa sensed a strange glow from the Golden Knight mosaic and wondered whether Zhou Yun was manifesting as his boss.
• Zhou Yun crossed the Veil and resisted the weak Warp entities surrounding him.
• Zhou Yun recognized a psychic phantom as the power he had possessed as a Diviner, and it merged with him.
• Zhou Yun saw himself burning on the Golden Throne and noticed a vast, dark-brown shadow behind him.

After awakening as a psyker, Zhou Yun discovered a terrifying presence behind the Emperor on the Golden Throne and strengthened his connection to the Warp. His precognitive vision showed him a mountain called the Lighthouse speaking across space-time, leaving him uncertain what it meant.

• Zhou Yun glimpsed a charred shadow crouching behind him on the Golden Throne, heard it call him “Human...Yun,” and fell back into reality in pain.
• Zhou Yun suspected the shadow might be the Dark King and resolved to deal with the danger if it emerged.
• Zhou Yun tested his newly awakened psychic abilities, learned that his combined strength was near Rank 9 Θ, and found his precognition had improved.
• Zhou Yun used Foresight and saw a mountain identified as the Lighthouse, along with a golden-haired man and an older Tita holding a clay tablet.
• The Lighthouse spoke across space-time, saying it was watching Zhou Yun and calling itself a Broken Lighthouse.