Recaps

After Li Qinwu killed himself by headbutting Saint Raiser, he revived on Agricultural Planet 496b and returned to his family. Nightingale asked for Knight Mechs for their children and described her ambitions to build a vast military dynasty, leaving Li Qinwu overwhelmed by the work and resources it would require.

• Li Qinwu charged Saint Raiser and smashed his head against the Dreadnought's Sarcophagus, leaving Saint Raiser confused by the bloody impact.
• After his resurrection cooldown ended, Li Qinwu revived on Agricultural Planet 496b and left Saint Raiser aboard the Explorer to investigate his record and decide whether to help revive the Broken-winged Angels Chapter.
• Li Qinwu returned home and found Nightingale breastfeeding their third daughter.
• Nightingale reminded Li Qinwu that he had promised her a Knight House and asked for Knight Mechs for their children; he agreed to provide four and let Li Dadan and Li Zhongdan choose first.
• Nightingale described her plans for Knight Mechs, guards, vehicles, and ships for their growing family, and Li Qinwu felt overwhelmed by the work needed to fund it all.

Li Qinwu brought his children to choose Knight Mechs and undergo the Ascension Ritual, while he and Nightingale discussed their future as pilots and warriors. The two boys’ rituals began successfully, and Li Qinwu left Nightingale determined to prepare all their children for battle.

• Li Dadan and Li Zhongdan competed over the King Knight, then settled who would choose first with rock-paper-scissors; Li Dadan won.
• Li Qinwu reassured Li Zhongdan about the Knight Errant and gave both boys enhancement drugs before sending them to their Knight Mechs.
• Nightingale worried about the dangers of the Ascension Ritual, but resolved that all her children, including Li Danü, would become Knight Mech pilots.
• Li Qinwu promised to prepare a Knight Guard and reduce the risks their children would face in future battles.
• Li Dadan and Li Zhongdan entered their Knight Mechs with the Tech-Priests’ help, and the mechs began moving as the boys shouted excitedly through the loudspeakers.

Li Qinwu learned that Agricultural Planet 496b had achieved basic industrialization and decided to push it toward intermediate industrialization while protecting its environment. After hearing how the nobles obstructed development and stole poverty relief funds, he invited them to dinner.

• Li Qinwu's twin pigtail children asked Nightingale how they could thank their father, then helped him carry weight plates while he admired his muscles.
• Governor Zeppelin told Li Qinwu that the planet had built a space station, Space Elevator, electromagnetic rail, and quantum communicator to supply the Industrial World.
• The steward explained that Agricultural Planet 496b could not yet provide visiting merchant ships with heavy industrial goods and other supplies.
• Li Qinwu proposed advancing the planet to intermediate industrialization and using T'au purification equipment to limit pollution.
• Governor Zeppelin and the steward described how nobles weakened policies, embezzled most poverty relief funds, and allowed gangs to run rampant in the Lower Hive.
• Li Qinwu told Governor Zeppelin to invite the noble lords to dinner.

Li Qinwu argued that Agricultural Planet 496b needed to break the old nobles’ control and reorganize its government to industrialize and defend itself. Zeppelin agreed to pursue a transition, and they discussed letting the nobles keep their wealth while excluding them from power and sending younger relatives off-world.

• Li Qinwu explained how corruption and entrenched nobles drained resources and obstructed industrial growth.
• Zeppelin resisted Li Qinwu’s plan to eliminate the nobles, but Li Qinwu warned that the planet would be helpless against future threats and reminded him that his predecessor had been executed for unpaid taxes.
• Zeppelin agreed to seek a peaceful transition and persuade some nobles to give up their influence.
• Li Qinwu offered to let nobles keep their wealth if they surrendered land and fixed assets and stayed out of government and industrialization.
• Zeppelin proposed reserving some posts for the nobles and taking younger members of their families into space so they would lose influence over Agricultural Planet 496b.

