Recaps

Li Qinwu searched for a way to stop Aifeisi from completing the ritual that would birth a Slaaneshi Daemon Prince. With the bombardment ineffective and the Mining Mule empty, he decided to ruin her supposedly perfect offering by dumping the fleet’s accumulated waste onto it.

• A captain warned Li Qinwu that Aifeisi was nearing the end of Indomitable Expedition March and the demon-birth ritual.
• Li Qinwu ordered the fleet to bombard Aifeisi, but its weapons could not penetrate all ten layers of void shields.
• Li Qinwu proposed dropping slag from the Mining Mule, but the captain reported that its hold was empty.
• As Aifeisi began the song’s chorus and the Warp contamination neared 666666, Li Qinwu realized he could make her offering imperfect.
• Li Qinwu learned that the ship had more than three months of waste stored below deck and ordered the crew to drop it.

Aifeisi completed her sacrificial performance, expecting Slaanesh to transform her into a Daemon Prince, while enemy forces destroyed the canisters falling toward the ritual site. The canisters then drenched Aifeisi and the Formation Eye in filth, and she realized it was shit.

• Aifeisi directed the orchestra through the final piece of her ritual as Warp corruption spread across the surface.
• Aifeisi ordered the PDF anti-aircraft forces to destroy the incoming canisters, but their guns failed to trigger an explosion.
• The PDF launched large anti-aircraft missiles that shattered the canisters high above the surface.
• Aifeisi finished the performance, and Slaanesh's projected hand reached toward her before recoiling.
• The canisters released their contents over the Formation Eye, coating Aifeisi, the orchestra, and the marble floor in yellow-black filth.
• Aifeisi tasted the substance and realized that it was shit.

Slaanesh rejected Aifeisi after she defiled herself, returned Era Promenade to the material universe, and flooded her with Warp energy without guiding her ascension. Aifeisi became a gigantic Chaos Spawn shaped like a black rolling shutter, while Li Qinwu and the Golden Land crew watched from orbit.

• Aifeisi begged Slaanesh not to abandon her, but he withdrew his avatar and let the gathered Warp energy collapse.
• Slaanesh returned Era Promenade to the material universe and forced the Warp energy into Aifeisi without carefully preparing her for ascension.
• Aifeisi's will collapsed under the energy, and she mutated into a Chaos Spawn.
• Aifeisi's Chaos Spawn swelled into a huge mass of flesh and transformed into a gigantic black rolling shutter.
• Li Qinwu and the Golden Land crew saw the monster on a holographic projector, and Li Qinwu sprayed it and his eyes with Holy Wine.

Three days after the Warp energy on Purple Diamond Star fell, Li Qinwu found Inquisitor Thraxol preparing to kill himself in a Hive City noble’s Spire. Li Qinwu tried to save him, but Thraxol’s Slaanesh corruption had become too severe to withstand the Emperor’s power, leaving his fate unresolved.

• The Chaos Spawn at Terminal Station died, the planet’s Warp energy dropped, and many affected citizens killed themselves or hid away.
• Inquisitor Thraxol killed his two Skaven bodyguards and prepared to shoot his Ogryn bodyguard before Li Qinwu arrived with an old monk and Imperial Cult priests.
• Li Qinwu recognized that Thraxol intended to commit suicide because the Era Promenade and Slaanesh had deeply corrupted him.
• Thraxol revealed purple snake scales on his chest, and Li Qinwu’s Psychic Power caused him unbearable pain when he tried to cleanse the corruption.
• Thraxol explained that the Emperor’s light now burned his eyes and that his corrupted flesh could no longer bear his loyal soul.

Inquisitor Thraxol asked Li Qinwu to finish the pilgrimage and return his Rosette to his grand mentor after the disastrous Daemonic sacrifice. Before arranging the fleet’s escape from the Grey Knights, Thraxol revealed that Nova was pregnant with his child and asked Li Qinwu to take her to Terra.

