Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yun learned that Ollanius had once served as the church’s bishop and might be an ancient figure he recognized, then discovered Diana’s worship had slightly increased his psychic potential. He left the church with bread and fish sauce and encountered Cicero in the Temple District.

• Zhou Yun questioned Agrippa about Ollanius and learned that the former bishop had left Macragge after handing over the church.
• Zhou Yun realized Ollanius’s story did not fit the church’s age, but confirmed through telepathy that Agrippa had spoken truthfully.
• Zhou Yun bought bread and fish sauce from Diana and gave her a Denar silver coin without asking for change.
• After Diana called him the God of Denar, Zhou Yun sensed her faith in the Warp and noticed his psychic potential had risen.
• Zhou Yun left the church at night and greeted Cicero as his beloved friend when he saw him emerge from the Semuneta Temple.

Zhou Yun used psychic power and a twisted appeal to Cicero’s philosophy to convince him to go gambling together at the Agate Baths. On the way, Zhou Yun noticed the Lighthouse Star and recalled its connection to his prophecy before leaving the Temple District with Cicero.

• Zhou Yun grabbed Cicero’s wrist and threatened to cause a cerebral infarction or cardiac arrest, but Cicero agreed those experiences might be worthwhile.
• Zhou Yun told Cicero that his failed suicide attempt had taught him to enjoy life, then admitted he had punched Cicero to get Tita’s father’s compensation money.
• Zhou Yun argued that gambling losses were merely being kept at the casino, and Cicero invited him to the Agate Baths banquet to reclaim his money.
• Cicero explained that Priest Libo had invited him to teach at the Semoneta Church, then described the Broken Lighthouse Temple’s beliefs about the Lighthouse Star and the King of Witchcraft.
• Zhou Yun sensed a gaze from the Lighthouse Star, connected it to the lighthouse in his prophecy, and left the Temple District with Cicero.

Zhou Yun joined Cicero and Tull at a high-stakes blackjack game, where Cicero planned to cheat him with a stacked deck. The first hand began to go wrong for Cicero when Zhou Yun revealed an unexpected card.

• Zhou Yun and Cicero entered a Macragge bathhouse and discussed how its patrons defied Governor Conor's ban on public prostitution.
• Tull greeted Zhou Yun and Cicero at the gambling tables and invited them to play blackjack.
• Zhou Yun raised the stakes to one hundred Denar per chip, and he and Cicero borrowed three thousand Denar each from the Semuneta Temple.
• Cicero shuffled a prepared deck to ensure Zhou Yun would lose, then dealt the first hand with himself as dealer.
• Zhou Yun went all in, and after revealing a queen, he turned over his second card, leaving Cicero bewildered.

Zhou Yun used psychic powers and precognition to beat Cicero at blackjack, forcing him into more debt. Tull took over the deal and tried to use card counting to gain an advantage, but Zhou Yun became the dealer for the next round.

• Zhou Yun disrupted Cicero’s mind and the card shuffle, then revealed a blackjack that cost Cicero 4,500 Denar.
• Cicero drew a 3 with his 10 and busted, so Tull demanded another 2,500 Denar in loans from him.
• Tull dealt the next hand, but Zhou Yun used precognition to reach 21 while Cicero and Tull both busted.
• Tull counted the cards and concluded that many high cards remained, then handed the deck to Zhou Yun to deal.

Zhou Yun used psychic influence and a curse ritual disguised as a fortune-changing trick to doom Tull and Cicero for the atrocities they had committed. He saw that Tull would die soon while Cicero would survive for months, then agreed to keep gambling with them.

• Zhou Yun read Tull and Cicero’s memories and saw the torture and killing of an innocent child, which made him decide to curse them.
• Zhou Yun persuaded Tull and Cicero to curse the Yellow Skin and then insult Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh.
• Tull and Cicero’s curses drew Warp backlash, and Zhou Yun used the Doom Technique to bind the resulting misfortune to them.
• Zhou Yun foresaw that Tull would die within days while Cicero would live for several months despite carrying an even heavier doom.
• Cicero said his luck had improved, and Zhou Yun agreed to continue gambling.

Zhou Yun used his luck-altering techniques to beat Cicero and Tull at cards, while Tull’s bad luck visibly grew into a grotesque mass. Cicero sought help from the Blind Witch and Libo, but the witch suddenly recognized him as a harbinger of disaster.