Li Qinwu used Knight Mechs to pressure the nobles of Planet 496b into accepting Governor Zeppelin’s peaceful transformation, and most chose to surrender, leave, or send their descendants with Li Qinwu. He confronted the remaining conservative nobles at their stronghold, where they asked what he intended to do.

• Li Qinwu had Li Dadan and Li Zhongdan parade two Knight Mechs before invited nobles, impressing them with a show of force.
• Governor Zeppelin told Li Qinwu that many nobles had agreed to give up their titles and lands, leave the planet, or send their descendants with a Warp-capable transport ship.
• Li Qinwu accepted the noble corps and transport ship, then planned to invite the uncooperative nobles to dinner and seize their lands and industries after dealing with their leaders.
• A week later, Li Qinwu arrived at a conservative noble stronghold, where nearly 100,000 noble troops had gathered to guard the ringleaders.
• As Li Qinwu ate calmly in the reception hall, one noble asked him what he intended to do.

Li Qinwu confronted the old nobles over their corruption and their opposition to the planet’s industrial upgrade, then slaughtered them and their guards when they threatened him. He ended the chapter having wiped out nearly a thousand people in the banquet hall.

• Li Qinwu denounced the nobles as parasites and mocked Mr. Stomach Bag’s excuses for their embezzlement and exploitation.
• After Mr. Stomach Bag warned that Li Qinwu was making things difficult, Li Qinwu overturned the table and attacked the nobles.
• Li Qinwu killed nobles and guards with his powered weapons, then used Psychic Blasts to stop soldiers rushing into the banquet hall.
• Mr. Stomach Bag attacked Li Qinwu from behind, but Li Qinwu severed his sword hand and killed him after rejecting his accusation that he was another parasite.
• Li Qinwu continued his assault with his weapons and Psychic Blasts until he had killed nearly a thousand people.

Li Qinwu negotiated with the Imperial Cult to strip it of its political power and property in preparation for industrialization on Agricultural World 496B. He offered to build a Psychic Church in return, and Theresa was appointed to lead it as high sister.

• Li Qinwu met with the planetary bishop, the Silent One, and Teresa to demand the Imperial Cult surrender its fixed assets and withdraw from planetary affairs.
• The planetary bishop objected, but the Devout One agreed with Li Qinwu’s reforms after hearing that they would improve people’s lives.
• Li Qinwu promised to fund a Psychic Church whose Ever-Burning Lamp and saint-bone Psychic Generator would spread the God-Emperor’s Psychic Power and resist the Warp.
• The planetary bishop accepted the loss of the Imperial Cult’s power in exchange for the church’s promised status as a holy land.
• The Silent One appointed Theresa as the Psychic Church’s presiding high sister, and Theresa let go of her former feelings for Li Qinwu as she looked toward leading the church.

Li Qinwu set out to drive Sage Trelton’s Adeptus Mechanicus from Agricultural World 496B, following Father Anthony’s revenge strategy to cut off the Temple of the Machine God’s supplies and workers. The temple’s production was crippled, and Father Anthony urged Li Qinwu to finish it by banning slavery and Servitors.

• Li Qinwu planned to build a Psychic Church using his renewable bones as Saint’s Remains, then turned his attention to the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Sage Trelton had tried to force the Hive City government’s hand by shutting down its Plasma Reactor, but Li Qinwu’s Tech-Priests restored it and refused to obey him.
• Li Qinwu secretly brought Father Anthony back, and Father Anthony advised him to cut the temple’s water, electricity, mineral supplies, and customers.
• Li Qinwu’s government cut off the temple’s supplies and canceled its purchases, while Governor Zeppelin refused to meet Sage Trelton.
• Father Anthony advised Li Qinwu to hire the free workers dismissed by the temple and recruit the remaining free workers, triggering a wave of resignations.
• Father Anthony urged Li Qinwu to ban slavery and Servitors to cripple the temple’s remaining workforce.

Li Qinwu dismantled the Temple of the Machine God’s influence on Agricultural World 496B, freeing its slaves and ending its use of Servitors. Magos Trelton was convicted and exiled, while Li Qinwu acquired a database of more than five thousand technologies.