• Inquisitor Thraxol explained that Aifeisi had corrupted the planetary governor and that the governor had killed himself after regaining consciousness.
• Li Qinwu and Inquisitor Thraxol laughed about how Li Qinwu’s jar of shit had been scattered across the sacrificial site by a missile strike.
• Inquisitor Thraxol gave Li Qinwu his Rosette and asked him to complete the pilgrimage and return it to his grand mentor on Terra.
• Inquisitor Thraxol warned Li Qinwu that the Grey Knights would likely purge the planet and told him to persuade the Armed Merchant Ships to pledge loyalty and flee with him.
• Inquisitor Thraxol revealed that Nova was pregnant with his only child and asked Li Qinwu to take her to Terra to meet his parents.

Li Qinwu considered using Inquisitor Thraxol’s unborn child to inherit his political legacy as Thraxol prepared to die. When Li Qinwu hesitated to execute him, he asked whether becoming a Daemon Inquisitor had potential.

• Li Qinwu considered securing Inquisitor Thraxol’s political legacy for Nova’s unborn child, and Thraxol supported the plan.
• Inquisitor Thraxol warned Li Qinwu to avoid his bloodline-supremacist grandfather and to visit his parents discreetly before leaving Terra.
• Inquisitor Thraxol gave Li Qinwu his Bolt Pistol and asked him to grant him a final passage, then told him to kill the corrupted Pong Pong as well.
• Pong Pong tried to protect Inquisitor Thraxol, but Thraxol ordered him to crouch and remain still.
• Li Qinwu hesitated to shoot Inquisitor Thraxol as Pong Pong cried, then asked whether becoming a Daemon Inquisitor had potential.

On Purple Diamond Star, loyal but mutated PDF troops purged the corrupted population and destroyed the planet’s Hive City, ending the Chaos Corruption at the cost of turning the world into a death world. Meanwhile, Li Qinwu waited outside the closed Stargate and moved to inherit Inquisitor Thraxol’s political legacy as members of Thraxol’s staff began to flee.

• The loyal PDF formed the Punitive Army and began killing mutated cultists across Purple Diamond Star, using nuclear weapons and captured orbital stations in their purge.
• The PDF marshal and more than three million corrupted soldiers saluted the God-Emperor as a space station crashed into the Hive City, killing them and triggering worldwide devastation.
• Purple Diamond Star became a death world, and its Chaos Corruption value fell to zero as the dead soldiers’ souls remained loyal to the God-Emperor.
• Li Qinwu and Inquisitor Thraxol’s fleet waited beyond the Stargate for Terra to send an envoy to assess the situation and reopen the route.
• After learning of Thraxol’s death, several armed merchant ships fled, while Li Qinwu gathered Thraxol’s remaining staff to discuss inheriting his political legacy.

After Inquisitor Thraxol's death, Li Qinwu enlisted pregnant Nova's cooperation to secure Thraxol's surviving ships and political legacy for his unborn child. They entered a banquet hall crowded with Thraxol's former staff, whose greedy attention fell on Nova.

• Li Qinwu told Nova that Inquisitor Thraxol had died and asked her to help him inherit Thraxol's remaining assets for the child.
• Li Qinwu explained that the Inquisition's warships and personnel had to be returned, while eighteen armed merchant ships and various planetary noble factions could still be retained.
• Li Qinwu brought Nova, wearing Power Armor, toward the banquet hall with three hundred Power Axemen standing by as protection.
• Nova decided that relying on Li Qinwu was safer than seeking refuge with Thraxol's scheming former staff.
• Li Qinwu promised to return the assets to the child when he came of age, then falsely told Nova that Thraxol's mutated body had been incinerated.
• Nova and Li Qinwu entered the banquet hall, where three or four hundred former staff members stared greedily at her.

After Inquisitor Thraxol died, Li Qinwu claimed his seat and urged the nobles to follow him, warning that the Imperium might kill them for witnessing the sacrifice. He offered protection as a Living Saint and promised to take Nova and Thraxol’s unborn child to Terra, leaving the nobles to consider whether to accept his leadership.