• Cicero and Tull each drew hands totaling twenty, while Zhou Yun revealed a 2 and drew again.
• Zhou Yun drew a 9 to reach twenty-one and took the chips from Cicero and Tull.
• Cicero excused himself from the game and went to meet the Blind Witch and Libo.
• The Blind Witch and Libo discussed obtaining Semuneta’s holy remains and the limits of the witch’s curses.
• The Blind Witch threw her shoe at Cicero and screamed, calling him a harbinger of disaster.

Cicero and Libo enlisted the Blind Witch to stop Zhou Yun from winning at cards, but her psychic attack failed when Zhou Yun noticed and destroyed it. Zhou Yun returned to the game and asked to split his pair of aces.

• The Blind Witch saw a black pustule on Cicero, while Cicero admitted Zhou Yun had won more than ten thousand Denar from him.
• Cicero returned to the table, where Zhou Yun bet eleven thousand five hundred Denar and received two aces.
• The Blind Witch determined Zhou Yun had no trace of the Empyrean and decided to interfere with his thoughts using a serpent-shaped psychic attack.
• Zhou Yun spotted the attack, destroyed the psychic serpent, and caused one of the pendant’s amethyst eyes to crack.
• Zhou Yun turned back to Cicero and Tull and asked to split his aces.

Zhou Yun split his blackjack hand and used psychic power to overcome the Blind Witch’s sorcery, leaving Cicero to face two blackjacks and an enormous debt. Cicero collapsed in shock as Zhou Yun mocked the witch’s failure.

• Zhou Yun read and distorted Cicero and Tull’s thoughts, then used a Fear Spell to force the Blind Witch to relive her traumatic past.
• Zhou Yun borrowed another eleven thousand five hundred Denar and wagered it on his second hand.
• Cicero dealt Zhou Yun the cards and worried that two blackjacks would cost him thirty-four thousand five hundred Denar.
• Zhou Yun revealed a King and a Queen, giving both hands blackjack and defeating Cicero.
• Cicero was overwhelmed by the loss, while Zhou Yun told him to find a more reliable witch next time.

Zhou Yun deposited his winnings at the Broken Lighthouse Temple, which he suspected was tied to a power important to the galaxy’s future. Meanwhile, the Blind Witch identified him as a follower of the God of Sorcery, and Libo agreed to help her prepare sacrifices to stop that god’s return.

• Zhou Yun repaid his loans and deposited his remaining winnings at the Broken Lighthouse Temple rather than the other temples.
• Libo refused to forgive Cicero’s debt, while Tull warned Cicero that he could be sold as a debt slave.
• The Blind Witch told Libo that Zhou Yun’s sorcery surpassed Lucretius’s and suggested he served the God of Sorcery.
• The Blind Witch proposed sacrificing sixty-six people to stop the God of Sorcery, and Libo agreed after consulting the senator.
• Someone announced that Tull’s toilet had collapsed and that he had fallen into the cesspit.

Tita confronted Zhou Yun after learning he had gone to the Temple District about his debts, but the booklet he gave her revealed a deposit of 53,204 Denars rather than a debt. Zhou Yun reassured her that they were rich now, and they ended the night sharing bread and fish sauce.

• Tita accused Zhou Yun of gambling away the thirty Denars Professor Lucretius had given him and said she would give him her father's pension as a final act of repayment.
• Tita opened the Broken Lighthouse booklet and read that Zhou Yun had 53,204 Denars deposited, then slapped herself in disbelief.
• Zhou Yun explained that the booklet showed a deposit, not a debt, and told Tita their family was rich.
• Tita cried with relief, described her nightmares about Zhou Yun being sold into slavery and dying, and insisted that he never gamble again.
• Zhou Yun calmed Tita with his Telepathy School power, then offered her bread with fish sauce and joked that it tasted like Mortarion's bathwater.

Zhou Yun taught his students about Macragge’s ancient history before discovering signs that Dacia was hiding something dangerous. After breaking into Lucretius’s office, he suspected Slaanesh’s followers were preparing a sacrifice involving Sakofi.