• Governor Zeppelin abolished slavery and the creation of Servitors, and PDF troops disarmed the Temple of the Machine God and freed its workers.
• The Hive City euthanized the Servitors after offering family reunions or prayers, leaving the temple without workers and its output at zero.
• Father Anthony urged Li Qinwu to prosecute Magos Trelton and recover the technologies he had stolen from Tech-Priests.
• Tech-Priests filed mass accusations, and a court convicted Magos Trelton, ordered him to return technology rights, open his research database, and pay damages.
• Agricultural World 496B exiled Magos Trelton aboard a merchant ship, hired the remaining Tech-Priests as teachers, and Li Qinwu acquired their recovered technology database.

Li Qinwu left Agricultural World 496B after arranging industrial upgrades with Governor Zeppelin and giving him the right to name Nightingale’s fourth child. A year later, Zeppelin introduced Nightingale and their four children to a visiting great noble, whose gifts and confusion over the children’s names left him wondering whether they came from the same litter.

• Li Qinwu told Nightingale to have the children practice piloting Knight Mechs before he returned to the fleet.
• Li Qinwu discussed factory upgrades with Governor Zeppelin and said he would seek a way to build Squire Mechs locally.
• Li Qinwu remembered his promise to let Zeppelin name a child and gave him the naming rights for Nightingale’s fourth child.
• A year later, Governor Zeppelin welcomed a great noble with Nightingale and their four children at the space elevator.
• Zeppelin introduced the children as Li Dadan, Li Zhongdan, Li Danü, and Yelena Bradley Caesar Alexandrovsky von Manstein Zeppelin, and the great noble asked if they came from the same litter.

Li Qinwu completed a four-ton squat, died, and resurrected aboard the Explorer before retrieving a viable but flawed Heavy Power Armor design. After Busi refused to lead its heretical research, he revealed that a fragment of the Iron Skull Archmagos’s brain might still be alive.

• Li Qinwu used lethal drugs to complete a four-ton squat, burned out, and resurrected aboard the Explorer.
• Li Qinwu read the Intelligence Station’s Heavy Power Armor report, copied its thousands of pages, and decided to ask Busi for a research lead.
• Li Qinwu showed Busi the report and offered him a choice between joining the inner circle for heretical research or serving as a respectable public representative.
• Busi refused the heretical project but took Li Qinwu to his workshop and explained that brain tissue inside the severed Mechanical Worm body had become independent.
• Li Qinwu realized that the Iron Skull Archmagos might still be alive.

Busi explained that Iron Skull Archmagos’s surviving consciousness backup could be resurrected, and Li Qinwu ordered him to handle it. Li Qinwu then went to the Shipboard Cathedral, where he silently sat beside Saint Raiser and placed a case of Gene-seed before him.

• Busi told Li Qinwu that Iron Skull Archmagos’s body held a surviving consciousness backup and explained how the successor had exiled it.
• Busi assured Li Qinwu that Iron Skull Archmagos could be resurrected with cloned brain tissue, cognitive processing units, and a life-support body, despite his hatred of Li Qinwu.
• Li Qinwu assigned Busi to resurrect Iron Skull Archmagos and handle public-facing matters while keeping technological heresies for the Archmagos.
• The captain told Li Qinwu that Saint Raiser had failed to incite a rebellion and had spent nearly a month praying in the shipboard chapel.
• Li Qinwu brought an insulated case containing sanctified and unsanctified Gene-seed to the Shipboard Cathedral and sat silently beside Saint Raiser.

Li Qinwu pressed Saint Raiser to choose between cooperating to revive the Broken-winged Angels Chapter or remaining a prisoner aboard his warship. Saint Raiser agreed on strict conditions for the Chapter’s conduct, recruitment, and supplies, and Li Qinwu promised to support its revival and possibly clear its name.