• Li Qinwu sat in the host’s seat and announced that he intended to lead the nobles after Inquisitor Thraxol’s death, but all four hundred-odd nobles objected.
• Li Qinwu warned the nobles that the Imperium viewed them as high-risk witnesses to the sacrifice and might kill them to prevent corruption or another ritual.
• Li Qinwu argued that the nobles could not escape Imperial pursuit and claimed his status as a Living Saint could help protect those who stayed with him.
• Li Qinwu said Thraxol had entrusted Nova and her unborn child to him, and that he would take them to Terra to seek the child’s inheritance; Nova confirmed his account.
• The nobles considered Li Qinwu’s offer while he waited for their decision.

After Inquisitor Thraxol died, Li Qinwu took control of the remnants of his fleet while several nobles fled or withheld their support. As Li Qinwu waited for Terra’s envoy and tended to his crew, the Traffic Light Trio confronted him about a Little Sun from Terra.

• Li Qinwu asked the nobles whether they supported him taking over, and four Armed Merchant Ships immediately departed.
• Several nobles considered killing Li Qinwu and taking Nova, but abandoned the plan because they could neither defeat his frigate nor permanently kill him.
• Over the next few days, more ships fled; one pledged loyalty to Nova’s unborn child, three pledged loyalty to Li Qinwu, and four remained undecided.
• Li Qinwu took control of the remaining eight ships and their personnel, then awarded his crew military merit and opened the ship’s bar for a celebration.
• The Traffic Light Trio approached Li Qinwu and complained that a Little Sun from Terra was acting more important than they were.

The Traffic Light Trio rescued Baron Dallas from a rebel-blockaded planet, where Warp-tainted beasts had killed his bodyguards. After recovering aboard the Golden Road, Dallas became demanding and violent, and the Trio reported his behavior to Li Qinwu.

• Baron Dallas's bodyguards recognized Li Qinwu as a Living Saint and tried to evacuate him, but rebels blocked escape routes and seized his ship.
• The bodyguards fled to the grasslands, where Purity Seals helped protect Dallas from rising Warp energy and contaminated wildlife.
• The Traffic Light Trio flew through rebel missile fire, rescued Dallas from a herd of armored rhinos, and returned with him to the Golden Road.
• After recovering, Dallas first thanked the crew, then began demanding luxuries and attacking people, including the Trio.
• When Li Qinwu finished handling Inquisitor Thraxol's estate, the Traffic Light Trio escaped Dallas and reported his behavior to him.

Li Qinwu tried to tolerate Baron Dallas’s abuse because the Traffic Light Trio hoped to gain riches by returning him to Terra. After Dallas insulted Li Qinwu, Li Qinwu struck him over the head with a wheat juice bottle, leaving Dallas unconscious and bleeding.

• Li Qinwu learned that Baron Dallas had mistreated the Traffic Light Trio and followed them to the captain’s cabin.
• Li Qinwu saw that Baron Dallas had wrecked the cabin and demanded that the crew help him and bring him food.
• Baron Dallas rejected the chef’s first bowl of spicy noodles because it had scallions, then insulted the second bowl and the crew.
• The Traffic Light Trio persuaded Li Qinwu to leave, but Baron Dallas mocked his muscles as he was going out.
• Li Qinwu rushed to Baron Dallas and smashed a wheat juice bottle over his head, knocking him unconscious.

Li Qinwu had the Solar Lord’s youngest son drugged and placed in hibernation while he inspected a new Heavy Mortal Power Armor prototype. The Iron Skull Archmagos warned that Li Qinwu needed to establish a Nuclear Industrial Chain to fulfill his promise of enabling Titan production, and Li Qinwu decided to pursue it.

