Recaps

Li Qinwu toured Duke Yote’s artillery factory and chose production lines for 180mm cannons, 300mm rockets, and heavy equipment to install aboard the Golden Road. After seeing the factory’s mistreatment of workers, he insisted on paying fairly and exchanged supplies and weapons for the equipment.

• Duke Yote showed Li Qinwu the factory, where Rudosen recommended 180mm cannons and Busi estimated their production would take seven compartments aboard the Golden Road.
• Li Qinwu saw unprotected workers laboring in toxic conditions, and Duke Yote ordered a collapsed worker turned into a Servitor; Li Qinwu resolved to protect workers under his command.
• Li Qinwu and Rudosen chose 300mm rockets for saturation fire, and Busi suggested a Walking Mech production line that could also manufacture trucks and artillery tractors.
• Li Qinwu gave Duke Yote an order for 180mm cannon, rocket, and heavy equipment production lines, then insisted on paying rather than accepting them for free.
• Li Qinwu exchanged Guga Meat Cans, 5,000 Power Swords, 50,000 Masterwork Lasguns, and two million enhanced Lasgun crystals for the industrial equipment.

Li Qinwu completed the Golden Road’s factories and learned that it could produce three thousand 300mm Rockets a day. Little Knife’s investigation revealed that Water Blue Star’s Planetary Governor had secretly embraced the T’au’s Greater Good after they brought technologies that improved the planet and eased the strain of Imperial taxes.

• Li Qinwu supervised the installation of versatile factories aboard the Golden Road, with Busi choosing the equipment and thousands of workers helping.
• Busi told Li Qinwu that the warship could manufacture approximately three thousand 300mm Rockets per day if it had enough raw materials.
• Li Qinwu continued investigating the extent of T'au influence on Water Blue Star rather than issuing detailed operational orders.
• Little Knife reported that the T'au had arrived fifty years earlier as merchants and offered technologies that improved the environment, industry, and public services.
• The Planetary Governor allowed the T'au to operate on the planet and secretly embraced the Greater Good.

Little Knife told Li Qinwu how the T'au had won over much of the planet while Imperial factions confined themselves to Hive City 2. After Duke York reported that his three-million-strong army had been defeated, Li Qinwu went to the front and began investigating the rout.

• Little Knife explained that the T'au had gained popular support and that Imperial factions had sealed off Hive City 2 to resist them.
• Duke York told Li Qinwu that his three-million-strong army had been defeated, blaming local peasants who sabotaged railways, shared intelligence, and attacked supply depots.
• Li Qinwu berated Duke York and ordered him to go to the front while he traveled there to investigate the defeat.
• Li Qinwu arrived at the battlefield, where Tau Auxiliaries and local civilians had fought Hive City 2's army across the wheat fields.
• Li Qinwu inspected the wounded soldiers, their mess tins, and the doctors' medicine stocks before an officer announced that Duke Yote had arrived.

The author announced that they had scrapped plans for ideological clashes and artillery battles after becoming concerned about the story’s direction. In the chapter’s scene, Duke Yote presented the planet’s corrupt leaders to Li Qinwu, who responded by beating them with his belt.

• The author said they had abandoned about fifty or sixty planned chapters of ideological confrontations and large-scale battles.
• Duke Yote arrived at the front lines with the planetary bishop, a tech-sage, the PDF marshal, and other officials.
• Duke Yote said that only four billion people around Hive City 2 remained loyal to the God-Emperor and blamed the T'au for the rebellion.
• Duke Yote and the other leaders boasted about exploiting and oppressing the planet’s people.
• Li Qinwu pulled off his belt and smacked the assembled leaders.

Ethereal Chou Yun ordered the T'au to abandon their failed covert colonization and openly seize Water Blue Star. He left Shan Shui to prepare a massive assault on Hive City 2, aiming to secure the planet within a year.

• Shan Shui entered the T'au stronghold and paid her respects to Ethereal Chou Yun.
• Chou Yun declared the hidden colonization plan a failure and ordered the T'au to begin their second phase and occupy the planet.
• Shan Shui explained that the T'au had 100,000 Fire Caste warriors and 150 million available human troops, most of them armed with outdated weapons.
• Chou Yun ordered the 150 million human troops to attack Hive City 2 and directed Shan Shui to distribute weapons stored in underground warehouses.