• Saint Raiser asked how Li Qinwu would treat him if he refused, and Li Qinwu said he would keep him aboard the warship to protect his secrets.
• Li Qinwu criticized the Broken-winged Angels’ flawed Gene-seed and praised the Ultramarines, prompting Saint Raiser to boast about his Chapter’s strengths.
• Li Qinwu played a recording of Saint Raiser insulting the Ultramarines, frightening him into imagining their retaliation.
• Saint Raiser agreed to cooperate if he could serve as Chaplain, approve the Chapter’s missions, and enforce strict standards against harming innocents.
• Saint Raiser demanded suitable recruits, organ-cultivation supplies, and ample weapons, and Li Qinwu promised resources and said he might help clear the Chapter’s name.

Li Qinwu convinced Saint Raiser to cooperate in reviving the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter by promising it Imperial recognition and support. But when Saint Raiser proposed deadly recruitment trials for the children aboard Li Qinwu’s ships, Li Qinwu rejected them and took over screening.

• Li Qinwu promised Saint Raiser that the Inquisition would support the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter and ensure its deeds were recognized, winning Saint Raiser’s cooperation.
• Saint Raiser ordered the roughly hundred children aboard Li Qinwu’s ships to fight to the death as the first recruitment trial.
• Li Qinwu stopped the trial and argued that children should be assessed and trained through scientific methods instead of deadly rituals.
• Saint Raiser defended his traditional trials as necessary to protect the Chapter’s gene-seed, but Li Qinwu refused to let him proceed.
• Saint Raiser handed Li Qinwu a USB drive of recruitment criteria and stormed out after Li Qinwu declared that he would select the recruits himself.

Li Qinwu rejected the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter's deadly recruitment trials and screened a hundred children for suitable recruits. Saint Raiser challenged the children’s worth, but Yamashita Maru stood up to him and was unknowingly tested as he dodged the veteran’s pursuit.

• Li Qinwu reviewed the Chapter’s recruitment process, destroyed the USB drive, and decided not to let its brutal trials happen on his turf.
• Li Qinwu took the children for genetic, psychological, physical, and academic tests, eliminating all but roughly fifty.
• Li Qinwu brought the remaining children to Saint Raiser, who dismissed their tests as inadequate and called them weak.
• Yamashita Maru threw a wrench at Saint Raiser, then mocked his Chapter and refused to run away.
• Saint Raiser chased Yamashita Maru as he dodged and threw more wrenches, while Li Qinwu realized Saint Raiser was testing the boy and watched without intervening.

Li Qinwu put a hundred children through a month and a half of physical, tactical, and academic training to select candidates for Astartes augmentation. Only five remained, and Saint Raiser agreed to take them to the operating room while asking Li Qinwu to replace his damaged mobility rig with precision prosthetics.

• Little Andrew jammed Yamashita Maru’s wrench into Saint Raiser’s mobility rig, knocking him down, and the children piled onto his Sarcophagus.
• Saint Raiser grabbed Yamashita Maru and Little Andrew, but Li Qinwu took them from him and praised their potential.
• Li Qinwu trained the children intensely for more than a month, letting those who could not endure it withdraw with compensation.
• Only Genpei, Yamashita Maru, Little Andrew, a gangster couple’s child, and the child of an Astra Militarum soldier and a nurse remained.
• Li Qinwu presented the five candidates to Saint Raiser, who accepted them and asked for precision prosthetics before beginning the augmentation surgery.

Saint Raiser performed the first Astartes enhancement surgery on Genpei, implanting a Secondary Heart grown from Li Qinwu’s unusual Gene-seed. The new heart began beating, and Genpei survived the operation’s first crucial stage.

• Li Qinwu asked Saint Raiser whether he was confident about operating on his fifteen-year-old friend’s son, Genpei.
• Saint Raiser explained the risks and recalled that Genpei’s Gene-seed had grown exceptionally healthy organs with genetic traits close to Primarch Sanguinius.
• Saint Raiser and Father Anthony opened Genpei’s chest and implanted the Secondary Heart, connecting it to his blood vessels.
• Father Anthony stimulated the motionless Secondary Heart twice, but it did not beat.
• After Father Anthony injected adrenaline and delivered a third stimulation, Genpei’s Secondary Heart began beating, and Saint Raiser ordered the team to synchronize it with Genpei’s original heart.