• Zhou Yun lectured the Grammar Academy students about the Golden Age, Old Night, and the Warlock King, while learning that Sakofi Paulus had taken a long leave from class.
• After class, Zhou Yun went to Lucretius’s locked office, intending to search it while the professor was away.
• Dacia told Zhou Yun that her younger sister was unwell and left to go home, while Zhou Yun used his psychic power to force open the office door.
• Zhou Yun sensed that Dacia had lied and noticed whip and needle marks on her body.
• Zhou Yun worried that Slaanesh’s followers had made Sakofi disappear and were preparing a sacrifice.

Zhou Yun searched Lucretius's office for clues about the Broken Lighthouse Cult and the God of Sorcery, discovering that the Lighthouse Star was Sotha and linking his prophecy to the Pharos Lighthouse and Robert Guilliman. After blessing a cross with faith and leaving it for Lucretius, Zhou Yun sensed a soul in the Warp and turned his attention to the Golden Throne.

• Zhou Yun took Blackstone fragments from Lucretius's office and read his notes about Father's Eye, the Broken Lighthouse Cult, and the Lighthouse Star.
• Zhou Yun identified the Lighthouse Star as Sotha and concluded that he, Tita, and Robert Guilliman would travel there to seek the Pharos Lighthouse.
• Zhou Yun recognized the crystal eagle-head artifacts as connected to the God of Sorcery, identified him as Kairos, and pocketed the artifacts.
• Zhou Yun blessed a silver-gilt cross with faith and left it where Lucretius would notice it.
• Zhou Yun suddenly sensed a soul flame in the Warp and shifted his gaze toward the Golden Throne.

Zhou Yun prepared to enter a new body through a carefully timed ritual, while Libo gathered followers for a sacrifice and feared the God of Sorcery after Tull’s gruesome death. The chapter left Libo waiting for the blind witch to begin the ritual around one in the morning.

• Tita told Zhou Yun she had found an apartment building for sale, and Zhou Yun explained why he wanted her to buy it rather than a villa.
• Zhou Yun told Tita he would spend the night at the church, where he planned to enter another body at an auspicious time.
• Tita worried that Zhou Yun’s Catholic conversion was suspicious and suggested he join the Flying Spaghetti Church instead.
• Libo watched sixty-six followers prepare for sacrifice and recalled the bizarre chain of events that had killed Tull.
• The blind witch told Libo to wait until around one in the morning, when Father's Eye overlooked Macragge, before performing the ritual.

Zhou Yun joined dinner at the Catholic church, where First Eater Laganon recognized him and warned him that powerful forces might be targeting him. After the children left, Zhou Yun entered the church’s triangular room to continue his work.

• Zhou Yun paid Bishop Agrippa rent for the room and joined the church’s spaghetti dinner.
• Zhou Yun gave the children coins and learned from Agrippa that they were the children of soldiers killed in the Ilyrium Expedition, whose compensation had been stolen by greedy relatives.
• Laganon explained how he had heard about Zhou Yun’s fifty-thousand-denar deposit and advised him to seek protection from the War King Temple or the Shattered Lighthouse if he sensed malice.
• Zhou Yun considered the dangers associated with the Shattered Lighthouse and waited until one in the morning, when he entered the triangular room.

Zhou Yun confronted the Blind Witch in the Warp after she sacrificed sixty-six people to empower herself and attack him. He revealed the Golden Throne to her, and she began to burn.

• The Blind Witch began a ritual that strangled Sakofi Paulus and the other sixty-five devotees while she sang.
• Sakofi remembered her doubts and attachments as she died and saw a suffering woman resembling the statue at Semuneta Temple.
• The Blind Witch sacrificed the sixty-six souls to empower herself, transformed in the Warp, and tracked Zhou Yun.
• Zhou Yun criticized the Blind Witch for throwing her own soul at him, leaving her overwhelmed by his contempt.
• The Blind Witch saw the Golden Throne and the mummified Emperor behind Zhou Yun, then began to burn.

Zhou Yun’s Golden Throne flames destroyed the Blind Witch and many daemons in Slaanesh’s Realm, where he unexpectedly received powerful faith. He then awakened in a second body amid desert ruins, whose memories suggested that he had arrived on Prospero.