The T'au launched an all-out offensive against Hive City 2, while mass defections crippled Duke Yote's defenses and drove him to ask Li Qinwu for help. Aboard his warship, Li Qinwu expanded his Warp Vault and discovered new production facilities and Holy Tea, but Duke Yote's desperate plea reached him as the city was close to falling.

• The T'au advanced on Hive City 2 with 150 million troops, and nearly twenty percent of Duke Yote's formations defected to them.
• Duke Yote's forces appealed to Li Qinwu, but Li Qinwu had already abandoned them and returned to his warship.
• Li Qinwu used the Book of Truth to build a football-field-sized Vault disguised as a meteorite in the Warp's outer layer.
• Li Qinwu discovered that churches aboard his warship could produce holy oil and holy water, and that his kitchen could make Holy Tea that restored his mana.
• Li Qinwu modified his Power Armor to carry hot Holy Tea as Duke Yote contacted him to report that the T'au were overwhelming his forces.

Li Qinwu prepared to infiltrate the T'au command headquarters and attack its leadership after Duke Yote warned that the Imperium's forces were close to defeat. He packed 3,000 Mechanized Skitarii and a King-class Knight into his Vault, then set out for the secondary Hive City.

• Duke Yote told Li Qinwu that nearly 150 million T'au troops were attacking Hive City No. 2 and that his 50 million defenders could hold out for only three months, while Li Qinwu joked and cut off the call.
• Li Qinwu put on Stealth Power Armor disguised as T'au battle armor and planned to infiltrate the T'au base to assassinate or capture its leaders.
• Li Qinwu prepared 3,000 Mechanized Skitarii for the Warp by suppressing their emotions, giving them Holy Oil, and attaching Purity Seals.
• Li Qinwu had Busi accompany the Skitarii and arranged for the old monk and other monks to strengthen the Vault's Warp Resistance with prayers, candles, and the ever-burning lamp.
• Li Qinwu sent the 3,000 Skitarii and his King-class Knight into the Vault, donned his invisibility cloak, and prepared to enter the instance and head for the T'au leadership's secondary Hive City.

Li Qinwu infiltrated the T'au-occupied Secondary Hive City and headed for its main industrial tower, intending to sabotage the Factory. Seeing how happily humans lived under T'au rule, he understood Inquisitor Thraxol's anger and realized that his mission was Water Blue Star's last chance to avoid Exterminatus.

• Li Qinwu entered the atmosphere alone, parachuted onto a Spire, and used his invisibility cloak to reach the streets undetected.
• Using intelligence gathered by Busi, Li Qinwu made his way toward a major Factory supplied by the Hive City's mineral and energy networks, carrying nuclear bombs in his safe.
• Li Qinwu moved through the city and saw T'au and humans living together as Imperial symbols were replaced and children laughed in the streets.
• Li Qinwu reflected that the Imperium's cruelty came from the many enemies it fought, while the T'au's poaching weakened humanity and risked bringing disaster upon Water Blue Star.
• Li Qinwu concluded that if he could not take Water Blue Star, the Imperium would destroy the planet with Exterminatus, which the T'au could not withstand.

Li Qinwu infiltrated a T'au-controlled hive city and reached a heavily guarded factory, but he could find no way inside. After noticing that workers leaving the factory wore numbered badges, he followed a middle-aged man with a rare number nine badge, hoping to use him as a guide.

• Li Qinwu used old ventilation plans to sneak through the hive city for two days and reach the factory perimeter.
• Li Qinwu surveyed the factory’s Fire Warriors, War Bee drones, turrets, and infrared detectors, then realized there was no safe way in.
• Li Qinwu noticed the factory gates open at 5:30 and workers leave after their shift.
• Li Qinwu observed that workers wore numbered identification badges and singled out a middle-aged man with a number nine badge.
• Li Qinwu quietly followed the man, intending to question him about the factory.

Andrew came home hoping to celebrate his son Little Andrew’s birthday, but found Li Qinwu, an Imperium infiltrator in Power Armor, waiting as the boy’s surprise guest. After Li Qinwu entertained the child, he stopped Andrew from raising the alarm and prepared to talk.

• Andrew left the T'au Factory early, bought a cake, and went home to celebrate Little Andrew’s birthday.
• Andrew discovered Li Qinwu in Power Armor at his home, where the boy believed the warrior was his birthday present.
• Li Qinwu played with Little Andrew and listened as he wished to grow up and fight for the Greater Good.
• Andrew sent Little Andrew to bed, then reached for an alarm button while remaining alone with Li Qinwu.
• Li Qinwu warned Andrew not to sound the alarm and lit a cigarette with a Golden Psychic Flame.