Genpei recovered immediately after receiving a Green Needle and began preparing for a gradual Astartes augmentation, while Li Qinwu considered his own lifespan and the supplies needed to create more Astartes. Li Qinwu then urged fifteen-year-old Genpei to provide a sperm sample for future in vitro fertilization before the remaining procedures removed his worldly desires.

• Father Anthony and Saint Raiser repaired Genpei's ribs and wounds, and Saint Raiser recommended a month of training and observation before implanting his next superhuman organ.
• Li Qinwu worried that his lifespan might be too short, but Father Anthony reassured him that his biotechnology could keep him alive for at least five hundred years.
• Yamashita Maru demanded to be next for augmentation and argued with Saint Raiser, while Father Anthony sent Li Qinwu a list of scarce drugs needed to create Astartes.
• Li Qinwu said he would seek the medical supplies and precision equipment on another planet, then asked Genpei how his body felt after receiving two hearts.
• Li Qinwu handed Genpei a test tube and told him to produce a sperm sample for a future descendant, explaining that Genpei was too young to have a child with a partner.

Li Qinwu planned to expand the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter and returned to the Golden Road, where a Warp Storm had damaged the ship’s waste recovery system. He then visited Father Busi, who had rebuilt and revived the Iron Furnace Archmagos, leaving Li Qinwu ready to question him.

• Li Qinwu considered using Green Needle to expand the Astartes Chapter and explored ways to equip and employ its recruits sooner.
• Li Qinwu returned to the Golden Road and learned that the fleet expected to leave the Warp in two days.
• The captain told Li Qinwu that a Warp Storm had destroyed the waste recovery system, and Li Qinwu planned to have it repaired at the Stargate World.
• The captain said Father Busi wanted to see Li Qinwu, so Li Qinwu went to the workshop and found the rebuilt Iron Furnace Archmagos.
• Father Busi activated the Iron Furnace Archmagos, and Li Qinwu greeted him by asking whether he wanted to hear the good news or the bad news first.

Li Qinwu and Busi taunted Iron Skull Archmagos with proof that the Titan he cherished had bonded with the Count, then explained why they had revived him. Li Qinwu offered to help him build Titans in exchange for his mechanical knowledge, but Iron Skull Archmagos mocked the idea and was shocked again.

• Busi revealed that Industrial World 496A had never become a Titan World and played footage of the Count piloting the Reaver Titan against a Stompa, enraging Iron Skull Archmagos.
• Iron Skull Archmagos attacked Li Qinwu and Busi, but Li Qinwu caught and restrained him while Busi mocked him and used a behavioral correction device to shock him.
• Li Qinwu ordered Busi to transmit the story of Iron Skull Archmagos's original body's suicide and the plot that had exiled his data backup.
• Iron Skull Archmagos accused Li Qinwu of reviving him to humiliate him, and Li Qinwu said he wanted the mechanical knowledge in his head.
• Li Qinwu promised to help Iron Skull Archmagos fulfill his dream of building Titans, but Iron Skull Archmagos laughed at him and Li Qinwu shocked him with the device.

Li Qinwu persuaded the Iron Furnace Archmagos to abandon his lost position and join his team by promising him the chance to build new Titans. The Archmagos accepted and began designing Heavy Power Armor for Li Qinwu’s forces, though Li Qinwu shocked him again when he demanded a Lolita Titan.