• The Traffic Light Trio panicked after Li Qinwu struck the Little Sun, but Li Qinwu injected him with a Green Needle and ordered the Tech-Priests to keep him sedated in a hibernation pod.
• Li Qinwu planned to deliver the sleeping Solar Lord’s youngest son to his father on Terra in exchange for benefits.
• Li Qinwu visited the warship factory, where the Iron Skull Archmagos showed him a Heavy Mortal Power Armor prototype built for the Fleet Iron Guard.
• The Iron Skull Archmagos explained the armor’s modular protection, weapon mounts, speed, and battery or Nuclear Reactor power options.
• The Iron Skull Archmagos warned that Li Qinwu needed a Nuclear Industrial Chain to manufacture nuclear facilities and eventually Titans, reminding him of their agreement.
• Li Qinwu remembered the Dark Age of Technology colony ship and its AI Zero, which needed one hundred thousand tons of helium-3 to restart its fusion engines, and resolved to unlock the Nuclear Industrial Chain.

Li Qinwu learned the cost and capabilities of Heavy Power Armor, then agreed to build a Nuclear Industrial Chain as the next step toward Iron Skull Archmagos's goal of making a Titan. He handed the armor blueprints to Busi and returned to the Explorer to check on the Astartes' training.

• Iron Skull Archmagos told Li Qinwu that Heavy Power Armor could give augmented humans roughly 70% of an Astartes's combat efficiency, though it was costly to produce without a Nuclear Industrial Chain.
• Li Qinwu considered how Heavy Power Armor could improve his Fleet Iron Guard while his Astartes forces were still years from reaching meaningful numbers.
• Iron Skull Archmagos demanded that Li Qinwu make progress toward building a Titan, starting by establishing a Nuclear Industrial Chain, and said a Planetary Forge would be the next step.
• Li Qinwu agreed to build the Nuclear Industrial Chain, and Iron Skull Archmagos gave him the Heavy Power Armor blueprints before sending him out of the laboratory.
• Li Qinwu asked Busi to oversee Heavy Power Armor production, then returned to the Hideout, died through an extreme squat, resurrected aboard the Explorer, and checked on the Astartes' augmentation training.

Li Qinwu visited the ten recruits undergoing Astartes enhancement and learned that his Gene-seeds had enabled six surgeries with no rejection reactions. Saint Raiser also revealed the recruits’ unusually high Warp readings and two unexplained glands that might be Psychic organs.

• Li Qinwu arrived at the training grounds to see how the ten recruits had progressed.
• Saint Raiser told Li Qinwu that all ten recruits had completed six enhancement surgeries without rejection reactions.
• Saint Raiser explained that the recruits’ Gene-seeds adapted to them, unlike ordinary Gene-seeds, and had made the procedures unusually successful.
• Saint Raiser showed Li Qinwu that the recruits’ Warp readings exceeded 300, far above ordinary Astartes recruits.
• Saint Raiser pointed out two new glands beneath each recruit’s shoulder blades that scans suggested might be Psychic organs.

Saint Raiser assessed the ten recruits and asked Li Qinwu to arrange 999 tolls of Terra’s Bell of Lost Souls for the fallen Broken-winged Angels. As the two discussed the Chapter’s future, Ahriman lost control and roared Horus’s name.

• Saint Raiser identified Genpei as a potential Chapter Master, Little Andrew as a future chief technical officer, and Hunter as a possible chief assassin, while arguing with Yamashita Maru over his assessment.
• Saint Raiser explained that the recruits would mature in two years and that the nearly extinct Chapter would arm them as soon as their physical training was complete.
• Li Qinwu agreed to work toward producing Astartes armor and weapons for the Chapter.
• Saint Raiser recounted the Broken-winged Angels’ five thousand years of unsupported service and asked Li Qinwu to have Terra’s Bell of Lost Souls toll 999 times for his fallen comrades.
• Ahriman began trembling after training, and when Genpei approached him, he roared, “Horus!!!”

Recruit Aman fell into the Black Rage and violently struggled against Saint Raiser and the others as he hallucinated Horus. Saint Raiser believed Aman was doomed, but Li Qinwu still suspected there was a way to save him and tried to reach him.