Li Qinwu pressured Andrew into explaining his role in the T'au regime and learned that he maintained Water Blue Star’s Planetary Super Control Computer. Andrew revealed that he had met an Ethereal, prompting Li Qinwu to realize one was present on the planet.

• Li Qinwu questioned Andrew about his age and used his upbringing under both the Imperium and the T'au to assess his understanding of the situation.
• Li Qinwu told Andrew that he had saved three worlds and that Water Blue Star’s fate depended on his actions, then hinted he would protect those close to him if the world fell.
• Andrew looked toward his sleeping son, agreed to cooperate, and asked what Li Qinwu wanted him to do.
• Andrew explained that his badge marked him as a senior AI engineer responsible for the Planetary Super Control Computer and its connected systems.
• Andrew said the T'au had made him a model human and granted him an audience with an Ethereal, and Li Qinwu asked whether an Ethereal was on the planet.

Li Qinwu planned to infiltrate the T'au Factory by having Andrew insert a hidden USB drive into the planet's super mainframe. Andrew set out for the Factory under pressure to save his son and Water Blue Star, but the chapter ended before he reached the mainframe.

• Li Qinwu learned from Andrew that the Ethereal lived near the automated Chemical Factory and that only the Ethereal could authorize shutting down the planet's super mainframe.
• Li Qinwu summoned Busi, who made a triangular USB drive and ordered Andrew to insert it into the super mainframe.
• Li Qinwu took Little Andrew into the Vault and told Andrew he could leave with his son if he completed the mission.
• Andrew left home and headed toward the T'au Factory with the USB drive concealed on him.
• Andrew approached the Factory entrance, nervous as he faced T'au soldiers, drone swarms, and automated turrets.

Li Qinwu and Busi planned to use a virus-loaded USB drive to seize control of the T'au's automated systems, relying on Andrew to plug it into their planetary supercomputer. Andrew smuggled the drive through security and inserted it into the console, leaving the takeover attempt poised to begin.

• Li Qinwu asked Busi whether the USB drive could compromise the T'au's AI, and Busi explained how he would connect to the drive and take over their machinery.
• Li Qinwu admitted he did not know whether Andrew would follow through or betray them.
• Andrew passed a T'au laser-scanning checkpoint after the security officer mistook the USB drive hidden in his backside for retained stool.
• Andrew rode the elevator to the factory's ninth underground level and saw the supercomputer connected to the T'au's automated systems.
• Andrew noticed that human engineers had AI turrets aimed at them, then plugged the USB drive into his workstation console.

Andrew’s improvised sabotage triggered an AI rebellion that killed the T'au engineers in the supercomputer control room and gave Busi control of the planet’s networked weapons. As automated systems turned on the T'au, Li Qinwu entered their factory to begin the next stage of the plan.

• Andrew’s excrement-stuffed USB drive triggered the supercomputer’s security alarm, and the T'au engineers took over the consoles while turrets held the human engineers at gunpoint.
• Andrew mocked his T'au supervisor, and an Automated Turret turned on the supervisor before the control-room turrets killed nearly a thousand T'au engineers.
• Busi told Li Qinwu he had taken over the supercomputer and connected systems, and Li Qinwu prepared to act.
• Busi cut communications among the Tau Auxiliaries and turned Bee Drones, Automated Turrets, automated tanks, and other AI weapons against the T'au.
• Networked weapons killed T'au workers, officials, and troops, while surviving infantry and civilians fought back without their usual communications.
• Li Qinwu entered the T'au factory through its front gate as the AI rebellion spread.

Li Qinwu looted the T'au automated factories, using his Vault to collect valuable manufacturing equipment. Busi then alerted him to a locked-down T'au diplomat, Fire Caste guards, and commander, prompting Li Qinwu to rush toward their XV8 and KX139 suits.

• Li Qinwu asked Busi which factory equipment was most valuable, and Busi directed him to the nanofiber reactors and High-Precision Loom.
• Li Qinwu brought 3,000 Skitarii through a Portal to dismantle and haul the core equipment into his Vault.
• Li Qinwu followed Busi's directions to seize nano-alloy steel reactors, anti-gravity engine equipment, and Pulse Rifle production machinery.
• Busi told Li Qinwu that AI had locked down Shan Shui and roughly 100 Fire Caste Warriors near their XV8 Combat Suits.
• Busi also reported that Ethereal Chou Yun was locked down near a KX139 Powered Suit, and Li Qinwu hurried there with the Skitarii to claim the suits.