• Zhou Yun refused to forgive the Blind Witch, and the Golden Throne’s flames burned her soul to ash before spreading through the sacrificial threads into Slaanesh’s Realm.
• The flames ignited the sixty-six sacrificed souls and destroyed many daemons, freeing Semuneta from her Greater Daemon guard and leaving Libo terrified.
• Zhou Yun sensed two streams of faith from Slaanesh’s Realm, one of which increased his psychic power by ten percent, before returning his consciousness to the Golden Throne.
• Zhou Yun projected his consciousness into a second body, an archaeologist and trained psyker lying in yellow-sand ruins, while continuing to control his body on Macragge.
• Zhou Yun examined the archaeologist’s dead companions and recalled the term Soul-Eater Bee, leading him to suspect that the ruins were on Prospero.

Zhou Yun recognized Prospero and used the archaeologist’s psychic abilities to fight a Soul-Eater Bee swarm, but the bees’ eggs doomed his body. After he detonated his psychic power, Magnus witnessed a black knight appear and vanish, leaving him wondering whether it was his father or teacher.

• Zhou Yun’s precognition revealed that his psychic power had attracted a massive Soul-Eater Bee swarm on Prospero.
• Zhou Yun fought off the bees with Telekinesis School and Biomancy School abilities, but realized their eggs had entered his brain and would kill him.
• Zhou Yun detonated his psychic power, killing many Soul-Eater Bees and their queen before his body died.
• Magnus sensed a powerful presence emerge through the Veil and traveled to the ruins, where he saw a black knight standing over the dead queen.
• The black knight pulled a blade from the queen’s skull, then dissipated into ashes as Magnus wondered whether he was his father or teacher.

Zhou Yun studied the Thousand Sons’ psychic technique Shape Guardian Spirit and tried to create a guardian from faith-born psychic power, imagining the Emperor’s Champion. The brief summons reached Celestine, who mistook it for her lord calling a champion and set out to find him.

• Zhou Yun discovered that the archaeologist’s psychic techniques closely matched the Inquisition’s and considered whether the Inquisition had inherited or corrupted Thousand Sons techniques.
• Zhou Yun examined Shape Guardian Spirit and decided to try shaping a guardian with faith-born psychic power to avoid Tzeentch’s influence.
• Zhou Yun pictured a black-armored Emperor’s Champion and poured his psychic power into the image, briefly igniting a black knight in the Warp.
• Celestine heard the summons, saw the black knight, and concluded that her lord had called his champion.
• Celestine spread her wings and resolved to travel toward the source of the summons.

Zhou Yun failed to form a faith-powered guardian spirit, glimpsed a dangerous shadow behind the Golden Throne, and received fragmented visions of the future. Meanwhile, Tatius learned that Semuneta had sent him to find the Cursed One, and the chapter ended with Cicero and Libo being confronted about Zhou Yun.

• Zhou Yun failed to condense a guardian spirit because his faith-derived psychic power was too weak, then heard the shadow behind the Golden Throne call him a pig before it forced him back into reality.
• Zhou Yun used Foresight and saw fragments of a violent future, then decided to seek information through the upcoming Marcus Guilliman family recruitment and visit the bathhouse run by Slaanesh's followers.
• Tatius woke from a dream in which Semuneta named the Cursed One and instructed him to find that person.
• Tatius considered asking Laganon, Imhotep, or Lucretius about the Cursed One, while lamenting that the Semuneta Temple's followers largely believed in the God of First Cry.
• On March 20th, a burly man angrily told Cicero and Libo that they had two days left to deal with the penniless grammar teacher.

Quintus pressed Cicero and Libo over their failure to stop Zhou Yun, while Cicero planned to face him fairly at the coming recruitment interview. Zhou Yun continued gambling at the bathhouse to gather faith, information, and something the cultists possessed, and Cicero came down to meet him.

• Quintus demanded to know why Cicero had not killed Zhou Yun, and Cicero explained that surveillance and security made an attack impossible.
• Cicero argued that he could defeat Zhou Yun in debate during the recruitment process, but Quintus warned that Zhou Yun himself would test him.
• A waiter delivered news that Zhou Yun had arrived again, and Libo ordered Cicero to go find out what he wanted.
• Zhou Yun won his thirteenth consecutive roll at the bathhouse and reflected on his attempts to attract worshippers, learn secrets, and obtain something from the cultists.
• Cicero came down the stairs, and Zhou Yun greeted him warmly.