• Saint Raiser recognized Aman's Black Rage and pinned him down, warning the others to get clear.
• Aman hallucinated Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit and roared Horus's name as his strength surged.
• Li Qinwu, Genpei, and Yamashita Maru joined Saint Raiser in restraining Aman.
• Saint Raiser explained that Black Rage distorted an Astartes's Warp essence, and a sedative failed to calm Aman.
• Saint Raiser said only Mephiston had ever overcome the Black Rage, while Li Qinwu believed Aman's sanctified Gene-seed might offer hope.
• Li Qinwu leaned close to Aman and called his name, asking if he could hear him.

Li Qinwu used verbal therapy to guide Recruit Aman out of the Black Rage, discovering that an absurd claim about Sanguinius’s perfection could calm him. Aman recovered and passed out, while Saint Raiser appeared furious enough to risk falling into the Black Rage himself.

• Li Qinwu tried to reach Aman, who was shouting about Horus, and Saint Raiser said the Black Rage had consumed his reason.
• Li Qinwu reminded Aman that Horus was dead and Sanguinius’s vengeance had been fulfilled, weakening Aman’s fury.
• Li Qinwu guided Aman to see himself as Sanguinius, whose perfect appearance further calmed him.
• Li Qinwu claimed that Sanguinius’s balls hung at the same height, and Aman accepted the statement as proof of Sanguinius’s perfection before passing out.
• Li Qinwu declared that his method could help the Broken-Winged Angel Chapter recruits, while Genpei warned that Saint Raiser looked ready to fall into the Black Rage.

Li Qinwu provoked Saint Raiser with his theories about the Black Rage and a joke about their family roles, sending the old warrior after him and Yamashita Maru. The chase became a three-day test of Yamashita Maru’s endurance, and it ended with him calling Saint Raiser “Mother” after misunderstanding his question.

• Li Qinwu proposed studying the strength boost after surviving the Black Rage and jokingly named the research the Trial of the Eggs.
• Li Qinwu teased Yamashita Maru about being the family’s father and Saint Raiser being the mother, and Saint Raiser charged after them.
• Saint Raiser chased Li Qinwu and Yamashita Maru through the Explorer’s circular corridor, while Li Qinwu escaped by using his Wall-Piercing Technique on a wall.
• Yamashita Maru ran for three days and more than 400 kilometers as Saint Raiser secretly tested the limits of his Gene-seed and physique.
• After Yamashita Maru collapsed, Saint Raiser asked whether his feet were numb, and Yamashita Maru misunderstood and called him “Mother.”

Li Qinwu planned to build a nuclear industrial chain to equip his children’s Knight Guard, and Nightingale suggested mining helium-3 on Agricultural Planet 496b’s moons. Li Qinwu realized the moons could support nuclear industry and said he could establish it within five years.

• Li Qinwu reviewed the Knight Guard roster and approved Nightingale’s plan to recruit twenty thousand soldiers with generous benefits.
• Li Qinwu proposed granting Knight Guard members Longevity Surgery and considered using their families’ ties to strengthen his control over future Astartes recruits.
• Nightingale pressed Li Qinwu to provide the children’s Knight Guard with tanks, armored vehicles, and Squire Mechs.
• Li Qinwu explained that he was researching the nuclear industrial chain so the planet could eventually produce Plasma Reactors for Knight Mechs.
• Nightingale suggested mining helium-3 on the planet’s two moons and building a Nuclear Factory there to avoid polluting the planet.
• Li Qinwu embraced Nightingale and declared that he could establish the nuclear industrial chain in five years instead of fifty.

Li Qinwu asked the Iron Skull Archmagos to use his knowledge of Industrial World 496A to secure resources for Agricultural World 496B’s nuclear industrial chain. He proposed threatening the new archmagos with a complaint to Mars unless he cooperated, and the Iron Skull Archmagos agreed.

• Li Qinwu returned to the Golden Land after spending two days with his family and found the Iron Skull Archmagos working in the mechanical laboratory.
• Li Qinwu explained that normal trade would take fifty years to build the nuclear industrial chain on Agricultural World 496B’s moon and asked the Iron Skull Archmagos to use his assets, technology, and connections.
• Li Qinwu explained how the new archmagos had exiled the Iron Skull Archmagos’s backup consciousness and taken over his position and property.
• Li Qinwu proposed threatening to expose the new archmagos’s actions to the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars unless he supplied money, resources, and technology.
• The Iron Skull Archmagos considered the plan and agreed that it could work.