Li Qinwu seized a cache of XV8 Battlesuits, killed their trapped Fire Caste pilots, and took Shan Shui into custody. He then drove with his Skitarii toward the Ethereal Palace, leaving a trail of crushed T'au civilians as the convoy pushed through the underground paradise.

• Li Qinwu found a workshop containing one hundred locked-down XV8 Battlesuits and discovered Shan Shui pinned beneath two of them.
• Li Qinwu ordered Busi to kill the Fire Caste pilots by shutting off life support and overheating the suits, then sent Shan Shui and the battlesuits into the Vault.
• Li Qinwu set out for the Ethereal Palace with his Skitarii in heavy towing vehicles after Busi marked the Ethereal's location.
• Li Qinwu played a handheld game while his driver ran over T'au and drove onto a crowded sidewalk to get past civilian vehicles.

Li Qinwu led his Skitarii through the T'au forces and into the Ethereal Palace, where War Bees helped clear the defenders. Busi located the Ethereal and the XK139 Powered Suit, then reported that the suit had been locked down, leaving the Ethereal at Li Qinwu's mercy.

• Li Qinwu drove his behemoth vehicle through the blue-skinned aliens, then shot more of them with his Boltgun while singing and dancing.
• Li Qinwu ordered nearly a thousand Skitarii to attack the Ethereal Palace, where they met T'au infantry and exchanged fire.
• Li Qinwu contacted Busi, who sent 529 War Bees to reinforce the Skitarii.
• The Skitarii and War Bees killed all the T'au infantry in the palace.
• Li Qinwu ordered his troops to advance while War Bees scouted and marked the Ethereal's location; Busi said the Ethereal's XK139 Powered Suit was locked down.

Li Qinwu’s forces captured the chamber and secured the XK139 Battlesuit, a massive T'au mech. He ordered Busi to prepare it for modification, then had the cockpit opened and the trapped Ethereal emerge under guard.

• Busi’s War Bees attacked the Ethereal guards, and Li Qinwu led the Skitarii into the chamber to finish off the surviving Fire Warriors.
• Li Qinwu examined the twenty-five-meter XK139 Battlesuit and asked Busi whether he could pilot it.
• Busi warned Li Qinwu that operating a Xenos machine could bring severe punishment, but explained that its AI could be replaced with another system.
• Li Qinwu ordered Busi to prepare a modification plan and have the battlesuit transported back for conversion.
• The XK139’s cockpit opened, and the blue-skinned Ethereal climbed out before hundreds of gun barrels and raised his hands.

Li Qinwu captured an Ethereal and tried to interrogate him, but his gangsters used a more disturbing method to break the T'au leader's resistance. The Ethereal submitted and was ordered to stop the T'au Auxiliaries' attack on Hive City 2.

• Li Qinwu ordered his Skitarii to beat the Ethereal, seized the palace and Chemical Plant, and sent Busi to hunt down the other T'au.
• Li Qinwu took the Ethereal and Shan Shui to the Golden Land, where he had them imprisoned separately and began interrogating the Ethereal.
• An electric shock knocked the frail Ethereal unconscious, so Li Qinwu let his former gang members take over the interrogation.
• Hours later, the gang leader returned with the broken Ethereal on a spiked collar and leash.
• Li Qinwu ordered the Ethereal to make the T'au Auxiliaries stop attacking Hive City 2, and the Ethereal submitted after the gang leader humiliated him.

Over a hundred million Tau Auxiliaries attacked Hive City 2, but the enemy’s control of the planetary supercomputer disabled their equipment and prompted an Ethereal to order a withdrawal. The planetary governor suspected the Ethereal had been captured and redirected his forces toward the Secondary Hive City to rescue him and restore the supercomputer.

• Tau Auxiliaries infantry assaulted Hive City 2’s bunkers while PDF forces repelled them with heavy weapons.
• A Tau Auxiliaries marshal learned the military equipment had been locked out by the planetary supercomputer, then received an Ethereal’s order to halt and withdraw one hundred li.
• Most Tau Auxiliaries marshals obeyed the order, while isolated formations that kept attacking were driven back by the PDF.
• The planetary governor recognized the Ethereal’s suspicious appearance and concluded the enemy had captured him and taken control of the supercomputer.
• The planetary governor ordered his troops to abandon the siege of Hive City 2, gather their corps, and advance on the Secondary Hive City to rescue the Ethereal.