• Li Qinwu repeatedly shocked the Iron Furnace Archmagos, then tried to win him over by arguing that his hatred of Li Qinwu for piloting the Titan was illogical.
• Li Qinwu explained that the Archmagos had been dead for more than ten years and would likely be killed if he returned to Industrial World 496A.
• Li Qinwu offered the Iron Furnace Archmagos a chance to help build a new power base and create fresh Titans, prompting him to agree to join the team.
• The Iron Furnace Archmagos began designing Heavy Power Armor intended to let ordinary humans challenge Astartes, while Li Qinwu planned to pair the armored troops with Astartes leaders.
• The Iron Furnace Archmagos demanded that Li Qinwu keep his promise to build a Lolita Titan, and Li Qinwu connected him to the State Grid and shocked him.

Li Qinwu attended Inquisitor Thraxol’s briefing after their fleet reached the Stargate World, where he learned about wealthy Purple Diamond Star and its powerful defenses. The fleet began repairs and resupply, while the Planetary Governor invited Thraxol and his staff to enjoy a month on the planet before continuing to Terra.

• Inquisitor Thraxol explained how the Stargate connected Purple Diamond Star directly to Terra and described the planet’s wealth and formidable defense fleet.
• Li Qinwu watched merchant and warships resupply at Purple Diamond Star’s orbital docks and envied the planet’s prosperity.
• Thraxol warned his staff not to cause trouble, then agreed they could visit the Paradise World while their ships were repaired.
• Thraxol’s fleet reached the crowded space docks, where other vessels gave way after learning an Inquisitor had arrived.
• The Planetary Governor welcomed Thraxol, promised to speed up resupply, and offered his party Purple Cards and a visit to the planet’s surface.

After Inquisitor Thraxol assured Li Qinwu that Purple Diamond Star was safe, Li Qinwu opened a stall aboard the Golden Road and advertised his Power Swords to wealthy visitors. His sales began immediately, and the chapter ended after an Astra Militarum general tested a sword and bought three.

• Inquisitor Thraxol told Li Qinwu that Purple Diamond Star was protected and encouraged him to rest and enjoy the planet.
• Li Qinwu broadcast a clearance sale for Power Swords to the ships around Purple Diamond Star, claiming the Temple of the Machine God workers needed money after the Iron Skull Archmagos abandoned them.
• Buyers flooded Li Qinwu's communications channels, and he and Little Knife set up stalls on the Golden Road's deck.
• Merchants, military officers, and nobles arrived by Shuttle to browse Li Qinwu's goods.
• An Astra Militarum general tested a Power Sword by cutting through a solid alloy steel column, then bought three for nearly ten thousand Thrones.

Li Qinwu sold Power Swords and demonstrated that his Green Needles could rapidly regrow severed limbs, drawing a crowd of noble buyers. He then launched a tea stall and ordered his workers to increase production of Space Pu'er.

• Li Qinwu sold hundreds of Power Swords and instructed someone to switch his factories' production to making them.
• Li Qinwu refused to sell a Power Sword to an unlicensed merchant, then offered him Green Needles, tea, and liquor instead.
• Li Qinwu cut off his own hand and used a Green Needle to regrow it, convincing nearby nobles that the injection worked.
• When the merchant questioned the Green Needle, Li Qinwu cut off his hand and healed it with another injection.
• The nobles bought nearly all the Green Needles Li Qinwu had at his stall.
• Li Qinwu brewed tea for the nobles, sold them a large batch, and told an underling to have the old monk roast more Space Pu'er.

Li Qinwu sold nearly all his accumulated goods on Purple Diamond Star, earning fifty-three million Thrones and deciding to use his wealth to buy a warship near Terra. With business winding down, he agreed to let his crew visit the planet and prepared to go down himself.

• Li Qinwu sold consecrated items and other goods to wealthy visitors for three days, nearly emptying his warehouse.
• Li Qinwu counted fifty-three million Thrones with Busi and learned his wealth could buy several frigates or a cruiser.
• Li Qinwu decided to seek a warship on Terra and hoped to reach the planet soon.
• Little Knife asked if the crew could settle on Terra, but Li Qinwu refused because the planet was too expensive.
• Little Knife asked to take the crew sightseeing, and Li Qinwu agreed to send them down in batches and visit the planet himself.