The author explained his regular and bonus chapter schedule, tip repayment plans, writing practices, and occasional days off, while clarifying his comments about the T'au. He also recounted how someone repeatedly bombarded him and his group moderators with verification codes.

• The author said he posted two regular chapters before writing bonus chapters and saved records of tips he still needed to repay.
• He described his daily writing limits, denied using AI, explained his chapter word counts, and thanked readers for tips.
• The author said he would repay outstanding bonus chapters for the Goblin novel and expected to finish that story at four to five million words.
• He explained that he sometimes used Tomato Novel's monthly day off and clarified that the T'au were not Old Zhong.
• The author said someone had leaked his and his moderators' phone numbers, causing three waves of verification-code messages.
• He joked that one moderator had been left out of the bombardment and asked the culprit to include him next time.

Li Qinwu prepared an extortion scheme against the Industrial World while waiting for the envoy from Terra to investigate the Chaos corruption on Purple Diamond Star. After meeting Lord Ricardo, he received permission to travel to Terra and was told to fulfill Inquisitor Thraxol’s final request by taking his Abhuman daughter there, while keeping her away from Thraxol’s father.

• The Iron Skull Archmagos helped Li Qinwu send a Cogitator Array to the Industrial World with demands and arranged to complain to Mars if its new Archmagos did not cooperate.
• An envoy from Terra arrived, investigated Purple Diamond Star and questioned Li Qinwu after half a month.
• Li Qinwu met Lord Ricardo, who was accompanied by the Pale Baron, and explained how Inquisitor Thraxol died and his body was cremated.
• Li Qinwu told Ricardo that Thraxol had asked him to take his daughter to Terra and help secure her future.
• Ricardo refused to take responsibility for Thraxol’s Abhuman daughter but granted Li Qinwu and his crew permission to travel to Terra, warning him to keep her away from her grandfather.

Li Qinwu’s fleet entered the Sol System and traveled through its heavily fortified, crowded space lanes toward Terra. After seeing holy Mars and its vast shipyards, Li Qinwu and the captain began hoping to acquire a larger warship, though Li Qinwu planned to reach Terra first and try to trade for a cruiser.

• Li Qinwu’s fleet emerged from the Gate of Bliss near Uranus and received clearance to travel toward Terra after waiting in the queue.
• The fleet passed through the crowded Sol System, where Imperial forces and traffic officers guarded the route.
• The Iron Skull Archmagos showed the bridge holy Mars and recalled that he had once studied there under a mentor.
• Li Qinwu inspected Mars’s shipyards and envied the enormous Battleships under construction.
• The captain urged Li Qinwu to obtain a larger warship, and Li Qinwu said he would first go to Terra and try to acquire a cruiser.

Li Qinwu's fleet reached Terra but faced years in line, steep fees, and costly tickets for his people to visit the surface. He decided to raise money by selling Power Swords, prompting the Iron Skull Archmagos to rage over Li Qinwu's false clearance-sale story.

• Li Qinwu's fleet passed inspection near Terra, but an Arbites officer told him the crowded planet had a multi-year arrival queue and charged 4 million Thrones in fees.
• Li Qinwu told the Arbites officer that the Solar Lord's youngest son, Little Sun, was with him, and the officer promised to report it and respond within three days.
• The captain warned Li Qinwu that surface tickets would cost 100 Thrones per person, adding up to 7 million Thrones for the 70,000 people aboard the Golden Land and the Mine Snail.
• Li Qinwu decided to buy tickets so his people could visit Terra, and he announced a discounted Power Sword clearance sale over the public channel.
• The Iron Skull Archmagos heard Li Qinwu's claim that he had fled with a Titan and left workers unpaid, then roared in anger.