Li Qinwu handed a captured T'au Ethereal to Father Anthony for study, suspecting that Ethereals used pheromones to influence other T'au. The Ethereal revealed that the diamond-shaped organ on his forehead produced the pheromones, leaving him terrified of what his captors would do next.

• Li Qinwu asked Father Anthony to investigate whether the Ethereal's influence over other T'au came from pheromones.
• Father Anthony prepared to dissect the Ethereal while the gang boss tried to persuade him to reveal his secrets.
• Li Qinwu explained his theory that Ethereal pheromones helped the caste rule the T'au.
• Father Anthony threatened to cut into the Ethereal's chest, and the gang boss feigned sympathy as the Ethereal hesitated to betray his caste.
• The Ethereal revealed that the diamond-shaped object on his forehead was the pheromone-secreting organ.

Li Qinwu learned that Ethereal pheromones could be synthesized and concentrated into a weapon capable of incapacitating T'au aboard a warship. After Father Anthony proposed modifying an Ethereal to release the pheromones, Li Qinwu contacted Inquisitor Thraxol, whose fleet was deadlocked against two fast T'au warships near Water Blue Star.

• Father Anthony reported that Ethereal pheromones soothed and influenced other T'au, and that he could cheaply synthesize them.
• Father Anthony explained that a sufficiently concentrated dose could cause unconsciousness and neurological damage, and that T'au warship filters might not block the pheromones.
• Father Anthony proposed modifying an Ethereal's intestines to carry and release ten liters of pheromones aboard a T'au ship.
• Li Qinwu contacted Inquisitor Thraxol and asked how the battle was progressing.
• Inquisitor Thraxol said his fleet had sunk three slower traitor ships but could not catch the two fast T'au warships without risking his own fast vessel.

Li Qinwu tried to trade the captured Ethereal Chou Yun for a T'au warship, but Captain Qi He refused and cut off communication. Desperate to escape his human captors, Chou Yun offered the other T'au warship instead.

• Li Qinwu contacted Captain Qi He and revealed that the humans had captured the Ethereal Chou Yun.
• Li Qinwu demanded a T'au warship in exchange for Chou Yun, and Chou Yun ordered Captain Qi He to hand one over.
• Captain Qi He refused to surrender a warship and ended the call, leaving Chou Yun in human custody.
• Li Qinwu told the gangster boss to take Chou Yun away, and Chou Yun panicked and offered the other warship, which he said was his private property.

Li Qinwu pressured the captured Sorrowcloud Ethereal into offering his family warship in exchange for his release. In space, Captain Yun Yu prepared to hand over Ship 2 on the ethereal’s orders, despite Captain Qi He’s warnings that the humans would not keep their promise.

• At Li Qinwu’s command, the gang boss set the ethereal down, and the ethereal offered his family warship if Li Qinwu would let him go.
• Li Qinwu gave the ethereal a phone and told him to arrange for his warship to be brought over.
• Captain Qi He led Ship 1 and Ship 2 in a running battle against Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet, while privately considering how to claim the colonization project’s credit for himself.
• Captain Yun Yu asked Captain Qi He to take Ship 2’s crew aboard Ship 1 so Ship 2’s AI could fly it to Water Blue Star.
• Captain Qi He realized Sorrowcloud Ethereal had ordered Yun Yu to surrender the ship and warned that the humans would betray them, but Yun Yu insisted he was the ethereal’s household retainer.

Captain Yun Yu confronted Captain Qi He over abandoning Sorrowcloud Ethereal, while Li Qinwu took possession of the T'au warship near Water Blue Star. After learning that humans might be vulnerable to Warp corruption aboard its automated systems, Li Qinwu decided the vessel would need modifications before human crews could safely use it.

• Captain Yun Yu warned Captain Qi He that Sorrowcloud Ethereal could punish him for failing to help, and Captain Qi He abandoned his thought of fighting back.
• Nearly a week later, Ship No. 2 arrived near Water Blue Star, where Li Qinwu sent his people to take possession of the T'au warship.
• Father Busi disabled the ship's AI and marked its self-destruct systems for removal.
• Li Qinwu admired the ship's clean, bright design and ordered human warships to be renovated in the same style.
• Li Qinwu worried that Warp corruption could affect the T'au warship's automated systems once humans operated it, so he concluded that the ship needed modifications.